Comments on: To Hell with Almost Heaven?

By: amber

amber — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 13:10:02 +0000

I’m a native WVian and am appauled at the destruction of my home. Just because the strip mines are out of site of most people doesn’t mean they only effect a few.
I had an experience on Easter that really made me see how destructive undergroud mining is due to the run off. I was sitting by a river that runs through my home town and realized that it was clear for the first time in my memory. It had always been brown and it has taken 25 years after the mine closed up major opperations for the river to run clear. Just the process of cleaning the coal and creating coal slurry destroys the environment.
In addition, the “reclamation” has been nothing more than to plant grass on the hillside. I can’t imagine trying to reclaim as much land as is devistatved in strip mining. This mining is only done to produce cheap energy. Our power companies are money hungry and will stop at nothing to generate greater dividends for their stockholders. I for one think that they should not be able to use coal from Mountain Top Removal. That would put an end to the practice because the market would dry up.

By: Appalady

Appalady — Sat, 07 Aug 2010 15:27:03 +0000

I love when people claim to be so proud of their heritage as a mountain people, yet they want to give the greenlight to big business to fuck up their homes. What a “fuck you” to Appalachian people.

The money doesn�t benefit our land. If it did, we should be seeing a LOT more than we have now, coal is a huge money maker. Mountain top removal actually loses mining jobs simply because more machinery is used, causing less man power to be needed. Underground mining is not going to last much longer. We are running out of coal. Mountain top removal will NOT provide nearly as many jobs as undergound mining has, so we MUST find something to replace coal, economically speaking.

I�m am a native Appalachian resident and I am ashamed at my people for not standing up for thereselves like they should. Our heritage is at stake. The mountains that we all know and love are at stake. The wildlife they support are at stake. It is up to us to take care of our land, and we have done an exceptionally poor job at it. If people cared so much, they�d be researching and trying to implement new sources of energy into our state, providing even more jobs than before. Nuclear power plants are currently banned here due to some stubborn folks in Frankfort. If we had this, we could forget about coal in the upcoming years. It�s much cleaner, provides jobs, and thank god we wouldn�t have men dying in dirty coal mines ever again. It�s a win-win, but my people are some of the most stubborn I�ve encountered.

By: Alan Asper

Alan Asper — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 00:15:11 +0000

I have long wondered what John Denver would think if he were alive today… hope that we can finally save some remnant of the land he dreamed about before it is too late!

By: billy ward

billy ward — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 06:30:53 +0000

i hate the power companys and the mines they are destroying the earth

By: billy ward

billy ward — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 06:29:15 +0000

HI my name is billy ward i live in dante va 24237 i hunt genseng and other herbs and what i think about the coal indestry they can all go to hell and anyone that has anything to do with the coal mines they are killing our haretage what the hell is the younger people going to do when they are no more trees and wildlife you take rich power companys that charge to much for power i think they could stop useing coal and find something els but they will have to pay when we stand before god and have to ancer for what we do and i hope they all burn in hell free country my ass