Combating Mountaintop Removal: New Directions in the Fight against Big Coal

Part II. Banana Republic, Neoliberal Style

PART II Banana Republic, Neoliberal Style banana republic n. A small country that is economically dependent on a single product or crop, such as bananas, and often governed by the armed forces or a dictator. —American Heritage College Dictionary, Third Edition “I sure would like to see it,” said Roger, an elderly retired coal miner, of rumors that Massey Energy would build a new tipple in the Sycamore community. “Why?” I asked. “’Cause things might pick up ’round here,” he replied. Judy looked at him cockeyed, wondering why anyone would want to see a new coal processing plant near their home, much less one run by Massey. “Do you really want that up there?” she asked. “No,” Roger backpedaled, “I don’t want to see none of it, when it comes right down to it.” Roger was new to the activist community. Thinking that more coal means more jobs and more prosperity is something of a rookie mistake in coalfield activism. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, mines in Coal River and all across southern West Virginia produced enormous amounts of coal. No period in state history rivals the fifteen years from 1988 through 2002 for tons mined. The state produced an average of over 165 million tons per year during that time. Prior to this late-century surge, only in 1947 and 1948 did West Virginia produce over 165 million tons in any single year. At the same time, mines in 2000 employed fewer people than ever before. The effect of mechanization is all too apparent 68 PART II when the all-time employment low of 14,281 miners in 2000 is compared to the boom-year high of 125,669 miners in 1948. Roger’s instinct that more mining should help the local economy seems like a perfectly logical notion. The reasons why it is inaccurate are as old as Appalachian coal mining itself. According to legend, John Peter Salley was the first European to discover coal on an escarpment near the small Coal River community of Peytona in 1742. Seemingly ever since, economic development has been a peculiar endeavor in West Virginia. Coal has always been at the center of the state’s economy and remains there despite indications from around the globe that coal is an industry in its twilight. More recently, West Virginia has gone to great lengths to nurture a tourist economy. In the Monongahela National Forest in the northeastern part of the state, West Virginia has gone as far as imposing mandatory buffer zones between plowed fields and streams. These restrictions are intended to protect streams from runoff and protect the aesthetic beauty of streams for boaters. 0 20,000,000 40,000,000 60,000,000 80,000,000 100,000,000 120,000,000 140,000,000 160,000,000 180,000,000 200,000,000 0 20,000 40,000 60,000 80,000 100,000 120,000 140,000 1910 1913 1916 1919 1922 1925 1928 1931 1934 1937 1940 1943 1946 1949 1952 1955 1958 1961 1964 1967 1970 1973 1976 1979 1982 1985 1988 1991 1994 1997 2000 Production (Tons) Employment Year Employment Coal Production Coal production vs. coal employment, 1910–2000. Source: West Virginia Coal Association, www.wvcoal.com. Banana Republic, Neoliberal Style 69 The coal industry in West Virginia and elsewhere often frames its argument for strip mining in terms of private property rights. On the surface, there appears to be a contradiction between protecting Coal’s sacred property rights and infringing on farmers’ rights to plow their land. An analysis of the rhetoric, policies, practices, and politics of development reveals a thread of consistency between these two positions. In these examples and many others, the capability of people—local people—to make use of local resources is compromised for the benefit of a centralized, industrial model of development. An analysis from the Caribbean banana industry shows similarities between coal and other industries that have been restructured according to neoliberal principles. Anthropologist Karla Slocum illustrates how neoliberal trade policies created a paradoxical circumstance in the banana industry that also applies to the coal industry. Combined dependence on fixed resource production and integration with global markets creates an inflexible economy that effectively prevents economic diversification. It is apparent that economic development in West Virginia, especially southern West Virginia, is still guided by a coal-first philosophy. Beyond actual mining, Coal’s extractive industry...