Rally to Save Coal River Mountain

Keeper of the Mountains, Larry Gibson, addresses the crowd at the rally.

Over 300 coalfield residents and allies rallied at the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection to stop the destruction of Coal River Mountain due to mountain-top removal coal mining. Coalfield residents and their allies are demanding the federal government outlaw this environmentally and socially destructive practice whereby the tops of mountains are blown up to get at the coal underneath. Additionally, some people are proposing to build a wind farm on the mountain to generate energy and provide jobs to coalfield residents, if blasting can be stopped. “Coal River Mountain stands today as a symbol of the choice we have to make for our energy future,” said Bo Webb of the Coal River Valley, one of the organizer’s of the rally.  “We can preserve our abundant forested mountains, which offer clean drinking water and enough wind potential to provide permanent jobs for our families. Or, we can allow mountaintop removal operations to blast our heritage into a pile of pulverized rock and poisoned water.”

“My home and the cemetery where my husband is buried are in jeopardy from mountaintop removal coal mining. I have to be out here to protect my family,” said Lorelei Scarbro, of Coal River Mountain Watch and a lifelong resident of Coal River Valley. “If we don’t start building a clean energy economy and diversifying jobs in West Virginia what will our children do for jobs in 20 years when the coal runs out?…. If we can save this mountain then we can begin developing sustainable jobs and renewable energy, and we can maybe have an impact on the climate crisis that faces us all.”

source: http://itsgettinghotinhere.org/2009/12/07/hundreds-rally-to-save-coal-river-mountain-today/

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