West Virginia

Coal River Mountain: destruction stops here

Blowing up our clean energy future 1
Posted 2 weeks, 1 day ago Right now, Coal River Mountain represents the best and worst our country has to offer. It is one of the most dangerous examples of blasting for dirty coal and one of the most profound examples of hope that exist in our country. It is a crossroads.
how will key senators vote on a climate bill?

Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.) [UPDATED] 1
Posted 3 weeks, 2 days ago Sen. Robert Byrd hated the climate bill that passed the House in June, but he seems a little more open to the Kerry-Boxer bill being considered in the Senate.
Historic game changer

Will EPA veto or regulate the plunder of Appalachia? 1
Posted 1 month ago In a historic move, Lisa Jackson's EPA threw down the gauntlet on mountaintop removal mining last Friday -- after they had just compromised on another massively destructive mountaintop removal operation.
Shoutin' Down the Army Corps Hearing on Mountaintop Removal

Should the Department of Justice investigate Big Coal bedlam? 1
Posted 1 month, 1 week ago While their profits continue to soar amid job losses, Big Coal let loose the hounds of chaos and hatred at last night's Army Corps of Engineers public hearing in West Virginia on mountaintop removal permits.
Brighter Planet Proposal for Sustainable Energy in Coal River Valley

Bring seeds to the coalfields: Vote for this clean energy project 0
Posted 1 month, 1 week ago Want to take on Big Coal with a couple clicks on your keyboard?
Coal slurry smiles

NY Times nails Clean Water Act crimes and (lack of) punishment 0
Posted 2 months, 1 week ago
Readers of the New York Times probably dropped their jaws in amazement at the lead story on Sunday: Seven-year-old Ryan Massey, of Prenter, West Virginia, smiled back with capped teeth, the enamel devoured by toxic tap water. His brother sported scabs and rashes, courtesy of the heavy metals--including lead, nickel--in their bath water.
Who Killed the Jobs of Van Jones and Coal Miners?

Labor Day of Infamy 0
Posted 2 months, 2 weeks ago
Less than 48 hours after a bizarre witch-hunt by right-wing Fox News commentator Glenn Beck brought down our nation's hardest-working and respected green jobs advocate, Van Jones, Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship will host an equally bizarre Labor Day spectacle--or Don-A-Pullute-Za, as West Virginia Blue activists say--in the name of union-busted jobs and climate-change denial in Logan County, West Virginia.
$50,000 bail for jailed protesters

VIDEO: Weeklong Mountaintop-removal Tree-sit Ends 1
Posted 2 months, 3 weeks ago
Tree-sitting protesters in mountain-removal country have come back down to the ground -- but the fight continues.
time to change "friends and family" selections

Verizon sponsors climate-change-denying mountaintop-removal rally? 22
Posted 2 months, 3 weeks ago
Do 87 million Verizon Wireless customers, stockholders, and its Public Policy Development and Corporate Responsibility Department know that their company is a cosponsor of next week's climate change–denying, union-busting, pro–mountaintop removal rally organized by Massey Energy in Logan, W.Va.?
Face lift

Who are the faces behind FACES of Coal? 5
Posted 3 months ago
Yet another pro-coal group has popped up to rally folks against climate action. The Federation for American Coal, Energy and Security -- or FACES of Coal -- joins a growing list of "grassroots" groups formed to support fossil fuels.
West Virginia, Kentucky miners boycott Tennessee over proposed mountaintop removal restrictions 3
Posted 3 months, 3 weeks ago
There will be no more excursions to Dollywood for Roger Horton, a coal miner who lives in West Virginia -- at least not until U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) drops legislation he's sponsoring that would limit mountaintop removal mining.
how will key senators vote on a climate bill?

Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) 1
Posted 4 months ago
Sen. Jay Rockefeller has expressed concerns about the impact a climate bill would have on West Virginia's coal industry.
West Virginia redefines dirty energy as “alternative” 2
Posted 4 months, 1 week ago
In the recent legislative session, Gov. Joe Manchin (D) championed and state lawmakers approved an energy portfolio standard bill requiring 25% of generation to come from "alternative and renewable" sources by 2025. But the new standard, which goes into effect this month, has defined "alternative" to include natural gas, old tires, coal gas and even waste coal.
GO YELL IT ON THE MOUNTAIN

Mountaintop removal defenders disrupt July 4th music festival in West Virginia 0
Posted 4 months, 2 weeks ago
The Mountain Keepers Music Festival took place this place this July 4th weekend at a park on Kayford Mountain in West Virginia, an event organized by the Keeper of the Mountains Foundation in solidarity against mountaintop removal mining. But Saturday's fun was disrupted when some 20 supporters of Massey Energy, a coal company with mountaintop removal mining operations in the area, crashed the festival and threatened attendees verbally and with obscene gestures.
Coal Country film premiere

Big Coal does not want you to see this film 1
Posted 4 months, 2 weeks ago
As a groundbreaking clean energy counterpart to this summer's extraordinary Food, Inc. documentary on the agribusiness, the long-awaited "Coal Country" film on the cradle-to-grave process of generating our coal-fired electricity will be hitting the theaters this week with the big bang of an ammonium nitrate/fuel oil explosive. And Big Coal ain't happy.
Maria Gunnoe Testimony at Senate Hearing on Mountaintop Removal

What About the Homeland Security of the Coalfield Residents? 1
Posted 4 months, 3 weeks ago
Editor Jon Queally at Common Dreams has just posted the testimony of Goldman Prize winner Maria Gunnoe from last Thursday's historic Senate hearing on mountaintop removal. Below is the full text from Gunnoe, who is a community organizer with the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition.
Why is the Obama Administration Supporting Union-Busting Thugs?

VIDEO: Violent Massey attack on Goldman Prize winner Judy Bonds 2
Posted 4 months, 3 weeks ago
Question of the week: Has any Obama administration or West Virginia state official publicly denounced the violence by the mountaintop removal operators this week?
Marsh Fork Mountaintop Removal Protest 0
Posted 5 months ago
94-year-old Ken Hechler, Daryl Hannah, James Hansen join coalfield residents

Live at Coal River—mass arrests against mountaintop removal 2
Posted 5 months ago
Ken Hechler, the legendary West Virginia congressman, was arrested in a non-violent protest with NASA's celebrated climate scientist James Hansen, actress Daryl Hannah, Michael Brune (executive director of Rainforest Action Network), and Goldman Prize winner Judy Bonds, and dozens of other coalfield residents after crossing onto the property of leading mountaintop removal coal mining company, Massey Energy.
Coal is the enemy of West Virginia 3
Posted 5 months ago
I wrote a slightly snotty post about West Virginia recently, making the point that dependence on coal has produced more misery than benefit for West Virginians. And now there's empirical data to back that up.