The Coalfield Expressway - Strip Mining Coal - Where is the Protest?

Gov Kaine and Rick Boucher announced yesterday that the long awaited Coalfield Expressway will be built. The cost of the road will be cut in half because coal companies will strip and flatten the road bed. The plan called for 35 bridges. Instead, the coal companies will reduce that number to under 10 by stripping coal and flattening the land.

General assembly members who represent Buchanan County also praised the project on Friday.

Delegate Dan Bowling, D-Oakwood, called the announcement "a red-letter day for those in the energy-producing counties of Southwest Virginia."

"When coal became king over the years, the one thing it brought to us was railroads ... but it took us a long time to develop a good highway system in these rugged mountain areas of Virginia," Bowling said. "It will truly open up these counties in a way that they’ve never been opened up before."

He said thousands of acres of flat land will also be created along the expressway, opening up the area for economic development.

Phil Puckett, D-Tazewell, said it’s the best example he’s seen of a public-private partnership.

"We are going to build the Coalfields Expressway," he said.(LINK)

Indeed. What the anti coal loons at Raising Kaine do (just ignorant I guess) not understand that most every road, business, or industrial park in our area is built on strip mined land. I will have some real pictures of former strip mining sites here in Wise up later today so you can see the so called damage. I await the protests and condemning of the people supporting this effort.

Technorati Tags: Coal, Coal Mining, Wise County Virginia, Coalfield Expressway, Rick Boucher, Tim Kaine