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At The Edit, we’ve long been saying that the mountaintop removal means the end of jobs. We don’t advocate mountaintop removal, but we just ask if the workers should receive help finding new careers . Alternative energy plants, perhaps?
This fight between nature and the economy is getting bigger, and the Rural Blog sums up two recent stories (one from the AP, one from the CJ) about the feud.
Vicki Smith of The Associated Press notes that protesters on both sides in West Virginia have been charged with battery…
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Peter Smith of The Courier-Journal reports from Kentucky: “Beneath Appalachian mountains wreathed in mist, dozens of religious leaders gathered to decry a mining practice they see an as affront to both God and nature … but … at First Baptist Church in Pikeville, a congregation replete with miners and those in coal-related businesses … say they ‘thank God we’ve got the coal.’
Former director of the state’s Division of Mine Permits Ron Mills–who was fired last month–was an opponent of the 33 1/3 rule. The unofficial rule lets coal companies obtain permits to mine underground in plots when they can only legally use 2/3 of the land.
Mills’ firing set off alarms for watchdogs and skeptics, and now the Herald-Leader has this:
Gov. Steve Beshear’s administration overruled its top mine permitting official last year to “accommodate the coal interests” and reinstate a policy the official said was illegal, according to state documents.
At issue: The Beshear administration’s use of the so-called “33 1/3 rule,” which allows coal companies to mine underground when they have shown the legal right to enter only two-thirds of the acreage included in their plans.
Some critics say the policy is illegal because federal and state law requires coal companies to show they have the right to enter all land included in their plans.
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State documents show that Mills fought and briefly rescinded the 33 1/3 rule until he was overturned by his superiors at the Energy and Environment Cabinet following a debate in October 2008.
“I have recommended to the secretary that we can accommodate the coal interests with reinstating the 2/3’s rule,” the cabinet’s deputy secretary, Hank List, wrote Oct. 8, 2008, to Natural Resources Commissioner Carl Campbell, who was Mills’ boss.
Three months later, on Jan. 9, List wrote to Campbell: “Carl, let all the permit applications that include the 33 1/3 provision out the door.”
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Mills said that before he was fired, Campbell told him Alliance Coal — specifically, a company executive named Raymond Ashcraft — and the governor’s office were pushing for his ouster because of his opposition to the 33 1/3 rule. One of Beshear’s staff assistants, Jeff Belcher, often called the Division of Mine Permits on behalf of coal companies to ask about their permit applications, Mills said.
Alliance Coal is a big political donor, having given several hundred thousand dollars to Kentucky politicians and parties on the state and federal level, including to Beshear and the Kentucky Democratic Party.
“I didn’t want to do anything that was illegal,” Mills said.
Belcher did not return a call seeking comment. The governor’s office has denied playing a role in Mills’ firing.
Here are some Senate race updates…
First, an explanation of the split between Republican Rand Paul and the National Republican Senatorial Committee from the CJ. The argument is over an NRSC endorsement in the primary.
“The NRSC will not endorse in the primary, and I think most Kentuckians will welcome the fact that they’ll be able to make their decision on the merits of the candidates and not on undue outside influence,” Paul, a Bowling Green ophthalmologist, said in an interview.
Paul said he believed the committee was “hedging its bets” because it no longer believes that Secretary of State Trey Grayson is the odds-on favorite to win.
But Brian Walsh, a spokesman for the committee, said in an interview that Bumps didn’t say what Paul claimed he did.
Although the senatorial committee hasn’t endorsed anyone in the race, it’s generally assumed that the group is backing Grayson.
In September, 24 senators — including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and Sen. John Cornyn, the committee’s chairman — held a fundraiser for Grayson at the group’s headquarters.
“Randy did speak with Mr. Paul,” Walsh said. “But what Mr. Paul told you was not entirely accurate. What Randy told him was that the NRSC does not anticipate making any endorsements in the race but that we reserve the right to do so.”
Next, Al Cross‘ CJ column is all about mountaintop removal’s role in the senate race, particularly in the Democratic primary.
Coal jobs pay well, so they contribute more on average to Kentucky’s economy, and the industry contributes through its sales and purchases. But the available data for mining in Kentucky (mostly coal, but also including limestone and more minor materials) show that its share of the gross state product isn’t much greater than coal’s share of jobs and has gone down in the last decade. Last year it was 1.45 percent.
At the same time, coal has never been more controversial. In addition to climate change, there is increasing concern about effects of the mercury and other pollutants it contains, and the impact of strip mining on the Cumberland-Allegheny Plateau. “Mountaintop removal” has become the generic if often inaccurate name for most surface mining in Central Appalachia, and it has become a catchphrase and rallying point.
Every five years, the Kentucky Environmental Education Council pays for a survey that asks Kentuckians to name the state’s top environmental problems. Ten years ago and five years ago, the top three problems were water pollution, air pollution and waste management, in that order. This year, the top two were the same, but there was a new No. 3: mountaintop removal or strip mining in general.
You may have missed this Courier-Journal story from Friday night/Saturday. Ron Mills, the director of the Division of Mine Permits, has been fired by the Beshear administration.
If you missed it, that may have been the point. The news came down Friday.
After the state hired new mine permit review employees, this move may seem surprising. Tom FitzGerald with the Kentucky Resource Council says this.
FitzGerald…said he believed the action was taken by the Governor’s Office to placate coal interests that want to expedite the permitting process for mining operations.
“Ron Mills has done a superlative job at the Division of Mine Permits, and for that he has been fired,” said FitzGerald, said.
From Beshear’s office:
Kerri Richardson, spokeswoman for Gov. Steve Beshear, released a statement later Friday that said “All decisions regarding personnel matters are handled at the cabinet level,” and referred questions to Energy and Environment Cabinet Secretary Len Peters.
Peters declined to be interviewed, said cabinet spokeswoman Ricki Gardenhire, who confirmed late Friday that Mills no longer worked for the cabinet and had not resigned.
And FitzGerald also weighs in on Beshear’s new mine inspection hires.
FitzGerald said this action, which was praised by coalfield legislators of both parties, was troubling because it will increase the number of permits issues without increasing staff to inspect and oversee the environmental effects of the mining.
“The firing of Ron Mills is the second of two very troubling events …” FitzGerald said. “We will now become a permit mill.”
When I talked to Beshear about the new permit employees he expressed frustration over the federal government’s delays in approving some mining operations. The delays are over environmental concerns.
Students on the University of Kentucky campus placed banners on campus yesterday to protest how the school names buildings, specifically the “Wildcat Coal Lodge.”
We’ve talked about what Joseph Main’s position at the head of MSHA could mean for mine safety, and now we’ll find out. From the AP:
The Senate has confirmed former United Mine Workers union official Joseph Main to head the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration.
The chamber confirmed Main by unanimous consent on Wednesday evening to run the agency responsible for overseeing the health and safety of the nation’s 392,000 miners.
Main spent 22 years heading the United Mine Workers’ Occupational Health and Safety Department before retiring. His nomination had been praised by union activists, but greeted with some trepidation by coal companies.
Main was a strong critic of the previous head of MSHA, Richard Stickler.
Wendy Macy is at it again. The rabid Randite has a Q&A with her favorite candidate about mountaintop removal. In the video, Paul says there’s a lack of flat surfaces in Eastern Kentucky for schools, development and elk. (Because elk apparently cannot survive in nature without human intervention). So, removing the pointy parts of mountains makes room for nature and schools. This is a point he seems to agree with Democratic Senate candidate Daniel Mongiardo on. Mongiardo reportedly said it’s not mountaintop removal, but mountaintop development.
You can see Paul chat with Macy in the video below. They are in different areas, which makes me wonder if Paul didn’t just shoot this without Macy anywhere in sight. Are they in cahoots since her “This Rand is Your Rand” video got the campaign’s attention?
Also, watch for the part when Rand Paul checks for contaminants in water by touching it with his hands.
We’ve talked about the raucous pro-coal rallies and meetings that have been going on, and the Rural Blog reports that the raucousness is still happening.
In Big Stone Gap, Va., the crowd at MountainEmpire Community College was again heavily pro-coal, but Jeff Lester of The Coalfield Progress hits on the key dynamic of the ongoing debate in his lede describing the two groups: “They all professed to speak for the future of the central Appalachian mountains.”
Many of the coal supporters in the audience wore shirts provided byFriends of Coal that read “COAL = JOBS = ENERGY, NWP 21 YES,” Lester reports. Pro-coal participants cited the number of jobs coal creates not directly related to mining, the need to use coal to achieve energy independence in the U.S. and the common thought that most anti-mining groups are not from the region. “We miners don’t try to tell them how to stop their urban sprawl,” A&G Coal Corp. engineer Mark Wooten told Lester. “Surely we don’t need them to tell us how to raise our families in our region.”
With the government blocking large mountaintop removal projects and anti-government(read: anti-Obama) sentiment on the rise, it’s easy to tie an industry’s fight against regulation to the libertarian-leaning Tea Party-type protests. After all, the two sides share a common enemy.
The coal industry has already thrown one tea-party type event in West Virginia, and the AP reportsd on another, less violent (but perhaps equally raucous) event in Pikeville, Kentucky.
Most of what the corps said was a turnout of 4,800 in Pikeville and Charleston, however, showed their disapproval for a move by the administration of President Barack Obama to curb mountaintop mining. In Kentucky, pro-mining banners flapped in the breeze outside. One proclaimed: “Coal Feeds My Family.” Another: “Got Electricity? Thank a miner.”
Miners and their families were trying to convince the administration to back away from restrictions that would make it more difficult, perhaps impossible, to get the federal permits necessary to blast away mountains.
Miner Junie Halcomb’s T-shirt asked one question about coal: “Can Obama’s America Survive Without It?” Halcomb thinks he answer is no, at least in the impoverished coal mining region of central Appalachia.
“It’s going to put a lot of people out work,” Halcomb said. “We can’t survive without coal money.”
Feelings ran much the same in West Virginia.
“Leave our mining to us and our livelihood. You will kill our state,” said Diann Kish, who called herself the wife, mother and daughter of coal miners.
Do you think there’s a responsibility on the part of the government to give displaced mineworkers priority for stimulus or green energy jobs?
The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee has approved President Obama’s nominee for the head of the Mine Safety and Health Administration.
Joseph Main’s nomination will now go to the full Senate.
If approved, Main will run MSHA, which oversees the safety of surface and underground mining operations, which Kentucky has in droves. Main’s appointment will likely be a major boost for mine safety advocates.
From McClatchy:
“I don’t think Obama could have chosen anyone better for the job,” said Tony Oppegard, a Lexington, Ky., lawyer and mine-safety advocate. “Joe has done more for mine safety in the U.S. than anyone in the past 25 to 30 years.”
Oppegard said Main’s nomination “signals a change of direction in terms of mine safety in this country. It’s a 180 degree shift from the policies of the Bush administration and its favoring of coal industry executives.”
Indeed, coal industry executives were disappointed on Monday.
“It’s going to be frustrating having somebody with an agenda that is pro-union,” said Bill Caylor, the president of the Kentucky Coal Association. “We’re not looking forward to it.”
Disclosure: My father worked for MSHA for decades.
