A rally to stop Mountaintop Removal and save Blair Mountain will take place at noon today to draw attention to the funding of mountaintop removal mining (MTR) by national banks. The rally will begin on the Kanawha Boulevard at the corner of Summers St. in downtown Charleston with participants walking to Laidley Tower on Lee Street.
Citizens choosing to exercise their First Amendment rights will be targeting Morgan Stanley, which is a major funder of Arch Coal. Arch Coal owns a number of removal sites in West Virginia including the Adkins Fork Permit in Logan County. The pending permit for Adkins Fork is located on the historical battleground of the ‘Battle of Blair Mountain,’ where in 1921 an armed labor uprising was largest in U.S. History. The MTR activities may threaten potential tourism and history in the area and ecologically damaging the watershed near the community Blair.
Many argue that funding Mountain Top Removal mining and the Adkins Fork permit blatantly violates Morgan Stanley’s Human Right’s Lending Commitment. The rally will correspond with a report which details the investment risk involved in financing companies that engage in surface mining operations and is detailed in an investor risk document released by Rainforest Action Network titled, ‘Arch Coal, the Blair Mountain Battlefield and Bank Human Rights Commitments.’
For more information, visit: www.blairmountain.org
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