RFK Jr.'s passion for environmental protection carries the day
Photo: Lawrence Pierce, West Virginia Gazette
People began filing into the University of Charleston's auditorium nearly two hours before the debate began. Charleston police, county sheriffs, state troopers and UC police lined the hallways and entrances. There were rumors of activists chaining themselves to trees and coal miners planning a huge rally. Television cameras were stationed along the walls and in nearly every corner of the auditorium.
It was the hottest ticket in town. All 950 seats in the main auditorium sold out in a few days, and an overflow room holding 2,000 more was expected to be fill. The biggest debate of the century was happening: Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship against Waterkeeper founder Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
The UC dean, Dr. Edwin H. Welch, moderated. He walked onstage 15 minutes before the debate began, telling the audience that "it does not happen very often in our society to have people who disagree so much come to speak together…we're going to try and recapture the art of argument tonight."
Welch introduced Blankenship first. Ushers separated miners and environmentalists between rows of UC students. Kennedy received 200 tickets for the event, as did Blankenship. UC distributed the rest. Miners cheered for Blankenship while enviros sat silent. Kennedy came on to huge cheers from enviros as miners kept folded hands in their laps.
Because the debate was being broadcast online and on television stations across West Virginia, the three men sat silently on stage. At exactly 6:30 p.m., Welch asked Blankenship the first question. (In case you missed the debate, listen to full audio courtesty West Virginia Public Broadcasting.)
Blankenship immediately turned on his folksy charm, while Kennedy used facts and figures to support his points. Blankenship spent the majority of the evening relying on fear: fear of politicians, fear of environmental regulations, fear of litigation, fear of China and India and jobs overseas. He pushed fear of the unknown: if regulations occur, miners would lose jobs. If we don't mine more coal, China and India will take our jobs away. Where Kennedy used facts, Blankenship used conjecture. Where Kennedy inspired, Blankenship wallowed.
I was sitting on an airplane out of Charleston this morning and two women walked past me down the aisle. I only heard a snippet of their conversation, but one said "They needed a more professional moderator, like a journalist or something. Kennedy just seemed to turn every answer into a speech, it was like he was not even listening to the question."
I thought about this comment the whole flight and realized the moderator really had nothing to do with it. Kennedy's responses sounded like a speech because he brought a real emotional investment to this debate. He wants West Virginia to be a cleaner, stronger state. He wants West Virginians to have good paying, clean and sustainable jobs. He wants to clean up pollution from this dirty fuel called coal and turn us towards a better, more profitable (not just financially) and sustainable future. I felt like Blankenship could have been talking about whether it was going to snow this weekend or how the prospects look for next year's Mountaineer Football. Kennedy had passion, and Blankenship—despite having the fate of thousands of workers and the future of West Virginia in his hands—was simply just there.
Facts and figures help win debates, and Kennedy was well equipped with both. But even if Blankenship arrived with consensus from every scientist and economist about the future of coal in West Virginia, without any sense of emotion and passion, he never had a chance.
Finally, for a more comical debate on mountaintop removal mining, check out Dr. Margaret Palmer's recent appearance on the Colbert Report. Dr. Palmer is lead author of the recent Science magazine article that concluded "scientific evidence of the severe environmental and human impacts from mountaintop mining is strong and irrefutable." The Dig Dug footage is priceless.
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Welch introduced Blankenship first. Ushers separated miners and mac makeup environmentalists between rows of UC students. Kennedy received 200 tickets for the event, as did Blankenship. UC distributed the rest. Miners cheered for Blankenship while enviros sat silent. Kennedy north face outlet came on to huge cheers from enviros as miners kept folded hands in their laps.
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The negative impact on thehealth of the people in the communities surrounding those mountains has been well documented. The greed of the Coal companies is disgusting.
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I am an engineer who lives in South Wales in the UK
Our area is similar to yours and we had a large coal mining industry which was destroyed by Margaret Thatcher and an import from your country Ian MacGregor.
I visited several coal mines in Virginia and West Virginia in the mid 80,s when I worked for a company who provided drilling machines for roof bolting
I loved the area and its people, the hospitality I recieved was the best I ever encountered in travelling to many parts of the world and it always reminded me of home.
The productivity of the mines in your area was astounding and could be mined economically to produce the energy needs of your country without blasting away the most inspiring feature of the area the mountains and wildlife.
The people who pursue this method of mining obviously know the price of everything and the value of nothing.
When I watch your videos and read how the mining companies are acting I cannot believe that this is happening to the people of a democratic country
We have a similar type of mining ( Opencast Mining) that takes place here but the mining companies are not allowed to abuse the water supplies and are strictly controlled as to their enviromental impact on the communities surrounding the mine site.
In the UK we watch what is happening in America a great deal and have been impressed by you new president Obama, If president Obama is true to his principles and rhetoric he would stop this desecration of not only an important area in America but in the world.
I wish you luck in your struggle to stop this madness and will watch progress with interest
Dear Robert:
I read your posting to the Earth Justice blog and was heartened by it. It is good to connect with friends of like minds, here in the U.S., and in South Wales. I truly hope President Obama proves to be half as good as we here all hope for. Keep writing!
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I couldn't listen to the end of the debate; Kennedy's performance seemed gasping, ineffective and inarticulate. Coal is evil, coal mining is killing our country's beauty, and Blankenship is the worst of the worst.
Instead of pointing out that massey is violating the Clean Water Act by mountaintop removal, people cater to Blankenship by tendentious and questionable numbers and emotional outrage.
What's needed is very simple: During the Bush horror, the protections of the Clean Water Act for "blueline streams" (seasonal streams that are present in almost all valleys) as WATERS OF THE UNITED STATES were removed.
That's right; the montaintop removal was illegal under existing law, enforced by the Army Corps.
So why not just resume enforcement of the existing law, and stop moaning and groaning??
If the Dems, with majorities in both houses and supposed control of the Executive Branch, can't amend the Clean Water Act to resume protection of Blue Line streams (there was a Supreme Court interpretation that these were not "waters of the US", so you can bypass the stupid Supremes by simply CLARIFYING the CWA), they just better declare themselves an impotent branch of the Republican party, and Obama should just plain admit that he's afraid of doing the right thing.
But none of these FACTS come out in ineffective, emotional bull like that spewed by kennedy...
The coal mining industry is far and away the most toxic industry anywhere, except perhaps for the power plants that burn the coal and poison our skies. But the 12,000 violations of law and the 20 million dollar fines are simply part of the cost of doing business, they are factored in and they are a pittance. The other costs, the devastation of the mountains, the ecosystems, the rivers and streams filled with the remains, the coal ash and heavy metals that poison and choke the valleys, the water, the air, heavy with particulates that sieze lungs and poison crops and increase the number of people who will die of respiratory and other ailments? These are all costs we choose to ignore, because our politicians have been bought and refuse to act. This is a travesty simply unmatched in recent American history. The entire mining history is in dire need of reform. Stand up for your rights! www.themine-thebook.com
The Future of Energy debate will provide Massey Energy with the opportunity to try and explain their environmentally-destructive, resource-deficient mining methods. Hopefully, Robert Kennedy Jr. will do more than talk about the disastrous environmental effects by proposing some domestic alternative-energy solutions.
If you are interested in alternative energies and environmentally-friendly technology, check out http://www.greencollareconomy.com. It has hundreds of case studies on green tech and the largest b2b green directory on the web.
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