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New study affirms peak coal for W.Va. on horizon

by: Clem Guttata

Fri Aug 07, 2009 at 04:00:00 AM EDT


By Clem Guttata

Over at Coal Tattoo, Ken Ward, Jr. covers a new important U.S. Geological Survey study on Peak Coal in: Peak coal: Coming to Appalachia sooner than you think? (Head over there for some great charts.)

If you look at the energy returned from energy invested to extract the coal, I wonder if we haven't already hit peak coal-sourced energy in West Virginia. The coal we mine today doesn't provide as much energy per ton as the coal we used to mine and the coal we mine in 5-10 years is going to be more difficult to mine than what we extract today.

This study shows why any technology for burning coal more cleanly 10-20 years from now is too little too late for West Virginia (it may well be too little too late for our planet, too, but that's a completely different topic).

Someone needs to alert Sen. Rockefeller's office about this study, so he won't say again that "We have a 400 year supply in this country of coal" (senate hearing on 1/25/2009).

This study demonstrates that any public policy planning for West Virginia still based on the assumption that generations of coal wealth remains is seriously flawed. It'll be a major step forward for West Virginia once our Sens., Reps., Gov., legislature and other civic leaders finally start acting like major coal production in W.Va. is down to 100-200 months--not 100-200 years.

Clem Guttata :: New study affirms peak coal for W.Va. on horizon
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FB comment of the month (1.00 / 1)
From Mike Roselle, about this diary...
West Virginia is the Saudi Arabia of Human Rights.


Jay Rock is a Parrot for the Coal Companies (1.00 / 1)
Since Jay Rock is the junior senator from the mountain state he should realize that his campaign contributors sometimes stretch the truth.  He has a staff of many to do the research necessary to make his statements stand up to scrutiny, maybe he just doesn't want to know the truth.

wtf (0.00 / 0)
well, looks like I stumbled on a site that claims to be Democratic but is actually for Mountain Party/Green politics.

Attacks on Senator Rockefeller, attacks on Governor Manchin, "peak" this-and-that, paranoia that anything to the right of Ralph Nader is automatically assumed to be "corporate propaganda".  And hypocritical support of the UMWA given the otherwise anti-coal stance here.  Mike Roselle, cofounder of "Earth First!", mentioned in a positive light is a pretty good sign of where this site is politically...namely, completely off the left end of the map.

None of that flies among real West Virginia Democrats and you know it.

I support Governor Manchin, Senator Byrd, Senator Rockefeller, Congressman Mollohan, Congressman Rahall, Secretary of State (should be President) Clinton, our coal miners and coal industry, PATH...

"Democrats", my ass.  You're Green Party cultists.  See ya!


You're the "cultist", pal. (0.00 / 0)
Being a member of the Democratic party doesn't mean that you automatically pledge your vote when you sign on as a member.

That's the Republican way.

Real Democrats historically strive to get Democratic party leaders to stand up and do the right thing, rather than stand back and let them fold for any and all corporate lobbyists who'll offer them a fat campaign contribution.

I remember when Jay Rockefeller first came to WV, he was dead-set against strip mining. Back then the UMWA helped coal industry fatcats persuade him to change his mind. If ANYONE is going to flip him back to voting for more jobs in WV, it'll be the unions, including the UMWA. Problem is, Cecil Roberts apparently still doesn't understand that when surface mining started leveling 800 vertical feet of mountain "tops", the coal industry was actually deep mining on the cheap. Surface extraction is far more expensive for WV citizens and their infrastructure, but far cheaper for the transnational coal companies who have no interest in preserving WV/ Appalachian environment, society, or history.


[ Parent ]
ah yes there's that "corporate" bugaboo again (0.00 / 0)
"corporate lobbyists".

A week or so ago I posted a rather restrained, moderate comment questioning how being anti-PATH suddenly became a "progressive" issue, and not one but both replies went like this:


"You have fallen for the power companies' PR play".."Do you really trust the power companies to tell the truth? I guess you missed the day that tobacco company executives lied under oath before Congress about the health risks of tobacco, and got out of all your Enron stocks before it turned out to be a giant scam, and don't mind that the banks who got bailed out last fall went ahead and paid billions of dollars in bonuses to the idiots that screwed up. Or maybe you're just a troll who actually works for AEP or Allegheny."

This mindset in which:
* "corporation = bad"
* thinking for oneself instead of believing what Counterpunch or the Earth First Journal or Sourcewatch tell you to believe is automatically assumed to be "falling for corporate PR"
* politicians representing the interests of their districts which last I checked is THEIR JOB is instead "caving to corporate lobbyists"
* when all else fails bring up Enron or "big tobacco", neither of which have anything to do with the subject currently under discussion...
that anti-corporate mindset is an automatic loon marker.

Anyone wants me to take their argument seriously, can begin by not bringing up lunatic conspiracy theories about "corporate PR" or "corporate lobbyists" or "corporate funded research".  The minute any of those come up is the minute everything else you have to say, even if you may have some good points, is discredited.


[ Parent ]
Down you nasty little ankle biter (0.00 / 0)
Photobucket

Hey the "loon marker" is on you pal. It's that nasty littly forked tongue and that golden choke collar you "earned" by playing the corporate lap dog. Depicted above is the fate of a Blue Dog Dittospank after the primaries, had Hillary beaten Obama.  Because even Republicans know that they can't trust a turncoat.

So is it true that you ankle biters would all turn blue before voting for any regulation which would protect Americans or is it simply that you turn blue from holding your breath eating corporate shit out of a gold-plated doggie dish?

One last question, ankle biter. If Charlotte Pritt moved to WV's 2nd district to run against Shelley Moore CorporateToad, which would the son-of-a-Democrats-for-Underwood turncoat like yourself vote for?  


[ Parent ]
We're 98% of the Democratic base (0.00 / 0)
You're 2%, if Dennis Kucinich's last two attempts in the Democratic primary are any indication...

there is an open dicussion here (0.00 / 0)
there are a couple of "libertarian" types that post here. you paint with too broad a brush.

we engage. sorry you want to play hit and run. if someone says something not supported by the facts who do you suggest hold them accountable?

i don't vote straight democratic, because it is much more fun to actively vote against the republican as many times as possible.

NFTT: Support My Team or I Will Dance


[ Parent ]
Wrong again. (0.00 / 0)
Polls show that West Virginians are against all forms of surface mining. And since most Americans agree, then the Democratic Party is out of step with the will of the people if our leaders aren't doing what people want when they let surface mining continue.

By the way, just because Dennis Kucinich is on the right side of an issue, don't let his low national poll numbers confuse you, pal. He replaced the conservative Republican who held his district seat before him and has won easily in his own district ever since.

One more thing. Just because you were sucker enough to fall for Rush Limbaugh's advice and vote for Hillary, you don't have to continue demonstrating what a complete ditto head you are by claiming that Hillary would have won the general election if Obama hadn't beaten her in the primaries. NOBODY knows the answer to that one, not even your drug-addled mentor El Rushbo.


[ Parent ]
You're apparently the one listening to Rush (0.00 / 0)
I don't listen to Rush Limbaugh.  He's a Republican, I'm a Democrat.  I wouldn't know whether he asked people to vote for Hillary Clinton since I don't listen to him, but it sounds like you do listen to him since you apparently know this.

[ Parent ]
I don't have cable (0.00 / 0)
but this was widely reported in TradMed. My local Fox News channel does a decent job at 10PM with the local new. It is not at all like their cable version.

Fox

Rush Limbaugh Explains Why He's Urging Republicans in Texas and Ohio to Vote for Hillary Clinton on Super Tuesday 2

ABC

Clinton ended up with a victory of just less than 100,000 votes in the Lone Star State. We heard tales Wednesday of many Republicans being asked to vote for Clinton in the primary. Those voters not only secured a win for Clinton, but may have done themselves a disservice in the runoff.

Now this is a local Texas station, but I do remember this being covered in the DC ABC affiliate that we get up here in the Eastern Panhandle.

It was a phenonmenon reported in Oregon by ABC.

Some renegade conservatives, though, will admit to switching in order to drag out the Democratic primary as long as possible in the hope of bruising both candidates along the way.

Sometimes knowing what your opponent is planning is a good thing.

NFTT: Support My Team or I Will Dance


[ Parent ]
You CLAIM to be a Democrat, pal. (0.00 / 0)
And so did Strom Thurmond, until the party moved away from his own particular way of thinking.  Hell, even the Republican party eventually rejected Strom's ways, at least officially

In case you weren't paying attention, Americans also shunned corporatocracy in a BIG way during the last general election, whether you now wish to recognize it or not. Just as most of us have strived to make racism a thing of the past.

Isn't it past time for you Blue Dog elitists to either get right with America?


[ Parent ]
Fascinating. (0.00 / 0)
Two more posts from you with "corporate" used 4 times in a derogatory way...

This is fascinating but I'm not sure I follow your logic.  Is there any reason why corporations are bad, or is this just a "corporations are bad, um'kay?" thing?

Anyway my politics are about where Sens. Byrd and Rockefeller are, and that is a far cry from Strom Thurmond.  Your politics look to be about where Ralph Nader is, and he is a far cry from Byrd and Rockefeller, or for that matter President Obama.  This last election was a centrist Democrat against a centrist Republican so I have no idea where you get "Americans also shunned corporatocracy in a BIG way" from.  The quixotic anti-corporation candidates, Nader, Kucinich, McKinney etc. didn't do so well did they?

Now in response to your other question, if Charlotte Pritt were to run for Congress in CD-2, I would vote for whoever is running to her right in the Democratic primary, and for whoever the Democratic nominee is in the general election, and hopefully she won't run as a write-in candidate against that Democratic nominee in the general election like she did once...


[ Parent ]
At the Democratic state convention last year (0.00 / 0)
There was a resolution that the Young Democrats, the future of the party, brought to the floor on the second day. The resolution recognized the importance of mining in West Virginia while urging a moratorium on new mountaintop removal permits. Not all mining, but the removal of mountains in the Mountain State.

Part of the first day of the convention was used to point out that the rules that prevented it from coming to the floor had been changed behind the delegates back, that the packet of convention rules sent out did not match what was begin discussed. So the YD had to get enough signatures on a petition to have that floor discussion and vote. It did lose, but not by as much as you would think. Think like McCain's win in Missouri last fall, seriously.

Yes, Obama is not "the most liberal Senator evah" as some tried to portray him during the campaign. Yet, I thought that McCain was a centrist Republican, right up until until he picked Gov. Palin as his running mate.

My own problem with corporations is that they are not persons. When did you ever see one get colonoscopy results? They are one of the means by which capital is organized. Period. Therefore they should not be afforded the same rights under the Constitution and the Bill of Rights that you and I have. The rights belong to the people, not entity with a charter. Organizing your money to protect your personal liability should not amplify your voice in the market place of ideas.

NFTT: Support My Team or I Will Dance


[ Parent ]
You're the one who brought "corporate" into it. (0.00 / 0)
If you're not a corporate cultist, then tell me, when did the profit motive become the only reason to do anything?  Because that's what corporations are all about.

The way I, as a progressive Democrat see it, there's absolutely nothing wrong with corporations just as long as they don't interfere with the people's right to be represented in our democracy. The problem is that when insurance companies are spending $1.4 million per day to preserve their right to drop the people who need coverage the most from their policies, and when the coal industry spends a bloody fortune to keep legislation from being passed and regulations from being enforced at the dire expense of West Virginians, then my calling corporate greed for what it is shouldn't bother you.

Unless you're a corporate cultist.

YOU may say Obama's a "centrist", but the fact is that you complained that you thought Hillary should be president. Apparently you believe that the DLC is a "centrist" organization, and that Obama is actually TOO "centrist" for you. The rest of us understand that rejected the DLC back in '03 when they offered him kudos from their organization, but he and spanked 'em pretty hard.

I sorta get the idea that you think Joe Lieberman is a good Democrat. But I saw him for what he was even when he was chairman of the DLC.


[ Parent ]
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