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- An appeal is being filed by the West Virginia Labor History Association over the removal of Blair Mountain from the National Register of Historic Places.
- The Times Herald-Record, of New York's Hudson River Valley, profiled Mat Louis-Rosenberg of Coal River Mountain Watch.
"Mountaintop removal is the worst manmade catastrophe in the nation's history," he said. "It's also an economic catastrophe for West Virginia. The coal industry, while promising prosperity to the state, has devastated communities across the state."
Blankenship was feeling shy:
Blankenship declined comment on the "Rolling Stone" article and on accusations of violating the Clean Water Act. He also declined comment on accusations that mountaintop mining affects the health of the Appalachian people.
- When Don's feeling more talkative, he often says mountaintop removal is necessary to ward off competition from overseas. He might want to look into these guys at Massey Energy, who just signed a deal with Delhi, India-based Jindal Steel & Power for coal projects in India, Mongolia, Australia and the United States.
-The rightwing Charleston Daily Mail tells us that changes for the black lung benefits program that Senator Byrd put in the Senate health care bill are a "job killer."
How do we know?
"Experts" say, according to the Daily Mail - Experts like Steve Roberts of the West Virginia Chamber of Commerce, who, coincidentally, wanted Byrd to hold the health care bill hostage unless the coal owners' demands were met.
Some fine stenography by the Daily Mail's business editor, George Hohmann.
- And speaking of Daily Mail hacks, just wanted to point out that we're two weeks out and Don Surber has yet to offer even a remotely substantive rebuttal to Ken Ward's post that obliterated the crap Don was inserting into DM editorials.
- Republican Senator James Inhofe has a distinguished career as a total shill for corporate America. Whether its pushing for drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge or comparing the world's scientific community to the Third Reich, he's worked hard to be the go-to guy for polluters... and He's quite proud of it. ...so it was only a matter of time until he came out solidly in favor of the destruction of the Appalachian Mountains.
Appalachian author and Huffington Post blogger Jeff Biggers nails it in a column in today's Charleston Gazette:
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- From Copenhagen to Charleston, the world will be watching Gov. Joe Manchin closely today.
This week at the Copenhagen Climate Summit, Google Earth will take world leaders on a virtual flyover of Coal River Mountain, selected as one of a handful of "global crisis hotspots," accompanied by the narration of coal miner widow and Coal River Mountain resident Lorelei Scarbro.
World leaders will see the two choices for Gov. Manchin:
An inspiring range of hardwood forests in the carbon sink of Appalachia, adorned by wind turbines capable of providing energy for thousands of households, millions of dollars in tax revenues, and hundreds of long-term jobs that could also create a sustainable manufacturing sector, surrounded by historic settlements - or, a devastating 6,600-acre mountaintop removal operation, a limited number of short-term jobs and the life-threatening endangerment of blasting near the weakened Class "C" Brushy Fork coal slurry impoundment.
World leaders will ask: In the exploding market of clean-energy jobs and investment, how could any governor disregard sustainable economic initiatives and allow his own citizens to live in a state of fear of blasting, fly rock, and a potential catastrophe from an impoundment break?
Del. Nancy Guthrie also has a column at the Charleston Gazette that is fairly good for a Kanawha County politician. But when she writes that the issue of MTR pits environmentalists against working men and women she overlooks the fact that many of those opposed to MTR are also working men and women. Her framing the issue the way she has shows how deeply ingrained the Charleston mindset is of coal equals jobs. If coal is so great for the economy, why are so many of the poorest counties in the nation all located where coal is extracted?
It's only a few short days before we need you to stand with us to save Coal River Mountain. Please come and join hundreds of Coal River Valley residents and their allies, including Robert F. Kennedy Jr. from the Waterkeeper Alliance.
Join us on Dec. 7 at 2:00 p.m. at the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) headquarters in Charleston, WV.
We need your help to save Coal River Mountain and protect the people of Coal River Valley, a critical step in ending mountaintop removal coal mining and putting the country on a path to a clean energy future.
Two weeks ago, four courageous activists from Climate Ground Zero locked themselves to a drilling rig on Coal River Mountain to stop the blasting. Now, hundreds of concerned citizens are set to rally at the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) on Monday, December 7th to call for the end to the mountaintop removal coal mining on Coal River Mountain. The site of a proposed wind farm and approximately 200 feet from the largest coal sludge dam in the country, Coal River Mountain is becoming a line in the sand for residents, environmentalists and prominent figures, like Robert Kennedy, Jr., who are demanding an end to the destructive mining practice.
As climate justice movements turn towards the floundering talks in Denmark, people in Appalachia are in the fight of their lives to save Coal River Mountain and end mountaintop removal. On Dec. 7, we'll be rallying and protesting at the WV Dept. of Environmental Protection (DEP) demanding that they stop the blasting on Coal River Mountain.
For almost a year Climate Ground Zero and Mountain Justice have joined coalfield residents in taking direct action to stop mountaintop removal operations in southern West Virginia (with over a 100 arrests) because agencies like the WV DEP refuse to do their jobs.
[...]
When:Monday, December 7, 2009; 2:00pm
Where: WV Dept. of Environmental Protection Headquarters - 601 57th Street SE, Charleston, WV
In 2007 a wind potential study was commissioned to see if there was the potential to place wind turbines on Coal River Mountain. The wind potential study and the following economic study found that it is possible to place 328 MW of wind energy on Coal River Mountain. That's enough to power 70,000 West Virginia Homes and provide permanent jobs and $1.7 million in taxes to the county every year.
The destruction of CRM threatens to wipe out a site holding the promise of an alternative economy for West Virginia and endangers residents of southern West Virginia.
The blasting is taking place 200 feet from the Brushy Fork slurry impoundment. Should the integrity of the dam fail, a 40 foot wall of sludge could race through the valley, potentially ending nearly a thousand lives.
In recent months, we've seen the coal owners step up their disinformation campaign through astroturf rallies and take a page from the town hall disrupters' play book by resorting to threats, intimidation and an all effort to drown out anyone opposing their agenda.
It's time to stand up to these tactics from reactionary interests and demand our elected officials work to secure a safe and viable future for Appalachia.
- and Rick Wilson looks at the resistance of coal owners and W.Va. politicians to climate change legislation and what it may mean when things are over.
Responding to Harmful Government Inaction, Protestors Stop Blasting on Coal River Mountain
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 11/21/09
Contact: Zoe Beavers
Email: news@climategroundzero.org
PETTUS, W. Va. - Early this morning two concerned citizens, Dea Goblirsch and Nick Martin, locked down to a drill rig on Coal River Mountain's Bee Tree mountaintop removal site, effectively stopping blasting. Two others, Grace Williams and Laura Von Dolen, joined them in direct support, holding a banner with the message "Save Coal River Mountain".
These nonviolent protestors have taken this action to bring attention to the extreme danger facing residents of the Coal RiverValley from blasting near the Brushy Fork Impoundment. They plan to stay locked down until law enforcement removes them.
Resident of Rock Creek, W Va., Delbert Gunnoe, stated his concerns with the blasting, "You know when they put a blast over there, and it shakes the windows over here, at what, ¾-a-mile distance, imagine what it does over there." Gunnoe continued, "if [the impoundment] did bust...what would be the destruction? The town of Whitesville would no longer exist."
The four are fearful of the blasting that Massey Energy began in late October. These blasts are 200 feet from the Brushy Fork Impoundment, permitted to hold nine billion gallons of toxic coal slurry. The impoundment sits atop miles of hollow, abounded underground mines, further endangering its integrity. By Massey's own estimates, roughly 998 people will die should the dam break. The emergency evacuation plan states that a 40-foot wall of sludge, cresting at 72 feet, will flow through the valley, reaching 20-feet-high about 15 miles down the road. Apart from the initial flood, the impact of this potential spill would be felt along the Coal River's 88 miles.
"The Brushy Fork Sludge Impoundment keeps residents of the Coal River Valley up at night, waiting for eight billion gallons of toxic coal slurry to come rushing towards them," said Dea Goblirsch, one of the two locked down. "I don't know how Massey executives sleep soundly at night."
Hydrologist, Dr. Rick Eades spoke of concerns about the stability of the dam as blasting occurs. He questioned "blasting where underground mines existed in the Eagle coal seam, the possibilities for adversely affecting near-surface bedrock in a way that could possibly enhance pathways for slurry to be released via the subsurface and bypass the dam."
The concern is that slurry will break into underground mine shafts and blow out through old mine openings on the side of the mountain. This potentiality for Coal River Mountain mirrors the cause of the world's largest slurry spill which occurred in Martin County, Ky. In 2000, 250 million gallons of slurry broke forth from a 2.2-billion-gallon impoundment, killing nearly all life in the Big Sandy River. Its impact reached all the way to the Ohio River, about 100 miles away.
Earlier this week, EPA sent out a letter to Marfork Coal Co., a subsidiary of Massey Energy Co., airing concerns about the absence of a valley fill permit, and requesting an extensive amount of information concerning the mountaintop removal operation on the Bee Tree site.
In note of the this, Nick Martin, currently locked down, said, "The EPA's recent action proves that the communities' concerns about this site are shared at the highest levels of government."
Matt Louis-Rosenberg, a Climate Ground Zero activist, adds, "Coal River Wind attempted to get a meeting with the governor for a year and it took people sitting in his office to get him to sit down and meet with concerned community members, just like it takes our actions up on Coal River Mountain to get the federal government to step in."
The concern showed by the EPA reflects what the residents of the Coal River Valley have known for a long time; the Brushy Fork Impoundment is putting lives in danger, and the blasting on Coal River Mountain only increases that danger. The protestors on the Bee Tree site are putting out a call to action to save Coal River Mountain and protect all those who would be impacted by a catastrophe there. This action fits into a larger fight against mountaintop removal in Appalachia.
On the whole, Gunnoe's sentiment was, "Don't like much about Obama, but he'll have one heck of a supporter if he stops mountaintop mining."
(Thanks to Viscount Coal for constructive questions about the finances of building Coal River Wind. - promoted by Clem Guttata)
West Virginia Blue is an open access blogging community. We welcome a diverse range of viewpoints including those who are skeptical of or, even, in opposition to, the views advocated for on the blog.
By Viscount Coal
First a few apologies in advance. I know numbers can be a bit tedious, and I'm not the best at pretty presentation, but here we go.
Based on the numbers in the report, the capital cost for one turbine is 3.2 Million dollars and it runs for 20 years. Each turbine generates $314,200 dollars per year in revenue, has operations and maintenance costs of $44,000/year, pays the landowner $10,997/year and local property taxes of $10627/year. This yields a basic net cashflow of $248,576/year. This doesn't sound so bad until you realize that without discounting cash flows at all you are looking at a 13 year payback on your initial 3.2 million capital investment. If you use a relatively modest 3% annual discount rate, the payback period moves to basically 17 years, and this assumes you had the $3.2 million per turbine just sitting around. If you actually have to borrow the money, even at the ridiculously low interest rate of 3%, the project becomes a net loser, with a net present value of $2.8 million for every $3.2 million that you spend.
As a site where consistent strong winds have been measured, Coal River Mountain is a symbol of hope for the potential of West Virginia becoming a state with a future as an "Energy State" instead of just an "Excavation State." The coal barons, under permits from the state and the Bush administration and without restraint from the Obama administration, want to destroy that hope.
They've already begun blasting. Soon yet another national treasure will be destroyed and there will be one more gaping sore on God's beautiful Creation where once a proud mountain stood.
So let me get this straight: the same coal industry, West Virginia and federal authorities that looked the other way as an entire creek system was killed wants us to believe it's safe to blow up Coal River Mountain not far from the largest sludge impoundment in Appalachia? Why don't I feel reassured?
Update
From an email:
The Brushy Fork impoundment is an enormous retention pond holding 8.2 billion gallons of toxic coal slurry waste. If the impoundment were to fail due to the blasting, hundreds of lives will be lost and thousands more will be in jeopardy from an enormous slurry flood.
A 2006 study confirmed that Coal River Mountain -- which has the highest peaks ever slated for mining in the state -- is an ideal location for developing utility-scale wind power. Local residents have rallied around this proposal as a symbol of hope, a promise of a new and cleaner energy future, but that hope may be destroyed unless quick and decisive action is taken right now.
Please call President Obama today at 202-456-1414 and implore him to use his agencies and influence with West Virginia politicians to stop the destruction of Coal River Mountain immediately.
Visit our Coal River Mountain action page for more details and talking points. We will also post status updates as we receive them.
Wow, Gov. Manchin comes across looking even worse than I expected in this video. Major kudos to the activists who handled themselves so well in this exchange.
"We want to do everything. We're committed to attracting wind farms and attracting solar farms. We're looking at all of that."
Gov. Manchin, let me humbly suggest that reading up just a wee little bit on the Coal River Mountain project might just help "trying (to) find a balance."
It's quite worrisome that Gov. Manchin views West Virginia as an "extractive state." If he widened his view just a little, at least thinking of W.Va. as an energy producing state--that would open up avenues.
Otherwise, you might want to read up on the resource curse some more, Gov. Manchin. If you are going to define our economy on the basis of extraction, there's a lot of negative consequences.
And, really, there's nothing wrong with being the Mountain State. There's a lot of great things you can do with Mountains. You can generate wind power, distributed small scale hydro, create beautiful tourism opportunities (including white-water rafting), and provide a wild, wonderful place to live.
Update: See below the fold for a statement from Climate Ground Zero on today's action.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- More than 40 members of the House of Delegates have signed a resolution supporting the development of a wind farm on Coal River Mountain in Southern West Virginia.
Members of the group Coal River Mountain Watch hit the Capitol Thursday to lobby for the resolution, which was introduced this week by Raleigh County Democrat Sally Susman.
Advocates for developing a utility-scale wind farm say it would produce more jobs and tax revenue than Massey Energy's planned mountaintop removal mining operation. If strip mining continues to expand in the area, they say, local communities won't be able to benefit economically from wind energy potential.
On Thursday, the group held a news conference with several delegates to promote the resolution.
"We are for West Virginia energy, no matter what it is," Susman said. "It is an energy state, and we just have to keep it open for everybody."
The project could make West Virginia a national leader in renewable energy, supporters say.
Another sponsor, Mike Manypenny, D-Taylor, said the state could have commercialized wind energy "a long time ago."
"It's time that we diversify West Virginia's resources," he said. "Coal's been king. Well, it's time that wind sits on the throne next to coal."
BECKLEY, W.Va. -- A Raleigh County judge today extended for two weeks his order demanding that environmental activists stop their peaceful protests at Massey Energy mountaintop removal sites in the Coal River Valley.
Judge John A. Hutchison also indicated he believes the court order applies to any "associates" of the activists specifically named in court actions filed by Massey lawyers.
One protester, Rory McIlmoil, questioned the broad nature of Hutchison's order, saying that people "associated" with the activists "could be thousands of people."
"Then it enjoins thousands of people," Hutchison shot back. "Everyone is enjoined from interfering with the processes at these facilities."
Coal is king and apparently judges in the state know who wears the crown. How the hell is it Constitutional to include people "associated" with the protestors? Who gets to judge whether someone is an associate of the protestors and what of the freedom of association implicit in the First Amendment?
As the US Supreme Court continues to hear the Brent Benjamin-Don Blankenship case on the compromise of judicial neutrality from special interest lobbies--read: Massey Energy's Big Coal grip on West Virginia courts--five more arrests took place today in a growing campaign to stop mountaintop removal in the Coal River Valley.
If the local and nationwide momentum building from last month is any indication of a promised spring and summer campaign of civil disobedience, Coal River Mountain is destined for an extraordinary Appalachian Spring.
snip
Calling attention to the mine blasting taking place near the Shumate Dam, a mountain valley Class-C dam which holds 2.8 billion gallons of coal sludge that sits a few football fields above the Marsh Fork Elementary School, five activists unfurled a banner to "Stop Blasting, Save the Kids," and were cited for trespassing and peacefully escorted by the state police to jail at Pettus, West Virginia. They were released.
The 385-foot earthen wall of the dam, built in the 1980s, is within view of both the school below, and the nearby blasting site. The dam was built a half century after the establishment of the elementary school, where a 2005 survey found that over 80 percent of the children suffered from respiratory problems.
Only a week after the anniversary of the 1972 Buffalo Creek Dam disaster, when an impoundment burst and killed 125 people, injured 1,000 and left 4,000 homeless, the protesters called on the state of West Virginia, the EPA, and MSHA, which has recorded violations at the Shumate Dam in the past, to stop the blasting and mountaintop removal mining, given the issue of the dam's safety.
You mean Blankenship won't do something for the sake of the kids? Was his For the Sake of the Kids campaign just a calculated, political ploy?
Contacts:
Oliver Bernstein, Sierra Club, 512-477-2152
Matt Noerpel, Coal River Mountain Watch, 304-854-2182
Coal River Mountain Watch, Sierra Club Intercede to Save Coal River Mountain
Groups Challenge Mining Permit that would Cut Wind Energy Potential, Threaten Community
Charleston, West Virginia - In order to protect Coal River Mountain in Beckley, West Virginia from looming destruction by mountaintop removal coal mining, the Sierra Club and Coal River Mountain Watch today filed an administrative notice of appeal with the West Virginia Surface Mine Board. The proposed expansion of the Bee Tree Surface Mine site on the mountain threatens the prime location for wind energy generation and an integral part of the surrounding Appalachian community. The Marfork Coal Company (a Massey Energy subsidiary) seeks to destroy the mountain to extract more coal
"The state of West Virginia has one more chance to show that it values a clean energy future and high paying, long-term green jobs more than short term profits for coal executives and the destruction of our mountains," said Lorelei Scarbro with Coal River Mountain Watch.
Today's action challenges the approval by the Director of the West Virginia Division of Surface Mining of the Department of Environmental Protection to revise the surface mining permit held by Marfork. Under the permit in question, the Massey Energy subsidiary would move some of its mining waste off site to avoid the immediate need for a full Clean Water Act section 404 permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Sierra Club and Coal River Mountain Watch argue that Marfork did not properly revise its mining and reclamation plan and that the Surface Mining Board should overturn the decision to approve the permit.
A recent study by Downstream Strategies, LLC of Morgantown, West Virginia showed that wind development is a better economic land use option for Coal River Mountain and other sites than mountaintop removal coal mining. A proposed wind farm at the site, consisting of 164 wind turbines and generating 328 megawatts (MW) of electricity, would provide more than $1.74 million in annual property taxes to Raleigh County. The coal severance taxes for the proposed mining would only provide $36,000 per year.
"It is imperative that Coal River Mountain be preserved for the future economic prosperity of this area," said Bill Price, Sierra Club Environmental Justice organizer in Charleston. "If the mountain is preserved, and the Coal River Mountain Wind project is allowed to develop, then we are looking at good, union-organized jobs in an area that sorely needs an economic future beyond coal."
Across Appalachia, mining companies blow the tops off mountains to reach a thin seam of coal and then, to minimize waste disposal costs, dump millions of tons of mining waste into the valleys below, causing permanent damage to the ecosystem and landscape. Mountaintop removal mining has damaged or destroyed approximately 1,200 miles of streams, destroyed forests, disrupted drinking water supplies, flooded communities, and destroyed wildlife habitat.
The Sierra Club and Coal River Mountain Watch are represented in the challenge by Joe Lovett at the Appalachian Center for the Economy and the Environment and Peter Morgan at the Sierra Club.
###
Dirty coal or sustainable wind? The choice couldn't be clearer in West
Virginia -- but blasting for mountaintop removal at the same site planned
for a wind farm could begin any day now, so we need to take action right
away.
I just sent a message to West Virginia Governor Manchin, asking him to
stop the mountaintop removal planned for Coal River Mountain and instead
support the proposed wind farm there. Can you join me at the link below?
Keep up the pressure on Gov. Manchin. It's important he knows how much support there is for renewable energy projects. This is just one of many battles ahead.
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