In W.V., they're blasting our clean energy future today.

[HillbillyBob]

Source: Pete Woiwode, Campaign Manager CREDO Action from Working Assets



Last week, Massey Energy began dynamiting Coal River Mountain in West Virginia — the site of a proposed 328-megawatt wind farm — to prepare for a massive mountaintop removal coal mining operation.

Coal River Mountain can be a wind farm that provides 85,000 households with electricity, creates 700 long-term green jobs, gives back $1.7 million in annual county taxes and stands as a model for clean energy across the region. Or, it can be a 6,000-acre dirty energy wasteland.

snip

The people of Coal River Valley need your help. They need your help to preserve hope in a clean energy future. They need your help because the blasting of Coal River Mountain is endangering their lives. Dynamiting Coal River Mountain could destabilize the nearby coal slurry, unleashing eight billion gallons of toxic sludge on homes, jobs and schools. Were the dam to fail, and many have, Massey Energy's own assessment indicates that more than a thousand men, women and children would have less than five minutes to save their lives.

snip
Thousands of requests to stop the blasting to West Virginia's governor, Joe Manchin, have been ignored. We need your help to call on the Obama administration today. We are looking to Lisa Jackson of the Environmental Protection Agency; Nancy Sutley of the White House Council of Environmental Quality; Kenneth Salazar, Secretary of the Interior; and Terrence C. Salt, Acting Assistant Secretary of the Army Corps of Engineers to step in and intervene today.

Read more: http://ga3.org/campaign/save_crm

---

I would not usually post something like this, but this is about the future of green energy and putting an end to dirty coal.

I m sick of all this talk of clean coal, because you may however unlikely contain the carbon, but you cannot rebuild a mountain that has been here longer than humans have been, well humans.

The Appalachian Mountains are the oldest surviving chain on Earth.

In other states mountains of this size are state or national parks.

We need to break the hold Coal has on our land, people and government.

[msongs]

1. "Our" energy future is gonna be controlled by the Chinese government n china made devices nt

[HillbillyBob]

2. This needs recs..too bad you cannot rec your own!

We do our best to cut out as much of our fossil fuel needs as possible.
We plan to take our house to zero fossil energy in the next 10 years.
So far we have cut by about 1/2 our electric needs(not sitting in the dark or cold either) saving about 2400$ per year. We have invested 3500 over the last 2 1/2 yrs so next year our improvements will have paid for themselves. We plan to install solar water and power panels. The roi on those are about 4 yrs for the solar water heater(plus will generate enough hot water to warm the bathrooms with radiant heat) and solar power has an roi of about 8 - 10 yrs, and they last about 30 years so we will see about 20 years of 'free' power.

[imdjh]

4. rec'd

[Divine Discontent]

21. give it some time, it'll get plenty of recs. Yes, it's very unfortunate. The people should be

listened to. I've seen what those types of places look like after they do that desecrating of the mtn. It's a shame... especially when there's an alternative.

[imdjh]

3. 700 jobs and other questions

700 jobs sounds like a lot for 85000 households of electricity. How does this compare to power plant ratios of employees to customer households?

Can't they still put a windfarm on top of the mountain after the coal company has deformed it?

[HillbillyBob]

6. No because it will be lower than the surrounding land

and will not be smooth enough for road or foundation work.

I take it you have never seen a strip mine. I grew up in WV and have seen the messes made in my home county(which was pretty much mined out by mid 20 century), but have seen operating mines in other parts of WV, Pa, Md.

The coal dust blows around for miles and no matter how tight your house is you have coal in everything, including your lungs.

And to msongs, an open mine employs about 20 people, no where near the towns number of folks. The 700 figure is to build the wind farm then later the infrastructure to tie it to the grid, then they will be able to go else where to work on developing grid and wind/solar installations.

I worked for a company that did rural electrification, the work load does lessen, but there is always repair and maintenance to do, especially after storms. Unless we start putting the grid underground. I won't even go into the costs of that.

[tabasco]

40. After they replant a strip mine

it looks like pine trees on Mars.

[Altoid_Cyclist]

46. We've finally started imitating the French.

Mont Ventoux in France. This was actually due to excessive logging, but it's still a monument to human stupidity and the permanent destruction of the environment.

[sicksicksick_N_tired]

42. Massey coal never EVER enters a contract unless it's extremely profitable to Massey Coal.

I'll betcha' there's no requirement they install a functional wind-driven system as they poison the environment, indirectly, and the citizens, DIRECTLY from the sludge and poison they release.

I know precisely how this company operates, trust me. If I were in power, I'd close off all large conglomerates and allow the smaller operators to work the coal while advancing "green" companies in the state. We have enormous capacity to develop wind, solar and alternative resources. My brother and I dream, all the time, of starting a major alternative energy business in our home state of WV. All we can do is "dream" because, only those who already have major financial power can start such a business,...entrepreneurs be damned!!!

[VAliberal]

5. thanks for the story & link

[HillWilliam]

7. K&R

It's not just that they remove mountains; the aftereffects are ruined land, altered ecology, and nearly 100% of the time the water tables are poisoned for scores of square miles around and downstream. The effects are hardly localized. Families who have lived in one place for generations are summarily dispossessed for pennies on the dollar IF they're given anything in compensation at all. This is another case where huge corporations swoop in, steal from the citizen, give little to nothing in return, reap huge profit, make stunningly huge messes that make Love Canal look like pristine landscape and waterways.

There is NO good in it for the American citizen. It's 100% for the profit of the few and the privileged at the cost of irreplaceable environment.

Oh, and signed.

[glitch]

8. K & R in heartbroken solidarity. nt

[Glorfindel]

9. Recommended - this is such a horrible practice

The Appalachians are so beautiful, and to rape them like that is just unspeakable. I'm originally from the mountains of north Georgia, and thank God there is no coal under them.

[HillbillyBob]

14. I guess you know that the App. mountain chain reaches into N Ga and N Ala

There is likely some coal under there, that was the reason for Birmingham Al to become the industrial city in the South.
I am from Mineral County WV, which was called that since there were considerable deposits of coal and iron ore that were exploited during colonial times, there is still a vulcan company iron furnace still standing about 2 miles from where I grew up

from Wiki

Birmingham was founded on June 1, 1871, by cotton gin promoters who sold lots near the planned crossing of the Alabama & Chattanooga and South & North Alabama railroads. The first business at that crossroads was the trading post and country store Yeilding's. The site of the railroad crossing was notable for the nearby deposits of iron ore, coal, and limestone – the three principal raw materials used in making steel. Birmingham is the only place worldwide where significant amounts of all three minerals can be found in such proximity. From the start the new city was planned as a great center of industry. The founders borrowed the name of Birmingham, one of England's principal industrial cities, to advertise that point. Birmingham was off to a slow start: the city was impeded by an outbreak of cholera and a Wall Street crash in 1873. However, it began to grow shortly afterwards at an explosive rate.

[goodboy]

10. Wheeling, checking in. Sadly. (nt)

[ramapo]

11. This is an ongoing crime against the Earth

Clean coal is an oxymoron.

The recent history of coal "mining" in the coal belt, especially in West Virginia, is heartbreaking. There is no end to what money and greed will drive people to do.

[era veteran]

12. King coal buys politicians

Self evident but needs saying.

[pundaint]

26. Stop electing politicians who are for sale.

Fire all the incumbents in 2010, re-establish government for the People.

[Demoiselle]

13. Didn't the EPA just recently rule against another mountaintop blast like this?

This is awful.

[MadAnne]

30. They put 79 permits on hold for futher review. n/t

[hellsbeagle]

15. K&R

[joeybee12]

16. Agreed, clean coal is biggest scam job around...n/t

[Uncle Joe]

17. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, HillbillyBob.

[Roland99]

18. I thought mountaintop removal was just ruled illegal a few months ago?

[MadAnne]

31. Really, we didn't get the news in WV. n/t

[Roland99]

45. I was probably confused. I think it was more the EPA was going to deny a permit for it.

[katty]

19. so they are going to do this-the rape of the land continues

[vinylsolution]

20. The fossil fools will be defeated....

... renewables are the only way forward.

[MadAnne]

32. North Carolina Senate Rejects Mountaintop Wind Farms

The North Carolina Senate has voted overwhelmingly to ban commercial wind farms from the state’s picturesque western mountain ranges.

With its 42 to 1 vote, the Senate appears to have dealt a near-fatal blow to prospects for commercial generation of wind energy in the Tar Heel State.

http://www.heartland.org/publications/environment%20cli...

[abq e streeter]

22. Thank you Bob, for the info and link...have rec'ced this, and signed the petition

[Ignis]

23. More short-term, quick-profit thinking from Big Energy.

Thanks for posting this.

[Sunnyshine]

24. Massey Energy is sick with greed & do not care about the mounds of lifeless ruin they leave behind.

K&R - I thought the EPA ordered an emergency stoppage on MTR...did they ignore it or was it waived?
Money buys misery and destruction everyday. Seriously, we have no control over anything- really.

[Omaha Steve]

25. I called this morning after I got this email

K&R BTW. The guy that took the info only asked for my name and said they are keeping a long list of them.


Dear friends,

We know many of you are still recovering from the unbelievable organizing you did for the day of action on Oct. 24, and you know that as a campaign 350.org is mostly focused on the global negotiations coming up in Copenhagen.

But sometimes things happen at inconvenient moments.

And if you think it's inconvenient for us, imagine what it was like for residents of Pettus, West Virginia to wake up last week to find that the blasting had started on Coal River Mountain, one of the epicenters of the fight over the hideous practice of mountaintop removal coal mining in the Appalachian Mountains. Coal River Mountain is an iconic symbol of the energy choices our country now faces: we can blast off the mountain's top to scoop out the dirty coal inside, or we can harness its enormous wind potential and start to build a better world.

So we're going to ask those of you on our USA e-mail list to take a small but signficant action to help our friends who are fighting the good fight there in West Virginia and Kentucky.

Could you please take a few minutes to send a message to decision-makers in the Obama administration, and ask them to intervene at Coal River Mountain?

Click the following to send your message: www.350.org/coal

The Obama administration officials who could stop this need to know that it's not just people in the hills of Appalachia who can hear the explosions--we all know what's going on. And we know that every lump of coal that comes out of those hills adds to the carbon burden of the atmosphere we all share.

Jim Hansen, the NASA scientist who first gave us the 350 number, has pointed out that the western world needs to be off coal in little more than a decade if we're ever going to get back to 350--and this is the obvious place to start. It would be a small gesture our government could point to when it gets to the UN talks in Copenhagen this coming December--and for the brave folks who have been fighting this fight to save their homes for decades now it would be a very big gesture indeed.

Coal is near the heart of the planet's climate problem. Let's take a moment to help here, in no small part because it will help in the climate talks ahead.

So many thanks,

Bill McKibben and the 350.org crew

[Altoid_Cyclist]

27. These are some of the scars left over from the mining industry in Western PA.

The photos below are the results of previous mining ventures. The industry always seems to say that they've changed and now will do whatever is necessary to protect the environment.
Between MTR and acid runoff, where is clean and safe water going to come from in 10 or 20 years?









More photos and link to web site:http://www.amrclearinghouse.org/Sub/photogallery /


As if that's not bad enough, now we have the damn Marcellus Shale boom destroying the waterways and environment on top of the continuing damage from Abandoned mines.


When these three gas wells were being hydraulically fractured, a spill of "a couple thousand gallons" killed fish and aquatic life in Cross Creek Lake.

http://www.marcellus-shale.us/water.htm

[hatrack]

29. My, those restoration efforts are going swimmingly, aren't they?

[Altoid_Cyclist]

34. The orange water is pretty, but I don't think that I'd want to drink it.

Who knows, maybe in a few centuries they'll have restored the waterways to their original pristine condition.

There's about as much chance of that happening as "W" being regarded the best president of all time.

[Stumbler]

28. We've got no mountaintops to be removed in MN, but extraction of coal is dirty any way it's done.

Rec'd the article, and sorry to hear about the coming loss of your natural landscape for the sake of privately held profits. Wind, solar and geothermal in combination are the solution for a clean future. But until we can get the money out of Washington, or at least NASCAR-style patches on the clothing of our representatives, we'll be denied the opportunity to live "green."

[winyanstaz]

33. The time to end the rape of the Earth is way over-due...

Save our planet for our children's children...
Coal is NOT clean.
Coal kills.
Mountains are sacred places to Native Americans (as is all the Earth)..but especially the Mountains as we go to them to pray and be closer to The Creator and to nature.
Mountains collect the snow for water for the people and the valleys below in the summertime.
Mountains help stabilize and channel wind currents.
The forests of the mountains..clean and renew our air.
Mountains are too often the last homes of what is left of the wildlife of our planet now.
When we destroy a mountain..we are committing slow suicide and murder of our own futures.

EARTH MY HEART IS WEEPING

Earth my heart is weeping,
It's raining all around.
Please let the clouds
roll down the hill..
hide the garbage on the ground.
Earth my eyes are raining,
Sorrow's coming down.
The Children have forgotten...
Sacred is the ground.
And they will breath the poisoned air
where eagles cannot fly.
And they will walk the broken earth
and watch the flowers die.
Clean water they will never see,
or hear the Raven's cry.
And all the Earth will weep with me,
when Mother Earth has died.
The body of our mother.
The Earth that gave us birth.
Lady I am weeping for
the Children of the Earth
Oh say it's not too late to me..
that we can make things right.
It's not too late to turn around.
No one needs to cry.
And we will breath the cool clean air
where eagles fly, and we'll know..
that we won't walk the broken earth,
we'll watch the flowers grow.
No more eye's are raining
and sunshines coming down.
The Children have remembered...
Sacred is the ground.
~OmenZ

[Moosepoop]

35. Kicked, rec'd, and petition signed! n/t

[Brigid]

36. Destroying a wind farm to dig for coal?

I don't know when I've heard of anything more stupid.

[Lorien]

37. I took action and sent Obama a letter urging him to put an end to this

I'm sickened to see that this kind of mindless, greed driven quest for short term profits has continued under his watch.

[boppers]

38. Not neccesarrily the oldest

Laurentian Mountains rocks are 540 million years old, Appalachian rocks are 480 million years old, but both ranges are often also considered part of the Grenville orogeny (1300-1000 million years ago), along with the Adirondacks.

[Tansy_Gold]

39. I'm in Arizona, central Arizona where we get about 330 days of sunshine

every year.

I do not understand why more use isn't made of this plentiful resource. I just don't understand it. And it wouldn't require blasting the top off a mountain.


K & R


Tansy Gold, in slightly overcast Pinal County

[sicksicksick_N_tired]

41. BAH! Joe Manchin is nothing BUT a corporate whore!

He never gave a damn about the people of WV,...except to the extent he could advantage himself off them,...as does most (but, not ALL) West Virginian politicians.

He doesn't even bother to keep the PROFITS FROM WV RESOURCES,...IN WV!!! Just another corporate whore who treats his own state like it's a third-world nation. He's buddy-buddy with Don Blankenship and former SOS, Betty Ireland, all the COC elitists, and GOP dawgs et al corporacrats.

I will never EVER forget him changing the state motto from "Wild Wonderful West Virginia" to "OPEN FOR BUSINESS"!

What a dick!

BAH!!! I could go on and on and on!!!

[MountainLaurel]

47. What you said.

And Joe is just lying in wait, salivating at the thought of Byrd croaking so he can try to get that seat.

[Duppers]

43. A big R

I love you! For posting this too.

[BrklynLiberal]

44. damn damn damn!!!

[Blue_Tires]

48. ttt