Should coal states boycott New York City?

New York City Michael Bloomberg declared war against coal states last week by donating $50 million to the Sierra Club’s effort to stop coal-fired electricity generation. Will coal states and their residents take this lying down?

As hailed by the New York Times editorial board today:

Mr. Bloomberg, who believes that governments are doing too little to address the problem of global warming, is donating $50 million to the Sierra Club’s grass-roots campaign to block the construction of new coal-fired power plants and shut down existing ones. (Coal provides nearly half the nation’s electricity and about one-third of its emissions of carbon dioxide.) In May, he pledged nearly $20 million to C40, a group of cities around the world that are trying to reduce greenhouse gases.

Although the nation might survive with higher electricity costs if coal went away, the 86,000 people employed directly by coal, the hundreds of thousands whose jobs indirectly depend on coal and the states who depend on revenues made possible by coal would be seriously harmed — and for no good reason, just the whimsical fancy of a flighty billionaire.

So folks in Ohio, West Virginia, Kentucky might want to think about how they can retaliate against the billionaire Michael Bloomberg. He’s out to destroy the livelihoods and families of people who depend on coal. He is threatening the welfare of their children. Will they let him get away with it?