2007

Appalachian Coalfield Residents Present Sustainable Energy Policy

by Kim Rodgers

The explosive equivalent of 58 Hiroshima-sized atomic bombs is detonated every year by coal companies in Appalachia.

-Based on the USGS Explosives Yearbook, 2005

Coal mining detonation in Appalachia (above). Appalachian Coalfield Delegation releases position paper on sustainable energy to the United Nations (below). photos courtesy of Save Our Cumberland Mountains.

The people living in Appalachia experience the effects of mountaintop removal coal mining everyday—their mountains, their health, their livelihood, and their communities are all being sacrificed for coal. Although coal extraction is destroying Appalachia and burning coal releases more climate changing carbon dioxide emissions than petroleum, coal's abundance in the U.S. has made so-called clean coal one of the Bush Administration's favored "alternative" energy sources. While it is possible to "scrub" the carbon dioxide out of coal emissions (making it "clean"), largely untested proposals for long-term underground storage present the possibility of potentially catastrophic future releases. Moreover, no energy source can rightly be called clean when its extraction causes widespread devastation. A coalition of Appalachian coalfield organizations seeks to highlight these contradictions and encourage energy sources that are truly sustainable from extraction through impacts on climate change.

DataCenter South collaborated with a coalition of 7 grassroots organizations from 5 Appalachian states to produce a policy position paper that documents coalfield residents' experience with mountaintop removal coal mining and presents concrete policy recommendations. The Coalfield Delegation member organizations are Appalachian Voices, Coal River Mountain Watch, Kentuckians for the Commonwealth, the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition, Save Our Cumberland Mountains, Clearfork Community Institute. The position paper combines the existing academic, government and community research on mining impacts with the personal stories of people living in the coalfields. Community members and organizers from all five states developed consensus policy recommendations, addressing both the direct impacts of mountaintop removal mining, as well as recognizing their solidarity with other communities impacted by fossil fuel extraction and the broader climate change implications of continued reliance on fossil fuels like coal. In May, the coalition sent a delegation of coalfield residents to present their policy recommendations to the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development in New York City with the hope of shifting the UN definition of sustainable energy to take into account the experience of communities impacted by extraction.

For further information see:
Appalachian Coalition's Coalfield Delegation - Home

For a copy of the report see:
Appalachian Coalfield Delegation Position Paper on Sustainable Energy

Kim Rodger is an Information Activist at DataCenter South.