There are two potential futures for Coal River Mountain, WV and the people of the Coal River Valley. Their struggle will set an important precedent for energy production in America, and is giving hope to those of us in Appalachia starring down the barrel of mountaintop removal.

Industrial Wind Power (potential) OR Mountaintop Removal (permit area)

We all know that coal poisons our planet, removes our mountains, and pollutes our precious water sources. A connection that we often miss, is how big coal and fossil fuel industries have a significant hand in dirtying up American politics.

Appalachian Voices and Oil Change International are proud to release a new interactive tool providing the first comprehensive look at the cash mined by Members of Congress from America’s coal industry. Check out how much coal money is going to your member of congress at FollowtheCoalMoney.org

An every day fossil fuel...
An influential lobby on Capitol Hill...
Dwindling supply...
Spiking prices, effecting nearly every facet of the American economy...
Big industries exploiting high prices as an excuse for unnecessarily increasing extraction at any environmental cost...
...while stuffing their pockets with record profits.

Sound Familiar? And if so, are we on the verge of seeing electricity rates pull a "gas-prices?"...

One of the most dramatic and pivotal price shifts in the weakening economy over the last 7 years has been the price of a gallon of gasoline...

Gauley Mountain is the newest addition to America's Most Endangered Mountains, and is part of our Appalachian Mountaintop Removal layer in Google Earth.

1. Gauley Mountain and the town of Ansted
In West Virginia — and indeed in the entire nation — there are few rivers better known for their wild and scenic stretches than the Gauley and New Rivers. I've heard locals boast that the New River is in fact the oldest river in the entire world.

People come from all over the nation to run and fish these rivers, and to enjoy the beautiful landscapes of West Virginia and the hospitality of the local residents. These tourists contribute millions to the local economy. Yet just a few miles from both the New and Gauley Rivers lies one of America’s Most Endangered Mountains — Gauley Mountain, West Virginia — which is being targeted for mountaintop removal coal mining.

Welcome to Mountain Monday, spreading the word about mountaintop removal, and celebrating the best Appalachia has to offer.

Take a look at the region carrying the heaviest load for American coal production, and you’ll see that we are definitively beyond "peak coal" in Appalachia. The US Geological Survey, and other crazy assorted "experts" on "science" have been telling Appalachia that our coal has what-we-call a "finite" production span. In fact, the USGS has estimated that we have around roughly 10 years of high-quality thick coal seams left.

"Sufficient high-quality, thick, bituminous resources remain in [Appalachian Basin] coal beds and coal zones to last for the next one to two decades at current production."

   - United States Geological Survey (USGS), 2000 AD

But now, thanks to citizen activists, the blogosphere, and environmentally conscious Americans throughout the land, there is now a much more powerful thing than "science" telling us that we have no choice but to get off coal in the next decade.

It doesn't always occur to us that our electricity comes from somewhere.

But for many people on the east coast, every time we flip on a light switch, we are connected to the blowing up of the oldest mountains in the world - the Appalachian Mountains - where coal is being extracted using a barbaric form of coal-mining called mountaintop removal.

This weekend, not only did the iLoveMountains.org Bloggers Challenge hit 300 participants (woah!), but I witnessed several incredible citizens who realized that they were connected to mountaintop removal put on an incredible 3 day event in NYC called New York Loves Mountains, in order to raise awareness in New York about the destruction of Appalachia, and the fact that EVEN IN NEW YORK Americans are using electricity generated by mountaintop removal.

Home is an invention on which no one has yet improved.

A man defending his home is worth 10 invaders.

There is no place like home.

Home is home, be it ever so humble.

These phrases may have graced our ears 3,592 times, but ponderings on the meaning of home mean a little bit more to those of us in Appalachia these days.

Mountain Mondays will be a weekly celebration of our mountain home in Appalachia.

You see, in many ways, Appalachia isn't what it used to be. We have lost more than 1 million acres of land, along with 1000+ of miles of our once pristine streams, and 90% of our traditional coal jobs to mountaintop removal mining. This barbaric practice has reduced much of our home to rubble, and further damaged our perennially struggling local economies. The jobs are gone. The people are leaving. The water is toxic. And they are blowing up the mountains themselves.

But the face of Appalachian resistance to "Big Coal" is changing...

Every week, the explosive equivalent of one Hiroshima sized bomb is detonated in Appalachia. Entire mountains are removed, and valleys filled in, in a barbaric form of coal extraction called mountaintop removal.

America is only now hearing the stories of hope and horror, of flash flooding and families, and the growing resistance to the status quo in the heart of America's oldest mountains.

Appalachian Voices and iLoveMountains.org are helping to spear-head an effort to stop mountaintop removal by working with small local blogs from around the country, the success of which is based on the participation of the blogging community and of new journalists like YOU. To supplement the organizing going on in the coalfields, we have instituted the "Bloggers Challenge."

Appalachian Voices and iLoveMountains.org are pleased to announce the America's Most Endangered Mountains video series and the innovative new Bloggers' Challenge.

We have spent months out in the field talking with and filming people who live in communities endangered by mountaintop removal. They have shared their hopes, their fears, and their amazing stories.

To spread their stories, we decided on a new-fangled grassroots technique called the Bloggers' Challenge to share what mountaintop removal is doing to our beloved mountains and culture.

The cutting edge Bloggers Challenge program will be run through the most powerful communications tools in the world - blogs - and it's success will depend on your participation.

For once, I'm not talking about coal-fired power plants or the incredible natural resources in Appalachia like wind, natural gas, and coal which we currently exploit for electricity production.

I'm talking about the incredible electoral opportunity in Appalachia which Democrats MUST understand and act upon as we move towards the general election. It is especially prescient as we watch the West Virginia primary today. Within Appalachia lies the key to a Democratic Presidency

Appalachia is a treasure trove of 70 "swing" electoral votes. Thats as many as Texas, Florida, New Hampshire, and New Mexico combined.

But the thing about Appalachia people need to understand is that it largely represented by Democrats, and should be a Democratic bread and butter area in the Presidential election. Our candidates will ignore Appalachia at their own peril.

Al Gore:

Mountaintop removal is a crime and ought to be treated as a crime

Al Gore recently addressed Appalachian resident Ed Wiley, Ed's granddaughter Kayla, and the audience at the 2008 Nashville film festival, to present Director Michael O' Connell the 2008 "Reel Current Award" for his most recent piece "Mountain Top Removal."

You'll remember Ed Wiley as the  grandfather who walked 455 miles from Charleston WV to Washington DC to speak with Senator Byrd about mountaintop removal mining in his community, and Marsh Fork Elementary School which sits right below a sludge impoundment holding 2.8 billion gallons of toxic sludge.

(Cross-posted at the Appalachian Voices Front Porch blog)

Northern Appalachian coal just hit $110/ton.  In 2007, it bottomed out at less than $45/ton, meaning it has nearly tripled in ONE YEAR.

In April 2007 it was $45/ton.  As you can see, for the last three years, Central Appalachian coal usually tracks fairly closely to Northern Appalachian coal. If anything, it tends to be slightly more expensive. The price of Appalachian coal has now officially quintupled in less than 8 years.

The first thing I saw this morning was the news that Al Gore is running for President, and AmericasCoalPower.org, hilariously mocking Americans for Balanced Energy Choices (ABEC), a coal industry front-group currently spending $35 million to convince the Democratic candidates that there such a thing as "clean coal."

I wanted in on the outrageous humor.
And perhaps, as a testament to my lack of creativity or
consistent over-reliance on images, all I could think of was that we have reached a point in our history when we are letting coal companies BLOW UP OUR MOUNTAINS  so that they can extract a substance with which they will poison the air, pollute our water, and change the F#$%^ing CLIMATE!?!

Appalachia is being utterly gutted by Big Coal. The desperate calls for change are coming from the ground up, and our candidates must now come here.

As "The Examiner" notes:

Of the remaining 566 Democratic delegates to be won, 352 will be awarded from Appalachian states. The western parts of Pennsylvania (April 22) and North Carolina (May 6) along with West Virginia (May 13) and Kentucky (May 20) will take on outsized importance in the weeks to come.

The choice is obvious...
A majority of West Virginians oppose mountaintop removal.
A majority of Americans oppose mountaintop removal.

The political will to end mountaintop removal is here.  

(Cross-posted at the Appalachian Voices Front Porch Blog)

Beth Vorhees interviewed Senator Hillary Clinton on West Virginia Public Broadcast (audio), this morning and asked her a direct question about her position on mountaintop removal coal-mining.

Hillary's answer below the fold.

Keep in mind, mountaintop removal:

1.  Has destroyed 1 million acres of the most biodiverse temperate forest in the world

2. Has led to a 90% reduction in mining jobs in WV because of the automation of labor

3. Has leveled 470+ of the oldest mountains on the continent.

Because this will make you want to hurl.

Straight from JohnMcCain.com:

STAMFORD - U.S. Sen. Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn, told the editorial board of The Advocate and Greenwich Time he's supporting Republican John McCain for president because he's the most likely to bring about change in Washington.  

Lieberman told his hometown paper:

Friday, Lieberman said he will attend the Republican National Convention this summer, "if Senator McCain thinks it will be helpful to be there in some capacity."

Join me in throwing things at Joe Lieberman below the fold.

Hillary's campaign has been hard at work, and according to CNN's exit polls, seems to be accomplishing its goal of denying Democrats a path to the White House by lavishing praise on John McCain and tearing down presumptive nominee Barack Obama.

I'm gonna go ahead and say it.

Senator Clinton, with all due respect, please Get The Hell Out of the Democratic Primary. You are doing us no favors.

We battle for our party on the flip...

And I don't mean negative.

The key to an Obama victory in the primary and the GE now lies nowhere else but in the misty mountains of Appalachia. So strap on your geeek glasses and lets have some fun. We've got work to do.

I am writing this diary out of a desire to see Barack Obama win the primary and general election. There is no doubt that Appalachia is the absolute KEY area to electoral victory for Obama. With the Appalachian vote goes the potential swing of WV, OH, VA, NC, PA and potentially KY and TN depending on the numbers come November.

So far, Obama is under-preforming 44% in Appalachian areas. Tennessee hinted at it (-41), Virginia seconded (-61), and SE Ohio (-31) has made it exceedingly clear. But it can, and will be his.

Dive in with me to see how Obama locks up the primary, and crushes John McCain in the General Election.