Although I spent the first 20 years of my life in the coalfields of Southwestern Virginia and I have lived in Northern California for the past 40 years. I am now deeply involved with those who oppose a coal fired steam generating plant 2 miles from my hometown of St. Paul, VA.
Many local folks support the plant's construction, feeling it will bring prosperity to the economically depressed area. Sadly, they have completely missed the point about the destruction of their economy.
The true villain in this story is the surface mine, whether of the strip or mountaintop removal variety. Surface mining has not only destroyed the mountains, it has destroyed the underground mining industry.
Despite the facts that coal prices are up, coal sales are up, and mining company execs are rolling in the profits, surface mining has eradicated 9 out of 10 mining jobs since the 1950's.
Strip mining has decimated the United Mine Workers of America Union which provided jobs, retirement benefits, and health care for thousands of SWVA families.
The scourge of the Appalachian economy and the once beautiful mountains is not the EPA. It is not the Sierra Club. It is not the environmental movement. Surface mining practices are guilty of both of these crimes.
I know what I am talking about. I was once a member of th UMWA and worked at the Miner's Hospital in Wise.
Another coal fired power plant will indeed bring in a lot of jobs and pour money into the local economy DURING THE CONSTRUCTION PHASE. It is all downhill after that.
Go visit AEP's poison-belching Clinch River Plant at Carbo which was built in the 1950's. Look for signs of a booming economy in what is left of the town of South Clinchfield. When I visited there last year it looked like a ghost town with an active smokestack.
Since then I have asked myself many times, to yourself, "Is this is what St. Paul will look like in about five years."
Some have of my friends have asked me, "What do you care, anyway? You don't have to live there anymore."
The author of a letter to the editor of the Coalfield Progress wrote, "I suggest to Mr. John Bolton, in particular, that he either come back to Southwest Virginia or shut the hell up and leave our business to us."
This is a note of thanks I just received from a Southwestern Virginia friend who read the online comments I posted with the paper in response to that set of hostile comments, saying:
"Now you know what would happen to all of us if we spoke publicly on this, and I'm so thankful for your stand. There are lots of us here in Southwest Virginia. Bank managers, nurses, lawyers, professors, teachers, pastors, doctors, engineers (mining and civil) and business owners who have never voiced their open opinion.....yes, and even underground men and women who realize that there is a better way.Coal mining will not go away, but neither will the energy problem and if we do not think outside the box, we will never get there. Not many people here in Southwest Virginia will speak up on this issue, but I can assure you that those of us who oppose the Virginia City Hybrid Plant are diverse in race, age and socio-economic backgrounds. The majority are born and raised here with deep coal roots, and a deep love for the area.
What else can we say. You and the Bristol Herald are our voice."
This email and the many others like it that I have received are the answer to why I continue to voice my concern for my beloved Virginia mountains and those who live there, whether they share my point of view or not.