They're having a tea party and serving us cups of air, telling us we're not really thirsty. They seem to be more concerned with saying the right things than with doing the right things...
Why the WV DEP is failing WVians
Will WV Dems crash and burn like national Dems did?
A populist uprising at the polls is exactly what happens when the government ceases to be "for the people." These results now remind everyone that if we don't have a government FOR the people, we'll have a government BY the people, at least---whether for good or ill.
Salting the Earth in WV
A study of frack water's effect on WV forests ended tragically: "Forest Service researchers sprayed more than 80,000 gallons of fracking fluid on a half-acre area of hardwood trees in the Fernow Experimental Forest, a plot within the Monongahela Forest in West Virginia. They immediately observed 'severe damage and mortality of ground vegetation' and, 10 days later, premature leaf drop. Two years after spraying, 56 percent of the large trees were dead."
The Economics of Extraction Debt
No longer do Robber Barons need to plunder villages with swords and arms. With regulatory and/or judicial complicity, the extraction industry can jab a siphon into our veins and drain our lives away. They simply appropriate our air and water, and transform them into wealth for themselves. In essence, Extraction Debt is the modern weapon of corporate pillage. Launch it at a community, and watch the fiscal destruction that follows.
Value of Statistical Life
Be aware that whenever you hear propaganda about "EPA overreach," you can be reasonably assured that the whining is originating from business interests who quite literally value your life and the lives of your children less than you do. Resource Barons prefer to frame the discussion as "higher costs" (for them) rather than accusing the EPA of valuing your life too much. When businesses and politicians talk about "EPA Overreach," they're looking at what profits can be made where your life or your child's life is just a statistic.
WV- Still Ours
We know that in McDowell county, for example, residents are literally paying those socialized costs with their lives. Profits are private. The average life expectancy there, due to coal extraction, is far lower than average. Each of them are paying an average of a decade or more. Wealth pours up; it doesn't trickle down. Extraction execs pocket their sacrifice in the form of profit.
Pipeline tactics
Falsely arrested, and thrown naked in jail:
Fracking Royalty Ripped-off
They're having the same problems in Pennsylvania:
Fracking Thieves and Liars
Some extractors are not paying proper royalty payments, are filing fraudulent affidavits claiming mineral rights heirs are unfindable, and are using deceptive language in lease modifications and offers.
This is almost heaven.
The Appalachian Oracle 