This article originally provided by The Charleston Gazette

June 2, 2005

Julian Martin

There is no such thing as clean coal

Steve Walker’s May 30 reply to Kathryn Stone’s article about moral choices in the coal industry was full of oxymorons. “Greener coal” and “clean coal” are two doozies. Is cleaner, greener coal what is up there in that giant sludge pond glowering down at Marsh Fork Elementary School? To combine green and clean with coal is merely a public relations gimmick.

Early on, Walker says of Stone’s article, “Her remarks facilitated my more thoughtful considerations of the issue...” And he accuses Stone of being self-righteous?

Walker asks, “Is it ethical to offer a criticism without practical solutions?” It would be unethical to remain silent, even without offering alternatives, about something as evil as mountaintop removal. Growing poppies in Afghanistan and coca in Colombia leads to addictions and death in the United States. By Walker’s reasoning it should not be criticized without offering another way for the farmers and dealers to make a living.

Of the several hearings that I have attended, no one has spoken in favor of mountaintop removal if it wasn’t their moneymaker. Does anyone really think that Steve Walker would be giving ethical and moral justification for mountaintop removal if he weren’t getting rich from it?

Walker speaks for short-term prosperity. He seems to ignore that he is destroying the future. The late Bill Maxey was a highly respected director of the Division of Forestry. He retired in protest against mountaintop removal. Maxey said mountaintop removal “...is analogous to serious disease, like AIDS.” Based on Maxey’s data, we now lose 100,000,000 board feet of new growth timber every year forever to mountaintop removal. That is enough to build 4,000 houses every year forever.

Walker trivializes the coal industry’s cruel history and pretends that it has reformed itself when he writes that “In the past some individuals may have been negatively affected by some practices and incidences that would shock us by today’s standards.” He can’t bring himself to admit the horrors of the past without the caveat that some individuals just “may” have been “negatively affected” (here I think he means killed, maimed and flooded). More than 100,000 miners were indeed “negatively affected” as were the millions injured or left gasping for breath from black lung disease. The present ongoing destruction equals a quarter-mile-wide swath from New York to San Francisco.

Walker wraps the flag around coal by giving the industry credit for homeland security. “Coal has enabled the United States to defend itself and freedom around the world...” he claims. As the great Samuel Johnson said many years ago, “Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.”

Martin is vice president for state affairs of the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy.