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Archive for April, 2012

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Working Together for a Clean Energy Future in Virginia

Monday, April 30th, 2012 - posted by Tom

I’ve been thinking a lot about the future lately. Our family has a set of newborn twins expected home from the hospital within another week or two, and it’s funny how babies simultaneously awaken you to the present moment and highlight the importance of preparing well for the coming decades and beyond. Kids transform the future from something abstract to something so literally tangible that you regularly hold it in your arms.

There’s the personal side of this, of course – everything from financial planning to the apple and pear trees my four-year-old and I planted in the backyard earlier this year and the new garden beds we’re building. But there’s no escaping the fact that, prepare individually as we might, the fates of our families and offspring – and everything else we care about – are tied to the future of our communities, our society, and the planet itself. To be sure, contemplating this reality can lead to despair for those attuned to the array of threats to our common future. But despair get us nowhere, and there’s something far more useful that comes just as naturally: the excitement of working together to lay the foundation for a bright future in the face of these threats.

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KY Supreme Court Rules in Favor of Citizens and Water

Friday, April 27th, 2012 - posted by eric

Yesterday the Kentucky State Supreme Court ruled in favor of Appalachian Voices and our partners KFTC, Waterkeeper and the Kentucky Riverkeeper. The ruling upheld lower court rulings allowing us to intervene in a lawsuit between Frasure Creek Mining and the Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet.

That case was brought about in October 2010 when we filed a Notice of Intent to Sue against Frasure Creek Mining, and International Coal Group (Now an Arch Coal subsidiary) for 20,000 violations of the Clean Water Act with potential penalties of over $700 million. The bulk of these violations relate to false and potentially fraudulent reporting of water pollution levels. Under the Clean Water Act companies have limits on the amount of pollution they are allowed to release, and they are required to monitor their pollution to make sure they meet these limits.

In an effort to keep us from being able to bring a case in federal court, the coal companies reached settlements with the Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet, but those settlements needed to be approved by a state court. The settlements amounted to little more than a slap on the wrist; they have minimal fines and no meaningful measures to ensure that the same problems will not continue. Through the citizen suit provision of the Clean Water Act, citizen are allowed to participate in legal actions to protect public waters. Using this provision, we intervened in the state court case in order to argue that the state’s settlement was not fair, adequate and in the public interest.

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Protect Families: Stop Toxic Coal Ash From Polluting the Federal Transportation Bill

Tuesday, April 24th, 2012 - posted by sandra

Keep Coal Ash Out of our Water and the Transportation Bill!

West Virginia Rep. David McKinley is a man on a mission — to save the coal industry from the bullies at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. McKinley’s afraid that the EPA may eventually require coal-fired utilities to contain their coal ash so it’s not allowed to continue to pollute our waterways. But McKinley is not alone — he had some help from the American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC, the organization currently under fire for providing industry the means to unduly influence our elected officials.

McKinley’s bill, H.R. 2273, would literally prevent the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency from protecting families from the water and air pollution associated with poor storage and disposal of coal ash, the toxic remnants of coal-burning.

Last Wednesday, McKinley attached the entire toxic bill as an amendment to the “must-pass” House version of the Transportation Bill. With the Senate version already passed a few weeks ago, there will now be a conference of House and Senate members to hammer out the final Transportation bill.

Please contact your Senators and ask them to reject any amendments that would gut federal coal ash protections.

The passage of this coal ash bill would have real consequences for real people. Just ask Steven Johnson, Gloria Dorsett, Robert Deveaux and Donna Keiser, whose lives have been forever changed by the toxic menace of coal ash. (more…)

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North Carolina Bands with Mighty Big Hearts

Monday, April 23rd, 2012 - posted by Jamie G. -- AV Communications Coordinator

A few weeks ago, Appalachian Voices was on the happy end of a rousing night of rowdy rock and roll and vintage and alt country, thanks to the generous hearts of a few North Carolina musicians.

Molly McGinn, sultry-voiced siren from the Greensboro, N.C., collaborative band, Wurlitzer Prize, and David Brewer, the massively talented musician often fronting Americana r&r favorites Possum Jenkins, hosted a fantastic evening of music as a benefit for Appalachian Voices and our work to end mountaintop removal coal mining.

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Energy Efficiency in the 112th Congress

Wednesday, April 18th, 2012 - posted by molly

A number of bipartisan energy-efficiency bills have emerged or been reintroduced in the 112th Congress. The following four Senate and three House bills are representative of the suite of legislation that aims to incentivize energy-efficiency in homes and businesses. There many bills not listed here, including bills that would extend tax incentives for efficiency upgrades and bills regarding appliance standards. For more information on energy efficiency legislation, visit the Alliance to Save Energy at ase.org or the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy at aceee.org.

Senate, 112th Congress

S.1000 — Energy Savings and Industrial Competitiveness Act

Introduced by: Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) and Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio)
ESICA would increase industrial efficiency assessments and coordinate those efforts on a regional scale. The bill would direct federal appropriations to alleviate some of the cost to lenders of revolving loan programs that help industrial plants reduce energy intensity, and would require the Department of Energy to establish an inventory of cost-effective energy-efficient technologies that assist energy-intensive industries. Other provisions that would assist commercial and industrial sectors increase energy-efficiency include a Supply Star program, modeled after the Energy Star appliance program, that would recognize energy-efficient supply chains.

S. 1343 — Energy and Water Integration Act

Introduced by: Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.)
This bill directs the DOE to research the intersection of water consumption and energy use by studying topics such as water use at power plants and the amount of energy used associated with water use. Under this bill, new program would provide technical assistance to rural water and wastewater utilities that are trying to increase energy efficiency and water conservation.

S.1737 — Sensible Accounting to Value Energy Act

Introduced by: Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) and Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.)
According to the Alliance to Save Energy, “The SAVE Act would require federal mortgage agencies’ standards to account for the energy savings of an efficient home in determining mortgage caps.” Energy costs are a significant part of the cost of home ownership, but loans for homebuyers don’t typically reflect the energy-efficiency of a home. Because more efficient homes save homeowners money annually, borrowers in more energy-efficient homes will have more available funds to make mortgage payments. The SAVE Act would spur energy-saving retrofits to existing homes and create an incentive for builders to increase efficiency in new homes. Implementing the SAVE Act would not require any taxpayer money.

S. 1029 — The Electric Consumer Right to Know Act

Introduced by Sen. Mark Udall (D-Co.) and Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.)
The e-KNOW Act would improve the ability of electricity consumers to access data on their electricity use. Utilities would be required to provide energy use data to ratepayers with smart meters within 48 hours of data being recorded by the utility, and utilities would also be required to provide energy use information to ratepayers without smart meters.

House of Representatives, 112th Congress

H.R. 4017 — The Smart Energy Act

Introduced by: Rep. Charles Bass (R-N.H.) and Rep. Jim Matheson (D-Utah)
This bill complements the Senate’s Energy Savings and Industrial Competitiveness Act, though it is narrower in scope. The bill calls for industries to increase their use of Combined Heat and Power, a system that increases fuel efficiency by recovering excess heat lost during the generating process. The Smart Energy Act also expands the Department of Energy’s loan guarantee program for energy-efficient building upgrades and directs the DOE to establish research and development partnerships with other departments to promote the development and commercialization of energy efficiency technologies.

H.R. 2599 — PACE Assessment Protection Act

Introduced by: Rep. Nan Hayworth (R-N.Y.), Rep. Dan Lungren (R-Calif.) and Rep. Mike Thompson (D-Calif.)
Property Assessed Clean Energy is a financing technique that helps homeowners manage the upfront cost of energy-efficiency upgrades by paying it back incrementally in conjunction with their yearly property taxes. Municipalities with PACE programs are able to sell bonds and use the proceeds to pay the initial cost of renewable energy and energy efficiency retrofits, using a model that is used for other municipal bond investments, like sidewalk repairs, that are paid back over time through taxes.
The secondary mortgage market, including lenders such as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, has stopped financing homes in participating districts, arguing that a new tax assessment puts mortgage lenders lower on the list for homeowners to pay back. PACE supporters argue that the energy savings outweigh the tax assessment, which saves homeowners money and makes it more likely that borrowers will be able to repay lenders. The bipartisan PACE Assessment would codify that PACE assessments are not loans that violate mortgage practices.

H.R. 4230 — Home Owner Managing Energy Savings Act

Introduced by: Rep. David McKinley (R-W.Va.) and Rep. Peter Welch (D-Vt.)
The HOMES Act would authorize $500 million annually from 2013 to 2016 for homeowner rebates toward residential energy-efficiency improvements. Qualifying home energy-efficiency retrofits would include insulation, air and duct sealing, better windows, and heating, ventilation and air conditioning equipment. The HOMES Act would also fund complementary financing programs at the state level.

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Study Weighs Risks, Benefits of Fracking in North Carolina

Wednesday, April 18th, 2012 - posted by Madison

By Brian Sewell

A series of public hearings in March concluded that, with proper regulation, hydraulic fracturing, the controversial natural gas drilling method can be done safely in North Carolina.

The hearings, held in Sanford, Chapel Hill and Pittsboro, received public comment on a draft report of the state’s Department of Environment and Natural Resources’ shale gas study.

Large crowds turned out in opposition to the practice, known widely as “fracking,” citing social concerns and threats to human and environmental health documented in states where the practice currently occurs. Supporters of the method claimed that fracking would create jobs, further the state’s energy independence and provide economic benefits for landowners who own property above the shale gas deposits of the Sanford sub-basin, located in the Piedmont region of the state.

By looking at other states where fracking occurs, the DENR report investigated the risks associated with fracking and possible economic benefits that could come from the practice, which is currently illegal in North Carolina. The study found that some risks are more prevalent in the Tarheel state. The distance between natural gas deposits and underground aquifers in North Carolina is significantly less than in Central Appalachia’s Marcellus Shale, presenting an increased threat to water quality. Also, the state does not have suitable geologic formations for underground disposal of wastewater created during the drilling process. Instead, it would have to be stored in above-ground pits or transported by road.

Despite the risks involved, the draft report concluded that fracking can be done safely in the state and provided initial recommendations, including that state officials record baseline air, ground and surface water data to use for future monitoring on how fracking impacts future air and water quality. The study also advises that the state require gas companies to fully disclose chemicals used during the process to regulatory agencies and to the public, a measure not required in other states. Funding sources for damage to roads and highways from the increase in large truck traffic would also need to be determined due to North Carolina’s lack of pipeline infrastructure found in states with developed oil and gas industries.

At this stage, the report says, economic benefits to the state and individuals from fracking are difficult to determine. However, because North Carolina does not currently have a natural gas extraction industry, a large portion of the jobs and specialized equipment needed would come from out-of-state. Due to low prices and high production in the Marcellus Shale and Western states, development of a natural gas industry in North Carolina seems unlikely in the near future. The Energy Information Administration predicts that natural gas prices will remain below $5 per thousand cubic feet through 2023, making it less likely that the industry will move from productive areas.

Feedback received during the hearings will be incorporated into the final report due to the state legislature May 1.

N.C. Attorney General Appeals Dukes Energy Rate Hike

North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper is appealing a seven percent rate increase for Duke Energy customers that was approved in January. Cooper cited concerns that the rate hike will give Duke shareholders a 10.5 percent return on their investment at the expense of customers struggling in a bad economy. The appeal claims that the N.C. Utilities Commission’s decision to approve the increase was not supported by evidence presented during public hearings and that testimony supporting the increase did not consider the impacts on small businesses, schools and consumers with fixed incomes. Duke Energy initially requested a 17 percent increase that was reduced by the utilities commission before the seven percent increase was approved.

Mild Winter Could Result in Disease Uptick

Health reports predict that 2012 might be one of the worst-ever years for Lyme disease. There are more than 40,000 cases of Lyme disease in the U.S. each year, and with this year’s warmer winter boosting the tick population, those numbers could increase. Here are some tips to keep your family and pets safe this summer:

The Yard: Ticks are not out in the middle of your lawn, they live where yards border wooded areas, or anywhere it is shaded and there are leaves with high humidity. Place a layer of wood chips between your grass yard and the forest’s edge. Ticks are attracted to the wood chips because of the shade and moisture they provide.

Tick Checks: Do periodic tick checks and carefully remove any found. Wear light-colored clothing so ticks are easier to find.

Outdoor Pursuits: When on a hike, bike, or walk try to remain in the center of a trail to minimize your exposure.

For more information on tick control and Lyme disease, visit: cdc.gov/ticks.

Getting Dirty With The ‘Red, White and Blue Potato Garden’

Bristol Virginia Public Schools recently approved a pilot program to help first-graders learn the importance of education, nutrition and exercise. In the “Red, White and Blue Potato Garden,” built by the Appalachian Sustainable Development Learning Landscapes program, each first-grade student receives a Potato Journal to record their findings as they describe, weigh and plant a potato in the school garden, and then harvest the potatoes in their second-grade year. ASD now has eight Learning Landscapes garden models to teach different subjects in a curriculum built for students from kindergarten to 12th grade. For more information about the “Red, White and Blue Potato Garden” visit: asdevelop.org

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The Dirty Money Dozen

Wednesday, April 18th, 2012 - posted by Madison

According to both the Center for Responsive Politics and Oil Change International, contributions from oil, gas and other energy industries skyrocketed in the past five years, with the coal industry alone contributing more than $8 million in 2009-2010 — more than twice what the industry had contributed in any previous election cycle. And during 2011, an unprecedented amount of legislation was introduced to undermine environmental protections and undo existing laws (see “The Dirtiest Congress Money Could Buy” on page 13). We took a look at Appalachian legislators from Virginia, West Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky and North Carolina to see where they stacked up on the energy contribution spectrum. Here are the top three senators and nine representatives who received the highest contributions from the fossil fuel industry thus far in the 112th Congress.

Rep. Geoff Davis (R-KY)
Rep. Davis received $38,500 from fossil fuel industries in the 112th Congress, which is just a fraction of the $427,500 energy companies have contributed to his coffers since 2005. He’s held a firm position against environmental interests, siding with industry on the majority of bills to weaken clean air and water protections this Congress. Davis’ anti-regulation stance isn’t limited to environmental issues — he introduced the REINS Act, which would require Congress to pass any major regulation. The Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index ranked Davis’ district as one of the bottom 5 percent nationally for physical and emotional well-being.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY)
A self-described “constitutional conservative,” Paul is ideologically opposed to government regulation of business; the freshman senator has also received over $226,500 from the energy industry. During his 2010 campaign, Paul notoriously said of mountaintop removal, “I don’t think anyone’s going to be missing a hill or two here and there.” He recently introduced a bill to significantly restrict the EPA’s ability to stop even the most egregious mountaintop removal mines from moving forward, and shows no signs of changing his ardent anti-regulation stance through the remaining four years of his term.

Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY)
The current U.S. Senate Minority Leader and the longest-serving U.S. senator in Kentucky history, McConnell has received $1.6 million dollars in fossil fuel industry donations since 1999, including large contributions from energy giants such as Exxon Mobil and Koch Industries. According to Oil Change International, during his tenure McConnell has sided with fossil fuel interests and against the environment on nearly every occasion. In 2011, along with fellow Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, McConnell introduced S. 468, a bill that would amend the Clean Water Act to ensure that coal mines and some of the nation’s largest polluters are immune to meaningful regulatory scrutiny.

Rep. Hal Rogers (R-KY)
There is more mountaintop removal mining in Kentucky Congressman Hal Rogers’ district than any other district in the United States. Unfortunately, his district also has the seventh highest poverty rate in the nation, with more than 37 percent of the children living below the poverty line, and his constituents ranked dead last in physical and emotional well-being in Gallup’s 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011 well-being surveys of all 435 congressional districts in the country. Since 1999, Rogers has received more than $430,000 of industry contributions, including significant sums from some of the nation’s largest polluters such as Alpha Natural Resources and Arch Coal. In 2010, he sponsored a bill to defund the EPA’s efforts to protect Appalachian citizens from the toxic valley fills associated with mountaintop removal.

Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-TN)
Fleischmann gained the support of a number of coal and oil companies during his freshman run for the 112th Congress, to the tune of $46,900. He represents Tennessee’s 3rd district, which made national headlines when the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Kingston Fossil Plant spilled more than 1 billion gallons of toxic coal ash into the Emory and Clinch rivers. Fleischmann took an uncharacteristically pro-environment stance on an amendment to the House budget bill that would prohibit the EPA from spending money on regulations that identify fossil fuel combustion waste (like coal ash) as hazardous. Yet Fleischmann sided in favor of another anti-environmental coal ash bill introduced by West Virginia Rep. David McKinley and sponsored his own bill to repeal weatherization assistance that improves the energy-efficiency of low-income residents’ homes.

Rep. Scott DesJarlais (R-TN)
In terms of political contributions from the fossil fuel industry, Tennessee Representative Scott DesJarlais is last on our list of top recipients. Including pre-term contributions before the 2010 election, DesJarlais brought in $29,000, including $16,000 from Pilot Oil Corp. However, when it comes to anti-environmental votes, DesJarlais fits right in. According to Oil Change International, Rep. DesJarlais has voted against the environment 100 percent of the time, including key votes that would undermine the EPA’s authority to enforce the Clean Water Act and deny the science related to global warming.

Rep. Nick Rahall (D-WV)
Congressman Nick Rahall has represented southern West Virginia in Congress since 1977. Although he has received more than $250,000 in industry donations, he casts pro-environment votes nearly half the time, according to Oil Change International. As a freshman, he helped draft and pass the 1977 Surface Mine Control and Reclamation Act, and rose through the ranks to become chairman of the Natural Resources Committee. Additionally, Rahall is the ranking Democrat on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, which has jurisdiction over the Clean Water Act. But, during the 112th session, Rahall sided against clean water legislation more than a dozen times, including attempts to defund citizen protection programs, weaken
mountaintop removal regulations and block meaningful legislation on coal ash.

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV)
A self-described “friend of coal,” the former West Virginia governor has received more than $740,000 from the energy industry since he took office in 2009 — second only to Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell in total amount of fossil fuel contributions received by senators in Southern Appalachian states. At his first congressional committee hearing, Senator Manchin erroneously claimed that the coal industry receives “not one penny of taxpayer subsidies,” and shortly after the 112th began he sponsored S. 272, a bill that would amend the Clean Water Act and remove the authority of the EPA to prohibit discharges of materials into U.S. waters at sites designated for waste disposal.

Rep. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV)
Representing West Virginia’s 2nd District, Rep. Shelley Moore Capito has received more than $850,000 over her congressional career from energy giants such as Dominion Resources, Chesapeake Energy and CONSOL Energy. Capito sided with polluters on nearly every piece of legislation during the first session of the 112th Congress, voting significantly worse on environmental legislation than in previous terms. At the beginning of 2011, she joined Reps. Nick Rahall and David McKinley in sponsoring H.R. 199, a bill that would have suspended any action taken by the EPA under the Clean Air Act to regulate carbon dioxide for two additional years.

Rep. David McKinley (R-WV)
Freshman Rep. McKinley has received more fossil fuel money than almost any other representative or senator from Central and Southern Appalachia, accepting nearly $400,000 from fossil fuel industries. In McKinley’s district, Little Blue Run, the nation’s largest coal ash pond, has been leaking for years. While McKinley has announced plans to visit the site with the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection, he introduced a bill last fall to prevent the EPA from regulating coal ash. McKinley also introduced an amendment to another bill that would have prevented the EPA from using its Clean Water Act authority to prohibit or restrict projects that would have an “unacceptable adverse effect” on water, fish and wildlife. But environmental advocates might have reason for hope — McKinley sponsored bipartisan legislation to provide rebates to homeowners who invest in energy efficiency improvements.

Rep. Robert Hurt (R-VA)
A freshman representative in Virginia’s 5th congressional district, Hurt received $78,600 from the energy sector before he was even elected, including substantial contributions from utilities such as Richmond, Va.-based Dominion Resources. In 2011, the House of Representatives passed a bill co-sponsored by Hurt to prevent the EPA from regulating farm dust, a pollution the agency had not intended to regulate in the first place. Including his pre-term contributions, Hurt has received $102,300 from fossil fuel industries during the 112th Congress.

Rep. Morgan Griffith (R-VA)
This freshman representative from southwest Virginia is well-known in energy industry circles, receiving the second-highest amount ($152,300) of fossil fuel money of any Appalachian representative. Griffith has also made a name for himself as one of the EPA’s most aggressive foes — he introduced a bill to shelter polluters by stalling the EPA’s proposed limits on the amount of mercury and other pollutants released by boilers and incinerators. Griffith also sponsored an amendment to the 2011 budget bill to block the EPA and other agencies from protecting navigable waters from mountaintop removal coal mining waste. A member of the House Subcommittee on Energy and Environment, he took an anti-environmental stance on 100 percent of bills evaluated by Oil Change International.

Additional Mentions

Although North Carolina does not have the environmental issues that mountaintop removal coal mining and other resource extraction brings to the other four Appalachian states profiled here, congressional representatives from the Tarheel State still receive substantial contributions from the fossil fuel industry and energy corporations — with two Congressmen coming in just below the top 12 energy money earners from coal-bearing states to earn a mention on the Dirty Money Dozen list.

Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC)
Coming in at 13th on the list, Representative Patrick McHenry represents North Carolina’s 10th district in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. He ranks first in campaign contributions from the fossil fuel industry for federal representatives in North Carolina during the 112th Congress, receiving $17,500, including $10,000 from Koch Industries.

Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC)
While Burr, a member of the Senate Subcommittee on Energy, received only $1,000 in fossil fuel money in the 112th Congress (less than almost all of his peers), he received an estimated $452,000 during the 111th Congress — second only to Senator Manchin of West Virginia — and has collected a total of $1.1 million in contributions since 1999 from sources like Duke Energy and Dominion Resources. An opponent of offshore drilling regulation, Burr pushed to reopen the Gulf to oil drilling only months after the Deepwater Horizon spill, and in 2011 introduced a bill that sought to eliminate the EPA by folding it into the Department of Energy.

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State Legislature Kills Mountaintop Removal Ban Through Delays

Wednesday, April 18th, 2012 - posted by Madison

By Molly Moore

The Scenic Vistas Protection Act, a bill to end mountaintop removal coal mining in Tennessee, was killed by a state House subcommittee after the bill was heard by the state’s Senate this March.

The Tennessee hearing marked the first time that a bill to ban mountaintop removal was heard by a full legislative chamber in a state with active mountaintop removal mining. The bill would have protected Tennessee’s virgin ridge lines above 2,000 feet from the destructive mining practice.

The state Senate delayed an up-or-down vote on the bill, which sent the bill to a House subcommittee. That subcommittee then delayed a vote on the bill by sending it to a summer study session. Rep. Richard Floyd, who proposed the motion, said the summer session would give the subcommittee more time to study the issue. The Scenic Vistas Protection Act, active in the Tennessee legislature for the past five years, also languished in summer study in 2011, with no action and no result.

Rep. Mike McDonald, the bill’s House sponsor, told the subcommittee, “We have lost eight mountains since 2008 by delaying. If we don’t vote this year, we will lose more mountains.”

Prominent Tennesseans, such as former Knoxville mayor Victor Ashe and Rev. Gradye Parsons, the highest elected official in the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA), supported
the legislation.

An editorial in one of the state’s primary newspapers, The Tennessean, stated, “Whoever votes “no” to passage of HB 0291/SB 0577 will be on record as supporting this wanton destruction.”

Private Property Rights Transferred to Coal Industry

A bill that transfers property rights to empty underground mine chambers from private landowners to coal companies was signed by Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell in April. The bill allows companies to dispose of toxic waste in these chambers against the property owners’ wishes, even if the waste would endanger the quality of a property owner’s drinking water.

A hastily written amendment to the bill says that, in some cases, companies must get landowners’ consent. But the bill also says, “such consent shall not be unreasonably withheld if the owner has been offered reasonable compensation for such use.” This provision would leave it up to the courts to decide whether a landowner who refused to allow waste disposal on his or her land for a fee was being unreasonable.

Newsbites

Fly Ash Lawsuit Refiled Against Dominion Virginia Power

More than 400 residents near the Battlefield Golf Club in Chesapeake, Va., refiled a lawsuit this February asking for $2 billion in damages related to water contamination from the coal ash on which the course was built. The Virginian-Pilot reported that court records show well water testing with elevated levels of toxic substances — including lead, vanadium, cobalt and cadmium.

Coal Plant Shutdowns

GenOn Energy will shut down seven coal-fired power plants in Pennsylvania and Ohio after a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ruling forced the utility to greatly reduce the plants’ sulfur dioxide emissions. In Chicago, Midwest Generation agreed to shut down its two plants in exchange for community groups dropping lawsuits against the company.

Coal’s Share of U.S. Electricity Generation Falls to 35-Year Low

Competition from natural gas and mild weather contributed to a 35-year low in the share of U.S. power generated from coal. Although coal still generates the largest share of electricity in the country, its share of monthly power generation dropped below 40 percent in November and December, 2011, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.

Premium Coal Fined For New River Damage

In response to a Jan. 1 coal slurry spill into Tennessee’s New River, the state Department of Environment and Conservation has levied a fine of up to $196,000 against Premium Coal. The company has until April 21 to appeal the fine.

OSM/BLM Merger Moves Ahead

On March 12, the U.S. Department of Interior announced it would move forward with the consolidation of the Office of Surface Mining into the Bureau of Land Management. Proponents say the move will generate savings, while critics say OSM needs to remain an independent agency to be effective.

Alpha Named Most Controversial Mining Company

Alpha Natural Resources took the top spot recently when RepRisk, a firm specializing in environmental and social risk, released a report ranking the world’s most controversial mining companies. The report was released just days after Alpha Chairman Michael J. Quillen announced he was stepping down.

Penn Students Pass Resolution Against Mountaintop Removal

The University of Pennsylvania Undergraduate Assembly passed a resolution on Feb. 21, urging the university to reevaluate its relationship with longtime partner and coal supporter PNC Bank. The resolution by the Penn Community Against Mountaintop Removal, passed with a vote of 20-4.

UBB Mine Manager Charged

Massey mine superintendent Carl May was charged with conspiracy in February for violating mine safety laws in the 2010 explosion that killed 29 miners at the Upper Big Branch facility in Raleigh County, W.Va. Federal prosecutors allege that May and others knowingly put coal production ahead of worker safety on numerous occasions.

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D.C. District Court Overrules EPA’s Spruce Mine No. 1 Permit Veto

Wednesday, April 18th, 2012 - posted by Madison

By Brian Sewell

On March 23, a District of Columbia District Court ruled in favor of Arch Coal and overturned a 2011 veto by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, restoring the permit of the Logan County, W.Va., Spruce No. 1 mountaintop removal mine. U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson ruled that the EPA had overstepped its authority by revoking a permit already granted by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
The ruling that the original Corps of Engineers permit is valid makes Arch’s Spruce Mine, which would span 2,278 acres, the largest permitted mountaintop removal mine in West Virginia history.

The EPA first vetoed the Spruce Mine permit in January 2011 largely because the permit allowed coal operators to bury seven miles of streams. At the time, the agency said the mine would “jeopardize the health of Appalachian communities and clean water on which they depend … We have responsibility under the law to protect water quality and safeguard the people who rely on clean water.”

The ruling sets a precedent restricting the authority of the EPA under Section 404 of the Clean Water Act, and represents a victory for the coal industry and politicians who have accused the current administration of waging a war on coal by delaying or denying mountaintop removal permits. Environmental groups are urging the EPA to appeal the decision in hopes that the permit will again be revoked, and are concerned about the ruling’s possible significance for future mountaintop removal mines.

The ruling came a month after the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers lifted a suspension on a streamlined permitting process for surface mines known as Nationwide Permit 21. Under Section 404 of the Clean Water Act, the revised NWP 21 places restrictions on valley fills associated with mountaintop removal to half an acre and 300 linear feet.

EPA Issues Long-awaited Rules on Greenhouse Gas Emissions

By Brian Sewell

After several years of planning and public comment, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency released the first-ever proposed rules regulating carbon pollution from power plants on March 27. The rule is the result of a 2007 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that gave the EPA authority to regulate greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act.

The proposal will require new power plants to limit their carbon dioxide emissions to 1,000 pounds per megawatt-hour of electricity generated; some plants operating today produce as much as 1,800 pounds per megawatt-hour. To be in compliance, any new coal-fired plants would be required to use carbon capture and storage technology. Natural gas plants would not need any additional pollution controls to meet the requirement.

The rule will apply only to coal-fired power plants that will not begin construction in the next 12 months. Power plants that have been permitted or are currently under construction will be exempt from the rule. However, if utilities build new plants once the rule goes into effect, it will cost significantly more and possibly require carbon capture and sequestration technology. Anticipating this shift, the U.S. Energy Information Administration forecasts that no new conventional coal plants will come online after 2012.

While the rule will not affect permitted plants, it could derail some projects that have not been approved. In Surry County, Va., Old Dominion Electric Cooperative had originally received zoning permission from the Dendron town council and planned to break ground on a 1,500-megawatt coal-fired plant this year. But aggressive community organizing that disputed the zoning succeeded in delaying the permitting process, pushing the proposed plant into qualifying for the EPA’s new regulations and creating an economic liability for ODEC that makes construction unlikely.

Although there are currently no laws limiting the amount of carbon pollution power plants can emit, the agency has determined that emissions threaten human health and contribute to global climate change. The new requirements are likely to become law before the end of the year. The EPA is expected to announce a separate rule after the presidential election that will apply to existing coal plants, which are responsible for nearly 40 percent of the country’s carbon emissions.

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Posted in 2012 - Issue 2 (Apr/May), Coal Report, The Appalachian Voice | No Comments »

Rebuilding The American Dream

Wednesday, April 18th, 2012 - posted by Madison

Excerpts from “Rebuild the Dream” by Van Jones

The time has come to turn things right side up again and declare that America’s honest, hard-working middle class is too big to fail. The aspirations of our low-income, struggling, and marginalized communities are too big and important to fail. The hopes of our children are too big to fail. The American Dream itself is too big to fail.

And we are not going to let these things fail.

Of course, it will not be easy to stop the dream killers. Tax policy that burdens working families and gives the biggest breaks to the super- rich has helped to keep more and more of our national wealth locked in the private safes of the top one percent. This alarming economic polarization, combined with the constant flow of good-paying jobs overseas, threatens to end our status as a middle class nation. Too many of our big banks and largest corporations are behaving in a manner that is both irresponsible and unpatriotic. Their conduct makes it that much worse for the many patriotic and responsible businesses — especially small businesses — that follow the rules and provide good jobs to their employees. . . .

There is reason for hope. The United States remains a rich nation— the wealthiest and most inventive in the history of the world. Global competition and technological advances pose challenges for American workers, but we should always remember that the proverbial pie is bigger than ever today—and still growing. As a nation, we are getting richer; our GDP is still greater than it has ever been. The problem is not that the pie is shrinking; it is that working families are taking home smaller slices of it, as wealth and income are concentrated upward. It will take smart policy, better business practices, and community-driven innovation, but we still have the power to reclaim, reinvent, and renew the American Dream. . . .

America is still the best idea in the world. The American middle class is still her greatest invention. This book is dedicated to the proposition that—with the right strategy and a little bit of luck—the movement of the 99% can preserve and strengthen them both.

“Rebuild the Dream” (Nation Books, 2012) is the latest book by Van Jones, a former Obama White House advisor and member of Appalachian Voices’ advisory board. In it, Jones shares his journey from grassroots outsider to White House insider and proposes ways to get the U.S. economy working for everyday citizens. Published in April 2012, the book is on The New York Times bestseller list and is available at Rebuildthedream.com and bookstores nationwide.

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Posted in 2012 - Issue 2 (Apr/May), The Appalachian Voice, Viewpoint | No Comments »

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