Bought and Paid For
The old saying goes, West Virginia has the best politicians that “coal” money can buy. Check out the link
below, to see who really benefits from coal.http://www.wvoter-owned.org/reports/health_in_coalfields.pdf
Support The Clean Water Protection Act, H.R. 1310
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House Party Featuring “Coal Country”
Linda and I, will be hosting a house party, Nov. 14, 2009, from 6 to 9 pm, at our house, on Mattville Road, in Glen Daniel, WV. We will be showing Mary-Lynn’s new documentary, “Coal Country”. There will be a discussion on how to get involved, and what you can do, to stop the devastation of Appalachia, by the coal industry method of mining, mountaintop removal. There will also be discussion of how we can diversify our region, with ideas of bringing new jobs to our communities. We encourage everyone coming, to bring your ideas with you, so everyone participates in open discussions, on what we need to do, to bring prosperity to our region. Our discussions will be very broad, covering things such as protecting our environment, our water, our homeland, and our way of living. We will be talking about impacts mountaintop removal has on us all, and also about how everyone is connected to the devastation, that is eliminating an entire culture of people. We hope to accomplish, to motivate, and energize people, to speak out, and how to take action, and that people’s voices will be heard. You know the saying, “a contented person, will never bring about change”. This is your chance to bring change to our communities, and we will be discussing just how we do that. It will be a very entertaining, and educating evening. We welcome all who would like to attend, and all who hasn’t got involved, but wants to. Here’s your chance, and there is no better, or more crucial time as now, so please come, with intentions of joining in, and sharing your opinions. See you Nov. 14th. Please call (304)934-0399, if you plan on attending, and for directions.
Coalfield Uprising: Will Feds Take Down WVa Embarrassing DEP
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VIDEO UPDATE: Coalfield Uprising Grows: Will Feds Take Down WVA’s Embarrassing DEP?
Read More: Big Coal, Coal, Department Of Interior, Dirty Coal, Epa, Mountaintop Premoval, Osm, President Barack Obama, Renewable Energy, West Virginia, Wvdep, Green News
This might be a first in the country: The failed West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection is emerging as such an embarrassingly pro-coal anti-mountain public relations nightmare for Gov. Joe Manchin that even retired coal miners have taken to the streets against the state’s environmental regulators, calling on the federal EPA and Office of Surface Mining to take over the key duties of the dysfunctional state agency.
UPDATE: Here is video footage of today’s protest and sit-in against mountaintop removal and the embarrassing state environmental regulators at the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection. The video montage was put together by filmmaker Jordan Freeman for Coal Country (see: www.coalcountrythemovie.com )
The uprising in the Appalachian coalfields against failed state government action on mining policy is growing — today, coalfield residents took their protests directly to ground zero of the state’s regulatory failure.
Following 12 previous protests and civil disobedience actions in the Appalachian coalfields this spring and summer, a contingent of four protesters locked themselves to the WV DEP doorsin Charleston, WV in a nonviolent sit-in. Four protesters were reportedly arrested.
While the WVA Department of Environmental Protection carried out the “Blaster’s Exam” today, as part of its unfettered support for mountaintop removal mining and the daily detonation of 3.5 million pounds of ammonium nitrate/fuel oil explosives in historic mountain communities, scores of fed-up coal miners and coalfield residents also rallied at the agency’s office this morning. The protesters presented an embarrassingly long list of the agency’s failure to hold up its mandate to protect and restore the environment, ensure water quality, and enforce strip mining, and demanded the resignation of WV DEP Secretary Randy Huffman.
According to the coalfield residents, the DEP has failed to hold mining operators accountable for violations, refused to thoroughly address the potential dangers of coal slurry injection and to set permit limits for abandoned mine site discharge, and misled residents on regulatory actions.
The protestors posted condemnation signs: “Closed Due to Incompetence” and “Department of Encouraging Pollution.”
“The WVDEP ignores or dismisses citizen complaints and refuses to exercise their duty to shut down operations with repeat violations or to deny permits to operators with outstanding violations,” retired West Virginia coal miner Chuck Nelson declared. “It is imperative that we restore the enforcement of all mining laws, so that citizens’ civil and human rights are upheld, and our families and homes are protected from the impacts of mining, and from the hazards of industrial waste.”
On Monday, August 10, in a rare call for federal intervention in this growing national emergency, coalfield citizen groups including Coal River Mountain Watch, Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition and West Virginia Highlands Conservancy, along with the Sierra Club and the Appalachian Center for the Economy and the Environment, formally petitioned the OSMRE to withdraw approval of the state’s surface mining program and substitute federal enforcement. The petition concludes:
“Given West Virginia’s refusal to enforce the law in the face of coal industry interests, we believe that the only remedy that will protect the State’s essential environmental resources is for OSM to substitute federal enforcement, in whole or in part, of the state’s surface mining program.”
The entire petition can be seen here:
Earlier this month, the EPA actually announced its intention to exert greater scrutiny over the WVDEP process of permit applications received for surface mining operations “with valley fills”.
Testifying last month at the first bipartisan US Senate hearing on mountaintop removal in a generation, DEP Secretary Huffman stunned the crowd by chucking his environmental protection mandate out the window and openly defended the reckless part of West Virginia’s Big Coal economy beholden to devastating mountaintop removal operations. Huffman defiantly lectured the US Senators: “West Virginia and the nation need jobs and coal. Nothing in the debate over mountaintop mining debate is going to change that in the short term.”
As if offended by the ancient mountain range and lush hardwood deciduous forests in our nation’s carbin sink of Appalachia, the mountain state’s top environmental regulator then depicted West Virginia mountains as “steep, hostile terrain.”
Hostile terrain? What happened to “Wild and Wonderful”? Or the state motto, montani semper liberi?
This was not the first time for Huffman to declare his horror of the mountains — in the mountain state.
On April 20, Huffman made an extraordinary admission in an interview with the West Virginia Public Radio, declaring that the mountains impeded the state’s development, and therefore, needed to be destroyed through mountaintop removal.
“Mainly what we’re concerned about as regulators is the ability to develop land after mining,” he said. “You need valley fills if you’re going to have a viable post mining economy. You need flat land. And in order to have flat land you need to have valley fills, and one of our biggest concerns is that EPA is wanting to reduce the size and number of valley fills in Appalachia.” (The radio interview is here.)
As the state’s top environmental regulator, Huffman apparently failed to read the EPA’s 2002 EIS report that “it is unlikely that any more than 2 to 3% of the future post-mining land uses will develop land uses such as housing, commercial, industrial, or public facility development” after mountaintop removal operations.
In fact, Huffman and the WVDEP have apparently failed to consider a lot of basic environmental and human rights issues in the coalfields, none more critical than the impact of injecting coal slurry in underground mines. In the face of overwhelming scientific evidence of contaminated leakages of toxic coal slurry into watersheds and wells, Huffman brazenly told an AP reporter this spring: “We studied specifically the possibility the slurry injection had migrated into the water, and there’s not a geologic connection between where it was stored and where their problem is.”
Despite Huffman’s denial, scientific tests on water samples contaminated by coal slurry this spring “found six metals — antimony, arsenic, lead, barium, cadmium and chromium — in levels that exceeded federal standards for primary drinking water at one or more sites.”
Charleston Gazette reporter Ken Ward has filed numerous stories on Huffman’s “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” policy on coal slurry injections:
Here’s a chart of coal slurry injection sites:
For more information on coal slurry issues, go here.
“The WVDEP simply fails to adequately regulate the coal industry,” said Rock Creek resident Lorelei Scarbro. “When WVDEP Secretary Randy Huffman runs off to lobby the EPA to grant illegal valley fill permits, he’s abdicated his responsibility to the people. Corporate coal influence has become so great inside the WVDEP that he has become a public relations spokesperson for the coal industry instead of an enforcer of mining laws and regulations.”
“We will not sit idly by today while the WVDEP is granting blasting certifications for coal companies to demolish our mountains and ruin our homes and communities,” said Bo Webb of Naoma. “It is time for Huffman to resign or be fired. He’s derelict in his duties and grossly incompetent at best. Quite possibly a case for criminal negligence could be made.”
More in Green…
Save the Date
COAL COUNTRY
SAVE THE DATE
WASHINGTON, DC PREMIERE
SEPTEMBER 15, 2009
Most Americans are shocked to learn that nearly half the electricity in the United States today is produced by coal, the dirtiest fossil fuel.
COAL COUNTRY is a dramatic look at modern coal mining. The story is told by the people directly involved, both working miners and activists who are battling the coal companies in Appalachia. Tensions are high. It’s ‘a new civil war,’ as families and communities are deeply split over mountaintop removal mining (MTR). The tops of mountains are blasted, exposing seams of coal, while debris is pushed into valleys and streams. Residents endure health problems, dirty water in their wells, dust and grime on their floors.
The miners are frightened that without coal, they’ll lose their jobs and won’t be able to feed their families. They claim they are acting within the law.
What does this mean for America and the rest of the world? The coal industry is spending millions to promote what it calls ‘clean coal’. Is it achievable? At what cost?
With songs by Kathy Mattea, Natalie Merchant, Justin Townes Earle and others
Written, produced and directed by: PHYLIS GELLER
Executive Producer: MARI-LYNN EVANS
Edited by SAM GREEN
Original Music by CHARLIE BARNETT
www.coalcountrythemovie.com
EVENING STAR PRODUCTIONS@2009
The sad controversy over ‘Coal Country’
by Ken Ward Jr.
Makers of the film “Coal Country” interview coal industry official Randall Maggard in this courtesy photo.
It will be pretty sad if Mari-Lynn Evans and crew don’t find another theater in the Kanawha Valley willing to host the world premiere of their new film, “Coal Country.”
And that’s not just because it will be a surrender to solving complicated issues by thuggery (or at least fear of thuggery — we don’t know exactly what was or wasn’t planned by coal industry lobbyists or groups of miners), rather than by reasoned discussion, education and sound public policy debates.
Maybe Coal Tattoo is fighting a losing battle trying to encourage everyone to try to find some common ground. But when I watched the movie at home the other other night (Mari-Lynn was kind enough to send me an advance copy), I found plenty to encourage me.
Sure, the movie has a point of view — that mountaintop removal is not good, and a mono-economy focused on coal is also not so good. Writing for The Huffington Post, Jeff Biggers proclaimed:
… Coal Country shines the light on one of the darkest human rights and environmental violations overseen by federal and state regulators in our times. Through a series of moving portraits of coalfield residents, the film chronicles the extraordinary and largely overlooked toll of coal mining on the lives of Appalachian residents.
But Jeff also observed:
If anything, Coal Country goes out of its way to include the views and voices of the Big Coal lobby and its executives, engineers and miners.
Personally, I also found it to be fairly balanced, and to offer some interesting scenes where folks on completely opposite sites of the mountaintop removal issue were saying pretty similar things about the future of the coal industry.
I have to admit, though, that one of my favorite scenes was when the film compared Sen. Jay Rockefeller’s current statements — coal is all good, basically — with these comment from his 1972 gubernatorial campaign:
We know that strip mining is tearing up the beauty of our state. We know that strip mining is not a good economic future for West Virginia and not a good economic future for our children. And we know that, whatever advantage it has now, the damage that it leave is a permanent damage.
Of course, Rockefeller lost that election, and as Ken Hechler explains in the film, he soon changed his position on strip mining.
Sure, “Coal Country” includes lots of familiar faces and stories, like activist Judy Bonds, who is featured in this trailer:
The film also includes an unfortunate scene where Judy waves around the gun she keeps in the house in case the coal miners show up. But Judy recovers well from that, by citing the fantastic quote from legendary journalist Upton Sinclair in describing why folks who work in the coal industry don’t get why their neighbors are so upset about mountaintop removal:
“It is hard to get a man to understand something when his paycheck demands him not to understand.”
One of the most compelling characters in the film is former miner Chuck Nelson, above, who, as Jeff Biggers described in the Huffington Post review:
… Walks viewers through the union-busting tactics of out-of-state coal companies and mountaintop removal operations, and the rarely noticed destruction of real estate values for local coalfield residences due to coal dust and environmental ruin. Mountaintop removal, ultimately, he points out, “is not so cheap for people who have to live under these sites.
But I was also taken by Argus Energy environmental manager Randall Maggard, who went beyond the standard coal industry tour (though he probably unintentionally admitted that mine companies really haven’t figured out how to regrow hardwood forests on mountaintop removal sites yet).
Gazette writer Doug Imbrogno described Maggard’s appearance in the film this way:
A heartfelt defense of such mining comes by way of Boone County mine operator Randall Maggard, who defends his company’s work as responsible employment that feeds families and offers good-paying work in terribly depressed communities.
Interestingly, Maggard admits that the coal industry doesn’t seem to be able to win over the general public on mountaintop removal:
I think the protesters are kicking our butts right now. They’ve got the media on their side and everything else and there doesn’t seem to be any way we can slow them down.
And, Maggard comes off more human than most films on coal allow industry types to appear, when he explains that he tries to do what he thinks is right and doesn’t like it much when his kids hear at school that strip mining isn’t so good:
I wish the public would just try their best to look at things from an objective point of view and try to get both sides of it. We feel like we’re being targeted, the mining companies and the employees themselves … I try to do what’s right. I mean when your kid comes home from school and says Daddy, my teacher wants me to write a paper, a letter opposing mountaintop removal mining, I said, well, why don’t you just go ahead and tell them to write a letter trying to put me out of a job.
OK — maybe it sounds hokey. And maybe you might disagree with Maggard’s view on mining. But come on … no father wants his kids thinking he’s a bad guy.
And most coal miners aren’t bad guys, at least the ones I’ve gotten to know. And it’s hardly their fault that the political leaders of our region and our nation haven’t done much to give them other opportunities for making a living and raising their families.
But the most telling part of the film to me was when environmental lawyer Joe Lovett made these comments:
I want to stress that I’m not saying that all miners should be thrown out of work tomorrow and all power plants should be shut down. But that we need to start making a transition away from burning coal. I think the coal industry fears that, and knows that it’s coming and is fighting any way it can.
And then Gene Kitts, vice president for engineering at International Coal Group said this:
We’re not opposed to alternative energy. But can it in the near term replace 50 percent of the source of electrical energy. I think the answer to that is no. But as other technologies gain some cost competitive characteristics, then the economy will naturally migrate toward those.
Gene and Joe will both be mad at me for saying this — but are they really that incredibly far apart? No, they certainly don’t see mountaintop removal from the same eyes. But the future for coal that they describe isn’t really that different.
Yesterday on Twitter, Gene Tweeted this comment:
I’m curious – Can WV have “green” jobs and coal mining jobs? Why is a “transition” necessary?
Sorry, Gene, but what you talked about in the movie is just that, a transition. I pointed Gene toward a report from the Union of Concerned Scientists, Coal Power in a Warming World. Among other things, the report acknowledges the likely continued use of coal in the United States and other countries. But, it also sets a high bar for what kind of coal we’re talking about.
For example, UCS says we should stop building coal-fired power plants that don’t include carbon capture and storage. And we should accelerate research, development and deployment of that technology.
Finally, the report adds, if coal is going to be burned using CCS, we must also address the other impacts from this fuel:
Adopt statutes and stronger regulations that will reduce the environmental and societal costs of coal use throughout the fuel cycle. Our use of
coal, from mining through waste disposal, has serious impacts on the safety and health of both humans and our environment. Policies are needed
to reduce these impacts and place coal on a more level playing field with low-carbon alternatives. This would include a ban on mountaintop removal
mining and tougher standards for mercury emissions, mine safety, and waste disposal. Any federal policy that promotes coal use, including ongoing or expanded CCS subsidies, must be accompanied by such measures.
West Virginians — and residents of coalfield communities all across Appalachia — need to be talking with each other about these issues and this transition. Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be a single political leader who wants to help make that conversation possible. If there were, the state would open up the Cultural Center Theater Saturday night and endorse the showing of this film.
Maybe Gov. Joe Manchin would agree to sit in the front row.
8 comments
- 1 Howie Branham { 07.09.09 at 12:01 pm }
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I agree that the Gov.Manchin should be on the front row. This state sent me and a great many people to Iraq to give people the right to free speach. This is starting to become a free speach rights isuess, and Gov. Manchin should recall every member of the national guard from Iraq, if He is not going to protect the right of the people of this state to say what’s on there minds, reguardless of which side thay are on. It saddens me that all we went through in a another country has not been lost on the people of this good state. all veterns should call the Govenors office and demand that He get behind the showing of this movie. let the other side protest from a disstance if they wish, and are peacefull, and let the state police keep the peace. this breaks my heart that this even has to be takled about in West Virginia. maybe Gov.Manchin should ask that all of our guardsmen be sent home to help provid free speach in mountains of WV.
- 2 watcher { 07.09.09 at 12:11 pm }
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Ken, you are right you dont know what is or isn’t planned by the pro-coal folks, so the use of the word thuggery is uncalled for. I suggest the coal supporters have every right to “protest” the screening of this movie.
- 3 dianne { 07.09.09 at 12:29 pm }
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Thanks Ken for the forum you provide!
- 4 Bob Kincaid { 07.09.09 at 2:20 pm }
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If this film isn’t screened in Charleston it will simply prove, once and for all, that West Virginia is NOT a state in this Union; that West Virginia is, in fact, a fiefdom of out-of-state coal companies who motivate their workers through fear and intimidation and rule this state with an iron fist via jack-boot tactics; that we do not enjoy the rights guaranteed under the Constitution of the United States; that “speech” is not a right, but a commodity bought and sold by and to the highest bidder.
Incidentally, it will also prove the failure of every idea the Coal Lobby and their cronies have put forth.
Howie got it spot-on upthread. Thanks for saying what you did. It is sickening and heart-rending to realize that West Virginia has an information clampdown comparable to North Korea, Iran and China where Sacred Coal and Holy Profit are concerned.
Gandhi said “First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.
Welcome to Stage Three. It is bitter.
Stage Four is going to be sweet.
- 5 Ken Ward Jr. { 07.09.09 at 2:47 pm }
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watcher,
I would suggest that protesting the showing of a movie you haven’t seen is a silly response … it reminds me of a book my four-year-old reads, “Arthur and the Scare Your Pants Off Book Club.” See http://www.kidsreads.com/reviews/0316115487.asp.
In the story, Arthur and his friends love this series of scary books, until one parent organizes a campaign to ban the books. But it turns out the parent hasn’t read the books — and when he does, he likes them.
Ken.
- 6 blue canary { 07.09.09 at 2:53 pm }
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I’m not sure what the coal folks think their scare tactics are going to do, other than make them look bad. All the controversy around the movie just makes people more interested in seeing it!
- 7 watcher { 07.09.09 at 4:33 pm }
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Ken ,nothing silly about it , I’m pro-coal ,nothing to hide here. Besides you said it best, the movie has a point of view that m t r is not good and an economy focused on coal is not good,thats good enough for me .
- 8 Ken Ward Jr. { 07.09.09 at 5:12 pm }
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OK, folks …
I’ve had to take down a couple of comments that were just nasty attacks on the other side of the issue … clearly, I’m fighting a losing battle trying to get people to actually talk with each other rather than just calling names and being nasty…
So, we’re shutting down the comments on this post now.
Ken.
Coal Country to show at the Cultural Center
SATURDAY, JULY 11, 2009
8:00 PM
CULTURAL CENTER
Capitol Complex, Charleston
1900 Kanawha Blvd.
www.wvculture.org for directions
Open to the public, free of charge
seating is limited
It is critical that we provide public notification of this change. For more information, go to www.coalcountrythemovie.com
BACKGROUND
COAL COUNTRY
A film by Mari-Lynn Evans and Phylis Geller
COAL COUNTRY is a dramatic look at modern coal mining. We get to know working miners along with activists who are battling coal companies in Appalachia.
We need to understand the meaning behind promises of “cheap energy” and “clean coal.” Are they achievable? At what cost? And what are the alternatives for our energy future?
COAL COUNTRY, explores these questions by following coal as it is mined, processed and burned for power. An especially dramatic tale unfolds in Appalachia, where families and communities are deeply split over the latest form of strip mining called ‘mountaintop removal’, or MTR. Coal companies blast the tops off mountains, and run the debris into valleys and streams. Some say MTR provides the only good jobs; others claim it is destroying the land, water and air.
Here are some of the people you will meet in COAL COUNTRY:
KATHY SELVAGE suddenly became an activist when a coal company began blasting on the mountain above her house. Now she is fighting the building of a new coal-fired plant in her community.
RANDY MAGGARD is a manager in the coal industry. He is conscientious about meeting all mining regulations. He and his colleagues believe that the environmentalists may kill coal mining in West Virginia, and that the state would become an economic disaster.
JUDY BONDS is trying to get a wind farm, instead of another strip mine, on Coal Mountain. JUDY also works with Christians for the Mountains, believing that God meant for us to be good stewards of His creation. Her speeches and protests are well-known; she feels under constant threat from coal supporters. She has installed three security cameras on her house.
CHUCK NELSON is a retired union coal miner who spent 35 years underground. When Massey Energy built a processing plant in his home town of Sylvester, West Virginia, CHUCK was horrified by the dust and debris threatening the town. He began to protest. He lost his job and his family home. Now CHUCK works full time organizing community groups afraid for their land and water.
JOE LOVETT is the only lawyer in West Virginia whose time is devoted entirely to environmental issues, particularly mountain-top removal. He provides sharp analysis of the social and economic factors at work in coal country. JOE is the professional who guides the activists through the legal and regulatory system.
Both sides in this conflict claim that history is on their side. Families have lived in the region for generations. Most have ancestors who worked in the mines. Everyone shares a deep love for the land, but MTR is tearing them apart.
To tell the story of coal and the search for alternative energy, the film will also offer comments from the following:
Patrice Simms, Senior Project Attorney, NRDC
Michael Shnayerson, Vanity Fair, author COAL RIVER
Ken Hechler, former Secretary of State, West Virginia
Dr. Philippe Jamet, fmr. French Attaché for Science and Technology, Washington DC
Gene Kitts, Vice President, ICG
Dr. Michael Hendryx, Professor, WVU
Dr. Amory Lovins, Director, Rocky Mountain Institute
CREDITS:
Executive Producer: Mari-Lynn Evans
Writer/Producer/Director: Phylis Geller
Editor: Sam Green
Videography: Jordan Freeman, Jay Johnson
Original Music Composed by: Charlie Barnett
Special musical performances by: Kathy Mattea
A Production of Evening Star Productions c. 2009
Mountaintop Removal damage “irreversible”
June 25, 2009
Mountaintop removal damage ‘irreversible,’ U.S. Senate hears
DEP official only witness to defend practice
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Mountaintop removal coal mining is causing “immense and irreversible” damage to Appalachian hills, streams and forests, members of a U.S. Senate subcommittee were told Thursday.
A federal regulator joined a university expert, a West Virginia activist and a Tennessee environmental commissioner in criticizing large-scale strip mining’s impacts, as lawmakers consider a bipartisan bill that would curb the practice.
“We must consider the cost of coal from the cradle to the grave,” said Maria Gunnoe, a Boone County native who won the international Goldman Prize for her anti-mining activism. “We have the opportunity to stop the annihilation of mountains and people by mountaintop removal and to change the history of energy in this country.”
Margaret Palmer, a University of Maryland ecologist who has been studying mountaintop removal’s impacts, explained that scientists have clearly documented the damage being done.
“The mountain summits that are removed to reach the coal may not have the same shape or height they previously did, the streams that are buried when rocks and dirt are dumped over the side of the mountain into the valleys below are gone forever, and there is no evidence to date that mitigation actions can compensate for the lost natural resources and ecological functions of the headwater streams that are buried,” Palmer told lawmakers.
Palmer and Gunnoe were among those who testified in a Senate Environmental and Public Works subcommittee hearing scheduled to examine mountaintop removal, the Obama administration’s plans for regulating it, and legislation that would outlaw most — if not all — valley fills.
The only witness who defended mountaintop removal was Randy Huffman, who as secretary of the state Department of Environmental Protection is the Manchin administration’s top strip-mining regulator.
Huffman said his agency has an “effective and progressive” regulatory program, and that his main concern is that Obama administration efforts to more closely regulate the practice “have the potential to significantly limit all types of mining.”
“West Virginia and the nation need jobs and coal,” Huffman told senators. “Coal production is the leading revenue generator for West Virginia, and many in the state are concerned about losing the opportunities for future economic development associated with mountaintop mining.”
Sens. Benjamin Cardin, D-Md., and Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., introduced the Appalachian Restoration Act to rewrite the federal Clean Water Act so that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers could not permit mining waste to be dumped into streams as “fill material.”
Cardin said that, among other concerns, he is worried that the environmental damage from mountaintop removal may be hindering other economic development efforts in the Appalachian region.
Alexander noted that his home state has already banned valley fills, and Tennessee Deputy Commissioner of Environment and Conservation Paul Sloan encouraged lawmakers to expand that prohibition to protect the region’s vital headwaters streams.
“Just as the circulatory systems in our bodies rely upon the healthy functioning of billions of capillaries, the nation’s rivers and streams will not be healthy unless the headwaters are protected,” Sloan said in prepared testimony.
Randy Pomponio, director of environmental assessment for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Mid-Atlantic regional office, told lawmakers EPA studies have documented impacts that agency officials hope to try to reduce.
Mountaintop removal has buried an average of 120 miles of streams a year, Pomponio said, and studies show valley fills not only eliminate those waterways, but also degrade water quality downstream.
EPA studies also have documented the elimination of nearly 1,200 square miles of Appalachian forests — an area larger than Kanawha County — between 1992 and 2013.
“Should these forests not be restored, invaluable water quality and ecological services will be lost,” Pomponio said. “Forest losses of this magnitude, although largely temporary, are not inconsequential.”
Reach Ken Ward Jr. at kw…@wvgazette.com or 304-348-1702.
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Mountaintop removal nearing it’s end!
News
A day to shine on Capitol Hill
Friday, June 26th, 2009
Hearing chambersNews coverage of yesterdays Senate hearing on mountaintop removal coal mining:
The best headline thus far was printed before the hearing even started:
Washington City Paper – Mountaintop Coal Mining Face Off Starts Now!
As always, Ken Ward’s Coal Tattoo blog provided the most comprehensive coverage and analysis:
Mountaintop Removal: Jobs vs. Mayflies? NOT
Here’s a preliminary roundup of hearing coverage:
* McClatchy Newspapers – Lawmakers, activists battle over mountaintop removal coal mining
* Clear Skies TV – Mountaintop Removal Hearing
* CBS 13 WOWK, West Virginia – Mountaintop Mining Debate Reaches Capitol Hill
* CBS 59 WVNS – Debate Continues in Washington on Mountaintop Removal Mining
* ABC 3 WHSV – Environmental Official Testifies on Mountaintop Mining and Water Quality
* WV Metronews – Can We Really Keep Doing This?
And a few photos from the event. More can be found on our Flickr page:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nationalmemorialforthemountains/sets/72157620455714735/
Talking across the issue part 2
Citizens for Coal discuss the mountaintop removal coal mining issue with Cody Simpkins of Kentuckians for the Commonwealth.
Senator Ben Cardin
Senator Ben Cardin, co-founder of the Appalachia Restoration Act (S 696) and chair of the Committee on Environment and Public Works’ subcommittee on Water and Wildlife, speaks to the media about the bill.
Maria Gunnoe and Senator Lamar Alexandar
West Virginia native Maria Gunnoe, winner of this year’s Goldman Environmental Prize, explains to Senator Lamar Alexander how mountaintop removal coal mining devastates her home.
Hearing chambers
Close to two hundred people lined up for the Senate hearing on the Appalachia Restoration Act, from both sides of the mountaintop removal coal mining issue. Only about sixty were able to fit into the main Senate Committee chamber in Dirkson Senate Building; the rest were directed to an overflow room in a nearby senate building.
Waiting in Line
Close to two hundred people lined up for the Senate hearing on the Appalachia Restoration Act, from both sides of the mountaintop removal coal mining issue. The hearing was held in the Committee on Environment and Public Works’ subcommittee on Water and Wildlife. Some individuals waited in line for over three hours to secure a seat in the hearing.
Coalfield citizen statements about mountaintop removal mining:
Mickey McCoy, Kentuckians for the Commonwealth
Inez, KY – I am a 53 year old retired high school English teacher who was born and raised in Inez, Kentucky. Twenty five percent of my counties land area has been striped mined.
Our public water system in Martin County is polluted and our 100 year flood comes every 18 months. These problems are due to the coal industry and the greed of their corporate owners.
Mountain top removal continues to bomb the hell out of our mountains, our culture, and our future.
I’m here in DC to see if anybody gives a damn about the death of my land. I’m here to see if any elected officials care to stand for us against the destruction of the Appalachian Mountains. I am here for the last hope.
Cody Simpkins, Kentuckians for the Commonwealth
Morehead, KY – The people of Appalachia have struggled to find their voice for generations. Yet time after time we have been silenced buy our poverty and the overwhelming influence of the industrial forces that bring this poverty to our communities. For the first time our government is opening an ear to a main factor in the plight of Appalachia. Whether or not our voices will be heard is still left to be determined, but at least now we have a chance to open our mouths.
Matt Howard, Kentuckians for the Commonwealth
McGoffin County, KY – As a young person, born and raised in eastern Kentucky, I have many hopes and aspirations for my family and neighbors. I would like to see my people prosper, living long into their old age. In recent decades there has been an explosion in cancer rates among the human population the world over. It is obvious that we have brought this problem on ourselves. What we put into the land, air, and water, we unavoidably put into our own bodies. With Mountain Top Removal we are poisoning our water, and losing the rich soil that nourished our bodies for so long. We our selling the thing that truly sustains us, and funneling our wealth out of the region. What we are selling can never be replaced. This is the great tragedy of our time and region. I hope to see people embrace logic, and develop a thirst for knowledge. We should strive improve ourselves as individuals and as a society. This is what I want for our people.
Lorelei Scarbro—Coal River Mountain Watch
Rock Creek, WV – I am WV born and raised; in my family has been four generation of underground coal miners, including my husband who died of black lung. My home is threatened by a proposed mountaintop removal behind my home. Everything I have, including the cemetery where my husband is buried, is at risk. It’s my prayer that this committee learns the truth about how mountaintop removal is impacting the water in Appalachian communities. My biggest concern as a mother of four and as a grandmother is safe drinking water. I’m so concerned about the quality of water my granddaughter will have when she’s my age. People I know are already sick, dead, and dying because of mountaintop removal has on our water.
There is an alternative. In my community, the Coal River Valley in southwestern West Virginia, there is a 6,600 acre mountaintop removal site proposed for the mountain behind my home. Instead of this destruction, we are proposing a wind farm. Studies have shown that this would provide more jobs, more revenue for the county, and more electricity in the long run that the mountaintop removal project. This project would allow us to start re-building our community, and create safe, permanent jobs and clean energy forever. We need our government to step forward and support alternatives like the Coal River Wind project, and other investments in green jobs in communities that have been impacted by mountaintop removal.
David Beatty—Save Our Cumberland Mountains
Cumberland County, TN What I’ve been saying all along is that where I come from, so many jobs are pretty well gone, but you can still depend on tourism. If the water is messed up and the mountains are gone, we’ll lose that too. I see this mountaintop removal another threat to the economy, more than any other economic threat we face. The lawmakers need to respond, because while they may not care about our health, I know they care about the economy.
I was elected to the position of County Executive from 1998 to 2002. We focused on developing tourism because we saw that as the best economic option for our community. I see hope in this new green economy as an alternative we’ve never had before.
We used to have many jobs in underground mining – and a lot of our retired miners gave their health to the pollution inside the mine. They never dreamed they would now have to give up their land, their mountains and their lifestyle, to mountaintop removal mining.
The well water on my property was ruined by strip mining, and it is threatened by a new mountaintop removal site they are trying to put in. You used to be able to lean down and drink out of any stream, but now you don’t dare. People depend on their well water, because many don’t have access to city water. Bad water doesn’t just affect the tourist economy; it’s our health; it’s our life.
I see such an opportunity and such a serious threat. Investment in a green economy is our best opportunity to get Appalachia out of poverty, but we’ll never have that chance if we destroy our water and our health with mountaintop removal.
Jean Chealy –Save Our Cumberland Mountains
Cumberland County, TN – I am a retired school teacher and volunteer as the chair of our local chapter of SOCM. I have been to Washington to lobby against mountaintop removal before. Mountaintop removal is such an abomination, and we shouldn’t have to spend this much time and energy fighting it. The problems should be obvious to lawmakers, and they need to act to end mountaintop removal today.
In Tennessee, we now also have to fight the terrible impacts of TVA’s coal ash spill. TVA is hoping to dump huge amounts of the toxic coal ash waste onto a strip mine near my home in Cumberland County, TN. They bulldozed through our county commission and got the permits with out listening to citizen concerns. I got involved years ago because of the terrible blasting damages from this same strip mine they are now trying to dump their toxic coal ash into. So, now our health and our water are being threatened by the mining of coal and by the disposal of the toxic ash they make when they burn it.
Kathy Selvage, Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards
Wise, VA – We have so much to share with the people who might visit us. If we could only stop blasting away our mountains and dumping them into valleys and streambeds. Mountaintop removal is destroying the land, the people, and our cultural heritage. We could make it if only our elected leaders shared our vision, one that doesn’t concentrate on destruction, but instead on construction.
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US Senate Subcommittee Holds Hearing on the Impacts of Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining on Water Quality in Appalachia
Thursday, June 25th, 2009
US Senate Subcommittee Holds Hearing on the Impacts of Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining on Water Quality in Appalachia
On Thursday, July 25, over seventy supporters of the Appalachia Restoration Act (S 696) lined up outside the door of Dirksen Senate Building for a hearing on the bill. The hearing, held by the Committee on Environment and Public Works’ Subcommittee on Water and Wildlife, was conducted by subcommittee chair Senator Ben Cardin, also a co-founder of the bill.
The Appalachian Restoration Act (S 696) is a Senate-sponsored bill to amend the Clean Water Act, outlawing the dumping of mining waste into streams. A 2002 change to the Clean Water Act by the Bush administration made it legal to dump mining waste into streams.
The bill would effectively eliminate the mountaintop removal coal mining practice of valley fills.
“Coal is important to America,” said Senator Cardin. “It is important to recognize the importance of energy needs in America. But we are talking about one type of coal mining here – mountaintop removal coal mining – and its impact on the water quality of America.”
“Saving our mountains is important to me, whether we are talking about cleaning up our streams, or ending the practice of blowing up mountaintops and dumping the waste into streams,” he said.
Two panels of witnesses provided testimony for the hearing, including EPA Region 3 Director Jon Pomponio, water quality expert Dr. Margaret Palmer from the University of Maryland, and West Virginia resident Maria Gunnoe, winner of this year’s Goldman Environmental Prize, Paul Sloane, Deputy Commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, and Randy Huffman, Cabinet Secretary of the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection.
During Dr. Palmer’s testimony, she indicated that there is “irrefutable evidence that impacts to streams from mountaintop removal [coal mining] is devastating. As headwaters are lost, cumulative effects in streams and rivers below are devastating.” When asked by the Senate panel if how effective remedial programs would be to mitigate the damage, Palmer noted that there is no knowledge of an effective way to reverse the damage caused to streams, and that known impacts have been in continuance in some places for close to 50 years.
“When you take the top of a mountain off, you have fundamentally altered the hydrology of that mountain,” she said.
Paul Sloane, Deputy Commissioner of TDEC, claimed that “nearly 70% of post mining land uses “is*” forestry reclamation.” Senator Cardin commented that he was told by a Virginia Tech professor that there were currently 5800 valley fills in West Virginia and Kentucky. The professor estimated that less than 1% of those sites have been reclaimed.
After the hearing, West Virginia Coal Association vice president Chris Hamilton spoke with media in attendance, saying that he was “disappointed in the way this was set up and organized. Those opposing [mountaintop mining] had four witnesses, and supporters [of coal] were virtually shut out of the process.”
“This bill [will impose] significant restrictions not only on mountaintop mining, but on surface and underground mining as well. I don’t think the answer is to abolish surface mining,” he added.
“The very concept of mountaintop removal is repugnant to me,” Senator Cardin said in an interview after the hearing. “This bill is about water quality. I’m not sure the mining companies are in the position to tell us about water quality.”
The next steps for the bill include a vote in Subcommittee. If the bill passes subcommittee, it will proceed to review by the full Environment and Public Works committee.
To view an archived webcast of the entire hearing, visit the Senate website or click here to watch it now!
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Supreme Court Ruling Has Implications for Mountaintop Removal
Wednesday, June 24th, 2009
This just in. Rob Perks of NRDC provides commentary on their blog, the Switchboard.
It does not bode well that the U.S. Supreme Court yesterday ruled 6-3 in favor of treating America’s waterways like dumps. Specifically, the Court decided that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers can legally permit the disposal of polluted wastewater from a gold mine into an Alaskan lake. The proposed Kensington Gold Mine, in the Berners Bay region near Juneau, would discharge 210,000 gallons per day of ‘treated’ mine tailings directly into Lower Slate Lake. Over the course of the mine’s 10-15 years of operations, that adds up to about 4.5 million tons of toxic waste that will kill all the fish and nearly all other aquatic life.
[Photo by J. Henry Fair]
(Photo by J. Henry Fair)
I’m no lawyer, nor do I play one on TV, so feel free to analyze the gory details of this legal travesty in this article on the decision. You can also read the New York Times coverage of the case here.
Now, the reason the Court sided with the Corps — and contrary to the purpose of the Clean Water Act — is because of a rule change invoked by the Bush administration back in 2002 that expanded the definition of the term ‘fill material’ to include mining waste. This is the very same regulatory dirty trick that the Corps relies on to permit massive stream ‘valley fills’ in Appalachia associated with mountaintop removal coal mining.
But this disappointing Supreme Court ruling doesn’t have to be the end of the issue. You see, the Obama administration can save that Alaskan lake from irrevocably pollution — and all the mountains and valleys in Appalachia from destruction — simply be reversing the bad Bush ‘fill’ rule. Recent actions by the Obama administration to crack down on mountaintop removal fall far short of actually ending mountaintop removal, which is the only solution to this abomination.
In addition, legislation pending in both houses of Congress would also effectively put a stop to mountaintop removal by overruling the 2002 fill rule — thereby preventing the Corps from permitting waste dumps in America’s waterways. This Thursday, the Senate will hold a hearing on one of those bills, the bi-partisan Appalachia Restoration Act (S. 696), co-sponsored by Sens. Ben Cardin (D-MD) and Lamar Alexander (R-TN).
I’ll be live blogging the Senate hearing. Meantime, you can help by urging your Senators to support this bill.
[Photo by J. Henry Fair]
(Photo by J. Henry Fair)
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News for the Marsh Fork Elementary School Rally of June 23rd, 2009
Wednesday, June 24th, 2009
On Tuesday, June 23, hundreds of people gathered at an anti-mountaintop removal coal mining rally at Marsh Fork Elementary School in West Virginia to protest the continuation of the destructive practice. The local and regional residents were joined by NASA climatologist James Hansen, who spoke about the contributions of mountaintop removal coal mining and coal-fired power plants to the problem of global warming.
Activist and actress Daryl Hannah, Rainforest Action Network Executive Director Michael Brune and renowned novelist Diane Giardina also spoke during the rally.
According to Hansen, 24,000 people die each year from illnesses caused by coal-fired power plants.
Novelist Denise Giardina, author of the book “Storming Heaven” about the battle of Blair Mountain, said during her speech, “We had coal mining for 70 years before mountaintop removal mining, and blowing up the top of a mountain is not coal mining.”
Protestors were met at the scene by employees of Massey Energy – who according to one source had been given the day off with pay to attend the rally and counter the protest – and their wives. The miners were dressed in work clothes with orange “Massey stripes” and carrying signs that said “Tree Huggers Go Home” and “We Love Mountains That Produce Coal.” Some miners shouted obsenities and taunts at protestors.
“The coal that is burned here [in West Virginia] is mined somewhere else, and the coal that is mind here is burned somewhere else,” said Rock Creek, WVa native Judy Bonds. “This is America. This is everyone’s problem.”
Rally attendees then marched half of a mile down the main road to the Massey coal processing plant entrance, singing “Amazing Grace” and other gospel songs. They were met by the line of Massey workers and wives chanting “Massey, Massey” and shouting at the protestors. Twenty-nine individuals who had chosen to risk arrest then sat down in the middle of the road, and climatologist Hansen read a request to Massey Energy asking the company to help with the climate change problem by ending mountaintop removal coal mining.
The activists were subsequently arrested for obstructing traffic. “Stop mountaintop removal and create a clean energy future,” said actress Daryl Hannah as she was lead away in handcuffs.
Among the arrested included 94-year-old Ken Heckler, former U.S. congressman and Secretary of State for West Virginia; James Hansen; Michael Brune, and numerous West Virginia residents including Lorelei Scarboro, Dana Kuhnline and Larry Gibson.
In the end result, the rally was peaceful, violence was avoided, and the majority of Massey’s coal production on the mountaintop removal site above the school was shut down for a day.
Quotes from the day:
“The blood of Native Americans and West Virginians is in these hills. The spirit of Native Americans and West Virginians is in these hills. We need to honor the Scotch Irish, honor the Germans and English, honor the Native Americans and Africans whose people are buried in these mountains. This is a war of the spirit.” Matt Charmin, Dakota Blackfoot Sioux
“We think there is a way to create long-term, sustainable jobs so you can feed your families.” Steve Owen, Executive Director, Appalachian Institute for Renewable Energy, speaking directly to the Massey Energy counter-protestors
“People went to jail so we wouldn’t have to work on weekends. People went to jail so women could have the right to vote…. [some of you are risking arrest today…] You have the right to remain silent, but now is the time to stand up for what you believe is right.” Steve Owen, Executive Director, Appalachian Institute for Renewable Energy
“Don Blankenship invited me here today, when he started blowing up mountains.” Michael Brune, Executive Director, Rainforest Action Network
Flickr Photostream available at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/appvoices/sets/72157620592562274/
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Rally at the Marsh Fork Elementary School a Peaceful Success
Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009
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On Tuesday, June 23, a team from Appalachian Voices joined hundreds of people gathered at an anti-mountaintop removal coal mining rally at Marsh Fork Elementary School in West Virginia to protest the continuation of the destructive practice. The local and regional residents were joined by NASA climatologist James Hansen, who spoke about the contributions of mountaintop removal coal mining and coal-fired power plants to the problem of global warming.
Activist and actress Daryl Hannah, Rainforest Action Network Executive Director Michael Brune and renowned novelist Diane Giardina also spoke during the rally.
According to Hansen, 24,000 people die each year from illnesses caused by coal-fired power plants.
Novelist Denise Giardina, author of the book “Storming Heaven” about the battle of Blair Mountain, said during her speech, “We had coal mining for 70 years before mountaintop removal mining, and blowing up the top of a mountain is not coal mining.”
Protestors were met at the scene by employees of Massey Energy – who according to one source had been given the day off with pay to attend the rally and counter the protest – and their wives. The miners were dressed in work clothes with orange “Massey stripes” and carrying signs that said “Tree Huggers Go Home” and “We Love Mountains That Produce Coal.” Some miners shouted obsenities and taunts at protestors.
“The coal that is burned here [in West Virginia] is mined somewhere else, and the coal that is mind here is burned somewhere else,” said Rock Creek, WVa native Judy Bonds. “This is America. This is everyone’s problem.”
Rally attendees then marched half of a mile down the main road to the Massey coal processing plant entrance, singing “Amazing Grace” and other gospel songs. They were met by the line of Massey workers and wives chanting “Massey, Massey” and shouting at the protestors. Twenty-nine individuals who had chosen to risk arrest then sat down in the middle of the road, and climatologist Hansen read a request to Massey Energy asking the company to help with the climate change problem by ending mountaintop removal coal mining.
The activists were subsequently arrested for obstructing traffic. “Stop mountaintop removal and create a clean energy future,” said actress Daryl Hannah as she was lead away in handcuffs.
Among the arrested included 94-year-old Ken Heckler, former U.S. congressman and Secretary of State for West Virginia; James Hansen; Michael Brune, and numerous West Virginia residents including Lorelei Scarboro, Dana Kuhnline and Larry Gibson.
In the end result, the rally was peaceful, violence was avoided, and the majority of Massey’s coal production on the mountaintop removal site above the school was shut down for a day.
Quotes from the day:
“The blood of Native Americans and West Virginians is in these hills. The spirit of Native Americans and West Virginians is in these hills. We need to honor the Scotch Irish, honor the Germans and English, honor the Native Americans and Africans whose people are buried in these mountains. This is a war of the spirit.” Matt Charmin, Dakota Blackfoot Sioux
“We think there is a way to create long-term, sustainable jobs so you can feed your families.” Steve Owen, Executive Director, Appalachian Institute for Renewable Energy, speaking directly to the Massey Energy counter-protestors
“People went to jail so we wouldn’t have to work on weekends. People went to jail so women could have the right to vote…. [some of you are risking arrest today…] You have the right to remain silent, but now is the time to stand up for what you believe is right.” Steve Owen, Executive Director, Appalachian Institute for Renewable Energy
“Don Blankenship invited me here today, when he started blowing up mountains.” Michael Brune, Executive Director, Rainforest Action Network
Flickr Photostream available at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/appvoices/sets/72157620592562274/
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A Growing Urgency to End Mountaintop Removal
Thursday, June 18th, 2009
The following email was sent to the 36,000+ supporters of iLoveMountains.org. To sign up to receive free email alerts, click here.
The pressure on the Obama administration to stop mountaintop removal coal mining is building across the country.
Last week, we asked you to call the White House and tell the administration that it was time to reverse the devastating 2002 Bush Administration “fill rule,” which allows coal companies to dump their toxic mining waste into our nation’s streams.
And next week, on June 23rd, climate scientist Dr. James Hansen will join community members and activists from around the country in Coal River Valley, West Virginia to launch a year of activism to end mountaintop removal coal mining.
Hansen and others will gather at Marsh Fork Elementary — the elementary school that is next to a mountaintop removal mine operated by Massey Energy and just 400 yards downslope from a 2.8 billion gallon coal sludge impoundment that threatens the school.
The activists will then march a short distance to Massey Energy’s office of operations and risk arrest in a line crossing civil disobedience, in order to raise awareness of the devastation that mountaintop removal coal mining is causing to the mountains and communities of Appalachia.
Can you take a moment to stand with them, and help put pressure on the Obama administration to take immediate action to end mountaintop removal coal mining today?
We’re asking every member of iLoveMountains.org to take just three minutes to email the White House to ask President Obama to immediately begin the process of overturning the Bush-era “fill rule,” which allows coal companies to dump their toxic mining waste into our nation’s streams.
Please, click here to email President Obama now.
The Obama administration needs to hear that simply enforcing Bush-era rules and laws is not enough. The administration must overturn the Bush-era rules to begin the process of building a sustainable future for Appalachia.
That’s why the activists gathering at Coal River Valley next week are risking arrest — to send the message that impact on the mountains, communities and waterways of central Appalachia have been ignored for too long.
Please, take a moment to make sure President Obama hears that message:
Email President Obama today.
Thank you for taking action.
Matt Wasson
iLoveMountains.org
PS Contact Annie Sartor at Rainforest Action Network if you are interested in coming to Coal River Mountain on June 23rd.
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Activists scale 20-story tall machinery to call attention to nation’s worst form of coal mining
Thursday, June 18th, 2009
This just dropped into our email box:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Thursday June 18th, 2009
CONTACTS:
Nell Greenberg, 510-847-9777
Celia Alario, 310-721-6517
Vivian Stockman, 304-927-3265
Hi-Res Photos, B-roll and Video will be available, www.mountaintaction.org.
Activists Risk Arrest to Stop Mountaintop Removal – Scale 20-story tall machinery to call attention to nation’s worst form of coal mining; This is the first time a dragline has been scaled on a mountaintop removal site
COAL RIVER VALLEY, W. VA.—Moments ago, four concerned citizens entered onto Massey Energy’s mountaintop removal mine site near Twilight WV and have begun to scale a150-foot dragline machine to drop a banner that says, ‘stop mountaintop removal mining.’ The climbers plan to stay on the enormous dragline, a massive piece of equipment that removes house-sized chunks of blasted rock and earth to expose coal, until police arrest them. Equipped with satellites phones and a web camera, the climbers will be available for interviews.
This is the first time a dragline has been scaled on a mountaintop removal site, and marks the latest in a string of increasingly dramatic protests in West Virginia by residents and allies from across the country. This act of protest against mountaintop removal comes just days after the Obama Administration announced a plan to reform, but not abolish, the aggressive strip mining practice.
“It’s way past time for civil disobedience to stop mountaintop removal and move quickly toward clean, renewable energy sources,” said Judy Bonds, Goldman Environmental Prize winner and co-director of Coal River Mountain Watch of West Virginia. “For over a century, Appalachian communities have been crushed, flooded, and poisoned as a result of the country’s dangerous and outdated reliance on coal. How could the country care so little about our American mountains, our culture and our lives?”
Read the entire press release at www.mountaintaction.org
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Maybe a new director of the Office of Surface Mining, Reclamation, and Enforcement…
Wednesday, June 17th, 2009
Rumor has it that Secretary Salazar is looking to appoint another director of the OSMRE with history of bowing to coal companies at the expense of communities across Pennsylvania.
If we act now, we can prevent this terrible nomination – Use these letter-writing tools demand an ethical new OSMRE Director who will enforce the law.
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Green Jobs Show More Growth In Past Ten Years Than Traditional Jobs
Monday, June 15th, 2009
According to a report released today by The Pew Charitable Trusts, green jobs—Pew dubs these “clean energy jobs”— across the country grew at a national rate of 9.1 percent between 1998 and 2007, while traditional jobs grew by only 3.7 percent, a difference of nearly two and a half times. State levels also showed growth in clean energy outperformed overall job growth in 38 states and the District of Columbia during the same time period.
And this growth has happened despite a lack of sustained government support for clean energy jobs. According to the report, by 2007 more than 68,200 businesses across the nation accounted for about 770,000 jobs.
By comparison, fossil-fuel industries—including utilities, coal mining and oil and gas extraction—comprised about 1.27 million workers in 2007.
Green industries are also creating well-paying jobs people of all skill levels and educational backgrounds, including engineers, plumbers, administrative assistants, construction workers, machine setters, marketing consultants, teachers and many others, with annual incomes ranging from $21,000 to $111,000.
Read the full press release on their website.
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BECKLEY REGISTER-HERALD: There has to be a better way in the Coal River Valley
Monday, June 15th, 2009
Op-ed published June 13th, 2009
There has to be a better way.
Sure, it’s all legal. The state Supreme Court said so last week when it rejected an appeal that sought to bar Massey Energy subsidiary Goals Coal Co. from constructing another coal storage silo less than the length of a football field from Marsh Fork Elementary School.
But there has to be a better way.
Coal River Mountain Watch, which for years has argued that even one silo so close to the school was one too many, was, obviously, upset with the court’s decision, saying that “placing a second coal silo within 300 feet of the school is a clear violation of the intent of the law, which is to protect the public.”
But Justice Menis Ketchum, who wrote the unanimous opinion, made it clear the court was not going to become embroiled in policy questions that should be decided by lawmakers.
“It is the duty of the Legislature to consider facts, establish policy and embody that policy in legislation,” he wrote. “It is the duty of the court to enforce legislation unless it runs afoul of state or federal constitutions.”
So there, you have it.
Not quite.
Coal silos and preparation facilities are a fact of life in the southern West Virginia coalfields, but locating them in direct proximity of public schools isn’t the best policy.
In this debate between environmentalists and a coal industry giant, the ones with the most at stake are the young students at Marsh Fork Elementary.
They didn’t ask for this. They don’t have a seat at the table.
Collectively, they’re an innocent party with the most to lose.
Having a coal silo, having any kind of industrial complex, so close to a school, especially an elementary school, can’t be conducive to learning.
We suggested a long time ago that Massey pony up the money to build a new elementary school at a location not in the direct shadow of its Goals coal operations. But now, with the economic downturn that has affected every industry, including coal, that seems like a distant dream.
We would encourage Massey officials and local school leaders to sit down and try to work out a solution to this problem.
The Coal River Valley has long felt like a red-haired stepchild in Raleigh County, that it has lost while other areas of the county have gained.
It has also yielded the coal that, as they say, keeps the lights on and provides a steady stream of tax revenue.
Maybe it’s time that area receives something in return.
For more information, visit:
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