An Extraction State of Mind

by: heath_harrison

Thu Oct 22, 2009 at 05:11:59 AM EDT

At first, it may seem that Governor Joe Manchin deserves the tiniest amount of credit for finally showing up to talk to environmental activists this week.

However, the ignorance he displayed (whether real or feigned) about the situation on Coal River Mountain quickly destroys that notion.

And it certainly doesn't make up for an inexcusable five years of inaccessibility on his part.

As Lorelei Scarbro, of Rock Creek, points out, despite his claim that his door is always open, Manchin has continuously avoided a real meeting with activists to discuss the effects of mountaintop removal and a proposed wind farm for the area.

But Manchin's behavior is not an isolated case in West Virginia politics. State officials have been ducking encounters with anyone from the environmental side of coal issues for years.

There's no better example of this pattern of avoidance from those in government than Republican Shelley Moore Capito's eight years in Congress.

Throughout her time representing West Virginia's 2nd Congressional district, Capito has had a problem listening to any concerns of coalfield residents that don't echo the sentiments of Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship.

This was clearly on display in 2002, when she helped put together a panel called "West Virginia Energy and America's Future" to help promote Dick Cheney's energy policy (of secretive meeting fame).

Held at Riverside High School in Belle, the event featured the usual faces from Capito's circle of friends in Big Coal, as well as special guest Texas Republican representative Joe Barton.

Environmentalists requested a spot on the panel (and were supported in this push by miners unions), but were ignored.

As a consolation prize, they got Democratic DEP head Mike Callaghan, with his solid record of simply looking away from the problem, to "represent" them.

As expected, the event proceeded as a recital of one side of the issue with the usual attacks on activists from the panel.
Julian Martin, who was there to voice his opposition to mountaintop removal, finally reached the point where he could take no more.

As Vivian Stockman of the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition wrote at the time:

"He stood up and asked, "Do we get to speak or do we just get to listen to these insults?"

Capito and Barton stood up from their seats right behind Martin. Barton began arguing with Martin, saying he would call the sheriff on Martin and "haul his butt out." Perhaps there are laws in Texas against speaking out in public.

Martin, the son and grandson of coal miners, wasn't too pleased that this Texan was trying to silence a West Virginian concerned about the future of the Mountain State. Martin insisted that the citizens be given the right to talk about their future. Capito, sensing a public relations nightmare, finally agreed to let Martin have a say at the end of the forum."

http://www.wvhighlands.org/Voi...

However, one group of people that Capito has no problem talking about these issues with is the folks at The Weekly Standard, the fringe-right magazine founded by famed television psychic Bill Kristol and his brother in the neoconservative movement, beltway darling Fred Barnes.

Capito, having no problem with the fact that the publication got it wrong on nearly every issue in the past, decided to discuss the state's future with Michael Goldfarb for a story in the Standard's new issue, titled "Obama's Stealth Energy Policy."

And her answers are just as uncreative, wrapped in extraction industry-speak and free of any talk of alternative energy as you'd expect:

"The EPA is already acting in coal country, "confusing the permit process" for new mining operations Capito says. "They don't approve or deny, they just keep reviewing."

[...]

"Congress has done nothing on offshore drilling or gas drilling and undercut efforts to incentivize and expand clean nuclear power through the cap and trade bill. "They're telling us where we can't go instead of where we want to go," Capito says."

http://www.weeklystandard.com/...

Capito is not alone in this alarmist rhetoric for Big Coal.

Many West Virginia Democrats, like Governor Manchin, Majority Leader Chafin and the ironically-named Senator Mike Green of Raleigh County, have also done their best to induce a panic because the EPA under Obama has the nerve to take "to more closely review" permits for mountaintop removal.

The fact that West Virginia politicians of both parties seem entirely unable to think outside of the box on energy issues and so easily adopt the talking points of outlets like the Standard, shows just how limited the range of discussion they're accustomed to is.

Whether it's relying on a network of industry hacks, insiders and entrenched power to shape policy or getting information from a neutered local media, these leaders are decades behind the curve on the challenge facing West Virginia.

Although the steps put forward now by Congress and the EPA are modest impediments to the coal industry, the writing is on the wall.

But who had the time to think about wind and solar power over the last eight years when you were busy posing for photos with George W. Bush at Walker Machinery, as Capito did in 2001?

And why would a governor see the move to clean energy as an opportunity for development when he was busy handing out no-bid naming rights of football games to the Friends of Coal, as Manchin did without so much as a thought?

Despite Manchin and Capito's efforts to hide from the issue and pander to a narrow pool of special interests, national attention will continue to focus on Appalachia, protests will continue and tough choices will eventually have to be made.

Eventually, West Virginia politicians are going to have to choose whether to move the state into the 21st century or leave it tied to an industry destined by economic and environmental reality to go the way of the buggy whip.

Perhaps it's time they quit hiding in the bubble with industry insiders and start listening to the citizens they've been trying so hard to avoid.