From Growing Gardens & Local Foods in Fayette County

The deadline for voting is June 21st and we have to have the most votes in order to win the grant – we need you to vote & spread the word now!

Here’s how you can help:

1) VOTE 3x
2) RSVP TO OUR EVENT & INVITE YOUR FRIENDS TO THIS FACEBOOK PAGE

For years, communities in Central Appalachia, in parts of Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee, have been standing up to defend their quality of life, the quality of their environment and the prospects for a brighter and better tomorrow for their children and grandchildren. For over a century, the coal industry has maintained a mono-economic stranglehold on many places in Appalachia, a stranglehold that has held the coalfields captive to the destructive whims of King Coal.

Today, coalfield communities are fighting harder than ever to stop the destruction of their mountains. They are also opening a new front in the struggle against King Coal’s destruction. From West Virginia to Tennessee, grassroots groups are coming together to promote a new kind of sustainable, and diverse economic development that keeps wealth at home, rebuilds our environment and supports our communities for the long haul. The Build It Up, WV Summer Program is one of these efforts, and it sure could use your vote.

From Growing Gardens & Local Foods in Fayette County

You can read more about some of these coalfield visions of sustainable development, among many other places, at Appalachian Transition Initiative, Appalachian Community Economics, and the Central Appalachian Prosperity Project. Below is a little bit more about the effort in West Virginia. Haven’t voted yet? What are you waiting for?

See our project description below for more details about the amazing work coming out of West Virginia youth leaders. Thanks to everyone who has worked so hard to make this happen!

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For More Information on the WV Youth Action League and our Summer Program:

a) Check out the Summer Program’s Youtube Videos

b) Check out the Summer Program’s Homepage

c) Apply for a Position in the Summer Program

d) Check out the WV Youth Action League’s Homepage

Hello all,

I am writing today to inform you about an exciting opportunity for West Virginia youth this summer. On Brighterplanet.com, there is a grant that would bring $5,000 to the West Virginia Youth Action League to develop a summer program to work side by side with other grassroots groups to develop various sustainability projects. All of our sites are low income communities who are looking to build their economy.

The grant will allow for up to 15 West Virginians to work in these communities and work with the residents living there to develop jobs. Those who work will earn a fair-wage stipend to work with these communities.

The link to vote is http://brighterplanet.com/project_fund_projects/145

In addition, you can read more about the summer program at:http://www.seac.org/wvyal/summer

When you go to vote, all you need to do is go to the grant, register to vote and then vote three times for “Build It Up, West Virginia!” Votes are pouring in as I write this email, but as of 10:48 PM on May 3, we are in 2nd place at 557 votes. We can catch up to the first place grant which has 900 votes as of right now, but it takes mass organizing. Contact your friends, family, neighbors, and elected officials and ask them to vote three times and spread the grant proposal onward. We have less than 2 weeks to build up and back the summer program and win this grant. Only the proposal with the most votes wins the award.

Thank you so much for your dedication to building a sustainable future to West Virginia. We need all the support we can get

Most Sincerely,
Billy Astrove
WVWC ’10 (December)
SEAC
astrove_wg@wvwc.edu

“Oh Say, did you see him; it was early this morning.He passed by your houses on his way to the coal.He was tall, he was slender, and his dark eyes so tenderHis occupation was mining, West Virginia his home

It was just before noon, I was feeding the children,Ben Moseley came running to give us the news.Number eight was all flooded, many men were in dangerAnd we don’t know their number, but we fear they’re all doomed”

- Jean Ritchie

Coal mining is dangerous business and the people of the Appalachian Coalfields, from Tennessee to West Virginia to Pennsylvania, have come to expect disasters out of the mining industry. Mining is a job that’s full of risks and packed with hard work. Miners have come to be proud of the work that they do which truly has had a great role in powering the United States for more than the last century. It’s been work that’s populated Appalachia with amazing people but has kicked up a lot of coal dust in the process all over our great state of West Virginia.

After 9/11, where I was less than 10 miles from the Pentagon and remember hearing fighter jets & helicopters flying over my house throughout that tense night. I never thought I would feel that tragic emotion that brought anger, anticipation, fear, mourning, and pride together into one horrendous stomach ache again. Then came the disaster at Massey’s Upper Big Branch Mine.

I could not work all week. I could not stop refreshing the WSAZ news page and the Coal Tattoo Blog for updates. I could not get my mind off the basic question of whether there is good in the world where 29 hardworking men are killed because of Massey Energy’s disregard for miner safety. I could not get off the phone talking with students I work with and my own family members who were grieving like I was for these men and holding out hope that the four “missing miners” would be found alive. They were not. And we continued to mourn through the weekend.

Both my great-grandfather and grandfather helped to pull 11 bodies out of the Nellis mine which is a hair under 33 miles away from the Montcoal mine. On November 8th, 1943, which was a Monday, his family was watching a movie in Whitesville and they were rushed out of the theatre to Nellis. His Mother and sisters were sent home to pray for survival, his father hurried down in the mine to search for life and my grandfather stood sentry at the mouth of the mine with not much to do but hope to see those men walk out of the mine. He was 13 at the time and he saw those 11 bodies come out of the mine in a railcar without a breath among them.

He is now the ripe age of 80, and once again mourning, this time for the 29 miners that were killed in the Upper Big Branch mine. He and no one in the coalfields should have to witness a disaster like this and be reminded of a disaster they lived through 67 years ago. We have the means and technology to make these kind of massive disasters a thing of the past that exists only in our memories and history books.

Worker deaths should not happen, and we should be pushing to prevent them whenever possible. The debate becomes about what is the safest method of mining coal, since we will be mining coal for a long time coming. Even if we quickly transition from burning coal for electricity, there are a ton of uses for coal (including using metallurgical coal for the production of steel which is needed for wind turbines) which will keep it as part of Appalachia’s economy. For a point of information, the Upper Big Branch mine was mostly a metallurgical coal mine and the coal mined is used for steel-making, rather than electricity, production. Massey is known to export their metallurgical coal overseas, so the 29 miners probably lost their lives not to power the re-industrialization of the United States with renewable energy, but to power the industrialization of countries like China and India. So, even if we run a completely renewable energy economy, we need to keep a focus on how we can mine coal in the way that’s most beneficial to the communities under the safest possible conditions.

Flying in the face of these horrible realities,there has been the disturbing development that Mountaintop Removal proponents have been coming out with recently. From Don Blankenship Supporters to Congresswoman Shelley Moore Capito, there has been an effort to use this horrible mining disaster to spread support for strip mining and mountaintop removal.

Countering this opportunistic assertion is the main point of this piece.

Nevermind the horrible leveraging of this disaster to increase support for the form of mining that employs the least number of people and causes the most damage to Appalachia. While there is truth in the statement that surface mining is safer for workers than underground mining, the Blankenships and Capitos of the world would have you believe that everything is hunky-dory and safe as grandma’s apple pie on a strip mine.

The way that the Blankenships of the world make the argument is that we could simply shift from underground mining to strip mining is a total oversimplification of the realities of mining. The Upper Big Branch mine was more than a thousand feet underground. To get that coal, it takes underground mining, plain & simple. I know that Don Blankenship knows more about coal than I do, he’s just more comfortable with lying than I am. So, we need to talk about what the safest ways of mining are and what makes the biggest impact on increasing worker safety.

As I’ve heard more of the pro-mountaintop removal opinion getting out there, I became more interested in knowing the facts. I’ve been hearing that strip mining was dangerous work, but I’ve never really known how dangerous. I came to the point of wanting to counter the claim that the Blankenships of the world were making, but I didn’t know the facts. So, I started crunching some numbers, making excel spreadsheets and asking friends for help. What I found didn’t really surprise me, but it gave a sense of concreteness to talk about how important unions are to worker safety.

What I found was that union strip mining was the safest for miners and that non-union underground mining was the most dangerous. That said, there is little way that we can or should be using that as a justification for more strip mining. Seeing as how coal that’s mined a certain way is generally mined that way for whole host of reasons, the Blankenships of the world are oversimplifying it. If we look at the two forms of mining independent of each other, because strip vs underground mining is generally not interchangeable, we can easily see that whether a mine is union or non-union is incredibly important to worker safety.

I am using the VERY basic ratio of worker deaths per 10,000 miners to create four statistics which compare both strip vs underground mining and union vs non-union mining. This leaves out a ton of really important information, like worker injury rates, black lung and silicosis, effects on the communities around the mines, the different safety rates of the different forms of underground and strip mines, the different safety rates at different companies, etc etc etc. But, what this analysis does do is further the fact based conversation about what the safest forms of mining are in the real world.

Here are the stats that I developed using statistics from 2002 – 2008 (it’s pretty obvious what the stats would be for 2010 with the Upper Big Branch disaster, but it’s too early in the year for good statistics to be out there). The following chart summarizes the comparisons that I wrote about earlier…

So, what you can see is that in each form of mining, union mining clearly makes for safer mining than non-union mining. Underground non-union mining is the most dangerous forms for five out of the six measured years. Underground union mining is about even with non-union strip mining in terms of worker safety – with non-union strip mining having a higher worker death rate than union underground mining.

The most important thing is for unions to be able to organize mines, whether they be strip mines or underground mines. In almost every case, union mines are safer than non-union mines. Worker safety depends on the unionization of the workplace, not on a largely fictitious choice between strip & underground mining.

The United Mine Workers of America have been longstanding leaders for coal miner safety. One of the most important things that the media is missing in covering this disaster has been the discussion about the UMWA. The UMWA had 3 different attempts to unionize this mine and Don Blankenship personally visited this mine to break the union drive. One drive in particular had more than 2 out of 3 workers signed onto a union card, but the official vote failed. If we had the Employee Free Choice Act as law, the Upper Big Branch mine would be a union mine as 2/3 of the workers supported a union before they were intimidated. We need to see this law passed so we can see safer mining through a unionized workplace.

When workers knew Blankenship would have them fired if they voted for the union, they stepped back from voting it in. Workers need a united voice in the workplace. We can have the best regulations in the world on the books but if workers are not organized to be able to speak up – those regulations are worthless. As far as I’m concerned, miner unionization is the best possible solution to preventing disasters like this in the future.

We’ll be mining coal for a while and we need to be real about what makes the biggest impact on worker safety in the mines. We don’t need another Monongah (1907, WV, 362 killed), Farmington (1968, WV, 78 killed), Sago (2006, WV, 12 killed), Crandall Canyon (2007, UT, 9 killed), or Montcoal (2010, WV, 29 killed).

I hope the words that Former Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall issued in 1968, “let me assure you, the people of this country no longer will accept the disgraceful health and safety record that has characterized this major industry,” and the words of President Barack Obama forty-two years later, “I refuse to accept any number of miner deaths as simply the cost of doing business,” will one day ring true and we can at least, today, have an honest discussion about what the safest ways to mine coal are.

We need to celebrate because we’re protecting Appalachia, but we need to be cautiously celebrating. The economy in the coalfields is still heavily dependent on, well, coal.  While it’s true that there are one-sixth of the mining jobs in West Virginia that there were 50 years go, there’s 20,000 now, certain portions of the state are definitely still dependent on coal.

I remember that, in the October 2009 Public Hearing in Charleston on Mountaintop Removal, a pro-Mountaintop Removal speaker from Logan County lamented seeing environmentalists partying next to the mountain they saved while he tried to figure out what’s next for his family now that those paychecks weren’t coming.  That’s the question we should be asking of the Obama Administration as we thank them for their veto.  We should be both asking them what’s next for the coalfields and bringing them solutions.

Coal has not been good to the West Virginia coalfields, but we have to be honest with ourselves and our movement about what the results of coal companies leaving town will be.  A ban on Mountaintop Removal is certainly what we need.  But, without proposing alternative solutions, the anti-mountaintop removal movement will be leaving the coalfields nearly as far behind as the coal companies have.

The good news, though is that there are already inspiring examples of ongoing work, concrete projects, and grassroots organizing to usher in a new economy in Appalachia.  While the Coal River Wind Project is the most concrete example of the choice that one area has between permanent wind jobs (which would potentially be union jobs) and temporary Mountaintop Removal jobs (which are non-union jobs).  There is work happening in Eastern Kentucky through the Mountain Association for Community Economic Development, Southwest Virginia through the RRENEW Collective, Southern WV through the J.O.B.S. Project, the Coal River Valley through the Coal River Community Sustainability Team and many other efforts to bring about sustainable economies throughout the coalfields of Appalachia.

The West Virginia Youth Action League, representing six campus and community youth groups across West Virginia, is planning a major “Green the Coalfields” Summer Program where West Virginia Youths are partnering with local community groups to inject youth energy into ongoing efforts to reclaim the coalfields.  This work is happening and coalfield economies are beginning to diversify, we have a long way to go before we see more people working in good, green, sustainable and fulfilling economies than the extractive, destructive, and dirty coal economy.

The proposed veto of the Spruce Permit and the preservation of almost 2,300 acres of rich mountains is surely a historic and important step.  Let’s do the important work of creating solutions to the economic problems in the coalfields.  The coal companies will happily leave Appalachia behind, let’s make sure the anti-mountaintop removal movement doesn’t do the same.  Let’s make sure we build healthy and sustainable economies that can put people to work for far longer than the coal industry could ever imagine.

Who benefits most from the coal-fired electricity produced in West Virginia?

For more than a century, West Virginia coal miners have sacrificed their backs, lungs, and health to put food on their families table. For more than fifty years, West Virginia communities have seen not only massive job loss, but an escalating loss of our mountains to strip mining. For more than twenty years, West Virginia miners have had their most powerful voice, the United Mine Workers of America, broken by aggressive coal companies – with Don Blankenship & Massey Energy leading the union-busting charge. For more than ten years, West Virginians have seen the ultimate taking – the taking of our homes – to Mountaintop Removal and the Valley Fills it creates.

Right now, the same people who have been responsible for all of the above are pushing for a giant power line to ship electricity from the Charleston (WV) area to the Eastern Seaboard. The Potomac-Appalachian Transmission Highline (PATH) starts in Putnam County, WV then cuts its way across the mountains and valleys of 17 West Virginia Communities on its way out of state.

If built, this line would be a 765-KiloVolt Transmission line. An Administrative Law Judge for the Pennsylvania Public Service Commission has said that the proposed 550-Kilovolt Trans Allegheny Interstate Line (TrAIL) would require four additional coal plants. PATH, at 765 KV, has double the transmission capacity of TrAIL and simple multiplication dictates that there would be eight additional coal plants needed for this line. This is at a time when West Virginia is already exporting about two-thirds of the electricity (98% of WV’s electricity is coal-fired), we don’t need this power line to further ship our power out of state. If you think we’ve already seen too much profit for Don Blankenship & his buddies, too much union busting, and too much mountaintop removal – you ain’t seen nothing yet.

If all that above isn’t enough for you – this monstrous power line harms local property values, increases harmful herbicides sprayed on the ground near the lines, and harms human health. All of this for a line that West Virginians would end up paying for through increased electricity rates. It’s clear who benefits most from coal-fired electricity produced in West Virginia and it’s not West Virginians.

We have seen unprecedented support for the Wind Power and Green Jobs that are threatened by Mountaintop Removal.  I am damn proud to be a part of this historic effort and to stand with all of you.

Since the launch of the Coal River Wind Campaign in August, more than 8,500 of you have shown your support.  Since the alert went out earlier this week that Massey Energy is moving blasting rigs onto Coal River Mountain, more than 2,500 letters have been sent to WV Governor Manchin demanding that he hold Massey accountable.  We have never before seen such grassroots support for a concrete & positive alternative to Mountaintop Removal, but the amazing showing we’ve had so far is not enough.

Massey Energy did not blast on Coal River Mountain yesterday because they did not have the necessary permits from the Mining Safety and Health Administration (MSHA).  They’ve since gotten these permits.  The very thought that Massey is looking to blast dangerously close to an underground mine makes me sick.  It confirms every thought I have ever had that Don Blankenship (Massey’s head) has as little concern for mine workers as he does the communities around the mines that he operates.  Although there are other permits that Massey still needs to get from government agencies – we still have time to stop their machines from taking the green jobs & wind power that we’re pushing so hard for.

Governor Joe Manchin still has the time and the power to revoke Massey’s permits.  All that he needs is the will, and that’s what we’re here to give him.

We want a permanent solution to the crisis on Coal River Mountain – not one that lasts for days while Massey ties up their final permits & we hold baited breath.  We want good jobs that will last for generations and will create a diverse economy in Southern WV – not jobs that will be gone by the time our kids are ready to work.  We want truly CLEAN energy – not more of the same from coal companies.

In short we want our government to stand WITH the people and to have just a fraction of the guts that we have.  Please, keep the pressure on, invite your friends to take action. We don’t have the time to waste – we must act and create the groundswell needed to reverse these permits.

Concrete Action Steps:

1) Sign the Online Petition Supporting Green Jobs through the Coal River Wind Farm and always invite your friends to support it

2) Send a Letter and/or call WV Governor Joe Manchin to ask for a “Stay of Execution” for Coal River Mountain

3) Attend the Rally for Green Jobs & Healthy Mountains in Charleston, WV on Sept. 16th

Indigenous Call for Action Answered by Youth/Environmental Groups
Black Mesa Project permitting process re-opened! Deadline for comments: July 7, 2008
Diné elder Pauline Whitesinger faces threats from government officials

Black Mesa, Arizona, home to the Diné (Navajo) and Hopi tribal reservations, is also home to massive mining operations run by Peabody Coal. In the past 30 years the mine at Black Mesa has contributed 325 million tons of carbon dioxide to atmospheric levels. Mining officials, with backing from the U.S. government, are responsible for capping local water supply (to supply mines) and harassing, threatening and in some cases assaulting Black Mesa residents, many who are elders resisting being driven from the land their ancestors have occupied for hundreds of years.

Peabody Coal now wants to expand the mining operation at a potential environmental cost of 290 million tons of CO2 and an unfathomable personal cost to all who continue to live and fight for their lives on Black Mesa. In related news, area residents continue to face threats and intimidation at the hands of the U.S. government, and it is no coincidence that the afflicted live on what Peabody Coal clearly sees as “their profit”.

Diné grandmother resistor Pauline Whitesinger (above), 76, was recently served a notice by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) officers and Hopi Tribal Rangers to immediately halt repairs being made to her ceremonial earth lodge (hogan) on penalty of fines and criminal charges. Officials also attempted to harass Pauline’s on-land supporter/sheepherder. Threats of intimidation accompanied the “notice” and have continued unabated. Support has been requested for Pauline Whitesinger in the form of phone calls, letters and on-land support to let the BIA and Hopi officials know that their unacceptable actions are under scrutiny.

The overarching story here, that of Peabody Coal, lies at the core of environmental and human devastation. Peabody’s proposed expansion would detonate coal on a daily basis polluting the air and affect health of miners and residents, deplete residential water supplies (already scarce in the desert thanks to mining), accelerate climate change and, perhaps most significantly, sacrifice human dignity and planetary health for corporate profit.

The Student Environmental Action Coalition (SEAC) has responded to the calls for action by mailing a statement denouncing the harassment of Pauline Whitesinger and also collecting signatures to add to a comment letter expressing opposition to the Peabody mine expansion. Similar actions have also been taken up by other national groups such as Black Mesa Indigenous Support, Student/Farmworker Alliance, and Black Mesa Water Coalition (heading up the call for action). Together, we can connect the dots of coal industry devastation from Appalachia to the mesas of Arizona, standing together in solidarity.
Coal is the liver of mother earth – let’s keep it in the ground and keep her healthy!

*Sample letter for coal comments and info and address for Pauline Whitesinger letter at blackmesais.org (also see attachments)

*To provide on-land support email blackmesais@riseup.net

See BMWC and BMIS websites for more ways to help!

The February 10th “Young Dems on Kayford” event that brought more than 35 Young Dems onto Kayford Mountain to see the effects of Mountaintop Removal was a crucial event in the organization learning about the issue and taking a stand.

This resolution on Mountaintop Removal was passed as a result of years of building awareness and involvement on the issue. This resolution passed with the solid margin of 32 votes in favor and only 10 votes against (with 2 abstaining votes). The WV Young Democrats have been a focus of education throughout the past year as we organized events to show both the leadership and the membership what Mountaintop Removal is doing to the people and land of Southern (and increasingly Central) WV. The resolution was formed and revised to its final content by a room of high schoolers, college students, deep miners, organizers, and concerned citizens to its final form. This resolution is causing reverberations through the WV Democratic Party and WV politicians (who have long been kinder to the coal industry than citizens) are taking notice.

Volunteer SEACers in WV were crucial in pressuring and educating the WV Young Democrats on Mountaintop Removal and other coal issues. We are not, by any means, associated with the Democratic Party, but have done the day-to-day youth organizing and event organizing that has raised the profile of this issue in WV to be able to pass the Young Dems with the overwhelming margin that it did. Mountaintop Removal is increasingly discussed as part of the national climate movement, which is good, but it’s going to take growing political support in Central Appalachia to end it. This resolution is an incredible step towards that goal and is an incredible showing that grows political support in WV for environmental justice.

Here are the measures the WVYD called for in its “Healthy Jobs, Healthy Communities, Healthy Mountains Resolution:

See the “Whereas” section
Be It Resolved by the West Virginia Young Democrats

That the WVYD supports enforcement of set regulations around safety and environmental laws with respect to mountaintop removal and if necessary implement new legislation around concerns

That the WVYD opposes a high concentration of mountaintop removal sites in a geographic area

That the WVYD supports a moratorium on new permits until further study can be done on the effects of mountaintop removal while active sites which comply with current regulations remain active

That the WVYD supports further investigation into the long term ramifications of continued coal mining on the health of communities surrounding mining

That the WVYD moves that the reapportionment or increase of the coal severance tax should be reviewed in order to provide additional investment in renewable energy

That the WVYD supports alternative methods of mining coal

That all Democratic legislators on all levels of government publicly, vigorously, and quickly act to protect safety standards in deep mines and bring good paying green jobs through reclamation, renewable energy, sustainable industries, and other areas of the economy to all areas of WV