Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Lost Mountain Pg 162
I was more interested reading these pages than the beginning. There were a few things that bothered me about the coal industry and the federal government. Erik discusses and gives information about how the coal industry funded certain government officials and people to get a certain position. The relationship that goes on with money and politics and government makes me sick. It just shows another reason why our government is corrupt and that people get screwed over, for example those who live near strip mining sites in Kentucky, because some company made too much money and funded a government official into office in returns that that certain government official would protect the company. Another thing that made me mad was the fact that coal mining companies would offer money to households near a mountain in returns that the coal industry would be allowed to strip mine the nearest mountain. The part that is terrible is that when it came time to pay the household the coal company would file bankruptcy and not have to pay up. Erik Reece gave a couple of examples of that. He also wrote about the reclamation of areas and that coal companies wouldn't properly make a reclamation of the land. They would just do enough to keep certain programs off their back and to keep from getting sued. The lies and excuses that he used in these pages were eye opening for me. In one area of Kentucky a church had been fine until a coal company started strip mining near it. The churches roof got a crack in it and when the coal company was addressed they just said that it was an old roof. When clearly it was their fault. I am bothered that coal companies are ruining the Kentucky area and not taking responsibility for their actions. The fact that the government isn't doing much about it and ignoring this serious problem...... well it is unacceptable and ridiculous.
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I couldn't agree more with your last sentense. There is so much shady and bad stuff going on. But, the people who have the power to change things are so shallow and money driven that they can be swayed to the wrong side. Also, what the coal companies did to the families by offering money for their land to mine, then filing bankruptcy. That's horrible almost borderline inhumane in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteYou and I seem to be on the same page with our posts. When reading the last section, as I said in my post, I couldn't stop thinking "why isn't anyone stopping this?" We think to ourselves when electing a government official that we are, most of the time, electing someone who, regardless of political affiliation, is out to help the people. It seems that in these especially devastated areas of Appalachia, their elected officials and trusted groups, such as the EPA, aren't doing anything to help those in need. I think something has to be done about this, and to decrease the corruption that is so apparent throughout the coal industry.
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