Eastern Coal Council Conference May 12, 2009 Source
“Now is the time to bring the facts out. If you want to win this war, the economy trumps everything right now and we’ve got a golden opportunity,” Manchin said. “As soon as this economy turns around, I guarantee you the environment will trump us and we’re dead.”
“If I say in West Virginia that we are basically using every bit of disturbed land to enhance the quality of life … how in the world can a person look at me and say that’s not responsible, you can’t do that, you shouldn’t because you’re altering it,” Manchin said.
“I have a piece of land that produces very little taxes if any, it takes 50 years before you can harvest the timber, and I’ve got no tax base for the school system… . How can anybody tell me that’s what’s best for the people of West Virginia?”Say What? It's bad enough that he uses the economy, but using the tax base for the school system as justification for mountaintop removal is just plain insanity. One thing's certain: he's got more money in his pocket than he has brains in his head.
But wait! There's more...and it'll leave you speechless - just speechless!
Manchin praised coal companies for helping to clear the roads after “horrendous” flooding in the state over the past few days that he said was caused not by extensive strip mining but by “an act of God.”
6 comments:
I live beneath a mountaintop removal operation in Joe Manchin’s WV. Manchin is either not well informed of the personal harm that I and my neighbors are suffering from mtr or he is a liar. I say it’s the latter. He knows. We are getting blasted daily right above my home. Blast dust laden with silica, diesel fuel, and ammonium nitrate cover my property and the air I breath just about every day now. Fly-rock has landed in my garden. A boulder the size of a car hood has landed within 100 feet of my garden. The mountain no longer has the rich understory that used to soak up the rain. The hollow that was a runoff creek has now been covered with rocks, dirt, and blasted trees. What used to be the top of the mountain is scattered everywhere. The rain now runs off the exposed rocks on top and down in any number of directions. For Joe Manchin to say the recent flooding in WV is “an act of God”, is the act of an evil tongue. Shame on him for blaming God for what he is allowing to happen to our state and our people. Someday Joe, you are going to have the opportunity to stand before God and try to convince him that all this is His fault. Shame on you, you are a disgrace to the state of WV.
With advance apologies for any apparent, unintended sexism, I can't help but observe the following: a hooker dressed as a nun is still more hooker than nun. Clothing MTR as "responsible land use" is nothing short of putting a habit on a streetwalker.
Seems the "Stupid Hillbillies" are running the state. how can ANYONE defend the coal companies actions in the flooded areas???
Its time for our Gov to step and and REALIZE that MTR is Devastating and TERRORIZING PEOPLE!
In their homes!!!
The tax payers pick up the bill through adding insult to injury by offering folks DISLOCATION assitance.
How is anyone going to be left to inhabit this place when everything is being destoyed. What about AIR?
What about Water for god sake what about the land??? Its being destroyed!!
This is the definition of OPRESSION! SCANTLY Employee the people and buy off the government to destory one of the most beautiful place in the WORLD! Exploiting people for THEIR resources is never exceptable! Why is it acceptable here??
Coal has been mined here for the past 125 years and we are now poorer than EVER! Simply because we do not only not have jobs we also being robbed of the life giving resources that sustained us while coal barons have robbed us blind!
Our Govcernor Joe Manchin is supporting the depopulation of the coalfeilds!
Shame one you!
Where do you people think your electricity comes from? If we don't need mining , then do we not need electricity? How do you prpose that more than half of West Virginians make a living?
Wife of a strip miner. Please stop trying to justify mountaintop removal. Any clear thinking person understands there is no justification for it.
Where do you think your children and grandchildren's electricity will come from? Where will their water come from, their air?
There are many ways to produce electricity other than burning coal. And we can still mine coal underground for many other uses. Mountaintop removal is not necessary, but is allowed because of corporate control over our government for the purpose of profit. It is the classic example of profit before humanity. You too are being controlled and taken advantage of by the coal industry. They lobby everyday to keep other industries out of WV. By doing that, they place you in a situation whereas you are totally dependent on them for a job. And they continually remind you of that until you're blind to the truth. They have controlled our state since they found the coal. They stole our land, they have robbed you, me, all of us blind. And when the coal is gone, they will be gone and then what will you think. They don't like to admit it, but the reason they are blowing the mountains up is because there isn't a whole lot of underground mineable coal left. They are scrapping the bottom of the barrel from the tops of the mountains. When they say there is two hundred years of coal left you never hear them say "in WV". The two hundred years, if it is true, which I doubt, is in Wyoming, not WV. Steve Walker the president of Walker machine told me three years ago that they would be finished and gone in 15 years. You should try to wake up and think freely about all this. Coal doesn't grow on trees. We need clean water and we need clean air. Without those resources we are dead. Electricity can be produced without blowing up WV.
Since Governor Manchin in his speech to the Eastern Coal Council blames the recent flooding in his state on God, then Mr. Manchin should listen to God’s response. I don’t purport to be God’s mouthpiece. However I do suggest Manchin consider a few thoughts on the subject.
1. Manchin seems to gloat that the state of the national economy gives energy powers a temporary “trump” over environmental concerns, and that this is an opening or vulnerability to be exploited by the “the masters of exploitation” (my term here). According to Manchin, “As soon as this economy turns around, I guarantee you the environment will trump us and we’re dead.”
Besides the incongruity of Manchin’s statement that is akin to munitions manufacturers cheering on war, something else is glaringly evident in his statement (especially in light of his later reference to God). Manchin pits the economy against the environment. Simply stated, it’s money versus God’s creation. Jesus said one cannot serve God and Mammon (money), but will love one and hate the other (Matthew 6:24; Luke 16:13).
Doesn’t Manchin realize that environmentalists are concerned about matters such as safety, health, and a sustainable and viable future? Shouldn’t our governor recognize that these concerns trump industry profit and short-term power bills? Shouldn’t protecting the earth and its inhabitants be his higher responsibility? How does he justify his priority of “the economy” over health, safety, and the integrity of God’s creation?
2. Manchin is quoted, “This country is not going to be a world power without energy that is dependable and reliable, and that comes from coal,” Manchin said, adding that he is “fighting the good fight” for the economy.
I do not believe God is interested in the USA or any other nation becoming a “world power” or to say it another way, an empire. Manchin uses the words “dependable” and “reliable” without saying the words that are on the lips of every dependable and reliable scientist and ethicist, and that is that coal is also extraordinarily destructive from its mine source to its burning to the disposal of its waste.
“Fighting the good fight” is a well-known phrase of Saint Paul the Apostle, “Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses” (1 Timothy 6:12). Manchin appropriated this scripture for the economy. Is Manchin appropriately using this scripture?
3. Manchin touts mountaintop removal (did he use that phrase, Debra McCown, or “mountaintop mining”?). Manchin said the flat land it creates allows for development that his state and the region wouldn’t have otherwise. “We are basically using every bit of disturbed land to enhance the quality of life.”
About 3 % maybe is post mining development. Manchin either is woefully ignorant or he is lying through his teeth. And if his listeners in the Eastern Coal Council go along with this lie then they too are culpable in the lie. I guess they can take that up with God, too.
4. Manchin bemoans the piece of land he owns that produces little property tax revenue and only a timber harvest once every 50 years. He asks where are the property taxes to pay for schools (if presumably, mountaintop removal is banned)?
This speaks to the heart of the unholy alliance between West Virginia government and the coal industry. The government likes the power in its tax revenue, and the coal industry likes the lax regulations and promotion that the government provides.
As for schools and services, West Virginia ranks near #50 in all sorts indices, and this after 120 years of coal as its major industry. And southern West Virginia and eastern Kentucky where mountaintop removal is predominant has among the worst infrastructure in the nation. One might also note that the coalfields not only export its wealth without corresponding reinvestment, but their schools export their brightest students without corresponding in migration. This “brain drain” appears to have a correlation to the coal industry mono-economy.
5. Manchin says that “the danger of environmental regulation that could cost America its industrial might.” More jobs would go overseas.
Oh! So it’s the environmentalists that have swept away all the factory jobs? And not “free trade?” So, Joe, we should do well to go back to open sewer rivers and lung choking air, like America was and China is?
6. Manchin blamed the recent flooding in Mingo County and surrounding was “an Act of God” and touted King Coal as the savior in mopping up some of the mess. Manchin would not have us listen to the many scientists who say that massive strip mining has made the region much more vulnerable to flooding and water contamination. Rather, King Coal is the god who reigns and rules in “by god West Virginia.” King Coal is benefactor, savior, and redeemer for West Virginia. Just feed it hungry mouth with our mountains, streams, communities, and bodies, and it will give back….well, we’ve a 120 years of history to judge that god, “King Coal,” and its worshippers.
--Allen Johnson
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