From Athens Rising Tide:
Athens, OH- Local residents dropped a banner with the words: “Dear A.R.C; New Energy, New Jobs, New Opportunities for Appalachia= NO NEW COAL” from the Richland Avenue bridge this morning to guide the Appalachian Regional Commissions’ discussion in the right direction: new energy and new jobs for Appalachia does not include new coal.
“By making ‘new energy, new jobs, new opportunities for Appalachia’ the theme of this years conference, the A.R.C. is recognizing the importance of a sustainable energy economy in our region. And don’t get me wrong, that’s great, but I really hope they’re not sitting in that room thinking of ways to keep enabling the same thing they’ve been doing (blowing up mountains, putting massive sludge dams next to elementary schools, and constructing coal-fired power plants at an alarming rate) and calling it green, and sustainable, and a new opportunity. I want to believe that the A.R.C. is going to be a catalyst for making Appalachia a green-collar economic role model, but that is definitely not going to happen if coal stays in the picture.” Said a spokeswoman for Rising Tide Athens at this mornings’ event.
The annual Appalachian Regional Commission conference being hosted by the state of Ohio, is in attendance this week in Athens, discussing alternative energy and jobs throughout Appalachia.
The Rising Tide North America Athens Chapter took action today to make it clear that coal in its entire cycle is not a clean energy solution.
By sinking funding into carbon capture and sequestration or other “clean coal” technologies, the core issues of coal industry dependence fail to be addressed. Mountain top removal extraction, coal processing and washing practices resulting in sludge impoundments, and the consumption of coal-fired power continue to be issues that impact Appalachia.
Local citizens want the Appalachian Regional Commission to think critically about the effects that the coal industry has had on the Appalachian land, people and culture. The perpetuation of this dirty energy cycle will not revitalize the region, rather we need to focus on real, and truly clean energy opportunities for Appalachia.
This is a beautiful site… Strickland and the ARC needed to see this!
Coal may not be clean but is our only solution to our power needs. Surface mining our past, present and will continue to our future.
Coal is NOT the only solution to our power needs. We have to convert to wind and solar energy now and we also have to learn to life with less power. And coal will not always be our future, it will all be gone someday, and not too long from now.
Coal will not always be there anymore than forests were in the Northwest, or fish off the Atlantic Canadian coast.
Once a resource is gone, the jobs are gone….
And so is the natural resource!!