The issues with coal-fired power plant emissions are well chronicled – increased lung and cardiovascular disease, loss of visibility, and (somewhat importantly) the complete shattering of our global climactic patterns.

Many are also seeing for the first time that extracting coal is as destructive (and socially expensive) as emitting coal. Mountaintop removal and strip mining are decimating the majestic Appalachian Mountains – the oldest mountains on this continent. More than 1 million acres have been blasted away, and shoved recklessly into creek-beds and hollows. 1200+ miles of headwater streams have been buried, poisoning the water for us and those who live down stream.

The ancient hardwood forests of Appalachia (themselves an important carbon sink in our war on CO2) are often shoved aside with the mountain, left to rot and clog our streams without even being commercially harvested. The “rape” of Appalachia, as Senator Webb has called it.

How much coal would be “worth it?”
100 years?
250 years?
500 years?

Hows about a dozen?

…

Well, I know “science” isn’t the most popular thing in Washington these days, but according to “facts” we are sitting on AT MOST a mere 10-15 years of coal in the Appalachians.

Take a look at the region carrying the heaviest load for American coal production, and you’ll see that we are definitively beyond “peak coal” in Appalachia.

So says the USGS…

“Sufficient high-quality, thick, bituminous resources remain in [Appalachian Basin] coal beds and coal zones to last for the next one to two decades at current production.”

- United States Geological Survey (USGS), 2000 AD

So says the Department of Energy…

“[2002-2005] is the first time the Appalachian Region has experienced four consecutive years of coal production of less than 400 million short tons since the 1960s.”

- DOE/EIA-0584 (2005) Annual Coal Report 200516

So says Public Utilities Fortnightly:

Central Appalachia proved-in-place production capacity declined by 8 million tons per year in 2005, despite record level price signals since late 2003. ”

From: “A Wakeup Call for Coal” – Public Utilities Fortnightly, December, 2006
by Gary L. Hunt and Hans Daniels of Global Energy Advisors5

To get a better picture of what is happening, zoom in even closer on a state like Virginia:

Both projections see Appalachian coal production dropping at an alarming rate. But you will see that production, looking at actual outputs, actually follows the pessimistic projection in the regional picture.

This means that Appalachian coal is on its way to bust. Because of the expense of moving an entire mountain to get to the little coal we have left, the cost of Appalachian coal has DOUBLED in the last decade. And they tell us they are blowing up our mountains to give us cheap electricity!?

In fact, central Appalachian coal is now the most expensive on the domestic market (page 4 of .pdf)

The Appalachian Mountains have lost 6 kilometers in height over millions of year of natural weathering and erosion, churning ancient Carboniferous Era forest into that magical rock – coal. Now, mountaintop by mountaintop, the Appalachians are being removed from the earth once and for all. And at what gain?

1) To produce jobs?
No. Mountaintop removal is used specifically because it employs (significantly) fewer workers.

2) To produce energy?
No. Mountaintop removal supplies just 5% of our energy. You can only burn coal one time, and we can supply a far greater amount of energy through conservation, efficiency, and green power annually.

3) To bring the people of Appalachia the “flat land” we always “needed?”
No. Less than 1% of reclaimed sites are used commercially. One or two are remade into golf courses or prisons. But the ones that the politicians don’t see look like this…

(Pictures taken 10+ years into “reclamation process”)

BUT THERE IS A WAY YOU CAN HELP

The Clean Water Protection Act (HR 2169) is a simple bill that would slow and even stop most mountaintop removal coal-mining. This simple two sentence bill would reverse the Bush Administration’s 2002 decision that the toxic “waste” from mountaintop removal sites could be defined as “fill material” and dumped into our water ways.

Please take a few minutes and see if your Congressperson is a co-sponsor of the Clean Water Protection Act (HR 2169).

If they are a co-sponsor of HR 2169, thank them.

If they are not, contact them and ask them to “Co-sponsor the Clean Water Protection Act” (HR 2169).

If you have contacted them, and would like to do more, please help us work on the following targets. They are of national importance because of their seats on the “Water Resources Subcommittee,” where the “Clean Water Protection Act (HR 2169) will go first.
Eddie Bernice Johnson (TX-30) (Chairwoman)
202-225-8885
214-922-8885

Brian Baird (WA-03)
202-225-3536
360-695-6292

Russ Carnahan (MO-03)
202-225-2671
314-962-1523

John T. Salazar (CO-03)
202-225-4761
970-245-7107

Mazie K. Hirono (HI-02)
202-225-4906
808-541-1986

Grace F. Napolitano (CA-38)
202-225-5256
562-860-5050

Michael A. Arcuri (NY-24)
202-225-3665
315-793-8146

Another great way to be involved is to participate in DevilsTower’s “30 days for the mountains” series at DailyKos. Please leave comments and participate as you are able.

…and big coal is out!

So says this morning’s Lexington Herald-Leader:

Kentucky’s history of unquestioning homage to the coal industry puts it at odds with marketplace trends.

In recent weeks, we’ve read that proposals for at least 16 coal-fired power plants around the country have been scrapped.

Please go check out the whole piece. It’s a good one, and its not coming from the NYT…its coming from Kentucky!

Check out these comments from the Stream Buffer Zone Rule hearings:

[bumped, due to Mr. Gore's strong showing in a recent New Hampshire primary poll - J-dub]

Hear what one movie director, Vice-President, Senator, and Tennessean thinks about mountaintop removal:

Congrats to our friends at SACE!

Unofficial transcript:

Hi Mr. President…uh…Mr. Gore rather
My name is —–. Im a student at UNC and I work with the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy.

Coal mining here in the Appalachians is destroying our communities. New technology for coal combustion claims to be cleaner, but should we really be promoting this technology while it is so destructive to our land?

A: No. [applause] Not if the coal is removed in a way that destroys the land. I’m really troubled by what’s been going on in parts of West Virginia and Kentucky in particular. Maybe you’ve seen the pictures as I have. Maybe you’ve been there and seen it in person. But often you’ll have one row of hills next to the major highways that people drive on that still look beautiful and pristine and then one row over they cut the tops off mountains, and then they dump the soil and rock in ways that sometimes block up and fill(?) the streams and pollute the streams. Strip-mining is a metaphor but it’s also a reality in its own right, and it stands for an irresponsible approach to unsustainable development. If the coal is removed in a way that enriches the present generation at the expense at the expense of the prospects for all future generations, that’s just plain wrong. In the present generation, we have a responsibility, YOU have a responsibility to insist on ethical behavior in ways that will prevent people who are overwhelmed by greed from going about that in a way that causes lasting harm to all future generations. And that’s been going on in a lot places, and this mountaintop removal is one of the clearest most visible examples of it. There was an economist, I think Herman Daly was the guy who said this years ago. He said “we’re operating planet earth as if it was a business in liquidation”, and the mountaintop removal that you’re talking about is one of the clearest examples of what he meant by that. And we have a responsibility to keep that from happening, so I’m with you all the way.

Join Rainforest Action Network, Coal River Mountain Watch, Appalachian Voices , Rising Tide, Mountain Justice Summer, SEAC and a cast of thousands as we mobilize to stop Bank of America and Citi’s investments climate change and the dirty coal industry!

Legal thrillers are fun to read, but real change is heavy lifting

From the New York Times, the State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo is pursuing actions against large power companies who do not disclose the financial risks of coal in an era when regulation of carbon emissions seems imminent. Check out the article at www.nytimes.com/2007/09/16/nyregion/16greenhouse.html

Although it is important that companies disclose their financial risks adequately, state level investigations into financial disclosure will not have the effect of markedly lowering coal-fired power plant construction or emissions. Any of these companies will write more fine print disclosures to avoid legal action if they have to, so the work of Mr. Cuomo may make people think for a minute, but will likely do little else.

Coal remains an incredibly expensive form of power to use, but because the environmental and societal costs are not paid by the energy companies, these energy companies will continue to apply for new coal power plant permits. If regulations such as a carbon tax come into force, the energy companies will use their political clout to pass on any added costs of regulation to ratepayers and/or taxpayers.

If the rate hikes are accompanied by concurrent progressive tax measures, this outcome would actually be a good one because people will reduce their use of energy without suffering financially.

Just don’t count on Mr. Cuomo and his department to make a carbon tax or the needed more progressive taxation happen. Any pro-working-people legislation of that magnitude will require good old-fashioned citizen action.

Proving the across-the-board support for the Clean Water Protection Act (HR 2169), I just learned that Republicans for Environmental Protection (REP) has endorsed the Clean Water Protection Act! They also came out on our side against the Bush Administrations attempts to repeal the Stream Buffer Zone Rule.

Republicans, Democrats, conservatives, liberals, moderates, independents…America agrees, mountaintop removal coal-mining, and the poisoning of the Appalachian people needs to stop as soon as possible.

REP:

There is nothing even remotely conservative about allowing special-interest greed to trump our fundamental duty as stewards of God’s own handiwork,” said David Jenkins, REP Government Affairs Director…

…”The loophole that allows coal mining companies to use the waters of the United States as free garbage cans needs to be closed,” DiPeso said.
A bill that would help is the bipartisan Clean Water Protection Act (HR 2169).
“This bill would re-affirm the original intent of the Clean Water Act by explicitly barring the use of water bodies as waste dumps,” Jenkins said. “We thank Congressmen Wayne Gilchrest (MD), John McHugh (NY), Todd Platts (PA), and Christopher Shays (CT) for co-sponsoring this important legislation.”

Even though most self-identified Republicans we talk to think mountaintop removal is awful and needs to stop, many Republican Congressmen and women are not as responsive.

6 of our 105 co-sponsors are Republicans:
Chris Shays (CT-04)
Wayne Gilchrest (MD-01)
John McHugh (NY-23)
Todd Platts (PA-19)
Mark Kirk (IL-10)
Frank Wolf (VA-10)

That number needs to be much higher. Lets keep the pressure on our elected officials from both parties!

Science Daily — The eastern hemlock, a tall, long-lived coniferous tree that shelters river and streamside ecosystems throughout the eastern United States and Canada, is in serious danger of extinction because a tiny, non-native insect is literally sucking the life out of it.

Entomologists at Virginia Tech are now studying a beetle from Japan that may be a natural predator of Adelges tsugae, or hemlock woolly adelgid (HWA). Scientists hope the Japanese beetle will curb the rapid spread of the HWA without damaging forest ecosystems.

Virginia Tech leads the biological control efforts to curb the spread of HWA, which feeds on the cells that transfer and store nutrients in hemlock trees until their needles desiccate. “Mass application of pesticides would not be effective,” said Scott Salom, professor of entomology in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and HWA project leader. “Unlike the gypsy moth, which lives in tree canopies, you cannot spray pesticides over a forest in an aerial flight to kill the hemlock woolly adelgid, which lives at the base of newly formed needles.”

Salom and his colleagues traveled to Japan in 2006 to collect 300 adult insects and hundreds of larvae for evaluation at the Beneficial Insects Quarantine Laboratory at Virginia Tech after a scientist at the Osaka Museum of Natural History discovered an adelgid predator in the island country that had never previously been observed. The Japanese beetle does not currently have a scientific name.

Last year, Yale University researchers performed a series of DNA comparisons between HWA and other adelgid populations in China, Japan, and western North American and discovered that the insect plaguing eastern hemlocks originated in the Osaka region of Japan. Virginia Tech researchers are hopeful that the Japanese beetle now under quarantine in Blacksburg will be an effective natural enemy against the HWA because both originate from the same area, Salom said.

This follows more than a decade of research on the beetle’s North American cousin. In 1997, Salom’s research team imported Laricobius nigrinus, a tiny beetle from British Columbia, to evaluate its effectiveness and safety as a biological control agent. By the end of 2006, scientists at Virginia Tech, Clemson University, and the University of Tennessee at Knoxville had completed more than 22 research-based releases using protocols developed at a Virginia Tech insectory. In all, more than 17,000 British Columbia beetles were released in U.S. forests with encouraging results, in that their research shows that the beetle is establishing at most of the release locations.

Unlike other predators that have been released into the wild, such as the Asian lady beetle, the British Columbian and Japanese beetles only thrive on one food source. “If the beetles we introduce cannot feed or reproduce on other hosts, then the natural conclusion is that there is no risk,” Salom said.

American scientists first noticed the tiny, aphid-like insect in the West as early as the 1920s, but it was not until the 1950s that they spotted HWA producing its cottony egg masses near Richmond, Va. Unlike hemlock stands in Asia and in the western United States, eastern hemlocks did not co-evolve with an adelgid species and therefore never developed a natural immunity to the insect. Today, HWA infestations span more than half of the geographic range of eastern hemlocks. In Virginia, they have reportedly killed more than 90 percent of hemlocks in the Shenandoah Valley.

Note: This story has been adapted from material provided by Virginia Tech.

The Sumter National Forest Service is in a quandary. It’s in a battle to preserve the pristine waters of the Chattooga River above the Georgia and S.C. U.S. Highway 28 bridge with canoeing and kayaking organizations who want the entire river, not just the waters below the Highway 28 bridge. Capitulation through litigation is the American way, I suppose.

I have walked the trails and fished the waters of this beautiful river many times. I have two oncerns.

Most of the sections of the Chattooga above the U.S. Highway 28 bridge are too narrow for rafters and fishermen to use simultaneously. If we think “road rage” is a problem, “river rage” might be worse.

My other concern is rampant un-American activity that by my definition is a blatant disregard for our environment by depositing litter anywhere we want to throw it.

Years ago, Keep America Beautiful ran environmental commercials featuring the Native American known as Iron Eyes Cody. The tagline for those commercials was “People start pollution, people can stop it.” This commercial stemmed the tide of un-American activity more than any other litter campaign.

Sadly, we’ve lost that environmental fervor today. If you need proof, walk the shoulders of our state highways. Iron Eyes Cody became known by millions as “The Crying Indian” as he watched litter floating down a river. If Sumter National Forest Service opens the upper portion of the Chattooga to commercial and private boaters, Iron Eyes Cody, if he were alive today, wouldn’t be shedding one tear, but two.

Bill Menees, Anderson

By Pam Cassady

pamcndl@bellsouth.net

When landowners decide to sell timber from their land, they usually do it because they want to make money. However, if they aren’t well informed, they could end up not making as much as they could.

“Landowners are losing lots of money,” said Bobby Warwick, a consulting forester based out of Bowling Green.

Warwick said he has many examples of instances where landowners are offered a price that is much lower than what their timber is actually worth.

Warwick said he once worked with a man who was planning to sell his timber for about $40,000.

“I told him, ‘If somebody will give you $40,000, there’s somebody who will give you more,’” Warwick recalled.

The man ended up selling his timber for over $100,000.

As a consulting forester, Warwick works with landowners to help them get the best price possible for their timber. Although he said many in the timber industry are honest, reputable businesses, it is easy to take advantage of people. Most landowners have no idea what the timber on their land is worth and don’t know how to find out. But finding out what you have before you sell it is important.

“You’ve got to know how many board feet you have,” Warwick said. If you don’t, “It’s like trying to sell your house and not knowing how many bedrooms, bathrooms and such that you have.”

Warwick, who has a degree in forestry from the University of Kentucky, said his job is to promote proper timber management and help landowners get the most out of their timber.

When Warwick is hired by a landowner, he will first do a walk-through on the land and point out the kinds of timber they have and begins to estimate how much of each kind they have. Knowing how much timber is actually on a piece of property is extremely important, as is knowing what kinds of timber you have.

Warwick said he usually encourages landowners to do a selective harvest instead of clear cutting. He will often point out that allowing trees to grow for longer is advantageous in the long run.

“My mission is to help landowners manage their timberlands for today and the future while at the same time obtaining the highest price possible for their timber,” Warwick said. “In the end, the landowner always wins.”

“I have a passion about it,” he added.

Warwick said he hates to see people taken advantage of and remembers a poor woman who took $8,000 for what was worth around $50,000.

When selling timber, it is important to be aware of the market as well. A landowner may not want to harvest a certain species if prices of that timber are down. They might be better off waiting. Warwick helps landowners consider these issues as well.

When Warwick is hired as a consultant and to help sell timber, he stays involved through the whole process, even monitoring the logging process.

Timber is the number two industry in the state of Kentucky and it is a growing business in Logan County.

“Logan County is a great county for timber harvesting,” Warwick said. “This is a county that grows a lot of good timber.”

This article was found on:

http://www.newsdemocratleader.com/articles/2007/09/28/news/news04.txt

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