Battle for Blair Mountain Documentary Tonight on CNN

Soledad O'Brien's CNN documentary, "Battle for Blair Mountain: Working in America Video" airs tonight at 8 p.m. ET and at 8 p.m. ET Saturday, August 20.

Tweet Soledad O'Brien About Battle for Blair Mountain Documentary

Do you tweet? Soledad O'Brien will be answering questions about her latest CNN documentary, Battle For Blair Mountain, on Twitter from 9-10pm ET on August 7th and August 11th.

It's about the fight over mountaintop coal removal. Miners say the "MTR" projects provide much needed jobs. The environmentalists say the cost of MTR -- to the environment, the people and the future -- is just too high. What do you think? 

Soledad is at  http://twitter.com/#!/Soledad_OBrien. Mark your tweets or just follow the conversation using the hashtags  #Battleforblair  #mtr  #coal

Battle for Blair Mountain: Working in America airs Sunday, August 14 at 8:00pm ET and PT on CNN/U.S.

Sharples, West Virginia – population: around 100 people – is ground zero in the fight over an issue of importance to every American who has ever plugged in a computer, watched a television or taken a hot shower. Around 50 percent of electrical power in the United States is produced by coal. Across the nation, a schism that separates pro-coal and pro-environment movements over mountaintop removal, a destructive yet highly effective form of strip mining, is deepening.

CNN documents the intense struggle over mountaintop removal with anchor and Special Correspondent Soledad O’Brien examining the fight over Spruce One, one of the largest mountaintop removal sites ever proposed in the U.S.

Coal vs. Environment – Soledad O’Brien's Battle for Blair Mountain

This CNN documentary shows the intense struggle over mountaintop removal. Battle for Blair Mountain: Working in America, debuts on Sunday, August 14 at 8:00pm ET and PT, with a replay on Saturday, August 20.

Anchor and Special Correspondent Soledad O’Brien examines the fight over Spruce One, one of the largest mountaintop removal sites ever proposed in the U.S. When O’Brien’s team first arrived in Sharples, W.V., nearly everyone in Appalachia was waiting to see if the Environmental Protection Agency was going to allow Spruce One’s permit to proceed, citing Clean Water Act violations.

When O’Brien’s team first arrived in Sharples, W.V., nearly everyone in Appalachia was waiting to see if the Environmental Protection Agency was going to allow Spruce One’s permit to proceed, citing Clean Water Act violations.

Several groups were invested in the fight: coal miners who wanted to keep the jobs they’ve had for decades, the green activists who oppose all coal mining and a coalition of people who would like to see mountaintop removal replaced by less damaging mining practices. Influential people such as EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, Senator Joseph Manchin (D-WV) and Robert Kennedy, Jr. had plenty to say about the outcome, too. O’Brien and her team tell the story from all sides.

 Additional reporting on the mountaintop removal debate and video excerpts from The Battle for Blair Mountain: Working in America can be found at cnn.com/inamerica.

CNN Student News is producing an Educator and Parent Guide for the documentary, which will include discussion questions and a learning activity. The guide will be available on CNNStudentNews.com prior to the debut of the documentary as a companion viewing aid and teaching tool.

Environment versus jobs in Battle of Blair Mountain

CNN In America's documentary, "The Battle for Blair Mountain," goes behind both sides of the fight over mountaintop removal for coal. Is it creating jobs or poisoning communities? See the battle unfold at 8 p.m. ET/PT Aug. 14.

In the excerpt below, Soledad O'Brien describes the conflict in West Virginia.

Blair, West Virginia (CNN) -- We're at the peak of Blair Mountain in the middle of southern West Virginia. It's about 85 degrees, the coolest it has been all week, and there's a slight breeze that carries voices before we can see the singers.

"This land is your land. This land is my land."

More than 600 dusty, sweaty people are singing as they hike through the hardwoods up the mountain. Their protest signs -- "Save Blair Mountain" and "Abolish Mountaintop Removal" -- poke through the leaves.

The song is a Woody Guthrie tune, the one that became a folk anthem of sorts in the 1960s, and it seems very appropriate for this moment.

"As I went walking that ribbon of highway, I saw above me that endless skyway," the marchers continue.

See a preview of "Battle for Blair Mountain: Working in America" Video

About 150 people in this group have been walking the twisting mountain highways through West Virginia's coal fields for six days. The 50-mile march is re-creating the 1921 March on Blair that led to a bloody battle between thousands of coal miners and coal company supporters. The fight eventually brought unions, along with respectable wages, to the coal mines of West Virginia.

But this time, the march isn't about unions. It's about saving a mountain. It has been organized to oppose "MTR," or mountaintop removal, a highly effective type of mining that involves blasting away slopes to get at the profitable coal seams underneath.

Coal companies own most of the land rights on Blair Mountain now, and they have fought national historic landmark status for the site, which would protect it from being destroyed...

Read the full "Environment vs. jobs in new Battle of Blair Mountain" by Soledad O'Brien and Robert Howell, CNN

Battle For Blair Mountain on CNN

CNN's Soledad O'Brien looks at the fight over mountain top removal in coal country, West Virginia, on August 14, 8 pm.