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Mercer County WV has not been a choice of Big Coal for Mountaintop Removal. Well guess what? A permit has been applied for and I believe granted for MTR in Mercer. There will be a meeting for all who are concerned about MTR in Mercer County, WV tomorrow night at the Matoaka Town Hall... thats Tuesday 11/17 at 6pm for anyone who wants to learn more. A lot of folks here in Mercer County are very pro-coal and seem to think that MTR does little or no harm to our environment. Check out this editorial in last Friday's Bluefield Daily Telegraph titled Our very lifeblood is under attack in southern West Virginia by Samantha Perry. Reading it you would think that our government in Washington has declared war on southern West Virginia and our way of life. It appears that the editorial staff of the paper is taking their position right from Don Blankenship's office at Massey Energy. But now, once again, many feel we’re under attack. This time it’s not against our so-called “hillbilly” way of life, but our very lifeblood — coal.
There are few who were born and raised in this region who don’t have a connection to coal.
Regarding Mountaintop Removal the editiorial had this to say... While many may not like the practice of mountaintop mining, the reality is that the coal retrieved by this practice also provides much-needed fuel for our nation and reclaimed land for other uses. We’re not in Kansas, where flat land greets the eye wherever one scopes out a view. We’re in “Little Switzerland,” also known as the Mountain State, a place where mountaintop mine sites have provided roadbeds for interstate highways.
and this too... If that’s not enough, we also have the Environmental Protection Agency’s review of 79 mountaintop mining permits across the Appalachian states — permits that were issued, but are now stalled because of the new administration’s penchant for “wait-a-minute” politics.
Now that MTR is coming to the Bluefield paper's back yard it will be very interesting to see how they reconcile their editorial position. The war is not on coal it is on Mountaintop Removal!
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