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Letter from Rep. Shelley Moore Capito to Ms. Lisa Jackson, Administrator U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Dear Administrator Jackson,
We are writing to express strong concerns about the coal mining permit applications currently being held up at the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers by the Environmental Protection Agency.
[snip]
While much has been made of the recent approval of 42 long-delayed permits still waiting to be issued, hundreds more remain un-resolved and face further delay. These actions will force mines to idle production and rob us of some of the highest paying jobs in the region.
STATEMENT FROM GOV. MANCHIN AND DEP SECRETARY RANDY HUFFMAN: ABOUT OBAMA ADMINISTRATION'S ANNOUNCEMENT TODAY
CHARLESTON, W.Va. - Gov. Joe Manchin and DEP Secretary Randy Huffman released this statement today about the Obama Administration's action to strengthen oversight and regulation for surface mining:
[snip]
Gov. Joe Manchin added, "I have always said that mining is vital to West Virginia's economy, but at the same time, we must constantly look for ways to improve mine safety and operate in an environmentally responsible way. That is why today I asked EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson to examine our Post-Mine Land Use legislation that was recently passed in the special session. I explained how responsible this piece of legislation is and how it will assist us in finding the balance between protecting our environment and protecting our jobs.
"We will continue to work with the federal government to ensure that coal companies comply with environmental regulations every step of the way, so that the environment is protected while the West Virginia economy stays strong and our people stay working. We also ask for the administration to work with us to find the balance between our economy and our environment.
"I truly believe that coal is essential in meeting our nation's energy needs and keeping our economy strong and competitive, while allowing our country to be less dependent on foreign oil and more secure. Rest assured, I will continue to do everything I possibly can to fight for West Virginia families and the jobs that support them."
DEP Secretary Randy Huffman says he is frustrated by the Environmental Protection Agency stepping on his agency's toes.
EPA officials were in Charleston last week. The EPA is raising concerns about several mountaintop removal permits, including two in West Virginia, but Huffman says all mining-related activities are already heavily regulated by the DEP.
"We are the environmental regulators here in West Virginia," he said. "We are the ones on the front line here. We are the ones responsible for protecting the environment. We have a very rigorous and robust regulatory program that is basically being challenged.
[snip]
Huffman says the sticking point is that the EPA believes that creating valley fills-the practice where the tops of the mountains are removed and put into a nearby valley-contribute to stream degradation. But Huffman says valley fills are essential to mountaintop removal, as well as the state's economy.
"Mainly what we're concerned about as regulators is the ability to develop land after mining," he said. "You need valley fills if you're going to have a viable post mining economy. You need flat land. And in order to have flat land you need to have valley fills, and one of our biggest concerns is that EPA is wanting to reduce the size and number of valley fills in Appalachia."
The EPA has avoided making any kind of blanket declarations on mountaintop removal, and has said only that future permits will be closely scrutinized.
(With Climate Ground Zero tree sitters back in the news, this is a good time to revisit how the last tree sit went. Here's an exclusive interview that Heath Harrison did with Laura Steepleton. There's also an essential video with two of the contractor security guards that provides a real sense of how Blankenship was saying one thing in public while doing another thing in private. - promoted by Clem Guttata)
by heath_harrison
This is the first installment in a series of interviews planned on the topic of mountaintop removal.
On Aug. 31, Laura Steepleton and Nick Stocks, activists with environmental group Climate Ground Zero, were arrested following a tree-sit at Massey Energy's Edward mine, a mountaintop removal mine in Raleigh County, West Virginia.
The two spent six days in platforms 90 feet from the ground in an effort to halt the blasting endangering the nearby community of Petry Bottom. In addition to drawing national attention to the destructive effects of mountaintop removal, the protesters demanded Massey pay heath care and home repair costs for residents affected by the blasting.
The protest was part a larger campaign of civil disobedience and direct action events occurring in Appalachia, as local and national pressure to end mountaintop removal has grown.
The following is an excerpt of a conversation I had with Steepleton a few weeks after her release (adapted for print):
Q - How long did you originally intend to remain in the tree?
L.S. - I intended to stay until I was out of food and water.
Nick had to be back home by the 1st, so he made plans to get down by Monday. We had a rope connecting both the trees, called a traverse, and I went over the night before and talked to him. I told him I was fine to be up there by myself. I took all of his extra water and food, which left me with enough for a week.
My plan was to be up there for as long as possible. Our support had been arrested already, so I knew there was no chance of resupply.
After Nick got down Monday morning, they upped the harassment - which I totally expected -and brought the chainsaws out and put them at the bottom of the tree.
I kind of turned it into a game whenever they would do some sort of harassment. The first couple of nights, they would be banging on buckets - and whatever they could bang on. I just turned it into entertainment. We had a drum circle, just to show them it wasn't going to bother me.
On Monday, they brought these obnoxious sirens out, and that lasted for a couple of hours. By then, Sergeant Smith had already come out and arrested Nick and left.
They realized the sirens weren't affecting me, so two loggers walked up on the berm. One miner kept saying, "They're going to come down and start chopping down trees."
I said, " You're not really going to do that you wouldn't endanger me like that."
And they were like, 'That's what you think.'
So I said, "Well, if the state trooper was here, you couldn't do this."
And they made the comment, "Oh, we know the trooper's not
here right now and he's not on his way. We came in through the back entrance and Massey's ordered us to be here. It's their property we can do what we want."
Both of the loggers had come down and most of the security had gone up to the berm out of the way. One logger started spiking up the tree that Nick was in.
At that point, I thought I needed to get out onto the traverse. That way, he couldn't cut that tree down, because I would be on the rope connecting the two trees.
I went to do that and, as I was setting it up, a miner said, "You better hurry up and cut that line, or she's going to get out on that line."
He looked at me and said, "I don't care if she's on that line. She's got a harness on. She's not going to fall."
It's true I wouldn't have fallen. I would've swung a little bit. Being that the line is a dynamic rope and stretched quite a bit, it probably would have snapped and then hit the tree.
At that point, I thought, "Well, maybe this guy's not bluffing. If I go out on this rope, he's going to cut it and not care if I swing a little bit."
And, at that point, trees started coming down around me, so I just said, "OK, I'll get down.
Q - Did you have any interaction with any major Massey officials or objectives during your time there?
L.S. - No, there was a Massey helicopter that flew over on the first day and the last day. I was told - but I still haven't verified it - that [Massey CEO] Don Blankenship was in the helicopter the last day.
It wouldn't surprise me that he would want to be there to see all the different tactics they were employing when I was the only one up there, and that he'd want to see trees falling down beside me.
Q - Do you think Blankenship wanted to have you down before his big Labor Day bash?
L.S. - Probably. The one thing I definitely wanted was to still be in that tree for that big Labor Day bash.
I think that 's why they were stepping it up. He knew he had to go and do this.
We watched it live on Internet, and he mentioned "the crazy enviro-nuts" that strap themselves to machines and hang out in trees - and how we're the real threats to America and giving more jobs to China, which is increasing pollution.
Q - What sort of reaction have you received after getting back?
L.S. - It's really great how it's drawn a lot of local support. We've had a lot of locals come out because of it. They were really excited by the fact that we were actually able to hold ground and stop them for a week. It's been creating more locals to speak out, which is great.
And those two security guards coming out and doing that interview - that made me really, really happy. I couldn't believe that amount of support. Those guys were my heroes.
More people walked off the job because they were getting overworked. They were pulling 17-hour shifts and not getting briefed on what was going on until they got there.
A lot of them lived two hours away, so they'd get on these 17-hour shifts and had to be back in six hours. A lot of them didn't even have time to go home. They were pulling over on the side of the road, sleeping and coming back.
Q - What was the interaction like between you and the Massey employees?
L.S. - I had conversations with miners every night. They'd go on break around two in the morning and come out and harass us.
The first night, I came out after they kept saying, "We know you're awake."
So I pulled over my tarp and said, "I'm here. Let's have a conversation."
It was kind of funny, because for a couple minutes there was dead silence. They couldn't say the nasty things to my face, that they were saying when I had the tarp pulled in front of me. But then it eventually stepped up.
By the third night, I was actually able to have somewhat of a conversation.
They kept mentioning how their side of the story never gets told, and how we're just full of propaganda and get all of this media attention.
At that point, I asked, "OK, what is your story? I am talking to media. What do you want to say? Just let me know. "
Q - And how did they respond to that?
L.S. - Basically their response was, "There is nothing here but coal. You are taking away our jobs by doing this and causing our kids to not have food on their plates."
My response to them was, "It's going to take time and, believe it or not, I don't want to come in and take your jobs way from you. I don't want to see a lot of people laid off."
I asked, "Don't you want a safer future for your children - a healthy future and to be able to stay in West Virginia? And what are you going to do anyway in 20 years when there's no more coal left?"
Q- Was it hard to discuss a long-time scenario with them?
L.S. - That was totally it. Their response is, " By them I'll be retired." I think the mentality is that they'll be able to send their kids somewhere else to have a better future.
But some of them did ask, "Where are these jobs? We would be willing to transfer, but they're not here. "
That's the frustrating part. I can't sit there and say, "If there were windmills, you could go right to work." It's not going to happen overnight, with a great windmill farm up on Coal River Mountain.
You could still have jobs. There's tons of real reclamation that could be done on these mountains. If mountaintop removal ended tomorrow, you've still got all of the heavy machinery. Let's start actually doing a better job reclaiming.
But where does that funding come from? It should come from the coal companies, in my opinion. Massey's making a ton of money. They should be able to spend a couple million dollars in actual reclamation.
They asked, "Do you think we should just live off of welfare?" I think they should get government should support them until there's a transition into different jobs here.
And I let them know that there people working on that. We're not just a bunch of people getting arrested. There are other people here doing so many things to help bring different forms of economy and alternative energy into this area.
I didn't make a lot of leeway. It was kind of like talking to a brick wall, for the most part. In their mind, Massey treats them fine.
They're making 20-something dollars an hour, and that's the best paying job you can get in this area, just coming out of high school.
They've been fed a bunch of information from their side, which they believe to be legit. I think, even if they don't believe it, they just want to believe it so bad.
Q - It's going to require such a paradigm shift in this state, from the political leaders - and everyone - to change this mentality.
They're just not thinking long-term about any of this stuff.
L.S. - And that's what I kept trying to tell them. I don't hate you I want to have a conversation with you. I want you to help end this, too. And help find yourselves better jobs, and make it so your children can stay in West Virginia and enjoy this beautiful place.
The company doesn't care about them. I'm not pro-coal in any way, but you if want to talk job loss, look at the jobs that were lost - 80,000 jobs - when they started to do mountaintop removal.
It only takes about 25 to 30 people for a mountaintop removal site, site because of all the heavy machinery - so more profit for the company; they use more machines and less people.
That cut a lot of jobs when they shipped it over to mountaintop removal from underground mining.
Q - In addition to civil disobedience and direct action, what sort of work have you been doing as part of your community organizing?
L.S. - I've been photo documenting the damages to people's homes, talking to them about how the blasting has impacted them. They've been blasting this area for the past three or four years, but it's really moved on top of this community in the past year.
We have this great community that's addressing this problem from all different kinds of angles - every legal route from lobbying, writing letters and talking with community members and then direct civil disobedience action.
Climate Ground Zero's campaign is ongoing. For more information on how to get involved and what you can do to help, visit www.climategroundzero.com.
Your lights are on, but you're not home,
your will is not your own
Might as well face it you're addicted to coal.
West Virginia suffers from a resource curse. Coal mining wealth is illusory--the benefits have long been obvious to those dependent on Big Coal for a living even if the costs (largely hidden) were high. Yet, the costs are no longer as hidden and the benefits no longer so great.
Climate change legislation is a once-in-a-generation opportunity for our political leadership to take bold action to help diversify the Appalachian economy. So far, that leadership is lacking. Join me today in calling for West Virginia state officials, Congressional representatives and senators to to chart a new course. Let's all kick the habit of the dirty black rock.
West Virginia is both blessed and cursed with abundant natural resources. Historically, coal has been a major employer and source of wealth. But--and it is a big BUT--there are three big weaknesses in an economy based on extraction industries like coal:
2. Due to competition for employees, capital, and land, large-scale mining operations crowd out other development.
3. There are a lot of socially, environmentally, and ecologically damaging by-products of the extraction and burning of coal. Some recent estimates shows the costs of Big Coal far out-weight the benefits.
Taken together, residents of the most coal rich portions of Appalachia are among the poorest in all other measures.
West Virginia's State Rock
On the one hand, the black rock has been the economic bedrock for much of the West Virginian's 143 years in existence. On the other, the history of coal is decades of long steady decline.
Within a decade of statehood, West Virginia began commercially exploiting its coal deposits. Coke production peaked in 1910 at 4,217,381 tons. Production of all types of coal peaked in 1997 at 181,914,000 tons. In 2008, production has dropped 9% from the peak to 165,750,817. Back in 1940, even before Sen. Robert C. Byrd was an elected official (he entered the West Virginia House of Delegates in 1946), West Virginia coal mining employment peaked at 130,457. By 2008, the number had dropped 84% to 20,927. (source)
Appalachian coal is no longer the lowest cost energy source. Western coal reserves are cheaper and less polluting. (Even West Virginia electric plants now get some of their coal from the Wyoming / Montana Powder River Basin.) Instead of the 100-200 years of United States coal supply the industry likes to claim, the truth is much closer to 100-200 months of economically viable major deposits remain in West Virginia.
Big Coal is now the tail that wags the dog in West Virginia.
The Resource Curse
What have you done for us lately?
Big coal, what have you done for us lately?
How can it be when West Virginia has enjoyed a Century-long abundance of valuable natural resources, it compares so poorly to the rest of the country economically? How can it be that the counties with the most coal extracted are among the poorest places in the United States?
West Virginia suffers from a resource curse. The curse of natural resource wealth is extraction industries extract valuable items from the ground, take the wealth out of communities, and leave behind spent land and spent people.
Coal mining is a dirty business. Mountaintop removal is an even dirtier one - it requires a huge amount of land and crowds out all other potential nearby economic development.
In a recent presentation, Chris Hamilton of the West Virginia Coal Association said one of the challenges the coal mining industry faces is the lack of local workers. How ironic! If only the coal companies were better neighbors, there would be potential employees near coal mines. No wonder coal mines pay such high wages. There's no one left nearby to work for them!
Mortgaging our Future
Coal is a non-renewable resource. Once we burn it, it is gone. One day it will all be gone.
We never ask for more than we deserve
Big Coal knows it's the truth
They seem to think they're God's gift to this earth
We're tellin' 'em no way
Our political leadership is playing with the future of the entire planet to feed their addiction to the black rock. It may be the only economic safety West Virginia politicians have ever known, but meanwhile neighboringstates--hell, even China, India, Europe and the United Arab Emirates--are all laying the ground work for a softer landing when their non-renewable fuels run out.
Lifting the Curse
The West Virginia economy is addicted to the illusory wealth of Big Coal. The benefits of a few high paying jobs are obvious and immediate, the costs of environmental degradation and lack of economic diversity are easier to ignore. Millions of Americans benefit today from lower power bills, turning a blind eye as Appalachia turns into a national sacrifice zone.
There is a better way forward. Instead of spending billions in dollars to keep the coal industry on artificial life support, we should be investing those billions in the people of Appalachia. When the next shift of coal miners are laid off, they deserve economic opportunities that aren't dependent on extraction industries.
I implore our elected officials to demonstrate a different kind of leadership focused on the needs of the people, not the needs of the corporations.
We need a hand-up for coal communities, not another hand-out for coal companies.
Take Action - Please help today!
This is where I really wish there was a bill or an ACES amendment in front of Congress I could ask you to contact Congress about. Unfortunately, no one is advocating directly for the people of Appalachia in climate change legislation. Until there is, here are some very worthy organizations:
Visit I Love Mountains to tell the Obama EPA to protect water quality and stop mountain top removal.
Support Coal River Wind to bring wind power to the Appalachian coal fields.
Support the nonviolent protests of Climate Ground Zero against mountain top removal in Appalachia.
Legacy of Coal is a newly-launched diary series inspired by the panels at Netroots Nation. We hope to publicize the issues around coal use and mining, including MTR, the damage to less-politically-powerful areas of our country, and the general impact of energy and economic policy. Of course, this leads to the broader issues of climate change, health care, and human rights. While none of us can know everything about these issues, it is by working together we can make a difference. If you would like to guest-host, please contact jlms_qkwATxmissionDOTcom. This diary series is dedicated to our country's coal miners and the people waiting for them to come home.
Also available in Orange. Photo credit: Anthracite Coal by The Bill Hughes Gazette, Blockquoted lyrics adapted from songs popularized by Robert Palmer and Janet Jackson.
I agree with Erik Reece of Lexington, KY. It's time for a 'new deal' for Appalachia(h/t to va dare for the link):
A form of strip mining called mountaintop removal has ripped apart all of the ridgelines that surround this forest, leaving miles of lifeless gray plateaus, lunar wastelands. Mountaintop removal entails the blasting of entire summits to rubble in an effort to reach, as quickly and inexpensively as possible, thin seams of bituminous coal. Trees, topsoil and sandstone are dumped into the valleys below. More than 1,000 miles of streams have been buried in this way, and an Environmental Protection Agency study found that 95 percent of headwater streams near mines have been contaminated by heavy metals leeching from the sites.
When it comes to mountaintop removal, a certain fatalism seems to take hold in Appalachia -- the coal companies are too powerful, some politicians are corrupt, the regulators won't regulate and the news media don't care. But we cannot give up on rehabilitating Appalachia.
Erik Reece continues outlining not only the problems we face, but a hopeful future for new solutions as well.
Appalachia's land is dying. Its fractured communities show the typical symptoms of hopelessness, including OxyContin abuse rates higher than anywhere in the country. Meanwhile, 22 states power houses and businesses with Kentucky coal. The people of central and southern Appalachia have relinquished much of their natural wealth to the rest of the country and have received next to nothing in return.
To right these wrongs, first we need federal legislation that will halt the decapitation of mountains and bring accountability to an industry that is out of control. Then we need a New Deal for Appalachia that would expand the Appalachian Regional Reforestation Initiative, or create a similar program, to finally return some of the region's lost wealth in the form of jobs and trees, rebuilt topsoil and resuscitated communities.
Financing should come from a carbon tax on Appalachian coal bought and burned by utility companies across the country -- a tax that would also discourage the wasteful emissions of greenhouse gases. Such a project would educate and employ an entire generation of foresters and forest managers, who would be followed by locally owned wood-product industries and craftsmen like Patrick Angel's brother Mike, who makes much sought-after hardwood chairs just like ones his grandfather fashioned.
We know that our species, and most other species, will survive only in a future that burns no coal or oil. The question now is whether we have the nerve to get there before the world's oldest mountains are gone.
I couldn't agree more. Let's start investing financial resources in sustainable development. The extraction economy has been a disaster for this region--liquid coal is not the answer. Sustainable energy solutions are sustainable economic solutions.
Flickr photo credit: Erik Reece by Kentuckians For The Commonwealth
by JBdem4usa This is from a post on the West Virginia Environmental Councils bulletin board minutes ago.
Treesit Stops Blasting on Massey Mountaintop Removal Site in the Coal River Valley
The campaign to end mountaintop removal is kicking it up a notch in the coalfields of southern West Virginia!
Right now, two people are occupying two treetops at the edge of Massey Energy's Edwight mountaintop removal site above Pettry Bottom and Peachtree in Raleigh County, West Virginia. At 6:30 a.m., concerned citizens unrolled two banners reading "Stop Mountain Top Removal" and "DEP - Don't Expect Protection" from their treetop platforms. They are perched 80 feet above the ground, within 30 feet of the mine, and within the 300 feet of blasting. Blasting is prohibited when people are within such proximity.
For the full press release and updates, visit www.climategroundzero.org. Follow the action on twitter here. Initial pictures can be seen here.
Read on for statements from the treetop activists:
"I am sitting in this tree to halt the blasting that endangers the residents of Pettry Bottom and Clays Branch," Laura Steepleton, a community organizer who has worked extensively to secure protection from blasting above Pettry Bottom. "The people of Pettry Bottom, Clays Branch are living below a land slide waiting to happen and the only barrier between fallen trees, mud, boulders and water and the Pettry Bottom community is a wooden stake and tarp fence. The DEP needs to step in and protect its citizens - not Massey Energy - stop the blasting above Petty Bottom, and end mountaintop removal."
Army veteran and lifelong West Virginian, Zoe Beavers states "I am on this mountain because I believe that every single West Virginian who is proud of being from 'Almost Heaven' should take a stand against mountaintop removal. I am here because DEP officials have failed to stop the blasting. I am putting my body and reputation on the line to do their job and stop the blasting. I served in our military so that we can all live in a country that does not exploit and destroy its land and people."
This is the thirteenth in a series of non-violent direct actions and protests that have brought together Coal River Valley residents, NASA climate scientist James Hansen, students, underground miners, military veterans, concerned citizens and environmentalists from across the nation with the goal of ending mountaintop removal. This is the third protest in two weeks to focus attention on the WV Department of Environmental Protection and their embattled Secretary, Randy Huffman. It also follows days after the leak of DEP biologist Doug Wood's memo on the scale of environmental degradation caused by mountaintop removal, directly contradicting Huffman's statements at a senate hearing last June.
American Electric Power thinks so. They have asked the Federal government for stimulus funds to help them buy the additional coal they need to burn once they start carbon capture and storage (CCS) in September at Mountainer Power Plant in New Haven, W.Va.
Unless AEP pledges to buy coal only from companies who mine underground, those Federal stimulus dollars will be going to perpetuate mountain top removal.
John Cole brings up a great point at BalloonJuice:
But here is the question, and one of the things I have never really understood. I don't know why, so often these issues (and I'm not necessarily talking about the ruling, which seems to me to not be about the issue itself, but who has the right to make the decision), there is a clear left v. right split. Obviously I understand the business interests at play, but what I don't understand is that surely there have to be some on the right who say to themselves "Hrmm. Dumping 4.5 million tons of toxic shit in the lake is going to be expensive in the long run." That would seem to me to be the "conservative" position.
I truly do not understand this, and you see it played out in West Virginia a lot with mountaintop removal and other mining issues when tons of, well, shit, is just dumped in creeks and rivers. Why is this an ideological issue? Why is it that anyone who says "killing all the wildlife in this lake might be a bad idea" becomes a de facto granola eating DFH? Why is it not considered conservative to say "this could cost us a lot in the long run, not just monetarily, but in terms of other measures." Surely there have to be people in agribusiness and property rights advocates who oppose this sort of thing, and they can't be considered "teh left." I also understand that there are folks on the fringes of the environmental left who would shut down all business, if they could. Clearly there is a need for balance.
It's clearly not about jobs as many of our politicians try to claim. If it was about jobs, they would oppose MTR because below surface mining creates more jobs.
If we're making a bad economic trade off in terms of coal mining, why not at least go with the least bad option?
Michael Hendryx, author of the study written up by Ken Ward Jr....
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Coal mining costs Appalachians five times more in early deaths as the industry provides to the region in jobs, taxes and other economic benefits, according to a groundbreaking new study co-authored by a West Virginia University researcher.
In the latest in a series of papers, WVU researcher Michael Hendryx questions the idea that coal is good for West Virginia and other Appalachian communities, and recommends that political leaders consider other alternatives for improving the region's economy and quality of life.
"Coal-mining economies are not strong economies," Hendryx said in an interview last week. "[Coalfield communities] are weaker than the rest of the state, weaker than the rest of the region, and weaker than the rest of the nation."
Writing with co-author Melissa Ahern of Washington State University, Hendryx reports that the coal industry generates a little more than $8 billion a year in economic benefits for the Appalachian region.
But, Hendryx and Ahern put the value of premature deaths attributable to the mining industry across the Appalachian coalfields at -- by one of their most conservative estimates -- $42 billion.
...will be holding a live chat at the Charleston Gazette at 2 p.m. Hopefully questions from the reality based community will get through.
Meanwhile, it's Coal vs. Climate as two heavyweights agree to debate.
Dear Don,
Thanks for your offer to publicly discuss climate change, human-made global warming, and its implications for the coal industry in general and mountaintop removal in particular. That is an excellent suggestion. I would be glad to participate in a format that allows the public to become better acquainted with the science and its implications.
I had planned to return to a meeting in Washington immediately after the activities at your place on Tuesday, but to accommodate a public discussion, I will stay another day. I expect that we will be able to find a school auditorium that would be well-suited for presentations and discussion. I am scouting that out now and will get back to you with specific information.
Usually I spend close to an hour on a climate science discussion for the public, but I can shorten that to about 40 minutes, so that you can have a similar time to present your views, if you would like that much time. You are welcome to speak either before or after me. After we have both spoken, we can open it up for discussion with the public.
If for any reason you are unable to find time for this discussion on Wednesday, I will give my talk anyhow. Hopefully the public will then be able to get back to you with information and questions about how your practices relate to climate, the environment, and the future that will be faced by young people and future generations.
Thanks again for your helpful suggestion. I very much agree on the importance of reaching out to the public and increasing public understanding of scientific matters.
Sincerely,
Jim Hansen
It's not as exciting as CM Punk vs. Jeff Hardy for the heavyweight title at the Great American Bash (I refuse to simply refer to it as The Bash), but the issues at stake in this debate are very real.
The EPA visited the Coal River Valley to meet with the coal industry yesterday morning when activists from Climate Ground Zero unveiled a large banner that said "EPA stop MTR" at Massey Energy's Edwight mountaintop removal mine. Five people were arrested and work ceased on the site for the day as Massey searched fruitlessly for additional protesters. The banner was up for two hours was visible from the highway.
You can find a full report from activist on the scene at Climate Ground Zero (including a picture of the banner).
Ken Ward, Jr. has more details on the legal fights around protests, including the implications of two journalists being arrested in: Protests against Massey continue ...
Some don't like me re-branding the estate tax as the Paris Hilton Tax. [The DHinMI parallel--"I didn't' read it but I will respond"] I did not like Frank Lutz and Company re-branding it as the Death Tax. Now we have another re-branding. Ken Ward points this out in the Saturday WaPo article [sorry, blond_moment, visited the relatives for Easter, hard to boycott]. I was asked about this topic, and if the word smiths are in action, it must mean that the majority doesn't like the idea of removing mountains.
But I was disappointed that David fell into the same trap as The Associated Press (both its local bureau here in Charleston and folks in Washington and elsewhere in AP), in adopting the industry’s term “mountaintop mining,” which is a phrase made up by the coal industry (and some friends in regulatory agencies) to avoid the more nasty-sounding “mountaintop removal.” This term “mountaintop mining,” is not mentioned in the federal strip mining law or its regulations. It’s unfortunate that it’s catching on with the media.
Mountain. Top. Removal.
Anybody up for checking tags where it may count? It is not what you say, it is what they hear.
A cap on losses, but not a share of profits? Sorry, but that looks like more corporate welfare. Another case of "what's yours is mine and what's mine is mine, too."
Bank of America has received pressure in a national campaign by the RainForest Action Network due to its investment in coal-fired electric plants and coal companies to practice mountaintop removal.
Fascinating. After a feeble statement against mountain top removal (not even as strong as the one Obama made years ago), McCain comes out strongly in favor of nuclear and the non-existent clean coal technology.
I'm also confused... are coal companies doing much better today than the used to? Perhaps in making profits they are. When it comes to protecting the environment... not so much.
John McCain still doesn't say where he's going to store all that new nuclear power plan waste he wants to create. Tell him its not welcome in West Virginia.
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CHARLESTON, W.Va. - Gov. Joe Manchin and DEP Secretary Randy Huffman released this statement today about the Obama Administration's action to strengthen oversight and regulation for surface mining:
DEP Secretary Randy Huffman says he is frustrated by the Environmental Protection Agency stepping on his agency's toes.
