Mountain Holler
If coal is so good, why is W.Va. still poor?
January 25th, 2008
(This is a Letter to the Editor by Sylvia Bradford, a resident of Naoma, WV)Would Congressman Rahall take us on tour to show us the infrastructure from mountaintop removal strip mining sites he is promoting? Then show us every inch of every site of this so-called reclamation that the industry and their minions claim is "better than it was before," better than God created.
According to permit records, the regulations requiring this infrastructure have mostly been ignored since the surface mining laws that Rahall praised were passed. Rahall recently heard testimony in Congress that these laws are not being enforced, the citizens and their life support systems in extraction areas are suffering. Most sane people realize that water is more important than coal.
At the current rate of development, coal companies have blasted enough mountains in southern West Virginia to last 4,000 years. Less than 5 percent of destroyed mountains have any development at all. If Rahall likes flat land so much he should move to Kansas, because God made West Virginia the Mountain State.
Rahall says he is for any domestic produced energy but he has consistently blocked renewable energy development and green jobs in this state and country, while supporting the destruction of mountains, forests and allowing the poisoning of our streams and our citizens.
Renewable energy can bring an economic boom for everyone. We need green jobs from solar and wind factories for our children here in West Virginia. If coal is so good for our economy, why is the coal producing counties the poorest counties in West Virginia, which is the poorest state in the nation? I've looked for the prosperity of coal for 30 years and I can't find it.
The technology to clean up coal's filth has many unanswered safety and reality questions and has a huge price tag for taxpayers.
Why don't the coal industry and Rahall invest their own money in the liquid coal scam, instead of giving our tax dollars away to corporate welfare for rich coal barons?
Coal is a finite resource and when it's soon gone, it's gone. The wind and sun are forever.
Sylvia Bradford