Published: June 23, 2009 10:38 pm      

Activists slam mountaintop removal as Massey workers defend company

The football field at Marsh Fork Elementary School hosted a rivalry Wednesday as protesters and miners stood divided.

About 800 people turned out to listen to representatives from Coal River Mountain Watch, Appalachian Voices and the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition.

The primary concern of each speaker was mountaintop removal mining.

Among the group of protesters was actress Daryl Hannah. She said, “There is no need to destroy our planet to power our future. I have been on renewable energy for about 20 years, so I know it works.”

Local coal miners, on the other hand, expressed fear for their jobs, income and livelihood.

Teresa Green, whose husband has worked at Massey Energy for 24 years, said, “If they succeed, my husband will be out of work, we will not have any insurance and my kids will starve. It will shut down businesses, leaving more people on welfare. More people are going to move out of state. West Virginia will turn into a ghost town.”

Likewise, Barry McCormick, who has been with Massey for four years, said of the protesters, “They are trying to take our jobs away to bring in windmills, but what people do not understand is that you have to have dozers to build roads and you have to level mountains to put windmills up. There will be mountaintop removal either way you go.”

Representatives of Coal River Mountain Watch attempted to explain their opposing views.

A community organizer of the Coal River wind campaign, Lorelei Scarbro of Rock Creek, said, “We are not against jobs. We are for jobs. If we are successful in putting a wind farm on Coal River Mountain as opposed to mountaintop removal, there will be even more jobs created in the coalfields. What are all of these people going to do when the coal is gone? We need to start preparing now for the post-coal future. We need to start trying to create jobs in the coalfield that are not completely coal-related.”

Comparably, Janice Nease, co-director of Coal River Mountain Watch, said, “I am a daughter and a granddaughter and a great-granddaughter of coal miners, and I have some who are still working in underground mining. I am not against coal. I am against mountaintop removal mining.”

As the crowd surrounded the stage, the two groups were clearly discernible. The miners were dressed in work uniforms while protesters wore shirts stating their cause.

Mike Snelling, vice president of service operations for Massey Energy, commented on the effects of such a change on the community.

“These communities are built around coal,” he said. “Without the coal mines on Route 3, residents would probably have to drive 30 miles to get a loaf of bread. Without low-cost energy, we face the risk of running our nation into poverty.

“The people you see out here today are coal miners. They do a great job environmentally. Coal miners are fighters and we are going to stay within the bounds of the law, but we are going to continue to mine coal.”