Alternative Dispute Resolution Book Review


King Coal Lives!


Coal River by Michael Shnayerson


David J. Wildberger I


n 1917, Upton Sinclair published the novel, King Coal, his expose of the horrific working conditions faced by miners in America’s coal mines. Sinclair described vividly the


ruthlessness of the coal industry and the human cost associated with the extraction of coal from the bowels of the earth. Ninety- one years later, Michael Shnayerson has given us Coal River, a well-written journalistic account of the environmental toll exacted by the relatively new mining practice called “mountain topping,” in which entire tops of majestic mountains are blown up to get at the coal beneath the surface. Tis practice destroys not only the mountain itself, but it terminally clogs nearby streams with byproducts, euphemistically, called “overburden,” leaving those streams denuded of fish and wildlife. More specifically, mountain topping first calls for the clear cutting of all forest land on the mountain. Soil is removed from the mountain to expose the seems of coal, which are then blasted open with explosives and bared for harvesting by huge machines called “draglines.” Tis leaves the mountain leveled and local streams filled with debris. As for the ruthlessness of the coal industry, some things do not change. What has changed is the topography of hundreds of thousands of acres of land in the coal belt area of West Virginia. Where once stood mountains, now stand canyons. Coal River is primarily the story of two activists – one a lawyer,


Joe Lovett, and the other a grassroots organizer, Judy Bonds – who take on the principal and most ruthless of the perpetrators of mountain topping, Massey Energy and its chairman, Don Blankenship. Blankenship, written by Shnayerson as almost a caricature of the ruthless corporate magnate, is, in many ways, the most interesting character in the book. Calling himself a “radical populist,” Blankenship is a larger than life character who buys West Virginia Supreme Court elections as easily as he buys distressed coal companies in order to bust their unions and make them more profitable. Blankenship sees the world in black and white and ruthlessly refuses even the smallest of compromise


Photo Credit: michaelshnayerson.com


in his effort to expand the practice of mountain topping and presumably increase Massey Energy profits. Interestingly, as Shnayerson points out, Blankenship’s leadership of Massey Energy was of questionable profitability. But Blankenship is not the only villain here. Te United States Army Corp of Engineers, local and federal public officials, the West Virginia Supreme Court, the Bush administration and the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals all have a turn attempting to thwart Lovett and Bond’s efforts to save the local environment. Lovett’s efforts center on legal attempts to force the application of the Clean Water Act and other existing law to the coal industry. Lovett loses most battles, but wins a few notable cases at the United States District Court level, only to lose at the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals. Judy Bonds, and her grassroots group, Coal River Mountain Watch, give legal standing to Lovett’s efforts, while fighting a more populist-based battle directly with politicians by organizing protests and otherwise asking difficult questions in difficult venues. One of the most entertaining portions of the book deals


not with Blankenship, Lovett or Bonds, but with Ed Wiley, a “concerned citizen” who walked over 400 miles from Charleston, West Virginia to Washington, D.C. to meet with Senator Robert Byrd in an attempt to procure tax dollars to relocate a


Trial Reporter / Fall 2010 43


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60