SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
coal mining
What It Will Take to Stop Trump’s Assault on Coal Miners (and the Rest of Us)
How can we beat back the Trump administration’s assaults on working people, the environment, and democratic rights? The coal miners of 1969 offer us a strategic proposal.
May 02, 2025
If there was any doubt that U.S. President Donald Trump’s love of coal is driven by concern for coal companies’ profits rather than workers’ well-being, further proof came on April 8.
The same day he announced new measures to prop up the industry, his Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) paused a rule limiting silica dust in mines. Trump also plans to close dozens of MSHA field offices and gut the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), which both play essential roles in protecting coal workers.
Since the paused rule would save thousands of mineworkers from death and illness, the unions representing them have sued the administration.
Lawsuits may reduce the damage from Trump’s mass-homicidal orgy. But they won’t reverse five decades of unchecked, unilateral class war by U.S. elites, nor stop polluters from destroying the habitability of our Earth.
Whatever the courts decide in this case, it’s clear that lawsuits won’t be enough to stop the Trump administration. Whether its targets are workers, children, refugees, patients, the millions of ill and starving people who will be killed by sadistic cuts to foreign aid, or the entire world, defeating the assaults will require additional weapons. Coal workers’ history here is instructive.
Coal workers have won their biggest victories not through lawsuits but by striking. In the 1950s a U.S. coal miner was killed on the job every 18 hours. In later decades that rate declined significantly, and not just because of downsizing. Mine safety was strongly correlated with workers’ collective action: More frequent strikes meant fewer injuries and fatalities.
Known deaths on the job don’t include the many thousands who died prematurely from pneumoconiosis, caused by inhaling coal dust. It took the historic “black lung” strikes of 1969 to impose limits on dust and methane levels and to win compensation for disabled workers.
A few months before, 78 workers had been killed in an explosion at Consolidation Coal’s mine outside Farmington, West Virginia. The accident brought national attention to miners’ plight. Yet similar accidents had resulted in toothless reforms to safety regulations.
That might have happened again in 1969. Coal companies opposed strong regulations, and other powerholders dutifully obeyed. West Virginia’s governor wrote off the explosion as just “one of the hazards of being a miner.” President Lyndon Johnson’s assistant secretary of the interior lauded Consolidation Coal’s efforts “to make this a safe mine.” The autocratic president of the United Mineworkers called Consolidation “one of the best companies to work with as far as cooperation and safety are concerned.”
It was rank-and-file coal miners, not the top union leaders, who pushed for legislative reform. They formed the West Virginia Black Lung Association in January 1969. Aided by a handful of physicians, they organized mass meetings to educate and rally coworkers. They quickly realized that lobbying wouldn’t be enough. On February 11, thousands of miners went to Charleston to demand a robust compensation law. Some carried signs threatening to strike: “No law, no work.”
When coal companies obstructed the bill’s passage, rank-and-file workers responded with a wave of strikes unsanctioned by the union leadership. Within two weeks some 30,000 were on strike, rising to 45,000 by early March. They “shut down virtually all coal mining operations in the state,” observed the Charleston Gazette. Some miners in Ohio and Pennsylvania struck in solidarity.
The legislature and governor got the message. The strike worked, and even strengthened the final legislation by requiring companies to pay compensation unless they could prove a worker’s lung illness was not caused by coal dust. The Gazette’s editors accused the workers of “lobbying with [a] club,” decrying that state legislators had “felt compelled to” vote for a strong compensation law. The worst fear of companies and politicians alike was that more workers would begin using strikes to influence government, not just their bosses.
The impact rippled outward from West Virginia. Several other coal-producing states soon passed similar laws. In December the U.S. Congress passed the Coal Mine Health and Safety Act. The federal bill extended compensation for black lung victims across the country. It also mandated the world’s toughest coal dust standard.
President Richard Nixon initially refused to sign it. After a week and half of White House stalling, around 1,200 West Virginia mineworkers launched another wildcat strike. The coal barons warned that “a widespread work stoppage now could pose a serious threat to fuel supplies,” reported The New York Times. Nixon quickly changed his mind. He signed the bill within “a matter of hours.”
The law brought compensation for around half a million disabled mineworkers over the next decade. It also made a real contribution to workplace safety. Unfortunately black lung has since come roaring back in the neoliberal era, a sign of government’s unwillingness to hold coal companies accountable.
Beyond their direct impacts, the black lung strikes hold a lesson for today’s resistance. How can we beat back the Trump administration’s assaults on working people, the environment, and democratic rights? The coal miners of 1969 offer us a strategic proposal.
Lawsuits may reduce the damage from Trump’s mass-homicidal orgy. But they won’t reverse five decades of unchecked, unilateral class war by U.S. elites, nor stop polluters from destroying the habitability of our Earth.
We need more aggressive measures. As the heroes of the black lung strikes realized, those measures only become feasible if we embrace the daily work of organizing and educating the people around us.
Keep ReadingShow Less
Green Groups Secure Deal to Clean Up Coal-Polluted West Virginia Streams
"This is a monumental step forward in our ongoing fight to protect West Virginia's precious wildlife and natural resources," said one campaigner.
Mar 29, 2024
The Sierra Club announced on Friday that it had reached an agreement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to address pollution in West Virginia streams that originates from coal mining in the state.
The agreement specifically focuses on what's called ionic toxicity pollution, which is created in the mining process. The pollution that enters the freshwater streams increases their salinity, which kills the aquatic life in them. The Sierra Club is joined by the West Virginia Rivers Coalition and the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy in the agreement.
The EPA will now be creating limits—called total maximum daily loads (TMDLs)—for how much of this pollution can enter "11 high-priority West Virginia streams."
"This is a monumental step forward in our ongoing fight to protect West Virginia's precious wildlife and natural resources," said Sierra Club West Virginia chapter director Honey May. "By holding the coal industry accountable and ensuring the development of TMDLs, we are safeguarding the habitat of countless aquatic species and preserving the ecological integrity of our streams."
❗Today, Sierra Club, @OurWVRivers, and @WVHC secured a historic settlement to restore West Virginia streams harmed by coal mining pollution.
Read our statement on this important win for clean water and healthy communities ⬇️https://t.co/1uzMieP8eT pic.twitter.com/d0ERJ9sgGV
— Sierra Club (@SierraClub) March 29, 2024
The Sierra Club says this deal—which has been years in the making—will help restore important West Virginia streams and means the EPA will finally be fulfilling its obligations under the Clean Water Act.
West Virginia is one of the top coal producing states in the country, and it has faced serious problems with pollution from the state's many coal mines for decades. The coal mining industry has also long been able to avoid having to pay to clean up the pollution it causes.
"For far too long, West Virginia has failed to meet its obligations to protect our waters from coal mining pollution, willfully allowing the health of thousands of stream miles to continue to decline," said West Virginia Rivers Coalition interim executive director Autumn Crowe. "We are encouraged that this agreement will finally begin to get our damaged streams the help they deserve."
Keep ReadingShow Less
Could the Left Actually Win Back 'Trump Country' in West Virginia?
Oct 08, 2023
I spoke with Troy Miller, executive producer of the Zero Hour, in his capacity as a member of the Executive Committee of the West Virginia Democratic Party. We discussed the party’s recent adoption of an updated version of FDR’s Economic Bill of Rights.
Could it revive their political fortunes? Here’s a clue, from something I wrote several years ago and never published. It concerns McDowell County, WV, the state’s poorest county, which I researched as Bernie Sander’s speechwriter for a speech he gave there in 2016.
Troy N. Miller: WV Democrats Adopt 21st c. Economic Bill of Rights!youtu.be
The Invisibles: McDowell County, WV
Coastal journalists view rural people as an alien species – that is, when they think of them at all. When they cover them they sound like amateur entomologists pondering the consciousness of bugs under glass. Snake-handling features prominently in their coverage, even though it’s only practiced in a tiny handful of mostly informal churches.
According to the media narrative, in 2016 the reptile-loving hillbillies of journalistic imagination embraced another cold-blooded creature: Donald Trump. A typical post-election photo essay on McDowell County was headlined, “This County Gives a Glimpse at the America That Voted Trump Into Office.”[1]
Step right up, city folks! See the strange creatures with whom you share a nation!
The county’s voting results fed the media’s perennial appetite for exoticizing rural people. And yet, despite coverage like “Why the poorest county in West Virginia has faith in Donald Trump,”[2] the picture wasn’t nearly as clear as their coverage would have it. For one thing, McDowell County’s population was 8.2 percent Black, which isn’t all that different from the national average of 12.4 percent. And yet, Black people rarely figured in their condescending, Beverly Hillbillies-themed narrative.
They got the politics wrong, too. Here’s how McDowell County voted in the 2016 primaries:
- Donald Trump: 785
- Hillary Clinton: 817
- Bernie Sanders: 1,488
That’s right: the democratic socialist got more votes than Trump or Clinton by a factor of nearly two to one.
The general election results were as follows:
- Hillary Clinton: 1,438 (less than Sanders received in the primary)
- Donald Trump: 4,629
- Decline to participate: 11,433
That’s a decisive victory -- for political alienation. The non-participation rate was much higher than that of the country as a whole. Only 34.7 percent of eligible voters voted in McDowell’s general election, versus 56.9 percent nationwide.
“Trump country”? Nationally, 27 percent of eligible voters cast their ballots for Donald Trump. In McDowell, that percentage was a slightly lower (if statistically insignificant) 26.45 percent.
Yes, Trump won decisively in McDowell among those who voted. But McDowell County isn’t “Trump country.” It’s “None of the Above” country.
And yet, despite the fact that Donald Trump only won the votes of about one in four voters, the county’s residents soon became the poster children for right-wing “deplorability.”
The media’s challenges didn’t begin in 2016. “Penetrating a closed, isolated society in Appalachia,” read a 2014 inside-the-news headline from the New York Times.[3] But “closed” and “isolated” from whom? Certainly not each other. A story in the Chattanooga (TN) Times Free Press emphasizes a local initiative built on community values:
“McDowell County needed to return to the message its churches preached, locals said. Maybe it was as simple as embracing the Golden Rule: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.”
The charitable side of McDowell County never seems to make the national press.
Trump screwed them afterwards, of course. Things kept getting worse: drug and alcohol deaths, suicides, rampaging addiction, and a shortage of jobs. The McDowell County Commission sued three drug companies for their role in the opioid epidemic, although few people thought anything would come of it. Nothing did — but at least they tried.
Why the poorest county in West Virginia has faith in Donald Trump | Anywhere but Washingtonyoutu.be
McDowell County, like the country overall, is divided. But the mainstream media prefers to see a one-dimensional caricature of the county and the state. It’s true that they don’t like elitists, which is how a lot of Democrats come across to them. But they apparently like somebody who stands up to powerful interests and doesn’t talk down to them.
Anything seems like Hail Mary for West Virginia’s Democrats right now, but the Economic Bill of Rights it’s clear, easy to explain, and is opposed by the kinds of people who are despised by everyone from left to right: billionaires and corporations.
It’s definitely worth a shot, and the results will be worth watching.
Keep ReadingShow Less
Mine Workers Speak Out for Tougher Black Lung Regulations
The most common sentiment in each of the 23 comments at a recent public hearing was that a new proposed rule is a necessary first step, but MSHA must continue to strengthen its provisions to truly help the miners who need it most.
Aug 21, 2023
At 9:00 am sharp on August 10, a small phalanx of smiling, well-coiffed elderly women began herding a crowd of several dozen people into the auditorium of the National Mine Health and Safety Academy in Beckley, West Virginia. Among the crowd were former coal miners and their spouses, lawyers, pulmonologists, black lung clinic staff, environmental activists, local media, union representatives, and concerned citizens—all there to attend a public hearing for
a new proposed rule from the Mine Safety and Health Administration, or MSHA, that seeks to limit silica exposure in the nation’s coal mines to 50 micrograms per cubic meter, down from 100.
I was there too, both to document the proceedings and offer my own brief testimony. I have been following this rule’s progression since I began reporting on the black lung epidemic last year, and was thrilled to see it finally enter the public comment portion. As I found in my
recent investigation for In These Times, black lung now afflicts more than 1 in 8 coal miners in Kentucky and West Virginia who have been working underground for 20-24 years, up from one in 30 a decade ago. Younger miners—those who have spent only 15-19 years underground—are becoming sicker with pulmonary massive fibrosis, the most severe form of the disease. As I wrote then, workers in their 30s and 40s are now making their way to the same black lung clinics that served their parents and grandparents, and fighting the same battles against red tape and corporate malfeasance to win black lung benefits. And it is all completely preventable.
The hearing in Beckley was chaired by Patricia Silvey, deputy assistant secretary for operations at MSHA, and stretched for nearly four hours of comments, testimonies, personal stories, questions, and occasional pushback from the agency.
“She’ll say, ‘Nana, I wish Papaw didn’t have black lung, because he can’t get out and play with me, he can’t run with me.’”
It was the second such hearing to be held—and almost didn’t happen at all. The first hearing had taken place a week earlier, on August 3, in Arlington, Virginia, and another is being held on August 21, in
Denver, Colorado. Both those locations make logistical sense: MSHA operates a training center near Denver, and the Arlington location is both right outside Washington, D.C., and also near the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) headquarters in nearby Triangle, Virginia. But without the addition of Beckley, the Central Appalachia communities most affected by the proposed rule—and hit the hardest by the black lung epidemic that is currently ravaging the region’s coal miners as a result of overexposure to respirable crystalline silica—would have struggled to make their voices heard during the crucial public comment period.
Beckley was hastily added to the schedule after local advocacy groups like Appalachian Voices called on MSHA to include a hearing in the region. “Many impacted workers and families are struggling financially because their family members are no longer able to work due to black lung disease, and traveling such a long distance is simply not a financial possibility,” Appalachian Voices explained in a July 10 letter to MSHA. “Other impacted workers are not physically well enough to make the roundtrip so far away.”
As it stood, many of the attendees at the August 10 hearing still had to go the extra mile to make it out. Vonda Robinson, vice president of the National Black Lung Association, and her husband John, a former miner now struggling with advanced black lung disease, drove three hours from their home near the Tennessee border. Both spoke in favor of strengthening the proposed rule to ensure that mine operators can’t cut corners with miners’ safety. Her voice strong with emotion, Vonda Robinson told the hearing room how much the disease has damaged her 57-year-old husband’s quality of life, and how badly it pains her to see younger men still being stricken with it today.
Even her five-year-old granddaughter knows that something is wrong—and has already learned how to operate her grandfather John’s oxygen tank. “She’ll say, ‘Nana, I wish Papaw didn’t have black lung, because he can’t get out and play with me, he can’t run with me,’” Robinson said. “I don’t like to see the toll that it has on the men’s lives. Now we’re looking at guys only 32 and 34 years old, getting complicated black lung, and that tells you that there’s something wrong—the coal companies are not doing what they’re saying they’re doing.”
Another retired West Virginia coal miner, Terry Lilly, had a difficult time even walking to the microphone to share his testimony. He began with an apology. “Excuse me, I have trouble breathing,” he wheezed, pausing every few words. “I’m at 40% of my lung capacity.” Lilly soldiered on, adding a grim warning. “It’s too late for me… but I’d like these young people to realize they need to wake up. One of these days you’ll be like me—you can’t walk across the parking lot.”
Petsonk outlined three major issues with the rule as it stands: that it requires no routine sampling of silica dust in mines; that it imposes no specific penalties for mines that violate silica dust limits; and that it offers no immediate protections for miners who are overexposed.
Lilly was one of several former miners who testified during the hearing; most of them already had advanced black lung, and were horrified by the knowledge that an entire new generation is facing this old evil. They were joined by advocates like attorney Sam Petsonk, a local labor and employment lawyer who has represented thousands of miners in black lung cases. In delivering the first comment of the day, Petsonk wasted no time explaining exactly why the rule is so necessary—the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) called for limits on exposure to silica dust back in 1974, but MSHA has failed to meaningfully address the issue until now—as well as the myriad ways the proposal still falls short.
Armed with a laptop and sheaf of notes, Petsonk outlined three major issues with the rule as it stands: that it requires no routine sampling of silica dust in mines; that it imposes no specific penalties for mines that violate silica dust limits; and that it offers no immediate protections for miners who are overexposed.
“A rule with no penalties is no rule at all,” Petsonk said. “The only thing that mining companies understand is money. They don’t understand or appreciate the blood and the lives of miners, because if they did, they would have protected miners willingly over the last several decades.” (Silvey, the MSHA official overseeing the hearing, responded that the rule sets a bar for operators to meet, but “does not deal with penalties.”)
Most of the other speakers agreed that the proposed rule clearly needs work. A number of miners who testified zeroed in on the rule’s overreliance on using respirators as a corrective measure in mines that are found to be noncompliant with the 50 micrograms standard. As Willie Dodson, a field coordinator for Appalachian Voices, emphasized in his testimony, it’s impractical to expect workers to strap a bulky, tight-fitting apparatus to their face for 12 hours at a time and keep it on while doing hard labor in a dark, tight space, all while needing to be able to communicate with their coworkers. (The fact that many miners wear beards, which makes it harder to maintain a good seal on protective facial coverings, underscores how flawed this solution is.)
Dr. Leonard Go, a pulmonologist at the University of Illinois and medical director for the National Coalition of Black Lung and Respiratory Disease Clinics, called respirators “an ineffective and impractical solution when dust levels are high,” comparing them to a Band-Aid that provides a false sense of security. “I as a physician cannot reasonably expect a miner to do physically harder work than I do with a tighter fitting mask than what I wear in a hospital,” Go testified.
Most speakers also shared a profound lack of trust in mine operators’ ability and willingness to perform accurate dust sampling, and were distressed that the proposed rule would allow them to self-report the silica levels they find in their mines. “I’ve got 30 years of coal mining and I know the tricks and how [mine bosses] operate,” Terry Lilly had explained. “We just need to put a stop to it, and we can save some lives.”
“I represent miners in their 30s, and 40s, and in their early 50s, who have severe progressive, massive fibrosis and silicosis, who have lost over a quarter of their lung to rock dust.”
“I look at these young miners, and their faces are black when they come home,” said William “Bolts” Willis, another retired miner. “Do I have to sample to know that they’re getting black lung? Their eyebrows are white from silica dust. We know what’s happening. Let’s do something about it—and it has to be drastic.”
“I represent miners in their 30s, and 40s, and in their early 50s, who have severe progressive, massive fibrosis and silicosis, who have lost over a quarter of their lung to rock dust,” Petsonk said. “Their lungs have turned to rock dust. They have Category B progressive massive fibrosis because of those exposures. We have a crisis. And the rule does not capture that.”
Beyond the proposed rule’s technical points, much of the testimony understandably crossed into emotional territory, but the hearing’s overall message was hopeful: People were glad to see the agency doing something to staunch the bleeding and address the public health crisis unfolding within the mines and in their living rooms.
“We old timers have already paid the price,” said John Robinson, wearing a “Black Lung Kills” T-shirt that stretched across his broad shoulders. “We’re going to die from this preventable disease. But we have got to take care of our younger guys.” His baby brother, he said, works in the mines now, and Robinson does not want him to suffer the same fate. “Until we have a rule in place that protects our miners, keeps them employed, and eliminates fear and retaliation from these operators, it won’t be enough.”
While every speaker who commented in person or via Zoom ultimately supported the rule, not a single mine operator or company representative said a word. They were there, sitting in clusters of suits with faces like thunder. They’d heard the testimony of the workers who’d made their companies rich and were now dying as a result, seen the tears glisten in old miners’ eyes as they struggled to speak, but they didn’t utter a sound. They had already made their views clear, though. When the public comment period initially opened in July, a flurry of nearly identical comments from mine operators and industry groups, including the National Mining Association, popped up on MSHA’s website, all suggesting the rule goes too far and urging the agency to prolong the comment period—and thereby delay the rule’s implementation. (MSHA announced at the Beckley hearing that they are extending the comment window, but only by 15 days; it will now end at midnight on September 11.)
While none of them apparently saw fit to attend the hearing in Central Appalachia, half a dozen mining and construction industry representatives had trooped into the first MSHA hearing in Arlington earlier this month, with representatives from the American Road and Transportation Builders Association, the National Mining Association, the Portland Cement Association, Heidelberg Materials, the National Stone, Sand & Gravel Association, and others testifying, overwhelmingly in opposition to the rule. While coal miners suffering from black lung believe the rule can’t come soon enough, mining executives seemed horrified at how “quickly” the proposal has wound its way through the agency.
“History shows that when you leave an opportunity for loopholes or the gaming of the system, some people will take advantage of that. And that’s why miners are getting sick.”
“The first time the idea of a silica rule appeared in the MSHA regulatory agenda was over 20 years ago, and MSHA wants to provide industry 45 days to comment and six months to comply,” said lawyer and former coal company executive Michael Peelish at the August 3 hearing. (Ironically, by pointing out how long it has taken to get to this point, Peelish undercut his own complaint about the current process’s relative speed.) “This does not work in your favor, and the courts will explain that to you if you don’t figure it out.”
But at the same hearing, Dr. Drew Harris, the medical director of Virginia’s Black Lung Program at Stone Mountain Health Services, the largest dedicated treatment facility in the country, urged MSHA to go full speed ahead. “I’ve heard from many people today that are calling for more time to prepare for implementation of this rule,” Harris testified. “And from my perspective, the longer we delay, the more patients will be inadequately protected, which will lead to more diagnoses of severe black lung and more premature and unnecessary deaths, and so I would urge MSHA to strongly consider moving forward in the proposed timeline and as quickly as possible.”
In Beckley, the final few speakers similarly urged MSHA to act fast, to do it right, and to make sure that the rule is as strong and effective as possible. “As you’re developing the final rule, I’d ask that you look at each piece and ask: does this section open the door for cheating, or gaming the system?” said Josh Roberts, Director of Occupational Health and Safety at the UMWA. “And if the answer is yes, then there’s a lot more work [that] needs to be done. History shows that when you leave an opportunity for loopholes or the gaming of the system, some people will take advantage of that. And that’s why miners are getting sick. It’s not because everybody’s following the rules and doing what they’re supposed to be doing and following their ventilation plans and following the law. It’s because they’re not.”
As the speakers trickled out of the Beckley auditorium in the early afternoon, said their goodbyes, and prepared for the long drive home, Vonda Robinson’s words about her little granddaughter echoed in my head. “She’ll say, ‘Nana, I don’t like that black lung,’” Robinson had recounted. “I said, ‘I don’t either, honey.’”
It had been a hard day. The miners’ stories about losing the chance to run and play with their grandkids reminded me of how it felt when I lost my own granddad to a brutal occupational lung disease. It also made me think of all the other children who will have to watch their own fathers, siblings, and grandfathers die breathless thanks to this horrible disease, which continues to claim younger and younger victims. As the speakers that day made clear, so much is riding on this proposed rule, and the stronger versions that will hopefully follow. If MSHA does this right, entire generations of Appalachians may have a chance to grow up and grow old, to celebrate the coal dust that miners proudly say “runs in their veins”—but to also breathe easy, with no rock dust in their lungs.
Keep ReadingShow Less
Extinction Rebellion Shuts Down UK Coal Mine Operating Without License
"The authorities are missing in action," said one campaigner. "If they won't step in to stop illegal, planet-wrecking coal mining, we will."
Jul 05, 2023
On the heels of the world's two hottest days on record, U.K. climate activists on Wednesday shut down an open-cast coal mine in Wales that has been operating without a license since last summer.
"We have today done what the Welsh government, the U.K. government, and the local council have failed to do—shut down the operations of the U.K.'s largest coal mine which has been operating without a license since September last year," Extinction Rebellion (XR) activist Marcus Bailie of Caerphilly said in a statement.
The 68-year-old is among Extinction Rebellion's Cymru/Wales and U.K. members who locked themselves to the group's pink boat, which was used to blockade the access road between the Ffos-y-Fran mine and its depot early Wednesday. Because of the new "Public Order Act," the activists face the threat of up to 51 weeks in jail.
"We aim to stop operations until at least the weekend and we are calling for as many people as possible to come down to support us and make this happen."
"We aim to stop operations until at least the weekend and we are calling for as many people as possible to come down to support us and make this happen," Bailie explained. "It would be crazy if the mine owner or the government instructed the police to move against us just so the mine owners can continue what is an illegal operation."
While sitting on top of the boat, Liz Pendleton of XR United Kingdom declared: "The authorities are missing in action. If they won't step in to stop illegal, planet-wrecking coal mining, we will."
Permission for coal mining at Ffos-y-Fran was initially granted in 2005. Merthyr (South Wales) Ltd., the company behind the mine, hoped to extend operations until March 2024 and push its promised restoration of the site to June 2026.
A local council in April rejected the proposed extension and in May issued a notice to end coal extraction at the mine. That notice took effect last week, giving Merthyr (South Wales) Ltd. 28 days to stop digging, but the company is now appealing.
As the BBC reported last week:
The Welsh government said on Wednesday morning it understood the company was appealing.
A spokesman added that it could not comment further as it may "jeopardize any future decision Welsh ministers may have to make on the matter."
Mining firm Merthyr (South Wales) Ltd confirmed an appeal had "been lodged with the Welsh ministers" and said it could not comment further while the appeal process was ongoing.
"We are extremely disappointed, and frustrated, to hear that the mining company has appealed the enforcement action," Chris Austin, who lives near the mine and has campaigned against it as part of the United Valleys Action Group, told the BBC. "If accepted, the appeal could take 12 months or more to resolve, so we again urge that a 'stop order' be put in place whilst this appeal is determined."
Mel Price, who also lives near the site and joined XR's action, said Wednesday that "the mine owners have drawn millions in dividends while local residents have to tolerate all the noise and pollution caused by an illegal mine. The carbon emissions continue and the scar on the landscape gets bigger."
"The government and the legal system are prepared to lock up peaceful protesters for trying to stop fossil fuel companies and investors from profiting from the destruction of our planet, yet they are not prepared to stop illegal mining, so we are making a stand," Price continued. "If the police decide to arrest us, they will be acting without probable cause and against their own interests as they are the ones who will have to rescue people from the floods and the fires—is this what we really want?"
"The law of aggravated trespass is quite clear in that it must be obstruction of a lawful activity and it is quite clear that this mine is operating illegally," Price added. "So, the decision will have to be made by the authorities about, 'Who are the criminals here?'"
In addition to XR's boat blockade, a group called No More Coal is organizing a peaceful march on the mine for Saturday morning.
Given that the mining company has kept operating for months and "no one seems able to stop them," Bailie said, "we've had to take matters into our own hands by coming here to demand they stop extracting and shipping coal immediately and for good."
"We encourage hundreds, even thousands, of people to come from all over the country to march on Ffos-y-Fran to tell them that we, the people, say no more," the activist added, pointing to Saturday's event.
The coal protest came after The Guardian reported Tuesday that the Conservative U.K. government plans to drop its £11.6 billion ($14.75 billion) international climate pledge. The newspaper noted Wednesday that "although the Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office (FCDO) said such claims were 'false,' a leaked briefing showed that ministers were being prepared for the target not being met because of government cuts to aid funding, underspending, and new commitments such as aid for Ukraine."
The reporting outraged climate campaigners, including branches of Extinction Rebellion. XR Islington charged that "this is murderous madness" while the Havering group tweeted that "'saving' money is a lie and a false economy when it comes to climate action. The cost is not just in money but in human suffering. Inaction will cost us and the rest of the world far more in the long run."
Keep ReadingShow Less
DOJ Sues West Virginia Governor's Coal Empire Over Millions in Unpaid Fines
"Over a five-year period, defendants engaged in over 130 violations of federal law, thereby posing health and safety risks to the public and the environment," said U.S. Attorney Christopher R. Kavanaugh.
May 31, 2023
The U.S. Department of Justice on Wednesday sued Republican West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice's family coal empire in federal court for millions of dollars in unpaid penalties, fees, and interest for dozens of legal violations.
The two-term governor—who is seeking U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin's (D-W.Va.) seat in next year's election—is not named in the civil suit but his son, James "Jay" Justice III, is, as the owner or operator of the 13 defendant companies.
Politico noted that "although the suit doesn't name the elder Justice, he's faced scrutiny before for the unpaid fines as well as reports that he's still maintained a firm grip on the family business."
Assistant Attorney General Todd Kim of the Justice Department's Environment and Natural Resources Division said in a statement that "our environmental laws serve to protect communities against adverse effects of industrial activities including surface coal mining operations."
"Through this suit, the Justice Department seeks to deliver accountability for defendants' repeated violations of the law and to recover the penalties they owe as a result of those violations," Kim added.
"The filing of this complaint continues the process of holding defendants accountable for jeopardizing the health and safety of the public and our environment."
The department's complaint accuses the 13 coal companies of violating their legal obligations under the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act (�SMCRA�), or permits issued under the law, and failing "to pay uncontested penalties assessed for their uncontested violations."
"Defendants have been cited for over 130 violations and have failed to pay over $5 million in civil penalties assessed by the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (�OSMRE�)," the filing states. "In addition, certain defendants also collectively owe, and have not paid, over $190,000 in abandoned mine land (�AML�) reclamation fee debts."
When interest, late payment penalties, and administrative expenses are included, the defendants owe approximately $7.6 million, according to the Justice Department—which took legal action on behalf of the �OSMRE�, a branch of the Interior Department.
"Over a five-year period, defendants engaged in over 130 violations of federal law, thereby posing health and safety risks to the public and the environment," said U.S. Attorney Christopher R. Kavanaugh for the Western District of Virginia.
“After given notice, they then failed to remedy those violations and were ordered over 50 times to cease mining activities until their violations were abated," Kavanaugh explained. "Today, the filing of this complaint continues the process of holding defendants accountable for jeopardizing the health and safety of the public and our environment."
Justice took office as a Democrat in January 2017 and later that year, at a rally with Republican then-President Donald Trump, announced he was returning to the GOP. His online biography boasts about various business ventures, stating that after his father's death, "Jim launched a massive expansion of multiple businesses which included significant coal reserve expansion, Christmas tree farms, cotton gins, turfgrass operations, golf courses, timber enhancement, and land projects."
The 72-year-old "has dozens of business holdings listed on his annual state ethics disclosures," West Virginia's MetroNews reported Wednesday. "The governor has not placed most of his family's holdings in a blind trust but has repeatedly said the responsibility of running the businesses has been passed on to Jay and adult daughter Jill Justice."
During a Wednesday briefing, the governor reportedly reiterated that he does not control the coal companies' day-to-day operations and said that "the Biden administration is aware of the fact that with a win for the U.S. Senate, and everything, we could very well flip the Senate. You know, government agencies can sometimes surely react, and this could be something in regard to that."
"But with all that being said—as I've said over and over, and you've seen it a thousand, million times—when something comes up and someone rears an ugly head, do we run and jump in a hole and die? We don’t do that," Justice added. "You know, my son and my daughter and our companies will always fulfill obligations, every single one, and absolutely at the end of the day have we not done it and done it and done it?"
MetroNews pointed out that in 2019, under Trump, federal prosecutors filed a similar $4.7 million lawsuit against several Justice coal companies stemming from nearly 2,300 citations—which resulted in a 2020 settlement. Earlier this month, prosecutors filed a motion over those companies' failure to make four consecutive payments since February.
The new suit comes after the East Carolina University Center for Survey Research on Tuesday released polling results which show that in a hypothetical 2024 U.S. Senate race between Justice and Manchin, the governor has a 22-point lead, securing support from 54% of registered West Virginia voters compared with the 32% who said they would support the incumbent.
The 75-year-old Democratic senator—who has come under fire nationally for serving fossil fuel interests and thwarting his own party's agenda—has not yet said whether he plans to seek reelection. However, there has been speculation that he may instead run for president next year. Manchin
said in a statement last month, "Make no mistake, I will win any race I enter."
Keep ReadingShow Less
'Nature Won't Wait': Break Free 2016 Begins with UK Coal Mine Occupation
The action in Wales marks the start of Break Free 2016, an international civil disobedience campaign spanning six continents
May 03, 2016
Hundreds of climate activists shut down the UK's largest open-cast coal mine on Tuesday morning--the first of a wave of peaceful direct actions spanning six continents and 12 days, targeting the world's most dangerous fossil fuel projects.
Mining work has now been halted at the Ffos-y-Fran mine in south Wales, where the mass civil trespass by climate action network Reclaim the Power began at 5:30 am local time. Hundreds of demonstrators wearing red boiler suits used their bodies to form a massive red line across the mine while nine individuals were locked to each other, blocking road access to the controversial facility.
"Continuing to dig up coal is a red line for the climate that we won't allow governments and corporations to cross," said Hannah Smith, who participated in the action.
The action in Wales marks the start of Break Free 2016, an international civil disobedience campaign meant "to ensure that strong pressure is maintained to force energy providers, as well as local and national governments, to implement the policies and additional investments needed to completely break free from fossil fuels."
Organizers cite record-breaking temperatures, rising sea levels, and the Paris climate deal as evidence of the urgent need for action to stem global warming. Indeed, they say the only way to achieve the goals set out during the COP21 climate talks and avert a climate crisis is to keep the vast majority of fossil fuel reserves in the ground.
Break Free 2016 is an attempt to amplify that message.
"By backing campaigns and mass actions aimed at stopping the world's most dangerous fossil-fuel projects--from coal plants in Turkey and the Philippines to mines in Germany and Australia, to fracking in Brazil and oil wells in Nigeria--Break Free hopes to eliminate the power and pollution of the fossil-fuel industry, and propel the world toward a sustainable future," said May Boeve, executive director of 350.org, which is spearheading the actions.
Added Wael Hmaidan, director of Climate Action Network: "People power in our cities, in our villages, and on the frontlines of climate change have brought us to a point where we have a global climate deal--but we do not stop now, we need more action and faster. Civil society is set to rise up again, to fight for our societies to break free from fossil fuels, to propel them even faster towards a just future powered by 100 percent renewable energy."
For example, a mass mobilization is planned for Wednesday in Batangas City in the Philippines. The demonstration "will highlight the demand to stop the building of new coal plants and the phase-out of the existing coal plants in Batangas," according to organizers. "It will also symbolize nationwide opposition to coal mining and coal energy in the Philippines."
Other protests, marches, blockades, and disruptions will take place from Australia to South Africa to Ecuador to Canada.
Meanwhile, actions across the United States starting next week will target six key areas of fossil fuel development: new tar sands pipelines in the Midwest; fracking in the American West; Big Oil's devastating refinery pollution in the Northwest; "bomb trains" carrying fracked oil and gas to Albany, N.Y.; offshore drilling in the Arctic, Atlantic, and Gulf coasts; and dangerous oil and gas drilling in urban Los Angeles.
"No government has a workable plan to protect a stable climate," said Ahmed Gaya of Rising Tide Seattle, who will take part in the Break Free Pacific Northwest actions on May 13, 14, and 15, targeting carbon-spewing Shell and Tesoro refineries just north of Seattle.
"Nature won't wait," Gaya said, "and mass disobedience is the only tool proven to bring about rapid social change. Breaking free from fossil fuels and ensuring a just transition is going to be hard, but not doing so would have unthinkable consequences."
A study from the Stockholm Environment Institute, released this week, lends credence to that argument. It argues that phasing out federal leases for fossil fuel extraction—a major goal of the U.S. climate movement—could reduce global CO2 emissions by 100 million tons per year by 2030 and by greater amounts thereafter. The study authors note this is "an impact comparable to that of other major climate policies under consideration by the Obama administration."
Keep up with Break Free on Twitter:
Keep ReadingShow Less
Picturing the End of Fossil Fuels
"It’s all of us, the little guys, against the immense, concentrated wealth and power of the biggest companies on earth."
Aug 21, 2015
When they say a picture is worth a thousand words, writers rebel (or they write 1,500 words). I mean, pictures are great, but they can't convey complicated concepts—except when they can.
Which would be the summer of 2015, on two separate occasions. Early in the summer, on the West Coast of the United States, "kayaktivists" in Seattle Harbor surrounded Shell Oil's giant Polar Pioneer drilling rig, trying to keep it from getting out of the harbor. They didn't succeed in that, of course--the Coast Guard cleared them out of the way--but they did succeed in reminding everyone of the scale of the destruction Shell has planned. Seeing those small, many kayaks against that one brute drilling platform brought home the existential nature of the struggle: it's all of us, the little guys, against the immense, concentrated wealth and power of the biggest companies on earth.
And then again last weekend in Germany, at the amazing #EndeGelande protests, when more than a thousand activists managed to elude authorities and congregate inside Europe's largest coal mine, in front of what are the world's single largest terrestrial machines. (One, the Bagger 288 is so big it even has its own song). They sat there for most of the day, and the great machines could do no work--and that means, since they move 240,000 tons of coal a day, that a lot of coal was not mined.
But activists can't stay there forever, and in the end, the picture will do the company and the German government more damage. The Star Wars-like image of people standing in front of the Jurassic digger makes the same point of the inhuman, absurd scale.
Pictures don't always turn the future, of course. The German images reminded me of the most famous picture of the Tiananmen saga...
... but sadly, the forces behind those tanks are still in control. His courage faced them down momentarily, but their implacable might won the day.
In the energy world, though, I'm willing to bet that these images poison the fossil fuel industry. It's not just because of their sheer, inhuman, oversized ugliness but because they manage to look somehow so antique. Or rather, so modern in a postmodern world. We're moving quickly to a planet where the small and distributed makes more sense than the centralized and gigantic--that's why you're likely getting your news from the net, not a TV channel. Even without understanding the science of climate change--the horror that the carbon from that digger and that drill rig is driving--, you have a visceral sense that they're in the wrong moment, the wrong mood.
The fight against Arctic oil and German coal will be long and hard. But we already know, once we've won, what the pictures in the textbooks will be.
Keep ReadingShow Less
'No Further': Activists Storm Coal Fields, Shut Down Europe's Biggest Polluter
'People want a future free of climate change and that if you're not going to solve it for us, we're going to solve it for you,' said 350.org global managing director Payal Parekh.
Aug 17, 2015
In a stirring act of mass civil disobedience, roughly 1,000 protesters stormed the gates of RWE's coalfields in Rhineland, Germany, on Saturday. They successfully shut down operations for Europe's biggest carbon polluter.
Under the banner Ende Gelande, which means "here and no further," activists descended on the mine to tell officials that, given the encroaching climate crisis, such extraction will no longer be tolerated.
"This action very clearly sent the signal to governments and the fossil fuel industry around the world that people are fed up and that people want a future free of climate change and that if you're not going to solve it for us, we're going to solve it for you," said 350.org global managing director Payal Parekh.
According to reports early Saturday morning, an estimated 1,500 protesters faced off with police wielding batons before roughly two-thirds of the protesters broke through and entered the opencast lignite, or brown coal, mine. Due to its high moisture content, lignite is a filthy fossil fuel.
One activist said ignite is the number one climate killer worldwide. "What's emitted from the lignite here directly impacts the climate."
To evade security, the group approached in different "fingers." While police worked to remove much of the present media, a number of the protesters managed to climb atop the massive diggers, halting operations for the day. Others were rounded up and arrested by police and RWE security, who reportedly relied on pepper spray and excessive use of force.
While providing a rolling update on the action, 350.org noted the significance of these shutdowns. Known as the Bagger 288, these machines are "the heaviest land vehicle in the world, and it is built for no other purpose than ripping open the land to extract dirty coal," mining as much as 240,000 tons daily.
"By stopping three of these diggers for the day, the participants in this action have potentially prevented over 700,000 tons of dirty lignite coal from being extracted," the group wrote. "That is what we call keeping it in the ground!"
After breaking through the gates, one protester said she was happy to have entered the pit, adding, "But also, it's shocking." RWE operates four large opencast mines in the region, covering roughly 2,500km. Activists say the total amount of RWE's extractions makes it the continent's biggest polluter. Saturday's action took place at the Garzweiler facility.
"No matter the outcome of the climate negotiations in Paris this year, people are building power to accelerate the unstoppable energy transition and keep the fossil fuels we simply cannot burn in the ground," 350.org's Parekh told RTCC after the action.
The climate action group produced this video of the mass action and shared several dramatic images from the day.
Keep ReadingShow Less
Mining Giant Credits Activists for Possibly Saving Great Barrier Reef
Indian mining giant Adani lashes out at environmentalists who sought to block giant coal mine—and succeeded
Aug 11, 2015
Fierce environmental activism is being blamed--and credited--with spurring the potential demise of Australia's controversial Carmichael coal mine project.
Indian mining giant Adani lashed out at activists on Tuesday, accusing them of causing delays that prompted financial backers to withdraw their support for the vast Queensland mine and port expansion along the Great Barrier Reef (GBR).
Environmentalists have long warned that the project would irreparably harm the GBR. It has faced significant hurdles, the latest of which was the London-based Standard Chartered Bank's announcement on Monday that it was withdrawing from its advisory role on the project.
Last week, Australia's federal court revoked the government's mine approval. The court sided with conservationists who argued that the license given to the project in 2014 did not account for the significant environmental impacts.
The court's decision was "based on a failure by the minister to have regard to the conservation advice for two federally listed vulnerable species"--the yakka skink and the ornamental snake--according to Sue Higginson, principal solicitor of the Environment Defenders Office NSW. The lawsuit also alleged a failure "to consider global greenhouse emissions from coal burning."
If built, Carmichael would be Australia's largest coal mine and one of the biggest in the world. Construction would require massive seafloor dredging along the GBR, and at maximum production, the mine would produce 121 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions yearly.
On the same day as the court order, the Commonwealth Bank of Australia announced it would not support the mine. This prompted Greenpeace Australia Pacific climate and energy campaigner Nikola Casule to call the Carmichael project "unbankable, unprofitable, and unconscionable."
Reeling from those setbacks, Adani released a statement on Tuesday saying that it had terminated the contract with Standard Chartered "on the basis of Adani's own concerns over ongoing delays to a now five-year-long approvals process in Australia."
The statement then continued, referencing the recent court ruling: "In the event Australia's federal approvals framework is not further undermined by activists seeking to exploit legal loopholes, enabling the project and the thousands of jobs and billions of dollars of investment it would bring to be delivered, Adani would happily work with the bank in the future."
The threat of a new, major coal mine comes amid a pending climate crisis while countries struggle to enact new greenhouse gas regulations. On Tuesday, the government of Australia released a copy of its greenhouse gas reduction goals ahead of the Conference of the Parties 21 (COP21) climate talks in Paris, which critics decried as being "weak" and overly friendly to the "big polluters" including the coal, gas, and oil industries.
Keep ReadingShow Less
See More
Most Popular
To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good.
News & Opinion
Trending
Common Dreams, Inc. Founded 1997. Registered 501(c3) Non-Profit
Privacy Policy