All Entries Tagged With: "coal"

Study – World’s ‘Peak Coal’ Moment Has Arrived

Is the world about to begin running out of coal?

Two researchers say so. In a peer-reviewed article published in the journal Energy, they write that the world will hit “peak coal” production next year or shortly thereafter, and then mining would begin a long, steep decline.

Bottom line, say the paper’s co-authors, Tadeusz Patzek, a University of Texas engineering professor, and Greg Croft, a St. Mary’s College of California earth science professor, is that the 7 billion tons of coal the world is now mining and burning each year is about the best it can do.

“Our ability to produce this resource at 8 billion tons per year, in my mind, is a dream,” Patzek said.

Full Story: Study – World’s ‘Peak Coal’ Moment Has Arrived – NYTimes.com.

World Bank invests record sums in coal

Last year, $3.4bn was invested in the dirtiest fossil fuel despite international commitments to cut emissions

Record sums were invested last year in coal power – the most carbon intensive form of energy on the planet – by the World Bank, despite international commitments to slash the carbon emissions blamed for climate change.

The World Bank said this week that a total of US$3.4bn (£2.2bn) – or a quarter of all funding for energy projects – was spent in the year to June 2010 helping to build new coal-fired power stations, including the controversial Medupi plant in South Africa. Over the same period the bank also spent $1bn (£640m) on looking and drilling for oil and gas.

However, the Bank Information Centre, which examined the spending, disagreed and said the figure invested in coal was $4.4bn in the fiscal year 2009-10.

Full Story: World Bank invests record sums in coal | Environment | guardian.co.uk.

Study of coal ash sites finds extensive water contamination

A study released on Thursday finds that 39 sites in 21 states where coal-fired power plants dump their coal ash are contaminating water with toxic metals such as arsenic and other pollutants, and that the problem is more extensive than previously estimated.

The analysis of state pollution data by the Environmental Integrity Project, the Sierra Club and Earthjustice comes as the Environmental Protection Agency is considering whether to impose federally enforceable regulations for the first time. An alternative option would leave regulation of coal ash disposal up to the states, as it is now.

The EPA will hold the first of seven nationwide hearings about the proposed regulation Monday in Arlington, Va. A public comment period ends Nov. 19.

Full Story: Study of coal ash sites finds extensive water contamination | McClatchy.

We Need a Road Map to a Coal Free Future

In the wake of the worst coal mining disaster in 40 years, compromise and political machinations this spring have resulted in a regulatory crisis of failure; workplace safety in the mines, including the black lung scandal, has emerged as a national tragedy; toxic coal ash remains uncategorized as hazardous waste; mountaintop removal operations and devastating strip mining in 24 states continue under regulatory plunder, not abolishment; billions of taxpayers’ dollars pour down the black hole of carbon capture and storage boondoggles, increasing coal production; climate legislation hangs in the balance of political games.

In 1776, Thomas Paine challenged our country to embrace the cause of independence over compromise. In a moment of crisis, he declared: “We have it in our power to make the world over again.”

Our modern-day Paine, James Hansen at the NASA Goddard Center, has issued a similar clarion call: “Coal is the single greatest threat to civilization and all life on our planet. Our global climate is nearing tipping points.”

Full Story: We Need a Road Map to a Coal Free Future | CommonDreams.org.

Coal Ash Regulation Proposals Announced By EPA

Coal ash slurry left behind in a containment pond near the Tennessee Valley Authority's Kingston Fossil Plant.

After months of deliberation, US Environmental Protection Agency administrator Lisa Jackson announced today the first-ever national rule to regulate toxic coal ash.

Coal ash, which is a byproduct of the burning of coal in power plants, can pose serious threats to public health and the environment if it is improperly managed. Until now, there has been no nationwide standard for the regulation of the material.

Jackson outlined two different proposals to regulate coal ash described under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. Under the first proposal, coal ash would be regulated as a “special waste,” meaning the wet storage of the material at impoundments would be entirely phased out in favor of landfills. Under the second, more lenient proposal, impoundments would be required to use a composite liner for coal ash storage, which would prevent toxic materials from leaking into the groundwater.

Full Story: Coal Ash Regulation Proposals Announced By EPA.

Surprise Coal Mine Inspections: Feds Target 57 ‘Problem’ Mines

Nearly 60 problem U.S. coal mines have been hit with surprise inspections aimed at preventing another explosion like the one that killed 29 miners in West Virginia, the nation’s chief mine safety regulator said Wednesday.

The Mine Safety and Health Administration did not immediately reveal how many problems were found during the weekend crackdown. A spokeswoman said that information is still being compiled.

The raids targeted 57 mines, including 23 in West Virginia and 14 in Kentucky and involved 275 federal inspectors, MSHA said. Eight of the mines belong to Massey Energy Co., a $4.17 billion company that ranks among the largest coal producers in the United States.

Full Story: Surprise Coal Mine Inspections: Feds Target 57 ‘Problem’ Mines.

Calculate lives into the cost of coal

People in the mining camps of the Appalachian coal fields know the perils of the industry upon which, for generations, their fragile communities have depended.

The evidence cannot be ignored. It is around them in those mountain hamlets every day of their lives.

They hear it in the rasping coughs of gray-faced men, driven from the pits with lungs lacerated by years of breathing coal dust.

They see it in the shuffling gait of neighbors broken, disabled — often missing limbs — the victims of roof falls and mechanical mishaps.

Full Story: Calculate lives into the cost of coal – KansasCity.com.

Safety Violations At Massey Mines Skyrocket: 130 In Week Since Accident

In the week since the nation’s worst mine disaster in decades took the lives of 29 miners at the Upper Big Branch mine in West Virginia, the number of safety violations found by government regulators at mine owner Massey Energy’s other operations has skyrocketed.

The Mine Safety and Health Administration cited 130 “significant and substantial” violations at dozens of Massey’s mines from April 6 to April 14, according to a HuffPost analysis of MSHA records. That exceeds the number of violations found at those same mines for the entire month of March. Four of those violations involved ventilation plans which are intended to help prevent explosions and are designed “to control methane and respirable dust and shall be suitable to the conditions and mining system at the mine” — the Upper Big Branch mine was repeatedly cited for such violations and was penalized $136,142 in January.

In total, the agency found 460 violations at Massey’s mines, which exceeds the 351 violations at those same mines in March. Such S&S violations are considered much more serious, because they present a direct risk to the health and safety of mine workers

Full Story: Safety Violations At Massey Mines Skyrocket: 130 In Week Since Accident.

Tip of Iceberg of Massey’s Titanic Violations: 72-Foot Tidal Wave of Coal Sludge Looms Above Affected Mining Communities

Hope must die last in the coalfields, as our prayers go out to the families of the missing four coal miners and the 25 killed in the recent Montcoal mining disaster in West Virginia.

But as heroic rescue teams attempt to reach the missing miners, another potential disaster instigated by reckless Massey Energy regulatory violations and oversight looms above the very heads of these affected coal mining communities–and the pool of journalists and observers:

Blasting within a football field of the nearby class “C” Brushy Fork impoundment, one of the largest and potentially weakest coal slurry impoundments in the nation, Massey Energy is engaging in a violation-ridden act of aggression against besieged coalfield residents.

Full Story: Tip of Iceberg of Massey’s Titanic Violations: 72-Foot Tidal Wave of Coal Sludge Looms Above Affected Mining Communities | CommonDreams.org.

MINE DISASTER SITE HAD 57 SAFETY VIOLATIONS LAST MONTH

West Virginia Mine EXPLOSION: Massey Energy Mine Had Scores Of Safety Citations

A huge underground explosion blamed on methane gas killed 25 coal miners in the worst U.S. mining disaster in more than two decades.

Four others were missing Tuesday, their chances of survival dimming as rescuers were held back by poison gases that accumulated near the blast site, about 1.5 miles from the entrance to Massey Energy Co.'s sprawling Upper Big Branch mine.

The mine, about 30 miles south of Charleston, has a significant history of safety violations, including 57 infractions just last month for (among other things) not properly ventilating the highly combustible methane.

ABC News reported:

Full Story: West Virginia Mine EXPLOSION: Massey Energy Mine Had Scores Of Safety Citations.

New regulations will put an end to mountaintop mining

Obama administration proposals will make destructive mountaintop mining operations effectively impossible

The Obama administration effectively called time today on one of the most destructive industries in America, proposing new environmental guidelines for mountaintop mining removal.

The move was seen as a bold action from the White House, which has in the past disappointed environmental organisations for failing to move more aggressively on pollution and climate change.

But in a conference call with journalists, just an hour after the administration for the first time finalised regulations setting limits on greenhouse gas emissions from cars, officials spelled out guidelines that they acknowledged would make it virtually impossible for mining companies in Appalachia to carry on with business as usual.

Full Story: New regulations will put an end to mountaintop mining | Suzanne Goldenberg | Environment | guardian.co.uk.

Sanders: ‘I Do Not Want To See A Global Warming Bill Become A Bonanza For The Coal Industry’

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) has expressed “deep disappointment” with the direction Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) is heading with climate legislation being crafted with Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT). In a letter to Kerry, the Vermont independent praised Kerry’s “continued leadership” as a “tireless advocate for taking action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.” However, Sanders has “serious concerns about provisions that could harm our environment and provide new federal government support for polluters”:

– State Preemption: “In my view, preempting leading states would be a huge mistake: we should definitely set a floor, but not a ceiling.”

– Support for New Nuclear Power: “If the private sector will not finance new nuclear plants, the government should not risk taxpayer dollars by stepping in.”

– Offshore Drilling: “We should not, in a global warming bill, support increased offshore drilling.”

– Coal Plant Emissions: “Global warming legislation should move us forward by requiring coal plants to meet increasingly stringent pollution standards. It should not take us backwards by exempting coal plants from this kind of regulation by grandfathering in the dirtiest plants so they can continue to operate for years to come.”

Full Story: Think Progress » Sanders: ‘I Do Not Want To See A Global Warming Bill Become A Bonanza For The Coal Industry’.

Citing ‘irreversible damage,’ EPA nears veto of mountaintop removal permit.

The Environmental Protection Agency yesterday proposed its first Clean Water Act veto ever for a previously permitted mountaintop removal project, “the largest mountaintop-removal permit in West Virginia history.” The veto would reverse a permit granted in 2007 by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to Arch Coal to dig a 2,278-acre coal stripmine and fill six valleys and 43,000 linear feet of streams with the toxic debris. Based on the “unequivocal” evidence that the damage from mountaintop mining is irreversible, the EPA is finally enforcing the Clean Water Act to protect West Virginia’s residents:

Full Story: Think Progress » Citing ‘irreversible damage,’ EPA nears veto of mountaintop removal permit..

An Author’s Incredible Environmental Journey After a Coal Company Destroyed His Family’s Ancestral Home and Land

Click the image to buy it now

After a strip-mining operation obliterated the author’s family homestead, he set out on a 10-year journey to examine the staggering human and environmental costs of coal.

About half of all electricity in this country comes from coal-fired power plants. And where does the coal come from? Author Jeff Biggers writes that coal is mined in 20 states in the U.S., but his newest book, Reckoning at Eagle Creek: The Secret Legacy of Coal in the Heartland, focuses mainly on one area — southern Illinois.

Eagle Creek has particular historical significance, but it’s the personal significance that drives the narrative of his book. His family’s 200-year-old homestead and 150-year-old cabin were obliterated by a strip-mining operation. The experience led Biggers on a journey to fully understand the impact of coal on the environment and on communities.

Biggers’ story is deeply rooted in cultural history. Mining companies have been destroying not just homes, forests and streams, but actual communities with stories, songs, heroes and legacies. Unfortunately, our love affair with coal continues, despite dire warnings from top scientists regarding global warming, the impact on human health from burning coal and desperate pleas from the people who live in areas of coal extraction.

Full Story: An Author’s Incredible Environmental Journey After a Coal Company Destroyed His Family’s Ancestral Home and Land | Environment | AlterNet.

Even The Cows Have Cancer: EPA Weighs Tougher Regulation of Toxic Coal Ash

Elisa Young says she has lost at least six neighbors to cancer in the last ten years.

“I’ve lost neighbors to lung cancer who have never smoked,” she said. “I’ve lost them to brain cancer, breast, throat, colon, multiple myeloma, pre-leukemia, arsenic poisoning. When my son, who’s in his 20s, came home to visit, he said, ‘Mom, is it normal for your mouth to taste like metal?’ We pulled over and he coughed until he got sick.”

Young has no doubt about what she believes is causing all the cancer: coal. For the past 10 years she’s lived in Meigs County, Ohio, home to four coal-fired power plants within an 11-mile radius, and has become an environmental activist.

“There isn’t a house on this road that hasn’t been touched by cancer… I had melanoma and I currently have two more precancerous conditions for breast and thyroid cancer, none of which are in my family,” said Young, 47. “My dog died of cancer, my best friend died of cancer and her dog died of lymphoma. I just gave up a dog because I couldn’t afford to take him into the vet.

Full Story: Even The Cows Have Cancer: EPA Weighs Tougher Regulation of Toxic Coal Ash.

Anti-MTR Activists Risk Arrest at EPA HQ with Elaborate Protest

Activists Risk Arrest with Elaborate Protest at EPA HQ; Demand Immediate Action to Stop Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining

Group Erects Purple Mountain Majesty At EPA; Say “If Administrator Lisa Jackson Won’t Visit the Appalachian Mountains, They Will Bring The Mountains to Her”

WASHINGTON— In an attempt to further pressure EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson to enforce the Clean Water Act and halt mountaintop removal coal mining (MTR), activists early this morning erected two 20-foot-tall, purple tripod structures in front of the agency’s headquarters. A pair of activists perched at the top of the tripods have strung a 25-foot sign in front of the EPA’s door that reads, “EPA: pledge to end mountaintop removal in 2010.” Six people are locked to the tripods and say they won’t leave unless Administrator Jackson commits to a flyover visit of the Appalachian Mountains and MTR sites, which she has never done before.

Full Story: The Understory » Breaking: Anti-MTR Activists Risk Arrest at EPA HQ with Elaborate Protest.

Progress Energy abandons dirty coal front group ACCCE.

Utility giant Progress Energy is the latest in a stream of companies to abandon the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE), the scandal-ridden coal-industry front group that has dirtied the debate on climate legislation. Progress Energy — “a Fortune 500 energy company with more than 21,000 megawatts of generation capacity and $9 billion in annual revenues,” serving 3.1 million customers in the Carolinas and Florida — quietly quit the group last year, following Duke Energy, Alstom, Alcoa, and First Energy in the exodus. Its move away from coal propaganda mirrors its recent decision to shut down coal plants and move to cleaner power:

Progress paid $1 million to ACCCE in 2008, putting the company among the group’s biggest contributors. But the company has been backing away from coal of late, announcing in December that they are shutting down 11 coal-fired power plants. Instead, they would move toward natural gas, a less greenhouse-gas intensive fuel source. A state paper hailed the move as evidence of “the beginning of the end of the era of cheap coal.”

Full Story: Think Progress » Progress Energy abandons dirty coal front group ACCCE..

Coal-Fired Power on the Way Out?

Analysis by Lester R. Brown –

The past two years have witnessed the emergence of a powerful movement opposing the construction of new coal-fired power plants in the United States. Initially led by environmental groups, both national and local, it has since been joined by prominent national political leaders and many state governors.

The principal reason for opposing coal plants is that they are changing the earth's climate. There is also the effect of mercury emissions on health and the 23,600 U.S. deaths each year from power plant air pollution.

Over the last few years the coal industry has suffered one setback after another. The Sierra Club, which has kept a tally of proposed coal-fired power plants and their fates since 2000, reports that 123 plants have been defeated, with another 51 facing opposition in the courts.

Full Story: ENERGY: Coal-Fired Power on the Way Out?.

Coal industry challenges of safety violations swamp system

Coal operators in Kentucky and other states have dramatically increased challenges to federal citations for safety violations in the past few years — swamping the appeals process.

Some members of Congress contend that the vast backlog of cases under review — more than 15,000 — is the result of potentially unsafe mines gaming the system to stay in business.

“This growing backlog indicates that certain mine operators are abusing their right to challenge a violation,” said Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, which is scheduled to hold a hearing Tuesday on the issue.“These appeals are clogging the system and putting miners in danger.”

In Kentucky, 80 percent of 536 high-dollar fines for the “significant and substantial” safety violations — the most serious kind — are being contested by the mine operators, according to federal Mine Safety and Health Administration records. Some citations are more than two years old.

Full Story: Coal industry challenges of safety violations swamp system | courier-journal.com | The Courier-Journal.

GAO Report: Mountaintop-removal damage outlives ‘reclamation’

- Mountaintop-removal mining continues to damage the environment long after regulators sign off that mine sites have been properly reclaimed, according to a new report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office.

GAO investigators found that mountaintop removal damages water quality, reforestation efforts need improvement, and mine operators often do not comply with the approximate original contour reclamation requirement.

And in a 68-page report to Congress, the GAO said federal and state regulators could do more to limit the damage and to ensure mine operators are held financially responsible for cleaning up industry messes.

“Mountaintop-removal mining has lasting and far-reaching effects on surrounding lands and streams,” said Senate Energy and Natural Resources Chairman Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., who requested the GAO study.

Full Story Report: Mountaintop-removal damage outlives ‘r … – News – The Charleston Gazette – West Virginia News and Sports.

Pennsylvania Coal Fire That Has Burned Since 1962

Centralia Fire: Final Holdouts Refuse To Flee

Standing before the wreckage of his bulldozed home, John Lokitis Jr. felt sick to his stomach, certain that a terrible mistake had been made.

He’d fought for years to stay in the house. It was one of the few left standing in the moonscape of Centralia, a once-proud coal town whose population fled an underground mine fire that began in 1962 and continues to burn.

But the state had ordered Lokitis to vacate, leaving the fourth-generation Centralian little choice but to say goodbye – to the house, and to what’s left of the town he loved.

“I never had any desire to move,” said Lokitis, 39. “It was my home.”

Full Story Centralia Fire: Final Holdouts Refuse To Flee From Pennsylvania Coal Fire That Has Burned Since 1962.

Obama Eyes Biofuels, Clean Coal in New Climate Push

President Barack Obama announced new measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions with “clean coal” technology on Wednesday in his latest move to keep climate change at the top of the country’s political agenda.

The administration also outlined a strategy to boost biofuels production, seeking to nudge the country toward energy independence while balancing the environmental costs of grain-based motor fuels.

The moves are part of Obama’s effort to gain more votes for a climate bill stalled in the Senate that will seek to boost production of clean, low-carbon energy and help the country reduce its dependence on imported fossil fuels.

The climate bill faces further obstacles after the election last month in Massachusetts that gave Republicans a Senate seat long held by Democrats, depriving the president’s party of 60 votes that could overcome procedural hurdles.

Full Story Obama Eyes Biofuels, Clean Coal in New Climate Push | CommonDreams.org.

EPA, USDA Encourage Farmers To Put Coal Ash That Contains Mercury And Arsenic On Crops

The federal government is encouraging farmers to spread a chalky waste from coal-fired power plants on their fields to loosen and fertilize soil even as it considers regulating coal wastes for the first time.

The material is produced by power plant “scrubbers” that remove acid rain causing sulfur dioxide from plant emissions. A synthetic form of the mineral gypsum, it also contains mercury, arsenic, lead and other heavy metals.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says those toxic metals occur in only tiny amounts that pose no threat to crops, surface water or humans. But some environmentalists say too little is known about how the material affects crops, and ultimately human health, for the government to suggest that farmers use it on their land.

“Basically this is a leap into the unknown,” said Jeff Ruch, executive director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility. “This stuff has materials in it that we're trying to prevent entering the environment from coal-fired power plants and then to turn around and smear it across ag lands raises some real questions.”

Full Story EPA, USDA Encourage Farmers To Put Coal Ash That Contains Mercury And Arsenic On Crops.

Refuse Allegiance to Coal

Chris Hedges

There are some 614 coal-fired power plants in the United States, and it is up to us to shut them down. No one in the White House will do it. No one in Congress will do it. And no one at the coming U.N. climate change conference in Copenhagen will do it. We will build local movements to carry out acts of nonviolent civil disobedience to halt the burning of coal, or the polar ice caps will continue to dissolve, the Greenland ice sheet will disappear, the glaciers in the Alps, the Himalayas and Tibet will melt, and widespread droughts, rising sea levels and temperatures, acute food shortages, disease and gigantic mass migrations will envelop the globe. We are killing the ecosystem on which human life depends. One of the major polluters is coal, which supplies about half of the country’s electricity. NASA’s James Hansen has demonstrated that our only hope of getting our atmosphere back to a safe level—below 350 parts per million CO2—lies in stopping the use of coal to generate electricity. We are currently at 390 parts per million carbon dioxide.

“The world political system is not about to keel over and give us a treaty that will get us to 350 parts per million anytime soon, or in fact do anything of great note,” the writer and environmental activist Bill McKibben told me when I met him in New York City. The author of “The End of Nature” and “Deep Economy” said: “The news that the Obama administration had punted on the Copenhagen talks is discouraging. The good news, to the extent that there is any, is that we finally have the beginning of a real global movement about climate change.”

Full Story Truthdig – Reports – Refuse Allegiance to Coal.

‘Let’s Learn About Coal’: Industry Front Group Distributes Coloring Book On The ‘Advantages’ Of Coal

Friends of Coal (FOC) is a front group created by the West Virginia Coal Association. Its mission is to “inform and educate West Virginia citizens about the coal industry” and “provide a united voice” for the industry. To make dirty coal seem appealing, FOC has sponsored or initiated license plates, football games, basketball practices, plane jumps, fishing events, and scholarships.

FOC is now selling coal to children. ThinkProgress obtained the “Let’s Learn About Coal” coloring book, which asks children to unscramble statements about the “advantages” of coal, such as “Than coal other cheaper is fuels” (”Coal is cheaper than other fuels”). Kids also learn that coal is “important” and “provides jobs for lots of people!”:

Full Story Think Progress » ‘Let’s Learn About Coal’: Industry Front Group Distributes Coloring Book On The ‘Advantages’ Of Coal.

EPA to limit mercury emissions from power plants by 2011 | McClatchy

The Environmental Protection Agency will put controls on the emissions of hazardous pollutants such as mercury from coal-fired power plants for the first time by November 2011, according to an agreement announced Friday to settle a lawsuit against the agency.

Many other polluters were forced to reduce emissions of toxic material such as mercury, arsenic and lead after the Clean Air Act was strengthened in 1990. Power plants, however, the largest source of mercury pollution, aren’t subject to nationwide rules.

The tougher rules will clean up more than just heavy metals because some kinds of pollution controls — scrubbers, for example — also remove other pollutants, such as soot.

Full Story: EPA to limit mercury emissions from power plants by 2011 | McClatchy.

National Academy blockbuster: Coal’s huge hidden costs

National Academy of Sciences Report:

More than $62 billion a year in “external damages” — premature deaths from air pollution.

Coal industry lobbyists and coal-state politicians like to remind us that coal is a relatively cheap source of energy.

But in a major new report out today, the National Academy of Sciences details some of the huge “hidden costs” of coal: More than $62 billion a year in “external damages” — that is, premature deaths from air pollution.

A National Academy news release is available here and the report itself here.

Those coal costs are part of the $120 billion in “hidden costs” that the academy’s National Research Council documented in its report, “Hidden Costs of Energy: Unpriced Consequences of Energy Production and Use.”

What are they talking about? The press release explains:

Requested by Congress, the report assesses what economists call external effects caused by various energy sources over their entire life cycle — for example, not only the pollution generated when gasoline is used to run a car but also the pollution created by extracting and refining oil and transporting fuel to gas stations. Because these effects are not reflected in energy prices, government, businesses and consumers may not realize the full impact of their choices. When such market failures occur, a case can be made for government interventions — such as regulations, taxes or tradable permits — to address these external costs, the report says.

Full Story: Blogs @ The Charleston Gazette – » National Academy blockbuster: Coal’s huge hidden costs.

Clash in Alabama Over Tennessee Coal Ash

Clash in Alabama Over Tennessee Coal Ash – - NYTimes.com

UNIONTOWN, Ala. — Almost every day, a train pulls into a rail yard in rural Alabama, hauling 8,500 tons of a disaster that occurred 350 miles away to a final resting place, the Arrowhead Landfill here in Perry County, which is very poor and almost 70 percent black.

To county leaders, the train’s loads, which will total three million cubic yards of coal ash from a massive spill at a power plant in east Tennessee last December, are a tremendous financial windfall. A per-ton “host fee” that the landfill operators pay the county will add more than $3 million to the county’s budget of about $4.5 million.

The ash has created more than 30 jobs for local residents in a county where the unemployment rate is 17 percent and a third of all households are below the poverty line. A sign on the door of the landfill’s scale house says job applications are no longer being accepted — 1,000 were more than enough.

via Clash in Alabama Over Tennessee Coal Ash – NYTimes.com.

TVA Ignored Ash Spill Warnings FOR 20 YEARS

TVA Ignored Ash Spill Warnings FOR 20 YEARS

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — The Tennessee Valley Authority failed for more than 20 years to heed warnings that might have prevented a massive coal ash spill in Tennessee, then allowed its lawyers to stifle a $3 million study into the disaster’s cause to limit its legal liability, an inspector general’s report said Tuesday.

Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., and chairman of the TVA congressional caucus, said the report “raises major concerns which must be taken seriously … to ensure that such a coalash spill never happens again.”

The 111-page report from TVA Inspector General Richard Moore came as officials from the nation’s largest public utility made a third appearance before a congressional panel since the spill last Dec. 22.

TVA President and CEO Tom Kilgore was among those scheduled to testify Tuesday before the U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure’s subcommittee on water resources and environment.

via TVA Ignored Ash Spill Warnings FOR 20 YEARS.

Clean Coal Knee-Capping: Secretary Chu Makes $1 Billion Down Payment For More Dirty Coal

Clean Coal Knee-Capping: Secretary Chu Makes $1 Billion Down Payment For More Dirty Coal    | CommonDreams.org

On the heels of a major Wall Street Journal report that we are reaching “peak coal,” and revelations that the Bush administration buried a 2002 report on the cancer risks associated with coal ash, Secretary of Energy Steven Chu made a $1.073 billion down payment today on the construction of FutureGen, “the first commercial scale, fully integrated, carbon capture and sequestration project in the country in Mattoon, Illinois.”

Chu’s buy-in into “clean coal,” a phrase that young liberal Democrat Francis Peabody first used back in the 1890s to peddle his brand of “smoke-free” clean coal in Chicago, places him in the company of FutureGen Alliance promoters like Peabody Energy, whose first quarter 2009 profits “only tripled” this spring–Peabody celebrated an 8-fold increase in profits in the last quarter of 2008.

A lot of hot air has been emitted on the dangerous oxymoron of “clean coal,” but the truth remains that with carbon capture and storage technology still in the experimental phase, Secretary Chu still does not know whether FutureGen’s attempt to capture those CO2 emissions and bury them into the earth will be economically feasible, safe (in terms of leaks or accidents or earthquakes) or possible within the next decade.

via Clean Coal Knee-Capping: Secretary Chu Makes $1 Billion Down Payment For More Dirty Coal | CommonDreams.org.

Obama admin. announces new mountaintop mining policy

Obama admin. announces new mountaintop mining policy

Taking aim at mountaintop removal mining, this week, the Obama administration announced a new effort to strengthen federal oversight of the practice and to punish mining companies who fail to protect the environment. The new policy will directly impact mountaintop coal mining in the six Appalachian states of Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia.

A top administration official told reporters, June 11, that while the practice of removing mountaintops and discarding the waste in neighboring valleys in order to extract coal and other natural resources remains legal, it does have real negative effects on drinking water or local animal life.

Mountaintop removal coal mining produces large amounts of waste that is usually deposited in adjacent valleys and streams. Academic studies have revealed that the waters downstream from valley fills are degraded. Plant and animal life can be irreparably harmed, environmental activists point out.

White House Council on Environmental Quality Chair Nancy Suttley said, “This is a practice that we believe does have serious environmental impacts, however, it is a practice that is allowed under current federal law.”

via People’s Weekly World – Obama admin. announces new mountaintop mining policy.

Why Is the American Coal Foundation Setting the Curriculum at Elementary Schools?

Coal Mountain Elementary  – In These Times

Big Coal has worked its way into the classroom.

An elementary school curriculum designed by the American Coal Foundation suggests that students learn about the costs and benefits of coal mining by using toothpicks and paper clips to “mine” chocolate chips out of cookies. They also go about “reclaiming” the “land” damaged in the process by tracing the cookies’ outline on graph paper. Costs are to be calculated by the amount of time spent per chip and the expanse of graph paper that needs to be reclaimed.

One of the discussion questions to follow the lesson is: “What do you think are some of the costs associated with mining coal?”

In poet and organizer Mark Nowak’s new book Coal Mountain Elementary, this question is placed on an otherwise blank page. On the adjacent page is a photo from Sago, W. Va., of a sign, in bedraggled removable plastic letters and missing an “i”: “Pray for our mining families.”

via Coal Mountain Elementary — In These Times.

USGS: We’re Not The ‘Saudi Arabia Of Coal’

USGS: We’re Not The ‘Saudi Arabia Of Coal’

The claim made by politicians from George Allen to Barack Obama that the United States is the “Saudi Arabia of coal” is based on a “wildly overconfident” estimate of the nation’s recoverable coal reserves. The Wall Street Journal reports that the Energy Information Administration estimate that the United States has a 240-year supply of coal uses a baseline established in 1974, now grossly out of date. Last year, he “U.S. Geological Survey completed an extensive analysis of Wyoming’s Gillette coal field,” which supplies one-third of the nation’s coal, “and determined that less than 6% of the coal in its biggest beds could be mined profitably, even at prices higher than today’s”:

“We really can’t say we’re the Saudi Arabia of coal anymore,” says Brenda Pierce, head of the USGS team that conducted the study. No one says the U.S. is facing a coal shortage. But the emerging ranks of “peak coal” theorists argue that current production levels may be unsustainable and, if anything, create a false sense of security.

The “Saudi Arabia of coal” slogan emerged during the oil shocks of the 1970s, when the coal industry and politicians promoted the use of the Nazi-era technology of turning coal into a gasoline substitute:

via Wonk Room » USGS: We’re Not The ‘Saudi Arabia Of Coal’.

Obama Must Say No to the Coal Barons Desecrating Our Mountains

Obama Must Say No to the Coal Barons Desecrating Our Mountains

By Jim Hightower

Now is the time for us to flex some grass-roots political muscle and force Obama to stick to his promise to stop mountaintop coal removal.

Obama spaketh, and it was good: “We have to find more environmentally sound ways of mining coal than simply blowing the tops off mountains,” he proclaimed.

And, yea, in the mountains and down through all the valleys of the ancient land of Appalachia, hearts were filled with joy, for here was a prophet of hope who was signaling that a change was coming — at last, the endtime was at hand for the brutish coal-mining method called “mountaintop removal,” which is an abomination.

Even as the people rejoiced at this good news, coal barons trembled in their temples of black gold. For a decade, these mighty extractors of wealth had been allowed to accumulate unto themselves enormous profits by exploding the tops off the peaks in Appalachia, the oldest mountain range in all the land. With the top third of these awesome, forested mountains reduced to rubble, the barons used giant machines to strip out seams of coal, and then they simply shoved the rubble and toxic coal waste down the mountainsides, burying the valleys and streams below. It was a desecration — but the love of mammon made it the law of the land.

Then, behold, now the prophet became president, so he was in a position to put his words into action.

via Obama Must Say No to the Coal Barons Desecrating Our Mountains | Environment | AlterNet.

Gag Me with Clean Coal

Gag Me with Clean Coal  | CommonDreams.org

Take a revitalizing breath of those clean coal emissions from the average coal plant, filled with carbon monoxide, mercury, arsenic and lead – all deadly toxic to humans in high amounts. Breathe deeply the pestilence that is clean coal.

If coal’s impact on climate change weren’t so serious, the public relations campaign that asks us to choke down “clean coal” would be farcical. “Clean coal” is a dirty joke that won’t wash.

In his GQ article, entitled Black Tide, Sean Flynn says, “The term clean coal entered the lexicon in its current faux-eco-activist incarnation-with the implication that coal can be a source of nonpolluting fuel, that it can be scrubbed of its toxins and its carbon dioxide rendered harmless-with stunning speed, largely in the past two years through the expensive efforts of two groups: the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity, a lobbying group for coal-burning industries, and the Hawthorn Group, a marketing firm hired by ACCCE.”

In an ad for ACCCE President Barack Obama is featured saying, “Clean coal technology is something that can make America energy independent…This is America. We figured out how to put a man on the moon in 10 years. You can’t tell me that we can’t figure out how to burn coal that we mine right here…and make it work,” just as the Hawthorn Group had planned.

Contemptible as it is, the Hawthorn Group was understandably proud that Barack Obama and other candidates for President adopted their very language saying, “Soon our message was repeated back to us from the podium by the candidates themselves.” In their newsletter they bragged, that before they began their clean coal campaign for ACCCE, a slim majority of public opinion leaders surveyed, opposed burning coal to generate electricity. But when their PR campaign was complete, they had 72% support.

via Gag Me with Clean Coal | CommonDreams.org.

Stopping the Desecration of Mountaintop Removal by Jim Hightower on Creators.com – A Syndicate Of Talent

Stopping the Desecration of Mountaintop Removal

Jim Hightower

Obama spaketh, and it was good: “We have to find more environmentally sound ways of mining coal than simply blowing the tops off mountains,” he proclaimed.

And, yea, in the mountains and down through all the valleys of the ancient land of Appalachia, hearts were filled with joy, for here was a prophet of hope who was signaling that a change was coming — at last, the endtime was at hand for the brutish coal-mining method called “mountaintop removal,” which is an abomination.

Even as the people rejoiced at this good news, coal barons trembled in their temples of black gold. For a decade, these mighty extractors of wealth had been allowed to accumulate unto themselves enormous profits by exploding the tops off the peaks in Appalachia, the oldest mountain range in all the land. With the top third of these awesome, forested mountains reduced to rubble, the barons used giant machines to strip out seams of coal, and then they simply shoved the rubble and toxic coal waste down the mountainsides, burying the valleys and streams below. It was a desecration — but the love of mammon made it the law of the land.

Then, behold, now the prophet became president, so he was in a position to put his words into action.

And act, he did. On May 15, it was announced that Barack Obama’s Environmental Protection Agency had quietly approved 42 of 48 new Appalachian mining permits sought by the coal barons.

via Stopping the Desecration of Mountaintop Removal by Jim Hightower on Creators.com – A Syndicate Of Talent.

Carbon Capture Can’t Make Coal Clean

Carbon Capture Can’t Make Coal Clean

WE Energies has proclaimed that it has captured carbon at a coal-fired plant, but this “success” won’t come close to making coal clean.

The clean-tech world is aglow with the news of WE Energies’ recent “success” in capturing carbon at the coal-fired power plant in Pleasant Prairie, Wis. Some are heralding a new day for “clean coal,” a day that finally promises the ongoing survival of a 19th century energy system through the cunning of a 21st century technology.

But in light of the recent news that Obama-appointed Lisa Jackson (arguably the most pro-environment EPA head we have had in a decade) approved 42 permits to permanently obliterate several dozen mountain tops in Appalachia, burying miles of rivers and streams in the process, the glory of carbon capture quickly wanes.

A full one-third of the U.S. coal supply originates from Appalachia, the most biodiverse temperate forest on earth. And much of that coal is sourced from mining operations by rogue outfits like Massey Coal, which has managed to circumnavigate strict U.S Clean Water Act regulations by applying for permits directly to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

via Carbon Capture Can’t Make Coal Clean | Environment | AlterNet.

Activists arrested protesting dangerous coal sludge dam in West Virginia

POWER POLITICS: Activists arrested protesting dangerous coal sludge dam in West Virginia

Seven people were arrested for trespassing Sunday during a nonviolent protest against a Massey Energy subsidiary’s plans to blast just 100 feet away from a massive dam holding back billions of gallons of toxic coal waste in the mountains of West Virginia.

The Brushy Fork impoundment (pictured below at left), located in Raleigh County, W.V., is the largest such coal impoundment in the country, holding some 7 billion gallons of what’s known as coal sludge or slurry — the poisonous, chemical-laden goo left over after processing coal. According to data gathered by the state Department of Environmental Protection and cited in a citizens’ report, coal sludge contains dangerously high levels of toxic elements including arsenic, cadmium, chromium, lead and mercury, as well as more complex chemicals used in the washing process.

via ISS – POWER POLITICS: Activists arrested protesting dangerous coal sludge dam in West Virginia.

US energy chief vows to pursue ‘clean coal’

US energy chief vows to pursue ‘clean coal’  -The Raw Story |

US Energy Secretary Steven Chu pledged Tuesday the administration would pursue “clean coal” technology, even as it focuses research on alternatives such as wind and solar.

The US coal industry and lawmakers from coal-mining states have mounted an aggressive campaign to promote investment in cleaner coal as President Barack Obama’s administration takes tougher action on the environment.

But many environmentalists say that clean coal methods — such as capturing and storing carbon emissions — are unproven and drain resources from finding real ways to combat global warming.

Chu, asked during testimony at the Senate Appropriations Committee whether the administration was committed to researching clean coal, replied: “Yes.”

Presenting the 2010 budget requests, Chu acknowledged the administration’s views had changed after Congress made clean coal a priority in its 787 billion-dollar stimulus package.

via The Raw Story | US energy chief vows to pursue ‘clean coal’.

Coal, Electric Industries Big Winners in Climate Bill Deal

OPS:  Of course. Their boy is in the White House 

Coal, Electric Industries Big Winners in Climate Bill Deal

Regional Interests Watering Down Bill Aimed at Curbing Global Climate Change Effects - The Washington Independent »

Even as House Democrats are celebrating their deal with conservative-leaning colleagues on climate change legislation, the real winners under the compromise have been the coal, electric and auto industries, who are largely the source of the nation’s carbon emissions to begin with.

Details of the compromise are still emerging, but already the chief sponsors of the measure — Reps. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and Edward Markey (D-Mass.) — have been forced to lower carbon-reduction targets, cut renewable fuel standards and dole out billions of dollars in benefits to the nation’s largest polluting industries. Many environmentalists say the compromise comes at the too-high cost of undermining the bill’s very purpose, which is to slash emissions dramatically enough to prevent a warming planet from heating further. Some are asking Democrats either to bolster the environmental protections or to scrap the proposal altogether.

via The Washington Independent » Coal, Electric Industries Big Winners in Climate Bill Deal.

TVA sends spilled coal ash to impoverished black communities in Georgia and Alabama

OPS:  “Clean Coal” It’s HERE!

TVA sends spilled coal ash to impoverished black communities in Georgia and Alabama -ISS

The Tennessee Valley Authority has begun shipping toxic coal ash from the massive spill that occurred last December at its Kingston power plant in east Tennessee’s Roane County to landfills in the neighboring states of Georgia and Alabama as part of a test to determine a final resting place for the waste.

The counties where the ash is going have large black populations and high poverty rates, raising questions about environmental justice.

via ISS – TVA sends spilled coal ash to impoverished black communities in Georgia and Alabama.

ACCCE’s “72% of opinion leaders” claim is unsupported bunk

ACCCE’s “72% of opinion leaders” claim is unsupported bunk

The American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity is running an advertisement at the Washington Post and The Hill websites which makes the following claim: 72% of opinion leaders support coal electricity. The ACCCE touts this claim repeatedly at their various websites, but there is so little information available about the study that produced this claim that it’s literally impossible to verify. However, given the number of inconsistencies in what little information is available, we can make an educated guess as to the accuracy of the 72% claim. If you click on the “America’s Power” advertisement (screen shots shown at right), you’re taken to this page, where the ACCCE claims “it’s easy to see why 72 percent of American opinion leaders support the use of coal.” On this page, however, there are four links on the page that all go to the same press release that describes the ACCCE study that produced this 72% number.

The Election Day press release makes a number of claims about an earlier survey that are inconsistent based exclusively on the information presented in the press release. The claims all rest on the study’s definition, provided at the bottom of the press release, of “opinion leaders,” aka “opinion elites.” They are defined as follows:

via Scholars and Rogues » ACCCE’s “72% of opinion leaders” claim is unsupported bunk.

Coal ash is damaging water, health in 34 states, groups say

Coal ash is damaging water, health in 34 states, groups say

WASHINGTON — People in 34 states who live near 210 coal ash lagoons or landfills with inadequate lining have a higher risk of cancer and other diseases from contaminants in their drinking water, two environmental groups reported on Thursday.

Twenty-one states have five or more of the high-risk disposal sites near coal-fired power plants. The groups — the Environmental Integrity Project and Earthjustice — said that a 2002 Environmental Protection Agency document that the agency didn’t release until March of this year adds information about toxic releases from these facilities to nearby water systems and data on how some contaminants accumulate in fish and deer and can harm the health of people who hunt and fish.

The report said that people who live near the most problematic disposal sites have as much as a 1-in-50 chance of getting cancer from drinking water contaminated by arsenic. The highest risk is for people who live near ash ponds with no liners and who get their water from wells.

The report said the ash ponds also produced an increased risk of damage to the liver and other organs from exposure to such metals as cadmium, cobalt and lead, and other pollutants.

Although the health information mainly came from an EPA study released in August 2007, the information was largely neglected and was too technical for most people to understand, the groups said. The report and a chart of the sites “takes the numbers and fleshes them out so the most dangerous units are identified,” said Lisa Evans, an attorney with Earthjustice.

via Coal ash is damaging water, health in 34 states, groups say | McClatchy.

Congress To Stop Using Coal In Power Plant

Congress To Stop Using Coal In Power Plant

WASHINGTON — The 99-year-old Capitol Power Plant, which provides steam for heat and hot water in congressional buildings, is ending its distinction of being the only coal-burning facility in the District of Columbia.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said Friday that the switch to natural gas as the sole fuel source used at the plant was part of their efforts to reduce the carbon pollution impact of Congress on the nation’s capital.

“The Congress of the United States should not only be a model for the nation, but also a good neighbor,” Pelosi said.

The two Democratic leaders have for the past several years initiated steps to make the Capitol grounds more environmentally friendly. But moves to change light bulbs, use less paper and buy fuel-efficient vehicles have in some respects been overshadowed by the smoke that continues to rise from the power plant about four blocks south of the Capitol.

via Congress To Stop Using Coal In Power Plant.

No change: Obama DOJ backs pro-coal court ruling

No change: Obama DOJ backs pro-coal court ruling

Folks who are hoping that President Barack Obama’s election was going to completely reverse government policies backing mountaintop removal coal mining got more evidence to the contrary today.

The Obama Justice Department filed a brief with the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals opposing further consideration of a lower court ruling that would have more closely regulated mountaintop removal.

“This case does not merit further review,” said the brief filed by DOJ attorneys on behalf of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

As I’ve written here before,  citizen groups want the full 4th Circuit to reconsider a three-judge panel’s decision that overturned the decision by U.S. District Judge Robert C. Chambers to require the Corps to conduct more detailed environmental reviews before it approves new valley fills.  The 4th Circuit took the unusual step of requiring the government to respond to the hearing motion filed by environmental groups, something that may offer a slight hope for citizens that the full court would reconsider the case.

via Blogs @ The Charleston Gazette – » No change: Obama DOJ backs pro-coal court ruling.

“60 Minutes” Coal Reporting Misses Point (VIDEO)

“60 Minutes” Coal Reporting Misses Point (VIDEO)

This week’s “60 Minutes” had a feature on coal which compares the CEO of Duke Energy “a reformed tobacco executive.” Sounds like it has potential, right? It’s encouraging that such a large media outlet reports on coal in the context of how dangerous it is to the climate, but the piece still falls short.

Despite consulting Dr. James Hansen, Scott Pelley manages to spit out this gem: “Cleaning up the carbon would solve everything.” Then the program goes to a carbon sequestration plant — the only one in the country, the show says — which liquefies carbon emissions and pumps them underground. Pelley, narrating, says that everyone agrees that this is the only way to make coal safe for the planet.

While he does say that this South Dakota coal plant cost far too much to be replicated on a large scale, Pelley’s reporting omits the first part of the process of using coal for energy — the part where you gather the coal. If you don’t know what that looks like, it looks like this:

via “60 Minutes” Coal Reporting Misses Point (VIDEO).

Will the U.S. Ever Need to Build Another Coal or Nuclear Power Plant?

Will the U.S. Ever Need to Build Another Coal or Nuclear Power

Plant?

The new chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission doesn’t think so

No new nuclear or coal plants may ever be needed in the United States, the chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission said today.

“We may not need any, ever,” Jon Wellinghoff told reporters at a U.S. Energy Association forum.

The FERC chairman’s comments go beyond those of other Obama administration officials, who have strongly endorsed greater efficiency and renewables deployment but also say nuclear and fossil energies will continue playing a major role.

Wellinghoff’s view also goes beyond the consensus outlook in the electric power industry about future sources of electricity. The industry has assumed that more baseload generation would provide part of an increasing demand for power, along with a rapid deployment of renewable generation, smart grid technologies and demand reduction strategies.

via Will the U.S. Ever Need to Build Another Coal or Nuclear Power Plant?: Scientific American.

Gingrich adds new term to coal industry’s propaganda lexicon: ‘green coal.’

Gingrich adds new term to coal industry’s propaganda lexicon: ‘green coal.’

In testimony before the House Energy and Commerce Committee today, Newt Gingrich suggested a number of alternatives to implementing the Waxman-Markey clean energy economy legislation, which Gingrich called a “massive energy tax increase.” In the course of summarizing a few of these alternatives, Gingrich added a new term to the coal industry’s propaganda lexicon by calling on Congress to incentivize research on and the development of “green coal” technology:

GINGRICH: I do think that green coal and carbon sequestration is the most important single breakthrough we can make. … Unless you get to an affordable green technology for coal there is no possibility that American developments are going to affect the amount of carbon in the atmosphere.

Watch it:

via Think Progress » Gingrich adds new term to coal industry’s propaganda lexicon: ‘green coal.’.

RFK Jr. Blasts Obama as ‘Indentured Servant’ to Coal Industry

RFK Jr. Blasts Obama as ‘Indentured Servant’ to Coal Industry

Critics Say Clean Coal Is a Boondoggle; ‘Clean Coal Is a Dirty Lie’

“Clean coal is a dirty lie,” says environmentalist Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who calls President Barack Obama and other politicians who commit taxpayer money to develop it “indentured servants” of the coal industry.

Despite a series of expensive false starts and failures, President Obama proposed $3.4 billion in stimulus legislation to fund continued research on “clean coal” projects.

“Clean coal is like healthy cigarettes, it does not exist,” says former Vice President Al Gore.

The coal industry has been running a multi-million dollar advertising blitz to promote the theory that coal can be made clean, using one of Obama’s campaign speeches in its television commercials.

via RFK Jr. Blasts Obama as ‘Indentured Servant’ to Coal Industry – ABC News.

NOW: Can Coal Be Earth-Friendly?

Can Coal Be Earth-Friendly?

by: NOW on PBS,  Programming Note

Coal, which powers half of all US electricity, is currently taking center stage in the energy debate. (Photo: Reuters)

This week’s “NOW” on PBS:

“This B.S. about global warming is just another non-crisis to be worried about just like the ozone warnings we had in the 90′s, nuclear holocaust in the 80′s, acid rain in the 70′s, and littering in the 60′s.” This is one of the many comments sent in to the “NOW” web site about this week’s show “Can Coal Be Earth-Friendly?” The big question: Is there such a thing as clean coal?

via t r u t h o u t | Can Coal Be Earth-Friendly?.

EPA Continues To Block Harmful Mining Projects

EPA Continues To Block Harmful Mining Projects

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is objecting to three more Appalachian surface mining permits, saying the operations would cause unacceptable damage.

The agency recently asked the Army Corps of Engineers to revoke a permit for a Virginia mine that was issued under a streamlined process and require the operator to obtain an individual permit, which would include stricter environmental standards. The EPA also wants more environmental safeguards before the corps issues permits for two West Virginia surface mines, including one owned by Richmond, Va.-based Massey Energy Co., the nation’s fourth-largest coal company.

In letters released Thursday, the EPA told the corps that the projects likely violate the Clean Water Act.

Under President Barack Obama, the EPA has begun subjecting surface coal mining permits to tougher scrutiny than the Bush Administration did _ particularly operations that blast away mountaintops. Administrator Lisa Jackson last month directed EPA staff to review 150 to 200 pending applications for new or expanded surface coal mines. The agency has since objected to several permits.

via EPA Continues To Block Harmful Mining Projects.

The Dirt on Clean Coal

The Dirt on Clean Coal – By Ari Berman

In 1955 the Tennessee Valley Authority built what was at the time the world’s largest coal plant, near Kingston, Tennessee. More than fifty years later, the Kingston Fossil Plant produces enough electricity to power 670,000 homes and emits nearly 11 million tons of carbon dioxide–the greenhouse gas most responsible for global warming–each year. On December 22 a dike broke at the plant, sending more than a billion gallons of toxic black sludge downhill into the ground, water and homes of eastern Tennessee. The infected area was some forty times larger than the infamous Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska and became known as the “nightmare before Christmas.”

The spill underscored the negative images the word “coal” often conjures up–battered communities in Appalachia, underground explosions, exploited miners, brutal strikes and black lung. Yet the American coal industry, which pumps 2 billion tons of CO2 into the atmosphere each year and contributes more than one-third of the nation’s overall greenhouse gas emissions, is nothing if not resilient. Despite rising public concern about global warming and a growing awareness that coal is an irrevocably dirty business, the industry is spending millions of dollars on a slick messaging campaign stressing its “commitment to clean.”

via The Dirt on Clean Coal.

Clean Coal–The Ultimate Oxymoron

Clean Coal–The Ultimate Oxymoron

A little over a year ago, I was in West Virginia driving slowly behind my husband. He was on his bike near the end of his cross-country bike race. As you can imagine, driving behind a bike never allowed me to go much over 10 miles per hour. So I did a lot of looking around. The two lane road took us through a lush, green forest that felt almost primordial. From my interest in biodiversity, I knew this region of Appalachia was one of the most biodiverse in North America. It is a way station for countless species of migratory birds and its waters are habitat for an amazing array of fish and amphibians.

I don’t remember how many miles of that exquisite forest we drove through before coming to an opening where I beheld the strangest site; so strange, in fact, I had a hard time computing what I was seeing. Then I realized what it was. Between two prominent mountain peaks was a bare, brown, flat area, not half as high as the two peaks.

via OpEdNews » Clean Coal–The Ultimate Oxymoron.

Time to End Business as Usual for Toxic Coal Industry

Time to End Business as Usual for Toxic Coal Industry

The most absurd oxymoron of 2008 was “Clean Coal.” Coal is dirty – its mining, washing, burning and storage as ash. Some call it the original sin of industrial society. Coal mining, as surface mining on native lands, and now as mountaintop removal in Appalachia in Kentucky, Virginia, Tennessee and West Virginia, has destroyed more than 470 mountains, more than 1,200 miles of streams and rivers, and communities, both human and other than human.

It makes the water unfit to drink. Schools lie downstream of toxic impoundment ponds, and profit flows abundantly to corporate coffers.

The meaning of coal is now in the number 350. Here’s why.

I just returned from a road trip to Washington. A dozen like-minded concerned citizens from Asheville joined thousands of adults from around the country to support more than 12,000 students to demonstrate our support for bold visionary climate legislation that will phase out coal as a fuel for electricity.

Public awareness

There were 523 students from N.C., including a contingent from Asheville High School. They came for a weekend of workshops called Powershift, where they learned about climate change and energy policy. They came to demonstrate their commitment to help preserve and protect the integrity and beauty of life on earth. They came to tell government leaders the youth of the country would not tolerate toxic energy policy any more.

via Time to End Business as Usual for Toxic Coal Industry | CommonDreams.org.

Coal ash spill may reach Washington, DC.

Coal ash spill may reach Washington, DC.

According to the Maryland Department of the Environment, approximately 4,000 gallons of toxic coal ash has spilled into the North Branch of the Potomac River in Luke, MD. A “dime sized” hole developed in the pipeline on March 8, but was not discovered until the next morning. Pete Altman at the NRDC writes:

I don’t know how long it’ll take for the spill to reach DC proper, but its a hell of a way to send a message about how much we need to regulate the handling of this stuff. All the more reason to thank the Obama Administration for announcing plans to propose federal regulations for coal waste.

via Think Progress » Coal ash spill may reach Washington, DC..

Anti-Coal Day on Capitol Hill

YouTube – Anti-Coal Day on Capitol Hill.

Coal Industry Tries to Hide Dirty Facts Behind ‘Clean’ Claims

Coal Industry Tries to Hide Dirty Facts Behind ‘Clean’ Claims

Misleading and duplicitous ads on ‘clean coal’ cannot camouflage the stench of fossil fuels

by Fred Pearce

The fightback begins here. Well, we can hope. The misleading and downright duplicitous ads against clean coal chronicled here are now being contested by – you guessed it – an ad.

[Greenpeace activists disrupt coal loading at the world's largest coal port at Newcastle, Australia (Photograph: EPA)]Greenpeace activists disrupt coal loading at the world’s largest coal port at Newcastle, Australia (Photograph: EPA)

Last week the Academy-award winning movie producers Joel and Ethan Coen began airing their commercial on cable TV in the US. It is a spoof air freshener advert with a suburban housewife spraying her home with a coal-black aerosol from a can called Clean Coal. Explaining the magic ingredient, the presenter says that “Clean Coal harnesses the awesome power of the word clean”.

It ends with the caption for anyone with a comedy bypass: “In reality, there is no such thing as clean coal.”

Meanwhile, a thick spray of the white stuff in Washington DC couldn’t prevent some 2,000 protesters gathering at the Capitol Hill power plant to protest that the plant burns coal to provide steam heating for the federal legislature’s cavernous halls.

via Coal Industry Tries to Hide Dirty Facts Behind ‘Clean’ Claims | CommonDreams.org.

More trouble for TVA

More trouble for TVA

The Tennessee Valley Authority, already caught in a legal quagmire following December’s disastrous spill of a billion gallons of coal ash from its Kingston power plant, is in trouble yet again — this time for out-of-control credit card spending by its employees.

A two-year review by TVA’s Inspector General found that spending as part of a program created in 1995 for minor business-related expenses had ballooned to more than $75 million annually, the Associated Press reported:

Nearly a third of the purchases in fiscal 2007 were for more than $5,000, and many apparently were rubber-stamped by administrators.

One unidentified cardholder had more than $5.9 million in charges on six cards over two years. The person told auditors that supporting documentation was never checked.

The audit [pdf] found TVA spent more than $360,000 over two years on gifts for its own employees, including Xboxes, TVs and DVD players that were handed out as safety awards. The auditors also found questionable purchases of beer, wine and liquor, as well as a purchase of a sound reduction system so the cardholder could sleep better at night in corporate housing.

via ISS – More trouble for TVA.

Dirty Coal Has Left the Building

Dirty Coal Has Left the Building

by Jeff Biggers

The great snow storm has passed. The clouds are parting. The sun is breaking through. Those tiny ripples of hope, that Robert Kennedy once invoked, are beginning to gather near Capitol Hill.

The Capitol Power Plant: It was built at the same time the first Ford Model T cars rolled onto the streets. A century later, the Capitol plant will finally end its use of coal in the age of the iPhone and Blackberry.

There’s a new era in Washington, DC–a clean energy era. And with an Obama administration that wants to double our renewable energy production in three years, and has called for cap ‘n trade legislation to limit carbon emissions, thousands of clean energy and coalfield activists are converging on the snow-swept streets of Washington, DC today to remind Capitol Hill that a growing and incredibly organized movement is ready to make this new clean energy era a reality.

via Dirty Coal Has Left the Building | CommonDreams.org.

Coal Action Heats Up Capitol

YouTube – Coal Action Heats Up Capitol.

Coal-sponsored CNN rejects anti-coal ad.

Coal-sponsored CNN rejects anti-coal ad.

On Thursday, the Reality Coalition launched an ad “to demolish the notion that there’s anything clean about so-called clean coal.” Academy Award-winning filmmakers Joel and Ethan Coen created the anti-coal ad to harpoon the coal industry’s greenwashing campaign. Today, Politico’s Mike Allen reported that CNN rejected the ad, which includes the line, “The most trusted name in coal.” Watch it:

via Think Progress » Coal-sponsored CNN rejects anti-coal ad..

AlterNet: Americans in Appalachia Are Living in a State of Terror

Americans in Appalachia Are Living in a State of Terror

Dear Mr. President,

As I write this letter, I brace myself for another round of nerve-wracking explosives being detonated above my home in the mountains of West Virginia. Outside my door, pulverized rock dust, laden with diesel fuel and ammonium nitrate explosives hovers in the air, along with the residual of heavy metals that once lay dormant underground.

The mountain above me, once a thriving forest, has been blasted into a pile of rock and mud rubble. Two years ago, it was covered with rich black topsoil and abounded with hardwood trees, rhododendrons, ferns and flowers. The understory thrived with herbs such as ginseng, black cohosh, yellow root and many other medicinal plants. Black bears, deer, wild turkey, hawks, owls and thousands of [other] birds lived here. The mountain contained sparkling streams teeming with aquatic life and fish.

via AlterNet: Americans in Appalachia Are Living in a State of Terror.

YouTube – Get clean coal clean! (NEW Air Freshener)

YouTube – Get clean coal clean! (NEW Air Freshener).

Greenwash: Why ‘Clean Coal’ is the Ultimate Climate Change Oxymoron | CommonDreams.org

Greenwash: Why ‘Clean Coal’ is the Ultimate Climate Change Oxymoron

The people who told us for years that climate change was a myth now say it’s all true – but something called ‘clean coal’ can fix it. This is pure and utter greenwash.

by Fred Pearce

Next week, Americans are being invited to take part in what could become the largest act of civil disobedience against global warming in the country’s history. People are protesting at the coal-fired power plant that powers legislators on Capitol Hill in Washington DC.

[No clean-coal plant that buries carbon has yet been built. Photograph: Robert Nickelsberg/Getty Images]No clean-coal plant that buries carbon has yet been built. Photograph: Robert Nickelsberg/Getty Images

Cynics may say it’s about time Americans joined the action. The fact is that too many Americans have been bamboozled for too long by a campaign of disinformation about the science of climate change. Many still think the whole question of mankind’s role in global warming is disputed in scientific circles (I expect the comments beneath this blog will soon demonstrate this point).

via Greenwash: Why ‘Clean Coal’ is the Ultimate Climate Change Oxymoron | CommonDreams.org.

YouTube – Get clean coal clean! (NEW Air Freshener)

Get clean coal clean! (NEW Air Freshener).

New “Clean Coal” Spoof From “Big Lebowski” Team

The Reality Campaign has released a new ad. They’re the folks behind the widely-played ad that featured a foreman in a hard hat taking viewers on a tour of a non-existent clean coal facility.

In this new ad, a pitchman gives us the hard sell on a “Clean Coal Clean”-scented air freshener that works just as well as “clean coal.”

The ad is directed by the Coen brothers, the team that wrote and directed “The Big Lebowski,” “Fargo,” “The Hudsucker Proxy” and other great films.

Why I’ll Get Arrested To Stop the Burning of Coal by Bill McKibben: Yale Environment 360

Why I’ll Get Arrested To Stop the Burning of Coal

On March 2, environmentalist Bill McKibben will join demonstrators who plan to march on a coal-fired power plant in Washington D.C. In this article for Yale Environment 360, he explains why he’s ready to go to jail to protest the continued burning of coal.

by bill mckibben

It may seem odd timing that many of us are heading to the nation’s capital early next month for a major act of civil disobedience at a coal-fired power plant, the first big protest of its kind against global warming in this country.

via Why I’ll Get Arrested To Stop the Burning of Coal by Bill McKibben: Yale Environment 360.

Obama’s excellent atomic omission- The Free Press – Harvey Wasserman

Obama’s excellent atomic omission

Two lethal words went thankfully unspoken in President Obama’s address to the nation this week—atomic energy.

Unfortunately, two others—”clean coal”—were included.

An increasingly desperate reactor industry just tried to sneak a $50 billion loan guarantee package into the stimulus bill. But for the third time since 2007, it got beat by a powerful national grassroots movement and key Congressional leaders.

Nuke pushers now want reactors painted “green” in a renewable standard Congress may soon set.

Hordes of radioactive lobbyists will swarm around that and new energy and global warming legislation. Every obscure sentence in those bills will be targeted for hidden handouts. Unfortunately, some money may already have slipped through from previous Bush-Cheney maneuvering.

via The Free Press — Independent News Media – Harvey Wasserman.