Mountaintop Removal & the Fight for West Virginia

We May Be Poor, but We’re Not For Sale

General Coal Facts

• Coal Fired Power Plants: 49.7% of total U.S. electrical generation

• Worldwide Coal Consumption has Risen 30% in the past 6 years (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/19/AR2008031903859.html?hpid=topnews)– 50% price rise in the past 6 months

• Coal Exports: 19% Rise in Exported Coal this year and a greater increase expected next year (Coal Can't Fill World's Burning Appetite)

Mountaintop Removal: Definition

Mountaintop Removal: Impact on Water

Mountaintop Removal: Impact on Jobs

Mountaintop Removal: Impact on Ecosystems

• Hundreds of thousands of acres of some of the world’s most biologically diverse forests outside of the tropics have been lost or degraded, and, to date, efforts to restore them have had limited success. – NASA, 12/21/2007

Mountaintop Removal: Reclamation?

• Wind River Resources (Boone County, WV) Mountaintop Removal Reclamation Project: after 23 years

US Voters & Mountaintop Removal

• 65% of Americans oppose the Bush Administration weakening regulations on MTR

• 70% of Americans say they would oppose MTR if it were with within 50 miles of their home

• 77% of Americans support increasing energy efficiency rather than using MTR

• 9/2007 Poll by Opinion Research Corporation

WV Voters & Mountaintop Removal

• 56% of West Virginians oppose MTR while just 29% support it

• 39% “strongly oppose” MTR while just 12% “strongly support” it

• 44% feel that environmental protections strengthen the economy while just 21% feel they harm the economy

• 82% are concerned that WV’s streams & rivers will become more polluted if MTR continues

• 65% say that a candidate’s environmental positions are at least somewhat important

• 56% of voters would be less likely to vote for a candidate that supports weakening regulations on MTR

• 06/2004 Poll by Lake Snell Perry & Associates

WV Voters & Mountaintop Removal

Mountaintop Removal: It’s Not Needed

• Coal Can be Deep Mined

• Increasing Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy can displace the use of MTR coal

• West Virginia has other sources of economic activity that can be capitalized on

More Jobs from Ending Mountaintop Removal

• This study concludes that the proposed shift of 75% of Mountaintop Removal production to underground mines will result in an additional 1,635 to 1,892 new employment opportunities at West Virginia’s coal mines. – McIlmoil, 2007

Better Health from Ending Mountaintop Removal

• Researcher Michael Hendryx found higher rates of kidney and lung disease and high blood pressure in West Virginia's coal-producing counties. He says this is true even when you take into account differences in income and lifestyle.

• He found that people in coal mining communities have a 70 percent increased risk for developing kidney disease, a 64 percent increased risk for developing chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, such as emphysema, and are 30 percent more likely to report high blood pressure.– WV Public Radio, 03/2008

Clinton Campaign & Ending Mountaintop Removal

• “I am concerned about it for all the reasons people state, but I think its a difficult question because of the conflict between the economic and environmental trade-off that you have here…You know, maybe there is a way to recover those mountaintops once they have been stripped of the coal. You know, I think we've got to look at this from a practical perspective.”– Hillary Clinton, WV Public Radio, 03/2008

Obama Campaign & Ending Mountaintop Removal

• "We're tearing up the Appalachian Mountains because of our dependence on fossil fuels…“– Obama, www.barackobabma.com, 08/2007

• "I’m not just going to take a bunch of contributions from the coal industry and do their bidding, any more than I would only listen to the environmentalists," Obama said. "I want to listen to everybody." – Obama, Beckley Register-Herald, 03/2008

Frames for Talking About Ending Mountaintop Removal

• WE DO NOT WANT TO END ALL COAL MINING TODAY!

• We support deep mining with strong safety standards

• We want a Green Deal for Appalachia promoting healthy jobs that don’t endanger communities

A Green Deal for Appalachia

• Like a true uniter, Obama could bring together the ailing mining and mill communities, white and black, with urban environmentalists -- all needed players for a Democratic victory -- for a new vision of economic diversity based on renewable energy initiatives.

A Green Deal for Appalachia

• Instead of offering worn out ideas for poverty relief, like Clinton, or succumbing to the anachronistic schemes of the dying coal lobby, Obama should shatter these artificial racial boundaries by proposing a New "Green" Deal to revamp the region and bridge a growing chasm between bitterly divided Democrats, and call for an end to mountaintop removal policies that have led to impoverishment and ruin in the coal fields. – Jeff Biggers, 03/2008