Preconceptions, or lack thereof

Unfortunately, I missed last class' lecture, but I still found Energy Family Feud interesting. In terms of coal politics, the most surprising was the difference between the lists of states with the highest coal reserves and states that extract the most coals. I did not even know that some of the states with high coal reserves were coal-rich states at all; the effects of aggressive extraction policy became more evident during the game.

As for preconceptions of Appalachia, I have almost none. The strongest memory I have of thinking about Appalachia is when trapped coal miners in West Virginia in 2006 made national news. I remember thinking, there are still coal mines in America? And coal miners can lose their life over their work? It had not only never occurred to me, but I had hardly ever even thought about the coal mine industry in Appalachia. Additionally, like many other students, I had heard of the poverty in Appalachia and the lack of first-world amenities in some parts of it, but once again, it was never something I could imagine.