Page 27 - Coal Fields News Today

Years old. still ahead here, what robert f. kennedy jr. wants you to know. >> i recently flew over the coal fields of the appalachians and i saw something that if the american people could see it there would be a revolution in this country. >> coming up, ill be speaking with him live about this documentary now playing at the sundance film festival. and we again are live watching and waiting the situation inside the federal courthouse in phoenix, arizona. as soon as we get an update on the ac...

>> well, theres nothing new about mountaintop removing mining. it accelerated during the beginning of the bush administration dramatically. it was made legal for the first time, and since then weve cut down 1.4 million acres, the area the size of delaware flattened. 500 of the biggest mountains in west virginia, and weve buried almost 2,000 miles of rivers and streams. one company, massie coal, and this story is about one of the last big mountains left in the coal fields of west virginia that ha...

Subsidies and through other losses. west virginia, my father used to say, ought to be the richest state in the country because of the number of resources, the amount of resources in the state, but instead its the 49th poorest state in the country. it has some of the west health and the closest you get to the coal fields, the poorer the people get. 92% of the coal in west virginia is owned by out-of-state interests and they have broken the unions so they are leaving nothing in that state except f...

Future, which was a little bit surprising coming from the prosecutions side, putting that in play the mental competence of this defendant may be a major factor moving forward. we still dont have the two indictments on the murder charges. the judge asked when he could expect those additional charges. the prosecution said within 30 to 45 days. what theyve done is, rather than set any sort of a trial date, theyre setting a status conference for march 9th, giving the prosecution more opportunities f...

>> mr. president, mr. vice president, you honor us with your presence. west virginians know all too well how shared sha ed hardship sorrow make for long and lasting ties. such is our connection to so many in this room today. i have spent a lifetime in and around the coal fields of our state, and like you, i am proud, very proud, to be able to say that. here in these hills and hollows that we call home, one man relies upon another aboveground as well as underground. life intersects life. dreams i...

Just prima facie they dont have a good record. >> well, its not a company that we represent, so we dont deal with them directly a lot, however, in the mining industry, when you have one company that tries to increase productivity by pushing a little harder and trying to intimidate people to cut corners, it affects all of us. we all have to compete in that industry. the thing that needs to be pointed out is that in the coal fields, these coal-mining jobs are the good jobs in the area. if they don...

>> okay. i think you are speaking the truth. i think what weve seen in the coal fields over the last several years is, quite frankly, the creation of a climate of fear and intimidation when it comes to organizing coal mines. miners are confronted with not shall we have a union or not but shall we have a job or not? when youre confronted with situations like that, these are the best jobs around and its difficult to ask people to take this step to join the union and support the union and end up vo...

Course, thats 2005. theyre contesting about a third of them. thats about 2/3 of them theyre not contesting which tells me just prime ma fashe they dont have a good record. >> well, its not a company that we represent, so we dont deal with them directly a lot, however, in the mining industry, when you have one company that tries to increase productivity by pushing a little harder and trying to intimidate people to cut corners, it affects all of us. we all have to compete in that industry. the thi...

To prevent mining companies from doing that. mining companies are very powerful in this country and theres a lot of incentives to try and get the coal out no matter what. >> you think that massey, this company, ive heard their name before in this regard. is this a bad company? they have a bad record, would you say? >> look at their record. >> i see 1300 violations. its 2005. theyre contesting about a third, which tells me they dont have a great record. >> well, its not a company that we represen...

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