ArtsAutosBooksBusinessEducationEntertainmentFamilyFashionFoodGamesGenderHealthHolidaysHomeHubPagesPersonal FinancePetsPoliticsReligionSportsTechnologyTravel

Ripping Down Mountains for a Dime

Updated on February 28, 2012
Mountaintop removal explosive blast in Eunice, W.V. 7 July 2004.
Mountaintop removal explosive blast in Eunice, W.V. 7 July 2004. | Source

Ripping down mountains to get a bit of coal is like cutting down tress to get a few eggs from a nest. In short, it is insane. Republicans know this; they just, for whatever reason, don’t care. Maybe they or someone they know or both will get rich from it.

At any rate, in the absence of truth, their efforts can only rely upon irrational emotional appeals, propaganda, pure fiction, and censorship of opposition voices. No better example of this can be found than the recent hearing on the Stream Buffer Zone Rule in the House Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources, held on September 26. The biased title of the hearing, “Jobs at Risk: Community Impacts of the Obama Administration’s Effort to Rewrite the Stream Buffer Zone Rule,” is a pretty good indication of the tone and purpose of the hearing.

And if the title wasn’t enough, the composition of the committee and group of witnesses was a further indicator. Only two representatives were on the committee—both pro-coal Republicans—and eight of the ten witnesses were pro-coal politicians or members of the industry. The remaining two witnesses were community members speaking on behalf of the people who are affected by the regulations. No one from any environmental organization was present and no Democrat was sitting on the committee.

NWI

The National Wilderness Institute's supposed website nwi.org doesn't exist. The only information I found about it was here. Members of the organization include Larry 'lewd conduct' Craig and Richard Pombo, one of the most anti-environmental congressman of the past two decades.


Propaganda

To whip up some environmental street cred, Representative Doug Lamborn, to start the hearing, invoked a phony environmental manifesto, the “American Conservation Ethic" (I can not find the document anywhere anymore), written by a phony environmental organization, the National Wilderness Institute (NWI). While it sounds legitimate, the NWI is simply a group of environmentally hostile conservative politicians; and their ridiculous conservation ethic is just a “wise-use” manifesto (AKA exploit nature as much as you can get away with).

In his opening statement, Mr. Lamborn mentioned that the first principle of the "American Conservation Ethic" is that “People are the most important resource” and it is something that “we should all take to heart.” Okay, Mr. Lamborn, you first. And you can start by listening to the people at the hearing who will actually be affected by the regulations, rather than giving preferential treatment to the coal executives who only stand to lose money. You could also have invited some actual workers, who are supposedly going to lose their jobs. Perhaps you could address some of the 16 peer-reviewed scientific stuidies Bo Webb offered that demonstrate the health consequences to the people who live beneath the mountain killers.

Republican Fairy Tales

The testimony and comments offered by the pro-coal witnesses and committee members were all essentially the same: accusations that the Obama administration is rewriting rules, criticisms of overstepping executive authority, and of course that the regulations will cost bazillions of jobs. Pretty much the first set of talking points that initiates anything Republicans say about anything these days. Of course it is all pure fiction.

The Stream Buffer Zone Rule (SBZR) has been around since Reagan. It was in fact recently rewritten, just not by Obama. Bush rewrote it just before leaving office, in a way that afforded fewer protections to the environment. Obama, simply wants to take it back to be more in line with the original rule.

Representative Bill Johnson offered a wonderful story in his opening statement. One in which the Obama administration stymied by the courts went ‘shopping’ for an environmental organization to file a lawsuit against the rule. “Collusion” was the way Mr. Johnson characterized it. In bizarro Republican world this story makes perfect sense, since time has no meaning for them. For the rest of us, though, the story falls apart since the environmental organization lawsuits came well before the administration received that court opinion.

To support their claims about job losses, references were made to an unpublished report, prepared by a fired contractor, written about a rule that isn’t even finalized. Will jobs be lost? Maybe, but there isn’t any evidence either way, and even if there were, a cost-only analyses is completely useless (though Republicans still seem to love them).

Bo Webb

Mr. Webb, a West Virginian, has been fighting for his community for a decade. In his testimony (written submission here) he offered 16 peer-reviewed articles about the health consequences of mountaintop removal mining.

Censorship

Then finally at the end of the hearing, two community members spoke out about the consequences that blowing up mountains have on their communities. Testimony from actual community members would seem to hold special value and indeed it was the only testimony which received applauase form the assembly. Yet despite virtually every other witness having been asked a question, not a single question was asked of the two community advocates. And when Bo Webb asked to respond to something another panel member had said, Chairman Lamborn suddenly ended the hearing, saying, “I'm afraid our times up”

To add even further insult to the two community members, the committee then published a press release for the hearing which summarized the testimony of most of the witnesses, but completely ignored the comments of the two community advocates.

The whole spectacle was shameful. The fact that no Democrat bothered to show up to be an oppositional voice is equally shameful.

working

This website uses cookies

As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.

For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy

Show Details
Necessary
HubPages Device IDThis is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons.
LoginThis is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service.
Google RecaptchaThis is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy)
AkismetThis is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Traffic PixelThis is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized.
Amazon Web ServicesThis is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy)
CloudflareThis is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy)
Google Hosted LibrariesJavascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy)
Features
Google Custom SearchThis is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy)
Google MapsSome articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
Google ChartsThis is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy)
Google AdSense Host APIThis service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Google YouTubeSome articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
VimeoSome articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
PaypalThis is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook LoginYou can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
MavenThis supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy)
Marketing
Google AdSenseThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Google DoubleClickGoogle provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Index ExchangeThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
SovrnThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook AdsThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Unified Ad MarketplaceThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
AppNexusThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
OpenxThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Rubicon ProjectThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
TripleLiftThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Say MediaWe partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy)
Remarketing PixelsWe may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites.
Conversion Tracking PixelsWe may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service.
Statistics
Author Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy)
ComscoreComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Tracking PixelSome articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy)
ClickscoThis is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy)