Activists approach the dragline on the Twilight strip mine complex, June 18, 2009.
Rock Creek, W. Va. — Massey Energy has filed a politically motivated civil suit, also known as a Strategic Lawsuit against Public Participation (SLAPP) suit, against fourteen activists arrested last year in relation to a protest on a mountaintop removal mining site. The suit seems to be part of a larger strategy on the part of the mining company to intimidate and silence critics of the company’s safety record and controversial mining practices, particularly mountaintop removal coal mining.
Since the spring of 2008, Massey has filed at least four SLAPP suits against activists in West Virginia working to end mountaintop removal, none of which have yet been resolved. Commonly used to exhaust critics by burdening them with the cost of a massive legal defense, SLAPP suits have been banned by at least 26 states and one territory has protections against SLAPP suits. West Virginia does not have a ban, but its courts have adopted some protections against them (1).
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Massey Energy Files ’SLAPP’ Lawsuit against Environmental Activists
Company Responsible for Upper Big Branch Mine Disaster Actively Seeking to Silence Local Critics
July 29, 2010
CONTACTS: Larry Hildes, (360) 715-9788
Rock Creek, W. Va. — Massey Energy has filed a politically motivated civil suit, also known as a Strategic Lawsuit against Public Participation (SLAPP) suit, against fourteen activists arrested last year in relation to a protest on a mountaintop removal mining site. The suit seems to be part of a larger strategy on the part of the mining company to intimidate and silence critics of the company’s safety record and controversial mining practices, particularly mountaintop removal coal mining.
Since the spring of 2008, Massey has filed at least four SLAPP suits against activists in West Virginia working to end mountaintop removal, none of which have yet been resolved. Commonly used to exhaust critics by burdening them with the cost of a massive legal defense, SLAPP suits have been banned by at least 26 states and one territory has protections against SLAPP suits. West Virginia does not have a ban, but its courts have adopted some protections against them (1).
“We think that Massey should have higher priorities than suing environmental activists who object to an extremely disastrous mining policy,” said Larry Hildes, an attorney representing the 14 activists. “With a record like theirs, they need to be focusing on measures to help local communities impacted by their mining and working to prevent future disasters in their mines.”
Massey Energy is already publicly notorious due to their history of safety violations and damage to local communities. In April 2010, Massey’s Upper Big Branch mine in Montcoal, W.Va., suffered a preventable disaster that took the lives of 29 miners and was widely covered by the press. Thousands more safety violations have been reported in Massey mines throughout West Virginia and Kentucky since the Upper Big Branch disaster. Massey also continues to be one of the leading proponents of controversial mountaintop removal mining practices. Above ground, over 500 mountains, 2,000 miles of rivers and streams and over a million acres of forest have been decimated by mountaintop mining operations. Finally, Appalachian communities near Massey mountaintop removal operations are harmed through coal dust, regular blasting, dirty water and coal waste.
“Not only is Massey destroying Appalachia’s mountains and water, and criminally neglecting the safety of their own workers, but they are also using their vast legal and financial resources to sue environmentalists instead of cleaning up their mess,” said Charles Suggs, a resident of Rock Creek, W.Va., and one of the climbers on the dragline. “This SLAPP suit is intended to intimidate and silence their critics so that Massey won’t have to actually make right the damage they’ve done.”
On June 18, 2009, in Twilight, W.Va., the 14 activists named in the lawsuit risked their safety to stop massive, 20-story earth-destroying piece of mining equipment known as a ‘dragline.’ Their action was intended to protect the families whose lives are harmed every day by this destructive mining practice. Massey now seeks $350,000 in damages for loss of coal production on that day. All fourteen activists had their criminal charges resolved in a W. Va. court in September, 2009.
1. Harris v. Adkins, 432 S.E.2d 549 (1993)
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Really hurts when the shoe is on the other foot huh ? To quote the A P over at the Coal Tattoo: “the latest string of legal maneuverings by environmentalists to stall” Go Massey!
Watcher you’re going to probably regret the fact that you relish in a government where big business takes precedence over people someday. When it comes to a point in a country where people cannot protest or voice their opinion then that mean NO PERSON will have any rights. That is a scary thought to me.
No, Em I don’t relish in any such foolishness you speak of but how would you feel if some group came to your place of employment to shut you down because they did’nt agree with some procedures being performed there? The environmental community uses the legal system to stall or block industry incessantly. Now the coal industry has taken a play from your very own playbook. Get over it , protest and voice your opinion all you want, just not on private property.
Last time I checked, the investigation at UBB wasn’t complete, so how can you get on here and say that it was preventable??? No one yet knows what exactly happened, given time we will know, but right now NO ONE KNOWS!!! Em, isn’t that defamation???
Why doesn’t the headline read ” Massey Uses Non-Violet Court Action”? That would be the headline if you were doing it.
I hope all the coal operators take a clue from Massey and sue, sue, sue.
Run up those attorney bills, boys – make jobs for legal interns and secretaries.
Make the government bigger through the use of the court system!
America – land of the lawsuit!!!
Your shareholders will really appreciate it in the end.
hey watcher,
since you have such a fetish for private property rights can I come to your neighborhood and open a tobacco sellin’, gay porn movie store next to your house or church?
Watcher, killing people, destroying the environment, polluting water supplies of entire communities is ok with you? Industry and profit are more important than people? Massey is just euphemism for mass murder and you like it? You need to look deeper into what is happening in mining communities before you support their destruction.
No “whatchin”, I think I would prefer Boutique Hypnotica put in a branch store in next door. Maybe I would meet you as I’m quite sure you would be devoted customer of their’s. After all they sponser CGZ and that’s good enough for me.
em
I guess I am confused, you want the GOVERMENT to put an end to MTR yet think it is wrong for the mining community to seek goverment help with a dispute. So which is, to much goverment or not enough? TRANSLATION, only the enviros can seek goverment help, if anyone else does…….that would be wrong. Just another bag of twisted BS from the enviros.
ah ha!
the truth comes out – ol Watcher, with his private property fetish, wants to control the private property decisions of others as well.
et tu Voyeur?
thanks climate ground zero. y’all are working very hard so that we will have water to drink. it’s crazy that y’all are always called “environmentalists” as though you’re fighting for something different than people. i’ve seen these mines. we have them in virginia too. they destroy everything and they burry the streams which are the source for millions of people’s drinking water.
thank you so much for working so hard. keep up the fight.
eM, you were a government employee, so what does that make you?
The streams are still there, clean as ever, just relocated out from the “head” of the valley.” So actually the stream is still there, think about it!
wah wah wah go hug a tree you fuckin hippies. I would be willing to bet that over half you dumbasses that read and pay attention to this stupid website arent even from the mountains or coalfields. Its all we have and we love it, esp strip mining because its more economical and safer. Without reclaimed mountaintop removal sites in my hometown we have no high school, shopping center, or hospital. Theres simply no other feasible pieces of land to use. You worry about your city and run it how you want, let us do what we please with our land and how we make a living. Without coal you have no power, its as simple as that. Bitch and complain all you want, and cry about solar ,wind, and nuclear power, but they just wont cut it. Unless you can afford a power bill thats double what it is now i strongly recommend you keeping your mouth shut about coal and stop supporting the hoax known as global warming. The funny part about all this is you people are so ignorant you dont realize that without coal this little gay website more than likely wouldnt even be accessible to most of ya, I dont care if your from California, theres a good chance in your power grid some electricity is being provided by coal. All you people are doing is costing the hard working people of the Appalachia’s jobs and trying to destroy the only thing we have, LEAVE US ALONE AND LET US BE ITS NONE OF YOUR CONCERN WHAT WE DO WITH OUR LAND OR HOW WE MAKE A LIVING.
Coal Lover….you’re wrong.
why not an answer eM?
An answer to what? That I am a government employee so what does that make me? I don’t understand the question. I guess that makes me an Army nurse that thinks the adverse effects Moutaintop Removal Mining are not worth the little bit of energy we get from the coal mined in that manner. Different branches of our government have different responsibilities and EPA stands for Environmental Protection Agency not “Employment” Protection Agency. Did I answer your question sufficiently enough for you?
Little bit of energy???? About half of electricity, and all coke for steel!!! No Met coal, no steel!!! No steel, no cars!!!
no you did not.
You’ll never leave brushy alive says:
August 15, 2010 at 1:45 pm
Little bit of energy???? About half of electricity, and all coke for steel!!! No Met coal, no steel!!! No steel, no cars!!!
Actually, you can get all the carbon you need without mining a lick with a pyrolysis machine. 80% pure cabon derived from almost any waste material from shyte to tires to highly lignaceous biomass, all renewable.This Carbon char is by far cleaner than aaany coal you could mine making it ideal for use in the steel industry. Carbon char can also be used for cooking and heating.
Char produced in a pyrolysis machine contains none of the toxic fumes that coal has thus reversing the effects of Indoor air pollution a deadly killer of women and children. A pyrolysis machine with an intake of 30 tons of biomass can produce enough electricity for a small town and 10 tons of char a day. So instead of that POS traitor to America Blankenship making all the money,
the towns gabage is recycled and burned, solid waste burned, brush and tree triimmings, burned all with no nasty toxic cloud you get from coal, or the deadly externalitites that my brothers in Appalachia are now enduring from mining.
This Pyrolysis machine which burns it’s own exhaust and leaves no “externalities” translates into cash in numerous ways.
sale of char in briquette form for BBQ
sale by the ton as agriculture or industrial use.
Addition to compost to make incredilble fertilizer.
collection of carbon credits roughly 90 euros per 100 tons.
the same 30 tons biomass produces about a thousand gallons of pure water derived from the steam.
So one town with a machine that will fit in a barn can reap all these advantages without COAL OR MINING.
Just as a foot note: using this system in an area that is being stripped of fuel for heating and cooking such
as Haiti and the African Sahele can actully begin to reverse the horrible march on mankind known as desetification.
Climate Ground Zero true American Patriots Respect, protect, and defend the mother!
Blakenship and Massey I fart in you general direction……
Timor omnis abesto de oppresso liber scamgea
Now our Appalachian town is completly off the grid. The pyrolysis machine provides
Electricity, char for heating and cooking and filtering the nasty water left by MTR mining, income for the town through sales of char and carbon credits.
Water 2 gal per day per person, peterolum like tar stuff that can make organic solvents, paints, lubricants etc.
and we feed it with trash, shit, tree and brush cuttings, construction debris….
now we have free energy we want free foood!
Add an aquaponics system and raise your kids on Bass, Tilapia and tomatoes, and romaine and zuchinni rather than
Lucky Charms, Coke and SpaghettiOOOOOnoOOO!
Appalachian area coops can Sell there organically grown Fish and produce to big cities close by SUCH AS DC Atlanta Philly Nashville ALL OF OHIO.
fish and veggies fetching 3.50 a pound wholesale! basil grown in a aquaponics system is ready in 25 days!
Tilapia are ready for market in 7 months pound and a half about 5 bucks a fish live whole no processing.
Since you have pure water and lots of char to use as filters and heat to grow in the winter, Aquaponics becomes a year round deal for Appalachia which would then supply most of the east coasts veggies and fish locally, sustainably, organically
with liberty and justice for all!
This is how we doit!!!!! Blankenship you pig: Sola virtus nobilitat Scamgea
And so our little town now has energy, food,, income, all from renewable sources.
The prime bottomland, enhanced with our char-laced fertilizer, grows tremendous cereal and food crops.
Wheat, barley, rapeseed, hemp, legumes, corn, Hops, melons. all thrive. Since all mining has stopped the rivers are now safe for fish.
Pond grown fish, trout, brim, catfish, Bass, from Appalachia begin to replace the 85 some odd percent of the seafood we import.
Now we begin to create jobs in the tourist industry. With our homegrown wheat hops and barley we brew our own unique beer wine flows from the grapes on the south facing hills, fishing guides float lazily down iconic rivers along side kayakers.
bed and breakfasts flourish with all that good foood and drink! and of course the backdrop is the most haunting beautilful place on earth the Applachian Mountains.
And the PEOPLE will rejoice! the mystical, musical, Celts who escaped oppression and death in Ireland and Scotland to come to a new land only to find the long arm of greed, hatred, racism in the name of coal, follow them into the hills and hollows, how will they feel and what will they do?
They wiil make music, praise the lord, work like dogs, dance like the ancients, make their own whiskey, live,, love, make families, grow old, and die in peace and harmony with the mother. The way it used to be for thousands of years..
That’s the way god planned it.
and now we must make it so! “God helps those that help themselves” Ben Franklin scamgea
Coal Lover Coal liar…..Ignant!
“Without coal you have no power, its as simple as that. Bitch and complain all you want, and cry about solar ,wind, and nuclear power, but they just wont cut it. Unless you can afford a power bill thats double what it is now i strongly recommend you keeping your mouth shut about coal and stop supporting the hoax known as global warming.”
Duuude you pants is on fire!!!!!
First lie first
Solar, A 70 mile square area of solar panels can supply the energy for the entire US and the technology gets better by 20% every ten years.
The dOdefense has kept over two million people in Southern Califronia from becoming wind power energy customers
by blocking wind Turbine permits because of a BS excuse, namely it blocks secret radar testing.
The Dept of Energy says the excuse is lame and that the DOD needs to update their radar software that is in some cases 50 years old. How many people live in west Virginia? 1.8 million the whole state would be on wind power!
This shows that Guv is blocking the show, and morons like you spread lies.
Nuclear power is not renewable energy. Hello Mc Fly?
And now global warming..
Man first started using instruments to record weather in the 1400′s
1800 brought global weather reports and measurements on a regular basis.
However, the planet has recorded her own weather patterns in three distinct records each showing that the current global warming pace is unprecedented in a quarter of a million years.
First Dendochronology, Tree growth rings can tell a trained observer what happened in a certain area over several millenia.
Petrified trees tell the same weather story sevaral million years ago. Add these up present and past and you can see The mothers mood swing in weather for millions of years.
second Ocean floor core samples. Once again the earths weather history in lyers brought up as a core sample.
Now you have ACTUAL CHEMICAL AND BIOLOGICAL DATA that will coraborate what the trees told you, never has there been such as drastic swing warm or cold in such a short period of time since the giant meteor smashed into the Yucatan peninsula and killed all those nice T-Rexes. Indisputeable dposits of organic and chemical and mineral component that tell an exact story.
Third, to back it all up Ice core samples once again same layers but different source. These samples tell us water and air composition and mixture going back millions of years.
And of course sedimentary rock which all reach the same conclusion
The current warming trend is by far the fastest of any swing ever the difference?
man. Respect protect and defend the Mother scamgea
coal Lover now that I got your attention;
just as your sister’s son is your daddies grandchild all things
are relative.
Charlestown is in w Virginia which is in the USA which is on the Earth.
Hence, since we all ride the same space ))))ship>>>>> your arguement cements
your ignorance in a kind of reverse ethno-centric way.
My great Grandfather 5 generations back Leonard Henderson of a NC town of the same name, sent his foreman a fellow by the name of Daniel Boone into the mountains to start the Transylvania Land company.
He had rights to acreage that had never been mapped probably yours as well!
Don’t worry, I won’t be rude and tell you to go away like some people I know.
Coal Lover, how does it feel to live a lie?
Evething about you is one big angry LIE I’m sure you bring great joy to your friends and family
Thank you for your comments! Sola virtus nobilitat” only virtue enobles! Henderson clan motto, scamgea.
AS I post this an ecoloon holds hostages in the Discovery channel building in Silver Spring Md. Says he was awakened by Al Gore’s movie Inconvient Truth.
Sorry for the spelling, should have read Inconvenient Truth. Mr Lee also demands a halt to the birth of “parasitic human infants”.
Scamgea, do you have to go so low with “the relative” comments.