It’s Getting Hot In Here

Jesse Jenkins and I have an op-ed up at the Huffington Post today issuing a cautionary note about losing sight of climate objectives amidst all the fervor about green jobs and green stimulus:

The Danger of Green Stimulus
By Teryn Norris and Jesse Jenkins
The Huffington Post
January 5th, 2009

Barack Obama’s final appointments in December indicate a strong commitment to action on climate change. Steven Chu as Energy Secretary, Carol Browner as Energy & Climate Czar, John Holdren as Assistant for Science and Technology — just to name a few recent selections — are all proponents of vigorous action to cut U.S. global warming pollution and take leadership on a new international climate treaty. And Hilda Solis, Obama’s new Labor Secretary, is a champion of “green jobs.”

All is well on the climate front, it seems. Except that it’s not.

Carbon cap and trade regulation remains the top federal policy priority for the majority of environmental groups. But in June, cap and trade legislation failed in the Senate, and sixteen Democratic Senators from coal and manufacturing-heavy states voiced their opposition to high carbon pricing. The policy faces even greater obstacles in today’s economic climate, since it would increase the energy bills of the American public.

Despite Obama’s appointments, climate advocates are thus left to worry: is Obama really prepared to expend his political capital championing a policy that will increase U.S. energy prices in the midst of a recession?

Not likely. Until recently Obama voiced support for carbon regulation, declaring at a governors’ climate conference in mid-November that his climate agenda “will start with a federal cap and trade system.” But since then, as the recession has deepened, he has said little to nothing about cap and trade. His apparent change of heart may reflect a larger global trend, with European nations increasingly voicing opposition to their Emissions Trading Scheme and Canadians rejecting the Liberal Party’s proposed carbon tax in their October election.

Continue reading ‘The Danger of Green Stimulus’

Who benefits most from the coal-fired electricity produced in West Virginia?

For more than a century, West Virginia coal miners have sacrificed their backs, lungs, and health to put food on their families table. For more than fifty years, West Virginia communities have seen not only massive job loss, but an escalating loss of our mountains to strip mining. For more than twenty years, West Virginia miners have had their most powerful voice, the United Mine Workers of America, broken by aggressive coal companies – with Don Blankenship & Massey Energy leading the union-busting charge. For more than ten years, West Virginians have seen the ultimate taking – the taking of our homes – to Mountaintop Removal and the Valley Fills it creates.

Right now, the same people who have been responsible for all of the above are pushing for a giant power line to ship electricity from the Charleston (WV) area to the Eastern Seaboard. The Potomac-Appalachian Transmission Highline (PATH) starts in Putnam County, WV then cuts its way across the mountains and valleys of 17 West Virginia Communities on its way out of state.

Continue reading ‘Potomac-Appalachian Transmission Highline: Eight New Coal Plants is the Wrong Choice’

“The Good, The Bad & the Unbreathable” is a powerful post on the local impacts of TVA Ash Spill Disaster from http://lifeonswanpond.livejournal.com/ — In an earlier post she mentions her grandson: “I have very huge concerns related to this spill. I have an 18 month old (I am his custodial grandmother) who is a high-risk infant, born prematurely and was on mechanical ventilation for 7 weeks at birth… already compromised and with many medical issues……” and what later happens to them:

My Grandson became sick yesterday… Cough…. stuffy nose…. sneezing….. flushed….. didn’t want to eat….. not wanting to nap either….

It was windy yesterday just like the day before… and the ash had to be flying.

I took him to the ER as recommended by his physician. I took the information that TVA had given me, as well as a MSDS sheet about fly ash.

He had to endure a nasal wash & suction, x-rays, monitoring of his oxygen levels. The conclusion? Irritation from the fly ash, specifically airborne.

TVA is aware, and we are currently at a local hotel. The Doctor recommended that he not go home… we not go home….avoid the area altogether.

I didn’t realize how I would feel once someone told me I couldn’t go home. I didn’t sink in until this morning. Due to the stress and the lack of sleep… I began to meltdown. “don’t go home”…. keeps rolling through my head.

No, we didn’t lose our home to visible damage…. but we can’t go home.

Looking for a summer internship? How about a paid summer fellowship at one of the country’s most cutting-edge think tanks?

The Breakthrough Institute is seeking up to ten of the country’s top young thought leaders for a paid Fellowship in Summer 2009 as part of its young leaders initiative, Breakthrough Generation. Fellowships are highly competitive — in 2008, 10 percent of applicants were accepted — and involve cutting-edge writing, research, and analysis on energy/climate, national security, the economy, health care, and other issues. Previous Breakthrough Fellows have published in the Harvard Law & Policy Review, San Francisco Chronicle, Baltimore Sun, and Alternet.

In 2009, Fellows have a unique opportunity to be closely involved with the Breakthrough Institute. Over the next year, Breakthrough will work to seize today’s historic moment to establish a new era of progressive governance that prioritizes major, long-term government investments in clean energy technology innovation, as well as a new social contract. But major obstacles lie ahead, including severe economic recession and an unpredictable global landscape. To seize the moment, our leaders will need bold ideas backed by sharp thinking and clear analysis.

The Breakthrough Institute has a history of reinventing older political paradigms with big ideas. In 2002, Breakthrough co-founded the Apollo Alliance and the new Apollo project for clean energy, which President-elect Obama recently announced is his number one priority alongside stabilizing the economy. We succeed by tapping cutting-edge progressive thinking, sharp analysis, and superb communication to create and advance ideas capable of achieving the broad social and ecological transformations America and the world need.

Continue reading ‘Looking for a summer internship? Apply for a Breakthrough Institute Fellowship’

Cross-posted from WattHead - Energy News and Commentary

Photojournalist Antrim Caskey documented the devastating scenes on the ground at the massive coal sludge spill that occurred on December 22nd near the town of Harriman, TN. The spill, which is one of the worst environmental disasters in U.S. history affected over 300 acres of land and water, contaminating fish and drinking water and destroying homes and ecosystems in this verdant corner of eastern Tennessee.

Antrim’s images say it all, and you can click here to find a photographic journey through the scene of this environmental disaster…

Coal sludge contains dangerously elevated concentrations of arsenic, EPA says

Cross-posted from WattHead - Energy News and Commentary

It’s been nearly two weeks since a torrent of over a billion gallons of coal ash sludge spilled out of an impoundment pond near a massive coal plant in Harriman, TN, but the full horror of the disaster is still being revealed. Yesterday, preliminary results of independent water testing showed dangerously high levels of toxic heavy metals at three locations near the environmental disaster, which spans over 300 acres of land and water at the confluence of the Emory and Clinch Rivers in eastern Tennessee. And today, the EPA confirmed that elevated levels of arsenic can be found in the coal sludge now caked over the area.

[Aerial photograph of the coal slurry disaster, taken Dec 29th, 2008.  The breached impoundment pond is at center with the TVA's Kingston coal plant above and massive slurry spill below.  The Emory River can be seen next to the disaster site.  Photo is copyright Antrim Caskey]

The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), which operates the Kingston coal plant previously said the spill shouldn’t cause “any adverse health effects” unless people “regularly drink untreated river water” downstream from the plant.  EPA has also said preliminary testing results show the drinking water in the area is safe.

Now however, independent testing conducted on water samples from the Emory River by scientists working in coordination with Appalachian Voices and the Waterkeeper Alliance has found concentrations of eight toxic chemicals ranging from two to 300 times higher than safe drinking water limits. Tests were conducted using standard EPA procedures and results were analyzed by scientists at Appalachian State University.

“Although these results are preliminary, we want to release them because of the public health concern and because we believe the TVA and EPA aren’t being candid,” said Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., chair of the Waterkeeper Alliance. Continue reading ‘Tests Show Toxic Water Contamination After Tennessee Coal Sludge Disaster’

The Dynegy Corporation has announced the termination of their coal-plant development partnership with LS Power, effectively canceling plans for six new coal burning power plants.  Momentum against coal is growing all around the country, as residents of Kingston, Tennessee recover from a one billion gallon spill of toxic coal ash produced by a coal plant last week.  That spill promises to leave streams, fish, front yards and drinking water in the community under health advisories for months, if not years.  Now, just two days into 2009 the tally of canceled coal plants is already ticking up.

The environmental community has labeled Dynegy “the next King Coal” in response to their plans to build these coal plants, the largest new coal fleet proposed in the USA.  The Sierra Club launched a campaign to Clean Up Dynegy in February 2008, that spring thousands of Green America members asked Dynegy to cancel the plants and with the help of RAN, Public Citizen and a busload of Southern Energy Network student activists a massive protest engulfed Dynegy’s annual meeting in Houston last May.  There, inside the shareholder meeting, investors warned about the massive cost of carbon regulation to the company and activists raised concerns about the toll of its coal plants on surrounding communities and the climate.  This summer courts in Georgia dealt Dynegy another setback, halting plans for a new plant until the state developed a plan to regulate carbon dioxide emissions from the plant.

Continue reading ‘Dynegy Cancels Investment in Six Coal Burning Power Plants’

Written by Desire Grover

((( PLAY PODCAST )))

*Transcript of A Ghetto Print Minute Podcast

On December 30th a final proposal was put in around 7 am asking for the Chester Upland School District to sign over 40 acres of their property. The deadline for the sign off was December 31st so the pressure was on. The Soccer Stadium Developers were in need of a kind gesture from the same school district that had been horrifically starved financially and left to die a slow death. A school district deserted by its State, County and City all for the sake of a tax-free city development incentive called the Keystone Opportunity Zone. But on December 30th the tables would turn. And the Developers would pay the largest price for the Sins of Chester City.

What the Stadium Developers were asking for was tremendous. They wanted the School District to just hand the land over so that they could continue development according to their tax-free terms. Say what? That’s right you heard me correctly. You would think this were an 80’s Disney film. The once nerdy and ignored school district suddenly had the upper hand. The ball was in their court and they had only a few hours to make the shot. Would they be forgiving of Chester City who had left the school district in the cold after the infamous Harrah’s Casino Deal? The Soccer Stadium Developers were the friends of Chester City who had been welcomed into the City’s prosperity plans all while the school district received not one invitation to the party. Would the School District forget all of this and simply sign over their 40 acres and the mule to the City’s friends?

“The proposal is that the education empowerment board agree to the inclusion of one additional property. That known as the Barry Bridge Park into the exiting Keystone Opportunity Zone along the City of Chester Waterfront.”-CUSD Lawyer Bush Continue reading ‘The Sins of Chester City’

UPDATE: A New York Times article came out today stating that Brandon Darby not only informed on the two men accused of manufacturing a molotov cocktail at the RNC in the Twin Cities, but also on dozens of his activist friends not connected to any crime or RNC protest activities.  He also wore a listening devices.

In a newly published Texas Observer article, reporter Renee Feltz reports on how a well-known Austin activist and co-founder of Common Ground Relief in New Orleans admitted this week to working with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

“The simple truth is that I have chosen to work with the Federal Bureau of investigation [sic],” said Brandon Michael Darby in an open letter to friends he’s organized with since 2002.

Darby not only worked with anti-war and justice groups in Austin and Houston, but also worked as a community organizer in New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. He co-founded Common Ground Relief a reconstruction and relief effort that brought together thousands of activists and volunteers using horizontal organizing principles for climate justice.

He infiltrated the “Austin Affinity Group” that organized around the Republican National Convention in Sept. His letter states he disagreed with the tactics of some of it’s members. Two of the members, David Guy McKay and Bradley Neal Crowder, are currently awaiting trial for the manufacture of a molotov cocktail. The information that led to their arrest came from “CHS 1” – confidential human source 1.

CHS1 is now identified as Brandon Darby.

Continue reading ‘Life’s a Snitch: Common Ground Co-Founder Admits to working as FBI Informant’

One week ago, Kingston, Tennessee, woke up to find that over one billion gallons of coal ash sludge had surged out of a poorly built and poorly maintained containment pond, one of three at the Kingston Coal Plant, after the dam holding back acres of inky black and toxic coal ash sludge failed. The Tennessee Valley Authority, the federal corporation that operates the Kingston Coal Plant, first reported that 360 millions gallons of coal ash sludge had flooded over 400 acres of local watersheds and river, then the estimate was revised to 540 million gallons, and now the best estimate puts the amount as over 1 billion gallons. This puts the amount spilled as more than 100 times larger than the Exxon Valdez disaster and, in fact, more than every drop of petroleum used in the United States that day. This coal sludge spill is simply unprecedented in size and scale and should become the stunning example of exactly how dirty coal really is.

Numbers aside, as it is impossible to really comprehend the scale of the disaster in words - this is a very dramatic example of how our consumption and reliance on coal is quite literally reshaping our world. Whether by flooding 400 acres of beautiful Tennessee valleys and rivers with six feet of coal ash, or blowing the tops off of literally hundreds of mountains in Appalachia, or changing the global climate itself through massive releases of carbon dioxide - the coal industry has perhaps the greatest impact of any industry in the world - yet we barely know it. Coal plants intake almost 20% of the United States’ freshwater, uses almost half of our freight railroad capacity, and leaves behind scarred landscapes, poor and exploited communities, kills vulnerable people - in fact, the Kingston Coal plant is estimated to cut short the lives of over 149 people a year - and coal is the leading source of global warming pollutants from the United States.

Coal power devours landscapes, poisons the land and water, and yet it remains virtually unregulated in critical areas of impact. Smokestack emissions of sulfur dioxide (SOX), nitrous oxide (NOX), and mercury are regulated - to a certain extent - with SOX regulated through a Cap & Trade system that has been adopted by most large environmental groups as the mechanism to tackle global warming. However, federally mandated scrubbers on coal plants have led to the concentration of pollutants in coal ash, everything from arsenic, lead, mercury, thorium, and uranium. Yet, coal ash is not regulated as toxic waste - although the EPA is ‘considering’ doing so’.

The Bush Administration has even worked at redefining the word ‘fill’ to allow the coal industry to be unregulated by the Clean Water Act and allow the destruction of mountains and pushing the rubble into streambeds and valleys. Carbon dioxide is still unregulated, despite efforts to pass a federal climate bill and the Supreme Court ruling that the Executive Branch is obligated to regulate greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act. Unregulated, unaccountable, and corrupt is the way that many coal companies operate. Little surprise then that TVA announced as a safety measure that residents impacted by the coal ash spill should boil their water - thereby concentrating the heavy metal contaminants - instead of providing safe drinking water to residents. Continue reading ‘Kingston Coal Ash Sludge Spill Over a Billion Gallons: Time to Take a Hard Look at the Coal Industry’