News
Study says wind on Coal River Mountain pays more than mountaintop removal
Monday, December 15th, 2008
Visit www.CoalRiverWind.org to download the report.
Over 10,700 people from across the US and across the world have signed the petitionto save Coal River Mountain from 10 square mile mountaintop removal mine. In stead of the mountaintop removal site, residents want a wind farm. They’ve been trying to convince Governor Manchin of West Virginia that a wind farm is a better choice for the local residents, the county and the state than another mountaintop removal site. On Tuesday, that argument got a lot stronger.
Yesterday the Coal River Wind project of Coal River Mountain Watch released a study it had commissioned last August that compared the economics of a wind farm vs. a strip mine on Coal River Mountain. As part of the release, there was a press conference held in Beckley and another in Charleston.
The main message of the report is that the private landholding companies and mine companies benefit from the strip mining while the people living in the community and the county government benefits more from the wind farm. In fact, the annual taxes that will go to the county from the wind farm will be $1,740,000 while the severance taxes that will go to Raleigh County from the Surface mine will be $36,000. And that 1.7 million will be annual forever. The $36,000 from the mining will last only 17 years.
Another interesting conclusion from the report is that when externalities such as increased hospitalization in areas with coal mining are factored in, the strip mining isn’t profitable. During the 17 year life of the surface mine, the revenue will be -$600 Million. That’s Negative $600,000,000. The wind farm by itself is profitable every year even when externalities are factored in. And those externalities are felt by the people, not the companies.
The report also analyzed a scenario in which a wind turbine manufacturing plant is sited in Raleigh County, and concluded that substantial economic benefits would also result from the development of a strong wind industry in southern West Virginia. If we get a wind farm on Coal River Mountain, it may be the starting point for developing such an industry and that’s a lot of jobs. In addition to the 200+ construction jobs on the wind farm and 40 permanent jobs, a wind production facility would bring in over 1700 jobs.
As Gary Anderson, who lives at the foot of Coal River Mountain said “If they can put a wind farm on Coal River Mountain and mine the coal underground, then that’s what they should do, and if this study shows that a wind farm is better for the economy than the Mountaintop Removal, then Governor Manchin should do what he can to make that happen.”
And you can let him know that by emailing or calling him at 1-888-438-2731.
And many thanks to Sierra Club, Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition, Appalachian Voices, Student Environmental Action Coalition, and Rainforest Action Network for helping make this possible.
