The Alliance for Appalachia

From Coal River Mountain Watch’s Blog, Mountain Holler

Windmills at an existing Wind Farm in West Virginia

Coal River Mountain Watch, along with the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition and Appalachian Voices, has just launched an exciting new campaign to bring a wind farm to Coal River Mountain.

Coal River Mountain is one of the last mountains left intact in the beautiful Coal River Valley of West Virginia. However, Massey Energy has plans to mine 6600 acres of the mountain – almost 10 square miles.

Fortunately, there is an alternative to mountaintop removal mining – wind power. This is a unique opportunity to move our nation and West Virginia toward the production of clean energy, and to preserve our nation’s mountains for generations to come.

This wind farm would:

· Create Jobs 200 local employment opportunities during construction, and 50 permanent jobs during the life of the wind farm. It takes only 27 years for a wind farm to provide a greater number of one-year jobs than the four surface mines combined.

The proposed mountaintop removal mine on Coal River Mountain

· Create Energy – Provide 440MW or enough energy for 150,000 homes – indefinitely, as well as a sustained tax income that could be used for the construction of new schools for the county.

· Create Economic Potential – Allow for concurrent uses of the mountain including harvesting of wild ginseng and valuable forest plants, sustainable forestry, and mountain tourism, as Coal River Mountain is one of West Virginia’s finest mountains.

· Preserve Heritage – Coal River Mountain has provided for the people of the Coal River Valley for generations. A mountaintop removal mine would block residents from the mountain and destroy the lands ancestors once lived on, as well as the family cemeteries they rest in.

· Protect the Land and Community – More than 500,000 acres in West Virginia alone have been destroyed by surface mining. Mountaintop Removal mining buries and poisons drinking water, increases flooding, damages homes and personal property, and devastates wildlife habitat.

Please visit www.CoalRiverWind.org for more information and to get involved.  And dont forget to sign the petition and tell your friends to do the same.

Coal River Mountain from nearby Kayford mountain which lost 550 MW of wind energy potential when the 10,000+ acre Surface mine went it.