The presidential candidates from both parties are using the words "clean" and "coal" together. Its pitiful, but not surprising all are spouting the coal industrys most-favored Orwellian phrase. After all, the industry has sponsored presidential debates and is spending $35 million on propaganda during the campaign season.

Talk of "clean" coal is really about "slightly less dirty" burning of coal. Coals dirty when you mine it, dirty when you prep it for market, dirty when you haul it to market, dirty when you burn it, and dirty when you "dispose" of the ash. And it sure dirties up politics!

To try to get that message to Senator Hillary Clinton, several OVEC members stood outside her March 19 Charleston appearance with "Stop Mountaintop Removal" signs for hours in the rain. Clintons motorcade finally buzzed by us so fast our signs were probably only a blur to occupants of the assorted SUVs in her motorcade.

Inside the event, Clinton never called on us for a question. But, WV Public Radio asked her about mountaintop removal. She said, "I am concerned about it for all the reasons people state, but I think its a difficult question because of the conflict between the economic and environmental trade-off that you have here.

"Im not an expert. I dont know enough to have an independent opinionYou know, maybe there is a way to recover those mountaintops once they have been stripped of the coal. You know, I think weve got to look at this from a practical perspective."

Sigh. Clinton learned quite a bit about mountaintop removal at a June 6, 2002 hearing in DC. There, she told Backstreet Boys Kevin Richardson she would take a SouthWings flyover of mountaintop removal mining areas. That flight hasnt happened yet.

On March 20, more OVEC members were stationed throughout the Beckley arena where Senator Barak Obama was speaking. Also present were members of Coal River Mountain Watch, Student Environmental Action Coalition and WV Young Democrats. Early on, a whitewater rafters advocate asked about mountaintop removal.

The Beckley Register-Herald reported: Obamas answer didnt give much red meat to either environmentalists or coal supporters, both of which had loud contingents in the audience.

Obama took more questions and eventually looked over at the man in the neon-green ball cap and sweatshirt Larry Gibson. Obama, like many of us, noticed Larrys dogged persistence: "This gentlemen in the green has had his hand up for a long time."

Larry stood up and said, "Senator Obama, I appreciate your stand on the war Wed like you to consider the war we have here in Appalachia, with over 474 mountains blowed up"

Obama replied, "What I want to do is work with experts here to find out what we need to do to protect the waterways. Thats going to be a primary task of the head of my Environmental Protection Agency we have to be good stewards of the land so that we are passing on a planet to our children and our grandchildren thats as beautiful and as bountiful as the one that we inherited from our parents and our grandparents."

On March 26, Bill Clinton stumped for his wife at the Raleigh County Armory. OVEC members Chuck and Linda Nelson were there. Mr. Clinton touted "clean coal and coal-to-liquid." Chuck told Clinton about Bushs gutting of the Clean Water Act, and handed him a fact sheet on mountaintop removal and a copy of the "Mountain Mourning" DVD. Clinton just nodded.

"I just hope he watches it, so he can see the impact that mountaintop removal has on our lives," Chuck said. He related our adventures in trying to elicit a straight answer about mountaintop removal from the candidates to both National Public Radio and CNN.

After those visits, the WV Democratic Party held its county conventions. Cabell County convention goers, prompted by OVEC volunteer Robin Blakeman, approved a statement opposing mountaintop removal and supporting renewable energy. At its convention, the WV Young Democrats passed a resolution against mountaintop removal.

In May, Senator Clinton was back in Charleston for a rally at the State Capitol. Larry arrived at 5:30 a.m. and was first in line. A photo of the rally appeared in the New York Times. There was Larry, in the front row, in his iconic fluorescent green Stop Mountain Removal ball cap and sweatshirt. After Clinton concluded, Larry shook hands with her and asked her to sign his Stop Mountaintop Removal ball cap and to commit to ending the massacre of our mountains.

She did sign the ball cap, but she didnt give an answer on mountaintop removal.