Kennedy takes on the coal baron in mountain duel

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jan/22/kennedy-coal-debate-blankenship


University debate personifies America's deep political and environmental divides


It was an event billed as the smackdown between the baddest coal baron around and the environmental heir to the liberal Kennedy legacy, live on stage and in the heart of Appalachia mine country. Stage right, appropriately, was Don Blankenship, chairman of Massey Energy, a meaty impassive presence, his Kentucky drawl never picking up speed or volume. On the left, Robert F Kennedy Jr, who has spent his life defending waterways, making lawyerly argument out of staccato bursts of statistics.

The pairing at the University of Charleston was the perfect personification of America's deep divides: Republican versus Democrat; old industry v new, global warming denier v impassioned advocate for climate change laws.

The battle in Thursday night's debate was over mountaintop removal mining, which blows the tops off mountains to get at thin seams of coal and of which Blankenship is the most notorious promoter. "This is the worst environmental crime that ever happened in our history," began Kennedy. "It is a crime, it is a sin, and it is a moral obligation to stop this from happening."

-snip of facts-

But this was too many facts for Blankenship. "It's a bunch of rhetoric and untruths," he returned. "This industry is what made this country great. If we forget that, we are going to have to learn to speak Chinese." Or accept early deaths, he argued, noting that expectancy in Angola is 39 years.

Or, as he suggested later in a digression on poverty in India, go through life with the indignity of not having a toilet. Or, maybe just roll over and give in to the terrorists. "The truth of the matter is that were it not for coal we wouldn't have the freedom to sit up here and ­discuss this," Blankenship said.

The views – and debating styles – were a stark vision of the separate ­political realities in America.

-snip-

But Blankenship was still looking to the past. "Coal is what made the industrial revolution possible. If windmills were the thing to do, if solar panels were, it would happen naturally."

Oh, and global warming was a hoax, he finished. "Anyone who says they know what the temperature of earth is going to be in 2020 or 2030 needs to be put in an asylum because they don't. This whole thing is designed to transfer wealth from the US to other countries."
-snip-
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may the coal barons fall down and never get up

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1. kicking back to pg. 1

nt