TOM TOMORROW: If It Were Terrorism...

[antigone382]

37. The harm in coal country is not accidental.

I have lived there for a long time. Life and property are secondary to the financial interests of coal companies and always have been. The industry figured out that the absolute worst acts of overt political oppression, theft, violence, and murder which they committed (or paid others to commit on their behalf) were simply too risky and bad for business (google "Baldwin-Felts" or "The West Virginia Mine Wars" if you want to know the details). But the human toll continues in every mine disaster, every blackened river, every corner that is cut to save a few dollars at the potential expense of the land and the people.

These guys know that their actions will likely poison or kill a few people, and they have chosen to kill as many as they can get away with without cutting too far into the bottom line. For this express purpose, the big dogs expressly set up "independent subsidiaries" which can be shut down and declared bankrupt with incredible ease when recklessness inevitably results in tragedy. We've seen it happen again and again.

Extractive industry is violence, and it is deliberate violence. Make no mistake about that.