Today Virginians who live at the base of Ison Rock Ridge, a mountain threatened by a pending mountaintop removal permit, have been joined by hundreds from across the region for Virginia Rising: The Rally to Keep Ison Rock Ridge Standing. Today at noon, they will gather at the headquarters of the Environmental Protection Agency and ask that the agency deny the proposed mine which would destroy 1200 acres and bury three miles of headwater streams above several Appalachian communities.

They need your help! Please add your voice and let EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson and the White House know that Ison Rock Ridge should be protected. Click here.

More than 500 mountains have been destroyed due to mountaintop removal and we will not stand by and let Ison Rock Ridge be the next.

To date, over 8,000 comments have been sent to the EPA in defense of this mountain and the communities surrounding it, yet any day Lisa Jackson could make a decision on the permit. Please join with the hundreds gathered in DC by taking action today. Together we can demonstrate that people from across the country echo the concerns raised by these Virginians and that in fact that America is Rising.

For the Mountains,

Matt Wasson
iLoveMountains.org

text here

Something extraordinary is happening this week in southern West Virginia. For the first time in years, the United Mineworkers of America (UMWA), the largest union representing coal miners, has found common cause with environmental and community advocates who are seeking to end mountaintop removal coal mining.

Some UMWA miners have joined hundreds of environmental and Appalachian community advocates who are marching to Blair Mountain on the 90th anniversary of one of the greatest labor battles in American history.
Both groups want to protect this historic mountain from the efforts of coal companies to obliterate parts of the battlefield in order to conduct mountaintop removal coal mining operations.

Here’s a great (and brief) update on the march from the team at iLoveMountains.org that is well worth a watch:

In fact, the march to Blair Mountain is only one of several recent examples where the interests of labor and environmental advocates are closely aligned. For instance, last week’s buyout of Massey Energy was another recent event celebrated by environmentalists, community groups and organized labor alike. Massey was not only reckless, negligent and probably criminal in last year’s disaster at the Upper Big Branch Mine in West Virginia, but the company was by far the largest operator of mountaintop removal coal mines in Appalachia and a notorious scofflaw in regard to environmental laws like the Clean Water Act. Massey had also long been known for its union-busting practices.

A third - and by far the most important - factor linking the struggles of these groups is an almost existential crisis they are facing as a result of America’s recent, acute attack of what I like to call “Deficit Attention and Hypocrisy Disorder” (hat tip). The takeover of many state legislatures and governors’ offices by anti-government and anti-union ideologues last November has resulted in bills to strip collective bargaining rights of public employees in states from Ohio and Wisconsin to Florida and Tennessee — all of which, of course, is taking place under the false pretense of reducing the deficit.

Environmentalists got a similar wake-up call when the new Republican majority in the House sought to eviscerate EPA’s ability to enforce the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts through amendments to the House Budget bill last February. Again, this was all done under the false banner of reducing the deficit.

If we are going to avoid disaster in this next election cycle, then we need to break out of our circular firing squad and do our part to change the narrative - and thus the mandate of whoever controls the reins of government after the next election - away from “Deficit Attention and Hypocrisy Disorder” and back toward creating jobs and protecting the health and safety of workers and the environment in which they live.

Why can’t we all just get along?

Community organizers, environmental groups and the UMWA once worked shoulder to shoulder to pass regulations on strip mining. Those efforts culminated in the passage of the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act (SMCRA) in 1977. Unfortunately, a lot of resentment has developed between these groups over the past 15 years, mostly stemming from divergent positions on the environmentally devastating and job-destroying practice of mountaintop removal. While UMWA does not have an official position on mountaintop removal, a number of public statements by UMWA President Cecil Roberts have been explicitly supportive of the practice.

Ken Ward at the Charleston Gazette has written a lot about the complex balancing act that Cecil Roberts must perform in order to represent all UMWA members (a small proportion of which work at mountaintop removal and other types of surface mines in Appalachia) while not entirely alienating his union from other progressive causes and constituencies that are natural political allies of the union (see here, here and here). The problem is that stopping the destruction caused by mountaintop removal is among the top priorities of many progressive groups in Appalachia, whose feelings toward the UMWA now range from frustration to rage.

Of course, the attitude of some union miners toward environmental groups and community activists is equally venomous, but that does not appear to be representative of the feelings of most UMWA members (many of whom are retired). For instance, a 2008 poll of likely voters in the specific region where mountaintop removal occurs showed that opposition to mountaintop removal mining was even greater among union households than it was among the general population of the region. In fact, it’s well worth taking a look at the key findings of that poll, which was commissioned by my organization in advance of the 2008 elections [a portion of the results, summarized by the polling firm Gerstein and Agne, is available here]. According to the pollsters, the key results included:

• Voters in the Appalachian region oppose mountaintop removal mining and are more likely to support presidential candidate who similarly opposes the method
• Majorities of two key audiences - Independents and union households - oppose mountaintop removal
• Voters reject jobs vs. environment frame of mountaintop removal supporters
• Renewable energy seen as long-term key to energy security, economic growth, and quality of life of local communities
• Overwhelming support for Clean Water Protection Act - even after opponents say it will mean an end to mountaintop removal mining in their state

It would not be fair, however, to put all of the blame for the sour relationship onto UMWA leadership. While most local opponents of mountaintop removal mining are not opposed to all coal mining, the attitudes and statements of some outspoken opponents of mountaintop removal have been distinctly anti-coal. That’s not a message that resonates well with rank-and-file members of the UMWA. Moreover, while there are a growing number of environmental and community groups promoting economic development around renewable energy and weatherization in the region, creating new jobs and new industries has never been the core strength of environmental groups.

That said, there is increasing evidence that moves by the EPA to rein in the permitting of the most destructive new mountaintop removal mines are creating jobs, not destroying them. It turns out that mining jobs have been a real bright spot in the national and regional employment picture since the start of the Great Recession. As shown in the graph below, the number of mining jobs in Appalachia has increased by 8.5% over the same time period that the overall US economy shed more than 5% of its workforce. In fact, the number of mining jobs has increased substantially since the EPA started it’s “enhanced review” of mine permits and since their new guidance on surface mine permitting went into effect in April of last year.

In short, it seems that much of the reason for the past friction between UMWA and environmental groups stems from false perceptions and poor communication rather than from fundamentally divergent interests. Following are my humble suggestions for a road map to repair and expand the natural alliance between environmental and labor organizations in Appalachia.

1. Get the facts

The perception created by the coal industry that the EPA is destroying mining jobs and causing an economic crisis in Appalachia is entrenched firmly enough in the public discourse to withstand a mountain on contrary evidence. However, the unions should know better than to believe this kind of rhetoric from coal companies and trade associations that have used the same “sky-is-falling” estimates of job losses to oppose every effort by the unions to strengthen workplace safety laws and strengthen the enforcement of those already on the books. The UMWA knows well that this rhetoric is false and that stronger safety laws actually create more jobs. They should also know that the same principle applies to health and environmental laws - and there’s plenty of evidence to show that strengthening them is already creating new mining jobs and helping to save existing ones.

On the other hand, environmental and community advocates have also been pretty loose with the facts at times. One particular example is a lot of counter-productive rhetoric about coal from mountaintop removal mines being mostly shipped overseas. This rhetoric is presumably used in an effort to play on the populist xenophobia that has won many an election for unscrupulous politicians, but it is simply untrue — almost all of the coal shipped out of eastern ports is metallurgical coal used for steel-making, which is mined almost entirely underground. Drumming up opposition to exports of metallurgical coal is counter-productive for environmental advocates - and anathema to unions and potential allies outside the region that depend on shipping revenues - because it undermines the most immediate opportunity to replace jobs in mountaintop removal mining.

While there are certainly environmental, health and safety problems at underground mines and processing facilities that produce metallurgical coal, the high price that met coal commands compared to steam coal (i.e., coal used to produce electricity) can support far more environmentally responsible mining and waste disposal practices. In addition, the sky-rocketing price of metallurgical coal can support bigger payrolls, safer mines, higher wages, and better benefits for miners. Ultimately, it may very well help the effort to unionize mines, which creates even more jobs and better safety practices.

2. Embrace the future

Shortly before he died, Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia wrote a powerful op-ed urging the coal industry in his state to “embrace the future.” As the late Senator wrote:

The truth is that some form of climate legislation will likely become public policy because most American voters want a healthier environment. Major coal-fired power plants and coal operators operating in West Virginia have wisely already embraced this reality, and are making significant investments to prepare.
…

The greatest threats to the future of coal do not come from possible constraints on mountaintop removal mining or other environmental regulations, but rather from rigid mindsets, depleting coal reserves, and the declining demand for coal as more power plants begin shifting to biomass and natural gas as a way to reduce emissions.

Whether or not one believes that stronger regulations on CO2 emissions and other coal-related pollutants are inevitable, there is one simple reality brought up by Senator Byrd that residents of Appalachian coal mining states cannot afford to ignore. America’s demand for Appalachian coal is going nowhere but down, not because of the EPA or environmentalists, but because the high cost of accessing dwindling reserves make it uncompetitive with alternative sources of energy (see graph below for historic and projected future trends).

Given that declining demand is the bottleneck for Appalachian coal production, as evidenced by the fact that existing mines are operating at historically low capacity levels, there is really nothing that the EPA or environmental groups are doing in regard to mining rules, or even could do, that would actually decrease coal production in the short term. For instance, consider the chart below, which summarizes information from the Federal Reserve about the productive capacity of already permitted and active coal mines and the level at which that capacity is being utilized.

This highlights the absurdity of blaming the EPA policies on mine permitting, or environmental groups working to end mountaintop removal, for recent declines in coal production. In fact the capacity of the US fleet of active coal mines has never been higher, while the proportion of that capacity that is actually being utilized has never been lower. I’ve written elsewhere about how this simple fact undercuts every argument made by coal industry supporters about how the EPA is threatening jobs, electricity supply and national security. But the point here is that the efforts of unions to eliminate permitting bottlenecks accomplishes nothing to increase production or mining jobs.

Environmentalists, on the other hand, also have some embracing of the future to do. Firstly, while most acknowledge that coal use won’t go away overnight, we haven’t really taken to heart the simple fact that this means coal will have to be mined somewhere. Supporting responsible mining practices can be as important as opposing irresponsible ones, and it could go a long way toward building bridges with unions and other potential allies. There has thus far been little enthusiasm among environmental advocates to wade into those difficult and controversial waters, and I’m as guilty as any for avoiding the issue, but perhaps the time has come for us to take a position on what responsible mining practices are, as well as irresponsible ones, and work together with unions to ensure that it’s the most worker-friendly and environmentally responsible mines that get permitted to meet the declining demand for coal.

As mentioned previously, we’d also be wise to acknowledge the fact that production of metallurgical coal in Appalachia is likely to increase in the next few years, even as overall production continues its precipitous decline. Is it really impossible to embrace that as a good thing, even as we work to improve the waste disposal practices of coal processing plants and reduce the damage caused by underground longwall mines?

3. Communicate regularly and collaborate when possible

I speak for many of my colleagues in saying we yearn for the day when we’re not in the midst of a pitched battle to prevent the immediate destruction of dozens of mountains and streams and can begin working on legislation that we half-jokingly call the “Central Appalachian Economic Diversification and Jobs Bonanza Act.” We spoke many times with Senator Byrd’s office about developing and introducing some such bill, and had Senator Byrd lived a little longer, one may actually have been introduced by now. But it’s pointless to work on an economic development and diversification bill that lacks the support of local workers and elected officials. Collaborating to promote worker retraining programs and federal and state incentives to bring new industries to Appalachia would be an excellent way for labor unions and environmental and community advocacy groups to work together to accomplish common goals.

But the most important thing, especially as we get into the next election cycle, is to ensure that the UMWA and environmental groups don’t unnecessarily work at cross-purposes and thus inadvertently play into the hands of the anti-government and anti-union radicals that are working to deepen our nation’s “Deficit Attention and Hypocrisy Disorder.”

This week’s march on Blair Mountain is a timely reminder of just how much organized labor, community advocates and environmental organizations have in common. And the stark post-November realities that we are facing should provide a lot of incentive to not forget it again.

To take action to help protect Blair Mountain and other mountains and communities threatened by mountaintop removal coal mining, visit iLoveMountains.org.

A Sundance Official Selection, The Last Mountain is described as, “…a passionate and personal tale that honors the extraordinary power of ordinary Americans when they fight for what they believe in. The Last Mountain shines a light on America’s energy needs and how those needs are being supplied. It is a fight for our future that affects us all.”

Determined to bring the film’s message to every corner of the country, Director Bill Haney and the film crew worked to secure theatrical distribution. Their efforts paid off –Dada Films picked up The Last Mountain, making it the first mountaintop removal documentary to enjoy a nationwide theatrical release.

Haney was inspired to make the film because of “the heroic quality of the people of Appalachia. In an interview with Appalachian Voices he explianed, “I met these people who are so inspiring and want to protect their heritage and use their right to the democratic process. But the fact is that 2/3 of the folks in Coal River don’t want mountaintop removal, but all of their politicians do. This is not democracy and these people are fighting to see it. They are fighting to maintain their cultural heritage and the land they rely on–these glorious beautiful mountains.”

iLoveMountains.org is excited to go on the road with The Last Mountain. We will be present at many of the showing across the country to funnel the passion that the movie is sure to inspire into action. Please support the fight to end mountaintop removal by going to see the film. The length of movie’s run is dependent on how well it does the first weekend it opens, so bring at least three friends with you on opening weekend. If you want to get a big ol’ group of friends to the show, get more info here.

This film is a great way to introduce mountaintop removal to the masses and is sure to compel new voices to join our movement.

Please view the schedule of this film and go see the film or contact Kayti (at) iLoveMountains.org for more information about the possibility of bringing this film to a theatre near to you!

With the Coal-Bearing Counties of Appalachia in Crisis, Where are Our Elected Officials?

There is a health crisis in Appalachia.
There is an economic crisis in Appalachia.
There is a crisis of well-being in Appalachia.
There is an ecological crisis in Appalachia.

Study, after study, after study, after study, after study, after study, show that these crises are due in large part to the negative impacts of coal mining, burning, and processing.

The Appalachian people have demanded and demanded and demanded that our rights to be protected from these dangers, including the protection of basic rights such as clean air, clean water, and a safe place to live.

What has been the response from Appalachian politicians, like members of the West Virginia delegation such as Congressman Nick Rahall, Senator Joe Manchin , and Senator John Rockefeller? A great big SIT DOWN AND SHUT UP. Rahall, Manchin, and Rockefeller have not only completely ignored the work of the Central Appalachian people to protect ourselves from coal, but these men are actively pursuing policies that make matters worse, while removing some of the simple protections that the Appalachian people have. Its time they are called out on their dangerous and cowardly decisions to toe the coal-industry line at the expense of their constituents.

A group of West Virginians impacted by mountaintop removal recently ran into Senator Rockefeller in the Hart Senate Office Building in Washington, DC, to ask Senator Rockefeller to come for a tour of mountaintop removal in southern West Virginia. Here is video of the interaction between Rockefeller and his constituents.

Rockefeller, who first ran for Governor of West Virginia in 1972, had a strong stance on strip mining, saying:

Strip-mining must be abolished because of its effect on those who have given most to the cause – the many West Virginians who have suffered actual destruction of their homes; those who have put up with flooding, mud slides, cracked foundations, destruction of neighborhoods, decreases in property values, the loss of fishing and hunting, and the beauty of the hills. …

Unfortunately, he made a 180 degree turn when he ran again four years later, handily won the governorship. He has been supportive of the coal industry ever since, and has all but ignored the part of his constituency who have been fighting to protect their homes, communities, waterways and mountains from the devastating impacts of mountaintop removal mining. Rockefeller’s story demonstrates the institutional power of the coal industry and its stranglehold on true democracy in West Virginia and other states where mountaintop removal is occurring.

This stranglehold is why its so important for the entire nation to join citizens directly impacted by mountaintop to build broad-reaching support, within and without the Appalachian coal-bearing regions. The bottom-line: the voices fighting to protecting their very lives are being drowned out, and a bigger choir is essential to make sure the message is heard loud and clear: Mountaintop removal coal mining is destroying Appalachian mountains and communities and it needs to end.

Because as Americans we believe, as Martin Luther King Jr, wrote so succinctly in his letter from Birmingham Jail, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

This movement has created real change- we now see more and more, members of Congress willing to speak out against the politically powerful coal industry. We most recently witnessed this show of political courage in the recent budget debates, where several policy riders in the House bill threatened to stop the EPA from living up to its name in protecting the environment in the Appalachian coal-bearing regions. Many members of Congress got on the floor of the House when those amendments came up for debate and spoke so eloquently and passionately against the destruction of America’s oldest mountains for 5% of our nation’s electricity. As members of the Alliance of Appalachia, we recently hosted a Congressional Reception during our 6th Annual End Mountaintop Removal Week in Washington, where we invited those members of Congress to accept an award and say a few words. Here is a montage of their comments– THIS is what democracy sounds like!

Two citizens reflected on their experience in Washington DC below.

Wendy Johnston of Mercer County, West Virginia:

In West Virginia, where I live, people are dying. They are dying from drinking poisoned water and breathing air filled with coal dust and the explosive dust that rains down on them from the mountains above their homes that are being destroyed for coal. The coal industry rapes and pillages our mountains daily to extract whatever coal it can find in what used to be the oldest mountains in the world.

As someone who left 25 years ago to go to college and moved back 10 years later to raise her children in the most beautiful place on earth, this was heartbreaking.

When we ran into Senator Rockefeller after meeting with his legislative, he remarked that I lived in the Northern part of the state when I told him I was from Mercer County, which is actually one of the southernmost counties in our state. When we begged him to visit our communities and pointed out that the mountains and communities there were decimated he said, “I’ve been on all of them”. He showed no emotion when he said this, it was obvious he did not care. I left there pleased that we had been able to voice our opinions to him but wondering what good it did. I didn’t realize that just because that was what I had come to expect from my representatives that other people expected more.

When I heard the Congressmen from Virginia and Kentucky speak to the Alliance for Appalachia gathering last night it hit me. I realized that other representatives do care, they see the value of the mountains, clean water and clean air but above all that they see the value of the people. I now have a new understanding, I must give my life, my family, my environment the value that I think that it deserves and demand that those representing me reach my high expectations and if they cannot I will no longer support them.

——————————————————————

-West Virginia Resident, Robin Blakeman (OVEC member/employee):

In Senator Rockefeller’s office… An appointment with an aide – Pat Bond – someone whom we know, from previous meetings, doesn’t do much after we talk to him. He has even occasionally been quite hostile to our citizens. He seemed to listen to us this time. He seemed to respond to personal stories. He agreed that tourism and water quality are important to the state’s economic and social well-being.

When we left, we were somewhat hopeful that there might be a response to our two requests: 1) that the Senator arrange to come to West Virginia and meet with many of the affected residents we know, and 2) meet with Sen. Alexander of Tennessee to discuss reasons that he’s sponsoring the Appalachian Restoration Act.

Afterwards, standing by the elevators, trying to comfort the folks who were upset, we saw Sen. Rockefeller himself walking out of a nearby elevator.

After a few moments of listening to us quickly pour out our hearts - regarding why we were there, and about the connections we had back home which were being severed – he abruptly said, “Hey, do you know what happened to me last night? My electric was off… and I’m now a half hour late for a meeting…” Within the next 30 seconds, he had turned for us, and was gone, with us shouting our thanks to him for the few minutes time he granted us.

Tonight, however, listening to John Yarmuth and others speak – our champions, I realized what a true “public servant” is supposed to be like. I also realized that, in West Virginia, we do NOT have any national level public servants. We only have elite corporate lobbyists and their representatives, whose very existence, it seems, depends on serving those who covet a dirty, lifeless, flammable, and toxic black rock. I wish we could clone public servants like John Yarmuth, and somehow replace our NON-representatives with them.

If you haven’t yet joined the national choir to stop the destruction of our nation’s oldest mountains and to help democracy thrive in all parts of the country, please sign the pledge to end mountaintop removal at iLoveMountains.org.

Cross-posted from AlterNet.org

‘As an air-breather and a water-drinker, I take offense to the notion that coal company profits are more important than my children’s lives.’

Big Coal’s backlash over the EPA crackdown on future mountaintop removal operations went from denial and anger to the outright absurd last week, as state legislatures conjured their own versions of a sagebrush rebellion and the new Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives passed a sheath of regulatory gutting amendments to its budget bill.

On the heels of its Tea Party-backed coal rallies last fall, the dirty coal lobby couldn’t have paid for a better show. As millions of pounds of ammonium nitrate fuel oil explosives continued to detonate daily in their ailing districts and affected residents held dramatic sit-ins to raise awareness of the growing health crisis in the central Appalachian coalfields, Big Coal-bankrolled sycophants fell over themselves from Virginia to Kentucky to West Virginia, and in the halls of Congress, to see who could introduce the most ridiculous and dangerous bills to shield the coal industry.

Their breathless message: “The EPA don’t understand mining,” as Kentucky’s House Natural Resources and Environment Chairman Jim Gooch, D-Providence, declared to his colleagues.

That misunderstanding dates back to last spring’s breakthrough announcement by the EPA, following up a memorandum of understanding between the numerous federal agencies, including the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation Enforcement, on finally issuing guidance rules and cracking down on the irreversible and pervasive destruction of mountaintop removal mining operations to waterways. Based on government studies that conclusively demonstrate that “burial of headwater streams by valley fills causes permanent loss of ecosystems,” the EPA issued new conductivity levels “to protect 95% of aquatic life and fresh water streams in central Appalachia” and effectively bring an end to the process of valley fills (and the dumping of toxic coal mining waste into the valleys and waterways).

After an eight-year hiatus of enforcement under the George W. Bush administration, in which an estimated 1,000-2,000 miles of the headwater streams were jammed and sullied by toxic coal waste, along with the destruction of hundreds of mountains and tens of thousands of hardwood forests and the depopulation of historic Appalachia communities, the EPA’s return to its true role as enforcer of the Clean Water Act made it a convenient target for Big Coal outrage.

Not for coalfield residents.

“The actions of these state governments trying to circumvent federal law reminds me of the old, discredited tactic of ‘nullification,’” Coal River Mountain Watch president Bob Kincaid noted. A resident in the Raleigh County, West Virginia coalfields, he added, “Kentucky’s, Virginia’s and West Virginia’s bought-and-paid-for retro-confederate governments have completely forgotten the lessons of history. They want to pick and choose the laws they obey. Where the EPA is concerned, it’s especially bad, since the EPA is all that stands between Appalachia and the utter ruin of what’s left of it. As an air-breather and a water-drinker, I take offense to the notion that coal company profits are more important than my children’s lives.”

Kentucky state legislature had a new take on nullification. Only days afters celebrated author Wendell Berry and 13 other Kentuckians, including a retired coal miner and inspector, occupied Gov. Steve Beshear’s office in a protest over the state’s 40-year crisis of mountaintop removal mining, the Kentucky state legislature attempted to officially establish a “sanctuary state” for the coal industry that would be exempt from “the overreaching regulatory power.” Kentucky already underwrites an additional $115 million each year in state funds for maintenance and health damages beyond any coal industry revenues.

“My friends, we Kentuckians are in a very sick family,” responded Harlan County-raised author George Ella Lyons in the Lexington Herald-Leader. “Our government is owned by big corporations and the result is obscene. Sanctuary — sacred protected space — is declared for those who are abusing the basis of our survival. How long do you think we can live without clean water and air?”

Even the Herald-Leader editorial board lectured its legislature:

Smith’s resolution would declare Kentucky a “sanctuary state” in regard to EPA regulation. Gooch’s bill would exempt from Clean Water Act regulations mining operations involving coal that never leaves the state.

Since coal mining in Kentucky impacts rivers flowing into other states, thus making mining operations subject to regulation under the interstate commerce clause of the U.S. Constitution, neither measure would accomplish a single thing other than letting its sponsor preen and posture in public while wasting other lawmakers’ time.

Wasting lawmakers’ time, perhaps. But Kentucky state officials were already on overtime in their attempt to divert attention from a stunning circuit court judgment last week that granted citizens participation in the state’s gross mishandling of indisputable acts of Clean Water Act violations by two coal companies in eastern Kentucky.

Last fall, clean water advocates from the Kentuckians for the Commonwealth and Appalachian Voices, among others, filed an intent to sue notice against Kentucky subsidiaries of International Coal Group and Frasure Creek Mining for “over 20,000 incidences of these three companies either exceeding permit pollution limits, failing to submit reports, or falsifying the required monitoring data. These violations could result in fines that may exceed 740 million dollars.” Embarrassed Kentucky state officials rushed to slap a small fine — less than 1 percent of the possible fine — and limited “corrective actions” on the two companies’ admittedly blatant violations, and sought to kick off the citizens groups in the suit as “unwarranted burdens.”

Judge Phillip Shepherds summed up the key reasons for granting the intervention in his order, stating, “The Cabinet, by its own admission, has ignored these admitted violations for years. The citizens who brought these violations to light through their own efforts have the legal right to be heard when the Cabinet seeks judicial approval of a resolution of the environmental violations that were exposed through the efforts of these citizens. In these circumstances, it would be an abuse of discretion to deny those citizens and environmental groups the right to participate in this action, and to test whether the proposed consent decree is “fair, adequate, and reasonable, as well as consistent with the public interest.”

The state’s response? Kentucky is now appealing the ruling. Once unwarranted burdens, in essence, always unwarranted burdens to the state. Kentucky residents, meanwhile, are appealing for Gov. Beshear to spend a little more time in their region and keep his promise to the sit-in activists and simply visit affected residents in the mountaintop removal areas.

“Every time I’m at a particular place in Harlan County, Kentucky, in Appalachia, I go look at the junction of two creeks there,” said Appalachian scholar Chad Berry from Berea, who participated in the sit-in. “One comes off a large mountain that is protected and is clear and looks to be drinkable. The other comes off a surface mining site and often looks like coffee with too much cream in it. Where they join is always interesting tangible proof of the toll surface mining is having on the Appalachian region’s watersheds.”

When the NRDC released a study last year that found that over 293 mountains and nearly 600,000 acres of hardwood forests had been destroyed by mountaintop removal, with reclamation efforts resulting in less than 4 percent of any follow-up economic productivity, fellow sit-in protest Mickey McCoy, from Inez, Kentucky, noted: “This research shows what a sacrificial lamb Kentucky has been for an industry that is not interested in any kind of restoration. Here in Martin County, more than 25 percent of the land has been leveled by coal companies yet we are among the poorest of counties not just in Kentucky, but the entire country.”

Not to be outdone, the Virginia state legislature sought to eliminate citizen participation altogether.

In an unflinchingly quick move, the state legislature in Richmond passed a bill that would eliminate citizens’ participation and basic regulatory oversight of clean water laws for strip-mining by shifting control of water quality to a political appointee. In effect, coal lobbyists managed to jam through a bill that placed a stranglehold on state officials by restricting the state’s ability to adequately review stream monitoring or toxicity testing in permitting and enforcement actions. “If the coal industry doesn’t want state officials testing the water, what are they afraid the tests will reveal?” asked Tom Cormons, Virginia director for Appalachian Voices. “The industry is trying to tie state officials’ hands to prevent them from doing their job.”

Accusing the EPA of “soft tyranny,” a West Virginia state delegate introduced “The Intrastate Coal and Use Act” to strip the EPA of its regulatory overview for Clean Water Act permits in West Virginia. In a stunning move last week, a state committee gutted a long-awaited bill to regulate coal slurry injections despite overwhelming evidence that such operations have resulted in widespread health damages and huge cancer rates.

But West Virginia’s state antics over the EPA paled in comparison to the U.S. Congress last week.

In an 11th-hour debate on the floor of Congress, Rep. Morgan Griffith, R-VA, whose Congressional district includes the Abingdon, Virginia-headquarters of Alpha Natural Resources, which recently purchased Massey Energy company to become one of the largest coal companies in the world, chastised the EPA for unfair rules and compared toxic coal waste to Perrier water. In one of the most ludicrous statements in the history of debates on the floor of Congress, Griffith reached deep into the Big Coal depths and responded to one of his colleague’s calm review of mountaintop removal mining destruction with his final delusion: “Our data shows there is greater biodiversity after mountaintop mining than before.”

Despite the fact that the highly mechanized mountaintop removal mining has led to record losses of underground mining employment — nearly 65 percent in the last 20 years — and has left the mining districts at the bottom of virtually all poverty and health care rankings in the nation, Griffith defiantly railed on the House floor over the EPA’s war to create poverty.

In the end, Griffith and his House Republican majority won their battle — though, hardly “the war” in the coalfields. The House passed amendments that would defund the EPA’s authority to implement its recent guidance regarding mountaintop removal or invoke its authority under section 404c to veto Clean Water Act permits. Another amendment would defund the Department of Interior’s role over the “Stream Protection Rule,” which limits the dumping of coal waste near waterways. While the White House has already floated a possible veto balloon, and with the Senate Democrats vowing to scuttle the plethora of House amendments in their budget bill, the future of EPA enforcement of mountaintop removal operations still remains entangled in an endless parade of legal and state legislative challenges.

And mountaintop removal mining blasts on.

Standing at the east entrance of the Kentucky capitol earlier this month, Wendell Berry emerged from his sit-in and reminded me of his four-decades-long struggle to halt reckless strip-mining and mountaintop removal:

You can go to a little stream that’s coming down off the mountain, and you know that one day that stream ran clear and you could have knelt down and drunk from it without any hesitation — it would have been clean. And now it’s running orange or black. And what people have to understand is that there’s heartbreak in that. Harry Caudill said “tears beyond understanding” have been shed over this by people who love their land and have had to sit there and see it destroyed. I live right on the Kentucky River, and that river’s running from those headwater streams. My part of the river is under the influence of this destruction that’s going on up above.

Added Truman Hurt, a retired coal miner in Perry County and member of activist group Kentuckians for the Commonwealth, in a letter to his Kentucky state legislators:

The people and communities of Eastern Kentucky have suffered unnecessarily for years because the state environmental and mine safety agencies have failed to fully and fairly enforce the law. Now that the EPA is finally stepping up to enforce the law and protect our precious water, you and the governor are making every effort to block that enforcement. You seem willing to sacrifice the health and safety of your own constituents and the future of Eastern Kentucky in order to protect the rights of the coal companies to flatten the mountains and fill the valleys with their mine waste.

Judy Bonds, co-director of Coal River Mountain Watch and inspiration to the movement to end mountaintop removal and for a clean energy future, succumbed to cancer last night.

Judy Bonds, second from left, at a Governor’s press conference last spring announcing the victory of a new Marsh Fork Elementary School.
(l-r: Bo Webb, Judy Bonds, Debbie Jarrell, Ed Wiley).

Bo Webb, a close personal friend of Judy’s, as well as a leader in his own right, has this to say:

The Mortal Death of Judy Bonds Inspires a Call to Rise

In the mortal world death implies an ending, a decisive finality. The death of Judy Bonds leaves a void in the hearts of all who knew and loved her, but her death shall not signify the end of her work, nor shall it imply a pause in our fight for the abolition of mountaintop removal.

Judy’s passing from this mortal world shall serve as a call to rise. Her work will not be finished until we finish it for her. Although Judy has physically left our earthly world, let us acknowledge her spirit to live within each of us. Judy sometimes quoted “you are the one you have been waiting for.” Let us now call upon unity in this movement; Big Green groups, grassroots, top to bottom, bottom to top, to speak with one voice, to rise to a new level, re-energized, re-focused as never before.

I can feel Judy nudging each of us, “Hey guys, We are the ones We have been waiting for.” Let us fill the void in our hearts with Judy’s strength of mind to fight on. Let her passing serve as inspiration to hundreds of thousands of Appalachians and activists throughout our nation to unite in solidarity to demand the abolition of mountaintop removal.

Judy was a passionate women who sparked that passion in others to fight against injustice. She was loved by many, and will be sorely missed in the physical form, but her spirit will live within all of us who fight to protect these Appalachian communities and the ancient mountains that sustain them.

Biography:

Born and raised in the Appalachian Mountains of West Virginia, Julia Bonds, 51, is a coal miner’s daughter and the director of Coal River Mountain Watch. Over the past six years, Bonds has emerged as a formidable community leader against a highly destructive mining practice called mountaintop removal that is steadily ravaging the Appalachian mountain range and forcing neighboring communities, some of whom have lived in the region for generations, to abandon their homes.

In 2001, Bonds and her family became the last residents to evacuate from her own hometown of Marfork Hollow where six generations of her family had lived, due to mountaintop removal operations that had encroached into her community.

Bonds, who previously had worked as a waitress and manager at Pizza Hut and for convenience stores, now devotes 90 hours a week to protect Appalachia and the people who live there from the ravages of mountaintop removal mining. The catalyst for her activism, she says, was the day her grandson stood in a stream in Coal River Valley with his fists full of dead fish and asked, “What’s wrong with these fish?”

Since then, her dedication and success as an activist and organizer have made her one of the nation’s leading community activists confronting an industry practice that has been called “strip mining on steroids.”