ALL, News
Stop the Coalfields Expressway
Wednesday, August 15th, 2012
We’ve known for a long time that the coal industry will go to extreme measures to blow up mountains to mine coal, but this latest project is both ridiculous and really alarming.
Coal companies are trying to disguise a mountaintop removal coal-mining operation as a highway project in Southwest Virginia, allowing them to seize land and ignore environmental protections for local communities.
They thought they could get away with it, but an Environmental Assessment of the coal company-drawn route for what is being called The Coalfields Expressway is under review by the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) and Federal Highways Administration (FHWA) and your comments to these agencies can help stop this environmental travesty.
Take Action Now: Tell VDOT that you oppose the Coalfields Expressway proposal, and that public utility should come before corporate profit.
If the Coalfields Expressway goes forward, more than 12 miles of streams would be buried, and hundreds of acres of privately held land would be condemned and handed over for King Coal’s profit. Worse yet, these contiguous mines would be exempt from standard surface mine permitting requirements, avoiding safeguards meant to protect communities from the worst effects of strip mining.
Because of your efforts, the Environmental Protection Agency is cracking down on water pollution from mountaintop removal coal mines. As a result, the coal industry is going to great lengths to squeeze every last ton of coal it can from our mountains.
You can stop it. Tell VDOT that they should deny the permit for The Coalfields Expressway.
August 20th, 2012 at 8:36 am
Enough is enough! How much more environmental damage are you going to allow to happen? Please STOP it!
August 22nd, 2012 at 3:36 pm
Let me get this correct,you are saying coal companies are “disguising” this as highway construction and by doing so, avoiding safety and environmental protections. If this is true then the highway construction industry is the real culprit here accepting federal funds ang ignoring environmental regulations. Sounds like two different sets of regulations for virtually the same excavation process.
January 4th, 2013 at 9:02 pm
First of all im just a plain old working stiff. But let me say a ew simple things. The expressway will take my home. First we had the coal companies come and “take” our land under the pretense of so called mineral rights back at the turn of the century. Now all the “do gooders” sierra club southern appalachian group ilove moutains and the list keeps going come in and tell us they know whats best. Hogwas for us. Let them protect us from Mr Evil Coalman. That they will see to it that our surface rights are all good and protected. Hogwash. First you cant even pronounce appalachia correctly. Second we dont need anyone to tell/show us anything about coal companies. After 100 plus years trust US we know. If you dont live where the road is going little on out of STATE keep out of our business. We dont need you telling us what how when where and why to live our lives. Let us decide our issues, be it good bad or ugly, by ourselves. We know survived the first hundred years without you we can survive the next hundred. Or let us come to your neighborhood and make the decisions about your roads. Oh i forgot you all done have them.