Coal v. wind: Energy fight rages in W.Va.
Associated Press - October 25, 2008 2:45 PM ET
DOROTHY, W.Va. (AP) - On the Coal River Mountain in southern West Virginia, a battle of epic proportions is playing out.
Massey Energy has permits to blast 6,000 acres for a mountaintop removal mining site and is just waiting for federal approvals. But anti-mining activists and people who support clean, renewable energy want to put windmills there instead.
Coal River Mountain Watch says it’s a perfect time and place for a wind farm. Massey says that if it didn’t strip mine, a lot of coal would be squandered.
The West Virginia Coal Association says it’s not sure if the wind farm is a bona fide proposal or just a plan aimed at stopping mountaintop mining.
Residents are divided, too. In the southern coalfields, there are mainly three kinds of jobs: mining, logging and minimum-wage.
Mining is a way of life, and some say coal has done more harm than good.
Joyce Gunnoe, a Dry Creek storekeeper, says blasting means men are making a living.
But Rock Creek resident Lorelei (lor ELL uh) Scarbro, whose lives below Massey’s blasting site, says her way of life shouldn’t be sacrificed so others can have more electricity.
AP
http://www.wavy.com/Global/story.asp?S=9238292
Lorelei Scarbro believes electricity is created on some other planet and magically transported to her household appliances at no cost.
I say let them build the wind farms...after we get all that coal out of the mountain. I think the tailings could be made into a nice pile that would support the turbine mounts.