'Last Mountain' Dispels False Choice Between Jobs, Protecting Environment

This is the real choice we have that the oil, natural gas and coal companies don't want the American people to know about -- wind turbines creating jobs and providing our energy needs like this Google rendering of the Coal River Wind Project.

With the negative jobs and economic news battering the already fragile psyche of Americans, on top of that we are under an advertising blitz by Big Oil and Big Coal stating the false choice between creating jobs by propping up the fossil fuel industry, or killing jobs through regulation and environmental legislation.

"The Last Mountain," which had its D.C. premiere tonight at the Landmark E Street Cinema, exposes the lie that the coal industry helps the economy. In fact, quite the opposite. Not only is Appalachian coal the biggest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions and bears responsibility for poisoning the water and air and making the community sick by blowing up mountains, but companies like Massey Energy have a track record of union busting and mechanizing labor, thereby laying off workers while record profits go into the pockets of top executives.

But as environmental crusader Robert Kennedy Jr. so eloquently points out in the film, it is not a false choice between creating dirty energy jobs or protecting the environment. To the contrary, clean energy can create just as many jobs as the fossil fuel industry, but clean energy jobs are more sustainable and don't damage the environment for future generations. The film takes a look at how one West Virginia community is fighting the Mountain Top Removal of the Coal River Valley. Instead of blowing it up, these forward-thinking residents want to preserve their mountain by installing wind turbines on top of it. The area they live in is considered a Category 5 for wind, which is the best it can be.

Will they succeed in saving the mountain and their quality of life by moving forward with wind power, or will Big Coal destroy their mountain and endanger the public health of the community?

You will have to see the movie to find out.

Here is a trailer for the film. The people in this film will inspire you. They are fighting for their very lives against Big Coal, and at the same time are fighting the bigger fight for all of us. A world with clean, renewable power; clean air; clean water; good jobs for the American people; a brighter future for generations to come.