days a year, without losing seniority, then drop down days, i just give that up day as a fire boss. do that.owed to host: what did you like most about it? >> daily challenge. job, ay was a different different thing to do. you are on a rooftop, you had to watch it you.n't fall in on you run a buggy, watch everybody it is a e corners, challenge, everyday challenge. else, you are re your worst enemy. dazidazical, you are going to get hurt. host: "washington journal" the focus on the coal industry this morning from ohio.an point, it's murray energy's there.oading facility

joining us on site is vivian stockman, she serves as vice ohio valley he environmental coalition. tell our viewers about your and its work. guest: well, ohio valley coalition or ovec is known as hat huntington, west virginia, on the other side of the river river near kentucky. we've been, celebrating our 30th now. right living rooms just a group, a bunch of citizens got together with the corporation was going to bring all of its waste from north america to a low-income community near got ngton and people together and became a multi-year eventually bas corporation decided it wasn't in g to burn or dump waste our neighborhood. that is what we started with, years we have gone into

a sorted campaign when people brought different pollution nd grievances to our -- to light for us. i think we focus on environmental justice and we justice, at racial social justice, all of that in lens of human rights. -- and of course, human rights. on ral campaigns are going now, one revolving around the that will bring gas through the area, unless we stop that and we're very worried them. the implications could be. i think you have a photo

there of what that is with the top and the mountain removal site behind it. host: yeah, we can show the viewers. where mountain top why you akes place and are so concerned about mountain top removal. mountain top removal is going on in four different tates, it is very prevalent in southern west virginia and we got involved in the issue when to us after they had been to the full companies, politicians, had been to the state politicians, been to the federal politicians relief from what mountain top removal was doing the area.munities in mountain top removal is a type mining where they blast off something like 800 feet off to get of our mountains to thin seams of coal. an operative word

there. at this very moment there, is a charleston ng on in here our allies colbert mountain watch are trying to get hearing about a permit for an expansion of mountain top emoval mine on coal river mountain. that type of mining detonates explosives. i mean, there was a big uproar that we dropped in afghanistan, the mother of all bombs, as there should be an over that. but that type of bombing is going on by coal companies on mountains in west virginia. annihilate does it our incredibly biodiverse is debris buries streams, something like 2000 miles of streams have been buried. these are biologically crucial streams, about a

million acres of forest destroyed in mountain top mining and communities are driven spo extinction. out of their hed homes. people that do manage to live incredible suffering health problems. if you live near a mountain top emoval mine, you are more likely to have cancer, more likely to have cardiovascular nd respiratory problems, more likely to have birth defects in people livingthan in area where is there is no mountain top removal coal mining. it is a huge problem, environmentally and it is annihilating communities. learned about st the problem, we held one of the first ever forums on mountain we've been and stopting and attempting to this practice ever since. host: i should tell the viewers, the ey want to check out

website it is ohbec.org, we are vivian stockman of ohio valley environmental coalition. segment of te "washington journal" today focuses on the coal industry and of that industry. vivian stockman also taking your line and comments, special for coal miners and family members, 202-748-8000. otherwise, regional, if you are eastern or central time zone, 202-748-8001 is your number. mountain or pacific region, 202-748-8002. ivian stockman, we'll start with larry on that line for coal miners and family members from clifton springs, new york. good morning. caller: good morning. having the noise pollution on c-span this morning, as well as poison coal dpragrandfather died from black escaped the father coal mines. of course, i'm very concerned lying he congressman

about energy policy in america and i'm very glad that your the nt guest is telling truth about coal and its destruction of the environment. all this coal, very few industries are dependent on coal. convert to ily electricity and we could be electricity, portugal is making 13% of electricity from off-shore tumblers, just rolling with the wind 24/7. the waves can be put on long winteros rivers, we can get all the energy we need from the sun and from the rivers and from the oceans and i just absolutely disgusted that they never tell how radiation omes from the new plants and how the poison and the acids and carcinogens coming from coal. host: larry brings up a lot of subjects. ivian stockman talked about

congressman johnson, who played ole in repeal of the stream protection role. want your perspective on the impact of repealing that rule? guest: well, it's very telling that one of the first acts of administration was to roll back a rule that would have coal ted us from the industries in terms of poisoning know, we , you definitely as we transition out f the coal era, we're going to need clean water and we also do minerso remember the coal and help with the transition for the miners, people who sacrificed so much. it is important to underscore that, you know, against mountain top removal are not against the coal miner. very think that is important. we're excited in huntington, we best ly won america's community contest and part of goingthe whole transition

to be taking place in huntington, one thing going on we're a part of is some unemployed r now miners or veterans or underemployed youth to teach you know, new careers, say in hazmat and also installation, so i .hink that is important caller said is true, utilities themselves, the -- appalachian power said it is for renewables, they renewables. toward when you hear, i'm sure the congressman probably said .ob-killing regulation dig you hear that, please eeper, in most cases,

regulations are actually going to at least have a net effect in terms of jobs, a net benefit for jobs and they're all about the miner and the mining communities from the abuses of the coal industry. host: vivian stockman, you talk the transitioning out of mines. last month on "washington journal," we had zach regulations are actually going to atcoleman on an environmental writer here, he had a cover story in the christian science monitor last on this topic, finding life after coal, is the cover april 10, 2017. appalachian towns vivian stockman was referring to. miners the line for coal and family members, alfonso in good ville, texas, morning. caller: yeah, steel worker for i know what it is to lose a joto lose a job.

it was greed that pushed me out. is, uy that you got there it is a different situation for in -- the it is environment and i like to know these thinks about all regulations regulations, are they saying truth about the environment and industry, they are blaming the coal industry, so i watch out. what these congressmen and doing, because i know what it is to get out of a 22 years and for that is all i have to say. alfonso, the ht, congressman left us. we are with vivian stockman. the t your thoughts on topics. guest: well, it is interesting people lly so many didn't even bother voting in the last election because everybody politics, as ith

sual, on both sides of the aisle. we work on campaign issues. money in is so much corporations funding politicians worker, atense of the the expense of the community ember and, you know, our policies are for corporations, not for the people and people politics ed up with right now. caller: i have a two-part question. -- secondly the politicians talk technology, do l you think that the companies that own coal power plants will spending the millions of

to install coal technology from plants and take the profitability? thank you for taking my call. stockman, take them in whatever order you want. guest: let's go with the lie of versus, you know, you hear this phrase repeated over over. just because you say something over and over again does not advertising it is slogan propaganda. coal is paid for in deep miner's ives and health or in the case of mountain top removal, paid for by the mountains themselves, and the reams communities driven to extinction or people that do manage to nearby.

and taking what used to be sweet turning it into a toxic soup coming out of the people's sinks that people have with, that is the coal prep plant, they use call kinds deadly chemicals to wash the coal, the prep plant workers have been part of the class-action lawsuit because they are getting sick and dying like flies. have full-prep plant waste. host: on the picture of the two people with the water there, who people?e this picture that is on your website, as well. uest: yeah, those are folks from mingo county, west the community of rawl.

rawl -- and sprig, the joinedties, 700 families a class-action lawsuit about contamination of the water there. you had young kids coming up with gal bladder disease, all of, every house, if you knocked on the door, somebody in the house had a rare illness obviously if your water is tell you when they clean coal, think of that. that is not even talking about transport the coal, when you burn the coal, the coal ash, the administration is roll back coal ash regulation, coal ash is a whole problem, the leftovers after you burn it. you know, there is a giant disaster, several of them, lagunes.n caller referred to in the first what is is questions, coming out of mercury, sulfur acid rain, i ng

talking t is not even about the climate from air emissions, something like 30,000 premature deaths per year on the mining side, premature deaths cancer, you know, clean co coal. please. you mention the smoke stacks over your shoulder belong the mitchill power plant and -- run by american electric power company. one of the senior members of that company about the plants across the river just to let our viewers the what they are seeing in shot your shoulder. back to the calls, 10 minutes left with vivian stockman. clarence is wait nothing fredericktown, ohio. yes, thank you, c-span. i would like to apologize for from ohio.ssman on

these people lie so much. i am so devastated by it, when i removal stuff.p i've been reading at it, looking at it, telling people about it alone are er effects enough to stop all this on nature. why is all the corporations ownure our nature? they are move nothing now to our ature preserves, the things that the government -- nature the e people, now all to s are going to be open this kind of stuff. this lady, vivian stockman, thank you so much for what you do. wish i could do more, but i can't. run a clean , we farm, only 50 acres, no gmo, no nothing. animals are all on grass,

throw conserve and carbon alley air, that is the best we can do. for sharing your story. vivian stockman. you know, the caller is talking about cleaner solutionsre, there are to this. the last nd solar in year far outpaced, wind and coal and in tpaced terms of the new generation in the united states, wind and solar is just taking a little fact, i'm worried we're letting china get ahead of us on that. should really be encourages policies that bring these kind jobs. west virginia deserves these kind of jobs. culture, part of our but our -- we have to look to the future. coal k if you ask any

miner, they don't want their kids to be coal miners. of what they have done and they should be and should not be forgotten. fortunately, they have just gotten their health benefits, but they're trying to, they had to fight for these from bankrupt corporations that intentionally go bankrupt to get out of obligations and trying coal miner h the pension. host: what about the renewable the caller that brings up and that you bring up. steven moore, consultant with freedom work his a recent column in the washington times. e writes, renewable energy at best one or two decades away from being major energy source in this world. happens, coal and natural gas will compete as and riced, super abundant domestically produced energy sources for 21st century america. to get your response. guest: well, you know, just a was 50% of o, coal

our electricity supply and now down around 30%. a lot as come up from natural gas, competitor, natural gas bringing downturn in the coal economy. the same time, renewables are off australia just recently talking about completely skipping the so-called transition of oil and and we're all skiping that because of what oil and gas is county, dodridge county, where we are based, you know, we are and ng by leaps and bounds need a moon shot, we need all of policies ces, our directed toward just moon shot for renewable energy. we can -- it is growing so quickly, it is changing day to

day. you see incredible news about just all types of innovation, trees, vertical wind mills, perhaps plans afoot to make a mountain top removal site solar farm, e a makes a lot of sense if you can find a stable area on the site turn those into solar farms because there is not a tree growing there. desert.man-made you could install vertical windmills. to just speedup the change to renewables as quickly due to the climate impact, the water impact of our fossil fuel. host: we have a few minutes left with vivian stockman. a few callers on the line for miners and family members. let's hear from two of them. beaver dam t in kentucky. good morning. you.r: good morning to

i will tell you my background. co-op from college to a program with coal company in kentucky. and that was going to be my career. 'm fourth generation coal miner. in kentucky, we have a lot of opportunities. ended withtarted and mylecon, in 2013, i finished in west virginia. a union coal miner. i'm better off than a lot of have that to 't fall back on. 've worked in four different states and eight different coal mines. to illinois, indiana, west virginia, kentucky. what is go og right now, is a thing.al i was at the september rally in miners on with coal

bout the deal, coal mines are be i being -- lose their health truman ce based on 1947 decision promised to coal miners they would not lose their healthcare. outlet ran that rally, that ran that dc rally. we found a difference between elite in washington, you spread lies about the effects of and coal mining on families and community. i've been around coal power plants all my life. there has never been a story the harmful t ffects on coal mines or these coal fire plants. host: thanks for sharing. your story on the line for coal members.d family douglas in lema, ohio. good morning. caller: good morning. host: go ahead. if coal y question is,

is so bad for industry, then sulfur plants the that went bankrupt under the obama administration? nuclear power plants when they melt down and ll the nuclear waste that is more harmful than the coal? hy are they not talking about those kind of environments that kill people, that hurt people? host: vivian stockman to douglas and mike's comments? guest: yeah. i think we have to look exactly uranium is mined, people unhealthy, we're fortunate in west virginia that we do not thatany nuclear plants and is why we're not working on that issue. allies definitely have who are really worried about nuclear wastes and, you know, that is considered another fuel and we need to move off of

there are allies who are really studies about th plants mpact of power and i think the people living near power plants do suffer a bit and we premature 30,000 are something like per year from power plant emissions. host: bill in waynesboro, pennsylvania. vivian stockman. caller: hello. i was listening to your guest mountain top removal. it reminded me of one time when through west virginia quite a few years ago. that had their tops removed and it was just shocking, shocking. my jaw dropped. environmental destruction on such a large scale. mountains thousands of millions of years old, just it is so permanent.

they say they reclaim them, but never look the same. no in my opinion, there is economic gain that ever makes it our while to do this to environment, to communities in west virginia. thank you. host: vivian stockman? guest: yeah, i mean, we're flabbergasted that we're endears into the compain to mountain top removal and still having to point out this is insane practice. bombing ign entity was the mountains the way that coal ompanies do, that would have stopped long ago. it's unfathomable really that this is nutsto say and stop it, you know. it's so obviously harming human

health, there is a draft environmental impact statement environmental impact statement that says takes 500 years for the forest to recover. is famously called lipstick on a court and water going on, you is ongoing from valley fields, even mud river watershed has been thoroughly studied 40% streams are buried there and watershed are the staggering. ou know, ultimately the impact on human health and communities we call this a sane practice. host: one more call, sam bethesda, ohio, on the line for coal miners and family members. good morning. caller: good morning. i've grownup in the coal county and belmont i'm now an environmental years.er vbeen for 30

and i wasn't a big proponent of climate change. the effects of co2, metals are of interest to me, primarily because there chromium , silennium, that comes in on the mine lime t, whether it is stone or coal, those are very ell mitigated and usually contained at the coal plant itself. there are more heavy metals municipal ed in sludge, land-applied municipal sludge from concentration point is from a n there oal -- what is coming out of the waste water. go power plants themselves to great extent to hold that waste water and recycle and that waste water and metals. heavy

and i'm currently working on -based systems, you see the commercials, i've been using d since 2004 on algae to sequester heavy metal from coal-burning power plants a bit of success. host: thanks for bringing up the topic. chance to kman, a respond. guest: yes, sure. well, if it is not going out of stack, it is going into the aste water and that is going into coal ash impoundments that leak into groundwater, urface water and sometimes catastrophically spill and you different everal communities are suing over contaminated groundwater. doing a hink they are good job at sequestering it. metals are he heavy sequesters when coal is left in the ground.

vivian stockman, vice director at ohio valley coalition.al ahvec.com, if you want to check it out. up next, we'll hear from nick mullins, fifth generation coal miner who is writer activist and the r on the blog thoughtful coal miner. first, this is a picture from edition of the kevin hughes,st," long time murray energy employee icked to attend white house ceremony. regulations on coal debris being dumped into streams. up with kevin hughes out at powhatan point to about his work in the coal mines. guest: i'm general manager of the ohio county coal company, murray.

from years this may. host: why did you get into it? in western jobs up, i lvania where i grew ot out of school and got married, started a family and the mining industry has been very good to me and my family. host: is it something generational family? guest: no, my father was a steel worker. i'm first generation. ost: what is a day in your job like? guest: as general manager, meetings on production and safety, we work on plans for the forward, deal with any kind of labor issues, several things, working with agencies on violations and/or safety aspects of that, also. host: how is coal mined in your mind? miner we use continuous development, we set up the panels with continuous miners take it out with mining. in : how many people work your mine. guest: 348 union people, 120 salary people. has that changed over

the past eight year? guest: there was a time when workers, e more coal that is for sure. a larger work group at that mine in particular and most mines to the last eight years of the obama administration. host: what are specific ways impacted you? guest: coal mining industry suffered greatly over the past ight years and we're on somewhat of a rebound right now, everybody is grateful for that. young people , that i work with, are very excited about having an opportunity to continue doing do to support their families. host: how do you see that mine?d at your guest: we're picking up, slow in nature, but contractually and so with coal sales, looks like t is turning a corner, a one, somewhat on rules and regulations also, there is some light at the end of the tunnel, you will. host: what are regulations that life?t daily guest: a lot of them passed in the previous eight years, less on purpose.to coal

i don't think they serve good environmental purpose, other destroy the coal industry and some of those laws are being turned around right now. talk you get a chance to to president trump about this. how did that come about? we went to washington, d.c. for signing of bill president trump promised he would sign upon becoming president. we have found president trump to e a man of his word and he did as he said and we were fortunate enough to be present with him signed the bill in washington, d.c. host: we're back at powhatan point, ohio, this morning at the energy company trans-loading facility there. t is about 300 miles northwest of washington, d.c. it is where we've been focusing the "washington journal" on the coal industry and impacts on both the people environment and the regulation of that