Coal // Current

The Great Climate Swoop

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEBSzex3_JE Saturday 17 October 2009: The Great... more

JasonNParkinson
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7 days ago
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TVA Coal Ash Spill in Kingston, Tennessee

The coal ash pond that ruptured and sent a billion gallons of toxic sludge across 300 acres of East Tennessee on December 22, 2008 was only one of more than 1,300 similar dumps across the United States - most of them unregulated and unmonitored - that contain billions more gallons of fly ash and other byproducts of burning coal. Like the one in Tennessee, most of these dumps, which reach up to 1,500 acres, contain heavy metals like arsenic, lead, mercury and selenium, which are considered by the Environmental Protection Agency to be a threat to water supplies and human health. Yet they are not subject to any U.S. regulation, which experts say could have prevented the spill, which sent almost 4 billion liters over 120 hectares, and there is little monitoring of their effects on the surrounding environment. In fact, coal ash is used throughout the United States for construction fill, mine reclamation and other "beneficial uses." In 2007, according to a coal industry estimate, 50 tons of fly ash even went to agricultural uses, like improving soil's ability to hold water, despite an agency warning in 1999 about high levels of arsenic. The industry has promoted the reuse of coal combustion products because of the growing amount of them being produced each year - 131 million tons in 2007, up from less than 90 million tons in 1990. The amount of coal ash has ballooned in part because of increased demand for electricity, but more because air pollution controls have improved. Contaminants and waste products that once spewed through the coal plants' smokestacks are increasingly captured in the form of solid waste, held in huge piles in 46 states, near cities like Pittsburgh, St. Louis and Tampa, Florida, and on the shores of Lake Erie, Lake Michigan and the Mississippi River. Studies have shown that the ash can leach toxic substances that cause cancer, birth defects and other health problems in humans, and can decimate fish, bird and frog populations in and around ash dumps, causing developmental problems like tadpoles born without teeth, or fish with spinal deformities. "Your household garbage is managed much more consistently" than coal combustion waste, said Thomas Burke, an epidemiologist at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, who testified on the health effects of coal ash before a congressional subcommittee last year. "It's such a large volume of waste, and it's so essential to the country's energy supply; it's basically been a loophole in the country's waste management strategy." As the environmental agency has studied whether to regulate coal ash waste, the cases of drinking wells and surface water contaminated by leaching from the dumps or the use of the ash has swelled. In 2007, an agency report identified 63 sites in 26 states where the water was contaminated by heavy metals from such dumps, including three other Tennessee Valley Authority dumps. Environmental advocacy groups have submitted at least 17 additional cases that they say should be added to that list.The coal ash pond that ruptured and sent a billion gallons of toxic sludge across 300... more

Rickharmon25
added this
9 days ago
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3 comments

Who Killed Dunkard Creek?

http://www.wvablue.com/tag/Death%20of%20Dunkard%20Creek A list of suspects that... more

elsonwvu
added this
12 days ago
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0 comments

Save Coal River Mountain - America's MOST Endangered Mountain!

We have confirmed reports that Massey Energy has begun blasting on Coal River Mountain... more

Incredulous
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15 days ago
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6 comments

Mystery Senator Blocks Obama Pick to Head Key Mining Office...

When President Obama nominated Joseph Pizarchik to head the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement, critics blasted the choice, charging that Pizarchik has a history of favoring coal industry interests over the well-being of local residents. Still, it appeared Pizarchik would sail to confirmation this week—until an unknown senator placed a hold on his appointment. Here's why the mystery senator might be worried that Pizarchik is the wrong man for the job.

Pizarchik has served as the director of Pennsylvania's Bureau of Mining and Reclamation since 2002. The office, a division of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, oversees mining permits and the enforcement of environmental rules related to mining and waste disposal. And residents of Pennsylvania mining areas are so unhappy with his performance that they're organizing to oppose the nomination. Under Pizarchik's watch, the bureau developed new policies for the "beneficial use" of coal ash, including allowing it to be dumped in old surface mining sites—meaning, essentially, that power plant waste could be left in unlined pits around the state.

The hazards of coal ash contamination attracted national scrutiny last December when an earthen dike owned by the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Kingston Fossil Plant broke, spewing 1.1 billion gallons of dark grey coal slurry into Tennessee homes and waterways. A 2007 study by the Clean Air Task Force found that 10 out of 15 Pennsylvania mine sites where coal ash had been dumped tested positive for arsenic, lead, cadmium, selenium, and other hazardous materials. The study criticized the role that Pizarchik's office played in allowing this practice to continue.

Pennsylvania residents have also expressed concerns about longwall mining, which has expanded in the state in recent years. This coal extraction method involves burrowing underground, and has wreaked havoc on both the water systems and property in the state. Residents say Pizarchik did not enforce existing regulations as the head of the office, and that since 2006, the department has made it considerably more difficult for residents to comment on mining permit applications. Public meetings are less frequent and often held during work hours, they say.

The Mountain Watershed Association, Friends of the Earth, Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, the Alliance for Appalachia, Environmental Integrity Project and Appalachian Voices are all stoking opposition to the nomination. In addition, the Citizens Coal Council recently filed suit against the Office of Surface Mining, accusing it of allowing the Pennsylvania office that Pizarchik headed to commit "chronic and deliberate violations" of surface mining regulations. "He's unacceptable," said Aimee Erickson, coordinator of the Citizens Coal Council.When President Obama nominated Joseph Pizarchik to head the Office of Surface Mining... more

spacemikey
added this
17 days ago
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1 comment

Coal is too dirty for college

What do you think? Is this type of ad effective in getting it's message to college... more

e_young
added this
20 days ago
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0 comments

Sen. Graham: ‘We need to use the coal that God has given us’

Senator Lindsay Graham (R-SC) has announced that he is willing to support some form of... more

WakeUpPeople
added this
20 days ago
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84 comments

What State Produces the Most Coal

Most people would think West Virgina is the largest producer of domestic coal, but... more

threadpost
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20 days ago
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0 comments

How Safe Is Your Drinking Water?

An estimated one in 10 Americans have been exposed to drinking water that contains... more

atomiclegion
added this
23 days ago
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2 comments

The Yes Men Break the Rules: Rule #1 Don't attack a bank

The Yes Men screen their film "The Yes Men Fix the World" and their audience is so... more

asherp
added this
27 days ago
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0 comments

Killing Our Water - The Hidden Price of Dirty Energy: Blog Action Day

There is an important nexus between water and global warming. The very energy sources... more

CleanWater
added this
28 days ago
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4 comments

Mountaintop Mining, Up Close and Personal

Words alone can’t describe what mountaintop mining is doing to Appalachia, its... more

fordlyn
added this
28 days ago
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0 comments

Clearing the Air at the Expense of Waterways

Or, Sweeping the dirt under the rug. Published on Tuesday, October 13, 2009... more

SeaJade
added this
29 days ago
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1 comment

Solar Power Outshining Colorado's Gas Industry

The sun had just crested the distant ridge of the Rocky Mountains, but already it was... more

julesrs007
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1 month ago
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14 comments

Stop Mountaintop Removal Mining

Appalachian communities are suffering as a result of mountaintop removal mining.... more

earthjustice
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1 month ago
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3 comments

The Coalfield Uprising

When the Environmental Protection Agency declared this year on September 11 that all pending mountaintop removal mining permits in four Appalachian states stood in violation of the Clean Water Act and required further review, Lora Webb didn't have time to join in any celebrations. As she and her husband, Steve, a coal miner, packed up their possessions and left his family's ancestral property outside Lindytown, West Virginia, Lora was more concerned about finding a place to sleep that night.

For the past few years, ever since a massive twenty-story dragline landed on a ridge near their home, the Webbs had endured twice-daily, bone-rattling explosions and the quasi-apocalyptic storms of coal dust and fly rock that blanketed their home and garden. Lindytown's creeks and mountain hollows no longer exist, and a once-thriving community has been reduced to a ghost town. "It's unreal. It's like we're living in a war zone," Lora Webb told a local newspaper last fall.

By the spring of this year, the Webbs were one of the last holdouts in the area. Hoping to avoid displacement, they pleaded with the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (WVDEP) and various federal agencies to enforce mining laws. Lora Webb even toted a jar of coal dust to Capitol Hill. In the end, though, they threw up their hands in bewilderment at the government's inaction and sold their beloved home to Massey Energy, the Richmond-based corporation that runs the nearby Twilight mountaintop removal site. Then they were issued a sixty-day order to evacuate.

The temporarily homeless Webbs are a stark example that mountaintop removal does more than "likely cause water quality impacts," as the EPA has determined. More than 3.5 million pounds of explosives rip daily across the ridges and historic mountain communities in West Virginia; a similar amount of explosives are employed in eastern Kentucky, southwestern Virginia and eastern Tennessee. Mountaintop removal operations have destroyed more than 500 mountains and 1.2 million acres of forest in our nation's oldest and most diverse range, and jammed more than 1,200 miles of streams with mining waste.

In cautious but no uncertain terms, the Obama administration has finally acknowledged these hazards, and has taken some important steps toward mitigating the damage. On June 11 the Council on Environmental Quality chief, Nancy Sutley, declared that the administration "has serious concerns about the impacts of mountaintop coal mining on our natural resources and on the health and welfare of the Appalachian communities."

more at link...When the Environmental Protection Agency declared this year on September 11 that all... more

WakeUpPeople
added this
1 month ago
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17 comments

Documentary: The Real McCoys

'Link TV - Television Without Borders' http://www.linktv.org/ Meet Nina and... more

julesrs007
added this
1 month ago
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0 comments

National Day of Action Calls for End to Campus Coal

Colleges and universities have been leading American society on progressive issues for... more

fordlyn
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1 month ago
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0 comments

Clean coal is fictional

Jessy Tolkan: Washington saying coal industry can be "clean" is pure fiction

therealnewsnetwork
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1 month ago
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2 comments

Brace yourselves for life after oil

The debate rages over whether we have already reached the point of peak world oil output or will not do so until at least the next decade. There can, however, be little doubt of one thing: We are moving from an era in which oil was the world's principal energy source to one in which petroleum alternatives -- especially renewable supplies derived from the sun, wind and waves -- will provide an ever larger share of our total supply. But buckle your seatbelts, it's going to be a bumpy ride under Xtreme conditions.

It would, of course, be ideal if the shift from dwindling oil to its climate-friendly successors were to happen smoothly via a mammoth, well-coordinated, interlaced system of wind, solar, tidal, geothermal and other renewable energy installations. Unfortunately, this is unlikely to occur. Instead, we will surely first pass through an era characterized by excessive reliance on oil's final, least attractive reserves along with coal, heavily polluting "unconventional" hydrocarbons like Canadian oil sands, and other unappealing fuel choices.

There can be no question that Barack Obama and many members of Congress would like to accelerate a shift from oil dependency to non-polluting alternatives. As the president said in January, "We will commit ourselves to steady, focused, pragmatic pursuit of an America that is free from our [oil] dependence and empowered by a new energy economy that puts millions of our citizens to work." Indeed, the $787 billion economic stimulus package he signed in February provided $11 billion to modernize the nation's electrical grid, $14 billion in tax incentives to businesses to invest in renewable energy, $6 billion to states for energy efficiency initiatives, and billions more directed to research on renewable sources of energy. More of the same can be expected if a sweeping climate bill is passed by Congress. The version of the bill recently passed by the House of Representatives, for example, mandates that 20 percent of U.S. electrical production be supplied by renewable energy by 2020.

But here's the bad news: Even if all these initiatives were to pass, and more like them many times over, it would still take decades for this country to substantially reduce its dependence on oil and other non-renewable, polluting fuels. So great is our demand for energy, and so well-entrenched the existing systems for delivering the fuels we consume, that (barring a staggering surprise) we will remain for years to come in a no-man's-land between the Petroleum Age and an age that will see the great flowering of renewable energy. Think of this interim period as -- to give it a label -- the Era of Xtreme Energy, and in just about every sense imaginable from pricing to climate change, it is bound to be an ugly time.

much much more at link...The debate rages over whether we have already reached the point of peak world oil... more

WakeUpPeople
added this
1 month ago
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38 comments

tagged w/ Coal

The Great Climate Swoop

TVA Coal Ash Spill in Kingston, Tennessee

Who Killed Dunkard Creek?

Save Coal River Mountain - America's MOST Endangered Mountain!

Mystery Senator Blocks Obama Pick to Head Key Mining Office...

Coal is too dirty for college

Sen. Graham: ‘We need to use the coal that God has given us’

What State Produces the Most Coal

How Safe Is Your Drinking Water?

The Yes Men Break the Rules: Rule #1 Don't attack a bank

Killing Our Water - The Hidden Price of Dirty Energy: Blog Action Day

Mountaintop Mining, Up Close and Personal

Clearing the Air at the Expense of Waterways

Solar Power Outshining Colorado's Gas Industry

Stop Mountaintop Removal Mining

The Coalfield Uprising

Documentary: The Real McCoys

National Day of Action Calls for End to Campus Coal

Clean coal is fictional

Brace yourselves for life after oil

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