Word: masseys
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...gateway to hidden wealth. Deep within Boone County are rich seams of coal, holding some 3.6 billion tons of the black stuff and millions in profits - and much of it sits in Cherry Pond Mountain, a few miles from Lindytown. The largest coal-mining company in the region - Massey Energy, based in Richmond...
Loud blasting began years ago. Massey and other large coal-producing companies like Patriot Coal, in St. Louis, employ a particularly destructive form of excavation called mountaintop mining, which exposes entire coal seams by blowing off a mountain's summit; used mostly in Appalachia, such mining produces 130 millions tons of coal in the region per year. It's less popular in other coal-rich spots such as Texas, where the coal is deeper underground and requires a different kind of mining to unearth. Coal companies say mountaintop mining is also cheaper than traditional mining: rather than burrowing under...
...Lindytown, most area residents are long gone. They tell TIME they were muscled out of their homes by Massey, whose representatives pursued them aggressively, phoning and visiting often. By acquiring property in the area, the company has expanded operations - literally into remaining residents' backyards. Retired miner James Smith, 74, promised himself he would never sell out, but it didn't take long for the blasts less than a mile from his home to force him to leave. He caved in late 2009 and turned over his land - likely for a hefty sum. Spotted weeping at the local community bank...
Lindytown's neighbors in Twilight, just two miles up the main road, are beginning to share similar stories of being pressured to sell their property. "I've been to places like Whitesville, Lindytown. These are ghost towns, where Massey has come in and bought out the towns, forced out the residents and plowed them under," said environmentalist Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., to Don Blankenship, Massey's CEO, in a January debate at the University of Charleston on the hazards and benefits of mountaintop mining...
...Massey characterizes the situation differently: "We were mining nearby and a lot of [Lindytown] residents approached us, interested in selling their homes," says company spokesperson Jeff Gillenwater; only then did Massey make offers to buy their property in an effort to protect residents' well-being. "We did it as an additional safety measure...