Obama, Clinton don't dare challenge King Coal's unspeakable environmental violence

Frankly, I wouldn't miss Kentucky's mountains if they disappeared.

MRsmithers:

If you don't like me using grown-up words then head to the nearest kiddy forum. I'll keep using my freedom of speech whether it offends you or not.

I don't believe I was even discussing Current TV's stock in the same breath as Big Oil, which profits at the expense of the enviorment and human lives. But it seems that you don't care about those two things at all so I'm not surprised that you would so casually lump the two together.

So again MR smithers, thank you for adding aboslutely ZERO ideas into the conversation while attacking suggestions and denying there is an pollution problem from our current energy source. You are doing the current administration proud by being completely ignorant of the situation.

Back to the subject at hand, I would like to see more research into harnessing the power of river currents. It could be a viable alternative to coal as an energy source to cities located near rivers and coastlines. Solar energy is at the point where it can power homes and businesses without the need of conventional electricity. Wind energy is currently powering a small town in Missouri. The need for normal combustion energy is coming to an end, and the people who it will affect the most is Big Oil and Big Coal.

Don't be surprised to see lobbyists try to block any major green energy movement. Think about it, if you don't need gas to power your car or coal to power your home, who will be the one out of a job?

...twodee or not twodee...that is the question...

I think on of the most important things that needs to happen regardless of the environmental disaster looming due to big corporations not being held accountable and lobbyists and government officials like the one heading the EPA is this:

We need to demand that it not be so easy for people to jump from government to big business and then back again as if it were a revolving door. There should be restrictions placed on how long they have to wait to re-enter government or move back to big business. Something like this needs to happen. It is just too easy for people to move back and forth and that to me makes it seem like there is no distinction between being a government employee or an employee of a big corporation.

The term I am looking for is conflict of interest. When you have a conflict of interest you have absolutely no accountability.

happyprofessor: You just made me cry. This is the truth of what coal does, and anyone who can defend it has no morals. And to the poster who claimed they didn't want to hear about solar and wind... well , you WILL be hearing about it.

BentFranklin: if it is truly such a stretch, then we know for sure democracy is dead in this country.

Carolyn:

So what is your opinion of what they are doing regarding the coal industry's reprehensible and immoral actions regarding our environment and the health of its citizens? It is really so easy to give a "neutral" comment to cover the bases like "just vote the best one in." What does that mean? What I consider the "best" is certainly then not what others consider the "best" and that does nothing to bring about debate of this issue. What if there is no "best" for some to choose from?

Why won't some people condemn the coal companies here as they deserve to be condemned for their actions? Is it because to do so would mean they condemned Obama and not put him or Clinton above this environmental devastation? I think that is more important than whether I will vote or not. This btw, is America and I have the right to choose to vote, or not vote, or who to vote for. However, I simply asked in the first response, "And they want me to vote for them?" and that I cannot vote for people who DECEIVE me. That doesn't make me the bad guy, but them.

How can you not feel deceived by them? How can people continue to vote against their conscience knowing they support an industry that causes cancer and death? That is exactly the impression they give by their SILENCE. Why don't they come out NOW and say that mountaintop removal is IMMORAL? What are they afraid of, specifically Obama if he wants "change?" If you want change it doesn't translate to me to just doing what you have to do to get in... You stand up for what you really believe in when you campaign and you let people know where you really stand.

I want to hear the Democratic candidates say NOW that this is an abomination and that they will fight King Coal all the way regarding it until it stops... And not by then falsely pushing carbon sequestration which is just a manipulative way for them to hang on and keep doing what they're doing and which is at least twenty years away if it ever really happens. That again doesn't make me the bad guy... or woman. That is an ultimatum to them since they are employed by the American people not the other way around. Therefore, it is well within my rights as a citizen to expect that they will do that and mean it in order to get my vote (if it even counts.) And if they don't, then it will simply have to be those of us out here who force that change through Washington DC and I am more than ready to do that.

How can anyone who has lost loved ones to cancer or know of a child with asthma let them get away with their pandering? What's wrong with holding their feet to the fire NOW? And even as this article states, many of the people living in these states now see that they are still in poverty in a toxic wasteland while these companies rake in the profits. Again, immoral.

I like what twodee said and I'll ditto that:

vote the best candidate in and keep pushing. To not vote in our only option right now has no direction. Makes no point. Changes nothing. This election is only a move to START change. What is happening economically, environmentally, and otherwise is WAY too complicated for any ONE person to give us the answers we ALL want to hear. Choose the best to start and never stop participating and pushing on the issues you value most. we have NO HERO to save the day. Not even Al Gore. Rock on people.

O Ye Suckers. So, coal is now clean and their companies are oh-so careful and environmentally conscious to the pint of being "Green." And nobody gets their hands dirty or their Hart-Schaffner and Marx worsted suits smudged. Yeah. And didn't ye know that most of these businessment are actualy Jain Monks who sit meditating beside their coal pits, daring not to hurt a fly or step on a bug. Shall I go one with my next tiny fib?
The truth: I grew up in the middle of King Coal country. In fact, distant relatives owned several mines. When strip and pit mining came along in the 1950s, we saw massive increases in respiratory diseases, industrial accidents, still births, men and families who had, for generations, depended upon their Celtic skills as authentic miners being fired flat, driven away, even killed off. cacechtic, skin as blue as a pair of jeans, retarded, rotten toothed and broken limbed. Many of the men took to drink. The wives had to sneak down to Relief and get flour, cornmeal, peanut butter, canned beef, canned pork butt, lard and powdered eggs and milk, heads hung so low in shame and with fear a neighbor there for the same would blab that these women were there and they'd get badly beaten up while the kids watched.
Meanwhile, the lunar craters and their gaping mechanical monsters who unmercifully raped them, stood in the day and spewed dry clay dust to cover every available inch of arable land. Whole mountaintops were beheaded and clumsily used to offer up their bodies for the paper blood and flood of greed- just meeting the nations' demands, you know. Its progress.
Surely, there are scrubbers at the power plants that still belch carbon monoxide and Hydrogen sulfide (the most poison gas in the world), microparticles of shred glass, sulfur dioxide, carbon silicate and more tars in a day than all the cigarette factories have ever produced since Colombus found the Haitian natives inhaling, stumbling and puking. Meanwhile, the show is to spin out as much junk out of the air and throw it into bags dfilled with clouds of crud, thus productin and leaving their own vile mountains to replace the old and green ones.
Every year a virtual Persian Army of lobbyists for the coal interests, bank accounts bulging and Kansas City rolls of checks in their pockects to convince a greedy, weak, corrupt- or usually all three, Congressman or SEanator to "Get with the Program and join America's continuing crusade for God and Uncle Sam." And "Who should I write out that check to for your reelection campaign?" The environmental law goes to hell.
Coal? What would we do without artificial flaorings, colors, preservatives, cleaning fluids, kerosene, plastic and pantyhose? How could we survive without shampoos for itchy scalps, soap for dry skin or jock itch?
How are we going to make steel for cars, motorbikes, tanks and armoured military personnel vehicles- or rifles- or "Dirty Harry" .44 Magnum revolvers? And, you know, we need all of it, and more.
In 1979 my late mother went to the top of Clinman's dome, the highest point in the Smokey Mountains. Where there used to be clear air, there was haze and an acrid odor. All the Spruce and Balsam were stripped down to sticks and most had a sort of gray powder on them. She sat down and wept.

Steampunk anyone? I'm stocking up on as many brass goggles as I can for the coalpocalypse.

They probably don't dare challenge the Nuclear Energy Dilemma either.

We must explore the Coriolis Force...change the exterior force of the motion...look it up...you'll be surprised...

Fuck profiteering! We should stop using oil and coal to power our lives. There are plenty of natural energy sources that can be implemented to create power as well as fuel vehicles. Combustion energy is outdated, we need to get with the wave of the future.

What can I say, in this current generation it just seems people want to live in a world that doesn't extend past their walls and roofs.

My aunt used to work for the state of kentucky. all of my family is from eastern ky. her job was to make sure after all the blasting and strip mining was finished the coal companies had to reclaim the land by cleaing up whatever was left behind, making a water collection area for runoff, planting grass and trees. not alot can be done but this is better than nothing. support programs like this and state jobs such as this.

Thanks Jan... there are alot of good posts here and Bent is right for the most part, but those restrictions on the mining of coal still have to be enforced...Not done very well in this administration. The guy who heads up our EPA (I forget his name) is a former lobbyist for one of those same huge corporations that need to be controlled. Also, you have to consider that the amount of taxes paid by the industry, to a large degree, validate its continuance...as far as this gov is concerned, but that is not the way it should be...

Big Coal, in KY, is on the same level as tobacco, one of the major money crops for the state...that is a big part of the problem...

The plight of those poor mountain people began a long time ago, when the Pinkertons, acting for the big corporations, intimidated and actually killed some miners to keep them from organizing...a lot of those people whose families had owned the land for many generations, lost everything they had...sad but true...The Big Coal Industry still weilds mega power...

I agree with twodee, lets get someone good in there and hold their feet to the fire...

I hope our latest trip to Mars pans out! We are gonna need some new resources soon!

Strip mining is ugly any way you look at it. But it's not like the old days any more. Now a company has to post a bond for restoration and they can't let their earthwork ruin nearby streams with sediment and they also have to capture and treat acid mine drainage.

The strip mining process does alter the landscape that's for sure, and, while they are mining, it does look like a moonscape. But they can't just walk away from that like they used to. They have to put the land back in some living form. There will of course still be major changes for the worse, especially to the surface and groundwater hydrology, but the land will be regraded and reforested. It will become habitat again.

And let's face it, if you are against oil, and who isn't right now, then you have to accept coal on some set of terms that actually lets it be mined. At least until you have figured out how to reduce your consumption by a lot. And I doubt anyone who is posting here has done that in any significant fashion. I know I try hard to use less energy but I've only gotten my use down 10 to 20%.

And don't forget coal goes into steel. We still want America to make steel, right? Remember this when we rail against companies moving production to other countries.

I'm not saying the coal companies don't have something to answer for. But it's just really a lot more complicated than most of the people posting here give credit for. So, expecting a presidential candidate to "take on coal" in this election is really a stretch.

Do you really expect any substantial positions from our candidates?
Not likely.

Voyager films: They wouldn't get away with it if we didn't let them and Obama, Clinton and McCain (though I know he definitely won't speak against it) are just continuing it by not speaking out against it now. This isn't about partisanship to me, and Democrats have been in Congress long enough to have worked to stop this too. Blasting mountaintops off didn't just start eight years ago. This has been going on for a while now.

Not only in the United States........ NRDC petition.
Two proposed mining schemes could despoil the Canadian
headwaters of Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park -- one
of the wildest places in North America and part of our Greater
Rockies BioGem.

We need your urgent action to block these disastrous proposals,
which would pollute the pristine Flathead River with
contaminated waste and threaten the outstanding fish and
wildlife of Montana's Glacier National Park.

Please go to http://www.savebiogems.org/yellowstone/takeaction
and urge the Canadian government to prohibit industrial mining
activities and coalfield developments in the headwaters of
Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park.

Cline Mining Corporation is proposing to put an open-pit
coalmine just 25 miles upstream of Glacier National Park. The
mine would remove a mountaintop to create an open pit mine,
settling ponds and waste dumps in a pristine valley.

Meanwhile, BP Energy Corporation has proposed a massive coalbed
methane project (over 125,000 acres) that would require miles of
pipelines and wells producing hundreds of millions of gallons of
toxic wastewater. A dense network of roads would destroy prime
habitat for grizzly bears and other wildlife.

The Flathead River, which originates in British Columbia and
flows south into Montana where it forms the western boundary of
Glacier National Park, is one of the most wild, biologically
rich places in the world.

The Flathead valley and river form the heart of the Crown of the
Continent ecosystem, which is home to wolves, grizzly bears,
wolverines and lynx.

Go to http://www.savebiogems.org/yellowstone/takeaction
and tell the Canadian government to protect Waterton-Glacier
International Peace Park from damaging industrialization.

Thank you for helping to save one of North America's most
valuable wildlife habitats.

Sincerely,

Frances Beinecke
President
Natural Resources Defense Council

Yes we can and I do all I can to reduce my footprint upon this planet. But we must also change the laws and make coal companies accountable for their environmental destruction. Therefore, I do blame the politicians who have the power to make that happen and refuse to use it.

We also have to take responsibility for our own use of coal-produced electricity and stop blaming.
Americans can reduce the amount of electricity produced by coal-powered electric plants by conserving electricity. They produce electricity to meet the needs of consumers. That's us. We can reduce their market by conserving, using less electricity and beginning to convert to local, renewable, sustainable green energy production like solar, wind and geo-thermal.
We can also write, call and lobby our congress people to act to fund and subsidize sustainable energy research, production and implementation and stop subsidizing, the oil, coal and nuclear energy industries.

Yeah Jan, thanks for posting this. I learned something today! And yeah, it's terrible what they're allowed to get away with. I fear that by the time everyone realizes we need to seek alternative energy sources, it'll be too late.

Jan, thanks for bringing this up, but it was brought about by the Busheney gang allowing it to happen. Busheney doesn't care about anything but more greed and plundering of America and the world.

Prosecute them all for treason!

Busheney gang could have spent a trillion dollars on renewable energy sources, instead the peanut brain went with war and destruction to get at oil and attempt to monopolize the growing middle east economies for the next 100 years.

Fools they are.

twodee: I don't have any heroes and would tell Mr. Gore the same thing if he were running and doing the same thing these candidates are doing. And I think he would respect me for doing it because I care.

bikefilms: Great link. Thank you. This is why we need an Electranet. It will spur the economy and save energy.

It's like, just stop!

LukesAlive: I agree. How many times have the words solar energy passed any of their lips this past week?

A hot topic to avoid before the election? Why? And how do we know it will change afterward? What environmental record of Obama's do I have to go on? Does he even have one to speak of? Voting for the Bush/Cheney energy bill giving subsidies to coal and nuclear? Did he have to do that too for "politics?" Again, this is serious to me and I put this planet before the candidate. I am tired of them treating me as if I don't need to know what they are going to do NOW and not making those promises BEFORE the election. If they can't do that what does that say about this bs political system, and why should I support that?

beedee: Right you are. Calling them all on their pandering BS regardless of party is the only way "change" comes. It comes from US. It isn't going to come from Obama alone or any of them. And I will badger the hell out of them until they do the right thing. My child isn't going to grow up in a world like this. A world of grey stinking pools of water with blown off mountains and nuclear waste flowing around him. No way. And I will protest it to any elected official regardless of party. But notice most only will say " just vote in the best one (even though there isn't a best one) and hope it works itself out." Not: let's join together to protest this and make that change happen by telling them they need to change. And that is why the status quo remains.

May be a hot topic to avoid before the election, but it doesn't necessarily mean that it won't be addressed after. Lets hope so.

I screened the film "Kilowatt Ours" earlier this year, and really enjoyed it. The filmmaker includes footage of the above mountain range, but offers simple ideas to reduce coal useage. $600 a year? Hmmm.

http://www.kilowattours.org/

The Coal Industry is so destructive to the environment. I almost laugh when think its 2008 and we are still burning coal for energy.

FINGER POINTING !

In recent travels by plane over much american territory I have observed similar situations, like that in Montana - Big Sky area... not for coal but for golf courses! It is such a great thing to play golf and watch tournaments, it is also so important to have electrical energy? Isn't it?

I do find it fantastic having access to those amenities. …

However, what are those businesses who provide those facilities doing in order to compensate for the bio-diversity damage they cause?

Can they do it and even profit from the attitude?

Are you short of ideas?

Come and visit us at: www.therightchoice.tv

We will share a great project with you upon request.

I'm not looking for a hero (geez. I sound like Tina Turner). I'm looking for someone who can balance common sense with compassion and intellect. A president, the world can respect.
Strip/blast mining must stop. Just look at that image and try to imagine what that range used to look like. Are you imagining it? Good. Because, that's all you can do.

Jan, thanks for pointing this out. It's an amazing story. I agree with Twodee. We must work hard to get Obama in office and then move the change along. I appreciate your tenacity Jan, you hold us all to the highest standards. But refusing to support Obama on the issue of coal, as black as it is, can't achieve the change we need. We must work together to get the best candidate in office and keep moving in the right direction. I am confident that someone as smart and direct as Obama will work with both parties to find a solution to the energy crisis, which ultimately means finding a way out of coal.

Rock on!

Agreed handa.

Especially since the media can bombard a candidate with non-issues and make them appear in any light that they wish.

At some point, you just have to hold your nose, cross your fingers and drop the ballot in the box. In a Republic, we don't have that much control.

A pre-election candidate is often completely different than what we get after he/she is elected. It's sad but given that a large percentage of this country does not actively think about issues and just listens to what the media tells them, politicians have to be extremely cautious, crafty, conniving, etc. before the election. Usually this ensures that anyone who enters the election process with any shred of decency or humanity ascends to the presidency with none of it left.

Turn off the lights.

vote the best candidate in and keep pushing. To not vote in our only option right now has no direction. Makes no point. Changes nothing. This election is only a move to START change. What is happening economically, environmentally, and otherwise is WAY too complicated for any ONE person to give us the answers we ALL want to hear. Choose the best to start and never stop participating and pushing on the issues you value most. we have NO HERO to save the day. Not even Al Gore. Rock on people.

that coal powers my refrigerator. and I have left over pizza in my refrigerator that I plan on eating today.

I mean, to make a long story short.

If I'm not mistaken, there were a lot of the dem debates sponsored by a "clean coal" company or subsidiary. I'm a bit too much in Sunday-mode to research it right now, though.

We can't be surprised that these interests will try to start manipulating the party in power. Luckily for the planet, the Democratic party tends to be populated at the grassroots level by people who are willing to demand accountability from their leaders a bit more than the Republicans seem to. In any case, calling bullshit on them is the right thing for folks to be doing, regardless of party.

And they expect me to vote for them? Their (meaning Clinton, Obama, McCain, and politicians in general) silence and acquiescence is KILLING people and this planet. I can't vote for that. And that means they better change their tune real fast if they want my vote come November.