A local conservation group is hosting the Charlottesville premiere next week of Coal Country, an award-winning documentary about the true cost of America’s “cheap” electricity. The film focuses on mountaintop removal coal mining, where the tops of ancient mountains are blown off to expose coal seams, and the rock and dirt dumped in valleys, obliterating headwater streams. In the film, we hear from activists who are fighting to stop this controversial practice, which is devastating water quality, forests and communities in the region, and from coal miners and officials who are fighting for their jobs and way of life.
Movie times are 7 p.m. next Wednesday and Thursday (Dec 9 & 10) at Vinegar Hill Theater. There is also a reception on December 10 at 5 p.m. at Siips Wine Bar on the downtown mall. All proceeds from the movie and reception will benefit the Wise Energy for Virginia Coalition. The Coalition and its partners are working to stop new coal plants in Virginia, halt the destructive practice of mountaintop removal mining, and shift the Commonwealth toward a clean energy future.
“My hope is this superb documentary will shock Americans and create a surge of urgency that stops the atrocity of mountain top removal coal mining immediately,” said actress Ashley Judd in endorsing the film.
Tickets are going fast, and space is limited. Buy online today: www.WiseEnergyForVA.org/CoalCountry [Thanks Kayti]
Related posts:
- Smoking Banned in Virginia Bars and Restaurants
- cVillain Predicts the Future: Virginia Has Swine Flu
- Virginia Film Festival starts today!
Western Civilization of the last 200 years was built on coal. Eliminate coal. Eliminate prosperity.
Western Civilization was built on political pluralism, freedom, gold, the telephone, concrete, antibiotics, bicycles, ballpoint pens, AND coal. Eliminate coal. Save the planet.
Hi Ethan,
Yes. Coal has fueled our economy for over 200 years. We should have a monument in every state honoring coal and coal miners for starting a prosperous economy and winning us two world wars. Coal has also decimated over 500 mountains and destroyed over 2,000 miles of streams in Appalachia and poisoned our water and our air. With American ingenuity we can transition together away from coal- we have to. Its had it’s good run, Ethan, but now we have to stop covering our eyes to its destruction and work together to power America with alternatives. We can stop mountaintop removal NOW and the lights won’t go off- this process only accounts for 10% of our overall electricity use in America- this is atrocious! COME SEE THE FILM AND FIND OUT FOR YOURSELF!
Aside from nuclear power, the environmentalists’ bugaboo, what is a realistic replacement for coal? And don’t say wind, because that’s not efficient. And don’t say natural gas, because the same Appalachians that have been exploited by politicians and the coal industry are being exploited once again in the quest to control the natural gas market.
Ethan,
Realistically, in this glorious Commonwealth, energy efficiency can cover us until at least 2025—-we won’t need to build ANY new generation. By that time the technology for renewables will be much more improved and cost efficient. Check out the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy’s report on the state of VA-http://www.aceee.org/pubs/e085.htm and you will see for yourself.
Of course we won’t need to build ANY new generation in this glorious Commonwealth or 15 years because a lot of the power we get comes from coal mined and burned in West Virginia. Yours and my electricity comes from Mount Storm, West Virginia.
Is that where they just fired all those people?
I don’t know. Is there an article about it?
http://www.washingtontimes.com/weblogs/back-story/2009/dec/09/coal-company-cuts-500-jobs-blames-environmentalist/
Well, it’s not Mount Storm, but the point is there. The biggest proponents of cap and trade (which is essentially a tax on the poor in Appalachia) are big investors of so-called green energy. Many of the anti-coal ads you see are funded by companies that will profit billions if their biggest competitor for energy production get squeezed out by environmental legislation. A large part of environmentalism is merely a capitalist ploy to make money in an untapped “Green” market because many grassroots environmentalists are very easily emotionally swayed and don’t see the forest through the trees, as it were.
And how do you know that renewable sources will be more cost efficient? You’re banking a hell of a lot on a technology that doesn’t exist. Solr cells have been around for decades and they have only marginally improved. Ahhh, it’s only a matter of time before we invent nuclear fusion and then everything will be solved!
Eliminate coal? What would I get in my christmas stocking then?
Bastards.
You can fit bastards in your stocking? It must be huge.
Bastards start out small, and just keep growing, right?