I’m currently reading “The Battle of Blair Mountain”  and it is turning out to be quite the history lesson of West Virginia, the labor movement and the corruption of  government at all levels- most of which probably isn’t in any history books that our students read at school.  I’m only half way through it, but already it has been quite the eye opener to the atrocities committed by our government in years past.

From the local sheriffs offices, to the state government right up to the federal level, the amount of horrendous absurdities of justice really amazes me.  I haven’t even gotten to the major battle between the citizens of Mingo County and the federal government yet and already I’m shocked at the loss of liberties these people had to endure.  The pig headed Governor Morgan finally got his way and had a martial law declared and federal troops brought in for about the fourth time is when the rights of citizens really vanished- of course only the citizens sympathetic to the union- that is.  You weren’t allowed to have a union meeting- 3 union members, not even discussing union business, were arrested for having a meeting.   Numerous people were arrested for reading union publications.  The troops went in and destroyed the presses and other printing equipment of one such publication.  Everyone “caught” doing something “illegal” was arrested and held without due process, sometimes for as long as weeks or months and those not guilty of anything were just let go-after being caged up for nothing!  I could go on and on here, but I’ll save it for my full review on the book in the coming weeks.

How does this relate to mountaintop removal you might ask?

The reason for all of the things I stated above is the same today as it was then.  Big Coal- Massey Energy- buying up any politicians that were then, and still are, for sale.  Back then it was the Governor’s of West Virginia.  Now it is the State Supreme Court Justices.  Really, this goes on in all parts of government here in the U.S. , but it sure seems to have a very long and dated history in West Virginia.  Back then, the union screwed it self politically and it still feels the effects today.  Now, they are screwing themselves again- all because of politics.  What really has changed?  The playing field is still West Virginia.  Sure, the faces have changed, but it is still the coal barons buying the government.

I saw this on my Yahoo homepage the other night and couldn’t believe my eyes. Big Oil is investing in clean energy technology.

Billionaire oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens plans to invest 10 billion-yes thats BILLION with a B-dollars to build what will be the worlds largest wind farm. His company, Mesa Power, will begin buying land - up to 200,000 acres- and ordering turbines next month. If all goes as planned, the farm will have 2,700 turbines on it, producing 4,000 megawatts. Thats enough power to supply 1 million homes.

While Pickens is answering the call for cleaner energy, this doesn’t mean he just putting up this kind of money “because it is the right thing to do”. In fact he says,

“I’m an environmentalist - I can pass the saliva test.”

He is out to make a profit and knows that the profits won’t be as good as oil, but expects to make a 25% return on his investment and today with oil prices ready to top $120 a barrel, the realization that we need other forms of energy should help guarantee him a return on his money.

I guess Pickens is a man of vision and may just be getting ahead of the pack. From Yahoo news:

Pickens’ wind farm is part of his wider vision for replacing natural gas with wind and solar for power generation, and using the natural gas instead to power vehicles.

To picture Pickens’ energy strategy, imagine a compass.

Stretching from north to south from Saskatchewan to Texas would be thousands of wind turbines, which could take advantage of some of the best U.S. wind production conditions.

On the east-west axis from Texas to California would be large arrays of solar generation, which could send electricity into growing Southern California cities like Los Angeles.

The end result would be to free up more clean-burning natural gas - primarily a power-generation fuel now - to power automobiles.

Major oil companies have embraced so-called natural gas liquids because they have spent billions of dollars building refineries and pipelines to turn crude oil into gasoline, Pickens said.

But shifting natural gas used in power generation to transportation needs could cut U.S. crude oil imports by nearly 40 percent, he said.

It will be interesting to see how this all plays out. I wonder when the true environmentalist are going to step out of the woodwork against the turbines. What are the other Texas oil men thinking about this? Whats Big Coal gonna do?

I guess all of these questions will be answered over time. More projects like this could help end our dependence on coal and put an end to mountaintop removal. Maybe Blankenship would even get on board….. NAH!!!

Not sure if this is true, but I found this info at Sludge Safety Project:

April 14, 2008: 6:00 p.m. The DEP has granted an informal conference to hear objections to the Massey Energy’s (Alex Energy) Edwight permit 130 acre expansion (Amendment 1 to S301299, already 1,849 acres). It’s at 6:00 P.M. at Marsh Fork Elementary on Monday, April 14. This is the permit above Marsh Fork Elementary, Clay’s Branch, Naoma, Pettry Bottom, Sundial, and Edwight. For more information, contact vernoncrmw@gmail.com.

Maybe Denny or someone who is closer to the school than I can verify that this is indeed happening on Monday Evening. If it is and you can make it, please do. Even tho the term “informal” tells me that nothing that is said there will be listened to and its just a bother for DEP officials.

Most readers here and supporters of the cause to end mountaintop removal already know about the plight of Marsh Fork Elementary in Sundial, WV. For those that don’t, I’ll briefly touch on the issues before getting down to the grit of this post.

As you can see in this image taken in 2005, the school sits below a reservoir of toxic sludge- 2.8 BILLION gallons of it!! Also, the school sits just over 200 feet from a coal silo that covers the area in a fine black dust. Air samples taken from inside the school all show the presence of the fine dust in the air. This dust is know to cause respiratory ailments, especially in children. What was it years ago that a lot of underground coal miners died from… oh yeah!! Its called black lung disease. Yet this school sits dangerously close to these hazards, yet Massey Energy refuses to do anything about it. I guess the government of WV doesn’t care either, after all why should they do anything, I’m sure they are getting their pockets padded from this site and many others just like it, so of course they will just turn a blind eye.

Pennies of Promise - A Way For You To Help

The original reason for this post was to bring awareness of a site that has been mentioned here in a couple of posts, yet never fully covered. I just happened across link to them on another blog and decided to try to help get their cause out there.

Pennies of Promise is:

Pennies Of Promise is a grass roots effort comprised of local citizens of the Coal River Valley, WV, and other concerned fellow Appalachians. In the absence of help from our elected officials, we have looked to each other for support.

Since, as I stated above, King Coal and the government don’t care, the citizens have to step in and try to make things right. Thats just what Pennies of Promise has done. they started their own campaign to raise money to build a new school. What’s more, they have made it easy for you to donate. Just visit their save Marsh Fork Elementary donation page to contribute whatever you can. you cna donate via check/money order or if you have a paypal account, you can use that, which makes it even easier to donate. You may donate anonymously if you wish also.

Reminder

Just a quick note to remind everyone the STOP mountaintop removal forums are up and running. You can visit them here.

Just today I received a comment on my blog from the post “Big Coal Rides Again”. Apparently the commenter thought that if am against coal, then I must be for nuclear power.

They also stated;

We Need NEW Clean Renewable CHEAPER DE-Centralized, off the Grid, NON-Monopoly energy.

I couldn’t agree with that more, except that I don’t see the “NON-monopoly” part happening. Also, to me off the grid means that each house is not connected to the electric company lines. Again, not likely to happen in my lifetime.

This person also provided a link to an article in July of 2007 in NY Times talking about the government possibly putting up up 25-30 billion dollars to guarantee loans made to the nuclear industry for building new power plants. Yet according to page 2 of the same article,

The House recently passed an appropriations bill for energy and water programs that included $7 billion in loan guarantees for projects involving renewable energy and specifically excluded nuclear plants.

I say forget the new nuke plants. Let put the 25 billion into backing loans made to renewable energy. Right now, the most cost comparable solution to fossil fuels is wind. According to this issue of The Progressive Engineer from 2002:

Since 1980, the price of wind power has dropped from 40 cents per kilowatt-hour to 4-7 cents today, only slightly higher than fossil fuel and well below the 20-cent cost for solar electricity.

There are far fewer environmental concerns from wind turbines than from mining and burning coal, yet there are still people against the turbines. They claim that the turbines hurt the surrounding property values. There are also problems with birds getting in the way. Yet over the last few years, these issues have been addressed and have become not so much of a problem. From the same article in The Progressive Engineer:

Meanwhile, machines have become friendlier to their surroundings, as well, in response to early-generation models that annoyed neighbors and killed large numbers of birds. Towers consist of tubular steel with fewer perches for birds, and slower-rotating rotors kill fewer of them. Tubular towers, usually painted off-white or gray to blend with the sky, also prove quieter than the lattice structures previously used. Verkleeren, project manager for the Mill Run and Somerset sites, notes, “One thing that surprised me most is how quiet they are.”

An article on NPR, Wind Farms Draw Mixed Response in Appalachia addresses the negatives of the towers. There are claims that the towers affect the rural areas tourism rates, yet there are also claims that tourists are coming in just to see and photograph the turbines. There are also claims the the sound generated by the turbines scare away the wildlife. I bet with time, the wildlife will adapt to the sound.

America’s Green Policy Vacuum from the Feb. issue of Businessweek states that

In 2006, companies in renewable energy and energy efficiency industries accounted for 8.5 million jobs and generated $970 billion in revenues and the green economy could produce as many as 40 million jobs and $4.53 trillion in annual revenue by 2030.

With numbers like those, I can’t believe we are not concentrating more on renewable energy source- oh wait yes I can, it must not be profitable for the big ceo’s who run the country’s corporations.

It seems obvious to me that the citizens against these towers have never lived near a strip mine or mountaintop removal site. Maybe that is why the public needs educated on what mountaintop removal really entails. To me its simple. Would you rather see the first picture or the second as you look out the backdoor or are hiking?

(credit: Green Mountain Energy Company and the D.O.E.)