Appalachian mountain communities have been radicalized by the headlong path the coal industry is wreaking in their back yards, propelling many people on to local and national advocacy campaigns to save the land and people of Appalachia from a profit-driven rape. Appalachian mountain community activists have traveled the nation to speak to people about MTR; citizens have lobbied for renewable energy at the United Nations and to the US Congress.
West Virginia: Citizen Action
Not Convinced. Members of the Appalachian Coalfields Delegation to the United Nations listen to Edwin Pinero, a federal environmental executive defend the concept of clean coal, May 5, 2006. Pictured here from left, Appalachian Delegates: Donetta Blankenship, Mingo County; Larry Gibson, Kayford Mountain; Maria Gunnoe, Bob White, WV; and Pam Maggard, Perry County, KY.
Hollow Response. Local reporters surround West Virginia Governor Joe Manchin,III at the State Capitol in Charleston, as he announced a "Safety Stand-down," a halt to all coal production so that proper safety evaluations and inspections can be made, February 2, 2006. The “Safety Stand-down came after two more miners died in separate incidents the previous day. West Virginia's coal mines are expected to temporarily shut down for safety reviews. The state has seen 16 mine-related deaths since January, including the 12 miners that died at Sago, WV. In total, 26 mine workers perished on the job in West Virginia in 2006.
Fighting City Hall Kayla, Ed Wiley, Bo Webb, Debbie Jarrell and supporters, including his grand-daughter Kayla, on the steps of the West Virginia state capital in Charleston, prepare to deliver several hundred dollars worth of donated pennies collected from concerned people across the country to help build a new school for Marsh Fork Elementary. The pennies were then delivered to Gov. Joe Manchin, III.
Maria Gunnoe, an outreach organizer with the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition talks about the perils of Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining on Kayford Mountain, April 29, 2006
Larry Gibson and Donetta Blankenship with other members of the Sludge Safety Committee leave the state capitol, Charleston, WV, January, 2007. Because of citizen involvement, Sludge Safety Project lobbying has moved a resolution through the 2007 Legislative Session that will require he WV DEP to study the effects of underground slurry injection on human health and water aquifers.
Maria Gunnoe, 37, a mountain community organizer from Bob White, WV, May 3, 2006, testified at the United Nations about the negative aspects of coal with nine other mountain community residents from West Virginia and Kentucky as a part of the Appalachian Coalfield Delegation to the 17th session of the UN Commission on Sustainable Development (UNCSD).
Gunnoe's home has been flooded seven times since 2001 due to invasive coal extraction operation in the mountains behind her home.
To Washington, DC May 2007
About 100 environmental activists from across the country came to Washington, DC May, 2007 for Lobby Week. Citizens visited their respective representatives in the US House of Representatives and urged those who have not signed on to the Clean Water Protection Act ( HR2169) to do so and to those that have signed on as co-sponsors to keep our nation’s waterways clean and absent of mining wasted, thank you.
Activists on their way to US Representative Nick Rahall of West Virginia, who has refused to sign on to the bill that will protect our nation’s water.
Members of Kentuckians for the Commonwealth (KFTC) thank US Representative Ben Chandler (D-KY) for signing on as a co-sponsor to the Clean Water Protection Act (HR2169).
Residents of Appalachian mountain communities are square in the path of hungry coal companies. They say they have received no help from West Virginia politicians, like Governor Joe Manchin, III or the longest standing US Senator, Robert C Byrd.
Ed Wiley speaks to kids about Mountaintop Removal coal mining at the New York Ethical Cultural Society in New York City, September 2007.
Appalachian Delegation at the United Nations, May, 2006
Lobby Week, Washington, DC
