West Virginia coal
-
Coal company: 'Birth defects aren't from mining, they're because you're inbred hicks'
Babies born in areas with mountaintop-removal mining have higher rates of birth defects -- we know that from a study that came out last month. But, say coal companies, that doesn't mean the mining CAUSES the birth defects! They could easily be caused by something else -- like, say, rampant inbreeding.
-
Don’t you dare blow up this mountain: Defending a historic spot against Big Coal [VIDEO]
Hundreds of activists from around the country joined local unionized coal miners in standing up to the coal industry last week, marching for five days and 50 miles through West Virginia. Their protest culminated on Saturday at Blair Mountain, the site of a violent clash in 1921 between 15,000 striking coal miners and a hired […]
-
Blair Mountain: A new milestone in the climate justice movement?
Those making the March on Blair Mountain are part of a long history of activism.Photo: Cheshire Tongkat/March on Blair MountainTim DeChristopher is a climate activist and cofounder of Peaceful Uprising. He has been beatified as a saint in the Church of Earthalujah by the Reverend Billy and convicted as a felon by the United States […]
-
A year after the deadly Upper Big Branch mine disaster, not much has changed
Today marks the one-year memorial of the Upper Big Branch mine disaster, which killed 29 workers. Massey Energy Co., which ran the Upper Big Branch mine, will idle production at its 60 underground mines today — but as safety reports and lawsuits pile up, it becomes increasingly clear that a one-day shutdown is not enough. […]
-
Rally against mountaintop-removal coal mining in D.C. on Sept. 27
America will gather in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 27, 2010, to demand the abolition of mountaintop-removal (MTR) coal extraction in Appalachia.
-
Accept more poison to get less carbon? Kill this crazy idea NOW
With an increase in industry’s toxic pollutants, will this be the fate of our water sources? In exchange for cutting their carbon emissions, power plants want to undermine the EPA and get permission to increase other kinds of dangerous pollution. They even want the go-ahead to dump more sulfur and deadly mercury into our air […]
-
Don Blankenship called safety regulators ‘as silly as global warming’
Cross-posted from the Wonk Room. The death toll from Massey Energy’s Upper Big Branch mine explosion last week has reached a total of 29 miners, the worst coal disaster in 40 years. When the disaster occurred, Massey was contesting millions of dollars in major safety violations levied against the mine. At his Labor Day anti-union […]
-
Byrd calls tactics of ‘fear mongering’ coal industry ‘morally indefensible’
Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.) Cross-posted from the Wonk Room. The West Virginia coal industry has become a virulent opponent of President Barack Obama’s reform agenda, and the state’s political leaders have cheered it on. In June, West Virginia declared coal the state rock. In September, the coal industry sponsored a rock concert and rally to […]
-
Should the Department of Justice investigate Big Coal bedlam?
UPDATE: Every American — including the Army Corps of Engineers — must watch this powerful new 20-minute film by Chad Stevens on the real costs and consequences of mountaintop removal mining: Leveling Appalachia: The Legacy of Mountaintop Removal Mining. Now, the good news: on behalf of their children’s future, coalfield residents and miners calmly came […]