The West Virginia water crisis has generated a whole bunch of national media attention on West Virginia's status as the east coast's dumping ground.
This isn't a new story, it's actually a very old story. The long and short of it is that the people and environment of West Virginia have been prostituted to out-of-state business interests by their own elected officials. The people of West Virginia have long sacrificed for the needs of others, and all they have to show for it is crushing poverty and a fouled environment. All the money ends up in the pockets of its out-of-state overlords. I told this story to the people of Illinois during a public hearing on the Rock Island Clean Line project last fall.
Now, Salon tells West Virginia's story to the rest of the country.
Is there a lesson to be learned here? How easily could wind-rich Midwest states be substituted for West Virginia in this article?
This isn't a new story, it's actually a very old story. The long and short of it is that the people and environment of West Virginia have been prostituted to out-of-state business interests by their own elected officials. The people of West Virginia have long sacrificed for the needs of others, and all they have to show for it is crushing poverty and a fouled environment. All the money ends up in the pockets of its out-of-state overlords. I told this story to the people of Illinois during a public hearing on the Rock Island Clean Line project last fall.
Now, Salon tells West Virginia's story to the rest of the country.
Is there a lesson to be learned here? How easily could wind-rich Midwest states be substituted for West Virginia in this article?
The people of West Virginia had made clear demands: put land and people first. The companies did neither, but continued on their profit-driven rampage destroying huge swaths of the West Virginia mountains – one of the world’s most beautiful landscapes – with mountaintop removal for cheaper access to coal, exposing residents to toxic air pollution in order to provide the rest of the nation with cheap energy. The decisions made in the early 1970s are what got us here today, with hundreds of thousands of people spending days unsure when they would be able to drink their water again, with many remaining unsure as pipe flushing and other cleanup procedures have been ineffective.
Think huge industrial wind farms and miles and miles of high voltage transmission lines are harmless?
Wind farms could endanger small aircraft
Wind turbines throw ice
Wind farms can drive you crazy
Wind farms have a multitude of adverse effects
New high voltage transmission lines also have adverse effects and will take thousands of acres of the nation's most productive farm land out of production.
The people of Illinois, Iowa, Kansas and Missouri have made clear demands: put the land and people first. Clean Line Energy Partners have done neither, but continue on their profit-driven rampage intent on destroying huge swaths of America's farmland -- one of the world's most productive food producers -- with acres of wind farms and miles of transmission lines for cheaper access to renewable electricity, exposing residents to economic and health risks in order to provide the rest of the nation with cheap energy. The decisions made today will be the history of tomorrow.
And if we don't learn from history, we are bound to repeat it.
Wind farms could endanger small aircraft
Wind turbines throw ice
Wind farms can drive you crazy
Wind farms have a multitude of adverse effects
New high voltage transmission lines also have adverse effects and will take thousands of acres of the nation's most productive farm land out of production.
The people of Illinois, Iowa, Kansas and Missouri have made clear demands: put the land and people first. Clean Line Energy Partners have done neither, but continue on their profit-driven rampage intent on destroying huge swaths of America's farmland -- one of the world's most productive food producers -- with acres of wind farms and miles of transmission lines for cheaper access to renewable electricity, exposing residents to economic and health risks in order to provide the rest of the nation with cheap energy. The decisions made today will be the history of tomorrow.
And if we don't learn from history, we are bound to repeat it.
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