West Virginia

Exposed: States Relying On ‘House Of Cards’ To Pay For Coal Mine Cleanup

June 29, 2020 Mark Olalde, Desmog Blog. Educate! Coal Mining, Environment, pollution, West Virginia

For more than a century-and-a-half, the forests, streams, and hollows of the Appalachian Mountains have been scraped and gashed to unearth their heart of rich black coal. These lumps of hydrocarbons historically played a vital role in America’s electricity mix, accounting for a third of the country’s energy production as recently as 2008. But over the past decade, a devastating combination of forces has pummeled the industry, from cheap natural gas and the falling cost of renewables to growing public pressure to respond to the climate crisis. U.S. coal production has dropped 40 percent since its peak 12 years ago, and the commodity accounted for only 14 percent of the country’s electricity generation last year. With the coronavirus pandemic now stalling energy demand, coal production has dropped about 26 percent in the past 12 months alone, perhaps ringing the death knell for coal as an energy source in America.

TC Energy Headquarters Shut Down In Charleston, WV For Hours; Multiple People Lock To Each Other

March 11, 2020 Staff , Itsgoingdown.org Resist! Solidarity, Water, West Virginia

Charleston, WV — Early this morning, more than 100 water protectors shut down the TC Energy Headquarters in Charleston, WV. Several people locked their necks to one another, blockading the lobby so that business inside the building could not continue. Outside, the building’s flagpole was divested of its American flag...

West Virginia Legislation Would Make Civil Disobedience Against Gas Pipelines A Felony

February 11, 2020 Staff , Morgancountyusa.org Educate! Civil Disobedience, Pipelines, Reform, Repression, West Virginia

Industry drafted legislation (HB 4615) that would make civil disobedience against a pipeline or other fossil fuel projects a felony is moving through the West Virginia legislature. The House of Delegates Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing on the legislation February 10, 2020 at 8:30 am.

Hope Of A Sustainable Future In West Virginia’s Coal Country

January 24, 2020 Eleanor Goldfield, Roarmag.org Create! Coal, West Virginia

An intimate portrait of West Virginia’s “coal country,” where locals plan for a sustainable future amid the devastation wreaked by the fossil fuel industry. On the national stage, there is not a lot of chatter about coal anymore. Once the fuel that drove the engine of US “progress,” coal use has plummeted primarily due to market forces and the difficulty in extracting the coal that is left. Despite the propaganda line, the one thing that has not killed King Coal is regulation — the little that ever existed.

$10 Million Defamation Lawsuit Filed Against Rockwool, Allies

August 29, 2019 Anne Meador, Dcmediagroup.us Resist! Courts, Lawsuit, pollution, West Virginia

A civil complaint was filed yesterday in Circuit Court in Jefferson County, W.Va., alleging that Rockwool Group, one of its employees and former members of the local development authority slandered a local resident. The lawsuit seeks $10 million in compensatory and $2.5 million in punitive damages. The attorney of plaintiff David Levine, a tech entrepreneur living in Shepherdstown, argues that Levine suffered harm to his reputation and business as a result of personal attacks on him, which began a year ago when he expressed opposition to the Rockwool mineral wool factory.

Kentucky Miners Are Blocking a Coal Train, Demanding Their Stolen Wages

August 4, 2019 Alexandra Bradbury, Labornotes. Resist! Coal Mining, Wages, West Virginia, Worker Rights

Harlan County, Kentucky, is probably best known for the hard-fought strikes in its coal mines in the 1930s and 1970s. Today the remaining mines are nonunion. But evidently the local spirit of militancy and solidarity is still kicking. For three days now, miners and their families have occupied a railroad track, blocking a train that’s loaded up with coal that these workers dug out of the earth and never got paid for. Word spread quickly July 29 that someone was loading up the train to move. A few laid-off miners headed down to the site to find out what was going on, and it didn’t take long to decide they weren’t going to let this train go anywhere. The miners want their jobs back, if possible—but bottom line, they want their wages for the work they already did. “I would like to get the money that I’m owed,” said miner Cameron Cornett, a father of three, “the money that I worked for, and that was taken from me and my family and these other workers.”

‘Drop Rockwool’: Retailers Urged To Boycott Insulation Maker

July 22, 2019 By Anne Meador, Dcmediagroup.us Resist! pollution, Protest Demonstrations, West Virginia, Workers

Several Jefferson County, W.Va., residents demonstrated at home improvement retailers in Gaithersburg, Md., in an effort to pressure them to ban Rockwool insulation products from their shelves. They object to Rockwool North America, a division of the Danish Rockwool Group, siting a mineral wool factory in their county–one which will burn coal and gas in close proximity to public schools. This was the first in a series of demonstrations at Lowe’s and Home Depot stores regionally, organizers of Resist Rockwool say.

Organic Farm In W.Va. Imperiled By Gas Pipeline Construction

July 19, 2019 By Anne Meador, Dcmediagroup.us Educate! Farms, Pipelines, West Virginia

In the four years since finding stakes mysteriously implanted in the ground of their newly acquired farm, Neal LaFerriere and his family have worked as best they could with Mountain Valley Pipeline representatives to preserve the integrity of their organic farm. Having no choice but to sign an easement to allow the gas pipeline to go through his land, he and his wife Beth have tried to hold MVP to the management plan it filed with a federal agency. “We have always been willing to sit down at the table and meet with them to try to work out the issues,” LaFerriere said.

School Board Drops Bid To Obtain Rockwool Property By Eminent Domain

July 10, 2019 By Anne Meador, Dcmediagroup.us Educate! Education, eminent domain, Schools, West Virginia

Ranson, W.Va.–The Jefferson County Board of Education will no longer pursue condemnation of Rockwool’s property to build a educational center to provide services for student with special needs. The school board abandoned its bid to obtain the Rockwool site via eminent domain in a settlement agreement announced today by the two parties. Rockwool in turn dropped its lawsuit against the Board of Education which sought to block the condemnation. The Board of Education proposed to build a Regional Student Support Center on the Rockwool site across from North Jefferson Elementary to provide services for special needs students.

Rockwool Resisters Hold Rally, Vow To Keep Fighting Factory

May 24, 2019 By Anne Meador and John Zangas, Dcmediagroup.us Resist! Factories, Protests, West Virginia

Ranson, W.Va.—Local residents rallied at the doorstep of the planned Rockwool insulation factory on May 16 to express their resolve to keep fighting the insulation manufacturer, even as walls of factory buildings rise on the construction site. Resist Rockwool, organizer of the rally, estimated that as many as 400 people attended and lined the edges of the Route 9 bike path, holding aloft protest signs and chanting, “No Toxic Rockwool!” Twenty-four people were arrested following the rally when they obstructed the road leading to the entrance to the Rockwool site.

Rockwool Pipeline Construction May Disturb African-American Cemetery

April 20, 2019 By John Zangas and Anne Meador, Dcmediagroup.us Resist! Black History, Pipelines, West Virginia

Ranson, W.Va.–Granny Smith Lane was until recently riddled with almost impassable potholes. If you navigated them successfully and wound your way to the end of the narrow, tree-lined roadway, you would reach a secluded corner of what used to be an apple orchard. Hardly noticeable, a few gravestones sit atop a small grassy knoll. More grave markers are jumbled among trees, vines and thorny bushes. Little effort has been made to clean up the trash strewn about or curb the groundhogs, who have constructed an elaborate burrow. A giant sinkhole warps the ground, and many graves are sunken depressions in the earth.

WVDEP Approval Of Rockwool Gas Pipeline Permit Made In ‘Bad Faith,’ Opponents Say

April 3, 2019 By Anne Meador, Dcmediagroup.us Educate! Pipelines, West Virginia

The West Virginia Department of Environment (WVDEP) on Friday issued the final permit necessary for Mountaineer Gas to build a gas pipeline to service the Rockwool factory in Jefferson County, ignoring repeated requests to reschedule a public hearing on the matter. The decision was reportedly made at the highest levels of the agency. The pipeline is a 4.85-mile extension of the Mountaineer Gas trunk line, which is nearly finished with construction. The extension would run from the Martinsburg area to the Rockwool plant site.

Student Reporters In West Virginia Find Atlantic Coast Pipeline Offers Only Two Dozen Permanent Jobs

March 27, 2019 By Sharon Kelly, Desmogblog.com Educate! Pipelines, West Virginia

It’s hard for anyone to miss a “help wanted” sign like this: “13,000 Union Workers Needed for Atlantic Coast Pipeline Project.” That’s how the website Oilfield Job Shop described the opportunities created by the $7 billion Atlantic Coast pipeline, planned to carry shale gas 605 miles from West Virginia into Virginia and North Carolina. Its builders, a group led by Dominion Energy, say all told, the project will support 17,000 jobs — no small amount of work anywhere, but especially in parts of West Virginia where the economy has long relied on coal mining.

West Virginia Educators Remain Defiant In Second Day Of Statewide Strike

February 22, 2019 Tom Eley, Wsws.org Resist! Education, Strikes, Teachers, West Virginia

Efforts by the unions to declare “victory” after the tabling of the bill and to pressure strikers back to work failed to convince striking educators who remember all too well similar declarations after the unions shut down their powerful nine-day strike last year. In the year since, none of the promises made by union officials and Governor Jim Justice to address low pay, crushing health care costs and chronically underfunded schools have materialized. Having forced the unions to call a strike, teachers were determined to maintain their momentum to fight not only to defeat the reactionary state legislation, which would introduce charter schools for the first time in state history and other school privatization schemes...

West Virginia Teachers Walk Out To Oppose Charter Schools

February 20, 2019 Jerry White, Wsws.org Resist! Charter Schools, Class Struggle, Education, Teachers, Walkout, West Virginia

Thousands of teachers and support staff in West Virginia are walking out of schools today and descending on the state capitol in Charleston to oppose legislation that would introduce the state’s first charter schools and divert public resources and students from traditional public schools. Facing the possibility of imminent wildcat strikes, the teachers unions called the walkout for Tuesday but are scrambling to shut it down as soon as they can.

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