{"id":1101,"date":"2014-07-14T17:43:21","date_gmt":"2014-07-14T21:43:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/?p=1101"},"modified":"2014-07-14T17:43:21","modified_gmt":"2014-07-14T21:43:21","slug":"elizabeth-warren-natalie-tennant-and-mountaintop-removal-mining","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/?p=1101","title":{"rendered":"Elizabeth Warren Natalie Tennant and Mountaintop Removal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p dir=\"ltr\">Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts) traveled to Shepherdstown, West Virginia today to appear at a rally for West Virginia Secretary of State Natalie Tennant, who is running against Congresswoman Shelley Moore Capito (R-West Virginia) for U.S. Senate.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Warren\u2019s message in a nutshell &#8212; Capito represents Wall Street and Tennant represents Main Street.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/COSbDrKToxU\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Unless it comes to Wall Street and its coal corporations.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Then they both represent Wall Street.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Earlier this year, the Charleston Gazette ran an opinion article by Bob Kincaid titled \u201cThe Sound of Silence.\u201d<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Kincaid is co-founder of the Appalachian Communities Health Emergency Campaign and president of Coal River Mountain Watch.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cThe number of West Virginia&#8217;s leading politicians who remain silent on the health crisis exploding along with the 5.5 million pounds of ammonium nitrate and fuel oil explosives going off every business day in Southern West Virginia&#8217;s Mountaintop Removal zone is a shameful reality: Shelley Moore Capito, Joe Manchin, Jay Rockefeller, Nick Joe Rahall, David McKinley, Earl Ray Tomblin,\u201d Kincaid wrote.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cNone of these politicians have ever dared publicly ask why people living in Southern West Virginia suffer disproportionate levels of heart disease; why they die from shocking levels of cancer in their Mountaintop Removal communities; why unconscionable numbers of birth defects afflict them; why excess deaths stalk our towns and \u2018keep the lights on\u2019 in our funeral homes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cWe know by her own silence regarding the scientific reports showing all the toxic horrors inflicted upon Mountaintop Removal communities that Congresswoman Shelley Moore Capito, the presumptive Republican nominee for the seat being vacated at the end of the year by Sen. Rockefeller, cares not the least about disease, suffering and death in the southern West Virginia Mountaintop Removal zone. Her silence is ample evidence of her disdain.\u201d<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">After her rally today, \u00a0I asked Tennant if she would stand with those regular people in the coal fields of West Virginia who are suffering at the hands of Wall Street\u2019s coal barons.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">&#8220;Why don\u2019t you take a position on mountaintop removal mining?&#8221;<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cHey what are you up to?\u201d Tennant asked.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">I\u2019m up to asking you a question you have refused to answer.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Earlier this year, Tennant came to Berkeley Springs, and she refused to answer any questions about mountaintop removal mining.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">So, what\u2019s your position on mountaintop removal mining?<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cIt\u2019s a balanced approach,\u201d she says and walks away.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Do you support a moratorium?<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">No answer.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Do you support a moratorium?<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">No answer.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">In his Gazette op-ed earlier this year, Kincaid asks whether Tennant will \u201cjoin in Capito&#8217;s silence?\u201d<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Apparently yes.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cDoes Ms. Tennant have the strength and courage to lend her voice to those who have none?\u201d Kincaid asked.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Apparently not.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cIf elected, will Ms. Tennant commit to introducing a Senate version of HR 526, the Appalachian Communities Health Emergency (ACHE) Act?\u201d<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Apparently not.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cThis critically important bill provides a way for people to find out why and, more importantly, how they are being poisoned in communities near Mountaintop Removal sites,\u201d Kincaid writes. \u201cIt would also have no impact on anyone currently working on mountaintop removal sites already permitted to operate.\u201d<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cHow could a person of conscience not support such a bill?\u201d Kincaid asks.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Good question.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts) traveled to Shepherdstown, West Virginia today to appear at a rally for West Virginia Secretary of State Natalie Tennant, who is running against Congresswoman Shelley Moore Capito (R-West Virginia) for U.S. Senate. Warren\u2019s message in a &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/?p=1101\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1101","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1101","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1101"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1101\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morgancountyusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}