We’ve touched on the fact that the new coal industry front group “FACES” has yet to come forward with a list of their members. Well, thanks to a few new media> gumshoes, including our own Jamie Goodman and our friends at DeSmogBlog, we’ve learned that not only is FACES hosted by a K-Street firm called Adfero, but all of the “FACES” of coal are actually just istockphotos. They couldn’t even get real photos of their supporters.
Exhibit A
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Exhibit B
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Exhibit C
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Hmmm, I think I’ve seen these faces before. (Thanks Jed!)
Update I: Our crack team discovered a few more stockphotos overnight. They are posted at AppVoices.
Update II: It seems the “Adfero” link which was working last night, has been hidden and made private. Hopefully someone got a screenshot before it was closed.
Today rate-payers and oxygen users can breathe a little easier, as the Santee Cooper company nixed its plans to build another coal plant in the state.
A committee of the state-owned utility voted this morning to suspend an effort to secure permits for the $2.2 billion plant in Florence County along the Great Pee Dee River. The full Santee Cooper board is expected to ratify the vote at noon today.
The agency’s action makes it unlikely the plant will ever be built, said Santee Cooper board Chairman O.L. Thompson.
South Carolina is one of the top 10 users of mountaintop removal coal. Its also pays the second highest price for coal in the US, behind New Jersey.
There are currently 12 coal-fired power plants in the state. The website SCsaysNO.com has more info on the impacts that this plant would have had on the health, economy, and environment.
Another shiny coal industry front group. How authentic.
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The coal industry PR generators must be running low on fuel, because they have been misfiring repeatedly over the course of the Summer, and it looks like they may have another false start with “FACES” (Federation for American Coal, Energy, and Security).
Who are they? Well nobody knows. Kate Sheppard at Grist asks, “who are the faces behind FACES of coal?”
Grist tried to find out more about FACES, as the website does not list members or funders. The only contact information listed is an email address, and our email inquiry bounced back.
Are there any actual faces behind FACES?
What are they saying? Definitely nothing new. Do their claims actually hold water? A quick look through their website basically shows a bunch of direct links to and quotes from the National Mining Association, so I decided to look at some of FACES’ “facts” to see if they stand up. The coal industry has paid Tennessee a lot of attention by publicly avoiding the state, and its my home state. So lets look at the “Faces of Coal” “US Coal and Tennessee” fact sheet.
Coal supplies half the electricity consumed by Americans.
False. Coal used to supply half the electricity consumed by Americans. Electric generation from coal is down to 42.6% in May of this year. That is a significant amount of energy, but its by no statistical stretch of the imagination “half.” The more inclusive “year-to-date” number for Jan-May 2009 puts coal down at about 45.4% of our electricity production and dropping.
Tennessee produced 2.3 million tons of coal in 2008.
True. However, this amounts to a 12% drop from the previous year, and totals just 0.19% of US coal production in 2008.
Tennessee powers Tennessee – Sixty-four percent of Tennessee’s electricity is generated from coal.
False and probably no longer true. As of 2007, zero percent of Tennessee’s electricity generation is generated from Tennessee coal, and their coal receipts for electric generation in May 2009 are down 42.6% from the same point in 2008. So I can’t imagine that TN still gets 64% of its electricity from coal, but I don’t think the total consumption numbers for energy are broken out yet by state for 2009.
In 2007, coal mining in Tennessee generated about $2.9 billion in output.
This is a “National Mining Association” number. The most recent study (Hendryx, WVU) shows that coal contributes to about $8 billion in benefits to the Appalachian region. But it also notes that the costs to the region because of coal mining are around $50 billion, for a net loss of about $42 billion dollars annually. A study by MACED looked at inputs and outputs to the Kentucky state budget from coal mining. The study concludes that it actually costs the state a net loss of -$115 million dollars every year to keep mining coal.
Any more?
Tennessee families depend on coal mining for good jobs. – Coal mining provides jobs for the long-term.
Coal provides a few jobs in Tennessee, but they are definitely not long term. Again, the real picture is much more complicated than that. In reality, Tennessee has lost 75% of the mining jobs it had just 25 years ago.
Mining in Tennessee supports over 21,000 jobs, paying hundreds of millions of dollars in annual wages. – In Eastern Tennessee alone, coal mining employs more than 1,000 people.
If by “eastern Tennessee”, they mean “central” Tennessee (there’s no coal in the Smokies), then they are talking about ALL the coal mining jobs in Tennessee. Thats like saying that “there are hundreds of miles of ocean-front property in eastern North Carolina alone, and thats just at the beach!”
Coal mining jobs are well paid. The average wage for a coal worker in Tennessee is about $61,000, more than 10 percent higher than the average wage for jobs in other industries in the state.
Coal mining jobs may be well paid, but that’s not really the point. Brittany Spears is well paid, but that doesn’t mean I think what she is doing is beneficial to my community. As pointed by MACED for Kentucky, the results of coal-mining operations on the state budget of Tennessee are minimal at best and potentially negative. Coal mining is a relatively small industry in Tennessee, generating $67 million compared with tourism’s $14.2 billion. And the counties that have higher instances of mining have lower socioeconomic status, higher unemployment, and higher mortality than surrounding counties in Appalachia, as pointed out by Hendryx.
Tennessee invests in protecting the environment. Tennessee coal invests millions of dollars in coal mine land restoration, or reclamation, projects.
Reclamation is a critical part of the mining process. Commercial development, economic development, or even reforestation is better than just blasting apart a mountain, declaring bankruptcy, and bolting. The fact that Tennessee coal invests millions to reclaim the land they’ve destroyed is a good thing, but it definitely isn’t sufficient, and it definitely isn’t an improvement over what was there before. There is an abundance of “flat land” already available. In fact, around 1 million undeveloped acres of it which has been wrought by MTR. So, please feel free to build yourself a golf course on a mountain that is already destroyed and stop blowing up new mountains.
2003 EPA EIS, Appendix G, Land Use Assesment, page 43:
Given current and foreseeable future land use demands, it is unlikely that any more than 2 to 3% of the future post-mining land uses will be developed land uses such as housing, commercial, industrial, or public facility development.
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Potential permanent impacts will likely include some resident population relocation due to close proximities of people and potential future mining.
So is reclamation important? Absolutely. But is the coal industry doing enough of it? Well…I’d say 97% no.
Mountaintop mining is a sophisticated mining technique that is the safest way…
Baloney. Coal mining is a dangerous job, and mountaintop removal mining transfers the dangers inherent in mining coal from the professional miner onto the surrounding communities. Secondly, there is not a lot of proof that surface mining is that much safer to the workers than underground mining. In 2008, according to MSHA, coal’s “non-fatal days lost” because of injury are almost even between surface and underground mining. 218 of 394, or 55% are from underground mining. 176 of 394, or 45%, are from surface mining. As the overburden ratio increases, and Btu decreases, surface miners are having to move larger amounts of earth to provide us the same amount of energy, increasing the dangers inherent in the operation. I the last few years, according to MSHA, surface mining fatalities have been increasing as a percentage vs underground mining and on-site fatalities.
But this is my favorite from “FACES”:
… and at times the only way – to mine coal near the surface in rugged terrain. It improves productivity and protects the environment.
According to the Energy Information Administration, the estimated recoverable reserves in Appalachia are mostly classified as “underground” rather than “surface” mineable coal. Although in reality these are not mutually exclusive classifications, its still important to show that we can get at most of the coal by other ways than blowing the tops off of the mountains.
Yeah, FACES comes from a world where blowing up mountains and dumping the waste into streams (which even officials in the WVDEP are now saying harms water quality) is environmental “protection.” Sigh…
How I long to have their powers of denial (and their industrial allies’ money!)
The coal industry and their associated front groups like to claim that coal provides more than half of our electricity. This was once true, but has not been the case for several years. As we’ve reported throughout the year, the importance of coal in our national electricity generation is declining at a pretty remarkable rate. EIA just released their numbers for May 2009, and once again coal is down. The year to date numbers are staggering. From January-May 2009, coal produced just 45.4% of our electricity, and the monthly numbers are getting lower and lower. In the most recent recorded month (May) coal was down to 42.6% of electricity generation.
Big Coal wants us to believe that without burning more and more coal, our economy will shrink and we might even freeze in the dark. But a close look at our energy picture tells a very different story: yes, we still burn a lot of coal, but we can burn less of it all the time while cleaner energy sources that provide even more jobs take its place.
Not only CAN we transition to a clean energy future, but it’s already starting to happen. The reason coal is on the decline – even before carbon regulations – is that it simply can no longer compete with cleaner energy sources like wind power and natural gas. For an encouraging contrast, let’s take a look at the increasing power of wind:
Hendryx found that chronic heart, respiratory, and kidney disease were significantly higher in coal mining areas of Appalachia than in non-mining areas. He states that coal mining activities expose residents to environmental contaminants like particulate matter and toxic chemicals, agents known to cause chronic disease. Hendryx states that it is “critical to address issues of environmental equity and to reduce environmental and socioeconomic disparity through economic and policy interventions.”
Hendryx, M. (2009) “Mortality from heart, respiratory, and kidney disease in coal mining areas of Appalachia.” International Archives of Occupational and Environmental Health. 82: 243-49.
The growing public pressure to end mountaintop removal coal mining is clearly rattling the coal industry. Increasingly, Big Coal is resorting to desperate measures to try and keep mountaintop removal coal mining alive.
The boycott triggered a damning editorial from the Chattanooga Times Free Press. Senator Alexander, one of the original sponsors of the Appalachia Restoration Act reportedly responded by saying that “Every year, millions of tourists come to Tennessee and spend millions of dollars to see our scenic mountaintops, not to see mountains whose tops have been blown off and dumped into streams.”
Touche!
Big Coal has also recently been caught “astroturfing” opposition to the climate bill. The industry front group ACCCE was forced to “come clean” (sort of) when their lobbying firm Bonner and Associates got caught forging letters of opposition to the climate bill under the names of Charlottesville area non-profits.
While ACCCE tried to distance themselves from their lobbyists and dismissed the forgeries as a one time event, a former Bonner and Associates employee said such unethical tactics are common. “They just got caught this time,” he said.
Bungling PR and ineffective boycotts aside, however, Big Coal’s efforts to trump up support for mountaintop removal coal mining is a serious threat to the mountains we love.
That’s why we need to keep the pressure on Congress to close the loopholes that help Big Coal blow up mountains — and to take action to stop mountaintop removal coal mining altogether.
The Appalachia Restoration Act that was introduced this year by Senators Alexander and Cardin to stop coal companies from dumping their waste into our nation’s waterways and would go a long way to ending mountaintop removal.
PS Last week, the National Council of Churches held a prayer vigil to remember the more than 500 mountains already destroyed by mountaintop removal coal mining. For more on that story, click here.
Decision opens the door for more destruction in Appalachia
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – August 11, 2009
Contacts:
Janet Keating, Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition, 304.360.4201
Oliver Bernstein, Sierra Club, 512-289-8618
Joe Lovett, Appalachian Center for the Economy & the Environment, 304-645-9006
Charleston, West Virginia – Today the public learned that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers issued a Clean Water Act permit last week for Consol Energy’s Peg Fork mountaintop removal coal mine in Mingo County, West Virginia. This controversial decision marks the first time during the Obama administration that the Army Corps approved a mine permit to which the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) had previously objected, opening the door for many new mountaintop removal coal mines in Appalachia. The decision to allow this operation to proceed also demonstrates the Department of Interior’s lack of will to enforce the clear mandates of a critical Surface Mining Act regulation.
“We are disappointed that the administration has approved a new mountaintop removal mine without making any commitment to adopt new regulations or policies that would end this destructive practice,” said Ed Hopkins, Director of Sierra Club’s Environmental Quality Program. “While we appreciate that the Obama administration is taking a harder look at mountaintop removal coal mining, unless that results in decisions that end the irreversible destruction of streams, the harder look isn’t going to do the job.”
“We are not willing to sacrifice our homes to the potential of flooding from a mountaintop removal coal mine,” said Mingo County resident Wilma Steele. “The Army Corps should protect our homes from being washed away.”
The permit would violate the Surface Mining Act as well as the Clean Water Act. This mining operation would be impermissible under the Surface Mining Act’s buffer zone rule, which protects intermittent and perennial streams. The Department of Interior, therefore, has the duty to use the buffer zone rule to prevent giant stream destruction projects like those at the Peg Fork mine from going forward.
“The Department of Interior’s continuing failure to force the mining industry to comply with the buffer zone rule is a reminder that it is business as usual at Interior,” said Joe Lovett, of the Appalachian Center for the Economy and the Environment. Lovett called for Secretary Ken Salazar to “reverse the Bush Administration’s refusal to enforce the Surface Mining Act and to protect our irreplaceable streams.”
Earlier this year, the EPA conducted a review of 48 applications then pending before the Army Corps for Clean Water Act permits to fill streams. At the end of its review, the EPA identified the Peg Fork mine and five other mines as projects of high concern, and instructed the Army Corps to not issue those permits.
Following the EPA’s review, the Army Corps revised Consol Energy’s permit for this mountaintop removal mine and issued the permit on Friday, August 7. But the revised permit still fails to satisfy the requirements for permits issued under the Clean Water Act. The original permit application proposed mining over 800 acres of mountainous terrain and dumping mining waste into eight valley fills and over 3 miles of streams. The revised permit that received EPA approval still allows two valley fills immediately, with the potential for up to six additional valley fills if EPA is satisfied with the results of downstream water quality monitoring from the initial fills. Even with these alterations, the Peg Fork mine would still have unacceptable adverse impacts on local waterways and therefore violates the Clean Water Act.
The Peg Fork permit decision comes just as the EPA begins the process of reviewing more than 80 applications for Clean Water Act permits for mountaintop removal mining under the coordinated review process announced by the Obama administration in June. Mining companies have already buried close to 2,000 miles of Appalachian streams beneath piles of toxic waste and debris. Entire communities have been permanently displaced by mines the size of Manhattan.
“The Obama administration needs to commit to ending the devastation caused to our communities by mountaintop removal. The time to make that commitment is now,” said Judy Bonds of Coal River Mountain Watch. “We can not live through another generation of permits that will bury hundreds more miles of streams and blast apart our mountains.”
“Science and the law are at odds with this permit decision,” said Janet Keating of the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition. “In my opinion, the Corps’ decision to issue this and other permits boils down to political pressure from coal-friendly legislators.”
“A big part of the problem is that the Obama administration is still operating under the failed and broken regulations adopted during the Bush administration,” said Joan Mulhern of the environmental law firm Earthjustice. “The White House and the agencies can and should immediately initiate the process for changing those regulations and restoring the environmental protections that existed prior to 2001.”
“This week, newly appointed Assistant Secretary of the Army (Civil Works) Jo-Ellen Darcy begins to oversee the Army Corps’ permitting divisions, and she has the opportunity to take bold action on mountaintop removal coal mining,” said Cindy Rank of the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy. “The Corps has shown an inexplicable eagerness to permit new mountaintop removal mining, but we hope that Assistant Secretary Darcy’s leadership will mean more protections for the communities, streams and mountains of Appalachia.”
I am a Mud River West Virginia Girl! More specifically, I am a Conley Branch Girl. Although not born on Conley, most of my childhood was spent there, leaving me with many wonderful memories of that area alive within me. There was so much to love. I loved the open fields that my great-grandfather, Lorenza Adkins, and my grandfather, Alfred, plus his siblings, cleared when they settled down on Conley. Being small at the time, I thought the mountains were the biggest in the whole world.
I loved the mountains that surrounded our little three room house and Grandpa and Grandma Adkins’ four room house. It was as if the mountains were there to protect us.
The mountain to the east of our house was my absolute favorite. Amongst all of the trees that are indigenous to the area stood a huge pine tree. It jutted out far beyond the top of the forest as if to say, “I am here. I will protect and shelter you from harm”. I made several trips a week up the mountain to that tree. Underneath the tree’s canopy was a solid bed of moss. Mountain Tea, with sweet, red berries, provided substance. This was my refuge; this was my solace.
One day, Daddy broke his back as he and I hauled coal down from the little abandoned mine on our property. I ran screaming to find my Mother, who sent me running to the only neighbor that had a vehicle. After the neighbor came with his truck and lifted Daddy onto the bed on a makeshift stretcher, I ran up the hill to my tree, my solace. I was so scared. I found comfort there.
There were other sad times when I sought out the comfort of the mountain. I ran to my tree when my grandmother died. I ran there when I got into trouble with my parents. I ran there when my cat disappeared and when my grandma’s dog died. That tree and that mountain shared some of my darkest moments, but I always felt better because they provided me a place where I could grieve alone, be scared of what was happening, or to simply be happy on “my” mountain.
I wish I could run there today, but the mining companies came after I left. Neither Conley nor Mud River will ever be the same. In my heart, I know “my” mountain is gone.
Conley is now blocked off with a “No Trespassing” sign at what used to be the turn off to enter the hollow. I can no longer go up the hollow to enjoy the scenes from my childhood. The mining company won’t let me. The mountain at the turn into Conley is even gone. No trees. No wild flowers. No squirrels. Like a lot of places in the Appalachians, nothing is left except what the mining company did not want.
Even the oldest mountains in the world could not stand up to the power of money.
I pray that those of us who love this land are strong enough to stand up for the mountains that remain. They have provided strength, solace, protection, and even life, to us. It is now our turn to return the favor.
(Please forgive any misspellings or grammatical errors from this post. Its just SO dern hard to spell without any flat land and my keyboard getting all tilty all the time. – jdub)
Rachel Maddow had another hard-hitting piece on the ACCCE “Unnatural Mail Enhancement” forgery case last night, along with a very special guest, Congressman Frank J. Pallone (NJ-06).
And Maddow was quick to let ACCCE spokesman Joe Lucas have it, for his ridiculous comments to “The Guardian” yesterday, claiming that the people of eastern Kentucky just need a liiiiiiiitle more flatland if they really want to prosper:
Also, [the coal lobbyists are] doing media interviews, including what I honestly believe is the most jaw dropping argument I have seen anyone make about an American political issue all year with a straight face. His name is Joe Lucas, he is a spokesman for the coal industry group that we’re talking about and he told the Guardian newspaper that “I can take you to places in Eastern KY where community services were hampered because of a lack of flat space, to build factories, to build hospitals, even to build schools. In many places, mountaintop-mining if done responsibly allows for land to be developed for community space.
Lets say for just one minute that Joe Lucas really does have a deep burning passion for flattened land. Well, he is in LUCK! Mountaintop removal mining has destroyed nearly 1.3 million acres of some of the most beautiful, biodiverse, and ecologically valuable land this country has to offer. However, according to the EPA’s 2003 draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), right there, clear as day in appendix G, chapter “Land Use Assesment,” page 43, it says:
it is unlikely that any more than 2 to 3% of the future post-mining land uses will be developed land uses such as housing, commercial, industrial, or public facility development.
Math isn’t my strong suit, but since less than 3% of MTR land is developed, I’d say that leaves about 1 million acres of land (an area about the size of Delaware) that has already been flattened, where Mr. Lucas and his cronies at ACCCE are welcome to build whatever kind of private airport or golf course they like for their own personal use.
Now we can go into how many buildings have had structural failures after bring built on mountaintop removal mined land, or the penitentiary built on an MTR site bear Big Sandy which has become the most expensive federal prison ever built because it continually sinks into the unsettled earth. Or we could talk about economic success in other mountainous parts of the country. As Senator Lamar Alexander points out, millions of people come to Tennessee every year to see the natural beauty of Tennessee, which is beautiful (naturally). The Great Smoky Mountains National Park has over 9 million visitors annually and is the most visited national park in the country. Western North Carolina has several flourishing colleges, towns, and industries that will leave our mountains and our economy in tact for many many generations to come. You couldn’t say the same thing about ACCCE or Joe Lucas (IF that is their real name.)
Maddow quipped:
You know it is true, cutting of the tops of mountains does create more flat space, in that horribly hilly part of the world! Maybe its those darn hills that explain why the Appalachian marble shooting team has never won a tournament! They’re also really bad at billiards, everything is really tilty. Don’t West Virginians deserve more flatness?!
Congressman Frank Pallone: Mountaintop mining is a disaster, and it creates pollution, and it has a negative impact on the commuities on peoples health, and I think it’s a disaster for the environment.
Rachel Maddow: Describe what mountaintop removal is. Is it really the full-scale shearing ff of the tops of hills.
Congressman Frank Pallone: Basically, they blast the top of the hill if you will. And then they take the waste and dump it into the rivers or streams nearby, and they pollute those streams.
Rachel Maddow. So you bring the valleys up and the peaks down.
Congressman Frank Pallone: And the water is polluted and people drink it, or use it for other purposes and it affects them in a negative way.
(Great story, originally posted by our friend Jeff Biggers at Huffington Post. Thanks Jeff!)
As the brilliant lights of the White House shine across Pennsylvania Avenue Monday evening, generated by a coal-fired plant that uses coal stripmined from devastating mountaintop removal operations in Appalachia, religious leaders and organizations representing over 45 million Americans from across the country will hold a special candlelight prayer vigil at 7pm in Lafayette Park.
“The purpose of the rally is to remember the nearly 500 mountains already destroyed by mountaintop removal mining,” according to Jordan Blevins, Assistant Director of the National Council of Church’s Eco-Justice Office, and the sponsor of the event, “and to have people of faith call upon the federal government to end this destructive practice.”
This little coal-fired light of mine: Will President Barack Obama be listening to these prayers to end a mining practice that detonates millions of pounds of ammonium nitrate/fuel oil explosives every day in the Appalachian coalfields in order to scoop up only 5-7 percent of our national coal production?
The National Council of Churches is the ecumenical voice of America’s Orthodox, Protestant, Anglican, historic African American and traditional peace churches, and represents over 45 million Americans in 100,000 congregations across the country. For more information on today’s event, visit their Eco-Justice site.
August 3rd should be a national day of atonement for our sins against the American mountains and mountaineers.
Today marks the 32nd anniversary of the signing of the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act in 1977, which President Jimmy Carter called “a disappointing effort” and a “watered down” bill, and unleashed one of the most egregious environmental violations in our nation’s history. Carter’s main concern with SMCRA’s loopholes dealt with the atrocious political compromise engineered by Big Coal sycophants in Congress, which effectively granted federal recognition of mountaintop removal. Nearly four decades later, over 1.2 million acres of hardwood deciduous forests in our nation’s carbon sink have been wiped, historic communities have been depopulated and left in ruin, and over 1,2o0 miles of waterways have been jammed with mining waste.
For more history on Carter, SMCRA and the last 38 years of regulatory machinations and mountaintop removal mayhem, go here and here.
Religious leaders and ecumenical organizations have been outspoken on mountaintop removal destruction for years.
Over the past decade, six major denominations have issued anti-mountaintop removal resolutions of faith, stating that “the sanctity and sacredness of human life and the natural environment should not be destroyed in the name of corporate profit,” and “mountaintop removal coal mining is devastating the environment, economies, people, and culture in Appalachia.” Similar resolutions have been passed by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the Episcopal Church, the United Methodist Church, the Unitarian Universalist Association, and the Religious Society of Friends.
The Presbyterian Church of the United States declared:
WHEREAS, mountaintop removal coal mining destroys both the beauty and productive capacity of the land thus eliminating future or alternative economic opportunities for the families of Appalachia WHEREAS, God instructs us to “not defile the land where you live and where I dwell” (Numbers 35:34) […]It is resolved that the 217th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church USA, urges state and federal agencies that regulate mining practices, as well as coal companies themselves, to abandon the practice of mountaintop removal coal mining and work to meet our nation’s energy needs in a manner that is just, sustainable and consistent with Christian values.
Last spring, the West Virginia Council of Churches published a book of personal narratives about the human costs and human rights violations of mountaintop removal on coalfields residents. The booklet, Mountain Tops Do Not Grow Back, Stories of Living in the Midst of Mountain Top Removal Strip Mining, can be read here.
Two years ago, the Catholic Committee of Appalachia and the Kentuckians for the Commonwealth sponsored a tour of mountaintop removal sites for several national evangelical leaders in the United States, and announced their intent to “pledge voice and vote against mountaintop removal. Our voices will retell the testimony we have heard and the destruction we have seen through our sermons, writings, and conversations.” More information on the tour can be found here.
In 2004, Catholic Bishop Emeritus Walter Sullivan from Richmond, Virginia, the corporate home of mountaintop removal giant Massey Energy, toured the coalfields and released a statement:
The Church needs to stand with those who live lives of hopelessness and helplessness. The mountain culture and its way life are being destroyed. Thankfully, the Catholic Committee of Appalachia (CCA), under the direction of Sister Robbie Pentecost and the many Church workers in the area, are willing to stand up and be counted. “Mountain top removal” is just another example of profit taking preference over the lives of people, where the powerful wage a different kind of war against the powerless.
The Christians for the Mountains (CFTM) organization was founded a few years ago as a a “network of persons committed to advocating that Christians and their churches recognize their God-given responsibility to live compatibly and sustainably upon this earth God has created.” CFTM has been active in organizing in events and campaigns in the coalfield region.
Here’s a clip from the Christians for the Mountains role in “Mountain Mourning,” in the Mountains Don’t Grow Back film documentary by B. J. Gudmundsson:
The coal industry PR generators must be running low on fuel, because they have been misfiring repeatedly over the course of the Summer, and it looks like they may have another false start with “FACES” (Federation for American Coal, Energy, and Security). 
Rachel Maddow had another hard-hitting piece on the ACCCE “Unnatural Mail Enhancement” forgery case last night, along with a very special guest, Congressman Frank J. Pallone (NJ-06). 
(Great story, originally posted by our friend Jeff Biggers at 
