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 Seven protesters locked to a 500-pound tree inside Arch Coal’s headquarters in Creve Coeur, Mo. CHARLESTON, WV — “Seven people, including at least one West Virginian, locked themselves to a 500-pound potted tree inside Arch Coal’s headquarters in Creve Coeur, Mo. on Tuesday in a protest against strip mining.
A larger group performed songs and dances in the building’s lobby, according to the protesters, who are affiliated with the groups Radical Action for Mountain Peoples’ Survival, Missourians Organizing for Reform and Empowerment, and Mountain Justice.
‘We’re here to halt Arch’s operations for as long as we can. These coal corporations do not answer to communities, they only consume them. We’re here to resist their unchecked power,’ Margaret Fetzer, one of the protesters, said in a news release.”
— Paul J. Nyden, The Charleston Gazette
link to article
CHARLESTON, WV — “Earlier this week, the National Journal published a piece called The Shift Of King Coal: The coal industry still dominates in Appalachia, and that’s bad news for the Democratic party. Here’s how it started out:
When West Virginia Sen. Jay Rockefeller formally announced his decision to quit the Senate on Friday, he opened the next chapter in one of the few true historic shifts taking place in American politics. Even before his announcement, Republicans were eyeing his seat as a prime pickup opportunity, a reflection of the ascendance of the Republican Party in Appalachia, a shift in which working-class white voters who have reliably cast ballots for Democratic politicians for the better part of a century are moving inexorably, and perhaps permanently, toward the Republican Party.
That’s because in Appalachia, coal is still king.
The piece reminded me of the one that the Wall Street Journal published way back in June 2001, in which it explained George W. Bush’s victory in West Virginia with this similar, one-issue narrative.”
— Ken Ward Jr., Charleston Gazette
link to blog
 Rev. Robin Blakeman CHARLESTON, WV — “Dear West Virginia Coal Association representatives and affiliated elected officials:
We, undersigned faith community members and leaders, call upon you to stop using misleading and incendiary language concerning a ‘war on coal.’ The damage caused in our communities from this rhetoric includes: neighbor pitted against neighbor, families divided, coal trucks trying to run people off the road, and threats upon the lives and property of some individuals.
Let’s face facts: There is no ‘war on coal.’ The coal industry is undergoing an economic downturn due largely to competition from the gas industry. Jobs are being lost due to decades long labor reduction strategies. This ‘war on coal’ war cry has, however, rallied mining employees and their families to a dangerous frenzy. By using this rhetoric, you are following the divisive strategy that the coal industry has used for over a century. It is an archaic and outdated tactic. It is also immoral.”
— Rev. Robin Blakeman, editorial The Charleston Gazette
link to editorial
CHARLESTON, WV — “West Virginia’s political leaders continue to say very, very little about the major news latest week that one of the region’s largest coal producers is moving away from — and eventually abandoning altogether — the use of mountaintop removal and all other types of surface coal mining.
As noted previously, we finally did get a comment from Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va.:
There is a lot of change happening in the coal industry, and it’s important that we all work through these issues together and focus on investing in clean coal for the future. I’ve made it clear to Patriot that I have very real concerns about protecting miners’ health and pension benefits, and I hope this is a step in that direction. They need to stand by the promises they’ve made to their miners.
And a bit later, we got this comment from Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin:
The Governor hopes this decision the company has made will help them recover financially and continue to produce and employ in the West Virginia coal industry.
Oddly enough, one of the most substantive comment so far came from Rep. David McKinley, R-W.Va., who issued this statement:
Our sympathy goes out to the miners impacted by this decision as they face an uncertain future in a sluggish economy. We are concerned for both the miners who may be laid off over time and for the families in surface mining communities. Like many other companies in the industry, Patriot is being forced to make some painful choices. Faced with a difficult situation, Patriot is making an effort to ensure its long term health for its employees while being sensitive to the environment.
Rep. McKinley is right that coal companies are being forced to make some painful choices — painful especially for their employees and the communities where they live. But even his statement didn’t really focus on what’s really happening here, are at least part of what’s happening: When forced to comply with the law, coal companies find that the costs of mountaintop removal are so high that they can’t do that type of mining and make the sort of profit their want.”
— Ken Ward Jr., Charleston Gazette
link to article
 In a photo taken three years ago at a celebration at his Kayford Mountain home, the late Larry Gibson dances with his wife Carol. CHARLESTON, WV — “Gibson was honored during an Oct. 14 memorial service by the many friends, family and fellow activists who came to know him over the years. Gibson, a resident of Raleigh County, died of a heart attack at the age of 66 on Sept. 9.
The Keepers of the Mountain Foundation, an organization formed by Gibson in 2004, hosted the memorial. Gibson frequently appeared in new media, books, movies and other communication deriding the practice of mountaintop mining, particularly at his 50-acre property on Kayford Mountain.
…Another nationally known figure in the fight against surface mining, former U.S. Rep. Ken Hechler, 98, said he and Larry knew when they first met they stood for the mutual principles of love, devotion, truth and justice. Hechler was behind the Coal Mine Safety and Health Act of 1969 and has been a vocal opponent of mountaintop mining.
“We knew instinctively that we both stood for the same principles of truth and justice” Hechler said. “We did not call it anti-mountaintop removal. We could just feel in our hearts that we were both fighting for truth and justice. … Larry Gibson will live forever in our hearts.”
— Taylor Kuykendall, State Journal
link to article
— Lori Kersey, Charleston Gazette
CHARLESTON, WV — “Friends and family of Larry Gibson, the ‘Keeper of the Mountains,’ will celebrate his life and legacy on Sunday, October 14 from 2 to 6 p.m. at the Charleston Municipal Auditorium, on the corner of Virginia and Truslow Streets, across from the Charleston Town Center Mall. The public is encouraged to attend to help celebrate Larry’s life and legacy.
Larry died of a heart attack on Sunday, September 9, while working on his family’s land on Kayford Mountain, which he spent the last decades of his life protecting from mountaintop removal. Larry successfully protected fifty acres of his homeplace on Kayford Mountain and he inspired people nationwide to take action to stop mountaintop removal coal mining.
The program for ‘Celebrating Larry Gibson: The Life and Legacy of the Keeper of the Mountains” will feature family, friends, prominent activists, West Virginia residents, musicians and preachers. This event will be preceded by the annual Changing of the Leaves Music Festival that starts at 1:00 PM on Saturday, October 13th on Kayford Mountain.”
— Keeper of the Mountains Foundation
— Mathew Louis-Rosenberg, Op-Ed commentary, Charleston Gazette
 Larry Gibson stands near the mountaintop removal site on Kayford Mountain in West Virginia. KAYFORD, WV — “Larry Gibson’s parents never worried about finding him, when, as a boy, he wandered out into the forest. All they had to do was spot the hawk that followed him from the air. That’s how close Gibson was to the West Virginia mountains.
He pined for those mountains after his family joined the exodus from Appalachia, moving to where the jobs were, into Ohio and Pennsylvania, in the 1950s. But finally, in the 1990s, he was able to move back to a small cabin on the land owned by his family for generations.
By that time, the nearby town of Kayford was nearly gone. And the hills where he once roamed trembled under gigantic bulldozers and leviathan drag lines that were pushing back the woods, reaching down into the earth, and tearing out the coal.
Mountaintop removal mining tore something out of him, too, but he found a way to fight back. And in the process, Larry Gibson became something unexpected, a unique species of Appalachian Lorax, a small man in bib overalls who could elevate your vision with a few dozen words.
Gibson died Sunday following a heart attack at his home on Kayford Mountain in West Virginia’s Raleigh County. He was 66 years old.”
— Bill Kovarik, Earth Island Institute
link to article
 Larry Gibson was honored and remembered today and his fighting spirit inspired hundreds. WASHINGTON, DC — “Waterkeeper Alliance joined hundreds of people today to stand in solidarity with Appalachia in front of the White House to tell President Obama to be a hero and end mountaintop removal coal mining.
The Summer of Solidarity event began with a rally in Lafayette Park in Washington, DC where speakers spoke passionately about the urgent need to shift towards clean energy and away from extreme forms of dirty energy like coal which poisons our waters, destroys our mountains, pollutes our air and harms our health.
Many speakers invoked the memory of mountain hero Larry Gibson who passed away on Sunday, Sept. 9. Activists carried Larry’s fighting spirit to the White House’s Council on Environmental Quality by delivering more than 13,000 personal photos and messages urging president Obama to end mountaintop removal coal mining.”
— Donna Linsby, Waterkeeper Alliance
link to article
“We have received numerous requests from those who knew and loved Larry Gibson for a way to share their memories with his family. He touched thousands upon thousands of lives and we’ve been overwhelmed by the notes people are leaving on his facebook profile, photos of people with him, and notes that we’re getting from people. We are setting up this form as a way that you can tell your favorite story or memory of Larry (or more than one if you’d be inclined to share them) that we can collect and give to his family”
− Keeper of the Mountains Foundation
link to website
 Judy Bonds, Larry Gibson, and Chuck Nelson at the Hudson Bay Canvassers Conference in 2009 where they held workshops about mountaintop removal and Larry gave a plenary speech. photo: Jennifer Roddis CLEVELAND — Larry Gibson, who died Sunday at the age of 66, was the soul of courage, warmth and love. He who inspired generations of people, including many of us from Ohio Citizen Action, to join him in protecting his beloved Appalachian mountains from the scourge of mountaintop removal coal mining. We are all heartbroken at the loss of this wonderful man. We have posted below just a few of the many tributes that Larry’s friends have written over the past two days. Larry’s family will hold a private funeral tomorrow, with a public memorial service to be held at a later date.
Donations in Larry’s honor may be made to the Keeper of the Mountain Foundation.
— Sandy Buchanan, Executive Director, Ohio Citizen Action
— James Bruggers, Courier-Journal
— Chris Jordan-Bloch, EarthJustice
— Suzanne Goldenberg, The Guardian
— Liz Judge, EarthJustice
— Joan Mulhern, EarthJustice
CHARLESTON, WV — “Larry Gibson, a vocal opponent of the controversial practice of mountaintop removal mining and organizer of the long-running Mountain Keeper Music Festival, died of an apparent heart attack while working at his cabins on Kayford Mountain, his daughter, Victoria, said Sunday night.
…’When my dad passed away you could still smell the mountain air on him,’ Victoria said. ‘You could still see the dirt underneath his nails and the stains on his hands. He was working.’
‘He lived his life devoted to the mountain.’
Victoria, 24, could recall going with her father as a young child to speak out against mountaintop removal. He was passionate about the subject because it was destroying the home he knew as a child, she said.
‘He had so much fire in his voice,’ she said. ‘He had so much passion. It’d make you shake. He could bring a whole room of people to tears.’”
—Ashley B Craig, Charleston Daily Mail
link to article
— Jeff Biggers, AlterNet
— Ken Ward, Jr., Coal Tattoo
 Ken Ward, Jr. LOUISVILLE, KY — “Murray Energy Corporation filed suit against environment reporter Ken Ward Jr. and the Charleston Gazette last month, and the case was recently transferred to federal district court. The complaint is on behalf of Murray Energy, its subsidiaries, and owner Bob Murray.
According to the complaint, an article Ward posted on his popular ‘Coal Tattoo’ blog was libelous. Murray claims the blog post—called ‘Mitt Romney, Murray Energy and Coal Criminals’ — has damaged his reputation and business and thus put the jobs Murray Energy provides in Belmont County, Ohio in jeopardy.
In the post, Ward mentions a fundraiser Murray held for Mitt Romney. He also mentions the Crandall Canyon Mine disaster in Utah. Crandall Canyon was operated by a Murray Energy subsidiary, and the company pleaded guilty to criminal mine safety violations for the accident that killed six miners and three rescue workers in August 2007. Ward also cites an Associated Press article that reports another Murray subsidiary in Ohio pleaded guilty to criminal violations of the Clean Water Act last month.”
— Erica Peterson, WFPL
link to article
 Judy Bonds CHARLOTTE, NC — “The Democrats have nothing to lose. And everything to gain–especially the health and lives of residents in the coal mining areas of central Appalachia.
Calling it ‘Judy’s plank,’ in honor of beloved West Virginia mountaineer Judy Bonds, whose untimely death in 2011 served as a wakeup call to the mounting humanitarian and health care crises from mountaintop removal mining, the Democratic Party platform should officially include a commitment for an immediate moratorium on the devastating form of strip mining at their national convention in Charlotte on September 4th.
Ending one of the most blatant civil rights and environmental crimes is not just the right and moral thing to do. It would be a smart move for the Democrats and President Obama, whose recent pander to Big Coal in a bizarre Ohio ad against Romney was rightly denounced by environmentalists and health care advocates as a disgrace.”
— Jeff Biggers, Alternet
link to article
WASHINGTON, DC — “In a shocking blow to besieged Appalachian coalfield residents today, U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton ruled in favor of a coal industry law suit, striking down the EPA’s modest guidance r ules on mountaintop removal mining.
Despite the mounting evidence of devastating human and health impacts linked to the extreme form of strip mining and documented contamination of waterways from mining fallout, which provides less than five percent of national coal production, the judge ruled that the EPA had overstepped its Clean Water Act mandates.
The question begs: Will the Obama administration now abandon coalfield residents to the whims of Big Coal machinations, or will President Obama finally step in and end one of the most egregious human rights and environmental violations in the nation?”
— Jeff Biggers, AlterNet
link to article
 Protesters at Hobet mine in Lincoln County. LINCOLN COUNTY, WV — “Ramping up renewed efforts to end mountaintop removal mining in central Appalachia, scores of protesters staged a daring action at the controversial Hobet strip mine today in Lincoln County, West Virginia, shutting down operations through a series of coordinated lock downs, tree-sits and banner drops. In a symbolic challenge to the Obama administration’s failed regulatory policies, the protest targeted the Hobet 45 mountaintop removal mine, which had been granted a widely denounced permit over two years ago.
According to RAMPS, a West Virginia-based grassroots groups that organized the ‘mountain mobilization’ protest as part of a nationwide summer of actions against devastating extraction industry operations, St. Louis-based mine owner Patriot Coal has left behind a legacy of destruction in coal country for both area residents and miners. Patriot filed for bankruptcy earlier this month, which could also affect pension and United Mine Workers of America union contracts.
‘The government has aided and abetted the coal industry in evading environmental and mine safety regulations. We are here today to demand that the government and coal industry end strip mining, repay their debt to Appalachia, and secure a just transition for this region,’ said Dustin Steele of Matewan, West Virginia, in a released statement. The son and grandson of union coal miners, Steele took part in one of the truck lockdowns.”
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