So which is it?

I get the feeling that Kirkendoll is gearing up to run against Rahall (4.00 / 1)

I'm going to go out on a limb to predict that Kirkendoll is going to try to split the Democratic party using tea party style tactics fueled by angry laid off miners. It is not insignificant that the Labor Day Don-A-Pollute-Za required email addresses to get in, so there's every likelihood that Blankenship has established a web base of support for his chosen ones.

Never mind that there are far more people laid off because of the overproduction of coal and the use of surface mines (in place of deep mines) than the withholding of permits by the EPA, the coalfield coalition will still use the EPA action as a political bludgeon.

Whether Kirkendoll runs against Rahall in the primary, or by registering as a Republican or a Tea Party candidate I can't predict, but this summit appears to be more about politics than any direct environmental action. The more I read about him, the more I get the feeling that not only is he gearing up for a run, he will ask Manchin for his support.  It is notable that Manchin has done virtually nothing to promote green jobs in West Virginia, so he and Kirkendoll will use the same tactic as southern states governors to try to turn West Virginia even more anti-government bitter to vote conservative. Manchin's oobvious lassitude towards attracting green jobs into West Virginia will naturally enable him to tap Big Coal for campaign cash to help him promote his next political campaign.

Face it, Manchin throwing money at West Virginia's "Road to Nowhere" and at wastewater infrastructure projects certainly isn't going to step on any of Blankenship's priorities, is it?

Whatever you do, Joe, make sure that teaching positions across the coalfields don't pay enough. That would have the effect of community-building, which is directly against Blankenship's strategy of running everyone off his precious coal.

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by: One Citizen @ Tue Nov 10, 2009 at 13:41:41 PM UTC

Rahall/Manchin (0.00 / 0)

I think you're on to something. I'm not totally convinced on all the details (nor, I'm sure, are you yet :-), but I think you're definitely fishing in the right pond.

Thinking about who will be next in line to fill a Senate seat, Rahall has been paying his dues even longer than Manchin. I never got the sense that Rahall was interested in making the move, but I bet there are people who would urge him to.

Joe Manchin is out of a job at the end of this term. He's got more incentive to drop land mines for his potential rivals than the other way around. (Everyone else out there is either sitting pretty or has multiple options.) Manchin is definitely positioning himself to run as the home-town (coal) boy against the DC politicians.

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by: Clem Guttata @ Tue Nov 10, 2009 at 14:26:03 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

lots more information (4.00 / 1)

Ken Ward, Jr. has more info from Gov. Manchin:

Recall that the list of expected attendees includes Massey Energy President Don Blankenship, CONSOL Energy CEO Brett Harvey and International Coal Group President Ben Hatfield.  Two members of Congress will be there, as will county commissioners from the state's major coal producing counties, and top officials from a dozen or more other coal companies. It's a big deal to get all those folks in the same room, and it seems like the public ought to know what is said.

In my experience, the governor has been a pretty open guy, and he's never been shy about answering my questions - or coming out to listen to folks who show up at his office to protest his strong support for the coal industry.

But not this time ... Manchin says he doesn't have a problem himself letting the press into today's meeting. But, the governor said, he checked with coalfield county elected officials who asked for the meeting (meaning primarily Logan County Commissioner Art Kirkendoll) and was told the local officials wanted a private meeting.

Manchin said those local officials asked him to set up the meeting so they could "talk openly and freely" with the members of the state's congressional delegation - something Manchin said those local officials complained to him they rarely get to do.

Go read the whole post. It's definitely worth checking out.

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by: Clem Guttata @ Tue Nov 10, 2009 at 16:52:52 PM UTC

Sen. Rockefeller to be there, too n/t (0.00 / 0)

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by: Clem Guttata @ Tue Nov 10, 2009 at 16:53:20 PM UTC

sort of parallel-Senate Finance today and Jay Rock was not there (4.00 / 2)

You tell where a chairamn is leaning by looking at the witness list.

At one point Sen. Kerry just flat out called Dr. Margo Thorning a liar when she was spouting off some pile of certainties. It digressed at the end into a dueling he said / he said between Sen. Kerry and PhD guy from the American Enterprise Institute, Dr. Kenneth Green.

One of the last things Kerry pointed out, since the Dr. Green was claiming that 3 degree increase was okay and even beneficial (sound familiar anyone?), was that the IPCC and other peer-reviewed scientists decided it should be stopped at a 2 degree rise. We do already have an ice free Arctic.

NO ONE HAD PRODUCED A PEER REVIEWED STUDY SUPPORTING THE AEI POSITION TAKEN TODAY. Sen. Kerry asked for the list that Dr. Green claims to exist. The guy may have a PhD in environmental engineering but the standard is you let others see your work and analysis the quality of your data. Or it's considered bunk.

HEAR THAT STEVEWVU?

NFTT: Support My Team or I Will Dance

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by: CA Berkeley WV @ Tue Nov 10, 2009 at 17:20:23 PM UTC

priorities (4.00 / 2)

Jay Rock had other priorities...

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by: Clem Guttata @ Tue Nov 10, 2009 at 17:21:46 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Rockefeller's Gazette op-ed = "I'll support no bill that threatens coal" (4.00 / 1)

He says "it is the single greatest hope our country has of ever achieving energy independence in a dangerous world."

and that "It is absolutely irreplaceable as the energy source for half of our nation's electricity."

Now if I am expected to accept those two premises as fact, then he can't ignore the recent studies which have independently shown that coal is costing our state at least five times more than what it is giving back to us.

It is past time for coal operators to plug that money back into West Virginia directly by remediation, and by at least quadrupling severance fees. I blame the West Virginia media and the politicians for the fact that they've gotten by with what is essentially murder for so long.

Their dumping of dangerous chemicals in the form of coal slurry has got to stop, and all those dangerous rural impoundments remediated. Where our aquifer has been polluted, coal companies should be forced to put in water treatment plants and provide public water lines all the way out to every rural home that has had its well poisoned.

Those are "green" jobs which could be performed by out-of-work miners largely using heavy equipment that did the destruction, financed by the coal operators that screwed up in the first place.

All these I HEART COAL politicians including Rockefeller should start pushing legislation requiring that coal operators either stop polluting altogether or else plug back into those communities at least what they're now costing us.

By the way, Mr. Rockefeller, if that link didn't convince you that it's past time for coal to get off welfare and start working for the benefit of est Virginia, then here's a second study by the National Academy of Sciences which expands on the conclusions of the first study.

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by: One Citizen @ Tue Nov 10, 2009 at 20:42:48 PM UTC

Kirkendoll says we don't have a stake in coal mining (4.00 / 2)

Logan Banner reports (emphasis mine):

"This meeting was way overdue to have all the major coal producers' officials together with the EPA and the DEP, the congressional people and the commission presidents from the five major coal-producing counties that spend the money and try to create activities on coal tax," Kirkendoll said. "Everybody that has a stake in what we do will be there. Instead of each of us writing letters, I wanted to get us all together - the people who are investing their money, who are spending the money, the people who are making laws and making the rules - so that we can ask how do we a qualify permits that are solid and work. I sent the governor a letter and he thought it was a great idea so he put the meeting together."

Kirkendoll doesn't think anyone downstream has a stake in coal mining. He doesn't think it matters that we drink the same water, breath the same air, or--point of fact--actually pay for the electricity that makes that coal valuable.

His stated purpose for the meeting definitely sounds like a meeting about environmental regulations.

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by: Clem Guttata @ Tue Nov 10, 2009 at 23:50:52 PM UTC

report of meeting (0.00 / 0)

About what you'd expect... W.Va. leaders seek coal answers from White House

West Virginia political leaders promised Tuesday to speak "with one voice" to clarify the Obama administration's proposals to more strictly regulate mountaintop removal coal mining.

Gov. Joe Manchin, Sen. Jay Rockefeller, and Reps. Nick J. Rahall and Shelley Moore Capito said they would join forces to seek a high-level White House meeting to raise coal industry concerns about tougher permit reviews instituted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

"It's about the economy of West Virginia," Manchin said at a news conference after a two-hour, closed-door meeting with industry leaders. "We're just trying to find that balance right now."

I'd like someone to ask Gov. Manchin what it is that he expects to be "balanced"? As far as I can tell, "balance" is his code word for stopping any tighter environmental regulation enforcement.

When are our political leaders going to start speaking for the rest of us?

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by: Clem Guttata @ Wed Nov 11, 2009 at 00:05:22 AM UTC

[ Parent ]

except environmentalists, preachers and (gays) (4.00 / 1)

"Everybody that has a stake in what we do will be there.  

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by: JBdem4usa @ Tue Nov 10, 2009 at 23:59:09 PM UTC