Independence \In`de*pend”ence\, n. [Cf. F. ind['e]pendance.]

1. The state or quality of being independent; freedom from dependence; exemption from reliance on, or control by, others; self-subsistence or maintenance; direction of one’s own affairs without interference.

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With the 4th of July right around the corner I have been thinking about independence and what it means to me. For myself at least, it is very easy to draw a line from the battle against mountaintop removal to a battle for independence.

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We have relied and depended on King Coal for far too long. I say it is time to declare our independence from King Coal.

Contrary to popular belief,

• we don’t need our mountains blasted apart in order to survive.
• we don’t need valley fills in order to survive.
• we don’t need our streams and rivers polluted in order to survive.
• we don’t need to jeopardize the health and future of our children in order to survive.
• we don’t need neighbor against neighbor, brother against brother in order to survive.
• we don’t need hate and segregation in order to survive.
• we don’t need to sacrifice our health in order to survive.
• we don’t need coal slurry impoundments or injections in order to survive.
• we don’t need to sacrifice our culture and heritage in order to survive.
• we don’t need to have coal keeping the lights on in order to survive.
• we don’t need our homes and hollows washed away in order to survive.
• we don’t need treated as if we don’t exist in order to survive.
• we don’t need dirty politicians and corrupt courts in order to survive.

What we do need, in order to survive, is to declare our independence from King Coal. With his rule, comes all that we don’t need.

I think it is kinda funny. As my grandma was fond of saying – you made your bed, now you have to sleep in it.

With the protests against strip-mining in the 70’s and 80’s they should have known then. Did you think people would just lay down for mountaintop removal? If our leaders had been seeing the warning signs instead of dollar signs we may have started a transition away from a coal mining is the only game in town type of economy. We should have started diversifying our economy twenty years ago. To think we can mine coal forever in such a destructive manner is shortsighted and just plain ignorant.

Where am I going with this you ask?

People like me against mountaintop removal and fighting to end the destruction have been accused lately of not having a recovery plan. Something for our miners to fall back on should they suddenly become unemployed… or in other words, a plan to diversify the economy – yesterday.

Excuse me, but, I don’t think that is our job. Why should we have to come up with a plan that should have been created and put into action years ago? We have already done the job local reporters (friends of coal) were unwilling to do in getting out the word about mountaintop removal. Do we also have to do the job of state officials (friends of coal) who are definitely unwilling to do their jobs?

If mountaintop removal is stopped I do see a rough road ahead for some folks. They will be joining a bunch of other folks that were on that rough road long before them. It’s not the miners fault, it’s not my fault. Blame it on the naivety of the coal industry and state officials to think they can just blow up our mountains and destroy our communities forever.

“We will not go quietly into that dark night.”

So when looking for the answers to questions like – what will we do if…?, make sure you look to the right person/people for those answers. Hint: Your State Representatives

In this post I have the rest of the photos from my trip to the mountains a couple of days ago.

As I stated, the clear-cut mountain in this post, I came up on by accident and was actually attempting to avoid mountaintop removal just for one day. However after taking a GPS reading from the point I could go no further due to downed trees, I discovered I was on the opposite side of the site that I am all too familiar with. The shocking thing to me about that was the fact that I was at least a mile, in a straight line, from active mining. The size of the Edwight MTR site is simply unimaginable especially from the ground.

In the first Google Earth photo, the coordinate mark is the exact spot where clearcutting starts. In the second the X marks the spot where the photos in this post were taken. I didn’t get coordinates at the second spot, I already knew where I was. I would be curious of the total acreage including the surrounding clear cut mountains.

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Off topic – I watched about the last 45 minutes of the Senate hearing yesterday and I guess the first thing that comes to mind – uh oh King Coal. I smell big trouble for you.

You better get used to it – I have a feeling you are going to be seeing the two terms that make up the title of this post together a lot this summer.

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Adding –

From WVPubcast

June 24, 2009 · Just two days after yet another mountaintop removal protest, the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works is holding a hearing on its effect on water.

The Senate committee is considering a bill—Senate Bill 696—that would redefine fill material and prohibit mountain waste from being dumped in waterways.

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From the Sierra Club – Sierra Club will be microblogging on Twitter from the mountaintop removal coal mining hearing in DC on Thursday. Anyone can follow the hearing by searching for the #stopmtr tag on Twitter.

You can watch the hearing live at http://tinyurl.com/lquy2m and then follow #stopmtr on Twitter for Sierra Club fact checking and behind the scenes information.

You can also get live updates at www.sierraclub.org/compass starting at 3pm ET Thursday.

As protestors were getting arrested yesterday at Sundial, WV – I was on the backside of the mountaintop removal site at the mine they were protesting.

Since it seems that every blogger in the state of West Virginia blogged about the civil disobedience action yesterday, I’m not going there… yet. What I am going to do is show you some photos of yet another destroyed mountain. I actually came upon this site by accident and while I was there, I wasn’t entirely sure which MTR site the clear-cut mountain was connected to. I guess you could say I had a failed attempt at avoiding mountaintop removal even for one day.

It doesn’t take blasting to destroy a mountain. The mountain is rendered useless for years to come just from cutting down the trees and leaving them where the fall like so many discarded toothpicks. Don’t even try to tell me about the perceived good things the coal industry does for West Virginia. I can see what they do for this state… why can’t you?

It took me close to two hours to try and move about 200 yards up this back-road. You can’t see it but under some of these trees there used to be a road. That’s how I accidentally found this clear-cut mountain, just by following a mountain road. Nothing bigger than a ground squirrel can use this mountain. Although I am a highly motivated individual I gave up trying to reach the top for safety reasons alone. Broken bones was something I did not need and for anything bigger than a ground squirrel trying to get through this devastated area the broken bones are a very real possibility.

Because of the condition of this mountain and although it still remains in one piece, it can no longer be counted on to support the many different types of wildlife that used to occupy this mountain. It has been removed from the eco-equation. Traversing this mountain is now all but impossible for all but the smallest of creatures. What a waste. Way to go Massey Energy. Good job in keeping with your pattern of destruction. Just a complete and total disregard for anything living.

There will be a party at my place like no other when Massey Energy either goes bankrupt or is finally made to pay for their crimes against humanity and the world. They are a criminal organization and them and all who support them are nothing better than the common thief.

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For those that would like to accuse me of trespassing, I’ve got news for you… I was trespassing my ass off and will continue to do so if that is what it takes to show people the truth. What I would say to you further, catch me if you can. One thing I can guarantee, you will know without a doubt what the phrase to catch a tiger by the tail means. I look forward to it.

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I have another post coming Thursday with the rest of the pictures from yesterdays adventure. Since I had already crossed an implied boundary, I continued to do so for the rest of the day, just in a different area. I stand firm in my belief that if I can get to a mountaintop removal site without ever seeing a no trespassing sign, then implied boundaries can go to hell. Since the laws in this state favor the coal industry, without no trespassing signs and although I crossed the implied boundary by sheer accident, I could have been arrested and charged with trespassing. If that happens this summer, and there is a good possibility it will, there wil be no guilty plea from me and it will be a misdemeanor charge heard by a jury of my peers. Again – I look forward to it.

I can think of no place I would rather have been. I spent this past weekend at the first annual (hopefully the only one needed) Mountain Aid festival at Shakori Hills, NC. It felt good to discuss mountaintop removal openly without the backlash and the name calling. In other words, without the friends of coal clouding/confusing the issues.

I came back from Mountain Aid feeling a little obligated to talk about all the talented and passionate people and the effort they put forth every day to bring awareness to mountaintop removal coal mining. I will say this, I’m proud to call them my friends.

I do have a few photos from the event I would like to share. Four groups that performed at Mountain Aid I did not, for whatever reason, get a photo of. They were – Donna the Buffalo, Andrew McKnight & Beyond Borders, Those Darlins, and The Beast.

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Here’s to the Long Haul

Jen Osha & Ed Wiley

Larry Gibson – “The biggest little man on the planet.”

The Gravy Boys

Ben Sollee

Kathy Mattea

Friends of the mountains…

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A little about the next photo. In it the boy is attempting to feed a probably not so wild anymore turkey his peach. The turkey seemed to want the peach but I believe it would have preferred to get it from the ground instead of the little boys hand. I get enjoyment out of watching scenes such as this one play out. They were both nervous of the other and the distance you see them in the photo is as close as they got to each other. The turkey never really trying to get away from the boy and the boy never really trying to catch the turkey.

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Taking care of old business -

The poll in the right sidebar was a smashing… uh, failure. Seems as if not enough people care one way or the other. There were not enough participants to even warrant this small paragraph. Although my opinion apparently goes against the grain on both sides of the issue, I stand firmly in my conviction that the coal battle should not be in an elementary school classroom… period. Good thing I don’t have kids in elementary, I’d be raisin’ hell to the power of ten.

From Wikipedia (links not included, highlighting mine) -

Coal slurry consists of solid and liquid waste and is a by-product of the coal mining and preparation processes. It is a fine coal refuse and water. Mining generates enormous amounts of solid waste in the form of rocks and dirt. This refuse is used to dam the opening of a hollow between adjacent mountains. After the dam is built, the void behind it is typically filled with millions of gallons of waste slurry from a coal preparation plant. This impounded liquid waste can sometimes total billions of gallons in a single facility.

High-profile disasters associated with these slurry impoundments have called into question their safety. In February 1972, three dams holding a mixture of coal slurry and water in Logan County, West Virginia failed in succession: 130 million gallons of toxic water were released in the Buffalo Creek Flood. Out of a population of 5,000 people, 125 people were killed, 1,121 were injured, and over 4,000 were left homeless. The flood caused 50 million dollars in damages. Despite evidence of negligence, the Pittston Company, which owned the compromised dam, called the event an “Act of God.”[1] In 2002, a 900-foot (270 m) high, 2,000-foot (610 m) long valley fill in Lyburn, West Virginia failed and slid into a sediment pond at the toe of the fill, generating a large wave of water and sediment that destroyed several cars and houses.

From the Free Online Dictionary

waste – 1. Regarded or discarded as worthless or useless.

refuse – 1. Items or material discarded or rejected as useless or worthless; trash or rubbish.

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From Climate Ground Zero (highlighting mine) -

Seventeen courageous Mountain Justice volunteers were arrested Saturday, May 23 in a three-part civil disobedience action in our continuing movement to end mountaintop removal. Six are still in jail with bogus, unprecedented, $2,000 cash-only bail amounts, slowing their release. Many of them were arrested for the first time with clean records, and all they did was cross a line onto coal company property.

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Also before dawn, two brave women, donning hazmat suits and respirators, boated onto the eight-billion-gallon Brushy Fork toxic coal slurry lake and launched a 60-foot floating banner that read “No more toxic sludge!” They were charged with trespass and littering.

Full article here

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I hope just by reading this post and a little common sense on your part – you can see the problem I have here. These women were charged with littering on something that by its very definition is nothing more than a pond of… well, garbage.

West Virginia in-justice at its finest.

I was going to try to keep my opinion to myself but why hold back… you coalhuggers make me sick no matter what position you hold and try as I might I cannot come up with one ounce of respect for you regardless of how important you think you are.

It is coming up on a year and a half now that I have been blogging about mountaintop removal coal mining. In that length of time I have yet to have the first decent argument in favor of mountaintop removal coal mining on this blog. Although I have had plenty from friends of coal concerning my intelligence or lack there of. Instead of telling me how dumb I am – how about proving me wrong. I’d like to see if there is really something between a friend of coal’s ears besides a vacuum.

The only arguments I have gotten that are anywhere near substantial were from people sending me to coal industry websites to support their argument. In other words, these people can’t think for themselves. They have no game. If I were to hear an original argument in favor of mountaintop removal coal mining, I’m sure it would cause me to go into cardiac arrest.

Without fail, proponents of MTR will turn the discussion away from mountaintop removal coal mining and make it an argument about coal or the economy. The reason they do that is because it makes it look like people like me are trying to destroy our entire energy grid/economy when in reality I just want you to stop blowing up the damn mountains. To me, the reason for the destruction is irrelevant. I wouldn’t care if you were mining earthworms. I don’t know how to make it any clearer.

If you come to this blog expecting to have an intelligent conversation concerning mountaintop removal, leave the coal and the economy at home. I don’t want to hear it. There is not one person who can say mountaintop removal provides more jobs than underground mining, so any arguments in the economy category are a waste of time from the start.

As far as the coal aspect, I will not be wrangled into an argument about coal. The only reason coal comes into my conversation is because right at the moment they are not mining earthworms. However, there are a lot of negative aspects to coal and just one of those happens to be mountaintop removal.

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1) Why is it now so important to do mountaintop removal coal mining when we have mined coal for a century or so going underground to get it?

It is only important in that it is efficient and economical to the coal industry. I’m sure people would say it is safer than underground mining but this is untrue. “We put a man on the moon…” you cannot tell me we cannot make underground coal mining safe. If you think underground coal mining is unsafe then basically that means you knowingly sent/continue to send coal miners into an unsafe environment… ??

Industry claims mountaintop removal is the only way to get the thin seams of coal near the surface yet they also claim we have 200-250 years of coal reserves in the state. Sorry, but something here just doesn’t add up. There is no logic in those two claims residing in the same time frame. What I mean is, why would you worry about the thin seams near the top before you got to the point where you were running out of reserves? IF we have 200-250 years of reserves then the justification that mountaintop removal is the only way to get otherwise irretrievable coal… it just makes no sense to me. If both statements are true, at the rate we are going, I’d hate to see the mountains in 200 years.

2) Is the loss of the residents quality of life, along with the loss of an entire ecosystem, worth the cheap energy provided by mountaintop removal coal mining?

Any sacrifice for coal, no matter how small, raises the cost of cheap energy.

Not even one person should have to pay/suffer for the comfort of millions.

3) How can you promote mountaintop removal for the flat land it creates when you don’t have any infrastructure whatsoever to support any kind of development on that flat land?

You don’t want to pay higher electric bills but you are willing to pay the millions of dollars in taxes it will/would take to install infrastructure that would be needed for any development on just one site? I wish someone would explain the logic behind this. I think the true logic lies hidden. The fact of the matter is there will never be any need for the taxes because most of these sites will sit ready for future development (reclaimed) from now on. Claiming future development of reclaimed sites or the need for flat land in The Mountain State as a way of promoting mountaintop removal is preposterous to put it mildly.

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I wonder if I should start drawing pictures with my posts in case any 3rd graders come to the blog… you know, job hunting?? LOL!!! Too funny…

I’m having a little trouble letting go of the friends of coal in the classroom thing. So I have devised a little poll here to see how many people think this is as ridiculous as I do or not.

If you didn’t read the article from the link in my last post on this topic you can go here to read it -Beckley school begins coal-themed lesson plans.

I keep re-reading the article and a few things really jump out at me. They stress as justification for the class, in a couple places, as being so the 3RD GRADERS can think about maybe going to work in the coal mines some day.

In my honest and sincere opinion, I think an elementary school is a bad place for the coal controversy. You are teaching these YOUNG kids about maybe getting a job in the coal mines which basically means you are hanging all their hopes on the fact we will blow up mountains for the next ten or twelve years. I think that is being a little too sure of yourself. Be prepared for a ten or twelve year fight.

I think if such a class were to exist then it should at the very least be in high school and be an elective class. You shouldn’t be able to take the children of people fighting for their homes and lives against the coal industry and force them into a class touting the benefits of blowing up mountains for coal. I was very sincere when I said I would not hesitate to pull my child out of such a class.

From the article -

Originally, the program was supposed to start at Stratton Elementary in Beckley. That class was postponed because of conflicting schedules with WEST testing after a bad winter full of snow days.

Now the class is scheduled to start in the Raleigh County public school system in the fall.

My question is simple – Should a Friends of Coal class be allowed on a public school curriculum?

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POLL MOVED TO SIDEBAR

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You can only choose one answer and you can only vote once. The poll will run for ten days. There is an “other” category on this poll allowing you to type your response should you feel the need to do so. However, please do not make hateful/hurtful responses, those will be deleted without a second thought. The poll is completely anonymous. Any appropriate responses, regardless of pro or con, from the “other” category will be displayed at the end of the 10 days along with the overall results.

So VOTE and tell your friends to vote and so on and so on…

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A foam lump of coal… lol, that’s just too funny. Seriously, what are the kids going to do with a foam lump of coal? Wipe their behinds with it?! Maybe try to feed it to the family dog. You know, as hard as I try, and I’ve got a good imagination, I can’t think of one good use for a foam lump of coal. Can you? If you can come up with a good use for a foam lump of coal, please comment. I’d love to hear it no matter how far out there it sounds cause I’d say you’ll have to get creative. May as well have fun with it… in conversation at least.

Coal Conference Takes A Look at Mountaintop Removal

Carbon legislation soon up for debate in Congress could “make shambles out of this economy” by drastically increasing the price of energy, Manchin said, and all who see the need for coal should rally while economic concerns appear to trump environmental concerns in politics.

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“Now is the time to bring the facts out. If you want to win this war, the economy trumps everything right now and we’ve got a golden opportunity,” Manchin said. “As soon as this economy turns around, I guarantee you the environment will trump us and we’re dead.”

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Manchin also defended mountaintop removal, a method of strip mining that involves blasting away mountain peaks; he said the flat land it creates allows for development that his state and the region wouldn’t have otherwise.

“If I say in West Virginia that we are basically using every bit of disturbed land to enhance the quality of life … how in the world can a person look at me and say that’s not responsible, you can’t do that, you shouldn’t because you’re altering it,” Manchin said.

“I have a piece of land that produces very little taxes if any, it takes 50 years before you can harvest the timber, and I’ve got no tax base for the school system… . How can anybody tell me that’s what’s best for the people of West Virginia?”

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Just when I think Governor Manchin can’t get any more ignorant.

In my opinion, the economy should never trump the environment. The economy can turn around. Once you have destroyed a mountain in the name of economic prosperity, the mountain is gone forever.

We all know that though so I’m not going to waste my time talking about something most people ignore anyway.

I do want to send a short message to Manchin.

People live in this environment and I, for one, will not be sacrificed for any reason. It is going to be an uphill battle for you the entire way. With your attitude towards the environment, you should no way be the governor of a mountain state. As far as future land use for these moonscapes – how about we talk infrastructure?

There is one thing I have noticed about big money and dirty politicians – they are both dumber than hell.

I certainly hope the EPA disagrees with Manchin.

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Side note – I have another post coming soon called “Acts of God.” I know this, God must be pissed at the coalfields. THIS POST HAS BEEN DELAYED DUE TO RAIN

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[This post has been edited from the original. It was brought to my attention that a couple of sentences could have been construed as threatening. I do not intend to sound threatening but I am pissed, as should a lot of people be.]