Almost hell in West Virginia,
Topless mountains, fire on the river,
Life is over, we’re poisoning the bees,
Blowing up the mountains, cultivating more disease.
Fossil Fuels, take my home
To big oil it now belongs,
West Virginia,
Mountain slaughter, take our homes
Big Petrol
– by Nicole Sandler, with apologies to John Denver
It’s difficult to believe that West Virginia was ever described as “almost heaven.” What a difference a few decades and lots of mountaintop removal mining, chemical spills and bomb train explosions can make.
The Blue Ridge Mountains are unrecognizable and the Kanawha River was on fire for over 10 hours as the oil from the derailed train burned.
Our friend Bob Kincaid of the Head On Radio Network joined me to talk about his ongoing battles to save his state.
He did have one bit of good news. The Ache Act, which would stop any new mountaintop removal mining, has been introduced in the 114th Congress as HR 912. It now just needs more support. Find out about it at AcheAct.org, and then get your representatives to sign on!
The Bomb Train that exploded on Monday in West Virginia wasn’t the only one to blow up this week. Mother Jones tells us these events are happening more and more frequently these days, as did Rachel Maddow last night:
And, like clockwork, just moments after today’s show ended came the news of yet another explosion – this one at an Exxon Mobil refinery in Torrance, CA.
I’m not sure we’ll ever learn.
Susie Madrak joined me in the second hour to talk about the problem with Democrats – they don’t seem to learn from their mistakes. Susie wrote about the reported meeting last week between Hillary Clinton and Elizabeth Warren. I hope a lot of Warren’s common sense rubs off on Clinton…
Tomorrow, Congressman Alan Grayson and She’s History‘s Amy Simon help get us through a Thursday morning, radio or not!
