Prompted by Pompey Road in comments, I went looking for some commercials that have been running in rural West Virginia, put out by a company called Walker/Cat that makes heavy machinery for coal operations. (George W. Bush spoke at their Belle plant in 2002.) Turns out they’re right here. They have to be seen to be believed.
Here, Miss Bug explains that heck no, blowing up mountains, dumping the rubble in streams, and covering the result with a thin layer of soil and grass monoculture doesn’t "bug" her at all, ha ha!
In fact, life fairly blossoms in the wake of MTR!
Miss Bug’s husband Mr. Bug says that despite what those activist judges tell you, he and his kind just move out briefly during the mountain-blowing-up process. After that they move right back in! Anyway, he doesn’t need electricity in his house. Do you?
Miners are almost artistic in their use of equipment to blow up mountains and dump the rubble in streams.
WV needs two things: the kids off our damn lawns and enormous mining machines on every mountain!
After all, you dirty California hippies don’t even know where your electricity comes from, dude!
In fact, if there’s one thing that kicks more ass than coal, it’s roads! WV can’t afford to be a two-lane state in a four-lane century, can she?
That’s only scratching the surface. There are more.
