Amidst the cacophony of insulting chants from both Democrats and Republicans, the party that wants to be heard most at the so-called “green” debate was the California Green Party, whose candidate Laura Wells, had been invited then effectively barred from participating.
Wells and other third party candidates had been invited to attend if they received 10 per cent in a voting poll; only problem was, the poll only included two names, that of Whitman and Brown.
At the protest, Wells received a valid ticket to the private debate event. Tickets had been allotted by lottery, according to the debate website and one person could receive more than a single ticket, if they had won. Laura received her ticket from someone who was holding four tickets. Yet, after Laura entered the lobby and was approached by journalists, she was quickly ushered out by private security and then arrested for “trespassing.”
Wells has accepted the charges and is scheduled for arraignment on Nov. 2, election day.
Whitman’s chief target if she is elected is California’s regulatory system, seen as being the bar raiser for the entire nation. She is also against same-sex marriage. She has aptly identified, as others on both the left and the right, that public worker’s pensions threaten to break California. Brown has labor behind him and while he has privately committed to prioritizing environmental issues during fundraisers, he has suggested that he can still be moved on the state’s AB32 which sets a lower cap on carbon emissions. Neither of the large party candidates are willing to address Prop 13, seen by Progressives as the elephant in the room of the California budget chaos.
Greens support IRV and proportional representation, an electoral system which improves political discourse and eliminates the stigma of a spoiler vote.
Larry Gibson Fires UP Appalachia Rising Crowd Outside EPA
By Julie Eisenberg & Babette Hogan
West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin (D) launched a lawsuit Wednesday against the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) over its regulation of the practice of Mountaintop Removal mining in the state and the EPA promptly punched back with a report from a surprise inspection uncovering safety violations of Massey Energy, one of the state’s most notorious and profitable coal companies.
The two-term winning Governor Manchin has unexpectedly found himself in a tight race to replace the late Senator Byrd in a special election that he engineered, rather than appoint himself. His Republican opponent, John Raese (R), who is flush with RNC campaign funds, called Manchin’s lawsuit a political move, meant to show the coal industry that Manchin is still their man, despite his party affiliation. Raese’s platform includes the elimination of the minimum wage.
Third party candidate Jesse Johnson (Mtn. Party) sees the rhetoric from both candidates as political theater. “Manchin’s always been for the coal industry just as Raese is,” Johnson said during an interview on Friday. “It’s business as usual and politics as usual. It’s pretty obvious that both of my opponents stand for the coal operators and not the coal miners and their jobs and their communities.”
At Wednesday’s news conference at the WV State Capitol, Manchin thanked representatives from the WVA Coal Association and the United Mine Workers’ Association for their support of his action, accusing the Obama Administration of attempting to “destroy our coal industry and way of life in West Virginia.”
Don Blankenship, CEO of Massey Energy, the company responsible for the worst mine disaster in 40 years which killed 29 miners at the Upper Big Branch mine last April and now subject to new violations announced on Thursday, stood next to Manchin during the announcement and issued a statement supporting the Governor’s actions. “Massey Energy applauds Governor Manchin’s decision to combat the EPA’s stance on mining permits, which threatens West Virginia jobs and jeopardizes the livelihoods of working families throughout Central Appalachia.”
Johnson disputes claims that the coal industry creates employment. He points out that much of the metallurgical grade coal extracted from the blown up mountains is not used for energy, but is exported to other countries, creating jobs there. While an increased number of heavy equipment operators are employed on the surface, the practice of MTR reduced the number of employed Appalachian miners. While Johnson is not against coal mining altogether, he stands firmly against using it as a fossil fuel, envisioning a more permanent industry in his state through the creation of sustainable carbon-based products. He argues that the state’s lack of regulation of the coal industry as well as the pharmaceutical industry has endangered the state’s watersheds and the health and well-being of communities. Fines for violations are reduced to pennies on the dollar, making the penalty merely an inconvenient cost of doing business.
Johnson is running a simultaneous campaign for his home district house seat. He jumped into the U.S. Senate campaign after Manchin secured a one-time electoral exemption that would allow a person to run for more than one office at a time, a condition Republican legislators encouraged in order to permit the costly special election, as it would allow one of their favored candidates to run if she had so chosen. Johnson faced Manchin before in the 2008 Gubernatorial race after he had come to national attention in his attempt to secure the Green Party’s nomination for President, during which he spread the news that Appalachia was “Ground Zero” for Climate Change.
Manchin’s laissez-faire approach has dominated his tenure in public office. At the 2008 Coal Executive Conference, the Governor reflected that he wanted West Virginia to be a friendly place to do business. He said, “If we could permeate the retail mentality in every government worker in the state of West Virginia, when the inspectors come out and they say ‘Hey John, you’ve got a problem here. Now before I write you up for a violation, here’s what I think you ought to do. I’ll come back in a week, or month or whenever the rotation might be, then if you’ve tried to make those changes, we’re working in the right direction.’”
When asked why Governor Manchin has received the endorsements of the United Mineworkers Union as well as the Coal Industry Johnson responded, “Now that’s the $64.000 question. If you delve into the subject, you find a rather unholy alliance from the 1990′s that started paying more than twice the amount of dividends to the coal miners union for the tonnage of coal from mountain top removal sites than for underground mining. This is being used to prop up their retirement and benefit funds. Instead of the union showing its force, it’s adopted a non-growth plan for the union in order to protect this generation of miners and their leadership; but it does nothing to secure the future generations of miners.”
Mountaintop Removal Mining (MTR) is recognized as a primary cause of water pollution in Appalachia, and as a contributor to global warming. According to a study published by researchers at the West Virginia University and Virginia Tech, people who live near streams polluted by coal mining are more likely to die of cancer. Environmental groups have begun to join forces with local activists to combat the practice, recently culminating in a three day conference called Appalachia Rising. On September 27, the activists rallied at Freedom Plaza to hear leaders from throughout Appalachia make their demands.
Marie Gunnoe, 2009 Goldman Environmental Winner, addresses Appalachia Rising crowd
People cheered as Maria Gunnoe, winner of the 2009 Goldman Environmental Award, took the stage. “It is past time for the Obama Administration to abolish the practice of mountaintop removal coal mining. It is killing off our culture and its people,” said Gunnoe of Boone County, W.Va. whose home has been flooded repeatedly with toxic waste from a Mountaintop Removal site that sits above her land. “It is time to turn coal country into clean energy country. Who better to build the infrastructure to repower America than the people who powered it to begin with? We can build a new future starting now and starting in Appalachia, and starting with an end to mountaintop removal.”
Johnson, a landowner in West Virginia’s Coal River area, shared his outrage regarding the coal companies disregard for his state’s heritage. He called for people to understand the significance of Blair Mountain, the historic site of the largest labor uprising in the nation that is presently being considered for mountaintop removal permits.
“They want to erase the history of labor in this nation,” said Johnson. “And, they want to remove it for a little bit of coal and then another mountain and then another mountain and then another mountain. And they take the miners out of the mines. They are killing the jobs. They are poisoning the waters at their very source…. This is our number one issue and our number one galvanizing place to stand is Blair Mountain. Do not allow them to erase history. Do not allow them to ignore your voice. Do not allow them to destroy God’s creation. I am here to fight for you and I need you to fight for Appalachia and to fight for West Virginia.”
Former Congressman Ken Hechler (D), widely considered to be the grandfather of the environmental movement in West Virginia, lost his bid for the Democratic nomination for the Senate in the primary. Putting aside party loyalty for the moment, the 96 year old legend threw his support to Johnson because of the latter’s strong stance on the environment. While Hechler could not go to the rally, he had a letter of endorsement read to the crowd. “Jesse is a fighter and a hell-raiser,” Hechler wrote. “And he is the one to carry this baton.” Hechler was pleased to see the Obama administration finally attempt to enforce federal regulations on coal mining including the 1969 Federal Coal Mine and Safety Act which he co-authored.
Several thousands marched from Freedom Plaza to the EPA and then to the White House in what is euphemistically being called the Woodstock of Anti-Mountaintop Removal. 100 Anti-MTR activists were arrested outside the White House.
A journalist from the Netherlands who had come to the States specifically to observe Appalachia Rising was surprised at the turnout at the march. He had expected 100,000 – 200,000 people, suggesting that all of Europe understands how critical it is to come to terms with our dependence on coal for energy. But, he said, “At least, this is a start.”
What organizers are calling “an unprecedented gathering of Appalachian people and their allies in the movement to abolish all forms of surface mining” for coal, particularly mountaintop removal mining, will take place over the weekend. The organizers hope this weekend will be an opportunity to “build solidarity not only between Appalachians and their allies, but also between communities impacted by similar issues all over the nation.”
Saturday and Sunday will be about hearing from “Voices of the Mountains,” people who have felt the impact of surface mining in their communities and people who have engaged in activism to bring surface mining to a halt.
Attendees will hear stories from individuals like Matthew Sherman, a Blackfoot Indian of the Kanawha Valley of West Virginia and someone who has served as a Federal Native Americans Spiritual Advisor for the Federal Bureau of Prisons and an opponent of mountaintop removal mining. They will hear stories from leaders like Mickey McCoy, who will talk about experiencing a toxic coal sludge breach that occurred in Massey Energy’s Martin County sludge dam. And, they will hear stories from people like Vickie Terry, who lives in the Clearfork Valley in Tennessee and can look out from where she lives and see mountains being blasted in a ridge nearby.
Sessions will be dedicated to education on the issues and tactics that this growing movement to end surface mining employs and will employ in the future. Coal combustion waste (or coal ash), coal-fired power plants, natural gas hydrofracking, climate change, resource extraction, monoeconomies, slurry and sludge, post-mining land use, and, of course, surface mining will be discussed. Participants will also be introduced to the tactics of nonviolent direct action like civil disobedience, permitting/regulation, economic diversification, field work, lobbying, corporate campaigns, land reform, community organizing, telling the movement’s story through media, and using art to tell the story of Appalachia’s coalfields.
A “Day of Action” will take place on Monday, September 27th. It will involve a rally at Freedom Plaza, a march to the White House, and then a protest to demand the Obama Administration make the abolition of mountaintop removal mining a national environmental policy. These are the events on the agenda, but there may be some nonviolent direct action as well.
Resident of Boone County, WV, Maria Gunnoe, who lives in a house that now sits below a mountaintop removal site and will be sharing her story with attendees, wrote an editorial that was published on Common Dreams.
Gunnoe writes:
“Coal speaks its truths in what it leaves behind for the people that sacrifice so much for the coal companies’ bottom line. The people get nothing in return but destroyed ancestral, historic lands and communities such as Blair, the battleground for today’s United Mine Workers Association. “We the people” get the poisoned water, the polluted land, the silica-laden air, the bad health, and the diminished hope of ever having a future. This is what we have to show for 200 years of mining coal. Where is the preached prosperity? We have no desire to bash coal. Coal speaks for itself.”
On the movement to end mountaintop removal, she declares:
“There are nearly 3.5 million pounds of explosives used EACH DAY in West Virginia alone. People throughout Appalachia couldn’t find the political support to stop the attack on our homeland and we began to organize. While our county, state and federal leaders turned a blind eye and deaf ear to us”We formed a movement. Appalachians have depended on our democracy (the American people) to help defend us as our politicians and regulatory agencies have not.”
Kari Fulton, a young D.C. resident who organizes around environmental justice issues, says of this event, “I’m really excited to see Appalachia Rising come,” to D.C. “Before it even started, we saw the street art they have posted everywhere.”
“A lot of people don’t know about mountaintop removal, and it would be good to see this end,” Fulton says. “This is one of those issues that we could see come to an end soon. Hope we continue to build solidarity.” She works for PowerVote.org, the latest campaign of the Energy Action Coalition, and hopes to hold leaders accountable by getting them to support a nationwide transition from coal and oil to clean and renewable energy like wind and solar.
I will be posting on this great event all weekend and on Monday before and after the “Day of Action” takes place. Stay tuned.
This week, Polidoc continues its production of Seriously Green. Yesterday, Cynthia McKinney was interviewed in front of the White House after she and others rode from Capitol Hill to Pennsylvania Avenue to mark the end of their biking trip with Bike4Peace from California to D.C.
McKinney compared her trip to running as a Green Party presidential candidate in 2008. She talked of what it was like to bike across the country when she had no idea how to bike at all. And, she discussed the need for Americans to establish a Peace Lobby that could combat policies of war.
The trip had its rough spots. McKinney fell and busted her lip on the first day. She had to return to her home in Georgia when she found out her house had been broken into. She missed part of the trip but rejoined Bike4Peace before the trip ended in D.C.
Later that night, Polidoc attended a National Press Club event with McKinney in the Sarah McClendon Room. The experience provided an opportunity for McKinney to show her spirit of perseverance to 30-40 people there who had packed into a room to eat dinner with her and celebrate the end of the bike trip.
She touched on her work as a congresswoman and mentioned how she was the only Democrat to lose in 2006 because, as Rahm Emanuel said, she was not a “team player.” She told of her travels with peace envoys that made attempts to break the siege and deliver aid to Gaza. She talked about how, on one of her trips, the Israelis rammed the ship she was on and also how the US Embassy could not be bothered to help her when she ended up in an Israeli prison except they did give her underwear.
McKinney also spoke of the way her family is constantly being spied on. She talked about her son being outside and a van rolling by with the side door open and people inside taking pictures.
There was an opportunity for Cynthia McKinney and Ingrid Betancourt, who ran on the Green Party ticket for president of Colombia, to meet since Betancourt was doing a book signing of her new book “Even Silence Has an End” at the National Press Club. Had they crossed paths, it would have been a rare opportunity for two former presidential candidates to meet each other.
The production continues through the weekend at a D.C. convergence of anti-mountaintop removal activists called Appalachia Rising.
Israel prepares to deport 21 activists who tried to enter Gaza by sea to deliver humanitarian aid to refugees. Amongst the detained activists is former Democratic Congresswoman and 2008 Green Party Presidential Candidate Cynthia McKinney who provides this statement calling for President Obama to pressure the Israeli government to ease the blockade and allow aid to enter the region.
After more than a year of work, the town of Fairfax, CA has enacted a plastic bag ban ordinance, paving the way for other townships to consider the benefits of reducing waste and encouraging reuse.
After more than a year of work, the town of Fairfax, CA has enacted a plastic bag ban ordinance, paving the way for other townships to consider the benefits of reducing waste and encouraging reuse.
