Activists urge state intervention in blasting plan at W.Va. mine site

Activists protest blasting plan at W.Va. mine site

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Environmental activists determined to save a southern West Virginia mountain from strip mining demanded Monday that the state intervene in Massey Energy’s plans for blasting at the site.

Activist Bo Webb urged the protesters to “stay cool and stay focused” as they were heckled by several hundred miners who chanted “coal” from across the parking lot outside state Department of Environmental Protection headquarters. About a half-dozen state troopers kept the two sides separated.

Horns on coal trucks attempted to drown out the speakers, including an opening prayer.

Environmental attorney Robert Kennedy Jr., son of the late Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, was among those set to speak at the activists’ rally. While the rally was about mountaintop removal mining in general, it was also about a particular site — Coal River Mountain.

Virginia-based Massey Energy has plans to blast and mine thousands of acres atop the mountain, which has enough coal reserves to feed power plants for 14 years. Coal River Mountain Watch, a citizens’ group, wants Massey to stick with underground mining and allow the ridges to be turned into a 200-turbine wind farm.

Bob Kincaid of Coal River Mountain Watch asked for a moment of silence at the rally in honor of Pearl Harbor Day, then made an analogy to the Japanese attack on Dec. 7, 1941.

“We don’t have a day of infamy in West Virginia,” Kincaid said. “We have an hour of infamy every hour of every day because of mountaintop removal, and it must end.”

Coal miners wore U.S. flags and held signs that read, “Hey Kennedy clan, fix your morals before destroying our family’s jobs” and “Don’t like coal? Get your power disconnected.”

Surface miner Pete Smith, who works for Republic Energy, waved a sign that included photos of his 7- and -9 year-old daughters. He said the company has cut back on employees’ hours.

“My kids depend on coal,” said Smith, who lives in Scarbro, about 40 miles southeast of Charleston. “I’m worried to death because that’s all I’ve done all my life.”

The rally fell on the same day an international conference on global warming got under way in Copenhagen, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency declared that greenhouse gases are endangering people’s health and must be regulated.

The EPA’s conclusion is timed to boost the administration’s arguments that the United States is acting aggressively to combat global warming, even though Congress has yet to act on climate legislation.

Those developments will likely add fuel to the siege mentality of the coal industry, which has come under growing scrutiny by regulators and growing pressure from politicians and the public.

Just before Thanksgiving, a federal judge ruled the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers broke the law by failing to give the public enough of a say before issuing permits.

The corps was already considering rules to end a fast-track system for obtaining such permits, and the EPA was already holding up 79 strip mine permits in West Virginia, Kentucky, Ohio and Tennessee for additional scrutiny.

In mountaintop removal mining, forests are clear-cut. Explosives blast apart the rock, and machines scoop out the exposed coal. The earth left behind is dumped into valleys, covering intermittent streams.

Coal operators say it’s the most efficient way — in some cases, the only way — to reach some reserves. They also argue they reclaim the land so it can be redeveloped. Critics say the land is ruined forever, and that people, property and the environment suffer unnecessarily.

On the Net:

W.Va. Coal Association: www.wvcoal.com/mountain-top-mining/what-is-moutain-top-mining.html

Coal River Mountain Watch: www.crmw.net/