Robert Kennedy, Jr & Bill Haney on "The Last Mountain" & Effort to Stop Mountaintop Removal. 1 of 2

DemocracyNow.org -
Democracy Now! interviews environmental activist Robert Kennedy, Jr. and filmmaker Bill Haney about the new documentary, "The Last Mountain," which premiered this year at the Sundance Film Festival. The film chronicles the fight against coal mining across Appalachia and Massey Energy's devastating practice of mountaintop removal to extract layers of coal. "They have to break the law to do this. They cannot survive in the marketplace without violating the law. They violate labor laws. They violate health and safety laws. And by their own records, they've had some 67,000 violations of just one of the environmental statutes," says Kennedy of the coal giant that has tremendous political influence at the state and federal level. "It's not just about the environmental destruction, it's also about subverting democracy."

Part 2 of the interview is here: http://youtu.be/kRnQ9J2fssA

To watch the entire interview, read the complete transcript, download the video/audio podcast, and for Democracy Now!'s news archive on mountaintop removal and coal mining, visit http://www.democracynow.org/2011/5/23

FOLLOW DEMOCRACY NOW! ONLINE:
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/democracynow
Twitter: @democracynow
Daily Email News Digest: http://www.democracynow.org/subscribe

Please consider supporting independent media by making a donation to Democracy Now! today, visit http://www.democracynow.org/donate/YT

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• amy
• goodman

[bon1042]

Why don't the people in WV go after Jay Rockefeller !? How much is he taking fm the coal industry? He should be drawn and quartered for letting this happen. All my life I've only heard about how this state is raped by big coal. Then on PBS a yr or so ago i saw a NOVA or nature documentary on the appalachain chain where there is a very unique rain forest. I had no idea. This is outrageous.

[grandmachristine42]

Does anybody know why mediagrll keeps disappearing off my subscription list? I tried unsubbing and then subbing again but it's still not there. It's not a real stopper - I can get here easily by finding an already-favorited vid from here and clicking on the name, but WHY????

[Judy101101]

@krymz1 I live in Canada, maybe do some research and find out who owns most mining around the world and you'll see they are Canadian owned. We canadians go into other countries and create poverty by taking natural resources and giving nothing back. it is capitalism and you can't have capitalism without a person so yes it is a person, get ride of this addiction to profit by destroying - all stock holders are owners - each person owning stock is doing this to ourselves

[krymz1]

@Judy101101

i dont know about the laws in canada, but in Québec we give away our ressources for free. I.e. mining compagnies don't pay more then 1% in giving us back what they take from our grounds, unlike BC where i think it goes more around 20%... anyway the source of it all is capitalism, not a person.

[Judy101101]

every mining company works exactly like this. EVERY energy interest group works exactly like this. how many mining and oil companies are Canadian owned? how well is Canadians economy compared to all other countries? Does the Queen(representative of the top global corporations) own crown land in Canada? Why focus on one group when you can only stop this at the source of it all - cure the causes to make a change