In August, we brought you the story of Coal River Mountain, one of the last mountains in West Virginia’s Coal River Valley that hasn’t been destroyed by mountaintop-removal coal mining. Residents are lobbying to build a wind farm on the mountain, but Massey Energy is moving ahead on plans to strip-mine a 10-square-mile area of the mountain, regardless of whether they have the permits to do so.

Yesterday, CNN covered the battle over Coal River Mountain and the plight of the residents of Raleigh County. They also got some great quotes from state Department of Environmental Protection officials and representatives from the office of Gov. Joe Manchin (D) about why they won’t step in.

Help Grist raise $25,000 by September 30 to further advance our climate reporting

“The governor sincerely believes as a country we can’t take anything off the table,” Lara Ramsberg, the governor’s spokesperson, told CNN.

Here’s the segment on Coal River:

To support our nonprofit environmental journalism, please consider disabling your ad-blocker to allow ads on Grist. Here's How

Embedded video from CNN Video