Miscellany

Wind Energy Working Group

Did you know there is a group in West Virginia devoted to the promotion of wind energy in our state? Dr. Patrick Mann of WVU has been convening the Wind Energy Working Group at various venues around the state. The forum is not limited to "big wind." There are also opportunities to hear about small-scale projects for businesses and homes. Power in My Back Yard, a new company in Thomas that specializes in smaller scale wind projects, was featured at the Sept. 19 meeting.

For more information, contact OVEC staffer Carol Warren at peacelovemom@gmail or (304) 847-5121.

OVEC was saddened to hear of the passing of Toby Marsh of Wheeling, WV, who died Nov. 11 after a battle with lung cancer. A retired truck driver, Toby thought OVEC was one of the best coalfield citizen action groups in the US, according to his wife, Patricia. In lieu of flowers, the family asked that memorials be made on his behalf to OVEC, a gesture that touched all of us here deeply.

CALLING ALL MUSICIANS!

Jen Osha, who produced the Moving Mountains music CD, is partnering with Sam McCreery to produce a new CD of music about mountaintop removal coal mining. They are specifically looking for songs based around the Coal River area in Boone and Raleigh Counties. For more details, e-mail sam.mccreery@gmail.com. They hope to have all music submissions by Dec. 30.

Documentary Filmmaker Duane Moles:

"As part of a class at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, I traveled to China last spring to report on the country’s environment. Having grown up in a coal-mining region in West Virginia, I was really interested to see what life was like in China’s coal belt …

"While China’s environment has taken a serious beating as the country bulls its way forward, I was surprised by peoples’ disgust when I talked with them about the mountaintop removal mines that are slowly leveling West Virginia. One former miner asked me why we would destroy the mountains that way when we could use an underground mine and leave the mountains intact. I didn’t have a good answer."

See his film: www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/rough/2007/10/china_undermine.html