Laid-off Appalachian miner blames politicians, but not those you might think, for region's woes

Thousands of Central Appalachian coal miners have been laid off since January as coal companies decrease operations in the region and move to more lucrative mining areas, including the Powder River Basin in Wyoming. There are several reasons for this, the biggest of which is cheap natural gas. Mimi Pickering and Sylvia Ryerson of radio station WMMT in Whitesburg, Ky. recently interviewed Letcher County miner Gary Bentley, to collect his thoughts.


Bentley, 29, lost his job with Arch Coal Inc. in June, and after months of searching, was hired at a mine in Owewnsboro, Ky., five and a half hours from Whitesburg in the western part of the state. He worked for Arch for 10 years, and is a Letcher County native. The layoffs are unlike anything he's seen, he told Ryerson and Pickering, and he doesn't think it's fair.

"People come in here and they make billions of dollars, and they've been doing it for hundreds of years here, and now when they're leaving, they're just leaving us with nothing," Bentley said. He was lucky to find work in Kentucky, he said, because many other miners he worked with had to get jobs in Alabama, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and even Australia. It's also been slightly easier for him because he has a high school diploma. Some older miners he knows have no more than a sixth-grade education, and were hired before mining companies began requiring at least a high school education.

Bentley said local politicians want to blame Central Appalachian coal's decline on the federal government because of increased Environmental Protection Agency regulations, but what he saw at EPA hearings in Pikeville, Ky., showed him a different story. "I was real disappointed with our local, state and regional politicians because I felt like they all wanted to get up there and point fingers and say 'It's this person's fault, it's this person's fault. They're trying to destroy our industry; they're destroying Eastern Kentucky,'" Bentley said. "But at the same time, they're in the position. Why weren't they doing more to stand up for the region? Why weren't they doing more to try and bring in other industry?"

Bentley continued: "Anybody with any sort of intelligence that keeps up on the coal industry saw the declines coming. ... So, I feel that the political leaders really failed us by not having a back up plan for this area and for these communities. ... We need real answers and real solutions, not just a bunch of hot wind." To listen to Bentley's full interview, click here.

Consultant: Central Appalachian coal outlook poor

Alan Stagg, one of the most respected consultants in the coal industry, told a major industry gathering last month that Central Appalachian coal mining would last at least 10 to 20 more years, but will continue to decline because the job-hungry region's coal is getting more difficult to mine, mainly because of geological limitations but also because of regulations.

"It's going to run out some day — there's a finite amount of coal — but I don't see that happening in 10 or 20 years," Stagg told Pam Kasey of The State Journal, a business-oriented weekly in West Virginia. Stagg, the president and CEO of Stagg Resource Consultants Inc., has been pessimstic about the industry's long-term prospects for several years, as we reported here, but this is his gloomiest forecast yet.

"This is the elephant in the room. No one wants to acknowledge that reserve depletion is profound," Stagg, of Cross Lanes, W.Va., said at Platt's Coal Marketing Days in Pittsburgh on Sept. 21, according to SNL Financial. "Mining conditions are difficult, and the cost to produce is high. That is a physical fact. It's not pleasant. Nobody wants to acknowledge it. That is a fact, and companies that ignore that fact will not do so well. . . . And by nature, regulations will always increase."

"Stagg cast such a pall on the Central Appalachia coal industry that West Virginia Coal Association President Bill Raney, speaking later in the day, said he felt like a 'funeral director'," Darren Epps wrote for SNL. "Stagg expressed optimism, however, for the Powder River Basin" in Wyoming, which overtook West Virginia as the leading coal-producing state many years ago.


An earlier version of this story was based on a report from SNL Financial that Stagg says misquoted him as saying that he expects coal mining in Central Appalachia to end in the next 10 to 20 years. He did not dispute the rest of the report.

'Cost of Coal' explores life cycle of the rock and its effects on human health in W.Va., Mich. and Nev.

The Sierra Club has partnered with award-winning photojournalist Ami Vitale to produce a photographic essay for its magazine about the life cycle of coal and its effects on the lives of residents living close to mine sites, power plants and coal-waste disposal areas, most of which are in rural areas.

"Cost of Coal" includes an 18-page photo spread in the November/December issue of Sierra, and an interactive website with more than 100 photos and videos of individuals living near four sites impacted by coal: Blair, W.Va., Lindytown, W.Va., River Rouge, Mich., and near the Moapa Band of Paiutes Reservation in Moapa, Nev. Slide shows and videos are organized by location and story on the website, where readers can donate to the Sierra Club's Beyond Coal campaign, Living Green Magazine reports.

Here's a video overview of the project:

Coal ash regulation will depend on who gets elected

Despite much controversy coal ash, Congress isn't likely to move on new regulations until after the election, and then action will depend on the priorities of the party controlling the White House, Juliet Eilperin of The Washington Post reports. The U.S.'s 431 coal-fired power plants produce 140 million tons of ash a year. About 60 percent is stored in landfills, ponds and mines, and evidence suggesting leaks are a problem had been growing. The issue is rural because that's where plants and disposal areas are located. (Photo by Nancy Pierce of The Clog: coal ash pond near Mountain Island Lake, N.C.)

The Environmental Protection Agency gave 45 ponds at 27 locations a "high hazard potential" rating, meaning that if they break or leak, it would likely result in loss of life. Environmental groups in the last month have sued operators of 14 power plants in North Carolina and four in Illinois over coal-ash contamination, and ash-contaminated water at 197 sites in 37 states, according to Earthjustice.

President Obama and Mitt Romney have touted their love of the coal industry, and the idea of coal ash as a hazardous waste creates controversy. Obama's EPA moved toward regulating more strictly, then backed off. If it is officially labeled hazardous, EPA will have direct control over it and new handling procedures on utilities will be implemented, something that would increase utilities' costs. The EPA and environmentalists say new regulations will encourage more utilities to recycle coal ash into concrete and other products, but recycling companies and mining industry officials say this will be less likely if it's labeled as hazardous. (Read more)

Va. not getting full story about coal's influence on presidential race in the state, media critic writes

Coal is at the center of this year's presidential election, with both camps touting their love of the industry and the central Appalachian region where the Obama administration's co-called "war on coal" seems to rage the fiercest. However, news outlets haven't kept up with coverage of just how big a role coal is playing in the race, Tharon Giddens of the Columbia Journalism Review reports from Virginia, like Ohio a swing state where coal can swing votes.

Both candidates have used messages about coal. Mitt Romney ran two ads criticizing President Obama's alleged over-regulation of the industry the day after Alpha Natural Resources announced mine closures and layoffs. He also made a stop in Abingdon in southwestern Virginia, near the coalfield, last week. Obama continuously touts his advocacy for "clean coal" as part of his energy strategy.

"Coal has recently moved to the center of the message war in this swing state," Giddens reports. "The political story around coal in Virginia is rich -- but most of the coverage to date has been less so, and not only because ... most news outlets here aren't doing enough to fact check the ads on the airwaves." Giddens writes that they have largely failed to recognize that while Obama's didn't do well in coal country in 2008, in a tight race, every vote counts. "Coal miners are an eye-catching stand-in for the white working class," and both campaigns are trying to target that demographic, he writes. There's been very little push-back by reporters against "the narrative about regulations forcing layoffs at Alpha," when industry experts say the industry's layoffs are stem mainly from low demand, caused by cheap natural gas and a warm winter, which left big stockpiles of coal.

"The problem is that the context, perspective and expertise on display in some of the stronger opinion pieces has been mostly lacking in the political reporting on coal, whether it’s being done in southwestern Virginia or the state’s metropolitan centers," Giddens reports. "Even setting aside environmental concerns, as the candidates have mostly done while they present themselves as friends to coal, the news coverage hasn’t done enough to dig into the campaigns’ messages, explore coal’s influence on the race, or use this opportunity to explore the story of a changing industry and region." (Read more)

Ohio Democrats allege Murray and his coal company illegally forced employees to donate to Republicans

The Ohio Democratic Party asked federal and state prosecutors Monday to investigate whether the CEO of the largest privately owned coal company in the U.S. illegally coerced employees to contribute to Mitt Romney and other Republican candidates, Jim Provance of the Toledo Blade reports. ODP Chairman Chris Redfern asked that Murray Energy Corp. and Robert Murray, left, be investigated for extortion, money laundering and racketeering.

The complaint claims Murray contributed $720,000 to Ohio candidates and millions to federal candidates through the company's political action committee, including Romney, U.S. Senate candidate Josh Mandel and Gov. John Kasich. The Blade said it could not reach Murray Energy's attorney for comment. The complaint also alleges Murray and the company forced employees to contribute to the company's political action committee through automatic payroll deductions and required attendance at fundraisers.

Murray hosted a rally for Romney on Aug. 14 at his company's Century Mine in Beallsville in southeast Ohio. Romney was surrounded by miners as he spoke. Some of those miners later told a West Virginia radio talk show host that Murray closed the mine for the day and required miners to attend the rally without pay. The company said there was no requirement. (Read more)

Good pay, independent culture, dislike of Obama make Appalachian coal miners 'proud to be scabs'

"As recently as the 1980s, plenty of coalfield residents thought Big Coal was the problem. But these days, in . . . Central Appalachia — southern West Virginia, southwestern Virginia, eastern Kentucky and eastern Tennessee — coal mining is overwhelmingly popular, despite well-documented risks to workers’ health and community safety," reports Gabriel Schwartzman of In These Times, a liberal, labor-oriented managzine. (Photo by Schwartzman: Supervisory miner gets coffee before work)

Schwartzman spent this summer in the region trying to determine why the previous Democratic and union stronghold has turned so sharply to the right, and doesn't mince words in presenting his conclusion: "At $108,000 a year, nothing in Appalachia compares to miners' wages," he writes. Those wage increases are linked to increased mechanization and smaller workforces, and have changed the political and financial nature of that workforce, he reports. One miner in Pike County, Kentucky, told him he would lose everything if "coal was shut down" because no job in the region could pay him as much.

The union battles for higher wages, better safety and benefits of 30 years ago were largely lost, ultimately ending with the United Mine Workers of America abandoning strikes, Schwartzman writes. Companies raised wages without unions, but cut many jobs with increased mechanization. A major unionized company in the region, Patriot Coal, is now bankrupt and unable to pay miners' pensions.

Miners with jobs told Schwartzman the non-union life is good. "We are scabs. We're proud to be scabs," one surface miner at Camp Branch mine in West Virginia told him. They are loyal to their companies, and that loyalty extends to families, friends and businesses supported by coal miners, Schwartzman reports. But an Energy Information Administration forecast of a 58 percent decline in Central Appalachian coal production by 2035 is reason for many to worry. Though the current decline is being caused mainly by competition from cheap natural gas and the decreased viability of Appalachian coal, miners tend to believe increased environmental regulation is the cause.

Schwartzman reports intimidation and threats received by those who advocate for safer mining practices or oppose mountaintop-removal mining. "Social media is used as a mobilizing tool against 'tree huggers,'" Schwartzman reports. "Aside from calling rallies and protests, post like this August 6 one appear regularly on Citizens for Coal's Facebook page: 'Just saw a post saying tree hugger in Gilbert eating at Wallys restaurant.'"

Many miners expressed to Schwartzman the need to vote out President Obama, even though his administration increased mine safety inspections, probably reducing miner injuries; increased health care for black-lung victims, and increased investments in clean-coal technology. Schwartzman writes that coal companies stir up anti-Obama rhetoric, but the Christian right and the National Rifle Association also play a role. "Those forces play upon values of autonomy and independence that run deep here," Schwartzman writes. "For 150 years, these values have helped Appalachians survive outsiders exploiting their mountain resources. Now those values have become aligned with out-of-state coal companies against environmentalists and liberals." (Read more)

Neither party has supported policies that will help the coal miner, Betty Dotson-Lewis writes for the Daily Yonder.

Physicians for Social Responsibility say 'each step of the coal life cycle impacts human health'

A new report released this week analyzes the human health impacts of coal, with a specific focus on the cumulative impacts of air pollution from burning coal on the respiratory, cardiovascular and nervous systems. The Physicians for Social Responsibility study, "Coal's Assault on Human Health," concluded that "each step of the coal life cycle -- mining, transportation, washing, combustion and disposing of post-combustion waste -- impacts human health."

Researchers found that mining of coal contributes to heart disease, cancer, stroke and chronic respiratory diseases, four of the five leading causes of death in the U.S. In particular, burning coal contributes to diseases affecting large portions of the U.S., including asthma, lung cancer, heart disease and stroke. It also impairs lung development, increases heart-attack risk and hinders intellectual development. The report adds to previous correlation studies suggesting possible links between mountaintop mining and increased rates of disease in Appalachia by University of West Virginia public-health professor Michael Hendryx.

Physicians for Social Responsibility makes several recommendations, including reducing carbon dioxide emissions "as deeply and as swiftly as possible," ending construction of new coal-fired power plants, reduction of fossil fuel use and the development of renewable energy sources. (Read more)

Judge rejects bid to preserve site of coalfield battle

West Virginia's Blair Mountain, the site of the largest armed conflict in U.S. labor history, will remain off the National Register of Historic Places, a federal judge has ruled. The site was added to the list in 2009, but the Interior Department removed it after it was found that a majority of property owners didn't support the listing, Paul Nyden of The Charleston Gazette reports.

Coal companies may mine the area, and a lawsuit was filed in 2010 by several groups, including the Sierra Club, Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition and Friends of Blair Mountain, seeking to restore the area to the register. Judge Reggie Walton of the District of Columbia ruled that the groups had no legal standing because no coal companies had announced "immediate plans to begin mining on Blair Mountain," Nyden reports. (Read more)

Ken Ward Jr. of the Gazette's Coal Tattoo puts it this way: "The judge ruled that the citizen groups could not meet one of the requirements to show 'standing' to bring the case, that of 'redressability,' or that a favorable ruling from the court would redress their injury." As a result, the judge said in his decision "that the surface mining would be permitted on the Blair Mountain Battlefield as a result of permits that were acquired prior to the historic district's inclusion on the National Register."

In 1921, more than 10,000 union miners fought with armed company employees and contractors along the ridge along the Logan-Boone County border for a number of things, including better working conditions. The battle lasted eight days, and only ended after federal troops and air support intervened.

China's slowdown hits hard in some Appalachian communities that mine metallurgical coal

"Slowing growth in China is taking a brutal toll on Appalachian coal mines and coal towns," Kris Maher reports for The Wall Street Journal from Wharton, W.Va., where he photographed laid-off miner Phillip Powell, 38, and his family. "A lot of guys that I worked with are scared of losing everything they own," he said.

"The Chinese economy is slowing and so is its steel industry. That has sent the price of coal used for steelmaking down nearly 50 percent to $170 a metric ton. Those coal producers who counted on Chinese sales are reeling," Maher writes. "While many have blamed the downturn in the U.S. coal industry on cheap natural gas supplanting coal and tougher environmental regulations, the slide in metallurgical coal demand has been equally devastating. Coal companies were caught flat-footed after ramping up production last year with the expectation that steep prices would cover their rising costs, despite coal's past cyclicality. Instead, demand in China began to falter just as Australian metallurgical coal production—interrupted by floods last year—surged back into the market." (Read more)

Murray Energy agrees to pay third-highest penalty for violations related to deaths in coal mines

Robert Murray, owner

"Two Murray Energy Co. subsidiaries will pay the third-largest penalty in the history of U.S. coal-mining disasters — almost $950,000 — to settle safety violations that federal regulators said contributed to nine deaths at Utah’s Crandall Canyon mine in August 2007," Mike Gorrell reports for The Salt Lake Tribune. The company has already paid a $500,000 criminal fine.

Murray accepted 17 of the 20 citations that the federal Mine Safety and Health Administration issued after its investigation in July 2008. MSHA levied fines of $1.64 million, and Murray will pay less than 58 percent of that amount. The company said it made the settlement to avoid "a contentious trial" and said evidence at trial would have shown that the violations didn't contribute to the disaster. But Labor Department Solicitor Patricia Smith told Gorrell the firm "acknowledged responsibility for the failures that led to the tragedy at Crandall Canyon. These failures resulted in the needless deaths of nine members of the mining community," including two miners killed in a failed rescue/recovery attempt. "We settled for what we thought we’d have gotten if we tried the case."

MSHA Director Joe Main told the Tribune that Murray admitted to three flagrant violations, the most serious type of infraction. "Two of those involved violations that resulted in the company pleading guilty in March in U.S. District Court to two misdemeanors for willfully violating mine-safety laws," Gorrell notes. "It paid a $500,000 fine to end that criminal case." 

The only larger settlements stemmed from deaths at West Virginia mines operated by now-defunct Massey Energy. Its successor, Alpha Natural Resources, paid $10.8 million for the April 2010 explosion that killed 29 at the Upper Big Branch mine. Earlier, Massey paid $1.7 million for the fire that killed two miners at the Aracoma mine in January 2006. (Read more)

Coal and the vote: Worried about Obama regulations, more ads, money and a new plant?

"A handful of utility companies are determined to buck the trend toward natural gas and break ground on what could be the last new conventional coal-fired power plants in the U.S.," Tennille Tracy of The Wall Street Journal reports. (Getty Images photo: Miners at Romney rally in southeastern Ohio)

"The moves come as the presidential campaigns spar over the future of coal power," and as they worry about an April deadline to begin construction, created by the Obama administration's limits on greenhouse-gas emissions. "They say separate government rules on mercury emissions are making it tough to hit that deadline," because the mercury rules are not due to be final until March.

Tracy notes that Republican Mitt Romney is running a TV commercial in coal states with "mournful images of coal miners facing the industry's decline. . . . With some parts of battleground states like Ohio reliant on coal jobs, the White House has started to defend itself more vigorously against the 'war on coal' allegation" being made by Republicans and coal interests. (Read more)

Also weighing in this week: Time magazine with an usual look at the debate through the eyes of controversial Ohio coal executive Robert E. Murray who "may be Obama's biggest headache in a state where he leads by about 4 points." Time's Michael Scherer gives Murray and the pro-coal alliance which has spent millions to defend Obama lots of space to vent about the president's policies. 

Coal company to pay $575,000 to resolve claim it falsified water quality reports

A large strip-mining company has agreed to pay $575,000 in a case that involved thousands of alleged instances of fraudulent or improper water-pollution discharge reports in Kentucky. Bill Estep of the Lexington Herald-Leader reports that International Coal Group has reached an agreement in principle with the state and environmental groups to settle claims against it, according to a status report on the lawsuit the state Energy and Environmental Cabinet filed this week in Franklin Circuit Court.

The deal with ICG, if approved in court, writes Estep, "would end its part of a controversy that came to light in the fall of 2010. That was when environmental groups announced they had discovered widespread problems with water-pollution discharge monitoring reports from ICG and Frasure Creek" Mining, a second party to the suit that is not part of the proposed settlement.

"Coal companies must monitor pollutants coming from surface mines and report the data to the state, which is supposed to investigate if pollutants exceed certain levels," Estep explains. "The groups said in reviewing reports from ICG and Frasure Creek from 2007 and 2008 they found cases of mineral discharges exceeding legal limits by up to 40 times. There also were forms signed by supervisors before tests were actually done, data copied and pasted from one quarter to the next, and testing dates scratched out and rewritten. Some reports were missing. The groups argued the reports were falsified and that Kentucky was not doing a good job reviewing them for violations. A Kentucky official later acknowledged the state had not done enough to make sure mining companies were submitting accurate information."

Coal plays role in election, largely because of Ohio

Romney and Ohio miners (Getty Images)

Coal has become a hot-button topic on the campaign trail as "Mitt Romney and President Barack Obama have wholeheartedly embraced" it, "despite past statements from Romney and Vice President Joe Biden that pollution from coal-fired power plants kills people," reports Sean Cockerham of McClatchy Newspapers. The issue is mostly become a big one because "the coal-producing state of Ohio is among a handful that are expected to decide the election."

Ohio is ranked 10th in coal production and gets 86 percent of its electricity from coal, and "is among the most crucial prizes in the presidential campaign," Cockerham writes. Virginia and Colorado are also significant coal producers and "key battleground" states. There's also a lot of talk about what a Romney presidency could mean for the industry in the top coal-producing states: Wyoming, West Virginia, Kentucky, Pennsylvania and Texas.

Romney is telling voters that the Obama administration is waging a "war on coal," the battle cry of many state and federal lawmakers from coal-producing states. He's promised to reverse Environmental Protection Agency regulations if elected, and recently attended a political rally at an Ohio underground coal mine. Obama has played up coal differently, suggesting the country should invest in "clean coal" technologies. His campaign has circulated radio ads in Ohio "hammering on that theme and portraying Romney as the one who's really anti-coal," Cockerham reports. (Read more)

Groups oppose leaving coal-ash regulation to states

More than 300 groups, saying they represent millions of people from all 50 states, sent a letter to the Senate last week opposing the Coal Ash Recycling and Oversight Act, which would prevent the federal government from regulating coal ash, which contains heavy metals including arsenic, lead and mercury. Billions of tons of it are stored in ponds, landfills and mines in almost every state. (Greenpeace photo of Tennessee coal ash pond)

The Coal Ash Recycling and Oversight Act was introduced last month and would prevent the Environmental Protection Agency from finalizing its proposed coal ash rule and from ever issuing coal ash regulations. The bill would reinforce an EPA decision from 2000 that waste from burning fossil fuels doesn't need to be regulated under the Solid Waste Disposal Act. The issue got fresh attention in December 2008, when a Tennessee Valley Authority coal-ash pond broke and released 1 billion tons of waste into the Emory and Clinch rivers in east Tennessee, Environmental News Service notes. TVA is a federal agency, but the pond had been regulated by the state.

EPA proposed coal-ash regulation in 2010, then backed off. The groups' letter says that the Coal Ash Recycling and Oversight Act would nullify "450,000 public comments, essentially silencing the voices of nearly half a million Americans who supported protective regulations." The groups say they have no confidence in state-by-state management of coal ash. (Read more)

Residents of former coal camp being evicted to make way for Hatfield-McCoy trail development

People living in the small community of Rita in Logan County, W.Va., may be evicted to make way for businesses catering to the all-terrain vehicle trails named for the Hatfield-McCoy feud. Residents were given notice last week by DB Land LLC of Dodge City, Kan., that their rental agreements would be terminated Oct. 1, and they must remove themselves and their property from the area, Martha Sparks of the Logan Banner reports. Most of the residents are elderly, disabled or low-income.

Logan Banner photo: Spears' home

Resident Russell Spears told Sparks before DB Land owned the area, the coal company that mined there allowed them to stay as long as they paid $200 a month rent and completed all maintenance. The company gave residents the option to keep their houses, or have them torn down and replaced with mobile homes, which almost everyone did, Spears said. He said when DB Land bought the area, company representative Mike Cline initially told residents they would be allowed to buy their lots, but the company changed course and decided to build a motel and convenience store that would cater to the ATV trail system, Spears said. (Read more)

The Hatfield and McCoy trails system was created by the state legislature to generate economic development through tourism in nine southern West Virginia counties. There are six trail systems that featured 500 miles of off-road trails in five counties in 2009, one of them connecting sites related to the notorious feud, the subject of a recent cable-TV miniseries. According to the system's website, "community connecting trails" are offered to visitors which allows them to access "'ATV-friendly towns' to experience the charm of southern West Virginia."

Larry Gibson, who helped start the fight against mountaintop-removal mining of coal, dies at 66

Larry Gibson, who spent most of the last 25 years fighting large-scale strip mining in Central Appalachia, died yesterday after suffering a heart attack while working on his land atop Kayford Mountain in Raleigh County, West Virginia. He was 66.

In 1986, Gibson moved back to his birthplace and childhood home on Kayford Mountain and found that coal companies had started mountaintop-removal mining on his family's land, threatening his family cemetery, which was "the final resting place for his ancestors stretching back to the 18th century," reports Mackenzie Mays of The Charleston Gazette. Gibson told the Gazette's Ken Ward Jr. in 1997 that the graveyard and a nearby community park that he built was "the last 54 acres the coal companies don't own. They own all the rest. I don't think the coal companies have the right to take everything."

Gibson was among the first Appalachian people to protest publicly against mountaintop mining and faced backlash from his community as a result, according to his daughter, Victoria, 24. He was shot at, run off the road by coal trucks and burned in effigy by those who disagreed with him, she told Ashley Craig of the Charleston Daily Mail. But he never stopped fighting to save his home and the homes of other from mountaintop removal.

"When my dad passed away you could still smell the mountain air on him," she said. "You could still see the dirt underneath his nails and the stains on his hands. He was working. He lived his life devoted to the mountain."

Gibson once said, "My mother gave me birth, but this land gave me life. Growing up here was an adventure every day. I played with my pet bobcat, my fox, my hawk. All of these things, the good Lord provided on this land, But just a stone's throw away, on that mountaintop-removal mining site, you couldn't find anything alive if you wanted to. It's bare rock, uninhabitable."

He refused to sell his land for mining, and instead put 50 acres on top of Kayford Mountain into a land trust, which means it is protected and can never be sold. He built cabins there, and the area has been the site of the annual Mountain Keeper Music Festival for the last 26 years. Gibson was founder and president of the Keeper of the Mountains Foundation, and was director of the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition. He traveled the world speaking with families, communities, churches and university groups against mountaintop removal.

The Keeper of the Mountains Foundation released a statement about Gibson's passing, and Ward eulogizes him on his Coal Tattoo blog, here.

Rural electric cooperatives join with coal industry to seek changes in Clean Air Act

Rural electric cooperatives are joining forces with the coal industry to defend its use as a major energy source, giving the industry a strong political ally. The National Rural Electric Cooperative Association is asking for the Clean Air Act to be rewritten to reduce regulations on coal-fired power plant emissions.

NRECA officials Mike Knotts and Glenn English say they want the Clean Air Act to more clearly define "a more certain regulatory environment for utilities, including a future for coal," reports Paul Barton of The Leaf Chronicle in Clarksville, Tenn. The organization has quite a bit of political clout. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, which tracks campaign spending, the NRECA has spent $2.6 million on 2012 elections so far.

Of all the power plants owned by rural cooperatives, 85 percent are coal-fired, and about 80 percent of the co-ops' energy comes from coal. (Read more)

Sentencing of former Upper Big Branch Mine boss delayed again as he aids probe of blast that killed 29

A judge has again postponed sentencing of a former superintendent at the Upper Big Branch Mine in West Virginia because prosecutors said the delay would help their ongoing criminal investigation of the April 5, 2010, explosion that killed 29 coal miners.

L.A. Times photo

Former superintendent Gay May, left, is "cooperating in an ongoing investigation and the parties need additional time to fully develop the extent of his cooperation," Assistant U.S. Attorney Steve Ruby said this week, reports Ken Ward Jr. of The Charleston Gazette. Ruby said the additional time would allow "significant further development of the investigation." District Judge Irene Berger rescheduled the sentencing hearing for January.

In a plea deal, May admitted that he plotted with others to conceal hazards at Upper Big Branch on numerous occasions that compromised workers' safety. He also admitted that he participated in a "scheme to provide advance warning of government inspectors and then hide or correct violations before federal agents could make it into working sections of the mine," Ward reports.

Who wins in W.Va. when big surface coal mine comes (too?) close to adventure tourism sites?

One-wheel cycling, one of the many
adventures in the New River Gorge.
(Photo by Harrison Shull)

Perched on the rim of the New River Gorge and a short drive from the Gauley River, a major whitewater stream, Fayetteville, W.Va., is one of the country's top outdoor destinations. But before its reincarnation as an adventure mecca, Fayetteville suffered the boom and bust of both timber and coal. Jesse Wood of Sierra Magazine writes that rafters, canoeists, kayakers and cliff climbers have "transformed the local economy and revitalized the area."

Now Frasure Creek Mining is proposing a major expansion of its mountaintop-removal coal operation in the center of Fayette County. Those who make their living in sustainable tourism fear the worst, Wood reports. After all, it seems like a hard-luck deja vu to many of them. When major underground mines shut down, said Clif Bobinski, "tourism seemed like the new way to try to make it and stay. Now a lot of restaurants are dependent on that business." The influx of outdoor enthusiasts has influenced Fayetteville's culture in other ways as well. Before the tourism boom, many downtown storefronts stood vacant; now they house a yoga studio, a bead shop, art galleries, multi-ethnic cafes, and numerous biking, climbing, and whitewater shops. The national Boy Scout Jamboree is expected there in 2019.

(Map from Plateau Action Network shows Fayetteville and New River Gorge bridge on US 19 at lower right, and new mine area at far lower left; click on map for larger image)
Some worry now whether the crowds will continue to flock to an area scarred by an enormous strip mine. The project would cover 3,662 acres and create 20 "valley fills" for the mountaintops leveled to reach the coal. Blasting can already be heard within the gorge, sometimes several times a day; the strip mine is visible from high spots; and Fayetteville's outdoor community isn't trusting the coal industry to "do it right," Wood reports. Kenny Parker, co-owner of an outdoor-gear shop co-owner, "emphasizes that he's not against coal miners," saying: "Everybody's father and everybody's grandfather was a coal miner. You respect that because that is their heritage. I understand that. But like it or not, coal is not going to rule the day in Fayette County." (Read more) For Catherine Moore's story in The Register-Herald of Beckley about approval of the permit, click here.