Coal Conference Takes A Look at Mountaintop Removal
KINGSPORT, Tenn. – The recession is a golden opportunity to save the nation’s economy from destruction, West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin said Tuesday during the second day of this year’s Eastern Coal Council conference.
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.
“This country is not going to be a world power without energy that is dependable and reliable, and that comes from coal,” Manchin said, adding that he is “fighting the good fight” for the economy.
He said the nation can only worsen its social ills by substantially increasing the cost of living for those who can least afford it, and sending jobs overseas to where energy is cheap and industry, therefore, better able to compete.
Coal, he said, must be used as a bridge until a “fuel of the future” is found. And politicians, he said, must realize the danger of environmental regulation that could cost America its industrial might.
“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.”
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?”
Manchin praised coal companies for helping to clear the roads after “horrendous” flooding in the state over the past few days that he said was caused not by extensive strip mining but by “an act of God.”
Also at the conference, Jim Martin, a senior vice president for Dominion, talked about what his company is doing to face the new reality that will come with regulation of carbon dioxide pollution and other laws impacting the energy industry.
“We have always believed in a very diverse portfolio,” Martin said.
Dominion is moving forward to build wind farms in Southwest Virginia even as it works on a 585-megawatt, coal-fired power plant under construction in Wise County, Va.
“We are having to prepare, and part of the reason we have the diversity of our fleet is to prepare for renewables legislation, to prepare for carbon legislation that may be coming our way,” Martin said.
He also said the number of power customers is growing along with energy use by existing customers – and in addition to the coal plant and wind farms in several states, the company is investing in conservation, making transmission improvements, building natural gas facilities and considering the addition of a third unit to an existing nuclear power station.
“We hope this is not the last coal plant built in North America, but it is certainly very, very difficult to get the financing to build it and get the permits to build it,” Martin said of the Wise County plant. “Companies have to have a lot of willpower to go through what they have to go through to get it done.”
Wind and solar power and conservation can’t make up for the baseload energy that comes from coal, he said, “and baseload is what keeps the lights on for our customers.”
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Reader Reactions
Appalachia can’t stand anymore of the progress and prosperity of mountaintop removal. Wise County is being bombed, blasted and bulldozed right into 3rd world America but as long as the politician and the profit machine are making a killing, killing us people don’t matter. God didn’t put these mountains and streams here to be decapitated and destroyed by man, it’s a sin !!! For photos, either Google or copy and paste the link below, see for yourself what the new and improved, clean, green, hybrid coal industry is doing for Pound and Appalachia.
www.wisecountyissues.com/?p=138
Since Governor Manchin in his speech to the Eastern Coal Council blames the recent flooding in his state on God, then Mr. Manchin should listen to God’s response. I don’t purport to be God’s mouthpiece. However I do suggest Manchin consider a few thoughts on the subject.
1. Manchin seems to gloat that the state of the national economy gives energy powers a temporary “trump” over environmental concerns, and that this is an opening or vulnerability to be exploited by the “the masters of exploitation” (my term here). According to Manchin, “As soon as this economy turns around, I guarantee you the environment will trump us and we’re dead.”
Besides the incongruity of Manchin’s statement that is akin to munitions manufacturers cheering on war, something else is glaringly evident in his statement (especially in light of his later reference to God). Manchin pits the economy against the environment. Simply stated, it’s money versus God’s creation. Jesus said one cannot serve God and Mammon (money), but will love one and hate the other (Matthew 6:24; Luke 16:13).
Doesn’t Manchin realize that environmentalists are concerned about matters such as safety, health, and a sustainable and viable future? Shouldn’t our governor recognize that these concerns trump industry profit and short-term power bills? Shouldn’t protecting the earth and its inhabitants be his higher responsibility? How does he justify his priority of “the economy” over health, safety, and the integrity of God’s creation?
2. Manchin is quoted, “This country is not going to be a world power without energy that is dependable and reliable, and that comes from coal,” Manchin said, adding that he is “fighting the good fight” for the economy.
I do not believe God is interested in the USA or any other nation becoming a “world power” or to say it another way, an empire. Manchin uses the words “dependable” and “reliable” without saying the words that are on the lips of every dependable and reliable scientist and ethicist, and that is that coal is also extraordinarily destructive from its mine source to its burning to the disposal of its waste.
“Fighting the good fight” is a well-known phrase of Saint Paul the Apostle, “Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses” (1 Timothy 6:12). Manchin appropriated this scripture for the economy. Is Manchin appropriately using this scripture?
3. Manchin touts mountaintop removal (did he use that phrase, Debra McCown, or “mountaintop mining”?). Manchin said the flat land it creates allows for development that his state and the region wouldn’t have otherwise. “We are basically using every bit of disturbed land to enhance the quality of life.”
About 3 % maybe is post mining development. Manchin either is woefully ignorant or he is lying through his teeth. And if his listeners in the Eastern Coal Council go along with this lie then they too are culpable in the lie. I guess they can take that up with God, too.
4. Manchin bemoans the piece of land he owns that produces little property tax revenue and only a timber harvest once every 50 years. He asks where are the property taxes to pay for schools (if presumably, mountaintop removal is banned)?
This speaks to the heart of the unholy alliance between West Virginia government and the coal industry. The government likes the power in its tax revenue, and the coal industry likes the lax regulations and promotion that the government provides.
As for schools and services, West Virginia ranks near #50 in all sorts indices, and this after 120 years of coal as its major industry. And southern West Virginia and eastern Kentucky where mountaintop removal is predominant has among the worst infrastructure in the nation. One might also note that the coalfields not only export its wealth without corresponding reinvestment, but their schools export their brightest students without corresponding in migration. This “brain drain” appears to have a correlation to the coal industry mono-economy.
5. Manchin says that “the danger of environmental regulation that could cost America its industrial might.” More jobs would go overseas.
Oh! So it’s the environmentalists that have swept away all the factory jobs? And not “free trade?” So, Joe, we should do well to go back to open sewer rivers and lung choking air, like America was and China is?
6. Manchin blamed the recent flooding in Mingo County and surrounding was “an Act of God” and touted King Coal as the savior in mopping up some of the mess. Manchin would not have us listen to the many scientists who say that massive strip mining has made the region much more vulnerable to flooding and water contamination. Rather, King Coal is the god who reigns and rules in “by god West Virginia.” King Coal is benefactor, savior, and redeemer for West Virginia. Just feed it hungry mouth with our mountains, streams, communities, and bodies, and it will give back….well, we’ve a 120 years of history to judge that god, “King Coal,” and its worshippers.
I live in coal extraction area of WV and I am a coal miners daughter. Shame on Governor Manchin for lying about the land use. In a court decision it was determined that the WV agency had given out illegal permits for NOT obeying the post mine land use. 95% of the blasted mountains don’t have anything on them at all. The Governor knows this. How dare Manchin blame the act of greedy coal companies and men on our gracious God. On a steep mountain, if you strip all the tress and vegetation and then it rains 3 inches-what do you think will happen? you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure that one out. We don’t need to blast and poison people for jobs, strip mine jobs are short term destructive jobs. We would have clean -green- jobs forever with renewable energy and it would revive our economy. Water is more valuable than coal and if any of you don’t believe me -come on down to WV and I will give you some of the water the people in Boone county are forced to drink.
I live beneath a mountaintop removal operation in Joe Manchin’s WV. Manchin is either not well informed of the personal harm that I and my neighbors are suffering from mtr or he is a liar. I say it’s the latter. He knows. We are getting blasted daily right above my home. Blast dust laden with silica, diesel fuel, and ammonium nitrate cover my property and the air I breath just about every day now. Fly-rock has landed in my garden. A boulder the size of a car hood has landed within 100 feet of my garden. The mountain no longer has the rich understory that used to soak up the rain. The hollow that was a runoff creek has now been covered with rocks, dirt, and blasted trees. What used to be the top of the mountain is scattered everywhere. The rain now runs off the exposed rocks on top and down in any number of directions. For Joe Manchin to say the recent flooding in WV is “an act of God”, is the act of an evil tongue. Shame on him for blaming God for what he is allowing to happen to our state and our people. Someday Joe, you are going to have the opportunity to stand before God and try to convince him that all this is His fault. Shame on you, you are a disgrace to the state of WV.
If Mt. top removal is so bad. What does all the gas, oil, junk electronic and all the other metal and every chemical in the ground doing to the world we live in? You tree huggers need to wake up and understand we can no longer go back to George Washington days. The way all usable land is being used to build houses. If VA. KY. WV. don’t level some Mt.land you will have no place build anything.
Mountaintop Removal has removed well over 450 mountaintops in West Virginia/Virginia/and Kentucky. This is all forested land and common sense tells folks that a mountain has alot more surface area than flat land. This removal of mountaintops has removed hundreds of square miles of forest and is devastating to the environment as well as the communities who have lost their homes, cemetaries, and streams.
I can’t believe more folks aren’t involved in crushing mountaintop removal.
The Governor’s point is well taken. Economic reality is the critical factor. Coal is the only indigenous fuel source that can allow the US to maintain any degree of energy independence. Severely restricting coal operations (mining, power generation, etc) will seriously debilitate the US. Mountain top removal mining is a necessary evil. The governor has offset this by utilizing the mesa type resulting structure for productive purposes. We need more officials thinking the way Governor Manchin does to protect the US economy, US jobs and the US’s position in the world arena
As someone who actively opposes the process of mountaintop removal coal mining and the poisoning of our air and water by coal companies and coal-burning utilities, I find it hard to believe that Ms. McCown was apparently unable to find anyone to offer an opposing viewpoint to the false dichotomy of jobs/economy vs. the environment offered by West Virginia Governor Manchin and Dominion Executive Jim Martin at the Eastern Coal Council Conference. The large, growing and visible movement to end mountaintop removal coal mining is also a movement to find more sustainable jobs and economies for the residents of coal country. Mountaintop removal coal mining actually reduces the number of mining jobs available. This false dichotomy of jobs/economy vs. environment does not hold up as justification for the irresponsible actions of coal companies and coal-burning utilities. A number of lies went unchallenged in the article including the statement that the majority of mountaintop removal sites are being developed for other uses—in fact, a very small percentage of these sites are being developed. Even if this statement were true, does it justify the health effects of poisoned water supplies and deaths caused by increased flash flooding? The burying of streams by unstable valley fills that used to be mountain tops is hardly an “act of God.“ It is quite disturbing to me that the Governor of West Virginia sees this recession as a golden opportunity for coal companies to evade regulation and step up their destruction of our communities and mountains.
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