Mountaintop Removal Gives West Virginians a Graveyard In the Sky

This is apparently big news. It made the pages of the Washington Post, so to me that counts as big news. Anyway, the news is that a group of West Virginians is suing one of the large coal companies there to stem further damage to a cemetery that is surrounded by a mountaintop removal coal mine. The photograph below shows the bit of land on which the graveyard is surrounded by the devastation of the mine site.

 

For West Virginians their final resting place among the trees in the middle of a mountaintop removal mine photo Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition, Maria Gunnoe/Associated Press

The group says that Alpha Natural Resources and its subsidiary, Independence Coal Company, have violated state law and an agreement that the coal company has with the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection to preserve access and keep mining at least 100 feet away from the graveyard.

            The plaintiffs claim that the access road to the gravesites has become almost impassable except for heavy-duty, four-wheel drive vehicles. Besides the degradation to the access roads, visitors to the graveyard have to request access to the site from the mine’s safety coordinator, show ID, and provide their Social Security numbers.

            The plaintiffs also say that the mine has damaged the graves. Maria Gunnoe, who has long fought mountaintop mining and has received the University of Michigan’s Raoul Wallenberg Medal in recognition for her work in environmental and social justice, says that blasting from the mine has shaken headstones loose and has caused some of the gravestones to crack, tilt, or sink. Some have been damaged by falling trees.

            Alpha denies that they are not in compliance with their agreements or the law. They say that their coal mining has not damaged the graves.

            It is ironic, at least to me, that this lawsuit concerns the effects of a mountaintop mine on the dead. This mine, the Twilight Surface Mine, basically swallowed up and destroyed the small Boone County community of Lindytown, the community that had the gravesite. A little over two years ago Massey Energy, the original owner of the mine, bought up the small town, sending almost all of its residents away from the community that many had known for generations.

            I can understand the plight of the plaintiffs in this case, their distress over the treatment of their relatives’ and ancestors’ resting places. But a greater crime seems to be how the living have been treated in this area and how their lives have been disrupted by the mountaintop coal mines. Equally distressing is the amount of power that a mine company can have. Besides blowing up the mountains of Appalachia, a single coal company can buy up an entire town, just because the town gets in the way of its plans for a mine. To me it is wrong that this country could allow such a triumph of capitalism over community.

            Another thing that is wrong is what the Washington Post considers newsworthy. I don’t deny that this is a newsworthy story. But it is one of the few stories concerning mountaintop mining that the Post has run. Searching through the online newspaper using the term “mountaintop removal” brings up a number of stories, all of which are on politics (here and here), obituaries (here and here), or arts (here). I don’t discount the merit of these news stories, but the real story in Appalachia, the real headline grabber that calls out, “Extra! Extra! Read all about it!” is that the mountains of Appalachia are falling because of the coal deep inside them.

This Week a Mixed Bag of Court Rulings For Mountaintop Removal

UPDATE BELOW

As far as the court rulings go, it’s a mixed bag for the mountains and the people of Appalachia this week. Some good news, some not so good news.

            First the bad news. In Kentucky a judge ruled against the Sierra Club and other environmental organizations who had brought suit to block a permit for a valley fill that the Army Corps of Engineers had granted for a mountaintop removal coal mining operation in the eastern part of the state.

            When folks challenge the legality of these permits, they usually concentrate on the environmental harm that the mountaintop mining operation will bring to the hills, valleys, and streams of Appalachia, but in this case, the first to do so, the environmental groups said that the Corps had not considered the negative health effects that the valley fill would have on local residents.

            The judge, Thomas B. Russell, ruled in favor of the coal company, Leeco Coal, finding that the Corps did “not act unreasonably” and “adequately analyzed the issues” in issuing the permit. I’m uncertain if judge Russell considered the growing evidence that living around mountaintop strip mining is hazardous to your health. Had he done so, he probably would have ruled otherwise.

            In another courtroom, this one in West Virginia, a judge ruled that a coal industry friendly law that was recently passed by the coal industry friendly legislature of West Virginia did not protect coal companies from lawsuits brought against the mining companies because of the pollution from their mines.

Coal River Mountain Watch had brought suit against Alpha Natural Resources, saying that discharges from the coal company’s Brushy Fork coal slurry impoundment bring about excessive selenium levels downstream, in violation of environmental regulation.

 

The Brushy Fork coal slurry impoundment. So big it would dwarf the Eiffel Tower

Last year’s legislation allows coal companies to declare that they are in compliance with West Virginia water pollution standards if they meet certain discharge limits for chemicals specified in their permits. The water pollution permit for Brushy Fork does not specifically limit selenium discharges, despite West Virginia’s separate water quality standard.

            Judge Robert C. Chambers, in his 36-page ruling, said that this shielding law does not provide Alpha Natural Resources protection from enforcement from existing state and federal laws that allow citizens to bring suit against polluting companies.

           There you have it. One victory, one defeat for the mountains and people of Appalachia.

UPDATE: 9/4/13 There is some hope in the Leeco case in Kentucky. On appeal of its case to a higher court, a District Court issued an order  for Leeco to cease its operation of a mountaintop coal mine while the plaintiffs, Kentuckians For the Commonwealth, the Sierra Club, and Earthjustice, appeal their case to the Sixth Circuit Court.

Ohio’s State EPA Chief Resigns, Says Governor Wanted Him Out Because of Clashes With King Coal

Ohio’s top waterways watchdog to resign, says Kasich wanted him out

The head of Ohio’s state Environmental Protection Agency is resigning. The governor of the state wants his resignation because of pressure from the coal industry. George Elmaraghy, who has served in the Ohio state EPA for 39 years, explained in an email to his staff that the coal industry wants “permits that may have a negative impact on Ohio’s streams and wetlands and violate state and federal laws. Now, due to this situation, the governor’s office and the director have asked me to resign my position.” The full text of the letter can be found here.

            John Kasich, a member of the GOP who became governor of Ohio in 2011, has received large campaign donations from coal companies. Since he started his gubernatorial campaign in 2009, Ohio’s King Coal has donated almost one million dollars to statewide and legislative candidates. The Lion's share of that money came from just two coal companies: Boich Companies and Murray Energy.

            It looks like Elmaraghy is a man who does his job. Environmental interests describe him as fair-minded. It also looks like the big dollars of King Coal gets them what they want, too. 

Goodbye Gauley Mountain: Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining Meets Art and Sex

There is yet another documentary about mountaintop removal. Premiering yesterday in Charleston, West Virginia, Goodbye Gauley Mountain, is an effort from filmmakers Elizabeth Stephens and her life partner Annie Sprinkle.

            Both Stephens and Sprinkle are artists and academics. Stephens teaches at UC Santa Cruz, and Sprinkle has a Ph.D. in human sexuality. Their film is being touted as an “ecosexual love story.” In the trailer, among images of the catastrophic destruction of mountaintop removal coal mining are scenes with naked people in them. I guess the naked people scenes are the “ecosexual” angle of the movie.

Trailer Goodbye Gauley Mtn: An Ecosexual Love Story from Elizabeth Stephens on Vimeo.

And I guess that if this couple were going to make a movie about mountaintop mining, sex would work its way in there. Stephens is a performance artist. Her work has concentrated on the themes of “queerness,” feminism, and environmentalism and her current passion is what she calls “SexEcology,” which is thinking of the Earth as a lover. For Sprinkle Goodbye Gauley Mountain is only her latest in a long line of movies. She started making pornographic movies back to the mid seventies. She has appeared in close to 200 films, most of which have been pornographic.

            I’ve seen two other documentaries about mountaintop mining. On Coal River is about a small number of individuals who live in the Coal River area and whose lives have been disrupted by the mountaintop mines. The film focuses on their concern for the safety of the schoolchildren whose schoolhouse lies downstream from a coal slurry impoundment. The Last Mountain pretty much contains the same individuals. Robert Kennedy Jr. makes an appearance, and, despite all the havoc caused by these oversized coal mines, the film manages to end on an upbeat note. I believe that, until Stephens and Sprinkle’s movie, these are the only two documentaries about mountaintop mining.

            Maybe the “ecosexual” theme of the movie might get folks to go to the theatre and see Goodbye Gauley Mountain. Theatres were not packed for the earlier films. For the showing of On Coal River here in San Diego, a showing that was sponsored by Whole Foods, the entire audience consisted of three attendees: my wife, our friend Deborah, and me. San Diego is the sixth largest city in the country, and only three people saw On Coal River here, and my wife and our friend probably wouldn’t have seen it had I not dragged them to the theater.

            And even if more people see Goodbye Gauley Mountain, will it make a difference? I’m beginning to think that no matter what we see in a documentary, no matter how dramatic or persuasive the movie is, no matter how well the filmmaker entertains us, it won’t make any difference.

            Fifty years ago the seed of modern environmentalism was planted with the publication of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring. Similarly, Betty Friedan inspired the modern Women’s Movement of the sixties and seventies with her book The Feminine Mystique. Though it can be argued that books don’t create the stir that they once did in the day of Carson and Friedan, there has never been a documentary with the influence of Silent Spring or The Feminine Mystique. Edward R. Murrow’s Harvest of Shame aired on television around the same time as when Carson and Friedan wrote their books, and the show shocked those who watched it. Harvest of Shame is quite famous, and people still talk about it, but more than fifty years later not much has changed for the migrant workers who harvest our food. Detroit still went down the tubes even after Michael Moore’s Roger and Me spotlighted the way General Motors and the other big American automobile companies were shutting down factories. And his indictment of the George W. Bush administration, Fahrenheit 911, failed to keep Bush from getting reelected.

            Will I go see Goodbye Gauley Mountain? I don’t know if I need to see more scenes of large earth moving equipment leveling mountains. I don’t know if there is much more that I can learn from another film on super sized strip mining. Greg Archer, writing in the Huffington Post says that the movie is “one of the most creative romps to shed light on King Coal.” Maybe all the folks I that I was expecting to see in the theatres when I went to see On Coal River will come out to see Stephens and Sprinkle and their new film. Maybe they'll be informed and entertained by this ecosexual love story, and maybe the mountains will still crumble for King Coal.

Environmentalists Deliver Climate Change Denier Award To Darrell Issa

Environmentalists Deliver Climate Change Denier Award To Congressman Issa | KPBS.org

It seems, more and more, that Darrell Issa lives in an Alice in Wonderland fantasy world.

It’s a fantasy world in which he saw himself as governor of California after he engineered the recall election of Grey Davis. Issa believed that he would replace Davis in the recall. In true Alice in Wonderland fashion, Issa cried when Arnold Schwarzenegger dashed the hopes of the car alarm mogul when he entered the recall race.

It’s a fantasy world in which the tragedy of last year’s attack on the U.S. embassy in Benghazi, Egypt equals or surpasses the Nixon administration’s secret war waged in Laos and Cambodia or the Iran-Contra scandal of the Reagan administration. Unfortunately for Issa’s fantasy, as more and more reality seeped into the investigation that he spearheaded in Congress, the charges of scandal and cover up lost more and more credibility.
              And now, as shown in the link at the top of this post, a group of California environmental organizations honored Congressman Issa for his Alice in Wonderland stance on global warming, delivering a climate change denier award to his office. According to Jenesse Miller, Communications Director for the California League of Conservation Voters, Issa’s non-reality based worldview pretty much excludes almost all of the environment, saying, “That includes everything from ocean protection, to climate change, to species protection, to wilderness protection. You name the environmental issue, and Darrel Issa is usually on the wrong side of it.”
              Not that Issa is alone in his world of Big Crazy. Despite the scientific consensus that formed around the issue of human generated climate change, Miller says that 55 percent of Issa’s Congressional GOP colleagues deny the existence of global warming. 

Southern Californians Saying Goodbye to Their Lawns and Lawnmowers

For southern California, the future is more people and less water. In the next ten years hundreds of thousands more folks are expected to make San Diego County their home. The populations of other areas in southern California are also expected to increase as well. All the while our supply of water is diminishing.

            In San Diego we get about half of our water from the Colorado River. The flow of the river has been diminishing for years. Because of global warming, this diminishing trend is expected to continue.[i] We get most of the rest of our water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River delta. A great deal of the flow of the river delta comes from the melting of the Sierra Mountains snowpack. The Sierra snowpack has declined in the last twenty years and, as with the Colorado River, is expected to diminish further due to climate change. The reductions may be as great as 30 to 70 percent from historic levels.[ii]

            Water is precious here. But you wouldn’t know it by looking at the place. We southern Californians go through water like crazy. The average American uses about 90 gallons of water a day for drinking, cooking, cleaning, and other purposes. The average San Diegan uses about 150 gallons of water a day. That extra 60 gallons of water that we use goes outside to keep our lawns and landscaping green. We like the weeks and weeks—months actually—of clear blue skies, but we also want to have nice lush lawns and other greenery around our houses and neighborhoods.

 

Google Earth image of northern San Diego County neighborhood. Note the native coastal sage scrub on the right next to the lush green lawns and trees around the houses. Making the landscape green on the left takes a lot of water.

As this article in the LA Times points out, many of the municipalities of the Southwest are giving residents incentives to restrict the watering of their lawns. By offering $1.4 million in incentives to residents to convert their lawns to native plants, xeriscaping, or artificial turf, Los Angeles has removed over one million square feet of lawn-watered grass from the yards of the city in less than five years.

            There are ways of maintaining some green and grass around homes, such as harvesting rainwater with rain barrels, and some municipalities, such as San Diego, are loosening the restrictions on the use of grey water, the water left over from washing machines, hand basins, showers, and baths, for use in watering lawns and landscaping. Anyway around it, things are changing water wise for San Diego and the rest of southern California.

---

[i] Tootle, G., and T. Piechota. "Forecasting of Lower Colorado River Basin Streamflow Using Pacific Ocean Sea Surface Temperatures and ENSO". Proceedings of the 2004 World Water and Environmental Resources Congress: Critical Transitions in Water and Environmental Resources Management (2004): 234-47.

[ii] Hayhoe, K., et al. "Emissions Pathways, Climate Change, and Impacts on California." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences U S A 101.34 (2004): 12422-27.

From PBS NewsHour: How Environmentalists Lost Their Battle Against the Border Fence

How Environmentalists Lost Their Battle Against the Border Fence | PBS NewsHour

The construction along our border with Mexico is something I feel strongly about, and I’ve written about it before. Above is a link to a report from PBS that sums up a great deal of what has happened to the land between Tijuana and San Diego.

            When Congress passed the Real ID Act, it included a rider in the legislation that allows the head of the Department of Homeland Security to disregard environmental and other laws for border security construction. To construct the triple wall, Michael Chertoff, the Secretary of DHS in 2008, waived dozens of laws, including the Endangered Species Act, NEPA, The Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act, the nearly century old Migratory Bird Treaty Act, and the National Historic Preservation Act.

            Besides the environmental damage that the triple wall inflicted, it also damages to our democracy. Think about it. Is there any justification for a cabinet member, not even the president of our country, to rule by fiat? How can anything justify this?

Sierra Club and Other Organizations Sue Fola Coal Over Mountaintop Mining Runoff

Mountaintop Mining Lawsuit - West Virginia's Eyewitness News

Given how destructive mountaintop removal is, it’s surprising that there aren’t more lawsuits like this. The Sierra Club, along with other organizations, is suing the Fola Coal over mine runoff pollution from a mountaintop mining operation that is about 20 miles east of West Virginia’s capitol, Charleston.
            The runoff from the mine flows to the Leatherwood Creek. About 60 percent of the Leatherwood Creek’s watershed is permitted for mining. The Sierra Club was successful last year in a similar lawsuit against Fola Coal. Right now there are four other lawsuits concerning eight impaired streams. The coal companies involved in these suits are Alex Energy, Elk Run Coal, and Fola Coal.

A creek showing the characteristic yellow staining of acid mine runoff

The World Warms and Tempers Flair

There are the obvious changes that global warming is bringing us: melting glaciers, rising seas, hotter and more extreme weather. But according to some recent research—and if you think about it some basic common sense—climate change is changing us as well.

            Drawing on everything from ancient tree rings to observing road rage, Berkley scientists have come to the conclusion that a warmer world will be a more violent world. On the face of it, it just seems to make sense. It’s pretty common knowledge that as the mercury rises, people’s tempers develop shorter and shorter fuses. OK, I know that professional hockey kind of throws a monkey wrench into this observation, but for the most part the hotter it is, the more likely it is that people’s tempers will flair. Riots don’t develop in the summertime, not when it’s snowing outside. And kids’ snowball battles are less likely to escalate into serious confrontations than their summertime ball games do.

            The world is changing and we are changing as well.

As the world warms, will we be able to keep our cool?

New Video From the Smithsonian Displays the Enormity of Mountaintop Removal

This I’ve seen the documentaries On Coal River and The Last Mountain, which give you a very good idea of the costs to people’s lives because of mountaintop coal mining, but this new video from the Smithsonian Institution is perhaps one of the best primers on mountaintop removal that reveals the enormity of this holocaust that has ripped up Appalachia.

The NRA's Hunt For Truth Campaign Gets Shot Down By Knowledge and Science

UPDATES BELOW

Although I have my thoughts and opinions about guns, I don’t share them here on this blog. This is an environmental blog, and getting off topic into the gun debate would just, well, get me off topic. But guns are one thing and ammunition is another, and that is just what I want to talk about today.
            The National Rifle Association has a campaign called Hunt For Truth—www.huntfortruth.org—with the goal of keeping lead bullets and other ammunition that contains lead on the market.
            Because of the problems that lead based ammunition causes wildlife there are efforts to replace lead in ammunition with less toxic substances. The legislature of California, which tends to lead the nation when it comes to consumer protection, workplace safety, and environmental issues, is considering the Assembly Bill 711. Citing the California condor specifically in the legislation, the bill would require the replacement of lead in game ammunition.
            Through their Hunt For Truth campaign the NRA is attacking A.B. 711. Like the tobacco companies before them who spread doubt and obfuscation about cancer and other health risks associated with smoking, and like the fossil fuel companies and their “think tanks” that continue to attack the science and scientists who study global warming, the National Rifle Association is trying to attack the science that indicates that lead ammo poisons carnivores, birds of prey, and scavengers.
            Going back more than 3000 years ago, lead has been recognized as a toxic substance. Around the time of Socrates the Greeks knew of lead’s poisonous qualities, and there are historians who believe that the fall of the Roman Empire was due, at least in part, to the ubiquitous use of lead by the Romans, particularly those among the upper classes. Due to this long history and its widespread use in industry—remember, we used to put lead in paint and gasoline—lead is one of the most well studied poisonous substances. We know more about lead and what it can do to people’s hearts, kidneys, bones, intestines, and nervous systems than just about any other toxin.

            And as well, lead and its effects on wildlife is also well-studied.[i][ii][iii][iv][v][vi][vii][viii] It’s been known for some time that carnivores and scavengers ingest lead when they eat carrion that has been shot and killed with ammunition made from lead. Over time, as these birds, cats, and bears eat more and more lead tainted carrion the toxin builds up in their bodies and affects their health and ability to reproduce. The near extinction of the California condor is believed to be due in part to this bird suffering from lead toxicity.

            With Hunt For Truth the NRA uses all the rhetorical devices that have been used for decades by tobacco and fossil fuel industries. The conclusions of scientific research they call “opinions” and frame their position, that lead based ammunition is benign, and that of the scientific conclusions that lead poisons wildlife as a “debate.”

            Now I can understand that there are folks in the NRA who feel that lead makes better bullets. I won’t argue that point. Maybe a bullet made of lead flies truer and can kill its intended victim far better than a bullet made of copper or steel. But don’t try to make an ad campaign that runs counter to thousands of years of knowledge and some of the best recent scientific research. Lead poisoning condors is not an opinion. It’s what the science concludes.

UPDATE 8/9/13: Apparently, knowledge and science proved to be even more powerful than the NRA. According to Media Matters, the Hunt For Truth website has been pulled by the National Rifle Association. If you go to the url www.huntfortruth.org you get a message that the site is down for scheduled maintenance.  I guess Media Matters is right. I don't know that other sites go down for a long time for "scheduled maintenance."

UPDATE: 8/19/13 Apparently there was some wishful thinking over at Media Matters, who claimed that the NRA had pulled this Hunt For Truth campaign. The Hunt For Truth website is back up and seems not to have changed at all. They still want lead in their bullets. 

---

[i] Juan Manuel Blanco, et al. "Assessment Of Lead Exposure In Spanish Imperial Eagle ( Aquila Adalberti) From Spent Ammunition In Central Spain." Ecotoxicology 20.4 (2011): 670-681. Environment Complete. Web. 6 Aug. 2013.

[ii] Donald R. Smith, et al. "Health Risks from Lead-Based Ammunition in the Environment." Environmental Health Perspectives June 2013: A178+. Environment Complete. Web. 6 Aug. 2013.

[iii] Kerry R. Foresman, et al. "Lead Exposure In Large Carnivores In The Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem." Journal Of Wildlife Management 76.3 (2012): 575-582. Environment Complete. Web. 6 Aug. 2013.

[iv] A. Bignert, et al. "Ingestion Of Lead From Ammunition And Lead Concentrations In White-Tailed Sea Eagles (Haliaeetus Albicilla) In Sweden." Science Of The Total Environment 407.21 (2009): 5555-5563. Environment Complete. Web. 6 Aug. 2013.

[v] Colin Gillin, et al. "Acute Lead Toxicosis Via Ingestion Of Spent Ammunition In A Free-Ranging Cougar (Puma Concolor)." Journal Of Wildlife Diseases 48.1 (2012): 216-219. Environment Complete. Web. 6 Aug. 2013.

[vi] Cade, Tom J. "Exposure Of California Condors To Lead From Spent Ammunition." Journal Of Wildlife Management 71.7 (2007): 2125-2133. Environment Complete. Web. 6 Aug. 2013.

[vii] Fernando Hiraldo, et al. "Widening The Problem Of Lead Poisoning To A South-American Top Scavenger: Lead Concentrations In Feathers Of Wild Andean Condors." Biological Conservation 144.5 (2011): 1464-1471. Environment Complete. Web. 6 Aug. 2013.

[viii] José Antonio Donázar, et al. "Long-Term Effects Of Lead Poisoning On Bone Mineralization In Vultures Exposed To Ammunition Sources." Environmental Pollution 157.2 (2009): 569-574. Environment Complete. Web. 6 Aug. 2013.

Big Crazy: ALF Steals Some Pheasants and the FBI Calls It Terrorism

This just happened a bit north of where I live, up in Riverside. In the last couple of weeks a couple who raises pheasants for commercial sale to hunters had their farm broken into by members of the Animal Liberation Front (ALF) who the stole or released more than a dozen of the prized birds. The theft of the birds and vandalism of the property is being investigated by the FBI as an act of terrorism.

            That’s right, terrorism. As far as the FBI is concerned, this break-in performed with some wire cutters is on par with pressure cooker bombs killing people in Boston and airliners being flown into skyscrapers.

            I certainly have no patience for ALF. Though I can respect their beliefs about animals, and sometimes agree with their valuation of the lives of animals, I think that by taking part in blatantly illegal and destructive activities like stealing these pheasants they really don’t help anybody and don’t really help any animals. The people who committed this crime should be prosecuted.

            But is this terrorism? To think so is Big Crazy. As a spokesman for ALF, Dr. Jerry Vlasak, said, “Terrorism is thrown around a lot these days. It’s disrespectful to the victims of Boston or New York. Terrorism is flying planes into buildings, not setting animals free.”

We Got Willie Nelson On Our Side: NRDC Launches Music Saves Mountains

While we are plugged into Pandora or listening to our CDs and downloads it is easy to forget the power of music. For millennia work songs alleviated the drudgery of hammering, milling, and tilling the soil. Union songs increased solidarity and aided the battle for workers' rights. And those of you who are baby boomers remember the power of the protest songs that inspired and helped to bring an end to the Vietnam War.

            Now, tapping into the power of music, Emmylou Harris, Dave Mathews, Sheryl Crow, and several other prominent performers are lending their talents to end mountaintop removal. The Natural Resources Defense Council is sponsoring the effort and calling the campaign “Music Saves Mountains.” I don’t see any information on tours or recordings, but Willie Nelson has lent his rendition of “America the Beautiful” to the video below as part of the campaign.

For those of you who lived through the sixties, you remember the protest songs, but there were also the hits such as Barry Sadler’s “Ballad of the Green Berets” that glorified the war. This time around is no different. Below is “Coal Keeps the Lights On.”

This performer doesn’t mention mountaintop removal, but the paean to coal in his song is unwavering. Nowhere in the lyrics is there any mention of slurry impoundments, acid mine runoff, or the lives shortened from cancers and black lung disease.

            Maybe this all just amounts to a battle of the bands. But I’m pleased that we’ve got Willie and Emmylou on our side.

West Virginia Democrats Hold Hands With King Coal and Go to Washington

The West Virginia Democrats go to Washington

As Ken Ward points out, it is a sad commentary on the politics of West Virginia when one political party, the GOP, repeats the mantra of “Obama’s war on coal,” while the Democrats, holding the hands of King Coal, go to Washington to give Gina McCarthy, the new EPA head, an earful about regulations on the coal industry and coal mining.

            In the meantime, neither party is speaking about the real reasons for coal’s decline in Appalachia: cheaper natural gas, competition from other coal producing areas, and the dwindling seams of cheap and easy coal in the Mountain State.

Hey, Kids, Can You Keep a Secret? Pennsylvania Fracking Settlement Includes Couple's Children

In reaching a monetary settlement with fossil fuel companies over damages cased by the companies’ fracking, a Pennsylvania couple has been placed under a gag order to not talk about the terms and conditions of the settlement. And their children have, too.

            Chris and Stephanie Hallowichs claimed that the fracking performed by Range Resources, Williams Gas/Laurel Mountain Midstream and MarkWest Energy adjacent to their 10-acre farm in western Pennsylvania contaminated their water supply and harmed the health of their entire family. They experienced burning eyes, sore throats, headaches, and earaches. They settled with the fossil fuel companies for an undisclosed amount.

            Gag orders in court settlements aren’t unusual. But this is the first time that children have been included in a gag order. As the article from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette points out, legal viewpoints differ on whether children can be included in such a gag order. My suspicion is that the children were included to throw a wild card into the settlement. The lawyers for the gas companies know that adults have a hard time keeping their mouths shut, and it is almost impossible for children and teenagers to keep a secret. If one of the kids talks, it voids the settlement.

            It could be a win-win for the fracking companies.