"There are colonies within the US. West Virginia is in a sense a microcosm of such a colony. It is partially owned (mostly owned) and effectively controlled by coal, power and railroad companies," which in turn are controlled by vast financial interests..."
"The (WV) state legislature answers to the beck and call of those interests."
"Strip mining, the curse of several states, has easy going in West Virginia."
"The mother interests that own the wealth of West Virginia appear secure." - US Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas, in Points of Rebellion" 1969
"CRAZY, TREE HUGGIN', OUT-OF-STATE HIPPIES" WILL SPEAK
World renown scientist Dr. James Hansen from NASA's
Goddard Institute (L) and actress Daryl Hannah
Former Congressman Ken Hechler (L) and WV author Denise Giardina
Activist and minister Rev. Jim Lewis (L) and Michael
Brune, Executive Director Rainforest Action Network
Matt Sherman with the American Indian Movement
By Bob Weaver
Massey Coal CEO Don Blankenship continues to use a 30-year pattern of rhetoric bashing and demonetizing environmentalists.
Blankenship has challenged Dr. James Hansen, one of the world's leading climate scientists, to a debate.
Hansen will be joined by several environmental notables at Marsh Fork Elementary School today at noon for an educational rally on Sustainable Solutions for West Virginia.
Organizers say this event will begin a year of activism to stop mountaintop removal mining, sometimes using civil disobedience in the manner of Gandhi and the civil rights movement.
Massey Coal is looking to build a second coal silo within a few feet of the school. The school is about 400 yards down the hill from a 2.8 billion sludge impoundment.
Vivian Stockman, with the Ohio Valley Environmental Council, says "There are sustainable solutions to the nation's energy problems."
"Conservation and energy efficiency measures can replace the electricity now produced by mountaintop coal," Stockman said.
| 
