There was a lot of coverage of coal issues over the weekend, highlighted by Rick Wilson’s great commentary on the Perspectives page of the Sunday Gazette-Mail. If you missed it, click here, because it’s worth a read.
Rick, who also does the wonderful Goat Rope blog, compares the ongoing mountaintop removal debate to a Greek tragedy, saying:
There aren’t easy answers in a tragic situation. Mining is a fact of life now, but its future is uncertain. Nobody knows what is going to happen and some things are not within our span of control. But we could at least start thinking about the opportunities that exist and will grow in an emerging greener economy.
We could pay attention to some ideas put forward by Create West Virginia, which emphasize that in order to move to a high road creative economy, we need to focus on talent, technology, tolerance and quality of life issues, which include having the kind of place where creative and productive people will want to live and work.
We could also start taking advantage of existing opportunities for job creation under the Abandoned Mine Lands program and newer federal initiatives while we’re trying to figure out everything else. It might also make sense to consider devoting a portion of severance tax revenue to economic development projects in the coalfields.
And instead of blindly denying climate change, we should face up to the probability that the world is going to get serious about it. You can put Galileo under house arrest, but you can’t stop the earth from moving.
Also in Sunday’s Gazette-Mail, I had a story about a U.S. Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement report that detailed major problems in the way the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection is policing mountaintop removal mining:
At virtually every site, there were certain areas where the actual measured ground surface was significantly above or below the proposed lines shown in the permit.
I apologize that I haven’t posted a copy of the report online. But, the version I have is a draft that was provided to me by a source. And it has some of that source’s notes on it, and posting it would expose that source to potential problems — so I won’t be able to post the report at this time. Hopefully, OSMRE will move pretty quickly to finalize the document and release a final version.
Also this weekend, The Washington Post did its own story on the effort by strip-mine workers in Southern West Virginia to boycott tourism trips to Tennessee to protest Sen. Lamar Alexander’s support for a bill to ban mountaintop removal. The story was reprinted here by the Tennessean.
In West Virginia, there is news out today from the Clarksburg Exponent that the WVDEP has approved a significant expansion of a CONSOL Energy slurry impoundment in Harrison County.
And, here’s a report today from the Roanoke Times, which says that the price of coal and efforts to control its pollution are increasing power costs in Appalachia …
Happy Monday everybody.
Subscribe to the Coal Tattoo
Ken,
I was actually a little disappointed with Rick Wilson’s essay. Does he really believe that these environmentalist “outsiders” have all oversimplified the issue, and that they believe that the residents here who have stood up to the coal interests are Noble Savages? Pretty presumptuous, if you ask me. Nowhere does he mentions that companies like Massey are breaking the law, corrupting the government agencies and buying judges. He thinks it might be a good idea to start looking at the future? Ya think? What is happening here now is that like so many times in the past, the future is being destroyed. This conservation cannot be simply between those who currently get a MTR paycheck and the residents of places like the Coal River. We all have a stake in this debate and while Wilson may think outsiders are too stupid to understand anything about the issue of strip mining, that does not mean that their concerns are invalid.
I second the “Check it out” motion with respect to Rick Wilson’s commentary. Thanks for your thoughts, Rick.
Rick suggests that wisdom begins by understanding the two “horns” of Cenbtral Appalachia’s tragic dilemma: Horn One, the acute local and global negative externalities of coal mining and burning are difficult (or in some cases impossible) to avoid — without causing other acute negatives (Horn Two) job/income loss, cheap energy loss, etc.
Bobbit and Calabresi’s classic law/economics book, “Tragic Choices,” analyzes how different societies handle these situations. To summarize their complicated discussion (I think):-these authors say that in open societies, there can be seen a constant oscillation — as the society makes some choices in one direction, then sees that those choices negatively impact other important values, and there is a shift in the other direction.
These authors suggest that usually, until the situation plays itself out, these ongoing “tragic choice” repetitions are unavoidable and actually quite important — especially to preserve openness. They continue to remind the society of what its many important values are. They may be about the best one can hope for.
I like the mantra “Eyes Wide Open,” because when you are between two sharp horns — or a rock and a hard place — it helps to be able to see as clearly as possible what’s at stake.
Roselle,
First, I don’t think Rick called anybody stupid. And he certainly outlines his view that the concerns that have been raised about the environmental damage of mountaintop removal are valid.
Next, you’re misquoting him — he didn’t call environmentalists outsiders … he’s talking about people who do what I do for a living — he’s referring to “journalists” or more specifically, he uses the term “environmental writers” …
“On the other hand, I’ve read essays by environmental writers, often writing from a distance, who have an action movie thing of their own going on. In it, the good guys are a bunch of Appalachian Noble Savages standing as one against the evil coal companies. The assumption is that if the practice just ended today, everything would be great.”
I do indeed think that his point about the simple narrative advanced by the coal industry and by the “environmental writers” Rick refers to (he doesn’t name any specifically) is an oversimplification of the issues involved. I think I’ve written as much numerous times on Coal Tattoo, and I still believe it.
He goes on further to explain that it’s the “happy ending” part of either narrative that he thinks is specifically oversimplified:
“The happy ending part is also over-simplified either way. The results for parts of West Virginia are going to be tragic in any case. If it goes on unchecked, there will be more environmental damage, water contamination, floods and coal-related health problems, not to mention more climate change impacts. And if it stops, there will be some job losses and a loss of revenue for public services from coal severance and other taxes in places where jobs and public services are needed. Some people are going to be hurt either way. Lots of folks are hurting now.”
And I think this essay was a very thoughtful follow-up piece to the blog posts I mentioned last week from Rick.
Maybe Rick is reading and would join in the discussion to clarify or respond to the issues you’ve raised.
Ken.
Here’s a quote from the Roanoke Times article that Ken linked to above:
“AEP said it supports the Waxman-Markey energy and climate change bill that passed the U.S. House of Representatives. Among a host of other provisions, the bill provides for a cap-and-trade program to reduce greenhouse gases. The program would allow companies that can easily reduce emissions to sell credits to other companies for which such reduction would be difficult. The cap ensures that emissions would not exceed a desired amount.”
So, according to this story, support for the Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade bill is now coming from American Electric Power, which is one of the top coal users in the world! Yes, AEP supports the bill that some Republicans in West Virginia have been picketing Jay Rockefeller’s offices about!
AEP’s support of cap-and-trade shows that rich, powerful corporations — as well as groups with a strong interest in coal mining, like the UMWA, now “get it” — we are all in this climate change boat together, and we can’t wait one minute longer to start the necessary transition to a low-carbon-emissions economy.
I’m ashamed of those extremist fringe denier picketers, who are making it so hard to implement necessary change — just so they can try to score bogus political points. I’m also ahamed of some shortsighted coal people like Don Blankenship, who hope to wring a few more dollars out of “business as usual” — at our childrens’ expense.
But they aren’t going to succeed. Yes, we can!
Thanks for this discussion. I don’t think I called anybody stupid in the op-ed or intended to imply that. Nor did I deny any of the serious damage that some mining practices are doing to the land and people.
I just believe that some ways of defining the situation aren’t very helpful at this point if you want to understand what people are thinking and feeling on the ground.
I don’t lose any sleep worrying about coal companies as they are pretty good at taking care of themselves (by the way, an editor removed a snarky jab at them from the original). And I’ve spent a good part of the last 20 years trying to counter some of the abuses and excesses Roselle mentioned–not that I’m going to say a lot about that here.
But I am concerned about what this conflict is doing to people in a place I’ve always lived in. The last thing we need in WV is an inter-tribal war (and we are pretty tribal here).
When I said this is a tragic situation, that’s exactly what I meant. People are being hurt now and people are going to be hurt in the future however this plays out. Acknowledging that might be a good step in keeping people from getting killed.
I’m not going to get into the whole insider/outsider thing now other than to say that people here will have to live with whatever happens–and each other.
There are going to be all kinds of conflicts over coal related things. And there should be. I just hope that these don’t get out of control.
One thing I greatly admire about Coal Tattoo is that it provides a forum for people to discuss these things.
although an editor removed a snarky jab at come of the coal companies in my original draft.
Doh! Ignore the dangling fragment of my last comment.
Another weekend story: Bo Webb issued a challenge to Don Blankenship to a debate. It’ll be a little harder for Blankenship to run out the clock via competing logistics on this one.
http://www.wvablue.com/diary/4784/bo-webb-challenges-don-blankenship-to-public-debate
Well, it was the Noble Savages part that I found objectionable. And I don’t think this issue is all that complicated, but it certainty is tragic either way you look at it. And for most of the history it has been a vast tragedy for miners and for the planet we live on. More MTR won’t improve the situation for anyone except the person cashing the MTR check, and for them that will only be a very temporary solution. Its great to have a discussion, but temperatures are rising at a very alarming rate and this puts many people at risk. How much more discussing is really necessary? What is needed is action, and we are seeing very little of that, and continuing this discussion aides only the coal interests, who in spite of their complaining, are doing very well at the expense of the rest of us.