West Virginia Blue
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- As expected, following his coming out ceremony, longtime closet Republican and Blankenship vacation buddy Spike Maynard has announced he will run against Rep. Nick Rahall.
"I didn't leave the Democratic Party - the Democratic Party left me," Maynard said.
Well, if by "left me" he means they were turned off by scandal to the point that a sitting chief justice suffered a landslide defeat in a primary and practically tied for last on the ballot, then, yeah, I guess the Democratic Party did leave him.
But what's a little corruption to West Virginia Republicans, who used the occasion to announce a bold new era of ethical bankruptcy for their party?
"I think he's been in the wrong party all of his life," Chairman Doug McKinney said. "We would welcome someone of his character and integrity in the Republican Party."
The usual media suspects sprang into action, touting Maynard's chances in objective, thoughtful "analysis" pieces that praised Brent Benjamin's campaign and railed against something called the "Democrat Party."
PETTUS, WVa - After blocking Massey Energy's operations on the Bee Tree Permit for nine days, Amber Nitchman, 19, and Eric Blevins, 28 descended from their respective trees. They had occupied the two oak trees-originally accompanied by a third tree sitter, David Aaron Smith, 23-to protest mountaintop removal and the blasting of Coal River Mountain. Upon descent, they were immediately arrested by West Virginia State Troopers. The sitters' decision to leave the trees was made in light of the recent drop in temperature.
After a week of Massey security harassing the sitters with deafening sirens and air horns, a call-in pressure campaign was launched by Climate Ground Zero, Mountain Justice and other anti-mountaintop removal groups. The receipt of hundreds of calls from around the country led to an emergency meeting with Climate Ground Zero volunteers, the Raleigh County prosecutor and Governor Manchin. The meeting resulted in the moratorium and a call for an investigation of the abuse. The tree sit represents Climate Ground Zero's most sustained intervention in mountaintop removal mining operations since its campaign of nonviolent direct action began last February. Volunteers know that the fight is far from over and expect work to commence on the Bee Tree site immediately. However, they see this tree sit as a victory. "It halted blasting for nine days. I think they've wildly succeeded with their goals," said Climate Ground Zero volunteer Mike Bowersox. In a final communication from her perch, Nitchman captured the group's resolve. "Its not over until the blasting is stopped," she said.
"Coal River Mountain was the last mountain around here that hasn't been touched and they could've been using it for windmills... But Massey wants to get that coal. It seems like they just don't care about the populace. Just the land and their checkbook."
- Richard Bradford
MARFORK, W.Va. - Protesters associated with Climate Ground Zero and Mountain Justice halted blasting on Coal River Mountain today with a three-person tree-sit. David Aaron Smith, 23, Amber Nitchman, 19 and Eric Blevins, 28 are on platforms approximately 60 feet up two tulip poplar trees and one oak tree. They are located next to where Massey Energy is blasting to build an access road to the Brushy Fork Impoundment on its Bee Tree Strip Mine. Their banners state: "Save Coal River Mtn.," "EPA Stop the Blasting" and "Windmills Not Toxic Spills."
"Massey Energy is a criminal corporation with over 4,500 documented violations of the Clean Water Act, yet the government has given them permission to blast next to a dam full of toxic coal waste that will kill 998 people if it fails." said Blevins. This action comes at the heels of a rigorously peer-reviewed study published in Science Magazine which states "Mining permits are being issued despite the preponderance of scientific evidence that impacts are pervasive and irreversible and that mitigation cannot compensate for the losses."
The sitters are calling for the EPA to put an end to mountaintop removal and encourage the land-holding companies to develop clean energy production. The lack of EPA enforcement in mountaintop removal encouraged Josh Graupera, 19, member of the support team, to take part in this action "I knew that until I took an active role in the struggle to end MTR, I was passively condoning the poisoning and displacement of countless communities and in the obliteration of one of the oldest and most diverse ecosystems on this continent." Graupera said. Nitchman added, "I act out of personal concern for the safety of water from toxic sludge, air from smog, and mountains from annihilation."
The Brushy Fork Impoundment is permitted to contain over nine billion gallons of the toxic coal waste, and currently contains 8.2 billion gallons. Brushy Fork's foundation is built on a honeycomb of abandoned underground mines. If the foundation were to collapse the slurry would blow out from all sides of the mountain. According to Marfork Coal Co.'s emergency warning plan regarding the impoundment, in case of a frontal dam breach, a 40 ft wall of sludge, 72 ft at its peak height, would engulf communities as far as 14 miles away.
"Brushy Fork sludge dam places the downstream communities in imminent danger. The threat of being inundated by a wall of toxic sludge is always present. Blasting next to this dam increases the risk as well as destroying the opportunity for renewable wind energy," said Coal River Mountain Watch's Vernon Haltom. According to the Coal River Wind Project, the wind energy produced by a turbine farm on Coal River Mountain could power 70,000 homes, provide more permanent jobs for local residents and annually bring over a million more dollars in tax breaks revenue to Raleigh County than coal currently does.
The sitters plan to remain in the trees as long as it takes to stop blasting on Coal River Mountain. Climate Ground Zero's action campaign, begun in February of last year, has kept up a sustained series of direct actions since that time continuing decades-long resistance to strip mining in Appalachia.
It's a new year, the holidays are over and the coal barons and their allies have launched a new offensive of misinformation.
Citizen activists and environmentalists achieved true momentum in 2009, and the coal companies see a threat to their goal of continuing to treat West Virginia like a third world country.
As part of their effort to regain ground in 2010, Massey Energy has started running a series of new attack ads on TV that flash Al Gore's image at you and demonize environmentalists as "tree-hugging extremists," though Kevin Grandia at Huffington Post made short work of their misleading claims that Massey is "fighting hard for Appalachian jobs:"
It is a strange world indeed when standing up for "what's right" means cutting employee wages, stuffing the CEO's coffers with more cash and dumping toxic pollution into freshwater streams.
Meanwhile, Massey CEO Don Blankenship has decided to quit whining on Twitter about how the Gazette won't turn its opinion page over to him and sent in a response to a critical letter by Tom Burger. He's probably a bit peeved about having to follow a set of rules this time, though.
Groups Put Massey on Notice for Over 12,000 Clean Water Violations Company Has Pattern of Illegal Pollution
January 11, 2010
Charleston, WV: A coalition of groups, including the Sierra Club, Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition, Coal River Mountain Watch, and the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy took action today to hold coal giant Massey Energy accountable for over 12,000 violations of the Clean Water Act and surface mining laws associated with their mining operations in West Virginia. Massey continues to illegally dump pollution into Appalachian waterways despite a massive $20 million fine already placed on the company for thousands of previous violations.
"Massey has operated outside the law for far too long. There is a history here, not only of Massey ignoring the law, but of state officials ignoring Massey's violations," said Judy Bonds of Coal River Mountain Watch. "Massey needs to be held accountable for these very real crimes against the people of Appalachia."
Massey has a long history of environmental and social irresponsibility-including one of the largest slurry spills ever to take place in the United States and a $1.5 million fine from the Mine Safety and Health Administration. In 2008 the company was fined $20 million for Clean Water Act violations, similar to those cited by the coalition, after the federal government documented over 4,600 cases of pollution being illegally dumped into local waters by Massey and its subsidiaries. Incredibly, Massey's violations have increased in frequency since its settlement with the federal government.
"Massey seems to think that poisoning water by consistently ignoring laws is an acceptable business practice. The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection seems to agree, as they continue to allow these violations. We are forced to do the agencies job, to hold Massey accountable," said Diane Bady of the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition.
"Massey has both a legal and moral obligation to protect streams and drinking water supplies in the communities where it operates," said Jim Sconyers of the Sierra Club's West Virginia Chapter. "Their permits are not just pieces of paper - they are solemn commitments to protect the waters and people of West Virginia. Unfortunately the company has shown time and again that it is unwilling to take its obligations seriously."
Massey and its subsidiaries operate dozens of mountaintop removal and other large-scale surface mines in Appalachia, using some of the most environmentally devastating types of mining, flattening the landscape and burying miles of streams. Close to 2,000 miles of streams have already been lost and new proposed mountaintop removal permits could destroy more than 60,000 acres of the remaining forest.
- Speaking at Massey's Christmas extravaganza Saturday, Don Blankenship got into the holiday spirit by referring to Senator Byrd as "naive" and said EPA stand for 'Equal Poverty for All."
-Steve Roberts of the West Virginia Chamber of Commerce can't understand why our senators think it's "beyond foolish" to hold health care reform hostage for the coal barons.
- Frances Beinecke, president of the Natural Resources Defense Council, gives an excellent rebuttal to Don Blankenship's latest load of B.S.
While it baffles me that flat-Earthers like Blankenship still exist, my response to the last few deniers is simple.
If you don't believe in the science, that's your problem. But the need for America to generate jobs and strengthen our national security is paramount, and clean energy is the fastest way to achieve that.
- According to the latest from Climate Ground Zero, Nick Martin is out of jail.
Dea, Grace, and Laura are still in jail with bail set at $2000 cash only each. We need help raising money to pay their bail, any donations are appreciated!
The three remaining citizens who halted blasting on Coal River Mountain Saturday were released from jail early today. Laura Von Dohlen, Grace Williams, and Dea Goblirsch were released with a $2,000 bail and charges of trespassing, littering and conspiracy. Nick Martin was released Saturday night. This, the 18th action by Climate Ground Zero volunteers, held ground longer than any beside the treesit, in August . An entire day of blasting on Coal River Mountain was stopped by the actions of the four.
Maybe he does have a crew of elected politicians in W.Va. willing to help him stir up a panic over a non-existent crisis regarding MTR permits.
And maybe he does have 95% of the the print and broadcast media who will quote him without any effort of independent fact-checking - such as when he made the seemingly pulled-from-his-behind claim that "more than 75,000" attended Don-a-pollute-za.
But there's still that darn Charleston Gazette, where they insist on pesky things, such as actual journalists like Ken Ward.
And some basic rules for their opinion page.
Oh sure, they may print the guest columns of his underlings - homophobic slurs, factual errors and all. But that's not enough.
They won't change the rules of the paper and make an exception for Don when he gets criticized.
On his always unintentionally-hilarious Twitter feed, he's in a full-blown fit this week:
# Charleston Gazette trying to censor me on Global Warming views.12:12 PM Nov 3rd from web
# Gazette editor Jim Haught advised today that I will only be allowed 1 letter every 30 days12:17 PM Nov 3rd from web
# Haught will not allow me to respond to numerous letters attacking me.12:25 PM Nov 3rd from web
In The Coalfield Don's world, the fact that he's asked to follow any rules - whether it's regarding newspaper policy or environmental standards - makes him a perpetual victim.
You may remember how, when Don Blankenship tried to buy the West Virginia Legislature for the GOP in 2006, one of the issues he used his phony children's advocacy group, "For the Sake of the Kids" to advance was a concern over so-called "frivolous lawsuits"
(Translation: Your right to seek protection from companies like Massey through the courts needs to go.)
The cause has long been a favorite of Blankenship's. I wouldn't be too surprised to learn that a speaker or two at Don-a-Pollute-za brought it up among the hodge-podge of conservative issues raised at that gathering.
It also should be of no surprise that Blankenship and Massey have decided to file a civil suit against Climate Ground Zero activists Laura Steepleton and Nick Stocks (and two others) for the Edwight tree-sit a few weeks ago.
An excerpt of my interview with Steepleton (the rest of which is coming soon)
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L.S. - Massey has slapped a civil suit on the four of us - the basis of that being that we stopped business and endangered security, and also for the expense of hiring additional security.
Q- And Massey has also filed a similar suit for those who took part in the dragline protest earlier this year?
L.S. - Yes, and those people - I haven't received a letter yet, but I'm sure there will probably be a follow up - have been put on an injunction to not be allowed on their property.
It's interesting that Blankenship told Hoppy Kercheval of Metro News that the tree-sits weren't interfering with his operations (at about 1:12 in this clip).
Climate Ground Zero co-founder Mike Roselle discussed the suit involving the dragline activists with me.
M.R. - Massey has filed a civil action against us in Boone County. We have another against us here in Raleigh County. [...] They're asking for damages for the 4 hours that the dragline was out of commission.
They filed it shortly after [June] 19th, when the action happened. So I think, within a week, we got a temporary restraining order and that was replaced by a permanent injunction. And here in Raleigh County we have another injunction.
Q - Is this a new legal tactic for a company in response to direct action? Or has this occurred before with tree-sits and direct action in the Pacific Northwest?
M.R. - No. We haven't had too many injunctions in logging protests. Generally, we're dealing with different timber companies in the same region, so we're not always hitting the same logging company every time.
We have been sued for damages before. In terms of being enjoined for trespassing, there have been a couple cases of that, but it's not something we normally have to deal with.
Obama promised a "wealth-based green industry", but didn't go into much detail, as far as I could tell. And unfortunately, his "green jobs czar" was run off before he could really get the ball rolling. So its up to us.
I'm old enough to remember when West Virginia used to be a real manufacturing mecca. Think about it. From tools to weapons, from silicon chips to silicone coatings, we've been a source for aluminum, steel, plastics, Teflon, glass, and even Glyclean, used in the processing of high purity electronics & semiconductor processing.
I have a pretty good idea why we DON'T manufacture high grade alternatives like solar panels and wind turbines in WV. Its because of the hyper-toxicity of coal-driven politics. Big Coal simply wants to drive everyone out and turn WV into a giant moon scape. We may as well face it. As long as surface mines are allowed to proliferate and there aren't any Clean Election Laws implemented, Big Coal will be all but encouraged by our politicians to continue that course of action.
Clean election laws aside, EPA's enforcement of Clean Water Act laws and OSM strict oversight of SMCRA regs can potentially jam a crowbar into the spokes of surface mine operators.
So to turn things around we need to embrace the fact that manufacturing takes energy, and right now, WV's fossil fuels are the only source of that energy. Since Clem points out that coal production per man hour is on the wane in WV, perhaps dangling the prospect of jacking up local energy needs by luring manufacturers to come to WV is part of the political solution. And all the while, demand that deep mining and strict environmental laws are being enforced.
Guaranteeing more deep mine operations while ramping up local energy consumption so WV can manufacture alternative energy sources can be a winning argument. I just wonder if our state leaders could be persuaded to promote the discounting of energy for the purpose of manufacturing anything "green". Seems to me that discounting energy was one major method he tried to keep those Ravenswood aluminum workers from getting laid off. He certainly tried getting discounted energy when it came to trying to save Blenko from shutting down.
Another wealth-based green industry is cleaning up the over 400 toxic slurry injection sites, the abandoned coal mines, and the countless sludge impoundments strewn across WV. While the WV Brownfields Redevelopment program is doing remediation in northern WV primarly using state funds, it just so happens that Don Blankenship was recently required to spend $10 million of Massey cash for remediation.
As part of the deal, Massey agreed to perform 20 water quality improvement projects along 25 miles of the Little Coal River, and to set aside 200 acres of riverfront property as protected from development. source
Now that's what I call generating shovel-ready 'wealth-based green jobs', because implementation didn't shift the responsibility onto the taxpayer.
Although there is a huge potential for a local green version of FDR's "New Deal" to be found in the remediation of hundreds of thousands of Clean Water Act permit violations, the plain truth is that there isn't the political climate for enforcement. First of all, even though there can't be any greener jobs than those engaged in remediation, neither Joe Manchin nor Randy Huffman are ever going to call them "green". Because that would then call attention to the fact that it's the EPA which has had to step in before scofflaw companies get busted.
Between January 2000 and March 2006, self-reported violations, included in reports Massey filed with regulators, amounted to 60,500 days of violations, or about 28 violations per day, according to court records.
That $20 million went into FED coffers and not WV because in all those violations over all that time, our DEP never busted them. And although $10 million is being spent towards remediation, it should have been a lot more.
It is notable that it was Bush's EPA that struck the deal.
One coal industry analyst previously cited by The Associated Press estimated Massey's potential fines at more than $2.4 billion.
So the thing that really ticks me off about the whole deal is that while the fine seemed large, it was the equivalent of only ten days worth of profit-taking by Massey.
Randy Huffman is even now stalling green jobs from being implemented by blocking the OSM from enforcing SMCRA requirements for restoring blasted-away mountains to their approximate original contour ("AOC").
This could really be a key issue towards changing the political attitude in WV regarding "green jobs". As surface mines are shut down, restoring to AOC has the potential to keep many of those dozer and other heavy equipment operators working. And again, it has the potential of being done on the scofflaw coal operator's dime, not ours.
81 Year Old Military Veteran Announces 25 Mile Senior Citizen's March to End Mountaintop Removal
CHARLESTON, W.Va. - Roland Micklem is an 81-year-old military veteran from Richmond, VA. State police arrested Micklem and three others for blockading Massey Energy's regional headquarters in an act of non-violent civil disobedience on the morning of Wednesday September 9.
In his statement, Micklem announced his intent to lead a five day, 25 mile march for senior citizens, ages 55 and older, in a protest against mountaintop removal (MTR). Micklem and other participants will depart on the morning of Thursday October 8 from the state capital in Charleston, W.Va.. The march will conclude at the gates of the Massey-owned Mammoth MTR site in Kanawha County on Monday October 12, where those who choose to will engage in an act of non-violent civil disobedience against mountaintop removal.
In Micklem's open letter, he states, "No substantial gain in our efforts to continually evolve into a more humane and caring society has been made without the willingness of individuals-with non violence as both a creed and a strategy--to step outside the framework of law and tradition in order to correct wrongs when conventional measures had failed. The abolition of slavery, the enactment of civil rights legislation, the right of women to vote, the termination of the Vietnam war could not have come about without the help of the same kind of non violent, direct, and sometime unlawful action that we are using here to stop mountaintop removal. And as a Christian as well as one who basically respects the laws of the land, I see the growth and maturing of my Faith to be in direct proportion to my readiness to stand for truth, and to embrace causes that will contribute to our moral and spiritual uplift as the dominant species on the planet."
Micklem's march is a collaborative project between Climate Ground Zero, Mountain Justice, Intergenerational Justice, and Christians for the Mountains, and is part of an ongoing campaign of non-violent civil disobedience against mountaintop removal. Micklem and march co-organizer, Andrew Munn, age 23, are planning evening activites and speaking events to conclude each day's walk and educated the public about MTR and related issues.
[...]
According to Micklem, five people, including clergy men and women, are committed to the full march, and at least ten others will join for stretches. He expects more will join as word spreads.
Massey subsidiary Mammoth coal operates a mountaintop removal site and coal processing plant next to Route 60 east of Charleston. In 2004, Massey bought out Cannelton Coal, which formerly operated that site, cut the United Mine Workers contract, and reopened it as the non-union Mammoth Coal Company despite a union organized picket and lawsuits.
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