Protesters rally at Gov. Tomblin’s inauguration

Cheers of support were not the only things heard as West Virginia's 35th governor, Earl Ray Tomblin, was sworn into office Sunday evening in a ceremony at the state capitol.

Approximately three dozen protestors gathered at the capitol to protest Tomblin's support of mountaintop removal and the coal mining industry in West Virginia.

During his speech, Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin said, "We will continue to take on the federal government and oppose efforts by the EPA to stop production of the most efficient fuel our country knows."

"We're supporting a healthy West Virginia with justice for all, and Earl Ray Tomblin has thrown his hat in for supporting mountaintop removal and opposing the people of West Virginia who have been sickened and killed by mountaintop removal," said Vernon Haltom, mountaintop removal activist and executive director of the Coal River Mountain Watch.

Haltom said there have been several instances in which Tomblin has refused to recognize or pay attention the numerous studies linking the effects of mountaintop removal to severe health issues, such as cancer and birth defects.

"He has essentially abandoned the people of West Virginia in favor of greedy coal companies," Haltom said. "There have been so many times when he's had the opportunity throughout his career to choose the correct side of the issue– the side of justice and decency, and instead he has ignored us for years. It's time he pay attention to the people."

Board president and founder of the Keeper of the Mountains Foundation and anti-mountaintop removal activist of more than 30 years, Larry Gibson, said he thought he had to come out and protest four more years of having a coal company supporter in office in West Virginia.

Gibson described the swearing in ceremony as a "high profile sham with people with big money," and pointed out that the song played during the ceremony, "My Home in the Hills," was ironic because of Tomblin's stance of mountaintop removal.

"They can come up to my home in the mountains and see that most of them have been blown up," Gibson said.

Keeper of the Mountains Foundation volunteer and mountaintop removal activist, Donna Branham, said she has seen the effects of the mining industry first-hand. Branham said that her own family and several people in her community have suffered tremendously from health problems associated with living by mountaintop removal sites in Mingo County.

"They rape our mountains and now they're going to gut our lands for natural gas." Branham said.

Branham said she is fighting for the future and fighting against the uncertainty that coal mining and fracking brings to West Virginia's future as a whole.

Rachel Hunter can be contacted at hunter79@marshall.edu.