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Last updated: Thursday, May 24, 11:59 a.m.
Editorials | Opinion

Letters: ‘Clean’ coal

Posted on Feb. 22, 2010, at 2:18 a.m.

Dirty deeds ­— someone has to do them

Coal is dirty. The next time someone tries to tell me there is such a thing as clean coal or that coal production is essential for American jobs, I will cut them a check for a trip to the coal fields of West Virginia to see for themselves. E-mail me at robert.alton.goodwin@gmail.com if you really think you need the challenge.

How is it that the state with the richest ecosystem and most valuable natural resources is the poorest one in the nation? It’s almost the same reason why you buy a cup of coffee for a dollar that cost less than a dime to produce, and the producer lives in a shack with no electricity or running water. Similarly, coal is not being processed at a fair rate in America.

The reality is that coal kills. Coal is killing the communities of West Virginia. Coal is killing safe drinking water. Coal is killing the Appalachian Mountains.

Coal is cheap energy sold as “patriotic energy” to the American people. The folks in the coal fields can’t drink the water, are dying of cancer and getting their streams buried in mine waste from mountaintop removal. Furthermore, they are stripped of the power to do anything about it because Massey Energy and Don Blankenship own every public office in the state of West Virginia from the county boards straight up to Gov. Joe Manchin.

Coal isn’t cheap. What is the cost of the exposure of coal slurry to mine workers and citizens of the coal fields? What is the cost of leveling a mountain and burying a stream — destroying the ecosystem, contaminating drinking water  and killing folks with cancer.

Words and photos can’t possibly tell the story of the multi-generational struggle West Virginians have had against coal companies’ destruction of their homeland for our cheap energy. As Bobby Kennedy put it, “If everyone on Capitol Hill came to West Virginia to see the destruction of mountaintop removal, coal would have ended years ago.”

Act now or act never. West Virginia need your help. Do some reading and try to prove me wrong, or come down to the Coal River Valley for a visit.

Robert Goodwin, student

This entry was posted on Monday, February 22nd, 2010, 2:18 am. You can follow any responses to this article through the RSS feed.

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  • Stephen

    This man is a TRUE patriot.

  • http://www.glendale.edu/chaparral/apr05/blair.htm Rob Goodwin

    Just because you can find photos of Blankenshit in an an american flag suit talking about coal on the internet does not mean he represents patriotic american values in anyway.

    The true patriots are the citizens of the southern coal fields that have fought the battle against corruption and coal barons since the Civil War. The coal miners that stood up at the Battle of Blair Mountain that initiated the Unions in the coal fields are true patriots. Don Blankenship had a bullet go 6 inches from his head back when he was a mine operator. In the past 2 decades Blankenship and the coal industry have driven the unions out of WV to cutting thousands more jobs than they have created and destroying the land and water in the process.

    Massey’s own disclosure revealed some 12,000 violations of the Clean Water Act last year, Blankenship responded that they’re reducing their violations year to year, now that they’ve been reminded by the EPA that it would be a good idea.

    If any of us violated federal laws polluting the mountains and streams of the American people we would go to jail.

  • Bill

    And yet I hear people say we shouldn’t build wind turbines because… they’ll spoil the natural beauty of the viewshed and destroy local ecosystems.
    I’m not joking! That is the real argument that people use against wind energy. The sheer magnitude of cognitive dissonance which afflicts our society never ceases to amaze me.