It’s Getting Hot In Here

What may not be completely clear (one minute in) from this clip is that Blankenship actually pushes the reporter about a hundred feet while the reported says “Please let go of me” about 12 times. All the while Blankenship has this creepy grimacey smile on his face. Oh, and he threatens to shoot the reporter.

In other news of coal thuggery, “Friends of Coal” recently busted up a prayer vigil for the mountains in Ansted, WV. They brought about 30 folks, including small children, to heckle, make rude comments and physically threaten the pastors, priests, grannies and other citizens that had come out to pray and sing Amazing Grace together on the mountain side. Despite the determination of the Fiends of Coal who brought their small children to participate in a fun morning of verbally abusing people trying to pray, it actually turned into a useful dialog when the Pro-Mountain folks explained to them that they want to see a clean, just West Virginia with more jobs for coal miners. Indeed, Mountain Top Removal has lost WV about 110,000 jobs since the 70’s and an immediate ban on Mountaintop Removal would create up to 2,000 deep mining jobs.

Big Coal is stepping up the intimidation. At the Clean Water Protection Act Lobby this past week, Representative Rahall (D WV) (email him) yelled at and verbally harassed the citizens who had driven the 7 hours to DC to meet with him and tell him the stories of how Mountaintop Removal had affected their families. “First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win.” Gandhi. So, we’ll take the all this intimidation as a sign that we’re about to win.

200+ people from 17 states participated in 7 direct actions in 4 states along with 100+ workshops, 6 service projects, 4 concerts, 5 climb trainings, 2 listening projects, 1 lobbying event, 1 canvassing project, and 1 square dance all packed into 18 days in March 2008 that earned more than 60 media hits. All of this excitement was planned by a mostly volunteer collective of ~15 youth from 6 different states during more than 50 hours a conference calls.

We were trying to stop power plants and send out a strong message that youth in America want NO NEW COAL! We dropped by two Bank of Americas to play old time mountain music for them, and to let them know that funding coal global warming is killing our mountain traditions. Several students shut down their bank accounts so that their savings weren’t funding dirty coal.

We worked with community groups across Virginia trying to defeat proposed coal plant in Wise County, telling the Department of Environmental Quality to deny the permit and give the Citizen’s Air Pollution Control Board decision making power over the coal power permit. This is wonderful news as the Air Board is committed to holding the permit to a much higher standard than DEQ.

We worked with community groups in Ohio who are fighting 5 proposed coal power plants as well as 40 years of proposed underground coal mining in Meigs County, Ohio. Residents said that they wanted a chance to sit down with the board of AMP-Ohio, which is trying to push through a dirty coal plant, and tell them about the effects that the 4 coal plants in their area are having on their health and quality of life. We showed up at the AMP-Ohio headquarters, demanded politely, if a bit loudly, and they gave us exactly what we wanted.

Sorry you missed out on the whirlwind of fighting for justice, green jobs and green rolling hills? Want to get involved? Try Mountain Justice Summer!! The week long training camp, May 17-23rd in Harlan County, Kentucky will lead into a summer of opportunities for training, action, and organizing against coal at the grassroots level in Kentucky, West Virginia, Ohio, Virginia and Tennessee. Check www.mountainjusticesummer.org to sign on up!

Check out more pictures at http://www.mjsb.org/multimedia.html

Lunch time as usual was interrupted in the Capitol Building of West Virginia today when a spontaneous Fossil Fools Awards Ceremony began. The ceremony was held to celebrate West Virginia governor Joe Manchin and Coal Baron Don Blankenship receiving the prestigious award of Life Time Achievement in Fossil Foolery in Appalachia. Unfortunately, neither Manchin nor Blankenship were able to collect their awards in person, but news cameras from several local TV stations were there as stand-ins accepted the awards in their honor.

Unfortunately, Manchin and Blankenship were beat out by Bush and Cheney for the International Fossil Fools Lifetime Achievement Award. Because of their hard work, however, we decided to award them a special Appalachian Fossil Fools Award. Our own boys can certainly brag that they’ve done more than their share for a small state when it comes to advancing the cause of enhancing the profits of big coal at the expense of our economy, our mountains, and our future.

Activists showed up with 8 foot high model wind turbines and a functional mobile solar panel to show alternatives to fossil fuel use, advocating for a clean just energy transition away from the toxic coal industry that has crushed West Virginia’s economy. Several thousand green jobs in wind turbine and solar panel manufacturing are just across from the West Virginia border in Pennsylvania and Maryland. Governor Manchin’s insistence on being a fossil fool has not allowed industry like this to employ West Virginia workers.

Continue reading ‘Fossil Fools Award Ceremony in Charleston, WV’

I’m here at Mountain Justice Spring Break Ohio. Yesterday we went on a toxic tour and saw the town of Cheshire, Ohio, which was bought by AEP for $20 million dollars because the emissions from the Gavin power plant were so deadly.

The weather is beautiful and cold, the camp is on a reclaimed strip

mine. It’s an interesting and fascinating juxtaposition. The Ohio government (not the coal company) spent $1 million reclaiming the land and trees still don’t grow on it. Luckily there is pristine wilderness all around for hiking.

We are learning about the coal life cycle and the impacts that multiple coal fired power plants have on rural communities. Elisa Young, of Meigs CAN spoke movingly about her struggles for environmental justice in Meigs County.

I heard it on NPR this morning at 7:30. What an awful way to wake up.

My favorite part is when she critiques the Bush Administration for canceling the Future Gen Boondoggle Coal plant in Illinois, which means folks — SHE HAS LESS SENSE ABOUT COAL THAN THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION. And in case you don’t have time to listen — she also likes Mountain Top Removal Coal mining. Thanks Hill.

After coal is mined, it is processed before burning. To keep nasty chemicals from getting into the air, coal companies “wash” the coal but (spoiler alert) these toxic chemicals don’t magically go away. The billions of gallons of water used to clean coal are full of arsenic, mercury, heavy metals, and a witches brew of acids. The toxic water is sometimes stored in unlined (meaning materials can leach into groundwater) sludge dams, like the 2.8 billion gallon dam over Marsh Fork Elementary school or the 132 million (tiny) one that busted in Buffalo Creek in 1972 that killed 125 people or the one that busted in Martin County, KY in 2000 that was 30 times larger than Exxon Valdez

Alternately, toxic coal sludge is injected underground into abandoned coal mines, which are also unlined and allow the toxic waste to seep into local well water. Most rural West Virginians depend on well water for drinking, cooking and bathing, and many face a 20 mile drive each way to pick up water from the store. And yes, that little girl has to bathe in that water. To learn more, check www.sludgesafety.org or here.

Read all about KFTC and I Heart Mountains Day on www.kftc.org…

On Feb. 14th, members of Kentuckians for the Commonwealth, coal field residents, college students, grannies, babies, engineers, doctors, 5th graders and of course Wendell Berry converged at the Kentucky State Capitol in Frankfort, KY to express their support for HB 164 — the Stream Saver Bill–which would end Mountain Top Removal Mining in Kentucky.

We gathered in the snow for a historic rally, quite likely the largest rally ever against Mountain Top Removal and definitely the largest ever in Frankfort, and shook the windows with the chant, “Whose Mountains? Our Mountains! Whose Streams! Our Streams! Whose Future? Our Future!” and were led by brilliant community members, old time music, and the fabulous author Wendell Berry, who called for Direct Action to end coal industry abuse. We’ve been patient and polite for 40 years, he pointed out. Maybe it’s time we realized patient and polite aren’t going to work.

After the rally, we lined the hallway that legislators take between sessions, with hundreds of people chanting, singing, holding signs and home-made quilts for the mountains. They had no choice but to read our signs and listen to the 5th Graders. Local 5th grade classes had learned about MTR in class, and forced their parents to let them skip class and lobby. They led the crowd chanting, in their little 5th grade voices, “164–On the floor!” They were asking legislators to bring the HB 164 –the Stream Saver–out of committee and to a vote.

If 5th graders can do it, so can you!

Visit www.mjsb.org to figure out how to plug in and pull the plug on Mountain Top Removal Mining this March at Mountain Justice Spring Break and beyond. Visit www.kftc.org or click here to send letters and calls to legislators.

Sylvia is a great-granny living down river (and down wind) from Marsh Fork Elementary School on the Coal River in Southern West Virginia. Recently a book came out, Coal River, about the mountain community that has been fighting Mountaintop Removal, and other effects of coal — dust, blasting, toxic waste disposal, overweight coal trucks barreling down the road towards school buses — for years now.

When you fight for climate justice, it’s not just “to protect our future” — it’s also to protect our Grannies’ present day. Sylvia wrote this in response to a Charleston Gazette article critiquing the book.

Editor: The Gazette editorial called the great new book “Coal River” an “attack on the coal industry.” The Gazette has it backward. The coal industry is the one with the explosives. We’re the ones getting blasted. They attack Coal River and other communities with almost 4 million pounds of explosives daily. The poison water from sludge and valley fills is another attack on us. I am truly disappointed and insulted that this paper tries to twist and spin the destruction that the coal industry is heaping upon us.

The coal industry and the Gazette don’t seem to like how the outside world sees the destruction of mountains, streams and us mountaineers. If you don’t like the image you see in the mirror, don’t blame the mirror. Continue reading ‘Notes From a Granny On Fighting Coal!’

I was less than thrilled to watch the story unfold of Coal Warlord Don Blankenship and WV Justice Elliot Maynard’s vacation in Monaco together just has Justice Maynard was deciding on a case against Don Blankenship and Massey, his mining company. Surprise boys and girls! The judge decided in old Donnie B’s favor.

Feel free to read the gory details yourself at the NY Times

Continue reading ‘Coal Warlord found in bed with West Virginia Judge. Crap.’

Hoo-boy! New York Times online has a smart article connecting meat consumption and global warming. It’s great to see such a solid source making these connections — though people have been making this argument for decades, it’s generally over shadowed by other issues. To me, this is one more way our world will look different when we create the sustainable, healthy communities we’re striving for.

Here’s my favorite quote:”Growing meat (it’s hard to use the word “raising” when applied to animals in factory farms) uses so many resources that it’s a challenge to enumerate them all. But consider: an estimated 30 percent of the earth’s ice-free land is directly or indirectly involved in livestock production, according to the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization, which also estimates that livestock production generates nearly a fifth of the world’s greenhouse gases — more than transportation.”

See the article, “Rethinking the Meat-Guzzler” by Mark Bittman complete with some great graphics connecting meat consumption with fossil fuels consumption for yourself