Take the anti-coal crowd here in Appalachia. To them, it's just a day job:
Leftist foundations work against coal minersThis isn't to suggest that those long-haired, lice-infested college students who show up at Dominion Power sites each summer are being paid to protest. They're simply young, stupid, and are easily led around.
By: Steven Allen Adams, OpEd Contributor, Washington Examiner
Coal mining in West Virginia provides more than 50 percent of the nation's electricity, but left-wing donors like the Tides Foundation and the Rockefeller Family Fund have funneled thousands of dollars to groups fighting construction of needed new coal-fired power plants and favoring cap-and trade limits on carbon dioxide emissions while showing little regard for coal miners' jobs.
Tides donated $138,000 to West Virginia groups between 2008 and 2004, $40,000 of which went to Appalachian Voices, a North Carolina-based activist group that protests mountaintop removal in West Virginia and other Appalachian states. Another $15,000 was given to Coal River Mountain Watch, a West Virginia-based group which also protests mountaintop removal.
Tides also uses the Appalachian Community Fund, based in Knoxville, Tenn, to fund anti-coal groups. The Appalachian Community Fund, from 2001 to 2007, gave $118,840 to West Virginia organizations. Another $37,645 went to Coal River Mountain Watch and $26,227 to the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition.
These are small amounts compared to the $500,000 the Rockefeller Family Fund donated to anti-coal groups around the nation in 2007. Out of those funds, Appalachian Voices received $35,000 "to fight the development of new coal-fired power plants in Appalachia."
Founded in 1967, The Rockefeller Family Fund supports multiple left-wing issues. Justin and Emily Rockefeller, son and daughter-in-law, respectively, of Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., are on the fund's board. Sen. Rockefeller also endorsed President Barack Obama against former Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination.
Both the Rockefeller Family Foundation and Obama support a cap-and-trade program to curb greenhouse emissions. Now these groups have an ally in the White House. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is considering suspending Arch Coal's mountaintop removal permit for their Spruce No. 1 mine, while Obama's Environment Protection Agency is holding 79 mountaintop removal permits for further review. [link]
But those fueling their fire are being paid handsomely to gather the young "skulls full of mush" and send them into harm's way. For them it's a profession.
You might want to remember that next time you hear someone whine about how awful the rearranging of rocks and boulders to get at that precious coal (they call it mountaintop removal) is. They don't whine, they don't get paid.
4 comments:
So Rockefeller pretends to represent the workers in WVa while funding those who would put all of them out of work. Tides foundation supported by Hanoi (traitor) John Kerry and Momma 'T' Heinz. What a shock, traitor remains a traitor.
X-Firefighter
For the coal industry, with friends like Rockefellor and Boucher, who needs enemies. Both should be ashamed of their actions.
...Al...
As long as West Virginia's future is based almost entirely on extractive industries, it will have huge problems not unlike those of other areas that are based entirely on extractive industries (e.g. sub-Saharan Africa, Interbasin Mining towns in the western US, the Outback of Australia, etc).
Extractive industries put dollars in workers' pockets. Those dollars then go to other sectors of the economy - insurance, food, cars, housing. That's a good thing.
I don't disagree that diversification is a good thing but where does one go to buy it?
The alternative for West Virginia - in today's anti-business climate - is ... nothing.
Drive over to McDowell County and you'll see the alternative to the coal industry.
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