It\’s Getting Hot In Here

I was one of the 12,000 amazing individuals who attended Power Shift ’09, and I can honestly say it was life changing—I’ve already changed career paths. While I was enjoying the great company, excellent panels, and awesome music, I was also totally immersing myself in the environmental movement. I put my contact information on anything I thought I could help with, and lo and behold Danny Chiotos gave me a call right before my Spring Break to ask if I’d be willing to try and schedule a meeting with my district’s House representative, Nick Rahall. I accepted the challenge, telling myself this would be a great way to prove to anyone that I am seriously committed to making a change in West Virginia.

Obtaining a meeting with Congressman Nick Rahall seemed like a fruitless endeavor, so one can imagine my surprise when my short, fairly informal request received a response from his scheduler only a couple days later. Once the initial shock wore off, I got in touch with Danny, knowing he would know what to do next. He helped spread the word to other organizations including OVEC and the Coal River Wind Project, while I worked on getting more Marshall students involved. In the end we had six people at the meeting: Bob Kincaid and his wife Annette, Robin Blakeman, Lorelei Scarbro, Danny, and myself.

We all met up before the meeting to discuss what issues needed to be brought up and who would be presenting them. I made it clear that I was nervous to speak with Rahall and that this was mainly a learning experience for me. Rather than taking a leadership role, I began the meeting by explaining to the Congressman the advances Marshall University is taking in order to be more environmentally sustainable. I explained the Green Fee that we passed last semester as well as our work with the Huntington Community Garden Committee. Danny and Robin thanked him for his support of the Omnibus public land legislation as well as his recent emphasis on green job development. Bob then introduced the idea of the CLEAN agenda, and this led into a discussion about a cap-and-trade policy on carbon emissions. Rahall is against such a policy because it will “send consumer’s energy prices through the roof.” Bob established some common ground with him, saying that he too has been confronted by people against the policy, but that he could send information about how inaccurate the increased energy fee would be—Rahall actually requested him to do so.

Bob then brought up issues related to Ansted and the Gauley Mountain area, praising Rahall for his work in encouraging tourism but also explaining how that industry is being destroyed by Mountaintop Removal. Annette expressed her concern for her children and added how young people had moved to the area because of the beauty but are now very disturbed by the destruction. This brought up questions about permits and the EPA. Robin explained how unstaffed the WV DEP is, with no apparent plans to change that, and how they grant all permits that come to them. Bob brought up a meeting he had attended in Ansted, and that everyone in attendance opposed the permits, yet still they were granted.

The conversation shifted to discuss water issues, especially concerning selenium. Robin pointed out that the Kanawha and Ohio rivers are being severely polluted and expressed concern not only for her children, but for others in the state. Danny directly asked him how he thought we could transition to green jobs, restating Rahall’s recent comment about there only being 20 more years of productive coal mining to do. He responded that President Obama’s stimulus plan should take care of most of it and specifically stated “clean coal” and coal to liquid options. Suggestions of renewable energy jobs were made, and Lorelei gave her personal narrative about her relatives’ and neighbors’ only job options being in the coal industry. She brought up the wind project and stressed that her friends and family could have good jobs much longer with a wind farm. Rahall acknowledged that he knew about the project and expressed willingness to consider the project as part of the solution.

We seemed to be out of time, so Robin quickly mentioned the WVCC and PCUSA Faith based statements related to MTR and gave him a copy of both. As we said our goodbyes, she left him with a modified quotation from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., whose picture was on the wall, something like: “we must be the headlights of society, rather than the taillights.” She expressed hope that West Virginia could be the headlights of society in green energy and job development.

We had a quick debrief after the meeting, and thought, overall, that it went well. I expressed some ideas that I did not get to mention and so will be writing a follow-up letter detailing those points.

All in all this was a great learning experience for me. We didn’t get all the answers we wanted, but, as Annette put it, he was in a “testy” mood. The main tactic that I’m taking from this is to keep things personal. Lorelei gave her personal narrative, and Bob shared his empathy. Robin and Annette expressed concern for their children and stressed the consequences if something is not done to provide a future for them. We raised his awareness on a lot of issues and were given much more time than the original 15 minutes I was told. I think we should regard our efforts as a successful step in the direction of change.