The following was written a week ago, after the coalfield community group, the Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards, marched on their local coal-hugging regulatory agency. Sorry it’s a little late, but I’ve just come down from Pine Mountain in Kentucky where Mountain Justice hosted its 6th annual Mountain Justice Summer Camp (and then on to Lexington). Here’s to the long haul towards a better Appalachia, and yet another long summer of action to end the reign of King Coal!

Please support the work of the Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards by clicking this link to keep up the pressure on the EPA in order to Keep Ison Rock Ridge Standing.

Late Monday morning, June 1, 2010, around 20 Wise County residents gathered at the offices of the Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy in Big Stone Gap, Va to rally in opposition to A&G Coal’s proposed Ison Rock Ridge surface mine. Picketers held signs with slogans including, “Ison Rock Ridge is families. Keep it standing!” and “Don’t blast our homes.” As part of the rally, two individuals delivered a “Certificate of Failure” to the DMME for failing to protect communities. Continue reading ‘Coalfield Group Deliver’s “FAIL” award to Coal-Hugging Regulatory Agency’

Posted on behalf of Jasper Conner, a member of the Industrial Workers of the World, Mountain Justice and the RReNEW Collective

We have to make it clear: a Green economy that doesn’t work for everybody, doesn’t work at all.

I’ve seen the demand for Green Jobs for a while now. It has spread so widely across the country that political candidates are forced to take a position on our demand. We should celebrate pushing this demand so far, but we also need to evaluate what we’ve won with this demand. (and what it is exactly that we are demanding?)

I organize in SW Virginia with the Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards (SAMS), in a coal field community directly impacted by mountaintop removal.  The other day I had a conversation with a strip miner who also runs a cluttered second hand shop in the town of Appalachia. We were able to find a lot of common ground in our conversation: we both don’t like surface mining, and we both would love to see Green jobs in the community. I didn’t need to convince him about more jobs in his community, so much as I needed to show him what we’re actually doing to make it happen.

While in Richmond, Va, our state Capitol, on a lobby trip I spoke with some industry people at length about some different things. I asked them what they thought about a more sustainable and diverse economy in Appalachia, and they were supportive of the idea. They were also very honest with their belief that coal won’t be around much longer. But they also asked an important question, “Where is that Green economy?”

Continue reading ‘Moving Beyond Green Jobs’

I’m writing to ask you to take a step today that can help break King Coal’s economic stranglehold on coalfield communities in Southwest Virginia. By a few simple, digital steps, and three votes, you can help jump start grass roots efforts at sustainable economic development in the mountains of Southwest Virginia. Heard enough? Great. Go to Brighter Planet and vote for the Wise Energy and Sustainable Economic Development and Diversification Project. Need to know more? Read on.

WE SEDD, Green Jobs Now!
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 social violence.  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.WE SEDD is one of these efforts, and it sure could use your votes

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

Continue reading ‘Support Grassroots Sustainable Economic Development in the Coalfields!’

More pictures available at www.risingtidenorthamerica.org

Boston, MA – Activists with climate group Rising Tide hung a 30-foot banner reading, “System Change, Not Climate Change” on the Harvard Bridge (Massachusetts Ave.) spanning Boston and Cambridge this afternoon. The action comes in the final days of the United Nations Climate Talks in Copenhagen, as 115 world leaders arrive while negotiations have deadlocked. In the past week, over one thousand activists have been arrested in protests.

“The United Nations process has systematically failed the world’s marginalized countries and consistently excludes those that would dare support and fight on behalf of those countries,” said David Bukett of Rising Tide. “We need system change to create a world which is truly just and sustainable to solve the climate crisis.”

Continue reading ‘Boston Climate Activists Hang 30-Foot Banner Off Harvard Bridge During U.N. Climate Conference’

Coal River Valley Residents Declare State of Emergency, Meet with Governor Joe Manchin; Seven Sit-In at Governor’s Office

Coal River Valley residents and supporters associated with Mountain Justice and Climate Ground Zero delivered a letter to Governor’s Manchin’s office in the State Capitol building at 12:15 p.m. today. The statement from Coal River Valley residents calls on Manchin to use his executive powers to halt mountaintop removal mining operations on Coal River Mountain, one of the last intact mountains remaining in the Coal River Valley area.

Governor Manchin met the letter deliverers in the antechamber of his office and spoke with Lorelei Scarbro of Rock Creek and Chuck Nelson of Glen Daniel. As of 2:30 p.m. seven young people are sitting in the antechamber, refusing to leave until Manchin moves to halt MTR on Coal River Mountain or they are forcibly removed. Security guards conveyed to them that they have permission to remain until the close of normal business hours at 5 p.m..

“We are delivering this letter to our governor with residents of the Coal River Valley,” said Miranda Miller and Angela Wiley of Morgantown, W.Va., two of the seven sitters, “We are West Virginia citizens standing in solidarity with the people who submitted comments for this letter, voicing their concerns on the dangers of blasting on Coal River Mountain.

For years, local residents have expressed their concerns over the long-term health effects of their proximity to coal mining and processing operations, while scientists have stated that it devastates local ecosystems and contaminates groundwater with carcinogens and heavy metals. One of the most imminent dangers associated with the proposed Coal River Mountain operation Continue reading ‘Update from Coal River Mountain Action in West Virginia’

This Valentine’s Day, February 14th, 2009, join Rising Tide Boston (RTB) in demanding that Bank of America stop its funding of the dirty and deadly coal industry and demanding, in solidarity with City Life/Vida Urbana, stop its unjust foreclosures and evictions of working families. Closing your account with Bank of America (BoA) is an important step in bringing closure to this unhealthy relationship.

We have a lot of new updates for the Day of Action! We’ve released a set of resources on our website, http://www.risingtideboston.org (just click the banner at the top to get to our BoA section). Continue reading ‘Bank of America, We’re Still Breaking Up With You’

Hello youth climate activists!

Earlier this week Dr. James Hansen, the well known, outspoken member of the not so youthful movement for climate action, coming off of an informative and inspiring, if less than exciting, appearance at Virginia PowerShift, wrote the following essay in defense of the brave Wise 11. These young folk stood with community activists from Southwest Virginia against the destruction of more mountains in Southern Appalachia, and against global climate chaos by locking themselves to the gates of Dominion Power’s planned power plant in St. Paul Va.

Like he did with the 6 Greenpeace activists in the UK recently, Dr. Hansen defended the actions of Rainforest Action Network, Blue Ridge Earth First!, Mountain Justice and sds as necessary steps to protect the global good, to halt climate and ecological degradation before it leaves an inhospitable planet. Maybe soon we will see Dr. Hansen out there with Al Gore?

Obstruction of Justice

“You’re Hannah, right?”  Hannah Morgan, a 20-year old from Appalachia, Virginia, was one of 11 protesters in handcuffs early Monday morning September 15 at the construction site for a coal-fired power plant being built in Wise County Virginia by Dominion Power.  The handcuffs were applied by the police, but the questioner, it turns out, was from Dominion Power.

“Mumble, mumble, mumble”, the discussion between police and the Dominion man were too far away to be heard by the young people.  But it almost seemed that the police were working for Dominion.  Maybe that’s the way it works in a company town.  Or should we say company state?  Virginia has got one of the most green-washed coal-blackened governors in the nation ( http://www.columbia.edu/~jeh1/mailings/20080529_DearGovernorGreenwash.pdf ).
It seems Hannah had been pegged by Dominion as a “ringleader”.  She had participated for two years in public meetings and demonstrations against the plan for mountaintop removal, strip mining and coal burning, and she had rejected their attempts to either intimidate or bargain.
“Bargain?”  What bargain is possible when Dominion is guaranteed 14% return on their costs, whether the coal plant’s power is needed or not.  Utility customers have to cough this up, and they aren’t given any choice.  The meetings and demonstrations were peaceful. Forty-five thousand signatures against the plant were collected.  But money seems to talk louder.
Dominion’s “mumble, mumble” must have been convincing.  Hannah and Kate Rooth were charged with 10 more crimes than the other 10 defendants.  Their charges included “encouraging or soliciting” others to participate in the action and were topped by “obstruction of justice”.  Penalty if convicted: up to 14 years in prison. [Why does this remind me of Jim Jobe in "Grapes of Wrath"?]
“Obstruction of justice??”  My first thought was that this case might help draw attention to the inter-generational injustice and inequity of continued building of coal-fired power plants.  Is the Orwellian double-speak in the charge of “obstruction of justice” not apparent?

Continue reading ‘James Hansen: Obstruction of Justice?’

Citizens opposed to National Coal Corporation mining the Sundquist Wildlife Management Area

Yet another action from Mountain Justice in Defense of the Appalachian Mountains! Please Support Fellow Activists.

CAMPBELL COUNTY, Tenn., July 20 – Residents of coal-impacted communities throughout Tennessee and Appalachia took a stand today for the mountains of East Tennessee by marching on Zeb Mountain, a surface mining site owned by Knoxville-based National Coal Corporation. In the tradition of American Civil Disobedience, the march, organized by United Mountain Defense, Mountain Justice, and Three Rivers Earth First!, included a diversity of coal-impacted citizens ranging from hunters fighting for the state’s wildlife to religious leaders promoting environmental stewardship

Continue reading ‘APPALACHIAN RESIDENTS GATHER TO MARCH ON ZEB MOUNTAIN’

For the last year in Virginia we have been fighting tooth and nail against a new coal fired power plant in Wise Co., Va, one of the few coal producing counties in this state, and a place where King Coal still definitely reigns, though today we dealt him a mighty blow.

Below you will find a dispatch from CCAN blogger Susanna, part 3 of a series about this last week in Wise, which you can find over at their Blog.

“This week I’m going to be in Wise County, where Dominion Power is planning to build a $1.8 billion coal-fired power plant. Members of the Sierra Club, Appalachian Voices, Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards and CCAN are putting on events around the meeting of the Air Board on Tuesday.

Today was the final day of the Air Board Hearing concerning the Wise County coal plant. The room was full of hope after yesterday’s comment period, and the board acknowledged the powerful citizen outcry over the plant’s health and environmental impacts. But ultimately, they approved the plant. While they significantly strengthened the emissions regulations, they did nothing to address mountain top removal mining or CO2 emissions.

They went as far as they could, without doing more harm than good. Fearing litigation from Dominion, they made no strong statement about regulating CO2—without the regulatory framework from the EPA, the Board felt it wasn’t able to take a strong stand. “My hope is,” stated one Air Board member, “that strong, forceful legislation will come at a federal level and that Governor Kaine will take state-specific actions to address CO2.”

It was because of the “loud public clamor” that the Air Board decided to take up this permit and make it as strong as it is now. Dominion will have to make a considerable effort to meet these demands, including cleaning up their mercury emissions. Dominion walked in the door expecting that their permit would get rubber-stamped approved with a 72 lb mercury emissions regulation. The Air Board demanded that they reduce that to 4.45 lbs per year. That’s a 120% reduction, made possible only by the strong grassroots outcry about this plant.

Continue reading ‘Winning and Losing in Wise Co., Va’

Hello to the Movement. This is my first post to IGHIH, and Im excited to be representing my bio-region and my corner of the movement to all of yall, who have inspired us so much already.

Today I’m writing as a member of Blue Ridge Earth First! Down here in the Blue Ridge, we’ve been joining arms with people from across Appalachia, Virginia and further afield to defeat Dominion Power’s proposed Wise County coal-fired power plant. If built the plant would spew 5.4 million tons of CO2, while increasing mountaintop removal coal mining in places like Wise Co., where 25% of the county has already been strip mined. We have attended hearings, written public comments, marched in rallies, signed petitions, organized rowdy spring breaks and presented Fossil Fools awards, and today we took the fight against this plant to the next level.

Yesterday morning as the sun rose on a beautiful spring day in Richmond, Va, three Activists with BREF! locked themselves down in a blockade of the one road into the main head quarters of Dominion Power. Quickly, the morning rush was turned into a mile long line of cars in the middle of downtown. 20+ supporters, supporters of a sustainable future and sane energy production, chanted and held signs for the whole time that Dominion’s operations were effectively halted. Continue reading ‘Blue Ridge Earth First! Stops Business as Usual at Dominion Power’