(This article appeared in the Charleston Daily Mail on September 24, and is reprinted here with permission)

I had to chuckle when I read the news release announcing that the Ford Foundation had awarded $130,000 to three members of the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition. "(Dianne) Bady, (Janet) Fout and (Laura) Forman are now well known to the political and industrial leaders of the Ohio River Valley," according to the foundation.

In the vast library of mankind’s understatements, this one surely must rank right up there with St. Matthew’s biblical underestimation when describing Jesus in the wilderness: "After fasting forty days and forty nights, He was hungry."

When the Ford Foundation announced last week that the three, representing OVEC, had been awarded $100,000 to advance their work and an additional $30,000 to "strengthen their skills and for other supporting activities over the next two years," it probably sent some of the business people in this region in search of the Pepto-Bismol bottle.

The award not only gives OVEC more resources to raise issues some would rather not see raised, but it legitimizes the environmental group in the eyes of a major foundation and perhaps the world.

Among OVEC’s crusades, the most highly visible one is "pursuing its longstanding battle against mountaintop removal, which continues to threaten the state’s environmental future," according to the Ford Foundation news release.

"They have proved a formidable force in fighting for sustainable and environmentally sound economic development in the region," the foundation news release continues.

How has OVEC done it? Through "community activism and strategic use of the media," the Ford Foundation news release says.

I’ve been on the receiving end of that "strategic use of the media" for the 10 years that OVEC has been around. It’s their job to try to use the media, just as it’s the job of the public relations folks in the business community to strategically use the media to get the business perspective to the people.

It’s my job to sort through all the reams of material from both sides and try to find the truth.

The truth about OVEC, as I see it, is this: The group is made up of dedicated people who aren’t out to drive us all from West Virginia by eliminating jobs.

When the group opposed what they saw as dangerous pollution from the Ashland Oil Refinery in Catlettsburg, KY, when they fought against the construction of a paper mill and a toxic waste incinerator, they saw these industries as long-term environmental threats to the region and not worth the future ecological heartache for the jobs they would create.

And when it comes to coal mining, OVEC believes that removing mountains simply isn’t the way to get the coal. OVEC is attempting to strike a balance between the right to mine coal and this generation’s ability to destroy the environment in the process.

In my estimation, it's an eminently sane crusade.

I suppose there’ll be a lot of grumbling in some quarters about the prize. But now that the group has received plaudits for its work from an internationally known foundation, don’t expect OVEC to rest on its laurels. It's simply not that kind of group.