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This is the second installment in a series of interviews planned on the topic of mountaintop removal.
Former Congressman and West Virginia Secretary of State Ken Hechler, in addition to being a legendary figure in West Virginia public service, has been one of the most prominent voices in the region opposing mountaintop removal coal mining.
He has long been active on issues surrounding coal mining, first calling for an end to strip mining while serving in the U.S. House of Representatives in the 1970s, and stands by his position that an abolition to the practice is the solution the problem.
Hechler is set to speak, along with environmental activist Larry Gibson and others, at the Rally for Jobs for Our Kids on Sunday on Buskirk Field at Marshall University.
The event, followed by a march to U.S. Army Corps of Engineers building, runs from 1 p.m. to 4p.m. The rally is part of the Appalachia Powershift Summit taking place at Marshall University throughout the weekend.
Q: What do you hope to achieve from your appearance at this rally?
K.H.: I've been asked to speak and articulate the arguments against mountaintop removal and to try to goad the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers into being more public-spirit oriented.
It's a demonstration that the young people who have organized this want, to show that they want to be involved. This may well be the only that this thing can be turned around by - the massive support of younger people throughout the nation.
I was very closely involved with Martin Luther King and the civil rights movement. The freedom riders and the young people who helped to spark the civil rights rebellion were really the ones who helped to achieve the success which Dr. King could not have achieved without their initiative.
I have a very special message for the corps of engineers.
You heard about the hearing that they had on the 13th of October and the fact that anyone who tried to speak up was drowned out by profanity and physically threatened.
The corps simply refused to control the meeting and even had the gall to say the next day that everything went as planned.
Q: They claimed it was conducted in an 'orderly fashion."
K.H.: That was the most disorderly meeting that I've ever heard about.
I did not personally attend, but from the testimony of those people who tried to speak, they were shouted down and physically threatened.
Q: There were many reports that the pro-coal side was blocking people from entering the meeting.
K.H.: Even the ones that got in - the reporter could not hear what was being said. Yet the corps didn't seem to think that was important.
Q: If you could summarize - what is the biggest factor in your opposition to mountaintop removal?
K.H.: The biggest factor is the effect on people in the valleys.
The ancestors of the residents in the valleys came into these areas and built homes to raise their families in a quiet and healthy area, when, suddenly, above them, starts the blasting, which ruins their water supply.
Kids that have asthma or bronchial problems can't survive with all the dust and the smoke. As a result, the parents have to sell their homes at a ridiculously low price and move out, in order to raise their families in a healthy area.
Q: The region has recently seen a stepping up of civil disobedience protests. What is your take on this tactic of opposition?
K.H.: I think it's been very, very difficult, throughout the usual channels, to alert the people and the regulators of the danger to those individuals that live in the areas. It almost seems as though you have to step up your efforts.
I wrote an article in the Charleston Gazette recently that was entitled "I used to be an activist, but now I'm a hellraiser." As a result of that, I'm joining with those who are practicing civil disobedience - within the limits of the law.
On June 23, Hechler was arrested along with actress Daryl Hannah, NASA climate scientist James Hansen and 26 others, while protesting a slurry impoundment at Massey Energy's Goals Coal preparation plant near Marsh Fork Elementary in Raleigh County.
Hechler was charged with impeding traffic and obstructing an officer. The charges were later dismissed.
K.H.: In my case, I'm 95 years old and do not walk very fast. It was a quarter of a mile march from the school to the Massey headquarters, and they told me if everybody walked at the same speed, we'd never get there.
So they said, "You stay here, and we'll drive you up there after the others get there."
I had a videotape that showed that I was not impeding traffic and, that way, the prosecutor urged the magistrate to dismiss the charge.
The second charge against me was obstructing an officer. The videotape shows I was arrested very amicably and simply pointed to the front seat of a police cruiser. I didn't, in any way, obstruct anybody.
Q: Do you think West Virginia needs to prepare for a post-coal future, and do you have any faith in so-called "clean coal" technologies, as some are advocating?
K.H.: I think "clean coal" is an oxymoron. There is no such thing, and the technology has never been proven that you can pump carbon dioxide underground or get rid of it somehow.
I think the scientists have pretty well proven that greenhouse gases are directly contributing to global warming. It's pretty easy to tell from the melting icebergs in the Arctic and Antarctic that something is happening.
I think, in West Virginia, we've got to take steps to diversify our employment and start to look at means of broadening employment, in such areas as health care and the application of technology, which has burgeoned so successfully over the years.
The problem with persuading economic development officials to try to emphasize progress toward those steps is that they are receiving funds from severance taxes.
It's pretty easy to say we want to continue to get this money from the severance taxes, instead of putting more effort into diversification.
The assessors and the school people that get a lot funds from the coal industry want to continue that.
It's easy to understand why miners who have high-paying jobs in mountaintop removal want to continue to draw pay from that source, instead of trying to look for other jobs.
But there's been no effort on the part of either the state or the counties to move away from dependence on coal.
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K.H.: I've been asked to speak and articulate the arguments against mountaintop removal and to try to goad the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers into being more public-spirit oriented.
