Remember how I told you I recently watched the video footage of the coal plant hearings HERE?
After watching all the contradictions, out-right lies, and actual law-breaking behavior (and experiencing it first hand when I attended these hearings), I knew I had to get that footage out for people to see.
With a LOT of help from a really amazing friend, this is the result. None of this footage is doctored, dubbed, or anything other than what actually transpired.
I spent this weekend doing something I've been putting off for years--I watched video footage of the coal plant hearings from two years ago.
Oy.
I didn't even watch all of them, and, man....I just feel dirty.
Actually, I feel angry.
The public hearings had very little to do with the public.
At all these hearings the majority of the public spoke against the coal plant...and its various rail lines, water intake pump houses, coal ash landfills, etc. etc. etc.
Local citizens overwhelmingly opposed the project.
As did folks from neighboring areas and those concerned with the global implications.
One hearing had unanimous opposition. Not one person spoke in favor of the project.
Didn't matter.
At every hearing the boards who are supposed to represent the public did not do that.
It was all just a sham. A way to fulfill the letter of the law. And super unfair and just plain crappy.
Now we're getting ready to re-do some of the public hearings (because of the lawsuit win I told you about HERE), and I really hope things are going to go down differently this time around.
At a minimum, I hope they'll hold these hearings in larger venues so that people don't have to stand for 6 hours and wait in line in the cold (so they can get a chair...you know, so they don't have to stand for 6 hours).
We still need to attend. Now more than ever.
And we need you to attend, too.
We can send a message to ODEC that we will not go down quietly.
We can send a message to their CEO and Board of Directors that they will meet more and more resistance as time goes on.
We can send a message to our neighbors that there are many of us who do not wish to sell them down the river for money.
And we can send a message that poor rural communities have just plain had enough of being on the front lines fighting coal.
Last week ODEC announced that they will reapply to the Town of Dendron for the necessary local permits to move forward with the coal plant. You can read a local news article about it HERE.
Needless to say, I am disappointed.
I'm not entirely convinced that the project isn't dead. According to the article above,
"The date of the new public hearing — and a subsequent town council vote — for the proposed power station will not be set until 2012."
That's fairly vague: 2012. Plenty of room to quietly fade away into the sunset.
Not counting on it, but a girl can dream.
In the meantime?
Bring. It.
We are ready to fight. We've kicked these clowns over and over again, and we're ready to do it some more. We're rested. We're reinvigorated by this lawsuit win. We've heard their lawyer's canned responses so often, we could repeat them from memory.
There are simply too many questions and too many holes in their story to slide by without a whole lot of red flags for any critical thinker not to notice.
More and more people know about this project and are against it.
More and more communities and groups have passed resolutions against it.
More and more government agencies are realizing the science on coal is in....and it's not safe.
So, we'll rally our ever-growing troops and fight them every step of the way.
This time of year my kids and I love to watch the holiday classic, Home Alone.
I can't help but be inspired by some of the lines in the movie:
"This is my house, I have to defend it!"
I feel the same way. This is my house, my community, our local-based business, our air and water, our planet. I have to defend it!
But my all time favorite quote--that couldn't be more applicable at this time--is this gem:
"You guys give up yet? Or are you thirsty for more?"
Because let me tell you, we've got plenty more where that came from. We're fighting for our lives, our homes, and all that we cherish. And like a local hero I know said to ODEC last year at the public hearings:
