Op-Ed is Opportunity to Educate WV Public about Industry

And all set to work assiduously. Buzz buzz, hack hack, choo choo, TIMBEEERR! Soon their self-appointed mission was accomplished. Borrowing a concept in advance, no tree was left behind. In fact, the entire state was denuded. At the annual baronial banquet many high-fives were heartily exchanged. "We did it! Three cheers for us!"

Of course the results were predictable. Massive erosion, raging wildfires from the slash left behind. In fact the fires were so intense and prolonged, in many regions the actual topsoil was burned away. Today we find a few postage stamp remnants - usually overlooked by accident - letting us picture what the majestic old-growth, or virgin, forest once was. These are pathetic curiosities, little museum tableaux.

With these accomplishments behind them, these and other early one-percenters, not ones to rest on their laurels (no laurels were left), looked around, scratched their heads, put puzzled looks on their faces, and wondered aloud: "Dude, what’s next?"

Part The Second - Pretty Black Rock

"That’s easy. See this pretty black rock?’

"Yeah, so what?"

"It’s coal, you moron."

"Oh, it’s coal. And why should us barons care about that?"

"Geez, my man - how thick can you get? Remember how the old-timers found out that money grows on trees? Well now we can dig money out of the ground!"

"Far out - let’s get busy!"

And thus was launched a century of rule by King Coal. Like kings of old, King Coal owned vast properties: coal under their land, coal under other people’s land, workers, legislatures, courts, and so much more - it was a Gilded Age! Of course someone had to do the dirty work, but they were easy to control and keep in their place - often a company house up a holler subject to eviction at the slightest provocation.

So they dug it, they stripped it, they removed mountains to get at it. Unimaginable quantities of coal and money were exported from our borders.

When an observer, often an outsider (culturally speaking we know how untrustworthy and suspicious these meddlers are) might observe that not EVERYONE was doing so hot from this pretty black rock, here’s what would be heard:

Some chest-thumping legislator or titan of industry stands up and bellows "We’re West Virginians! We’re tough!" Looking mystified, said observer turns to advisors. "What did he say?" Said advisors provide a translation. "He said, ‘Don’t be a crybaby. After a century of fouled water, polluted air, buried streams, poverty, poor health, devastated communities, destroyed landscapes, I would think you would get used to it and recognize this, the new normal. Get over it!’" Observer: "Ah ha - now I get it."

Fine irony: Even as King Coal’s domain shrinks, His stranglehold on the people and their "leaders" tightens.

Part The Third - A Case Of The Vapors

And then the Barons gave us gas. Not just yer grampa’s gas. No, a wondrous new gas - a technological marvel - with a fancy name, the Marcellus. Drillers pursue every molecule - a mile deep? a mile or even two distant? No problem - we can get it! Ain’t technology fracking marvelous?

Problems? Hey, everyone has to do their part for good jobs (if you emigrate here from Texas or Oklahoma), for clean energy (pay no attention to the leaking methane and carbon dioxide when gas burns), for American energy independence (as corporate America strains at the bit to ship this new gas to Europe and Asia). Water wells and streams poisoned, roads clogged and crumbled, air so bad residents have to move out of their homes from fear of being gassed in their sleep, explosions and furious fires? - these things happen, you have to break a few eggs to make an omelette! Suck it up! If you’ve got a beef, take it to the regulators (and try not to giggle when you say that). (See "The Joys Of Marcellus" in this issue.)

West Virginia’s story. "We’re a resource state." "We’re an energy state."

The untold story: "We’re a sacrifice zone." "We CAN become a CLEAN energy state."

 

---  Jim Sconyers, of Terra Alta, is president of WV Energy Savers

 

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