Hundreds of demonstrators descend on the Capitol in Frankfort, Ky. to call for an end to the practice of mountaintop removal coal mining, Thursday, Feb. 11, 2010. (AP Photo/Ed Reinke)
Hundreds of folks who oppose mountaintop removal coal mining gathered for rallies today in Frankfort, Ky., and in Richmond, Va.
My buddy Jim Bruggers of the Louisville Courier-Journal has a report on the Kentucky rally here. That event came as Kentucky lawmakers consider renewable energy legislation and a separate measure meant to push U.S. EPA not to cap greenhouse gas emissions.
In Virginia, activists were gathering as lawmakers there considered the “stream saver bill,” or legislation aimed at outlawing valley fills.
If you see more media coverage of either event, please feel free to post links…
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here’s one
http://blogs.alternet.org/speakeasy/2010/02/10/amazing-video-coal-miners-join-historic-rallies-to-end-mountaintop-removal/
If the real concern is about water quality maybe they should address this problem It appears that the real problem about the water is being ignored.
Read this and then tell me where the real problems are.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/23/us/23sewer.html?_r=1
This morning (2- 12) we posted several links to news coverage of the event here:
http://www.ohvec.org/ovec_news.html
Ken, I apologize for getting off topic, but I was wondering what you thought about Davin’s story on the State Department of Education being hesitant to allow the teaching of environmental science in our high schools for fear that it might offend King Coal.
I don’t know if “that’s the real problem” but it certainly is real and huge. It’s one thing for cities like Charleston and New York to sometimes dump sewage into the local waters which are often large and diluting (still not good) but it’s another for Appalachian residents to constantly dump in small streams especially at low flow.
But back to coal, what’s the EPA or whomever going to decide with the current standstill (mostly) on surface permits? Abolish valley fills and strand billions of dollars of investment, eliminate hundreds of thousands of jobs and wreck many local economies? Status quo? Or try to address some or all enviro concerns? Seems like lawsuits would continue for years with any of those unless Federal government legislation is passed and that doesn’t seem to be high on the priority list right now.
Olfrt,
You might have noticed if you’re reading the Times that the same series on water pollution included a major story about coal’s pollution …
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/13/us/13water.html
And, of course, this is a blog about coal — so that’s what I cover here.
But, the Gazette has certainly paid some attention to the matter of sewage and straight pipes … that was a major part of our 2005 series about the Coal River:
http://wvgazette.com/News/CoalRiverProblemsandpotential
These stories in particular might be of interest:
http://wvgazette.com/News/CoalRiverProblemsandpotential/200411210007
http://wvgazette.com/News/CoalRiverProblemsandpotential/200509280003
Casey — you mention legislation … I think that Sen. Byrd and Rep. Rahall have both said that any effort to try to protect mountaintop removal through legislation would fail in Congress, and that going down that road would end up with legislation passing that actually bans valley fills.
You’re asking big questions, of course, and trying to figure out what the answers are is a big part of what this blog is about. Thanks for continuing to ask them — what are your answers?
Finally, concerned citizen –
I wasn’t at the meeting, and I haven’t seen the program’s specifics.
But I read Davin’s story (http://wvgazette.com/News/201002110573) … and frankly, I thought some of the comments from the State Board of Education’s members were pretty silly …
Wade Linger, for example:
“I’m suspicious of it — that it could be used as a platform in any direction. Those drawn to teach the course might have radical agendas.”
Anytime somebody starts alleging that someone else’s “agenda” is “radical” I figure they don’t really know what they’re talking about and are just afraid of confronting ideas they might not agree with.
Most disappointing was this comment from the state Superintendent of Schools, Steve Paine:
“There are tremendous occupations out there that involve environmental education.” On the other hand, he said, “we rely on coal to fund education in a major way.”
Surely, Paine is not suggesting that environmental science should not be taught because doing so might offend the coal industry, which pays taxes that help support schools. If what he’s saying is that any sort of multi-discipline program to teach about, say, climate change or coal’s pollution problems, should include a discussion of what society gets out of coal, that’s one thing, and he’s right. But his comments came off as if he was saying the board should be careful about introducing such topics at all, just because coal helps support education. That’s nonsense.
To me, though, a program that is actually designed by educators is much better than simply allowing a coal industry front group to go into the schools and promote one side of the issue…see this previous post:
http://blogs.wvgazette.com/coaltattoo/2009/12/18/friends-of-coal-gears-up-to-protect-school-program/
I have great respect for public school teachers, especially science teachers — my late father taught science for more than 30 years — and I’m confident that, if left alone by the coal industry and the environmental groups — responsible teachers can do a fine job of designing such a program.
Perhaps the board of education should focus more time on addressing drop-out rates and college-going rates, and less time worrying about whether the coal industry is upset by this program.
Ken.
Here’s a different take from Bill Archer at the Bluefield paper:
http://www.bdtonline.com/homepage/local_story_045205113.html?keyword=leadpicturestory
The Southwest Virginia coal mining community descended on Richmond, Va., last week to make their opposition known concerning a bill that would prohibit surface mining in Virginia unless coal mine operators can demonstrate that the overburden removed in the mining process won’t be disposed in an intermittent, perennial or ephemeral stream.
Ken.
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