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President Obama: Go See the Mountains, Then Save Them

2009-07-03T14:00:00Z

(Photo by J. Henry Fair)

It is a national shame that mining companies are allowed to blast America's oldest mountains to smithereens -- all for the sake of dirty coal. Indeed, it is unfathomable that here in America, where the Adirondacks are adored and the Rockies are revered, that the Appalachian Mountains -- older than the Himalayas and so integral to our nation's heritage -- are steadily being reduced to lifeless moonscapes. Make no mistake about it: mountaintop removal coal mining is the worst ongoing environmental tragedy our country has ever endured. The question is whether the Obama administration will finally put a stop to it.

In the Washington Post today, NRDC attorney Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. urged President Obama to end the Appalachian apocalypse, saying: "[G]overnment claims of doing everything possible to halt the holocaust are simply not true. George Bush gutted Clean Water Act protections. Obama must restore them."

Indeed, for too long our elected leaders have allowed mining companies to get away with using dynamite to literally blow the peaks right off of our mountains to get at thin cake layer-like seams of coal underneath, and then fill the valleys and streams below with the mining waste. The scars of this destructive practice can be seen up and down Appalachia, where 500 mountains, covering roughly a million acres, have already been flattened -- eviscerating breathtaking landscapes, wiping out lush forests along with wildlife habitat, burying pristine valley streams under tons of rubble, polluting the air with coal ash and poisoning drinking water with toxic contaminates, and ravaging the lives of residents throughout the region.

Adding insult to injury, mountains that took hundreds of millions of years to form can be flattened in months through this highly mechanized process, which enables coal companies to employ fewer workers for far less time than other types of mining. Despite the coal industry's claims, the vast majority of desolate wasteland resulting from the mining can never be reclaimed to natural standards, nor has much of the open space spurred economic development.

Recently, senior administration officials weighed into the fray over mountaintop removal with a policy announcement that fell short of the only sensible solution -- an immediate end to the world's most destructive mining. More of a promise than a policy, federal officials from several regulatory agencies announced "unprecedented steps" aimed at reducing the environmental impacts of mountaintop removal in the six Appalachian states of Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia.

Perhaps this tepid course of action actually will make it harder for mining companies to evade "streamlined" environmental review when seeking permits to blow up mountains. For the most part, however, the new policy fits the administration's preferred approach to this controversial mining: mixing strong words with weak action. Hardly unprecedented, these modest bureaucratic measures are quite frankly inadequate. Citizens living in the coalfields of Appalachia deserve justice, not vague assurances about tighter permit reviews that ultimately will allow this abhorrent mining practice to proceed largely unchecked.

The science is clear: mountaintop removal devastates ecosystems, harms communities, and undermines long-term economic prospects for the entire region. Searching for environmentally acceptable mountaintop removal, which the Obama administration has not ruled out, is futile. This administration promised a science-based environmental policy and that is impossible to square with mountaintop removal. Nor does this extreme strip mining fit within the framework of clean energy solutions to the climate crisis.

With the stroke of a pen, President Obama can stop the devastation by undoing the so-called "fill" rule adopted by the Bush administration in 2002 that gives the Army Corps of Engineers the authority to permit coal companies to use streams as waste dumps. Despite the suggestions by Obama officials that the federal government cannot prevent mountaintop removal mining under current law, the fact is that the administration could decide by regulation not to treat coal mine waste as "fill material" -- thus preventing the Corps of Engineers from permitting the discharge of mountaintop removal wastes into valley streams. Moreover, the president could lend his support for bi-partisan bills in Congress right now -- the Clean Water Protection Act in the House and the Appalachia Restoration Act in the Senate -- that would help halt mountaintop removal.

As dirty and dangerous as it is, coal may be part of our foreseeable energy future, but that doesn't mean we should let mining companies get away with leveling the Appalachians, clear-cutting some of the most biologically diverse forests in the world, obliterating streams, and polluting drinking water. Nor should they be allowed to destroy the quality of life for those who make their home in the region.

How many more mountains must fall and how much longer must our fellow Americans suffer before our leaders take bold and decisive action to preserve Appalachian homes, health and heritage? Now is the time for our nation to stop mountaintop removal and invest in clean, renewable energy sources that will safely and efficiently fuel our future. That is the change we need and we cannot afford to wait much longer for it.

Following last week's historic vote on landmark climate legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives, President Obama had this to say:

"The American people have made their choice. They expect us to move forward right now at this moment of great challenge, and stake our claim on the future -- a stronger, cleaner, and more prosperous future where we meet our obligations to our citizens, our children, and to God's creation -- and where the United States of America leads once again."

The president is right about all that, and I especially applaud him for invoking the importance of caring for creation. Certainly he would agree then that only God should move mountains -- not man-made mega-sized earth moving machines.

So, Mr. President, we urge you to back your words with real action by dispatching top administration officials to Appalachia to see firsthand what they've pledged to regulate. Better yet, go see the destruction yourself. The region is just a short drive from Washington, D.C. or even a quicker flight. Simply hop in the Marine One helicopter or divert Air Force One to fly over the seemingly endless moonscapes that once were mountains. I know from personal experience that seeing is believing -- afterwards I'm confident that you will say "Yes We Can" end mountaintop removal coal mining. Yes, you will.

Stephen Colbert Slams Supreme Court for Terrible Toxic 'Fill' Ruling

2009-07-02T13:40:13Z

Last week the U.S. Supreme Court made a dreadful decision to allow the dumping of toxic gold mine waste into a pristine Alaskan lake. The court deemed this pollution allowable as "fill material" under the Clean Water Act.

Well, last night on The Colbert Report, the hilarious host pilloried the Supremes for its ridiculous ruling in his segment "Judge, Jury and Executioner."

Watch the clip (the piece starts at the 1:51 minute mark):

Unless the Obama administration fixes the fraudulant 'fill rule' imposed by the Bush administration back in 2002, we might as well start calling the nation's premier environmental protection law the Clean Watered Down Act.

Appalachia's Own 'Resource Curse'?

2009-07-01T19:00:32Z

Pollution and poverty caused by the development of oil reserves have deprived tens of million of Nigerians their basic human rights, according to Amnesty International, which calls oil a "resource curse" for the region.

"People living in the Niger Delta have to drink, cook with, and wash in polluted water; they eat fish contaminated with oil and other toxins -- if they are lucky enough to still be able to find fish," Amnesty says in its new report.

Replace "oil development in Nigeria" with "mountaintop removal in Appalachia" and it's easy to see the eerie similarities.

Consider that coal mining costs Appalachians five times more in early deaths as the industry provides to the region in jobs, taxes and other economic benefits. This is according to a new study which finds that coal is more a curse than blessing for the region.

"Coal-mining economies are not strong economies," said West Virginia University researcher Michael Hendryx, who co-authored the study. He added that coalfield communities "are weaker than the rest of the state, weaker than the rest of the region, and weaker than the rest of the nation."

According to the study, the coal industry generates a little more than $8 billion a year in economic benefits for the Appalachian region. However, the conservative estimate of coal's costs -- in terms of the value of premature deaths attributable to the mining industry across the Appalachian coalfields -- comes to $42 billion.

(In estimating economic benefits, the study notes that the number of coal miners in Appalachia declined from 122,102 to 53,509 between 1985 and 2005, largely due to a corresponding increase in mechanized mining practices like mountaintop removal, which requires fewer employees than underground mining per ton mined.)

Bottom line: The human cost of the Appalachian coal mining economy outweighs its economic benefits, according to the study.

Read the full study online at: www.publichealthreports.org. It concludes that:

"The reliance on coal mining in some areas of Appalachia constitutes a de facto economic policy: coal is mined because it is present and because there is a market for it. However, other economic policies could be developed if reliance on this resource was not in the best interest of the local population."

The study identifies these potential alternative employment opportunities: development of renewable energy from wind, solar, biofuels, geothermal, or hydropower sources; sustainable timber; small-scale agriculture; outdoor or culturally oriented tourism; technology; and ecosystem restoration.

Hendryx's research builds on his previous work that found excess premature deaths in coal counties compared to other counties in Appalachia. Those other studies, which were also published in peer-reviewed journals, found that residents of coal-producing counties are more likely to suffer from chronic heart, lung and kidney diseases, more likely to be hospitalized for certain health problems that are connected to coal pollution, and more likely to contract lung cancer and generally suffer from excess numbers of premature deaths. The new study, it should be noted, only makes casual link, acknowledging that "[d]espite the significant associations between coal-mining activity and both socio-economic disadvantage and premature mortality, it cannot be stated with certainty that coal-mining causes these problems." Future research by Hendryx will look into other possible explanations, including exposure to coal byproducts such as slurry leaching into water supplies or air pollution effects from mining and coal processing.

In addition to the health and quality of life impacts of mining-related pollution in Appalachia, another new study -- this one in Kentucky -- finds that the state spends more public money to support and subsidize the coal industry than it receives in state revenues from the industry. For 2006, spending exceeded revenues by an estimated $115 million.

This study, by the Mountain Association for Community Economic Development (MACED), concluded that the coal industry takes more than it gives economically. The underlying reason is that while industry generates state revenue from the coal taxes and creates employment, the costs associated with the industry are also substantial. For instance, Kentucky spends public money to:

address the industry's impacts on the road system
regulate the environmental and health and safety impacts
provide various tax breaks and subsidies
support coal worker training
conduct research and development for the industry
provide education about coal in the public schools
support the residents directly and indirectly employed by coal.

According to MACED:

"The industry's costs to the state are particularly concerning given its current economic role. While coal was once a major employer in Kentucky, jobs have declined substantially over time and the industry now makes up only 1 percent of state-wide employment. In those counties with the highest share of employment in coal, mining jobs range from 3 to 23 percent of local employment. But those counties struggle with significant long-term unemployment and poverty rates as high as 37 percent."

The study also paints a bleak outlook for the future of Kentucky coal. Not only has the state's coal fared poorly compared to western U. S. coal due to higher production costs, but official sources also project continued decline in production as the easily recoverable coal is depleted. Kentucky coal also will face new challenges in the coming years as aging coal-fired power plants meet retirement and new laws on carbon emissions raise the price of coal relative to cleaner alternatives. Those realities will also lessen Kentucky's historic advantage of low-price electricity.

"Kentucky and the nation face major challenges and important choices in the coming years regarding coal and energy policy," says MACED President Justin Maxson. "We must think carefully about how we will engage with the transition in front of us and make informed choices with a stronger accounting of the costs and benefits of our options."

EPA Discloses Location of 44 Hazardous Coal Ash Sites

2009-06-29T23:00:07Z

After pressure by NRDC and others, today the Environmental Protection Agency just released the list of 44 "high hazard" coal ash disposal sites around the nation. At the behest of the Department of Homeland Security, the EPA had initially refused to reveal the location of these dangerous dumps, prompting NRDC and our partners to file a Freedom of Information Request in the public interest.

Coal ash sites -- which are less regulated than landfills containing household trash -- contain harmful levels of arsenic, lead, mercury and other toxins, which can leach out slowly and contaminate drinking water sources, or as in the case of the 44 "high hazard" sites, flood nearby communities with a life-threatening wave of toxic sludge as happened last December at the Kingston power plant in Tennessee.

Now we know the 26 communities in 10 states where residents are potentially threatened by coal ash storage ponds. According to the Associated Press, which broke the story, the states, number of sites and endangered communities are:

-North Carolina, 12 (Belmont, Walnut Cove, Spencer, Eden, Mount Holy, Terrell and Arden).

-Arizona, 9 (Cochise, Joseph City).

-Kentucky, 7 (Louisa, Harrodsburg, Ghent and Louisville).

-Ohio, 6 (Waterford, Brilliant and Cheshire).

-West Virginia, 4 (Willow Island, St. Albans, Moundsville, New Haven).

-Illiniois, 2 (Havana, Alton).

-Indiana, 1 (Lawrenceburg).

-Pennsylvania, 1 (Shippingport).

-Georgia, 1 (Milledgeville).

-Montana, 1 (Colstrip).

The EPA wants the public to know that it is in the process of inspecting all of the sites.

"The high hazard potential means there will be probable loss of human life if there is a significant dam failure," said Matt Hale, director of EPA's office of research, conservation and recovery. "It is a measure of what would happen if the dam would fail. It is not a measure of the stability of the dam."

Tell that to the people who lived in this house, downstream of that coal ash pond in Tennessee.

LIVE COVERAGE of Senate Hearing on Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining

2009-06-25T17:10:45Z

Today at 3:30 pm EDT the U.S. Senate will hold an important hearing on mountaintop removal coal mining. This is the most extreme strip mining in use and it has resulted in the destruction of some 500 mountains in Appalachia, along with the forests, wildlife and waterways that make this one of the most biologically diverse regions in the world.

Today's hearing, before the Senate Environment and Public Works Subcommittee on Water and Wildlife, will focus exclusively on the impacts from the dumping of mountaintop mining waste into valley streams. It should be a lively hearing, especially since the word is that the coal industry is planning to pack the hearing room with miners transported to the Capitol by bus directly from the coalfields.

You can watch live coverage of the hearing here. And you can follow my live coverage of the proceedings below. Feel free to join the conversation -- and we urge you to tell your senators to support legislation that will put a stop to mountaintop removal once and for all.

&amp;lt;a href="http://www.coveritlive.com/mobile.php?option=com_mobile&amp;amp;task=viewaltcast&amp;amp;altcast_code=e3500dbc62" mce_href="http://www.coveritlive.com/mobile.php?option=com_mobile&amp;amp;amp;task=viewaltcast&amp;amp;amp;altcast_code=e3500dbc62" &amp;gt;Senate Subcommittee Hearing on Mountaintop Removal Mining&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;

Kentucky Mountaintop Removal Slide Show

2009-06-25T13:00:00Z

As a reminder, later today will be a critically important Senate hearing before the Environment and Public Works subcommittee on "The Impacts of Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining on Water Quality in Appalachia." The hearing (which I'll be Tweeting live!) is being convened by Senator Ben Cardin (D-Md), co-sponsor of a bi-partisan bill -- The Appalachia Restoration Act (S. 696) -- aimed at ending the reckless devastation of America's oldest mountains by rapacious coal companies.

Among those giving testimony to Congress will be Maria Gunnoe, the 2009 Goldman Environmental Prize Winner, from West Virginia.

Lest anyone think that mountaintop removal is only a problem for the people and places of West Virginia's coalfields, consider that this most extreme form of strip mining is happening throughout the heart of the multi-state Appalachian region. Indeed, another hard-hit state at ground zero in the struggle to save the mountains and valley communities is Kentucky.

Recently, with our local allies Kentuckians for the Commonwealth (KFTC), I took an aerial and ground tour of mountaintop removal operations in several counties in eastern Kentucky. Of course, the pictures I took -- as illustrated by the slide show below -- tell only part of the story. I also met with many KFTC members who shared troubling and touching stories about how the mining is adversely affected their homes and lives.

Here's something to keep in mind: it's not just the actual mining that causes problems. Take a close look at the photos of the huge sludge ponds perched precariously above the communities. You see, after the coal is blasted from the rubble and scooped out, it gets sent to a processing plant. Here the coal is crushed and soaked in a substance call magnetite to separate the coal from the rock (because the coal floats and the rock sinks). Then the waste rock and magnetite are transferred up to the sludge pond on a slurry line, where it's either loaded on a train or on trucks. In the "impoundment" (or unlined polluted pond) containing billions of gallons of slurry, all that is holding back the toxic brew is an earthen damn. Imagine having that looming over your house, neighborhood or school.

Also of note: One of the sites I flew over was the Starfire mine, operated by International Coal Group -- it's the largest surface mine in Kentucky. There is a small pond in the middle of this site with a series of small islands. This body of water now serves as a duck pond and as such it is touted by the industry as a successful reclamation project. But according to KFTC, when one of its members went on a tour of this site he learned that the ducks' wings had to be clipped in order to keep them in the pond.

A picture may be worth a thousand words but that story says it all.

Supreme Court Ruling Has Implications for Mountaintop Removal

2009-06-23T16:53:05Z

It does not bode well that the U.S. Supreme Court yesterday ruled 6-3 in favor of treating America's waterways like dumps. Specifically, the Court decided that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers can legally permit the disposal of polluted wastewater from a gold mine into an Alaskan lake. The proposed Kensington Gold Mine, in the Berners Bay region near Juneau, would discharge 210,000 gallons per day of 'treated' mine tailings directly into Lower Slate Lake. Over the course of the mine's 10-15 years of operations, that adds up to about 4.5 million tons of toxic waste that will kill all the fish and nearly all other aquatic life.

[UPDATE: Today the New York Times weighed in on this issue with a scathing editorial: "One More Threat to Clean Water."]

(Photo by J. Henry Fair)

I'm no lawyer, nor do I play one on TV, so feel free to analyze the gory details of this legal travesty in this article on the decision. You can also read the New York Times coverage of the case here.

Now, the reason the Court sided with the Corps -- and contrary to the purpose of the Clean Water Act -- is because of a rule change invoked by the Bush administration back in 2002 that expanded the definition of the term 'fill material' to include mining waste. This is the very same regulatory dirty trick that the Corps relies on to permit massive stream 'valley fills' in Appalachia associated with mountaintop removal coal mining.

But this disappointing Supreme Court ruling doesn't have to be the end of the issue. You see, the Obama administration can save that Alaskan lake from irrevocably pollution -- and all the mountains and valleys in Appalachia from destruction -- simply be reversing the bad Bush 'fill' rule. Recent actions by the Obama administration to crack down on mountaintop removal fall far short of actually ending mountaintop removal, which is the only solution to this abomination.

In addition, legislation pending in both houses of Congress would also effectively put a stop to mountaintop removal by overruling the 2002 fill rule -- thereby preventing the Corps from permitting waste dumps in America's waterways. This Thursday, the Senate will hold a hearing on one of those bills, the bi-partisan Appalachia Restoration Act (S. 696), co-sponsored by Sens. Ben Cardin (D-MD) and Lamar Alexander (R-TN).

I'll be live blogging the Senate hearing. Meantime, you can help by urging your Senators to support this bill.

(Photo by J. Henry Fair)

A Gusher of Oil Industry Lobbying This Year

2009-06-19T20:00:35Z

The Associated Press reports that oil and gas companies are pouring a chunk of their obscene profits into persuading politicians to keep America addicted to their fossil fuel.

According to the Center for Responsive Politics, in just the first three months of this year the industry spent $44.5 million lobbying Congress and federal agencies, with half of that kicked in by three of the largest oil giants -- Exxon-Mobil, Chevron and ConocoPhillips. No doubt that figure has balooned over the past three months. (Maybe this partly explains the recent rise in prices at the pump -- the oil companies want to recoup some of their massive lobby expenditures of late.)

Up until 2006, the oil and gas industry typically spent $50 million to $60 million a year on lobbying. But this year's exuberant spending spree -- fueled by industry fears about a windfall profit tax, royalty relief repeal and clean energy legislation -- is set to shatter last year's record total of $129 million, which itself represented a 73% increase from the previous year. No other polluter industry even comes close to this pace.

Looks like those multi-billions in profits -- at our expense -- are coming in handy for Big Oil these days. Indeed, the industry's lobbying largesse may be paying off, as illustrated by the recent Senate committee vote in favor of an energy bill that would lift a ban on offshore drilling in the Gulf of Mexico close, endangering Florida's sensitive coast.

It would be irresponsible if Congress succumbed to the oil and gas industry's crude pandering and slick propaganda rather than moving America beyond oil by enacting a clean energy agenda. Our elected leaders need to realize that record profits make Big Oil false prophets when it comes to driving America's energy policy.

Google Earth Exposes the Secrets of Coal Waste

2009-06-18T21:30:21Z

As reported today in Grist, there are nearly four dozen coal ash waste disposal sites in the U.S. that are so hazardous that were they to fail, "they could kill untold numbers of nearby residents."

However, the location of these hazardous sites is classified by order of the Department of Homeland Security, ostensibly because officials are worried that terrorists might target the ash ponds. (Never mind the fact that the locations of other hazardous sites, such as nuclear plants, are publicly available.)

This isn't sitting well with U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA), who as chair of the Environment and Public Works Committee has been leading the investigation into the health and safety risks posed by these unregulated coal waste dumps.

"If these sites are so hazardous and if the neighborhoods nearby could be harmed irreparably, then I believe it is essential to let people know," she said at a recent press conference. "Because if they know, they will press their local authorities who have responsibility for their safety to act now to make these sites safer and not sit back and wait."

Sen. Boxer believe that citizens have a right to know if they are in danger from coal ash waste in their neighborhood -- and we agree. That's why NRDC -- along with a coalition of other groups -- today filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request asking the Obama administration to make public the list of "high hazard" coal ash disposal sites across the country.

Until that happens, I'll let you in on an open secret: We already know where the coal-fired power plants are. And we also already know where the ponds are.

If anybody wants access to this data just Google it. We may not know exactly how much ash is out there, but we do have 2006 data for all the plants across the country.

For a closer look, check out this one plant in Missouri:

I don't know about you but I'd hate to live in that neighborhood located literally next door to a massive coal ash pond!

See for yourself -- click here to tour all of the plants and their coal ash ponds in Google Maps, or click this file if you have Google Earth installed.

Don't Be Fossil Fooled By 'All of the Above' Energy

2009-06-17T20:55:21Z

With the Senate voting today to move along energy legislation, we're seeing a strong push to dirty up the bill in ways that benefit the fossil fools crowd. Those who support this carbon-heavy, polluter-friendly path like to highlight the need for a so-called all of the above approach to energy. Let's face it, that's some slick slogan which no doubt seems to some a reasonable strategy to address America's energy needs.

But what people have to realize is that those clamoring for "all of the above" on energy really want "all of the below" -- that is, they want to drill, dig and burn dirty and dangerous fossil fuels that reside underground like oil, coal and uranium (for nuclear power). If you want to be literal about it, those of us who favor shifting the nation away from dirty energy to invest in clean alternatives are the ones who really support "all of the above" energy -- after all, that's where you find the wind and the sun. (Of course, geothermal energy balances out the portfolio quite nicely too.)

The urgency of climate and national security concerns means that we simply cannot afford the same old dirty business as usual. We must break the stranglehold that has allowed Big Oil, Big Coal and the Nuke Boys to dictate America's energy policy. Such stale, short-sighted energy policies will hurt our economy and our environment and leave all of us stuck paying too much to fill our tanks and to heat our homes.

Let's get serious: Clean energy is safe, cheap, and won't ever run out. It will make America stronger and cleaner, create more manufacturing jobs, and keep more cash in our pockets. And it certainly won't cook the planet.

So, as you're enjoying the beach this summer remember that we don't need more drilling. In fact, we need to move as fast and as far away from dirty fuels of the 19th century that keep us dependent on foreign oil and threaten our prosperity every time oil companies arbitrarily decide to raise prices -- which they're doing again right now, just in time for the Fourth of July.

Sure, the oil industry talks a good game about how we need "all of the above" but never forget that Exxon Mobil makes its record profits by selling one of the above: oil from Saudi Arabia. Hey, that's a great business strategy for the oil giants but oil dependence is a dangerous strategy for America.

The solution is to make a clean break to the safe, natural fuels of the 21st century. Here's why:

A) American innovation can bring us the technology that saves us money and saves the planet

B) We can break our dangerous addiction to oil and help prevent the worst effects of climate change

C) We need to start exporting clean energy instead of jobs

D) All of the Above

Coal Ash Coming to a Town Near You?

2009-06-08T22:10:19Z

One man's trash is another man's treasure, they say. Well, it appears that Tennessee's toxic coal sludge is headed out of state.

[UPDATE: The latest issue of GQ magazine covers the coal ash spill.]

The Tennessee Valley Authority is shipping some of the 5.4 million cubic yards of coal ash sludge that spilled out of its retention pond at the Kingston TVA coal-fired power plant, polluting the Emery River and contaminating downstream communities, in Roane County last December to landfills in other states.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that 1,000 tons of dried sludge has been sent by train to Taylor County, east of Columbus, Georgia and another load has gone to Perry County, Alabama, between Tuscalossa and Montgomery.

But back in Tennessee, residents in Cumberland Country aren't so keen on being a coal ash dump. In particular, many people are peeved by a controversial proposal to reclaim a strip mine by turning it into a landfill for the toxic ash from their neighbors' spill. Local residents who live near the 300-acre site are rightly concerned about the health risks of the coal ash.

The backdrop for all of this is the fact that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is now reviewing whether to regulate coal ash waste as hazardous under federal law. The EPA has pledged to issue new rules for public comment by the end of the year.

Meanwhile, all that contaminated coal ash from the Tennessee spill now headed to other states will be subject to standards that are weaker than those of the typical landfill handling house-hold waste.

Coal Declared Official State Rock of West Virginia

2009-06-05T16:38:33Z

Seriously, I read it in Grist, not The Onion.

Reminder: In West Virginia a lot of coal is removed by...wait for it...actually removing the tops of the mountains. Below are a few photos I took in the so-called "Mountain State" of mountaintop removal.

Almost Heaven, they say? Heaven help us.

WV Officials Endorse Wind Project

2009-06-01T22:14:44Z

Last week, the Mayor and City Council of Keyser, West Virginia formally endorsed a proposed 23-turbine Pinnacle Wind Farm, a $125 million project that will generate an average of $432,000 in annual local taxes, create 150 construction and six permanent jobs, and help further the national movement toward "green" renewable energy. The next step is a local public hearing to be conducted by the West Virginia Public Service Commission sometime before July 1.

"Mineral County Development (Authority) is pushing 'green, green, green,'" said Councilman Dave Sowers.

This is great news for the community, as well as for Green Mountain, on which the turbines will be placed -- presumably preventing at least this particular West Virginia ridge from falling to mountaintop removal coal mining.

Yes indeed, 'tis always better to use a mountain to blow wind than to blow up a mountain.

Of course, what is slated for the town of Keyser could just as easily be the salvation for another West Virginia ridgetop: Coal River Mountain. It is there that Massey Energy Co. aims to blast and bulldoze a mountaintop to get at the thin seam of coal below, then push the mining waste -- known in the biz as "overburden" -- over the side of the flattened mountain and into the valley below. As is usually the case, this leftover rock, waste and debris will decimate the Coal River that runs through (and sustains) the local community.

Concerned citizens and local groups have done everything they can to persuade the company, their elected officials and Gov. Joe Manchin himself not to sacrifice the mountain and the community that depends on it. Coal River Mountain Watch has even offered an alternative plan -- a wind farm -- that would provide the same amount of power generation and even more jobs without destroying natural resources and the quality of life for those living in the Coal River valley.

Do the math: 220 wind turbines that could power 150,000 homes while preserving the mountain vs. Massey's 6,000-acre mine that would level the mountain while destroying diverse forests, plentiful wildlife and pristine waterways.

If wind is good enough for Keyser, it's certainly good enough for Coal River Mountain.

The Murky Morass That is Mountaintop Removal

2009-05-30T02:39:45Z

Here we go again: Today the federal appeals court (4th Circuit) in Richmond rejected a request by public interest groups to reconsider its decision last month to overturn a lower court ruling that had curtailed mountaintop removal coal mining in West Virginia. With a 4-3 majority ruling against a rehearing, it looks like the Army Corps of Engineers can proceed with its plans to issue permits that will result in coal companies filling more valleys (and burying more headwater streams) with mining waste.

Of the judges who favored a new review of the case, Judge J. Harvey Wilkinson hit the nail on the head by writing in his dissent:

"...West Virginia is witnessing in the Appalachian headwaters the long, sad decline that Virginia and Maryland have seen with the Chesapeake Bay. Once the ecologies of streams and rivers and bays and oceans turn, they cannot easily be reclaimed. Most often than not, the waterway is simply gone for good."

Sad to say, but with the U.S. Court of Appeals continuing to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, the prospect of stopping mountaintop removal once and for all in the courts appears to be a long shot

Since the legal system seems to provide little or no recourse these days, it's up to our elected officials to finally do the right thing. All the more reason to wonder (and worry over) why the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently opted to allow more than three dozen mountaintop removal permits in West Virginia to proceed.

The current situation is more than a bit muddled and I certainly don't presume to know what's going on at the moment. But let's step back and assess where we find ourselves in this fight right now...

UPDATE: In a front-page story today, the Los Angeles Times reports on the Obama administration's perplexing policy position on mountaintop removal.

First off, there is no doubt that the Obama administration is infinitely better than the Bush administration on this issue -- that's primarily because the previous administration was so horrible. Clearly, the new administration has taken a couple of positive steps forward. Carefully examining the environmental impact of proposed mountaintop removal operations, as EPA has done in some cases, is necessary. It is also heartening that the Interior Department has moved to rescind the Bush administration's weakening changes to the long-standing stream buffer zone rule. But these necessary and appropriate steps fall far short of what is sufficient.

The Obama administration seems to be assuming that some mountaintop removal mining -- perhaps even a lot of it -- is okay. But the people who live in Appalachia know better. Mountaintop removal, the world's worst strip mining, is unacceptable. Period. Objecting to some proposed mining permits, but green-lighting others, does not recognize this basic fact. Nor does reinstating the old, more stringent buffer zone rule without committing to enforce it, as prior administrations had unfortunately done.

To do right by the people of Appalachia, President Obama needs to end mountaintop removal. There are bi-partisan bills in Congress right now -- the Clean Water Protection Act in the House and the Appalachia Restoration Act in the Senate -- that target the practice, and the president can announce his intent to sign legislation that ends mountaintop removal once and for all.

Similarly, the EPA and the Army Corps of Enginneers can immediately take steps to reverse the administrative regulation they adopted in 2002 that gave the Corps the authority to permit the dumping of waste in surface waters, which also would curtail mountaintop removal coal mining.

You'd think that halting the Appalachian Apocalypse would be a no-brainer. Unfortunately, the false perception still holds that coal is the economic engine of the region's downtrodden economy. This is a myth perpetuated by the politically powerful coal industry. Consider West Virginia as an example. Jobs from mining account for just 3.3% employment in the Mountain State -- we're talking less than 20,000 jobs total, compared to the halcion days back in 1940 when there were more than 130,000 coal miners in the state.

It's important to note that back then practically all coal miners worked underground. Whereas an undergound operation might employ hundreds of miners for several years, the typical mountaintop removal operation -- which is far more environmentally destructive -- is largely mechanized and therefore employs only a handful of miners for several months or a few years at most. Think about it this way: banning mountaintop removal would actually INCREASE jobs because more miners would be needed to go back inside the mountain to dig out the coal rather than blowing the top off the mountain with high explosives and filling the valleys and streams down below with toxic debris.

I encourage everyone to consider the compelling -- and common sense --economic case against mountaintop removal.

Simply put, if we're banking our country's energy future on the dirty energy of the past -- particularly that which is produced by sacrificing Appalachia's mountains, streams, forests, wildlife, and fellow Americans living in the coalfields -- then we risk undermining the Obama administration's investments in 21st Century clean energy solutions that will protect our planet, produce more jobs and preserve our natural resources.

The Great White Way Goes Green, Saving Mountains in the Process

2009-05-29T15:36:47Z

First the Oscars, then Major League Baseball, followed by the NBA...and now the "Great White Way." That's right. With the guidance of my colleague Allen Hershkowitz, NRDC is helping Broadway green up its act to save energy and the environment.

The BROADWAY GOES GREEN initiative, launched last fall, is an industry-wide initiative to reduce the famed theater district's carbon footprint, adopt environmentally sustainable practices and promote environmental awareness in the creation and presentation of Broadway shows.

As part of this effort, and in conjunction with the New York Loves Mountains Festival kicking off today, Broadway is recognizing the role that dirty coal -- strip-mined mostly from Appalachia -- plays in fueling its famed marquees.

As Jeff Biggers blogs from the festival:

"More than 240,000 tons of coal stripmined through mountaintop removal operations are consumed by New Yorkers every year. Thirteen power plants in 11 counties burn mountaintop removal coal. When the marquee signs on Broadway light up, a signal will most likely be sent from the New York Independent System Operator grid to the Lovett coal-fired plant, where the facility service will shovel in coal strip-mined from West Virginia mountains that have been clear cut, detonated with tons of explosives and toppled into the valleys."

The goal of the "New York Loves Mountains Festival," which starts today and runs through Sunday, is to raise awareness and promote a ban of mountaintop removal coal in NY State. This year's lineup features a reading of Light Comes, a new play written and directed by award-winning playwright Sarah Moon. This is the first national-touring original theatre production based on a mountaintop removal family saga and Thomas Edison's first coal-fired plant in New York City.

The play spans the invention of electricity to today's ravaged hills and hollows in eastern Kentucky, to the backroom finance deals of King Coal on Wall Street. As Biggers describes it, Light Comes "untangles the web of our modern-day coal-fired electrical empire, revealing the truth behind why America runs on coal, and why the fathers of electricity never imagined its reckless duration."

For complete details, visit www.nylovesmountains.com