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Posts Tagged ‘massey energy’

LIGHTS, CAMERA, HELP – a cause-driven film festival in Austin featuring “On Coal River”

Posted in Air Quality, Coal, tagged , , , , on July 24, 2011 |

Lights. Camera. Help is a nonprofit film festival dedicated entirely to nonprofit and cause-driven films.  This 3-day event held in Austin Texas, July 28th through July 30th, gives films-for-a-cause the attention they deserve by putting them up on the big screen in a theater setting.  One of the films, On Coal River,  showing at Lights. Camera. Help. is of particular interest to the community in Austin interested in energy.

We sometimes forget that turning on a switch at home affects people on the other side of the country or in other countries, and not necessarily in a good way.

Coal River Valley, West Virginia is a community surrounded by lush mountains and a looming toxic threat. ON COAL RIVER follows a former miner and his neighbors in a David-and-Goliath struggle for the future of their valley, their children, and life as they know it. Ed Wiley once worked at the same coal waste facility that now threatens his granddaughter’s elementary school. When his local government refuses to act, Ed embarks on a quest to have the school relocated to safer ground. With insider knowledge and a sharp sense of right and wrong, Ed confronts his local school board, the state government, and a notorious coal company’ Massey Energy’ for putting his granddaughter and his community at risk.

This film will be showing at the festival on Saturday, July 30th Saturday, sometime during the festival hours of 3pm – 6pm at t he The RGK Center for Philanthropy and Community Service  located at 2311 Red River Street – Free Parking in lot on Red River.  Single day passes are $13.00 and are available for Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, but only holders of the festivals exclusive three-day pass, which is $28.00, get in to all screenings, events, and after parties!

Film Summary and Trailer of “On Coal River” http://lightscamerahelp.org/2011/films/386-on-coal-river

To learn about other selections at the festival this year: http://lightscamerahelp.org/2011/selections

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By promoting cleaner energy, cleaner government, and cleaner air for all Texans, we hope to provide for a healthy place to live and prosper. We are Public Citizen Texas.

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Our thoughts are with the victims of West Virginia mining disaster

Posted in Coal, tagged , , , , , on April 6, 2010 |

Our hearts are with the victims of the West Virginia mining disaster. Reports now indicate that the explosion claimed the lives of 25 workers, making this the worst mining disaster in 25 years. Huffington Post is pulling together a list of places where you can donate to support the victim’s families.

The mine is owned and operated by Massey Energy, who has a terrible record of safety violations. At the mine where the disaster occurred, 57 violations were reported in March alone, including “repeatedly failing to develop and follow a ventilation plan.”

Massey is responsible and should be held accountable for this tragedy, but instead they are “actively contesting millions of dollars of fines for safety violations at its West Virginia coal mine where disaster struck yesterday afternoon.”

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By promoting cleaner energy, cleaner government, and cleaner air for all Texans, we hope to provide for a healthy place to live and prosper. We are Public Citizen Texas.

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Coal Fight! Kennedy vs Blankenship

Posted in Coal, Global Warming, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on January 21, 2010 |

Thursday evening at 6:30pm Robert F. Kennedy Jr will debate Don Blankenship, the CEO of Massey Energy – the largest coal producer in West Virginia. The subject of debate is the future of coal, Mountain Top Removal (MTR) mining, and economic opportunities for Appalachia. Kennedy is the chief litigator for the Waterkeeper’s Alliance and a staunch opponent of coal power and MTR coal mining. The debate can be watched online Thursday night, January 21, 2010 at 5:15pm here. It will also be available on that website on-demand following the broadcast.

Blankenship is infamous for his denialist stance on global warming, and Massey Energy is infamous for violating the Clean Air Act with thousands of instances of environmental pollution violations – so bad that environmental groups have filed a lawsuit against them. Let us hope Blankenship and his company’s gross irresponsibility and criminal behavior will not be tolerated much longer, and that Kennedy will mop the floor with him tonight during the debate.

Stephen Colbert did a bit recently on the ills of MTR. Though in this segment they discuss how traditional mining would be better than MTR (and that is true) it is far more important to get us off of all coal mining and burning altogether. The efforts here are reciprocal – helping to end MTR mining will help stop coal plants and stopping coal plants helps stop MTR. Click on the photo to go to the video:

Hardest of all for Blankenship and his ilk will be to dispute this recent call by scientists to put a moratorium on all new MTR permits. A peer-reviewed study recently published in Science Magazine “unequivocally documents irreversible environmental impacts” due to MTR coal mining. Basically there is now hard, scientific proof of what we “crazy enviros” have been saying for years – that MTR mining is one of the most destructive practices in existence and must be ended. For some more previews of Blankenship and his anti-enviro rantings you can check out this video – but be sure to tune in tonight to see Kennedy go round for round with this baron of pollution and champion of denial.

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By promoting cleaner energy, cleaner government, and cleaner air for all Texans, we hope to provide for a healthy place to live and prosper. We are Public Citizen Texas.

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