‘Slaves to Industry’

Is that a tough case to make in a community with deep roots in coal?
Of course it is. But I'll say this: the most ardent and passionate activist is the one who's just been blasted or flooded. You have some people out here who are really angry about breathing all that silicone and that taste in your mouth. The problem is that after you've been blasted for so long, you start to get used to it. We have to activate people to let them know there's a choice.

How do you combat the notion that environmentalism is only for those who drink lattes and drive Prius cars?
I'm not a latte sipper, I'm a hillbilly, man. That used to be true, but what we're seeing now is a groundswell of people on the ground. We're talking about environmental justice. It's about people whose homes are being invaded by dirty oil refineries and coal-fired power plants. What we're seeing is poor Latinos in some communities around Chicago who had a Special Olympics this month with masks on because of the particulates coming from three coal plants in the area. We're seeing people who are being damaged by coal plants. The industries are taking advantage of poor people. It's real. It's happening.

How can you gauge whether your movement is gaining momentum?
We gauge from the expansion of our mailing lists and the numbers of letters and e-mails that are being sent to the EPA and the Obama administration. We are looking at the number of protests going on about mountaintop removal. Also, we can see how many new documentaries and books talk about mountaintop removal in Appalachia. Years ago that wouldn't have happened, and now this region is becoming the poster child for dirty coal.

You say there's a better way with renewables.
There is a better way. For one thing, there's more jobs. Here's the problem: they talk about prosperity, that [abandoning coal mining] would take away so many jobs for West Virginia. But West Virginia is last in terms of income. Where is the prosperity? The problem is that we're mining more coal in Boone County today then we ever have before, but yet the poorest counties are the coal-producing counties. Explain that. The transition I'm talking about, it's inevitable. But are we going to do it while we still have time, or will we wait until it's too late?

But to the people around you, there's still big money in coal. Isn't that a reasonable motivator for them?
There are very few people here in West Virginia who enjoy the large paycheck they're getting from strip mining. The rest of us are living off minimum wage.

So why isn't it easier to turn the page on coal mining in areas like Appalachia?
The phenomenon is a lot like battered-wife syndrome or Stockholm syndrome. The state has allowed the coal industry to create a mono-economy in West Virginia, which takes away a person's choices. They feel that the only thing they can do is mine coal. That is absolutely a conspiracy because these people think they have to. If these men had a choice between a good factory job and what they're doing now, they'd probably take the job. They do have a choice, but it's very little of a choice.

© 2009