If anyone out there believes in the “Coal is Clean” ads, I have some snake oil to sell them.

I believe coal kills from the cradle to grave; from the millions of pounds of explosives used daily to blow up mountains and homes and then cover up life-giving waters, coal Kills.

I believe that coal has corrupted the WV Supreme Court, the Governor’s Office and the Legislature.

Coal poisons from the chemicals used at preparation plants that is pumped into the billions of gallons of toxic witch's brew that is stored in sludge dams and then pumped into old abandoned underground mines that finds it way into our water wells and poisons us or from the sludge that is released into our streams when the rain causes muddy rivers...coal poisons.

From the child who has asthma from the burning of filthy coal and the coal-fired power plants that have no place to dispose of the toxic fly-ash.

Carbon Capture/ Sequestion projects are 10 years down the road and is an unproven technology. They call it Future Gen, we call it "NEVER GEN".

Coal reserves are in question now so coal-fired power will continue to rise as supply declines, just like oil. Coal is finite and soon gone; wind and sun is forever. We want to put people to work in solar panel factories and wind turbine factories and put them to work installing new technology and making buildings energy-efficient.

There is no such thing as clean coal-even if we could get rose petals to come out of the smoke stacks- as long as we are blowing up mountains and poisoning water. Coal is filthy.

Our blood is all over that coal. We would have millions of Green Jobs as well from a switch to renewable Energy forms and save our children's Earth as well. There are NO jobs on a dead planet. Water is more important than coal. We can replace coal; we can't replace water.

Julia "Judy" Bonds is the outreach coordinator for Coal River Mountain Watch. She is a coal miner's daughter and granddaughter. She is an Appalachian American and her family has lived in the Coal River Valley in West Virginia for 10 generations.

Bonds has been fighting for social and environmental justice for Appalachian coalfields since 1998. In 2003 she won the coveted Goldman Environmental Prize. The prize is awarded to one person from each continent and she was the North American winner.

Since winning the award Bonds and others at Coal River Mountain Watch have embarked on a road show to educate America about the clean water act and to educate and motivate Americans about where their electricity comes from and who pays the true price.

Bonds worked on safety issues on overweight coal trucks and is on the Governor's Safety Committee for commercial trucks. She was named the "Earthmover Award" in GEO Magazine and on Organic Style Magazine's Environmental Power list. She was recently featured in the Marsh issue of National Geographic, the first "green" issue of May's Vanity Fair and in the July issue of O, The Oprah Magazine. The O Magazine issue focused on tough West Virginian women.

Bonds was also featured in the April 21st edition of People Magazine.