Kentucky Coal Blog » Mountaintop Mining

NMA Files Suit Against EPA and Army Corps over Moratorium on Appalachian Coal Permits

kentuckycoal — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 15:19:57 +0000

Press Release

For Immediate Release

Contact:
Carol Raulston
(202) 463-2610
craulston@nma.org

Luke Popovich
(202) 463-2620
lpopovich@nma.org

July 20, 2010

Washington, D.C. – The National Mining Association (NMA) today filed suit against the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) for unlawfully obstructing permitting of coal mining operations in the Central Appalachian coal region and beyond jeopardizing thousands of jobs and a vital supply of fuel to meet the nation’s electric power needs.

NMA’s lawsuit, filed in the Federal District Court for the District of Columbia, contends EPA and the Corps have circumvented clear requirements for public notice and comment of a host of federal statutes and ignored calls for peer-reviewed science as part of a deliberate policy to substitute agency “guidance” for formal rulemaking.

“NMA members’ efforts to navigate this unlawful process and obtain reasonable and predictable permit terms have been unsuccessful, leaving us no choice but to challenge the EPA and Corps policy in court,” said NMA President and CEO Hal Quinn. “Detailed agency guidance is not a valid substitute for lawful rulemaking based on public notice and comment,” Quinn explained. “The agencies’ continued abuse of the law to impose arbitrary standards on mining operations, state agencies and other federal regulatory bodies threatens the entire region with further economic misery and stagnant employment.”

Specifically, NMA says EPA and the Corps have violated the Administrative Procedures Act, the Clean Water Act, the National Environmental Policy Act and the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act by disregarding explicit requirements for public comment and formal rulemaking procedures. Moreover, EPA has usurped authorities clearly granted to the states and other federal agencies and has used technical benchmarks for assessing water quality that are both arbitrary and capricious.

In effect, said NMA, the result has been a de facto moratorium on coal mining that is irreparably harming NMA’s member companies, the welfare of coal communities and the economy. According to a May 21 report by the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Minority staff, nearly 18,000 new and existing jobs and more than 80 small businesses are jeopardized by the unlawful policy EPA and the Corps have applied to the 190 permits still awaiting action in mid-May. The loss of jobs and economic opportunity will continue to mount, as additional permits fall into the permitting nadir.

“The Corps is allowing EPA to impose unilateral control over coal mine permits throughout Appalachia, imposing a moratorium on jobs, energy production and the economic future of communities in the region. The faulty science at the heart of this policy serves no environmental good. These actions must be held to the same standard required of all substantive rules,” Quinn concluded.

For a copy of NMA’s complaint, see http://nma.org/pdf/tmp/072010_NMA_Complaint_ECP_Guidance.pdf.

For a copy of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Minority Staff Report, see http://nma.org/pdf/tmp/072010_Senate_Minority_Staff_Report.pdf

Rick Flesher: EPA’s new water standard is ridiculous

kentuckycoal — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 13:37:59 +0000

“A better balance is needed between man and mayflies”

THE U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has imposed a new standard on the coal industry in six Appalachian states, including West Virginia, for water quality around mine sites.

Specifically, the EPA has chosen a single test parameter known as “specific conductivity” to gauge the acceptability of a discharge.

As president of Standard Labs, a 60-year old West Virginia-based coal and environmental testing firm with 29 laboratories across the United States, I believe this threshold is arbitrary, simplistic, scientifically flawed, and unobtainable by most industrial processes.

EPA has established a conductivity threshold of 300 microSiemens per centimeter (uS/cm). Mine-site-related discharges with conductivity levels under 300 will be acceptable, while levels over 300 will not.

Conductivity is a measure of a solution’s ability to conduct an electrical current. Conductivity is normally proportional to its ion concentration, so the higher a solution’s ion concentration, the higher the conductivity result.

To Read the entire article click here: http://www.dailymail.com/Opinion/Commentary/201007050400

Senator Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) releases Statement on the Suspension of the Nationwide Permit 21 for Coal Mining

kentuckycoal — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 19:56:30 +0000

“The decision to suspend Nationwide Permit 21 for coal mining in Appalachia despite the public outcry is another attack on rural America. Once again, I am baffled that this Administration would threaten jobs in our Kentucky coal communities, especially at a time of double digit unemployment. The suspension will jeopardize the livelihoods of Kentucky coal miners, their families, and those whose jobs depend on coal production, and hamper job growth in the region.”

Congressman Hal Rogers Defends Kentucky Coal!

kentuckycoal — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 19:48:25 +0000

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 18, 2010

Contact: Stefani Zimmerman
(202) 225-4601

Rogers’ Statement on U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Indefinite Suspension of NWP-21

WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Congressman Hal Rogers (KY-05) released the following statement today in reaction to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ decision to indefinitely suspend Nationwide Permit 21 (NWP-21) in Appalachia:

“For years, Nationwide Permit-21 (NWP-21) has served as a valuable tool for the Corps and coal operators to expedite non-controversial mining permits. In recent years, NWP-21 guidelines have changed and participation diminished, but by outright cancelling this program in Appalachia, the Corps will force operators into further regulatory limbo where nearly 200 mining permits are already gathering dust. I have no faith that this Administration has the ability or desire to process and approve coal permitting applications. This latest action will result in further uncertainty for our people, and could lead some mines to shut down completely, or prohibit future mines from ever getting off the ground. Perhaps most egregious and unjustifiable, this ban only applies to Appalachian coal, granting other states the ability to legally proceed with their operations.

“Eastern Kentucky and Appalachia are national leaders in coal production, by far our most valuable and abundant energy resource. Throughout Appalachia, 1 in 4 mining jobs is threatened by these politically-motivated delays in the permitting process, and 81 small businesses in the region stand to close their doors because of these delays. Today’s announcement, in conjunction with the permit-processing backlog, the President’s misguided “Cap and Trade” bill, and EPA’s bizarre carbon dioxide endangerment policy, amounts to another nail in the coffin for Appalachian mining. With unemployment hovering at 10% and 20,000 hard-working Kentuckians relying on this industry for their livelihoods, this White House is doing nothing short of waging war on coal, putting our nation’s economic and energy security at risk.”

Hearing set on EPA plan to revoke mine permit

kentuckycoal — Tue, 18 May 2010 15:33:32 +0000

The Associated Press

The Herald-Dispatch

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — Coal producers and environmentalists are planning to give the Environmental Protection Agency an earful about the fate of what would be West Virginia’s largest surface coal mine.

The agency is holding a public hearing on St. Louis-based Arch Coal’s Spruce No. 1 mine at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Charleston Civic Center.

The EPA says it’s going to veto the water quality permit granted for the Logan County mine in 2007. The problem? EPA says Arch plans to buy seven miles of intermittent streams with mine waste and that would hurt water quality.

Environmental groups and coal industry associations from West Virginia and Kentucky say they’re planning to testify as well as hold rallies.

A Response From KCA President Bill Bissett on EPA’s Recent Action

kentuckycoal — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 17:53:00 +0000

EPA MOVES TO END COAL MINING IN SIX APPALACHIAN STATES

Explanation

On April 1 the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued comprehensive guidance to its regional offices with Clean Water Act permitting responsibilities in the Appalachian states which clarifies requirements of Section 402 and 404 of the Clean Water Act relating to the effects of surface mining activities on watercourses in the area. The principal element of the guidance is a directive that the conductivity of waters affected by mining activities be maintained at a level that does not exceed 500 microSiemens per centimeter. Conductivity is a measure of water’s ability to conduct an electric current and is commonly used to determine the extent to which salts, such as sulfate and bicarbonate, are present in the water.

Objections

The EPA is acting unlawfully through a process that they established. They are not following the clear rule-making guidelines in an attempt to rush these new water guidelines into practice.

The EPA is acting without input from their own review committee, which they established for these kind of complicated decisions. They are now sending the guidelines to review committee, but will begin evaluation of all new permits prior to the review committee’s recommendation.

No other industry is expected to meet these guidelines…yet. As explained above, Conductivity is affected by any industry that disturbs dirt or rock and involves the use of water resources. Granted, coal mining, whether surface or underground, involves such movement of dirt and rock and involves the use of water. However, road construction, building development, agriculture, and a wide variety of other industries have similar environmental impacts, but this new guideline will not be applied to them.

Six states – Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia – must adhere to these guidelines. What about the other forty-four states? Why just these six states?

These guidelines were produced with no input from the mining industry. No one from the coal industry was asked in advance to provide input on these guidelines.

These guidelines were announced without any consideration about how negatively this action would damage the states where it is being enforced. The EPA continues to operate in a vacuum and takes action with no regard for how their decision will decimate economies outside of Washington DC.

Long-Range Implications

These changes will eventually shut down the vast majority of Kentucky’s coal mining operations, which will cause massive layoffs in rural areas of the Commonwealth. Additionally, Kentucky will produce less coal, which will increase the price that consumers and companies pay for electricity.

This action will negatively impact surface and underground mining. This issue is not about water quality. If it were about water quality, it would apply to all dischargers and all fifty states. The issue could result is in the end of coal mining in Appalachia.

Economic Snapshot of Coal Mining in Kentucky

In 2008, 120 million tons of coal were mined in Kentucky.

Coal mining in Kentucky employs more than 17,000 miners. For every one coal miner, three other jobs depend on this one miner for their existence, thus increasing the employment connected to coal to nearly 70,000 jobs.

Currently, Kentucky has the fourth-lowest electric rate in the nation.

EPA crackdown on mountaintop coal mining criticized as contradictory

kentuckycoal — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 15:24:07 +0000

By David A. Fahrenthold

Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, January 28, 2010

CHARLESTON, W.VA. — Here in coal country, President Obama’s ambitious Environmental Protection Agency has met its first big mess.

On Inauguration Day, the EPA began a crackdown on “mountaintop” coal mines. The agency has scrutinized about 175 proposed mines, where peaks would be blasted off and valleys filled in with the rubble. It has signed off on only 48.

EPA officials — repeating a refrain from a fast-marching first year in which they also took on greenhouse gases and the seemingly eternal problems of the Chesapeake Bay — say they’re just following the law. That, they say, means keeping poisonous things from the inside of a mountain out of streams on the surface.

But to many people in Appalachia, the orders coming out of Washington, especially one this month, have appeared contradictory and mysterious, signing off on some mines and blocking others. Environmentalists are unhappy because they fear federal officials are losing their nerve to take on the powerful coal industry. The coal industry is unhappy because it thinks the administration is on the brink of giving in to the green crowd.

To each side, it looks like the EPA hasn’t made up its mind. Which would make now the time to yell as loudly as possible.

People have chained themselves to mine equipment and shouted one another down. One scooted past state troopers to slap an environmentalist. The EPA finds itself in the middle of the most bitter in-your-face environmental fight in America today, facing an early test of its resolve and political skills. The agency appears certain to bear much of the weight of carrying out Obama’s historic environmental agenda.

“They didn’t have a well-thought-out plan whenever they did this. And that’s really been the basis of the uproar,” said Randy Huffman, secretary of West Virginia’s Department of Environmental Protection, which EPA officials say has not been tough enough on mines in the past. Now, he said, confusion over the EPA’s intentions “creates fear, and that brings out the worst in people.”

A sign of fear

The latest sign of that fear came last Thursday, in an auditorium at the University of Charleston. A debate between a coal-company chief executive and environmentalist Robert F. Kennedy Jr., which attracted more than 1,000 people split between the two sides, had security reminiscent of a presidential visit or a prison rodeo.

Eight police officers were in the room, and two more with metal detectors guarded the door outside. No purses allowed. No backpacks. No weapons. Just to talk.

“The current EPA, which won’t give a permit for anything for any reason . . . they’re the ones that’s going to cost people their jobs and weaken homeland security,” said Don Blankenship, chairman and chief executive of Richmond-based Massey Energy, a major player in mountaintop mining. In the audience, coal miners, wearing uniforms striped with orange-and-silver reflective tape so coal trucks don’t run them over, cheered.

On Monday, Gov. Joe Manchin III (D) issued a plea for an end to intimidation of people fighting mountaintop mining. “We will not in any way, shape or form in this state of West Virginia tolerate any violence against anyone on any side. If you’re going to have the dialogue, have respect for each other,” he said after a meeting with environmentalists and anti-mining activists.

Mountaintop mining, also called “mountaintop removal,” is an exclusively Appalachian practice, dating to the 1970s but having gained momentum in the past 20 years. To get at coal seams that are too thin or too close to the surface to reach by tunneling, miners use explosives and huge machinery to remove the peak above the coal.

In most cases, the law requires that companies rebuild the mountain to its original shape. But leftover rubble is usually left in nearby valleys. There, scientists say, rainwater seeps over rocks that had previously been far underground. That can release trace amounts of salt and toxic metals, which can kill life in streams and cause health problems for people who drink the water.

This practice was deemed legal: From 2000 to 2008, federal and state authorities gave permission for 511 valley fills in West Virginia, according to the Government Accountability Office. Put back to back, the GAO estimated, it was the equivalent of filling a single valley at least 176 miles long.

But Obama’s EPA signaled a new attitude early on by notifying the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers — which issues permits to these mines — of its concerns about a mine in West Virginia. The 175 similar sites it has since scrutinized, including new applications, are spread across West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, Pennsylvania and Ohio.

Clarity debated

At the EPA, officials say they’re not out to stamp out mountaintop mining altogether — this month they approved a West Virginia mine permit after the company promised changes to reduce its effect on streams by nearly 50 percent.

But to many environmentalists and coal-industry leaders, the EPA’s actions have seemed erratic and uncertain. It has criticized some mines and approved others, both sides say, without drawing a clear line between good and bad. Activists on both sides say the agency hasn’t always been clear about what criteria it is using to make the distinction — making it hard to guess what mines will make the cut in the future.

EPA official Peter Silva said there was no problem with the clarity of the EPA’s message.

“The notion of ‘clarity’ invoked by some West Virginia officials and industry representatives has too often meant letting coal companies do as they please, with little or no consideration for the harmful impacts on Americans living in coal country,” Silva said. EPA officials declined to comment on the record beyond this statement.

Adding to the confusion: The Interior Department rejected a Bush-era rule considered friendly to mines, then said it wouldn’t have a replacement ready for more than a year. And a Corps of Engineers official rejected an EPA request to revisit a permit given to a particularly large mine, leading the EPA to threaten a first-of-its-kind environmental veto.

“We really don’t know where this is going,” said Jason Bostic of the West Virginia Coal Association. He said his organization has passed the message to miners that the agency might hamstring an industry that is still crucial here, though mountaintop mining only accounts for about 10 percent of U.S. coal production. “If there’s going to be a change to EPA’s attitude, everybody’s got to work together.”

On the other side, environmentalist Mike Roselle said the EPA’s actions were reason to redouble a campaign of civil disobedience. Roselle, a veteran of campaigns against logging in the Northwest, has imported the same tactics and even some of the same people here. In the past year, he said, members of his Climate Ground Zero group have been arrested 150 times after sitting in trees on mine sites or chaining themselves to company equipment.

“We know for a fact that, when we shut down a mine, that somebody in the White House is aware of it,” he said. Mine companies have said the practice is dangerous for both workers and protesters.

What’s passed between the two sides has been mild, at least in a state where miners and mine companies used to shoot it out with rifles. But there have been flash points: At a public hearing in the fall, environmentalists say they were shouted down. At a march last year, a woman in a reflective-tape shirt stepped past the troopers standing guard and slapped local activist Julia Bonds. “They don’t seem to understand the difference between nonviolence and violence,” Bonds said.

At the debate last Thursday, with an unusually high police presence, neither side did anything worse than laugh at the other’s speaker. But about an hour away, at a Massey Energy mine, sirens were in the woods.

Three activists had climbed into trees, Roselle said, and Massey security guards were using loud noises to stop them from sleeping and get them to come down.

On Wednesday, Roselle said a tree-sitter had descended because of gear that had become wet. The other two remained. He said he was pleased that the protest had caused headaches for Massey and the West Virginia government. “It absolutely worked,” he said.

Environmentalists hold tree sit-in at Massey mine

kentuckycoal — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 18:55:00 +0000

Williamson Daily News – January 21, 2010

Three environmentalists have climbed trees at Massey Energy’s Beetree Surface Mine in southern West Virginia to protest mountaintop removal coal mining.

Climate Ground Zero and Mountain Justice identified them Thursday as 23-year-old David A. Smith, 19-year-old Amber Nitchman and 28-year-old Eric Blevins. The groups say they’re sitting on platforms about 60 feet above the ground.

Organizers say the protesters want a federal ban on mountaintop removal mining to preserve sites such as nearby Coal River Mountain, among other things.

Massey spokesman Jeff Gillenwater says protesters are endangering themselves and miners and will waste taxpayer money if police get involved. Gillenwater says Coal River Mountain has been extensively mined, but the current operation doesn’t use mountaintop techniques.

CEO Don Blakenship & Environmental lawyer Robert F. Kennedy Jr. debated Thursday night

kentuckycoal — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 19:41:27 +0000

By Ken Ward Jr

Massey Energy President Don Blankenship and environmental lawyer Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Thursday evening debated the future of coal and the science of climate change, agreeing on little but drawing still more national attention to the crucial issues that face the Appalachian coalfields.

Blankenship said coal has built the nation and must remain strong to protect national security and ensure a high quality of life for Americans.

“The mission statement for coal is prosperity for this country,” Blankenship told a packed house at the University of Charleston. “This industry is what made this country great and if we forget that, we’re going to have to learn to speak Chinese.”

But Kennedy argued giant mining machines have cost thousands of miners their jobs at the same time that mountaintop removal has been destroying ancient peaks, burying and otherwise polluting pristine streams and eliminating once-vital rural communities.

“This is the worst environmental crime that has ever happened in our history,” Kennedy said. “These companies are liquidating this state for cash with these gigantic machines.”

Blankenship, the coal industry’s most outspoken executive, and Kennedy, the passionate son of the late U.S. Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, squared off in what organizers billed as a “Forum on the Future of Energy.”

The University of Charleston hosted the event and the school’s president, Ed Welch, moderated the 90-minute discussion. A capacity crowd filled a nearly 1,000-seat auditorium and overflowed into a nearby gymnasium to watch on giant video screens. It was televised and broadcast via radio statewide and on the Internet around the world.

Coal industry supporters scheduled a “Stand up for Jobs Rally” before the debate, but it appeared disorganized and a cold, heavy rain may have reduced any enthusiasm for it. Across town earlier in the day, environmental activists hung a large anti-mountaintop removal banner on the South Side Bridge in downtown Charleston.

A significant contingent of regional, national and even international media attended, drawn by the star power of the Kennedy name and Blankenship’s reputation for bluntly defending the coal industry.

Blankenship has argued that global warming is a fraud or “Ponzi scheme,” and complained that out-of-state environmental “extremists” are wrongly trying to shut down mountaintop removal mining. Kennedy has said Blankenship’s company is a “criminal enterprise” that destroys mountains, pollutes streams and endangers the safety of its workers.

Welch had said prior to the event that he hoped to push Kennedy and Blankenship to get beyond sound bites and actually discuss coal and energy issues with him.

“We don’t do a very good job in our society of having reasonable arguments or discussions of important issues,” Welch said Thursday morning on the MetroNews radio show “Talkline.” “I’m going to push the participants to go beyond the sound bites and really respond to each other, and see if we can find some common ground.”

And Blankenship and Kennedy indeed did engage directly a few times, most notably when Kennedy rattled off a list of Massey’s continued Clean Water Act violations — thousands of them in a recent year — and asked the coal executive if mountaintop removal could be done without violating the law.

Debate puts mining in spotlight

kentuckycoal — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 17:31:26 +0000

January 17, 2010 @ 12:00 AM

JEAN TARBETT HARDIMAN

The Herald-Dispatch

CHARLESTON — West Virginia’s mountains, its people, and their jobs and health will likely be the focus of discussion between environmentalist Robert Kennedy Jr. and coal executive Don Blankenship, who face off in a debate Thursday, Jan. 21, at the University of Charleston.

The event, Forum on the Future of Energy, begins at 6:30 p.m. in Geary Auditorium and all tickets have been taken. Each side was allowed to invite some guests, and UC President Edwin H. Welch will moderate the event.

Another 2,000 seats will be open to the public for a live remote broadcast in Eddie King Gymnasium at the university.

The debate is a chance to flesh out an argument that’s critical to the future of West Virginians, Welch said in a release.

“The future direction of U.S. energy policy is a vital concern to the people of West Virginia, many of whom rely on the coal industry for their livelihood,” he said.

To Blankenship, chairman and CEO of Massey Energy, the forum is an opportunity to share his take on the future of coal.

“The energy forum is an opportunity to clarify what I believe is the right direction for our country’s future regarding energy policy, the economy and national security,” he said. “Millions of Americans are without jobs in this country, and policies supported by politicians in D.C. and activists like Mr. Kennedy won’t make things better for families.”

Kennedy is chief prosecuting attorney for the Hudson Riverkeeper and president of the Waterkeeper Alliance, which advocates for the right to fishable, swimmable and drinkable waterways worldwide. He talked at length with The Herald-Dispatch about his thoughts on the dangers of mountaintop removable to the landscape, the waterways and the people of West Virginia, in terms of their health and the state economy.

“Mountaintop removal is the worst manmade catastrophe in the nation’s history,” he said. “It’s also an economic catastrophe for West Virginia. The coal industry, while promising prosperity to the state, has devastated communities across the state.”

He said mountaintop mines have resulted in mercury in the state’s watersheds, coal ash poisoning drinking water, ozone and particulates that sicken citizens with asthma and other ailments, not to mention global warming. Not one fish in West Virginia is now safe to eat because of mercury poisoning, he said.

“If a terrorist did these things, we’d consider it an act of war,” he said.

He said he’s never met Blankenship before and is looking at Thursday’s debate as a chance to “let the sun in.”

Massey Energy — which is based in Richmond, Va., and is central Appalachia’s largest coal producer — recently received a notice of intent to sue by the Sierra Club, the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition, Coal River Mountain Watch and the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy. The suit claims that Massey has continued to violate the Clean Water Act, even after a settlement in which Massey was ordered to pay $20 million for previous violations.

Meanwhile, Blankenship is featured in the current issue of Rolling Stone Magazine in an article titled “The Climate Killers: Meet the 17 polluters and deniers who are derailing efforts to curb global warming.” The article criticizes Blankenship for his reported denial of global warming and his reported record of bribery to “bend politics to his will.”

Blankenship declined comment on the “Rolling Stone” article and on accusations of violating the Clean Water Act. He also declined comment on accusations that mountaintop mining affects the health of the Appalachian people.

He did say, “I hope the thousands of people who attend and watch the event come away with a better understanding of where our country is headed and how we can make things better.”

According to the West Virginia Coal Association, nearly 166 million tons of coal were mined in West Virginia in 2009. That includes 97.4 million tons from underground mines, and 68.4 million tons from surface mines.

The association reports that coal companies employed 46,416 West Virginians last year. It reported that 14,678 of those jobs were in underground mines, and 6,249 were at surface mines, along with other coal-related jobs.

According to the report, surface mining produces 40 percent of West Virginia’s coal, while requiring much less manpower.

Kennedy charges that coal companies tout the jobs they provide in the mining communities, but are offering fewer and fewer jobs all the time because of increased automation.

Why is it, he asked, that a state so rich in natural resources — being the nation’s second biggest coal producer behind Wyoming — is continuously ranking so high in poverty, and so poorly in the health and education of its residents? He claimed that the people who benefit from the coal industry the most are out-of-state investors, rather than the people in the mining communities, he said.

“I’ve been to places like Whitesville, Lindytown,” he said. “These are ghost towns, where Massey has come in and bought out the towns, forced out the residents and plowed them under.”

He said he remembers his father, the late U.S. Sen. Robert Kennedy, talking a great deal about coal mining in West Virginia. Robert Kennedy Sr. and brothers — former President John Kennedy and the late U.S. Sen. Ted Kennedy — spent a great deal of time in the state about 50 years ago, fighting for John Kennedy’s nomination to the presidency in 1960. The state became known historically for helping John Kennedy win that nomination, and became a beloved place to the family, Robert Kennedy Jr. said.

Mining is “an issue that concerned my father deeply that he talked about to me personally on many occasions,” he said. “My father talked to me about strip mining, which was on a tiny scale compared to what they’re doing today. He was terrified.”

Perpetuating the problem is that government regulators aren’t doing their job, he said.

“One of the things that Massey has done is corrupt the state agencies,” he said. “It’s a dynamic by which regulatory agencies become the captive spokesperson for the agencies they’re supposed to regulate. … It’s a submersion of democracy.”

When asked if he thinks there’s a middle ground and a future for clean coal, Kennedy said he thinks other forms of energy will alleviate the need for coal.

“I don’t think coal can survive in the marketplace,” Kennedy said. “I’ve been involved in a solar thermal company that’s building solar thermal plants in the western deserts. There are 120 companies now building these plants.”

He said they cost the same as a coal plant, but once they’re built, they don’t need to have a substance like coal to process.

“Now, you have to cut down the Appalachian Mountains and ship them across the country,” he said, adding that further costs are damage to the landscape, water and health of citizens.

“I think the challenge for leadership and industry in West Virginia is to look at the resources of the state and to start using imagination and energy to try to develop a sustainable future for the state, one that’s not going to leave rivers, streams and landscapes destroyed,” he said.

Watch the debate

The Forum on the Future of Energy featuring Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Don Blankenship will take place at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 21, at the University of Charleston’s Geary Auditorium. Tickets for auditorium seats are gone, but there are several other options to watch and listen.

On TV: WOWK-TV Channel 13 will televise the debate beginning at 6:30 p.m.

Live remote: A live broadcast will be shown at the Eddie King Gymnasium of the University of Charleston, which holds about 2,000. Admission is first come, first serve.

Web broadcasts: The broadcast also will be shown at www.wowktv.com, www.wboy.com, www.wtrf.com, www.wvnstv.com.