Dispatches from the Youth Climate Movement
Excellent news this morning from Washington DC! Today, the EPA announced that they are vetoing the Clean Water Act permit for Arch Coal’s Spruce No. 1 Mine in Logan County, West Virginia.
This is a historic victory for the movement to end mountaintop removal mining. It’s the first time that the EPA has issued a veto on a project that had previously been permitted. Continue reading ‘EPA Issues Historic Veto on Arch Coal’s Spruce Mine’
Just announced – Don Blankenship is set to receive a $12 million severance package from Massey Energy. It must be very disappointing for Don, as last year he took home $18 million in salary and bonuses, the highest paid man in the coal business.
Here are my thoughts about how Massey could spend that money instead: Continue reading ’5 Better Ways Massey Could Spend Blankenship’s Golden Parachute’
I’m saying ‘Thank you’ this week to PNC bank — which has just released its public position on Mountaintop Removal (MTR) Coal Mining.
Here’s PNC’s policy in full — and a key extract:
MTR is the subject of increasing regulatory and legislative scrutiny, with a focus on the permitting of MTR mines. While this extraction method is permitted, PNC will not provide funding to individual MTR projects, nor will PNC provide credit to coal producers whose primary extraction method is MTR.
We’ve been calling on PNC for many months to end their MTR financing, so I asked why the company made this new policy public. PNC responded that awareness of mountaintop removal and its impacts has been growing and that groups like RAN put the issue on their radar. Continue reading ‘Another Big Bank Turns Away from Mountaintop Removal!’
Photo taken of MTR site in West Virginia. Vivian Stockman/Southwings
On Tuesday I went to the town of Hazard in Perry County, Kentucky.
It’s a surreal-looking place, if you get up out of the valley onto any viewpoint the panorama that should be rolling hills stretching into the horizon, is missing something. The hill tops have disappeared. It’s as if the landscape is a jigsaw puzzle missing some vital pieces.
This is because over 20% of the surface of the entire county has been strip-mined for coal.
My viewpoint is excellent as I am taken up into the sky by SouthWings to get an aerial perspective. In the small plane with me is Stanley Meiburg, Regional Administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
After the short flight, Stanley and other EPA staff meet with local community members, who have been brought together by Kentuckians for the Commonwealth. They share their experiences of living with the impacts of mountaintop removal (MTR) mining: John shares the scientific results of testing the water from the creek by his home and asks how permits can be issued when the water quality is already degraded, McKinley speaks of his family’s water supply “running black”. Continue reading ‘Bearing witness to mountaintop removal with the EPA’
