Wind

It’s only been three weeks since we last wrote, but we’re now embarking on a major national push to Save Coal River Mountain, and there have been some changes in staffing and strategy for the Coal River Wind campaign so we wanted to let you know about that.  First of all though, you’ll be happy to hear that Massey is still idle on their efforts to blow up our beautiful mountain, and nature has already begun taking back part of the area where Massey had clear-cut for road-building.  Its great to see some green coming back where they had converted the forest into a wide mudpit!!

As we mentioned in our last letter, with the huge help of a good friend of ours, we have now launched a Coal River Wind public service announcement (PSA) on Hulu.com!!  For those of you not in the know, Hulu is a website for watching past episodes of your favorite TV shows with “limited commercial interruption,” and it is used by millions of folks around the world.  So check it out and let your friends and family know!!  The video is also available on our new homepage.

One of the main purposes of the PSA is to spread awareness about the battle for Coal River Mountain and our nation’s energy future, and to get folks to send an email to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) calling on them to prevent Massey Energy from ever getting their permits to bury miles of mountain valleys and streams with hundreds of millions of tons of mining waste.  This would effectively protect Coal River Mountain and the amazing wind potential from ever being destroyed, so Email the EPA and Spread the Word!! The EPA has denied a few valley fill permits already, and they need to add Coal River Mountain to the list.

By letting others know about our campaign, you will be helping residents of the West Virginia coalfields get one step closer to being able to see wind turbines without having to drive six hours to do so!!  They did this just a few weeks ago when they drove all day to visit the Mountaineer and Mt. Storm wind farms in northern West Virginia — the only place where wind has been developed in the state so far (by design, of course, they donít have much mountaintop removal up north).  You can read more about that trip here. The trip was a huge success, and the residents who made the trip have been talking non-stop with their friends and neighbors about wanting to see wind turbines in their own communities!!  So help them out!!

To learn a bit about and meet a few of them, just visit the Community page on our website and watch some short testimonials by the residents themselves.

Finally, after a year of fighting to help save Coal River Mountain for developing clean wind energy, Rory McIlmoil is moving into a new job with Downstream Strategies, the environmental consulting firm that conducted the Wind vs. MTR Economic Study for Coal River Mountain.  We appreciate his dedication to the campaign over the past year and we wish him the best in his new job.

Community Organizer and life-long resident of southern West Virginia, Lorelei Scarbro, will continue to carry the campaign forward, and she will be aided by Julia Sendor, who joined Coal River Mountain Watch in mid-February and has been doing amazing work in the community and for the wind campaign ever since.  Matt Noerpel will be assisting with technical and research aspects of the campaign from now on, and the rest of the Coal River Mountain Watch team will continue to support the campaign in various ways.  You can find email addresses for the key contacts on our website as well.

So, please show your support by helping push our efforts on the national level and telling the EPA you support preserving Coal River Mountain for clean wind energy forever!!

We feel like we’re so close to winning, but it will take a strong show of national support for a clean, green energy future based on wind, solar, geothermal and hydropower to meet our nation’s energy needs, and there’s no better, or more symbolic place to begin than on Coal River Mountain!!