This letter is an open letter to the Congressional Delegation representing the citizens of West Virginia.
The issue related to what the Obama Administration is doing to the coal industry, particularly in southern West Virginia, is an atrocity and putting our state on the road to total collapse. This is not just the coal industry that is being jeopardized in West Virginia. It is every potential job that the coal industry impacts in this state as well as the various taxes that are dependent upon by state government and other public entities.
It seems that you, as elected officials of this State have lost site of what the coal industry does not only for West Virginia but for the nation as a whole as an essential source of energy. Your colleagues in the Senate and House of Representatives such as Ms. Pelosi and Mr. Reed obviously do not realize what this nation would be like without coal. They take for granted that when a switch is flipped in their homes and offices that the light will always be there.
The average person in West Virginia who lives here not in Washington, D.C., is extremely concerned as to what our new President and the congressional delegation representing all states (including you) is doing to protect the future of one of our most precious energy sources! Stop and ask them. All of you need to listen to what’s being said in all parts of our state. We need the coal industry to prosper in order to continue being a state and not to have to wait 5 years for a coal permit to be granted by the EPA.
If obvious improvements are not made in how the powers at be handle decisions made pertaining to the coal industry, we might as well switch back to being a part of Virginia. Just think; if this would happen, you would be out of a job!
J. Bruce Dunlap
Charleston
Obama is just setting us all up for control. Give some thought to the wind generators that are being protested in West Virginia. These wind mills will be beneficial to all that want a greener world. Hold that thought.
Surface mining, another issue that the three-huggers hold dear to their hearts. Why don't we just regress to the industrial revolution and negate all they have done?
Give it some thought people. If we as a Nation had not moved forward with the times we would still be living in a dark age, probably dominated by another Nation that had enough sense to see the light.
Most people think locally but we must think globally. If we don't think of survival in a global sense we are doomed to perish at the hands of those whom want our resources.
Give this some thought on a macro sense. Surface mining provides economics to your survival. Jobs for the miners, the mechanics, the people who provide the machinery, the admind people, the regulators, taxes to pay for infrastructor, etc. Close down all this and your stuff is weak.
My advice is not to complain about small stuff and look at the big picture. You can have a bowl of rice each day by being a wimp or have some chicken with your rice by looking at the Big Picture.
Mining is the life-blood of West Virginia. It has been for many years. Those tree-huggers that complain about surface mining have not experienced the renewal of land that Mama Nature has taken millions of years to allow us to survive. All we are doing is reaping the benefits provided us by Mother Nature. When all is said and done the flora and fauna they complain that has been displaced will soon come back to the reclaimed lands and smile at us humans for the gift.
At any rate, the Appalachians are the oldest mountain range on earth. We are just helping her to reclaim past glory. Level it off and give her a chance. We won't be around to to enjoy her rejuvenation.
Surface mining has created a rest stop for migratory birds to take a break from those long flights by lighting down on a nice pond provided by the reclamation efforts. Lots of grass for the fauna too.
Bleeding hearts should give thought to the big picture. You won't be around to see the results.