Thank you Jeff Biggers.  As a life long seventh generation community member of the Coal River Valley I am so appreciative of this well written piece.  Al Gore may want to speak to his friend Bobby Kenndey Jr. who visited us last year and was appalled by what he witnessed. We are surrounded by mountain top removal coal extraction.  Coal River Mountain is the last great mountain in this area and it's wind resource is the last hope for our communities survival. If Coal River Mountain is allowed to be wasted, it will be remembered as an act of greed by those such Joe Manchin and Don Blankenship, but even worse it will be remembered as an act of apathy by those such as  Al Gore and Barack Obama.

"No problem can be solved from the same consciousness that created it." Albert Einstein

And one more thing Mr. Gore.  Massey Energy also maintains a coal slurry impoundment in West Virginia, just upstream of a school.  If that impoundment should fail, and they have failed before, hundreds of children will be killed.  Don Blankenship and Joe Machin care about nothing but enriching themselves.  This has to stop.

Solar John

Governor Joe Manchin must issue a "stay of execution" on this ravaging of yet another Appalachian mountain, just another peak blown off to get at the coal, and then dumped into headwater streams. The difference is that the local community around THIS mountain came up with a viable alternative: a 220 MW wind farm, to produce energy and jobs forever with no continuing greenhouse or other pollution--and Gamesa, the Spanish wind company, wants to build and maintain the farms. Coal River Wind Project's plan also includes some underground coal mining to wean the area off the coal jobs without the degree of permanent destruction that is mountaintop removal mining. If the MTR mining goes forward, the wind option will be lost, because the wind potential here, while some of the best in the East, exists only on the high ridges: once the level is brought hundreds of feet lower, the scarred remains of Coal River Mountain will no longer support a wind farm. Or a forest...and these are some of the most diverse, productive, and beautiful forests in the world.
So call Manchin, at 1-888-438-2731, toll-free, to ask him to stop this short-sighted slaughter. He stopped it once before after he got thousands of calls--but it was easy then, because Coal River Mountain Watch discovered that Massey Energy didn't have the permits they needed. Now they do. So Manchin would have to simply intervene to prevent the global publicity likely to result from allowing this particular project to go forward. If he doesn't, and hundreds of people from all over show up for a showdown, covered by national and international media--he might wish he had just made the problem go away.

Dear Mr. Gore,

As a member of Coal River Mountain Watch, I urge you to come and visit Coal River Mountain and to learn more about our campaign.  In my opinion, the battle we are waging to save Coal River Mountain symbolizes the very battle you are waging to save the Earth from the devastating impacts of climate change.  The battle against climate change can only be won by transitioning the Central Appalachia coalfield economy away from coal mining - especially the devastating method known as Mountaintop Removal - and toward a cleaner, green, sustainable economy that will help stabilize these rural areas and create new economy opportunities that communities here so desperately need.

Folks in the Coal River Valley are waging a campaign to get a wind farm developed as a viable and necessary alternative to a proposed ten square mile Mountaintop Removal mine.  THe mining will lead to the release of millions of tons of carbon through the decomposition of the ten square miles of forest that will be destroyed.  The coal from the MTR mining will end up contributing over 100 million tons of CO2 to the atmosphere.  The valley fills will permanently bury over 20 miles of stream while contaminating another 40 to 60 miles with sediment and toxic heavy metals.  The blasting will ruin the foundations of nearby communities, while the mining and valley fills will place thousands in danger of massive flash floods.  Finally, by reducing the ridges by hundreds of feet, the mining will destroy the 400+ Megawatts of clean wind energy potential that currently exists.

The wind farm, by contrast, will generate clean energy forever, thus preventing the addition of hundreds of millions of CO2 to the atmosphere.  It will provide local residents with permanent, safe jobs, forever.  It will contribute over $2 Million in tax revenue for Raleigh County - one of the poorest counties in the nation - and this money could be used to stimulate the creation of other economic development projects that will futher diversify the economy and help break the coal stranglehold.  

This area needs this wind farm to be developed.  Coalfield residents need us to win, in order to spark some hope that things can and will change in the Central Appalachian coalfields.  And everyone needs your help.  We need you to help convince Governor Manchin that the wind farm is a far better option for the local communities, for the economy, and for West Virginia as a whole.  

So again, we urge you to get involved and help us get a wind farm on Coal River Mountain.  If we lose this one, there is little hope that we will ever be able to stop MTR and begin transitioning the local economies away from coal.  PLease visit the Coal River Valley, talk with the residents here, learn about our campaign and then meet with Governor Manchin and help us get this wind farm.  The choice being made here perfectly reflects the choices we must make as a nation if we are going to win the climate battle.  All change comes from the bottom up, and the change here begins in the valleys, but its success depends on saving the peaks.  

Thank you,

Rory McIlmoil
Coal River Mountain Wind Project