Mountain
Mourning Collection 
MARCELLUS SHALE "FRACKING"
WHOSE BOOM? WHOSE BUST?
The gas industry has rushed into Central Appalachia at a pace that is overwhelming informed citizen decision-making. The discovery that horizontal hydraulic fracturing of the deep Marcellus Shale can bring trillions of cubic feet of natural gas to harvest is bringing in a drilling industry stampede that is already overwhelming certain areas in Pennsylvania and West Virginia, with parts of Ohio, New York, and Maryland lining up. This new phenomenon is highly controversial in ways not dissimilar to the controversies revolving around coal. Arguments rage over jobs vs. environment; domestic energy vs. imported energy; private property rights vs. community rights.
One can find countless reams of information about Marcellus Shale Fracking. What is needed, we feel, is a recapitulation of basic Biblical/Theological concepts on God-given human responsibilities that can point us in a moral/ethical direction. Please see this link for MORE>>>
BEYOND BUSINESS AS USUAL
FORWARD TO A NEW ENERGY FUTURE
Appalachia's future is closely tied to national energy policy. "Business
As Usual" fossil fuel extraction economy will doom large swaths of
Appalachia to even more wrenching poverty as the coalfields are depleted
leaving in their wake destroyed ecosystems and hopeless communities. These
areas have mono-economies, with weak infrastructure, almost nonexistent
opportunities except for the boom/bust coal cycle, and unattractive "quality
of living."
The key is to develop national
energy policy that is clean, sustainable, renewable, and that provides high
quality of life. The way through to this future is increasingly becoming
clear as studies are showing. What is needed is public policy change that
will drive forward this new future. And public policy change will require
strong grassroots organizing to educate and mobilize the population.
Civil
Society Institute has produced through Synapse
Energy Economics, Inc. well-researched studies that show the way to
this future. The most recent report, released November 16, 2011, Toward A Sustainable Future For the US Power Sector, demonstrates that a clean energy future relying primarily upon current technologies of renewables and energy conservation is feasible and affordable, and even money saving. See here for a co-joint press release by CFTM, Coal River Mountain Watch, and Ohio Valley Envirobnmental Coalition.Beyond Business As Usual (Beyond
BAU) provides an objective analysis of the cost of moving away from
coal and nuclear fuels toward efficiency and renewables. This report finds
that the full coal fleet could be retired and replaced by 2050 at no net
cost to ratepayers. Benefits Of Beyond BAU: Human, Social,
and Environmental Damages Avoided through the Retirement of the US Coal
Fleet expands the earlier study to include the toxic externalities currently
imposed upon the population. These studies were published in 2010 and 2011.
HIghly recommended!!!
THE TRUE COST OF COAL
What the Electric Bill Does Not Show...
The
cost of coal is only partly shown in an electric power bill. Hidden costs
are pawned off onto the public (both present and future) in impaired health
and morbidity, in ecological devastation, in climate chaos, in destroyed
communities, in a legacy of poverty and despair, and in compromised public
policymakers.
Numerous studies and surveys
conclude that the coal industry costs the economy far more than it contributes.
For the public to subsidize coal is outrageous and needs to end. See this
link for MORE>>>
Peer-reviewed
studies are beginning to roll in that confirm what coalfield activists have
suspected for a long time. That is, communities under the shadow of mountaintop
removal have much higher rates of serious health impairment and morbidity.
High rates of Birth Defects are also now linked to Mountaintop Removal.
A nation with conscience cannot tolerate environmental pollution to "the
least of these" (Matthew 25:31-46). Please urge your church to understand
this as a crucial life issue!!! 
Citizens extended their thanks to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency,
the one government agency that has begun to take steps to protect them from
that oppression, pollution, poison, disease, and destruction of their homes
and communities. The Environmental Protection Agency is weathering a storm
of well-financed assaults from the coal industry, whose narrow vision puts
profits before people, sickens families, and eliminates mountain communities
— their pasts, presents, and futures. 
Hundreds
of people convened the first week of June, 2011, for a “
