Windmills an opportunity for Tazewell

Bluefield Daily Telegraph

I would like to address the proposed windmill project in Tazewell County. I understand the concerns regarding ruining the view. Some people do not want to look at windmills. The reality is that windmills provide safe, clean energy. It is not a substitution for the coal industry, though that day will eventually come through better clean energy technology.

The people of Tazewell County have an opportunity to get in on the ground floor and generate energy in a way that will not diminish their children and grandchildren’s water and air quality in the way that coal does. It will create 15 permanent jobs, which some members of the community scoff at. The Sunday edition of the Bluefield Daily Telegraph included a column indicating the opening of a Taco Bell would create more jobs and cause less controversy. Perhaps it would create more jobs, but they would be minimum wage jobs, jobs that do not provide the economic stability needed to raise a family, buy a house, or lead a reasonably comfortable life. Do we really want to perpetuate that kind of rest stop economic mentality in the two Virginias?

I also find it ironic in reading over the letters in the last year or so that many people opposing windmills are also “friends of coal.” Perhaps East River Mountain would be better suited for a mountaintop removal mine? It would create good paying jobs, after all, and certainly wouldn’t interrupt the graceful beauty of the mountain in the way that windmills would.

John M. McCormick

Athens

Any West Virginian that knows their history will perk their ears when they hear talk of Blair Mountain. In 1921 conflict between a fledgling West Virginia coal union and coal company opposition came to a head when thousands of coal miners, many wearing red bandanas around their necks as a symbol of their beliefs and solidarity, marched to Blair Mountain in Logan County, rifles in hand, to fight for their rights. On the mountain they were met by paid company “thugs”, as they were called, private planes that served as bombers, police, and eventually federal troops and U.S. army bombers.

It is not clear how many men died on either side, nor how many were wounded. Numbers are especially vague on the miners’ side, as the miner-army was not well organized, but many historians believe that the dead numbered near one-hundred for the miners and thirty for the opposition. For many West Virginians this is not just detached history, something that happened in the past and we have no connection to. My ancestors marched on that mountain, and my father proudly keeps one of the rifles used in that battle in his gun cabinet, a family heirloom that no doubt will be passed to me one day as it was passed down to him.

Now in 2010 Blair Mountain is under attack once more. Recent years have seen a struggle between environmentalists and historians that successfully placed Blair Mountain on the National Historic Registry last year and coal companies that wish to mine the battlefield. Law regarding whether or not the site can be placed on the registry states that a certain number of residents in the area must want the area to be listed. Residents have gone back and forth on the issue, and currently there seems to be enough opposition to allow the site to be revoked from the National Historic Registry, which has officially occurred.

Sons of West Virginia bled and died on that mountain as they struggled for their rights and we are on the cusp of seeing historical protection of this important West Virginia battlefield stripped away forever- both literally and figuratively. When one day I pass that rifle down to the next generation I do not want to have to tell them that the people of West Virginia allowed the historic site of Blair Mountain to be leveled for the sake of coal company profit margins.

It is inconceivable that any other battlefield would be taken off the registry. No one would propose mining under a Revolutionary War or Civil War battlefield. Is the blood spilled by West Virginia miners any less important than the blood of any other soldier, is the ground that drank it up any less hallowed? It is time for the people of West Virginia to honor the men that died on Blair Mountain, not only for the blood spilled, but for their efforts to change an industry that abused and exploited the sons and daughters of West Virginia. Write to your congressman, Senators Byrd and Rockefeller, Governor Manchin, and even President Obama and voice your disdain for allowing our state’s and our ancestors’ history to be stripped away for the benefit of big business.

John M. McCormick
Athens, WV

Please sign this petition pledging to boycott Wendy’s until it stops supporting mountaintop removal. http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/boycott-wendys-until-it-stops-supporting-mountaintop-removal

****Original Post  Below****

After several discussions with Wendys International (614-764-3100), I learned today that they have no plans of removing the Friends of Coal Signs currently displayed in 35 Wendys Restaurants.

They said they realized they would be the subject of a national boycott but did not seem to care. Apparently they do not know that awareness about mountaintop removal is spreading, and that more and more people are ready to take a stand any way they can against this repulsive practice.

Though Wendys maintains that they cannot force the 35 restaurants to take down the signs, they refused to release a public statement saying they do not support mountaintop removal. In fact, I find it hard to believe that Wendys cannot control the images displayed in its stores. After all, the FOC stickers are right up there with the little picture of Wendy herself. If there was a big sign supporting something they found offensive (for example, a Ralph Nader campaign poster), I have no doubt they would hasten to take it down.

Please join the people suffering from mountaintop removal and boycott Wendys everywhere. I will call Wendys in two weeks to see if they are ready to negotiate.

The coal industry created the PR front group Friends of Coal primarily to change the meaning of pro-coal to pro-mountaintop removal. Though touted as a “grass-roots” campaign, FOC actually gets most of its funding from executives and major stockholders. Miners and their families are “strongly encouraged” to display FOC propaganda to give the PR group the image of a popular movement. Friends of Coal is not grass-roots. It is more like lespidesia-roots, the asian weed sprayed on barren mountaintop removal sites like astroturf; it might look like grass, but it is simpy a coal industry prop.

BTW, the AFL-CIO launched a boycott of Wendys/Arbys in December. Read about that here: http://www.aflcio.org/blog_sendus.cfm

Yet this argument, like other excuses profferred for mountaintop removal, is a fraud.

• Even if this argument held up (which it does not ), it implies that Appalachia should be the sacrifice zone for the nation’s cheap energy.  Appalachians have already sacrificed more than their fair share. A greater proportion of them fought (and died) in WWI, WWII, Korea, Vietnam, and Iraq. Mountaintop removal has displaced thousands from their ancestral homelands. It has permanently destroyed over a million acres of bountiful forest and burried over 1000 miles of freshwater streams. Much more land is inhabitable thanks to blasting, flooding, and poisoning.  Those who are fighting to stay are done sacrificing.

• But to call the destruction of Appalachia for cheap coal a sacrifice is wrong. Mountaintop removal is not necessary for cheap energy. Mountaintop removal IS necessary for companies to maximize their profits. Rather than a sacrifice, it is a pillage. Greed, not patriotism, is the reason coal companies prefer it.

• A country does not need coal–much less mountaintop removal coal–to have abundant electricity. Norway, for example, has the highest per-capita usage of electricity, yet only 1.2% of their power comes from coal.

• Even now, America does not totally depend on coal. In fact, the percentage of power generated by coal has dropped over the years to a current low of 43%. No new coal fired power plants were built in 2009 while 26 were permanently shelved.

• Coal is not the cheapest source of energy in the United States. It is now even cheaper to generate the same amount of electricity from solar panels, the most expensive renewable source. Importantly, this does not account for externalized costs of coal (health risks, environmental degradation–acid mine drainage, acid rain, reclamation, and so on). Coal plants continue to be profitable only because they are subsidized with billions of public dollars. Take a peak at this study: http://mail.google.com/mail/?shva=1#search/study+coal+costs+Kentucky+more/122176f281a72852

• It does not follow that obtaining coal responsibly (deep mining) with a well paid, unionized, work force means less coal. No matter how you mine it, the volume of coal does not change. No matter how close seams of coal are to the surface (most coal is NOT even near the surface), it can be extracted without blowing up the overlying soil and forest. Granted, mining coal responsibly may not be economical. But if coal is indeed so valuable to the nation, why should Americans leave its extraction to the “for profit” sector? Our energy sector should be under democratic control. Put coal mining in the hands of the people–”nationalize” it–and it doesn’t matter how expensive it is to extract. Take the billions and billions and billions that goes to advertising and profit and use it to deep mine responsibly and lower per capita costs–people who live in countries with nationalized energy sectors pay less for their energy.

• Most damning to the patriotic argument is the fact that much of the coal taken from the destruction of Appalachia does NOT even stay in the United States. Here is a little tid-bit about Don Blankenship’s company, Massey Energy (compiled by Matt Noerpel).

Page 22 of their 2008 annual report (page number 14) says that in 2008 Massey produced 41.0 million tons of coal for a produced coal revenue of $2.6 Billion.  Approximately 30% of their revenue came from exporting coal.  IF all coal were priced equally (which is isn’t) or they exported the various grades of coal in the same proportion they sold in the US (I have no idea how that works out), that would mean they exported approximately 12.3 million tons of coal, which is probably a fairly reasonable estimate.  It doesn’t break it down by which countries they export to.  Greenpeace used to have access to the databases that had the per country breakdown I don’t know if they do anymore.

The annual report can be found here:  http://ccbn.10kwizard.com/xml/download.php?repo=tenk&ipage=5502299&format=PDF

• Here are some more tid-bits (compiled by Rory  Mcllmoil)

A total of 55.4 million tons of coal was exported to foreign countries from the US in 2007.

45.2 million tons from Appalachia.

19 million tons from WV.

13.3 million tons from southern WV.

5.9 million tons from eastern KY.

So a total of 19.2 million tons from Massey territory.

Thought this would be helpful.  Link is here:  http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/coal/page/coaldistrib/2007/o_07foreign.pdf

Even more interesting, the EIA discontinued their reporting of foreign destinations by exporting state.  The last report was in 2003:  http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/coal/page/coaldistrib/2003/d_03foreign.pdf

Here’s the data.  Numbers are in this order [metallurgical coal exports -- steam coal exports -- total coal exports], and then given by country.  The top four countries are Canada, Italy, France, and the Netherlands.  Or at least they were in 2003.  Perhaps there should be a field trip??:

West Virginia     12,590     1,187     13,777     
Algeria     506     -    506     
Belgium     304     -    304     
Brazil     967     -    967     
Bulgaria     470     -    470     
Canada     2,307     501     2,808     
Denmark     -    97     97     
Dominican Republic     -    57     57     
Egypt     604     -    604     
Finland     273     -    273     
France     1,608     -    1,608     
India     11     -    11     
Italy     2,095     -    2,095     
Morocco     -    430     430     
Netherlands     1,061     -    1,061     
Spain     846     -    846     
Sweden     373     -    373     
Turkey     532     -    532     
United Kingdom     632     103     735   

• And here is a qoute from Blankenship that he did not spout in his “Friends of America” speech:

 ”As China and India consume more coal, we believe our opportunitymay be greater to sell our coal directly into these markets…”

• More:

Penny Messinger had a comment on John McQuaid’s story in the Smithsonian that:
“A lot of the metallurgical coal from WV’s mines is exported, which belies the coal industry’s claims to be promoting “energy independence” for the U.S. and its current PR campaign for so-called “clean coal technology,” which doesn’t really exhist. Also, WV’s blind support of the coal industry and whatever techniques it chooses to use precludes other types of economic activity, meaning that since mountaintop removal employs relatively few people, WV’s biggest export continues to be its children.”

Today, coal minions are increasingly on the defensive about mountaintop removal (thanks largely to the efforts of Appalachian citizens who have had enough). As a result, they have devoted millions to various PR campaigns (Friends of Coal being the largest) and are careful to pontificate well crafted talking points.  Yet just a couple of decades ago, mountaintop removal profiteers were much more candid about their true feelings. There is no better way to end this blog than with the words of E. Morgan Massey, the predecessor of Don Blankenship.

In a letter to the Charleston Gazette,

June, 1985
_________________________________________________________________________

“Multinational corporations do not have a great deal of national

loyalty and even less loyalty to Southern West Virginia.”

Manchin has made this known repeatedly. It does not matter that thousands have begged him to save Coal River Mountain. It does not matter that the mountain is ideal for an industrial wind farm that would bring permanent, high-paying, “clean” jobs. It does not matter that residents living beneath the mountain spent their own money to commision a study to show that a wind-farm would be ideal. It does not matter that blasting the mountain could rupture a nearby earthen dam that holds back 8 billion gallons of coal slurry. It just does not matter: Manchin does NOT get involved in the permitting process of mountaintop removal.

Until doing so would benefit the mountaintop removal industry…

On Tuesday a Federal Judge halted operations (after allowing a 60 day extension period) on a massive strip-mine in Clay County because the legal permitting process was not followed (the public was not given an opportunity to comment).

Yet rather than remaining ”impartial,” our slimy Governor/coal industry lap dog grabbed some friendly tv reporters and headed over to the quarry (aka strip-mine) to lambaste the ruling and plead for its reversal.

Such hypocrisy was not lost on victims of mountaintop removal.

This is what one long-time activist had to say.

 They really do think that they are better than everyone else!!!!
I lived on 3 jobs when they trashed me and my family..
I didn’t see gov joe there doing anything for me.  Trying to take advantage of me and my family by asking me to “sign a waiver with the coal company releasing them from any future liability and he would have them come fix my place” this was in 04

When they have to make it on 400 a week they might get a good taste of what its like to have to live a normal life.
They are the type of people though that would starve out their kids before they would give up the V10 titon’s trucks and 2 4 wheelers.

Please visit www.coalriverwind.org and sign the petition to save Coal River Mountain.

Thanks to Jamie Goodman with Appalachian Voices for uncovering this.

Exhibit A
http://www.facesofcoal.org/?page_id=18

Exhibit B
http://www.istockphoto.com/stock-photo-8934514-group-of-adult-students-standing-in-campus-corridor.php

Exhibit C
http://www.facesofcoal.org/?page_id=25

Exhibit D
http://www.istockphoto.com/stock-photo-6947555-group-of-happy-business-people-standing-together-against-white-background.php

Exhibit E
http://www.facesofcoal.org (note the first image that comes up)

Exhibit F
http://www.istockphoto.com/stock-photo-8913075-woman-working-at-flower-shop.php
http://www.istockphoto.com/stock-photo-6530020-traffic-through-los-angeles.php

And when the United States Senate held a committee meeting to discuss mountaintop removal in June, there was Huffman to put things in perspective, lest the fine Congressmen be duped by the stories of people like Maria Gunnoe, who to Huffman only thinks the mountaintop removal operation behind her house killed everything in the once teeming stream that runs across her ancestral property. 

Though everything seemed to contradict the words of Huffman, it was inconceivable that he would be lying. After all, he was under oath and would not dare commit perjury; or worse for christians: lie on the bible. Even more important,  he was a scientist and thereby professionally obligated to present the facts, even if they were politically incorrect.

Or we thought until a package arrived at reporter Ken Ward’s office, mailed anonymous with no return address, within it an internal memo written by a respected biologist at the DEP, excoriating Huffman for contradicting the massive evidence his agency had compiled that clearly showed mountaintop removal was harmful!

Ken Ward immediately posted about it.  Ken uploaded the memo and linked it to his post. It is worth reading in its entirety.

While solid proof of Randy Huffman’s complicity in covering up environmental damage is sickening, this incident does give us hope that not all employees of the DEP have abandoned their integrity and committment to environmental protection. Where there is integrity, there is a chance that justice may come. But before it can, future heads of the DEP must not be picked by governors, most of whom have been slavish to out-of-state coal interests.

 My problem with the plan is this: federal money will be used to create a facade of a forest that mountaintop removal industries can point to and say “See, Reclamation is Possible!”

Let’s break this down. First of all, if anyone should be paying to fix this mess, it should be the  mountaintop removal industry who made it and not a government which is already cutting public funds in the name of “debt.” Secondly, the ARRI can only create a facade of a forest. Only a handful of species will be planted, and these with an eye towards eventual profitibility and not ecosystem restoration. See my post Wildlife In Appalachia for a description of this area’s ecology, the conditions that produce it, and a comprehensive list of the species destroyed by mountaintop removal.  

Of most concern to me is the effect a facade of a forest will have on coal industry propaganda efforts.  Currently, reclaimed mine sites are a public relations liability. Not wanting to foot the bill to grow trees, the industry is content with berating us on the beauty of lespidesia fields in the hopes that eventually we will believe it.  In sum, this plan will amount to a federal subsidy to the PR wing of the coal industry and justify MORE mountaintop removal.

While there are merits to growing trees on mtr sites, not the least of which is a probable reduction in flooding, this must not be done until mountaintop removal is BANNED. And then the funds should come out of Don Blankenship’s bulging pockets.

What follows are more concerns about this project. These from someone “in the know” :

1) That they haven’t convinced me that they are promoting ecology over economy, meaning that they’re not really looking at reforestation through the lens of attempting to restore the natural habitat, but more through the lens of planting economically profitable species.  When I challenged Patrick on a statement he made about ‘economic use,’ he quickly switched back to his guise of seeing himself as a “buddah planting trees,” and said his main concern was the ecology.

2) That ARRI might be used as a greenwashing tool.  Trust me, Van and the CEQ are not fooled by this.  They understand the extent of land/forest impacts from MTR, and I’ve provided a comment to them about how little of the affected area would be reforested through the current ARRI funding proposal (something like 1% or so, can’t remember exactly).

3) That the public is being asked to foot the bill.  Basically, ARRI is pursuing funding for their program through private foundations and the federal government.  This is problematic.  The funding should come from an additional tax on coal beyond the current special reclamation tax.  It should not come from public sources or private foundations who could use their money to benefit the work of non-profits rather than of the Office of Surface Mining.  The OSM itself should be held partially accountable for failing to uphold the law regarding reclamation, and should require the state’s to get more money from the coal companies in order to pay for reforestation efforts.

4) That it wont work.  Patrick Angel and the ARRI associated researchers are claiming that there is a high survivability rate for the trees they plant.  They base their claims on sites that were planted 5-10 years ago.  Not nearly enough time for knowing whether or not the trees will survive, and there is hardly an accounting of whether the trees that do survive are native trees or not.  An olive tree that grows in harsh conditions anyway does not count as a successful reforestation effort.  Getting a hemlock to survive, or a maple, or a sycamore, or actually, all three together, now that might convince me.  However, for the lands already impacted, we do have to try, but the public shouldn’t have to pay for it.

5) That Patrick seems to think, or at least purports, that sandstone and shale fragments and dust that results from the blasting of bedrock counts as soil.  He uses the term “weathered sandstone” in order to describe pulverized sandstone, and puts that out as a replacement for soil.  So overall, a dishonest description of the process and its potential for success calls for serious concern, especially since Patrick is asking the CEQ to provide support for the program.

6) They are hailing this as green jobs.  Which isn’t a bad thing, as long as new surface mining is prevented.  Also, they appear to plan on using alot of volunteers, though they are claiming to be asking for money in order to hire local workers.  So I’m not positive exactly which way that will go.  I do know that Patrick basically came up with a weak answer on the spot when I asked him how the jobs would be ensured to be year-round jobs.  He said, “4 months gathering seed, 4 months planting, and 4 months in a nursery.”  Now, first of all, as I said, he came up with that on the spot.  Second of all, that does not show that each job created through planting would also exist in the gathering and nursery phases.  Third of all, there is only one known nursery in the state (according to Patrick, I haven’t checked on that).  That does offer hope for the creation of new nurseries, and if the program was planned right, the jobs could be permanent.  However, the permanence would initially rely on a permanent source of funding from the federal government, and then on the creation of private businesses that would hire and retain the workers.  HOWEVER, private businesses are going to be inclined to grow commercially profitable species, rather than ecologically necessary and native species.

So, overall, the program is on the surface needed, but there are serious issues with it as it exists.  What needs to happen is that there needs to be a permanent fund set up that is paid for by the coal companies, and put to appropriate use.

Earl Ray Tomblin is the President of West Virginia’s State Senate and he wants to be governor.  Tellingly, for 35 years he has  represented Logan County, arguably the most corrupt county in the nation.  Logan’s failing sunshine review grade and the latest vote buying scandal only scratch the surface. 

More damaging to the integrity of Logan is the vast power held by the mountaintop removal industry, which owns most of the county’s land and all of  its public officials: including Tomblin.  Just last year, Massey CEO Don Blankenship gave $300,000 in “philanthropy” to Logan in appreciation of  the politicians who do his bidding.  

As to be expected in an area where Massey Energy holds sway, Logan County is an environmental wasteland. Mountaintop removal has permanently destroyed a vast acreage of temperate rainforest. Acid mine drainage chokes every stream.

And where there is environmental degradation there is harm to people. Click here to see one example from Logan County.  Buffalo Creek would be another example. So would the disastrous floods just in the last decade.  Then there is the more subtle damage. When I lived in Logan County, I knew five children who had to have their gall bladders removed. Cancer rates are ridiculously high.

Also to be expected where a low-wage, non-union, industry predominates is extreme poverty and a drug culture. The poverty in Logan is almost reminiscent of  the “third world.”  The family that lived across from me had to use the oven of their electric range stove as a heater. And that was before they were evicted.  Scores have little choice but to steal in order to survive. Others enter the dangerous world of drug dealing, where they find a large consumer base begging to escape the reality mountaintop removal advocates have created.

Thus the need for large jails, like the one recently built on a mountaintop removal site which is now the “Earl Ray Tomblin Industrial Park.”  The only “industry” at the “park,” the jail is reached via the “Earl Ray Tomblin Road.”

Earl Ray is already a destructive force in West Virginia. If he becomes governor, which he has assured mountaintop removal opponents he will, it is doubtful that the “Mountain” state will ever recover.

As one coalfield resident remarked: “It is going from bad to worse.”

This marks the 9th surface mine fatality of 2009 in the United States. There have been two deep mine deaths this year.

One of the most commonly deployed arguments for mountaintop removal is that it is safer for the miners. This line of reasoning completely ignores the fact that mountaintop removal is MUCH more dangerous to the people who live around the operation. But notwithstanding this huge gap, the argument is still wrong.

Since 2006, there have been 15 surface mine fatalities in West Virginia compared to only 8 deep mine deaths, despite the fact that there are twice as many deep miners as mountaintop removal workers!

I have exhausted myself explaining how strip-mining is harmful to those who aren’t getting paid to do it, i.e. the surrounding residents.  Here I will point out a few reasons while mountaintop removal is dangerous to the strip-miners themselves.

Most laborers on a strip-mine spend 60 hours a week loading a truck full of debris, driving it to a valley, and dumping it in the valley. Wince and repeat.  Needless to say, this work is extremely monotonous.  After months of the same routine, the truckers who only make about 8 dollars an hour naturally get a little burnt out.  And since these trucks with 20 foot high tires weigh ten times more than your average 18 wheeler, bad things can happen when their drivers become careless.

One of the most common ways to die on a strip-mine is to be run over by one of these trucks. Another common fatality involves a trucker rolling over the edge of a valley fill while dumping his load.  Or in this case, an excavator operator rolled into a pond. There have been other cases of people dying in fires or falling off of huge excavators.

The natural hazards of operating HEAVY HEAVY machinery are bad enough. Things get much worse when the low paid and overworked operators try to beat the monotony. An informant once told me that every other trucker did pills. I personally know of one mtr worker who trades his wife’s xanax for ridilin.

To make matters even worse, another informant once told me that a lot of the equipment used at these sites is out-dated or mechanically flawed. A couple days before the “unannounced” inspections, the bad machines are put to pasture.

There is no justification for mountaintop removal. It has to stop. We have to stop it.

You can read more about the accident and probably receive updates at Ken Ward’s blog: http://blogs.wvgazette.com/coaltattoo/2009/07/28/worker-killed-at-samples-mountaintop-removal-mine/#more-1017