It’s Getting Hot In Here

Originally posted at WattHead – Energy News and Commentary

The coal industry has an image problem. They know it. And they’ve been spending millions of dollars on a PR ad push to convince the world that a “cleaner” variety of coal is around the corner. They can make something called “clean coal” a reality, they say.

Well, what if we took the coal industry’s “clean coal” promises at their word?

First things first, we’d certainly want to get started right away on cleaning up the dirty realities of today’s current coal industry practices, right? I mean, if there’s some high-tech, new cleaner variety of coal coming soon, no sense continuing all these antiquated old dirty coal practices.

This video from Think Progress paints a clear picture of just one of the dirty realities of today’s coal technologies:

[Note to the Reality Campaign people: this is the kind of ad you should be running!]

So if coal is going to be “clean” some day in the future, then I assume the coal industry would support new regulations to clean up and safely store all the toxic coal ash their power plants produce in the meantime, right? Continue reading ‘What If We Took the Coal Industry’s “Clean Coal” Promises At Their Word’

Georgia, the US’s number one user of mountaintop removal mined coal, has introduced a bill that would ban the use of coal mined via this incredibly destructive form of coal mining. 

From Reuters:

House Bill 276 calls for utilities to eliminate the burning of Central Appalachian coal mined by “mountaintop removal” by mid-2016 and would suspend permits filed before July 2009 to build new coal-fired generation.

OH, and also suspend the building of new coal plants.  Amazing!

I’ve heard rumors that other high users of mountaintop removal mined coal, including North Carolina, which pioneered this form of bill last year, are looking at similar bills. This is an amazing way to be in solidarity with impacted communities and take a stand that clean water, heritage, and the lives of folks living with the impacts of coal are more important that money and convenience.  If you want to be a part of more exciting and breakthrough connections between coal movements, check out www.powerpastcoal.org which is connecting actions working for justice on coal issues and for clean energy alternatives every day for the first 100 Days of Obama’s presidency — 26 actions in 14 days in 15 states so far!

As I was looking over the schedule of amazing workshops and presentations at the Good Jobs, Green Jobs conference which is starting tomorrow, I got some of the best Green Jobs news I’ve heard in a while from an unlikely place: Michigan’s State of the State address. In an speech everyone expected to focus the downturn of the auto industry and jobs (Michigan has the highest unemployment rate in the country), Gov. Granholm came out with a bold plan to radically restructure the way power companies do business so that they make money by encouraging energy efficiency and decentralized energy production.  Gov. Granholm is saying it’s about time the power companies worked for energy conservation, rather than against it:

• Put utility companies in the energy efficiency business by changing how rates are set in the Public Service Commission. Today, these companies make money selling us electricity and natural gas. The more you use, the more money they make. Tomorrow, they’ll make money by helping us use less of both.  Unlike the coal we buy from Wyoming and Montana, money we spend on energy efficiency will produce tens of thousands of jobs in Michigan.
• Make Michigan the first state in the nation to let every homeowner, every business, become a renewable energy entrepreneur who can make money by installing solar panels or wind systems on their home or business and selling that renewable energy back to the power company.

If every state did this, the private sector would do a lot of the work we’ve been calling for  Not a bad idea to start with, but she goes further, saying “By the year 2020, Michigan will reduce our reliance on fossil fuels for generating electricity by 45 percent,” AND promises:

To evaluate . . . both the need for additional electricity generation and all feasible and prudent alternatives before approving new coal-fired power plants.

This effectively kills Michigan’s six active coal plant proposals for the next year, if not for good. Continue reading ‘Gov. Granholm: Utilities Should Make Money by Selling Less Power, New Coal is Unnecessary’

Two activists with Everglades Earth First! were sentenced to 60 and 30days after their role in last years blockade of Florida Power and Light’s power plant near the Everglades. Panagioti Tsolkas and Lynne Purvis participated in an action that formed a human chain that shut down Southern Boulevard for hours.

Other activists arrested in the same incident had received only probation.

Last year, over 25 Earth First! activists were arrested after taking confrontational action to protect the Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge which sits 1000 ft from the power plant site and to protect the larger Everglades system.

Everglades Earth First! and the Palm Beach County Environmental Coalition criticized the excessive sentences as attempts to silence freedom of speech by critics of Florida Power & Light.

The National Teach-In Webast is up. Featuring Jesse Tolkan, Billy Parish, and Wahleah Johns, this webcast addresses the following topics:

- Why are these First 100 Days so critical in taking the steps we need to address climate change?
- Why should Congress listen to Young People?
- What could our country look like in ten years if we enact policies that fully address the climate crisis?
- How are communities of faith playing a pivotal role in the climate discussion?

There is a campus version and a faith version. Please watch, and add your responses to the discussion questions posted at Re:Vision TV.

The National Teach-In now has nearly 800 campuses, congregations, and community organizations signed up to participate, and dozens of members of Congress committed to video-dialogues!

Cross-posted at Dispatches from Life, Alex Krogh-Grabbe’s blog.

At Grist Magazine, they like to refer to coal as the Enemy of the Human Race. And, while that’s a bit of a rhetorical flourish, it’s true that coal is unavoidably one of the dirtiest ways possible to produce energy. If you’re interested in finding out more about the entire process of using coal for energy, I encourage you to read Big Coal, by Jeff Goodell.

But what I want to write about today is inspired by a Huffington Post article by Jesse Jenkins, of The Breakthrough Institute and It’s Getting Hot in Here. I’m generally pretty skeptical of Shellenberger & Nordhaus’ thinktank, but I met Jesse at Powershift, and this article is pretty good. Its overall message is the same as everything out of their thinktank; in order to be successful, environmental messages need to be framed around things that people care about more, like jobs and the economy. Specifically, the article runs down what it dubs the “Technology Fifteen”, i.e. fifteen “moderate” senators from the interior of the country who have banded together to have a voice on climate issues.

So, I thought I’d look a little further into specifically the geography of coal as it relates to politics. I put up a Google Docs spreadsheet with my data. All my data’s from the Energy Information Administration, the government office whose job it is to make public this sort of stuff. For my findings, see below the fold. Continue reading ‘Technology Fifteen vs. Coal State Fifteen’

Please help save Coal River Mountain! Call Governor Manchin at 1-888-438-2731 and / or use our simple web form to email the governor.

Update: This morning six were arrested after locking down to a bulldozer and excavator on Coal River Mountain.  They had giant banners that read “Save Coal River Mountain” and “Wind Mills NOT Toxic Spills.”   

Update 2: This afternoon 8 more were arrested delivering a letter of protest to Massey as they crossed onto Massey’s property. Around 50 were there to witness the arrests.  All have been released with citations for trespassing.

Activists Blockade Efforts to Begin Mountaintop Removal and Blasting Beside World’s Largest Toxic Coal Sludge Dam

Citizens of the Coal River Valley, accompanied by supporters from throughout Appalachia and supported by national allies incuding James Hansen, are blocking access to prepare Coal River Mountain for blasting. The blasting would be dangerously near to a nine-billion-gallon toxic coal sludge dam. Massey has begun work on a mountaintop removal operation on Coal River Mountain, with plans to blast over underground mines beside the sludge dam. Residents are advocating for a wind farm on the site as a safe alternative for cleaner energy and long-term jobs.

“The governor and county legislators have failed to act, so we’re acting for them,” Rory McIlmoil said. “Someone has to take a stand for common sense. They can’t allow the wind potential on Coal River Mountain to be destroyed, and the nearby communities endangered, for only 17 years of coal. There is a better way to develop the mountain and strengthen the local economy that will create lasting jobs and tax revenues for this county, and that’s with wind power.”

“I fear for my friends and all the people living below this coal sludge dam,” said Gary Anderson, who lives near the site. “Blasting beside the dam, over underground mines, could decimate the valley for miles. The ‘experts’ said that the Buffalo Creek sludge dam was safe, but it failed. They said that the TVA sludge dam was safe, but it failed. Massey is setting up an even greater catastrophe here.”

Residents have lost faith in their state government and taken their plea nationally. Climate expert James Hansen, the head of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, said, “President Obama, please look at Coal River Mountain. Your strongest supporters are counting on you to stop this madness.”

“We can’t sit by while Massey jeopardizes the lives and homes of thousands of people,” said Vernon Haltom of Naoma. “Governor Manchin and the West Virginia Dept. of Environmental Protection have proven that they are unwilling to protect the citizens. What do they expect us to do? Will they wait until we’re in body bags to take this threat seriously?” A 2008 report by the federal Office of Surface Mining revealed serious deficiencies in the WVDEP’s regulation of coal waste dams (www.wvgazette.com/News/200901110512?page=1&build=cache). In November, WVDEP approved a permit revision allowing Massey to begin the mountaintop removal operation. Despite citizens’ objections, DEP denied public participation in its decision process.

Anderson added, “We need to stop the madness and stop Massey from blowing up our beautiful mountain. We need to go with the better energy option, and that’s a wind farm, which is perfect for Coal River Mountain. We could have a green energy future for the country, starting right here.”

For updates, photos and video footage, go to http://climategroundzero.org

Even though the EPA overruled the approval of the Big Stone II air permit just over a week ago, South Dakota Senator John Thune urged (also, here) the Obama administration to rethink it’s move.  Despite the fact that “the EPA’s decision comes after the state failed to require state-of-the-art pollution controls for the coal plant that would address concerns about harmful soot, smog and global warming pollution” (according to a press release sent out by the Sierra Club and Clean Water Action last week), Sen, Thune persists that Big Stone II will make sure “the region will have safe, reliable and affordable energy in the future.”

Apparently safe doesn’t include air, water and soil pollution, severely burdening the nearby reservoir, not to mention the coal ash left after burning. Also, just beacuse the second coal plant will be cleaner than the existing one (which uses decades old pollution controls) does not mean that BSII will be clean.What Sen. Thune doesn’t realize is that coal is not and will not be safe.

So where does this leave us? Well BSII still isn’t dead.   I get this image of a cross between one of those clown punching bags that never stays down and a zombie.  Maybe I’ve been watching too many movies.

One thing we can do is send words of encouragement and support to the EPA urging them to stick with their decision to deny the air permit.  I’m sure they would love to hear the support!

Comments can be sent to:

Ms. Carol Rushin

Acting Regional Administrator, EPA Region 8

rushin.carol@epa.gov

See this recent piece in Time Magazine about Tim DeChristopher’s stunts and the upcoming mass action on March 2nd.

To Protect Public Land, Eco-Protesters Get Creative

By Bryan Walsh Saturday, Jan. 31, 2009

You may have never heard of the Monkey Wrench Gang—unless you read the 1975 novel by maverick writer and nature lover Edward Abbey, who introduced the world to a fictional collection of green misfits waging a guerrilla war against industrialization in the American West. They sabotage bulldozers and construction sites, burn billboards and destroy dams, all to keep their beloved Southwestern desert pristine. Think of it as muscular environmentalism, a world apart from the wonky work on climate change that now defines the mainstream green movement.

Still, the outlaw spirit lives on in the work of contemporary monkeywrenchers like Tim DeChristopher, a 27-year-old college student who singlehandedly disrupted a multi-million-dollar land auction that would have put hundreds of thousands of acres of public lands in southern Utah in the hands of oil and gas companies. But DeChristopher didn’t use sabotage or homemade bombs—just chutzpah.

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM), which administers America’s public lands, was running the auction on Dec. 19, in the waning days of the Bush Administration. Environmental groups including the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA) had been fighting the move, arguing that the energy companies would damage nearby national parks and culturally sensitive areas. But the fight seemed lost, until DeChristopher, an economics student at the University of Utah, arrived at the sale. “I saw this as a very corrupt and fraudulent process, and a threat to my future,” he says.

Continue reading ‘Time Magazine celebrates monkewrenching; plugs Capitol Climate Action’