Coal is the problem, not local hire

To the editor:

I try to live locally, that is in our new place of residence here in the Valley.

It is a wonderful place to raise a family and enjoy the quality of life it has to offer. And so I also listen to the Valley’s radio station that features a lot of country singers. With the music often are ads touting this or that cause or business, and one comes on about the proposed Wishbone Hill coal mine stating: “The environmental groups are concerned about local hire, or the lack thereof.”

What? I work for an environmental group. You may have heard of it, Greenpeace, and never have I been involved in a discussion about local hire, or the lack thereof. I’ll tell you what we are concerned about.

In addition to being the single largest source of global warming pollution in the USA, coal-fired power plants are responsible for 13,200 deaths, 20,000 heart attacks, 217,600 asthma attacks and 1,627,800 lost work days a year. This is what concerns us — not local hire, or the lack thereof.

These power plants cannot operate without a coal mine, nd Usibelli says it wants to open a huge open-pit mine right in the middle of the heart of the Valley to support these coal-fired power plants. This right in the middle of one of the windiest places, unlike the Pribilof Islands where I was born and raised, where without a doubt the people the coal dust is going to impact are surely going to suffer.

This is not about jobs, it’s about living — life. You know, that other important part of living here in the Valley.

I am sure the ads on the airwaves for all of us to listen to day in and day out are made by “Outside” consulting groups, all professional and the like. As is the modus operandi, it seems with our country is operating with all the confusion about this and that issue, the ad is made to keep us confused.

Let’s not talk about the harm and destruction the coalmine will cause, or is already causing by pitting neighbor against neighbor. Let’s confuse them with jobs.

That’s right, jobs. After all, this is what “they” are concerned about, not life and health. So they flood the air with their small talk not, mind you, even saying one word about your health or that of your loved ones.

George Pletnikoff

Palmer