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(Reposted in case you missed it the first time. - promoted by Clem Guttata)
By Clem Guttata
Coal CEOs get political representation, what about the rest of us?
Logan County Commission President Art Kirkendoll requested a meeting and he got it. Michael Browning reported (emphasis mine):
Kirkendoll has asked Gov. Joe Manchin for a meeting with him, commission presidents from Lincoln, Boone, Mingo and Kanawha counties, the EPA, the Division of Environmental Protection, Congressman Nick Rahall, Congresswoman Shelley Moore Capito, representatives from U.S. senators Robert C. Byrd and Jay Rockefeller's offices and officials from the coal industry.
Today at 3 p.m., the group will meet privately in the governor's office to discuss coal's future and the economic impact it has on the state and nation.
"This meeting was way overdue to have all the major coal producers' officials together with the EPA and the DEP, the congressional people and the commission presidents from the five major coal-producing counties that spend the money and try to create activities on coal tax," Kirkendoll said. "Everybody that has a stake in what we do will be there. Instead of each of us writing letters, I wanted to get us all together - the people who are investing their money, who are spending the money, the people who are making laws and making the rules - so that we can ask how do we a qualify permits that are solid and work. I sent the governor a letter and he thought it was a great idea so he put the meeting together."
Kirkendoll doesn't think anyone downstream has a stake in coal mining. He doesn't think it matters that we drink the same water, breath the same air, or--point of fact--actually pay for the electricity that makes that coal valuable.
...the list of expected attendees includes Massey Energy President Don Blankenship, CONSOL Energy CEO Brett Harvey and International Coal Group President Ben Hatfield. Two members of Congress will be there, as will county commissioners from the state's major coal producing counties, and top officials from a dozen or more other coal companies. It's a big deal to get all those folks in the same room, and it seems like the public ought to know what is said.
With enough twists to fill a pretzel factor, Gov. Manchin and his communications director, Matt Turner, said there was no need to invite potential critics of coal mining practices because:
"the meeting is not about environmental regulations." (AP - via)
"This is not about the environment. This is about the economic plight the (coalfield local government officials) are being put in." (source)
The meeting happened this afternoon outside the Governor's Mansion in a party tent literally bought and paid for by coal industry donors, (I kid you not... you couldn't make this stuff up) and was followed by a press conference.
Nov. 10, 2009 - CHARLESTON, W.Va. - Gov. Joe Manchin, joined by West Virginia elected officials: U.S. Sen. Jay Rockefeller, Congressman Nick Joe Rahall, Congresswoman Shelley Moore Capito, Senate President Earl Ray Tomblin, House Speaker Rick Thompson and various other state leaders, county commissioners, representatives from the coal industry and labor met to discuss the future of coal in West Virginia during a press conference. Photos by: Steven W. Rotsch
West Virginia political leaders promised Tuesday to speak "with one voice" to clarify the Obama administration's proposals to more strictly regulate mountaintop removal coal mining.
Gov. Joe Manchin, Sen. Jay Rockefeller, and Reps. Nick J. Rahall and Shelley Moore Capito said they would join forces to seek a high-level White House meeting to raise coal industry concerns about tougher permit reviews instituted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
"It's about the economy of West Virginia," Manchin said at a news conference after a two-hour, closed-door meeting with industry leaders. "We're just trying to find that balance right now."
I'd like someone to ask Gov. Manchin what it is that he's trying to "balance"? As far as I can tell, "balance" is his code word for stopping any tighter environmental regulation enforcement.
Coal company CEOs have been guaranteed a voice in Washington. The Gov. of West Virginia, Sen. Rockefeller, Rep. Rahall and Rep. Capito stood at a podium this afternoon and promised to speak "with one voice" in Washington, DC on their behalf.
The citizens of West Virginia did not elect these officials to represent coal company executives, they serve to represent us all.
What is good for Don Blankenship is not what is good for all of West Virginia. What is good for CONSOL Energy CEO Brett Harvey is not what is good for all of West Virginia (just ask the residents of the Dunkard Creek watershed). What is good for International Coal Group President Ben Hatfield is not what is good for all of West Virginia.
We need political leaders who will lead for all West Virginians, not political followers catering to the needs of coal company CEOs. We need political leaders who will ask not what they can do for coal, but what they can do for West Virginia. We need political leaders who can honor both our heritage and our future.
While West Virginia coal-fed politicians haven't wanted coal operators held accountable for poisoning West Virginia, the law says otherwise.
Ken Ward Jr.:
In federal court down in Huntington, attorneys for the Sierra Club and other groups have just filed copies of a major lawsuit settlement that insiders are saying could require Patriot Coal to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to treat selenium pollution from three of the company's major mountaintop removal mining complexes here in West Virginia.
The deal will require Patriot to build and operate new treatment systems for 43 water discharge outfalls on 10 different permits - far more than 14 outlets covered in a previous deal with Alpha Natural Resources or the five outfalls included in a settlement with Arch Coal.
This is a huge win for people who love West Virginia.
And kudos to the environmental organizations AND Patriot Coal for reaching this agreement.
Making it easier to export energy from North America, and that is what the Keystone project really would do, would not benefit West Virginia's coal or natural gas industries.
So when false claims are made about the number of jobs created, keep in mind that's not taking into account the number of jobs that would be lost here.
Coal Tattoo's Ken Ward Jr. has the details about an amazing admission from coal supporter Bray Cary:
So it's an important development - a remarkable one, really - for Bray Cary to devote an entire show to Bayless, an electrical engineer, MBA and law school graduate, explaining the scientific consensus that the world is getting warming, that human activities are to blame, and that the results of those climate changes are going to be big problems for the human race. Cary himself said of the show:
Global warming - there's no more important topic to the world, and especially to West Virginia. It's just so important that we have that conversation.
And Bray Cary himself declared:
Is there really global warming and what causes it? There's a lot of debate about whether global warming is occurring or not, but unfortunately for the deniers, none of that debate is in the scientific community.
It's something to celebrate that Cary is admitting reality, but it's also kind of sad that we have to celebrate the West Virginia media admitting reality.
Ken Ward Jr. at Coal Tattoo details one story in the Daily Mail pointing out the obvious, although Ward also notes the Daily Mail reporter lets the WV Coal Association make the false claim go unchallenged it is the EPA to blame.
In his post, "Wake up call: More media starting to catch on to impending collapse of region's coal industry," Ward wrote:
Coalfield media folks aren't necessarily cutting through this quite clearly enough yet - and they aren't challenging public officials for a plan for how to deal with the impending problems. But looking at today's Daily Mail - and last week's State Journal editorial - it's clear people are starting to catch on.
It is a step in the right direction for some of the other state media to acknowledge some of reality, but it'd be even better if the Daily Mail told the truth. It'd be even better if our state leaders already were planning for that future instead of burying their heads up coal's ash.
Ken Ward Jr. at Coal Tattoo highlights that the coal industry's lawyers are intent on perpetuating false, derogatory stereotypes about West Virginians in an attempt to hide the truth.
Panelists debate whether the U.S. is doing enough to heed the warnings of coal industry scientists who say turbines could blow the Earth right into the sun.
If Congressman Rahall knew the first thing about Central Appalachian mining, he might include some expert witnesses, or citizens whose lives are forever impacted by the very unnecessary (and unpopular) method of mining called mountaintop removal. Poll after poll show that a majority of people across America and across Appalachia oppose mountaintop removal. His constituents seem to agree, as Rahall's district in southern West Virginia is being swiftly depopulated.
But hey, at least the citizens of WV-03 still have it better off than their neighbors in KY-05, the only district with MORE mountaintop removal. (...hint, they are 434/435)
Ms. Dickens grew up in dire poverty in West Virginia's coal country and developed a raw, keening style of singing that was filled with the pain of her hardscrabble youth. She supported herself in day jobs for many years before she was heard on the soundtrack of the 1976 Oscar-winning documentary about coal mining, "Harlan County, U.S.A."
Ken Ward Jr. ponders the question at Coal Tattoo. Too many of our politicians bury their heads in the coal ash so they can't see the sky needs cleaned up.
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