Voices
My Column in today's Daily Mail begs amplification.Believe me when I say I wish there were no mountaintop mining in West Virginia. Ken Hechler once said that the most devastating thing that ever happened to West Virginia was when coal was discovered here. It sealed our fate and sent us down a path from which we suffer today.
When it comes to the relative merits of coal companies I am not sure one is just like the rest. Some are simply a little quieter about what they do.
A few years ago I went to the Arch Coal mountaintop removal mine in Boone County. The reclaimed land was 90 percent grassland. About 10 percent of the reclaimed land was covered in trees - locust trees, which were the only trees that would grow there. They are not hardwoods. They are what my dad called "trash trees." No self-respecting neo-tropical bird would nest in a locust tree.
Seventy years ago, the guy who built the house where I live moved some soil to create a place to build buildings. Would you beleive that, to this day, nothing but locust trees will grow on that disturbed soil? Look athte land that was disturbed along the interstates to create the roads. Nothign but trash trees grow on this soil today.
The problem as I see it is not that we let one company disobey the law and applaud others because they are good corporate citizens. The entire coal mining process is destructive and this state has allowed the industry to become the lifeblood of the state's economy.
What is the definition of a "good corporate citizen" among coal companies? They all destroy the original environment - God's environment, if you will.
A guy who supports mountop removal mining wrote me e-mail sort of applauding me for my stand in my column. He said that he understands Massey replants thousands of hardwood trees on its property in an attempt to reclaim it. I asked if they were growing. He said he believes they are. I doubt it. No self-respecting oak tree will grow on that God-forsaken soil.
I still maintain that it will be five centuries before the land will grow hardwood trees that are so vital to our original natural environment.
If we did what was right for the environment, we would shut the entire coal industry down. But in doing it, we would eliminate thousands of jobs. Coal is an economic addiction. Case closed.
Thousands live here because we mine "the fuel of last resort" as coal barron Rolla Campbell once called it in an interview I had with him just before he died.Eliminate the mining of coal and we would eliminate the state's economy.
The debate over whether we have the right to scalp the mountains and reclaim with grass and locust trees is not allowed and never has been allowed . We decided to take the no-debate path we have taken more than a century ago. That being the case, we have no alternative but to give Massey employees (and Massey) a voice.
We find it strange that Thomas Jefferson believed in the self-evident truth that man has inalienable rights, yet he held slaves. A hundred years from now, our descendants will wonder why we destroyed the environment in order to get the energy we claimed we needed to survive. I have a friend who also believes we will be condemned for our eating meat. I am inclined to agree with him
But maybe they will treat us somewhat kindly and write our actions off because we were simpletons when it comes to determining what's important. We are basically self-centered and greedy and lazy because we are not aggressively seeking non-destructive ways of getting the energy we need.
So, give Massey employees a voice because they deserve a voice under the rules. But give the environmentalists a voice and respect both.
Under the path we have taken, there is no alternative.
Under the path we have taken, there is no alternative.
posted by Dave Peyton @ 7:17 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home