Read more in Coal Tattoo.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Gov. Joe Manchin on Monday promised to review citizen complaints about lax enforcement of strip-mining regulations and urged the coal industry and its critics to discuss their differences without resorting to violence and intimidation.
"What we're looking for is trying to find a balance," Manchin said after a private meeting with coalfield residents, environmentalists and several academics who have studied coal's negative impacts. "You would like to think there's got to be some common ground."
Manchin met with coal's critics about two months after a similar private summit with West Virginia's major coal executives and coalfield elected officials.
"It's just the right time to talk with each other, instead of talking at each other," said Raleigh County resident Bo Webb, an activist who organized the meeting.
Webb, Manchin and other citizens -- including well-known activists Judy Bonds and Maria Gunnoe -- met for several hours, then appeared together at a news conference.
Reps. Nick J. Rahall, D-W.Va., and Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., both attended. Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., attended the coal executive meeting personally, but sent a staffer to the meeting with coalfield residents. Sen. Robert C. Byrd, D-W.Va., sent staffers to both meetings.
Citizens were not allowed to attend Manchin's meeting with coal executives, but several coal lobbyists took part in Monday's meeting with citizens. News media were prohibited from attending both sessions. United Mine Workers officials attended both sessions.
Webb said the governor had agreed to review citizen concerns about enforcement by the state Department of Environmental Protection, and Manchin said he certainly knows environmental groups are not happy with the DEP.
Read more in Coal Tattoo.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Gov. Joe Manchin on Monday promised to review citizen complaints about lax enforcement of strip-mining regulations and urged the coal industry and its critics to discuss their differences without resorting to violence and intimidation.
"What we're looking for is trying to find a balance," Manchin said after a private meeting with coalfield residents, environmentalists and several academics who have studied coal's negative impacts. "You would like to think there's got to be some common ground."
Manchin met with coal's critics about two months after a similar private summit with West Virginia's major coal executives and coalfield elected officials.
"It's just the right time to talk with each other, instead of talking at each other," said Raleigh County resident Bo Webb, an activist who organized the meeting.
Webb, Manchin and other citizens -- including well-known activists Judy Bonds and Maria Gunnoe -- met for several hours, then appeared together at a news conference.
Reps. Nick J. Rahall, D-W.Va., and Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., both attended. Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., attended the coal executive meeting personally, but sent a staffer to the meeting with coalfield residents. Sen. Robert C. Byrd, D-W.Va., sent staffers to both meetings.
Citizens were not allowed to attend Manchin's meeting with coal executives, but several coal lobbyists took part in Monday's meeting with citizens. News media were prohibited from attending both sessions. United Mine Workers officials attended both sessions.
Webb said the governor had agreed to review citizen concerns about enforcement by the state Department of Environmental Protection, and Manchin said he certainly knows environmental groups are not happy with the DEP.
"There were a lot of questions concerning DEP and the frustrations we heard loud and clear," Manchin said. "We want to make sure enforcement is being done in an expedient and prudent manner."
Webb said he and other citizens who are campaigning to stop mountaintop removal wanted to make it clear that they are "not opposed to coal."
"We are adamantly opposed to mountaintop removal, steep-slope strip mining," Webb said. "We must not be so complacent that we allow the destruction of our mountains and the extermination of our communities."
Manchin said later that his interpretation is that the citizens are opposed to mountaintop removal "as we know it," adding that he told the citizens, "I wasn't at that conclusion, nor do I believe that."
"We had a respectful agreement to disagree," Manchin said.
Manchin started the news conference by responding to citizen concerns that coal industry workers have threatened and intimidated them, especially at a federal Corps of Engineers public hearing where all mining opponents were shouted down when they tried to testify.
"We will not in any way, shape or form in this state of West Virginia tolerate any violence against anyone on any side," Manchin said. "If you're going to have the dialogue, have respect for each other."
Singer and West Virginia native Kathy Mattea, who attended Monday's meeting, praised Manchin for taking a strong stand against violence and in favor of reasonable discussions about coal issues.
"I want this conversation to take place in an atmosphere of safety," Mattea said. "I've watched some people hear each other in the last 24 hours, and that's a beautiful thing. It gives me a lot of hope and it makes me very proud."
Reach Ken Ward Jr. at kw...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-1702.
In West Virginia, mining companies are literally moving mountains to uncover valuable, low sulfur coal reserves.
Mountaintop removal has become the dominant form of surface mining in the state. Coal operators are blasting off hilltops, and dumping leftover rock and dirt into nearby valleys.
An untold amount of the state has been flattened, and hundreds of miles of streams have been buried. Find out more in this Special Report.
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Witness WV's top Coalocrat excitedly embarrasses himself when he recently announced to lobbyist Chris Hamilton his plan to honor coal operators the same as war veterans. Then watch him give Hamilton the ol' reach-around (politically speaking) as he makes a number of outrageous claims which are so contrary to the facts that they're ridiculous. Finally, after our Gov plays the patriotic card to praise the coal industry, he completely turns against the US for making us "energy unsecure"
Any freemarket nutjobs wanting to study Manchin's technique as he takes corporate pandering to a new level should click the following:
http://tinyurl.com/Coalocrat
I know,Rational,I was just poking fun at these people that want their 15 minutes of fame and the ignorance they bring when they say they are there to protest mtr. climate ground zero is trying to make a name for themselves, and others are just dead set against coal altogether,even though one has backtracked on themselves several times.They throw stretch out facts to kids,and then get them to do the dirty work for them.Sounds more like the way they train suicide bombers.
Alls I ask is for everyone to be honest with me as I am them. You have a reason you do not like MTR, but the defacing of these hills is not it. If it was you would protest all those who do it not just MTR. Does it make the hill less defaced because your team place football where it use to be? does it make it look better if a Walley world is built on it or you drive on it? No, it is still gone.
By the way ,Thank You for your service to your country.
I would go so far as to say that dust is a bigger issue on the average construction job than the average MTR job, for three reasons.
1. Construction employs a lot more people on the ground, instead of in cabs. More people on the ground means more people exposed.
2. Construction sites are smaller, so dust can more easily migrate off-site.
3. Construction sites go through rapid and radically different phases, so that dust may be stirred during a phase when no dust-control measures are in place. MTR jobs do mostly the same tasks throughout their existence, so that dust-control equipment is onsite from the beginning to the end.