West Virginians Down to Last Mountain – Yet Wind Income Would be 50 Times More

November 20th, 2010 by Susan Kraemer

Having permanently removed a staggering 500 mountains in West Virginia to supply a temporary fix of “cheap” coal, Big Coal is now down to the very last one in the region. Virginia-based Massey Energy, the fourth largest coal company in the US, has begun to level 6,000 acres of Coal River Mountain, the last mountain standing.

Desperate local residents of Coal River Valley banded together and formed the Coal River Mountain Wind Project. They financed an independent study to compare the economics of a wind project instead. What they found is truly staggering.

Their study found that one typical sized 392 MW wind farm on Coal River Mountain would provide provide 80-90 permanent jobs for the community and pay the county a staggering $1.7 million in revenue every year. The site is rated as a prime wind power resource – at least if the mountain remains.

By contrast, continued mountaintop removal would provide the county with only $36,000 in annual revenue—and only for 17 years, till it runs out… Read more…

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Tags: Coal River Mountain, Massey Energy, resource curse, study, wind potential

About the Author

Susan Kraemer writes at CleanTechnica, CSP-Today, PV-Insider , SmartGridUpdate, and GreenProphet. She has also been published at Ecoseed, NRDC OnEarth, MatterNetwork, Celsius, EnergyNow, and Scientific American. As a former serial entrepreneur in product design, Susan brings an innovator's perspective on inventing a carbon-constrained civilization: If necessity is the mother of invention, solving climate change is the mother of all necessities! As a lover of history and sci-fi, she enjoys chronicling the strange future we are creating in these interesting times. Follow Susan on Twitter @dotcommodity.

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http://tinyurl.com/WindEnergyHelp Wind Farmer Support

I’m amazed at how unworkable coal is. All the more reason to find new ways to get renewable energy up and running. I just looked into these guys who are working on commercialized wind energy: tinyurl.com/WindEnergyHelp
http://www.ohjustsavingtheworld.com johnatron

I love how climate change skeptics think environmentalists are so arrogant as to believe little ol’ us can cause a change in something so all-encompassing as the planet’s atmosphere, but glaze over the fact that WE CAN LITERALLY MOVE MOUNTAINS!! Humanity is capable of some pretty unimaginable things…for better or worse.
- http://cleantechnica.com/author/susan Susan Kraemer
  
  Indeed.
  
  But, actually, we are not even the first of earth’s creatures to alter the atmosphere. We, (and all other oxygen breathers) would not have evolved over millions of years if not for Cyanobacteria, who put the oxygen in our air. If much tinier microbes can permanently alter earths atmosphere for millennia, completely changing what kinds of creatures can evolve in it – so can midsize mammals like us.
WV Treehugger

I live in WV this makes me sick to my stomach. This last MTN is just miles away from where i live. Big Coal in our state will not allow any Clean Energy jobs to come into WV. They put the FEAR factor into our Miner’s. Making the rest of us who want Clean Energy jobs suffer. My husband used to work underground until UBB happened and i made him quit. He didn’t work underground by choice , its because they are no other High paying jobs in WV, to support your family. I couldnt tell you how many men work underground that have College degrees that could work for these Green jobs,but our state will fight till their DEATH for Coal. Meanwhile it’s killing our Land,Air,Water and most of all our MEN/Women.
My husband is in the process of building a website to promote Clean Energy in our state. We have had a photography bizz in this state for years. we are going to start doing before and after pictures of MTR sites to show how its destruction is ruining our state. We have done thousands of pictures of the Landscape in this state over the years,when we return to the area to do more….well it’s nothing but dirt and rocks. Not even a blade of Grass growing.
Anyway i want to thank everyone who is fighting to stop MTR in my state. Most of us want the same. After-all we are the MTN state.
Thank you and keep up the fight, i know we are. God bless.
- http://cleantechnica.com/author/susan Susan Kraemer
  
  Wish I could do more. It is really a maddeningly stupid situation.
  - WV Treehugger
    
    You have done alot just by posting this story. I will post this on every Website/Blog i can find. Most people in this state have no clue what goes on in S. WV. Most have never seen a MTR site. Another MTR site is called kazey MTN. It’s located in S.WV near Bolt MT. Google Earth that one. Sickening. When i get all the info on it i will Email it to ya. Thanks agian,for making the world aware to the destruction that is going on in WV.