The Real Fake Johnny Cash is here to serenade you with a rousing version of “Folsom Prison Blues,” except it’s been renamed “Coal Train Blues,” and it’s about pollution from coal transportation. Now you don’t have to imagine what it’d be like if the Man in Black had been worried about air quality:
It’s not just clever phrasing — Counterfeit Cash drops some dark lumps o’ knowledge in there too:
Basically, Big Coal is proposing a coal export plan that would take 8 to 100 million metric tons of coal from Wyoming through the Pacific Northwest to the West Coast, where the coal can be shipped to China. Who cares, right? Er, anybody with lungs, because coal blows off the tops of the uncovered trains into the air and rivers. Counterfeit Cash is protesting “the absurd, dangerous plans to make the Gorge the coal chute of the United States.”
But hey, there’s some good news!
The good news is that an inspiring grassroots campaign against coal exports has gathered strength over the past two years, uniting citizens, elected officials, business and faith leaders through community groups and a number of organizations, including Friends of the Columbia Gorge, within the POWER PAST COAL coalition.
Learn more about the proposals and take action via Friends of the Columbia Gorge. While dressed all in black, natch.
