Coal River Mountain in West Virginia is a beautiful forested area surrounded by communities with long experience with coal mining as been practiced for decades. How long have these folks been settled around the mountain? Many are descendants of those who moved to the area on land grants given soldiers in the Revolutionary War. Now the mountain itself is threatened by coal mining as it's been practiced under the Bush administration -- mountaintop removal.
Just yesterday, a permit to start blasting the top off the mountain was awarded to Massey Energy, headed by Don Blankenship
He's the guy who spent millions putting his own man on the West Virginia Supreme Court so he could get out of a lawsuit. Then, when he was caught vacationing in Monaco with that judge, he bought himself another. And another
This is a guy who makes $15 million a year, and spends as much as $9 million of it reshaping West Virginia into a deep red state
an "Appalachian problem?" No.
a Don Blankenship problem
clipped from: www.dailykos.com