Senator Robert Byrd Rips Into Mining Industry for Putting Coal Above People

Late last year, as Democrats were considering climate change bills and the Obama administration was mulling new regulations to rein in mountaintop removal coal mining, Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.), a longtime defender of the coal industry and the jobs it creates in Appalachia, shocked observers in Washington and West Virginia alike when he called on the coal industry to embrace the changes happening around them.

“West Virginians can choose to anticipate change and adapt to it, or resist and be overrun by it,” he wrote at the time.

On Wednesday, May 5, 2010, the 92-year-old Sen. Robert C. Byrd called for a reconsideration of West Virginia's relationship with coal mining, saying the industry cannot be allowed to dominate the state's politics while causing needless deaths and environmental damage.

"Coal brings much needed jobs and revenue to our economy," the West Virginia Democrat wrote in a new commentary. "But the industry has a larger footprint, including inherent responsibilities that must be acknowledged by the industry."

Byrd issued the piece in response to the nation's worst coal-mining disaster in 40 years, the April 5 explosion that killed 29 miners at Massey Energy's Upper Big Branch Mine in Raleigh County.

"As we seek to understand how and why the Upper Big Branch disaster occurred, we might also re-examine conventional wisdom about the future of the coal industry in our state," Byrd said.

“The monolithic power of industry should never dominate our politics to the detriment of local communities,” he wrote in an op-ed featured in the local press.

He was referring not only to the practice of mountaintop removal, but the absence of concern for miner safety that’s been the focus of great interest since 29 miners were killed in Montcoal, W.Va., exactly a month ago.

Byrd goes so far as to threaten irresponsible companies with extinction, and he states that the coal industry "must respect the miner and his family."
A single miner’s life is certainly worth the expense and effort required to enhance safety. West Virginia has some of the highest quality coal in the world, and mining it should be considered a privilege, not a right.

Any company that establishes a pattern of negligence resulting in injuries and death should be replaced by a company that conducts business more responsibly. No doubt many energy companies are keen for a chance to produce West Virginia coal.

The target here, of course, is Massey Energy — for reasons that become clearer each day. Not only does the Virginia-based coal giant own the mine where last month’s Montcoal blast occurred, but more and more Massey employees, both active and former, are coming forward with horror stories about the safety policies of the company.

But there’s more. Byrd then takes on the industry over mountaintop removal, a practice in which companies blast the tops off of mountains to reach the coal seams inside. In the process, the excess soil, rock and other debris are pushed into adjacent valleys, many of which contain the headwater streams for larger bodies of water below.

“The industry of coal must also respect the land that yields the coal, as well as the people who live on the land,” Byrd wrote. “If the process of mining destroys nearby wells and foundations, if blasting and digging and relocating streams unearths harmful elements and releases them into the environment causing illness and death, that process should be halted and the resulting hazards to the community abated.”

Byrd ended his remarks by saying, "The old chestnut that 'coal is West Virginia's greatest natural resource' deserves revision. I believe that our people are West Virginia's most valuable resource. We must demand to be treated as such."

Source:
Washington Independent,"Byrd Rips Into Mining Industry for Putting Coal Above People", accessed May 5, 2010
The Charleston Gazette, "Byrd calls for re-examination of state's relationship with coal", by Ken Ward, Jr. accessed May 5,2010