Mountaintop removal funeral procession at EPA in D.C.Photo courtesy Chris Eichler of RAN Field Photography via Flickr The Coalfield Uprising is spreading across the nation.
As millions of pounds of explosions rip across their mountain communities, including the clean energy landmark of Coal River Mountain, scores of residents from the Appalachian coalfields have joined with supporters from across the country in a series of sit-ins, die-ins, protests, and a haunting “Day of the Dead” funeral procession and sit-in in the courtyard of the Washington, D.C. headquarters of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Clean energy and clean water supporters across the country are also sending emails to the EPA and President Obama to stop the tragic blasting of Coal River Mountain.
“Inaction on the part of the EPA will affect the future of Appalachians, and generations to come,” says Bob Kincaid, with the Coal River Mountain Watch organization in West Virginia. “If Coal River Mountain is blown up, the green energy future of Appalachia, and the entire nation, will be imperiled.”
UPDATE: 3:3pm EST: The EPA Desk released this statement:
“EPA respects the concerns around the issue of mountaintop mining and
understands the high emotions felt by many Americans. Under the
leadership of Administrator Lisa P. Jackson, the Agency has taken a
number of unprecedented actions within the scope of the law, and in
partnership with other federal agencies to ensure the safety and health
of mining communities. We welcome and seek the voices of all Americans,
and look to them to guide our efforts to protect health and the
environment. We will continue to solicit the input of affected
communities, and engage with the public on this important issue.”
Coal River Mountain has been recognized by the Obama administration’s Council on Environmental Quality, and energy experts around the nation, as one of the most important sites for wind energy in the region, and a model for clean energy transition in the nation.
Instead of being destroyed for a limited dirty coal operation, the Coal River Wind project [PDF] slated for the historic mountain range would provide enough clean energy for 150,000 homes, hundreds of long-term jobs, and millions of dollars in tax revenues and local commerce.
Protester outside of EPA in D.C.Photo courtesy Chris Eichler of RAN Field Photography via Flickr As part of a nationwide “End Mountaintop Removal Day of Action” organized by the Rainforest Action Network (RAN) and coalfield activists and clean energy advocates across the nation, sit-ins and “die-in” and protests are taking place in over twenties cities at EPA regional offices from Kansas City to Denver to San Francisco, and at JP Morgan Chase offices from New York City to Chicago to Kentucky.
Today’s sit-in at the EPA in D.C. is directed at Lisa Jackson, who recently invoked the agency’s veto power to stop the massive Spruce Mine mountaintop removal operation in West Virginia. Declaring a state of emergency that threatens the lives of thousands of coalfield residents, the protesters (who include former coal miners) are calling on Jackson and the Obama administration to intervene in the new mountaintop removal operation on Coal River Mountain in a similar fashion, where the initial blasting took place last week. Operated by Massey Energy, the Coal River Mountain mine is setting off explosives that potentially jeopardize the 8-billion-gallon Brushy Fork coal sludge held back by a precarious earthen dam.
According to the mining company’s own evacuation plan, if the Brusky Fork dam broke, local residents and children would have only a few minutes to escape a 70-foot high tidal wave of coal sludge.
“Every day, more than 3 million pounds of explosives are detonated in our state to remove our mountains and expose the thin seams of coal beneath,” says Bo Webb, a resident of Coal River Valley, W.Va. and a participant in today’s rally. “President Obama, I beg you to re-light our flame of hope and honor and immediately stop the coal companies from blasting so near our homes and endangering our lives. As you have said, we must find another way than blowing off the tops of our mountains. We must end mountaintop removal.”
Protests are also underway at JP Morgan Chase offices in New York City, Chicago and elsewhere. As one of the biggest financiers of dirty coal endeavors, JP Morgan Chase has bankrolled Massey Energy’s mountaintop removal operations. Coalfield and clean energy advocates are calling on JP Morgan Chase to follow the example of the Bank of America [PDF], which announced their refusal to bankroll mountaintop removal operations last December.
Here’s a clip on JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon’s doublespeak on clean energy investment:
For more information on the local of the protests, see the RAN’s End of Mountaintop Removal Day of Action page.
For more photos and videos, check out RAN’s Flickr page.
Capturing the massive social benefits of fuel efficiency requires regulation
Copenhagen, U.S.A. December 7
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Billhook Posted 5:58 pm
01 Nov 2009
a focus on developing alternative sustainable mass-employment would seem more that just worthwhile - it could be the means of greatly accelerating the demise of the coal industry.
So far as I can tell, the state contains only one resource with the scale and vitality to support the requisite mass-employment, and that is its mountain forests of over 12 million acres extent.
They are of course a sacred cow for many, and I would suggest only the very respectful milking of a part of the whole, with the practice of glade-harvesting on a 15 to 30 yr cycle within a matrix of shelter-belts, to assist regrowth-rates and to maintain extant diversity.
Here in Britain forestry on steep land is often worked with heavy horses (one of their last practical uses) not merely for their unique ability to work steep ground but also for the relatively minor soil-disturbance they cause compared to forestry tractors.
As to the end-products, the state's major product prior to coal was, and could again be, charcoal. The vital out-of-state 'export' potentials of charcoal once it's processed to Biochar, both for carbon sequestration and for raising farm yields, are becoming well documented so I'll not go into them here. Equally, the potential co-products of syngas, liquid fuels, electricity, and surplus heat offer a broad range of energy options from which critical local needs may be addressed.
While I'd be first to agree that this "Coppice & Standards" forestry could be done badly, it need not be so. It could be done in an exemplary manner. It is evidently one of our oldest sustainable industries - we have artefacts of its use even in the Bronze Age, and extant active coppices hold the highest biodiversity of any European ecosystem.
One of the demands of sustainability would be a highly decentralized spread of small wood-refineries, either serving a few miles' radius of productive coppices, or beside rivers capable of transporting feedstock down from larger areas. In either case, beside this minimizing of fossil-fuelled feedstock-haulage, the prime requirement is that a sufficient period between a glade's respectful harvesting is a central stipulation of each project's operating licence.
No doubt many reading this may be tempted to dismiss the idea out of hand - but I hope there are some who see that in attempting to close down W. Virginian coal, there needs to be something sustainable offered to provide local jobs if the campaign is to avoid being dismissed out of hand as the fad of a bunch of callous interfering outsiders, and so resisted to the last.
I.e., a socially ethical approach is liable also to prove the most ecologically efficient.
So my questions are these - if there are people interested by the potential of this idea, can they start by exploring what interest there is already among W. Virginia's foresters in the Biochar option, and, if they find time, could they please post an account of their progress here on Grist ?
Regards,
Billhook
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