Moving Mountains: How One Woman and Her Community Won Justice from Big Coal [Hardcover]

Penny Loeb (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0813124417 | ISBN-13: 978-0813124414 | Publication Date: September 7, 2007

Deep in the heart of the southern West Virginia coalfields, one of the most important environmental and social empowerment battles in the nation has been waged for the past decade. Fought by a heroic woman struggling to save her tiny community through a landmark lawsuit, this battle, which led all the way to the halls of Congress, has implications for environmentally conscious people across the world. The story begins with Patricia Bragg in the tiny community of Pie. When a deep mine drained her neighbors' wells, Bragg heeded her grandmother's admonition to "fight for what you believe in" and led the battle to save their drinking water. Though she and her friends quickly convinced state mining officials to force the coal company to provide new wells, Bragg's fight had only just begun. Soon large-scale mining began on the mountains behind her beloved hollow. Fearing what the blasting off of mountaintops would do to the humble homes below, she joined a lawsuit being pursued by attorney Joe Lovett, the first case he had ever handled. In the case against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Bragg v. Robertson), federal judge Charles Haden II shocked the coal industry by granting victory to Joe Lovett and Patricia Bragg and temporarily halting the practice of mountaintop removal. While Lovett battled in court, Bragg sought other ways to protect the resources and safety of coalfield communities, all the while recognizing that coal mining was the lifeblood of her community, even of her own family (her husband is a disabled miner). The years of Bragg v. Robertson bitterly divided the coalfields and left many bewildered by the legal wrangling. One of the state's largest mines shut down because of the case, leaving hardworking miners out of work, at least temporarily. Despite hurtful words from members of her church, Patricia Bragg battled on, making the two-hour trek to the legislature in Charleston, over and over, to ask for better controls on mine blasting. There Bragg and her friends won support from delegate Arley Johnson, himself a survivor of one of the coalfield's greatest disasters. Award-winning investigative journalist Penny Loeb spent nine years following the twists and turns of this remarkable story, giving voice both to citizens, like Patricia Bragg, and to those in the coal industry. Intertwined with court and statehouse battles is Patricia Bragg's own quiet triumph of graduating from college summa cum laude in her late thirtie and moving her family out of welfare and into prosperity and freedom from mining interests. Bragg's remarkable personal triumph and the victories won in Pie and other coalfield communities will surprise and inspire readers.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Investigative reporter Loeb compassionately chronicles 10 years of grassroots efforts by citizens of southern West Virginia to protect their homes from coal-mining damage. The story centers on the efforts of Patricia Bragg, who in 1998, together with attorney Joe Lovett, filed a lawsuit in federal court against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the West Virginia Division of Environmental Protection for their failure to regulate the waste from mountaintop mining, a practice in which hundreds of feet are sliced off mountaintops and the leftover rubble is dumped into streams and narrow valleys. This case, which resulted in a ruling for a two-year moratorium on mountaintop removal by a judge who had not previously favored environmental causes, is the high point of the book. Though the judge's ruling was later overturned on appeal, the Bragg case led to some improvements in coal-mining procedures. Unfortunately, Loeb overloads her account with too many stories of other people struggling for fair treatment by the coal company. She's very effective, however, in pointing out the heartbreaking dilemma of these West Virginians: the industry that threatens their quality of life is also the lifeblood of their economy. Photos not seen by PW. (Aug.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

She was an unassuming homemaker, trying to do what was right for her family. He was an untested lawyer, trying to find a cause that would make his career. Together, Patricia Bragg and Joe Lovett took on West Virginia's coal industry in a David-and-Goliath case that would have far-reaching implications for the environment and a more immediate effect on the lives of people who had lived for too long under the mistaken impression that they were powerless to stop the destructive mining practices that had ruined their water, compromised their health, damaged their homes, and devastated the pristine natural habitat that was once the Appalachian Mountains' greatest asset. An acclaimed investigative journalist, Loeb spent nine years following the case with Bragg and Lovett as they went head-to-head with mining unions, legislators, the courts, and even other locals who feared the loss of their jobs. The result is a captivating, if cautionary, account of the staggering fortitude, resilience, and solidarity one community mustered in the face of nearly insurmountable opposition. Haggas, Carol

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 328 pages
• Publisher: The University Press of Kentucky (September 7, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0813124417
• ISBN-13: 978-0813124414
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,509,835 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Penny Loeb has been a journalist at newspapers and magazines for three decades. Working at Newsday and U.S. News & World Report, she won many national journalism awards and was a finalist for both a Pulitzer Prize and National Magazine Award. She graduated from Vassar College and has a master's degree from the University of Missouri School of Journalism. Her two books are "Moving Mountains: how one woman and her community won justice from big coal" and "My Name is Angel: True Life Adventures of a Lady Donkey." She lives on a small horse farm in Virginia with Angel and her friends. Moving Mountains is being made into a feature film.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Hard to believe this horror story is non-fiction, November 11, 2007

By 

M. Fowler (USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Moving Mountains: How One Woman and Her Community Won Justice from Big Coal (Hardcover)

Time and again when reading Moving Mountains, I found myself exclaiming, "They can't do that!" The "they" in this case being either the state regulators and politicians that we like to assume are acting in our best interests, or the 300-pound gorilla in West Virginia, King Coal.

By the end of this epic living history, you find yourself wondering if it was really written in the United States, with our cherished principles of rule of law and every man equal, or if Penny Loeb wandered into a Third World country and forgot to tell us. But no - it's all true. Until you see the complete evisceration of the land that is mountaintop removal mining, or see and hear firsthand the wanton abuses of King Coal on the land and the people, it's hard to believe that some of the things in this book actually happened.

But they did (and still are). Loeb relates them in vivid and most excruciating detail, by telling the stories of a small handful of West Virginians who had finally had enough of King Coal's daily abuses, affronts to their dignity and assaults on their health, homes and families. If she has a fault, it is that she tries to be too fair to all sides, which dilutes the power of the opposing viewpoints; and her drive to be all-inclusive of all the individuals and groups involved in the fight against King Coal and for social justice of necessity leaves out or minimizes the roles of some key players (the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition is a good example of the latter).

Moving Mountains is both a gripping, deeply person narrative about the underdog going up against the corporate behemoth, and a cautionary tale about what our nation's insatiable hunger for energy is doing to one state, West Virginia, which truly is becoming America's Energy Sacrifice Zone.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars MOVED, November 7, 2007

By 

G. OTT (MIDDLEBURG, VA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Moving Mountains: How One Woman and Her Community Won Justice from Big Coal (Hardcover)

MOVING MOUNTAINS IS A SMART ENCOUNTER WITH THE TRUTH...AND THE TRUTH HURTS. I WAS AMAZED BY 2 ACTS OF PERSEVERANCE AROUND THIS BOOK. THE FIRST BEING TRISH BRAGG AND HER PERSONAL DRILLING DOWN TO THE CORE OF WHAT SAVES A COMMUNITY AND ITS PEOPLE AND SECOND, OF THE AUTHOR, PENNY LOEB, AND HER DRIVE TO STAY WITH A STORY IN THE SMALLEST OF TOWNS WHERE YOU HAD TO WONDER IF ANYONE WOULD REALLY CARE. I DID, JOE LOVETT DID AND TRISH GAVE ME A GREATER APPRECIATION OF THE POWER OF ONE, THE POWER OF A FEW AND THE THE AMERICAN WAY...FIGHTING FOR WHAT IS RIGHT AGAINST THE ODDS. I AM SURE THERE IS A METAPHOR IN SAVING THE COMMUNITIES WELL WATER...I AM JUST GLAD THE TOWNSPEOPLE STILL HAVE WATER TO DRINK. THATS A LESSON FOR US ALL.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars AMAZING!, October 29, 2007

By 

R. Noe (WV) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Moving Mountains: How One Woman and Her Community Won Justice from Big Coal (Hardcover)

The title says it all... "MOVING MOUNTAINS"! It is one thing to be there and share the experience, but it is another to be able to write about it. This is such a wonderful book...the author paints such a vivid picture! I was actually able to capture the heart-felt emotion and put myself within it as though I were there. It is so true when we say that there is strength in numbers, but it was the faith, prayers, and courage of Trish and her community that brought forth justice. I would love to see a movie develop from all of this... it would be a BEST SELLER! If you love to read a book of great quality, buy this one... I promise you wonn't be disappointed. Keep up the good work Penny!!!