Former Virginia Governor Mark Warner is currently the Democratic candidate for Senate in Virginia. I was recently able to ask him about his position on mountaintop removal.

His (disappointing) answer?

We haven’t done much of it here in Virginia.

The more candidates talk about “carbon capture and sequestration,” clean coal, IGCC, or coal to liquid fuel, the more Virginia mountains we are likely to see destroyed by mountaintop removal.

Governor Warner knows this, and I hope he will develop a better answer on what he plans to do to stop mountaintop removal if he gets that Senate seat.

Al Gore addresses Ed Wiley, Ed’s granddaughter Kayla, and the audience at the 2008 Nashville film festival, and presents Director Michael O’ Connell the 2008 “Reel Current Award” for his most recent piece “Mountain Top Removal.”

Gore on MTR:

[MTR] just kills the landscape, and it kills the prospect for Kayla and her generation to have the same kind of beautiful place to live and the same healthy place to live. And all for what?

…

Kayla’s grandfather Ed Wiley took it upon himself to say “I’m gonna take this message to where somebody can hear it who can do something about it. And he walked 450 miles with a flag and a homemade flagstaff over his shoulder to Washington DC. And I admire that a lot Ed. But they didn’t respond, not really. Then he went to the Governor’s office, and then the courts got a hold of it. And of course the way our democracy is operating these days with the influence of big money being way out of bounds to what it should be – that produces way more of a response than a family, a grandfather thinking about his grand-daughter and her generation which should be right up there in first place when these decisions are made. But instead all these high priced lawyers and lobbyists and all the money thats thrown at this, it just twists the outcome of the legal proceedings, of the legislative proceedings, of the Congressional proceedings. And this is going on in Appalachia and similar activities are going on all over the world.

…

We’ve got to change this pattern of cutting off the tops of these mountains and just condemning future generations in Appalachia to a diminished future, and there are many of them, starting with this family that are standing up clearly and forcefully and saying “Its not right.”

…

And the proposals to stop this mountaintop mining have also gone nowhere. Now why is that? The influence of the groups that are making so much money on this and caring so little about the consequences has just overwhelmed what families are going through and are overwhelming what a grandfather thinks about when he thinks of how his granddaughter is going to grow up in the community where he grew up. So I hope that this film will help others to connect the dots the way it helped Tipper and me to connect the dots on the relationship between mountaintop removal – which is a crime and ought to be treated as a crime – and the results of burning it without regard to the future, which also ought to be treated as just an unacceptable practice. So, you can tell I feel strongly about this and have for a long time but the feelings I’m expressing here were really evoked in a significant way by this movie. So I want to formally congratulate and thank Michael O Connell and present him with the Reel Current Award.

Also, please watch Ed speak in the last 2 minutes. He is a brilliant man.

NPR’s nationally syndicated program “All Things Considered” just aired a piece on The Alliance for Appalachia’s “Week in Washington”.

You can listen to Debbie Elliot’s “New Breed of Lobbyists Hail from Appalachia” here.

All Things Considered, April 21, 2008 · Lobbyists are everywhere on Capitol Hill. But it’s not always high-priced professionals that get lawmakers’ attention. A cadre of Appalachian residents has come to lobby for environmental protections from coal-mining waste. For many, it was their first trip to Washington, D.C.

It really is a brilliant piece. We are seeing the emerging narrative from the national media be “the Appalachian people are organizing and leading the charge against mountaintop removal mining in their communities,” which is what the narrative should be.

Speaking on a personal note, this year’s lobby week was a very special and inspiring event for me. It was well planned and well organized, and was attended by some of the most wonderful American citizens I’ve had the privledge of working with and celebrating with. It gave me hope that citizens can lead Congress to action, and that we can pass the Clean Water Protection Act (HR 2169) and end mountaintop removal mining in Appalachia.

The head of AEP managed to make a public appearance down at Virginia Tech. Amazing questions from the students and faculty. Check it out.

In just a few weeks, Virginia will be delivering a mile-long petition to Dominion shareholders and Governor Tim Kaine, asking him not to build a 2nd coal fired power plant in Wise County. This plant will increase greenhouse gas emissions, mountaintop removal mining in Wise County, and local toxic fallout for the people in SWVA. It will create only a few long-term jobs, and will not help the 20% of Wise County that already lives in poverty.

Northern Appalachian coal just hit $110/ton. In 2007, it bottomed out at less than $45/ton, meaning it has nearly tripled in ONE YEAR.

In April 2007 it was $45/ton. As you can see, for the last three years, Central Appalachian coal usually tracks fairly closely to Northern Appalachian coal. If anything, it tends to be slightly more expensive. The price of Appalachian coal has now officially quintupled in less than 8 years.
This is the Northern and Central Appalachian coal basin, where 90%+ of Appalachian coal comes from.

A lot of this coal is mined using aggressive extraction methods like mountaintop removal mining, which has already flattened more than 474 of the worlds oldest mountains.

The writing has been on the market wall now for a long time. The NYT had already reported a similar price trend in Central Appalachian coal and a long term trend of Appalachian coal.

This is a big deal not only for investors who want to see new coal-fired power plants constructed and more mountaintop removal coal mines, but $100/ton coal in Appalachia may signal a death knell for coal-fired electricity in general.

The northern and central Appalachian states (PA, WV, KY) are where the Presidential candidates are right now and we need to hear how they plan to deal with mountaintop removal and coal-fired power plants in the face of skyrocketing coal prices.

From the Lexington Herald-Leader:

The first question of the session was also a first for Clinton.

A student said mountaintop removal mining was a big issue in Kentucky, and he wanted to know whether Hillary Clinton would do anything to help stop the process that strips the tops off mountains to get at the coal underneath the surface.

It was the first time Chelsea Clinton had ever been asked that question. Clinton said her mother plans to invest in coal research to discover the best way to address energy and environmental concerns.

An imperfect, but improved answer from last week:

Courier-Journal Interview:

Q: Mountaintop mining has been a big issue in Kentucky. How would you approach that issue?

A: This is one of these areas where we’ve got to get everybody together and come up with some solutions.

I understand the argument that it’s a cost-effective way to get at the coal, but I also understand and sympathize with the concerns people have about stream and river pollution, about the effects on the environment and the livelihoods of people who are in other walks of life in the economy.

My administration would serve as a mediator and conciliatory presence in trying to figure out what we’re going to do.

I think her answer is particularly improved in that she recognizes the devastating impact mountaintop removal has on the economy, and the negative economic impact anybody who has a job besides being a heavy machinist on a mountaintop removal site.

Obama took more questions and eventually looked over at the man in the neon-green ball cap and sweat shirt, our own Larry Gibson. Obama, like many of us, noticed Larry’s dogged persistence: the Presidential candidate invited Larry to speak, saying, “This gentlemen in the green has hand his hand up for a long time.”

Larry stood up and said, “Senator Obama, I appreciate your stand on the war. You mentioned water a while ago. Water is something we all need… We have a House Bill 2169, the Clean Water (Protection) Act…we had a gentleman back here touch on mining. Like I said about the war in Iraq, we’d like you to consider the war we have here in Appalachia, with over 474 mountains blowed up…and it’s the the mining polluting the water…I’d like to know your opinion about it.”

Obama replied, “I want strong enforcement of the Clean Water Act. I will make sure the head of the Environmental Protection Agency believes in the environment and enforces the Clean Water Act and the Clean Air Act.

“What I want to do is work with experts here in West Virginia to find out what we need to do to protect the waterways here. That’s going to be a primary task of the head of my Environmental Protection Agency.

Please see Larry in the green shirt in the middle of the frame with his hand raised. He raised his hand for the entire speech.

h/t to OHVEC

Who: Dogwood Alliance and You
What: Fast Food Packaging Campaign: Southern Exposure Media Tour
Where: A City near you—to find a list of planned events, click here.
https://www.dogwoodalliance.org/content/view/188/135/

When: Thursday, March 27th—Thursday, April 3rd, 2008

Why: Dogwood Alliance is kicking off the Fast Food Packaging Campaign

Southern forests are too important to be wasted for fast food packaging

* Over half of the forests that are cut down in the US are for Packaging
* Dozens of Fast Food Corporations are buying Packaging from Southern Forests
* 15% of landfill waste is Fast Food Packaging
* The average American throws out 300 lbs. of Packaging Waste every year

Join Dogwood Alliance in challenging corporations to change their habits. Our forests are too important to be wasted for disposable packaging. With nearly 100 paper packaging mills in the South, the packaging decisions of these corporations have a tremendous impact on our forests.

A Kohmist and the KohmEST were featured last week on the trusty ol’ FM radio.

I was on the excellent and always entertaining “Head On Radio with Bob Kincaid” last Thursday (3/20), talking about Presidential politics and Appalachia. Bob’s show is based out of West Virginia, and we spoke for about 45 minutes on subjects ranging from the Clean Water Protection Act (HR 2169), Presidential candidates positions on coal, pro-mountain bills and grassroots actions in Appalachian states, mountaintop removals devastating effects on the Appalachian economy, and Appalachia’s potentially huge role in the upcoming clean energy economy. The interview begins at roughly minute 32 and goes for about 45 minutes. Comments and critiques welcome! (audio)

Always the first to beat me to anything, Lenny Kohm (the Kohmest of the Kohmists) was also featured on a really cool program called Against the Grain on Tuesday (3/18/08). Against the Grain is a one-hour interview-format show that airs on Pacifica station KPFA 94.1 FM in Berkeley, KFCF 88.1 FM in Fresno, California, and kpfa.org. Lenny focuses on the Clean Water Protection Act (HR 2169) and the national implications of mountaintop removal. Lenny starts just after 2/3rds of the way through. (audio)

TIME just ran a series of photographs chronicling the “World Water Crisis.”

Of all the photographs, developing countries dominated the bad news. Africa, India, Asia, China were heavily featured in pictures of aquatic degradation and scarcity.

But one photograph jumped out at me.

Kenny Stroud and his son in Rawl, West Virginia. The caption reads:

Foul-smelling water mixed with coal had been running from Kenny Stroud’s faucet for more than a decade before clean tap water was finally provided by the city of Rawl, West Virginia. Residents of the town with similar problems blame Massey Energy, a coal mining company for the bad water, saying that the problem, caused by the company’s practice of dumping coal slurry into local streams and waterways, has caused numerous health problems. In 2007, Massey settled a $30 million lawsuit filed by the state.