Best new years wishes to everyone. I’ve been enjoying the holidays with friends and family in the incomprable mountains of east Tennessee. I’m thankful to spend a few days away from the bustle of DC, back in the south and in the presence of loved ones.

We are really looking forward to improving the writing and content on the AV front-porch blog for 2008, as well as covering the numerous exciting events on the horizon from progress on the Clean Water Protection Act (HR 2169), fun new tools and media on iLoveMountains.org, and of course looking at candidates for local, state, and federal elections. I also look forward to watching mountaintop removal take an increasingly visible roll in the national energy and environmental debate.

One of the most important New Years resolutions you can make this year is to join S.A.M.S. in stopping the proposed coal-fired power plant which is being built right in their backyard. Please visit the SAMS blog, learn about the great work they are doing, and consider them in your 2008 giving plan. Check them out.

…and if you just do one thing, for goodness’ sake, SIGN THEIR PETITION

By John Vidal, environment editor
The Guardian (London)
Saturday December 29 2007

The holy grail of renewable energy came a step closer yesterday as thousands of mass-produced wafer-thin solar cells printed on aluminium film rolled off a production line in California, heralding what British scientists called “a revolution” in generating electricity.

The solar panels produced by a Silicon Valley start-up company, Nanosolar, are radically different from the kind that European consumers are increasingly buying to generate power from their own roofs. Printed like a newspaper directly on to aluminium foil, they are flexible, light and, if you believe the company, expected to make it as cheap to produce electricity from sunlight as from coal.

Yesterday Nanosolar said its order books were full until mid-2009 and that a second factory would soon open in Germany where demand for solar power has rocketed. Britain was unlikely to benefit from the technology for some years because other countries paid better money for renewable electricity, it added.

“Our first solar panels will be used in a solar power station in Germany,” said Erik Oldekop, Nanosolar’s manager in Switzerland. “We aim to produce the panels for 99 cents [50p] a watt, which is comparable to the price of electricity generated from coal. We cannot disclose our exact figures yet as we are a private company but we can bring it down to that level. That is the vision we are aiming at.”

This is the Kentucky and Virginia border at Wise County.

On the Kentucky side, you’re looking at an area that is currently protected.
On the Virginia side, you are looking at a County (Wise County) where 25% of all the land has been strip-mined.

For the King of Conservation, let your friends know about “I love Lenny” on facebook

By Josh Tulkin, Chesapeake Climate Action Network
Last night in St. Paul, VA — ground zero for Dominion Virginia Power’s proposed Wise County coal plant — over 100 citizens raised their voices to question members of the Department of Environmental Quality. Residents raised a variety of concerns. The hearing was organized for DEQ to get input on their ‘draft permit.’ Well, input they got. And a lot of it! o

The meeting started with a short technical presentation from the head of DEQ for SW Virginia. In essence, he explained how DEQ felt that the plant was going to be “clean coal” and that is met all requirements. Honestly, it was pretty boring, and everyone was eager for the Q&A.

Kathy Selvage from the Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards kicked off the Q&A by asking about mercury.
How much mercury will the plant emit?Just over 70 pounds a year, but don’t worry, its all “within regulation”.
But don’t 1 in 6 women of childbearing age have unsafe levels of mercury in their blood? Don’t worry, it’s within regulation.
Kathy pointed out that just 1/70th of a teaspoon can contaminate a 25 acre lake. “We’re doing the best we can”

A minister from a neighboring community grew quite emotional when he asked why they chose to build the power plant less than a mile from the local elementary school. “Our modeling shows that all the of pollution will be at ‘protective limits’. They kept using this term ‘protective limits. Personally, I think NO POLLUTION is the most protective limit.

Tom Cormons from Appalachian Voices echoed concerns raised by the National Forest Service about the plants impact on Linville Gorge Wilderness in the Pisgah National Forest. People at the hearing ranged from high profile names like the local celebrity Frank Taylor who repeatedly asked about pollution levels and the cumulative effects of the multiple power plants upwind from St. Paul, to concerned parents who have children attending St. Paul schools (the schools are all less than a mile away from the construction site).

While the DEQ had plenty of specific answers when it came to the amount of pollutants the power plant would emit, they maintained that they could not comment on the effects they might have. According to EPA data, the CARBO coal-fired power plant, also located in St. Paul, is responsible for 59 premature deaths each year. How many will occur from the proposed plant? DEQ couldn’t say.

A resident who lives right off the main road asked about pollution from transportation. Dominion estimates that the plant will require six hundred diesel coal trucks a day to feed coal for the plant. Will it lead to more mountaintop removal coal mining? More smog? DEQ couldn’t say.

In fact, the DEQ maintained throughout the question and answer period, that their realm of study only pertains to how the pollutants of this plant would relate to the legal limits of pollutants. Basically, the DEQ claims that it is beyond their ability to do anything about the plant’s potential This inability to give a straight answer on so many important issues seemed to only cause the local citizens to want to ask more, harder hitting questions. In the end, only two or three defenses of the coal industry were voiced by attendants.

OUR COUNTER-BRIEFING

Before the DEQ briefing, Matt Wasson of Appalachian Voices held a “community briefing” to give citizens a chance to hear another side of the story. Word of our presentation was spread through talking to folks who came to the earlier DEQ question and answer period, and through the efforts of Kayti Wingfield from Sierra Club and myself hitting the town, going from business to business to reach out the locals, and we were surprised to hear so many residents concerned about the power plant. About thirty people showed up to the basement of St Therese Catholic Church around the corner from the elementary school.

As folks gathered and got settled, free pizza and soda in hand, it was obvious that these families were excited to learn more. Matt’s presentation used images of the existing power plant in Russell County, mountaintop removal in Wise, and Google earth imaging to paint the picture of exactly what the Coal industry has done and will continue to do to south west Virginia if allowed to continue with plans to build this power plant. It showed that Wise County is the second most heavily strip mined county in all of Appalachia with 25% of the land being destroyed. It showed that unemployment, poverty, suicide rates, and the number of disabled citizen’s all correlate directly with mountaintop removal mining. It showed that there is not much coal left in SW Virginia, and how this plant would require much more mountaintop removal.

The picture of what will come should this power plant be built is clear, and is damn ugly. Those who came and saw the presentation wanted more to do, and some were ready to come to the SCC hearing in Richmond on January 8th.

We are pleased to announce that due to the unprecedented work of 100s and 1000s of people across the country, the Clean Water Protection Act (HR 2169) to fight mountaintop reomval has reached another important milestone.

With the addition of Robert Andrews from New Jersey’s first district, all previous co-sponsors from the 109th Congress have signed back on in the 110th Congress. This brings our grand total to 122 co-sponsors (including Representative Pallone) from California to Maine and Florida to Washington.

An enormous thanks to everyone. Its fun to watch as this effort grows. Please check and see if your Congressman is a co-sponsor. If they are, then please thank them . If not, please give them a call, or write them an email or letter asking them to co-sponsor the Clean Water Protection Act (HR 2169).

Dear Friend,

The word is getting out about the true cost of mountaintop removal coal mining.

In the two weeks since we launched the My Connection webtool and campaign, more than a thousand new people have signed up to iLoveMountains.org — in large part because of your efforts to help spread the word.

MyConnection has also garnered a great deal of press attention. Just last week, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. wrote about our efforts in The Huffington Post:

Coal’s most catastrophic and permanent impacts are from mountaintop removal mining. If the American people could see what I have seen from the air and ground during my many trips to the coalfields of Kentucky and West Virginia: leveled mountains, devastated communities, wrecked economies and ruined lives, there would be a revolution in this country.

Well now you can visit coal country without ever having to leave your home. Every presidential candidate and every American ought to take a few seconds to visit an ingenious new website, [ iLoveMountains.org] that allows one to tour the obliterated landscapes of Appalachia….

The amazing new website allows you to enter your zip code to learn how you’re personally connected to the great crime of mountaintop removal. Using this website Americans from Maine to California can see these mountains and the communities that were sacrificed to power their home….

The site puts a human face on the issue by highlighting the stories of families living in the shadows of these mines…..

This new website finally exposes this national disgrace for every American to witness.

Across the country, other writers and reporters have hailed the My Connection webtool, with great stories appearing in papers ranging from The Winston-Salem Journal to The Wall Street Journal, as well as in regional and national outlets such as West Virginia Public Broadcasting and the Worldwatch Institute.

But we need your help to continue to get the word out about how we’re all connected to the national tragedy of mountaintop removal coal mining.

Here’s what you can do:

• Visit any of the press links above and send an article to 5 friends or family members. Ask them to check out My Connection and to join you in our effort to stop mountaintop removal coal mining.
• If you belong to Facebook, MySpace, de.licio.us, DIGG, or any other social networking or link-sharing site, take a moment to add the My Connection link to your profile or stream, or click here to add an “Are You Connected?” badge to your blog or homepage. You never know when a friend will follow your recommendation and get involved!
• If you haven’t visited your personal impact page recently, take a moment to sign in and invite 5 more friends to join you in the movement to end mountaintop removal coal mining.

Getting the word out and getting your friends and family to join us does make a tremendous difference. For example, your efforts to demand Congressional action to end the worst abuses of mountaintop removal have resulted in a record 118 co-sponsors for the Clean Water Protection Act in the U.S. House, and thousands of comments have been sent to the Office of Surface Mining opposing the Bush administration’s attempt to weaken a long-standing federal rule intended to protect streams from coal mining.

Thanks to you, we’ve seen tremendous growth in all of our efforts this year — but we’re just getting started! 2008 will see the debate over the future of mountaintop removal coal mining grow even more intense and prominent.

So please, take a moment to take any or all of the actions above. By acting together, we can grow our movement and put an end to the national disgrace of mountaintop removal coal mining.

Thank you for taking action,

Mary Anne Hitt
iLoveMountains.org