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Welcome to Tennessee Tuesday! We’ve been searching across the state, patrolling the web and scouring our inboxes (as has President Obama, of course) in order to bring you the latest on the state-est that’s the greatest! Let’s get right to it.
First of all, we’ve seen a brief clip from this morning on Fox News on the opposition to mountaintop removal in Tennessee. The controversial practice of mountaintop removal has all the me’s, we’s, and them’s across the state up in arms. A longer piece is scheduled to air this evening, and we’ll be on the lookout for that.
Now, besides the fact that most of our coal companies are owned out-of-state, we’ve gone over the fact that TVA didn’t use any Tennessee coal last year, and that a weakening Central Appalachian coal market is increasingly reliant on sending its product overseas. The New York Times recently did an excellent piece on what more coal exports could mean for American coal, export terminals in the Pacific Northwest and impoverished extraction communities. According to the NYT piece:
Last year, American coal exports set a record of 125 million tons in sales, roughly double the volume in 2009, with most of that going to Europe. Exports fell this spring because of slower Chinese demand for steelmaking coal. But energy experts say the big potential market for American coal remains in Asia, and several proposed Pacific Northwest export terminals would have the capacity to nearly double current exports.
125 million tons in exports last year! That’s more coal than the amount mined in West Virginia and Tennessee combined. And — in what is apparently the new standard for the United State’s coal industry — it’s “better than something happening in China®.”
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American clean energy advocates are celebrating the revelation that 
Drop us a note in the comments to say hello, let us know a bit about yourself, what you’re interested in and what stories we might be missing. It’s been a busy couple of weeks for the Volunteer State in the world of energy, TVA and Congress, so let’s get right to it.
We had a fantastic victory in the U.S. Senate, where the Senate Energy Committee 
From the folks at 
Representative Gloria Johnson (D-Knoxville), gave the following remarks regarding the Scenic Vistas Protection Act to the House Subcommittee on Agriculture and Natural Resources on Wednesday, March 20. Representative Johnson, despite being a freshman legislator in the minority, showed a tremendous amount of courage, even standing up to a hostile line of question from western Tennessean Andy Holt (R-Dresden). Representative Johnson highlighted the fact that people from across the ideological spectrum were coming together in support of protecting our mountains. 
I grew up outside of Birchwood, Tenn., in a log cabin my father built on the shores of the Tennessee River. Walking the hills and hollows of our state is how I learned what home means. Hiking and fishing out in the woods and waters is how I got to know the best of what our country has to offer, the best of what our state has to offer, and its how I got to know my family. These experiences taught me about freedom, self-reliance and responsibility.
When it comes to Tennessee, most everybody has their reason for supporting our mountains. Whether it is a liberal urban Democrat like Representative Steve Cohen (D-TN), or a mainline Republican like Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN), its not a complicated equation. 
Yesterday, at the request of the sponsors, votes on the “Scenic Vistas Protection Act” were delayed one week, to the next Committee calendar on Wednesday, March 20th. 
The first “State of the Union” address of President Obama’s second term had a little something for everybody. The President was aggressive about the need to tackle the problem of climate change, while using broad economic language to describe the potential benefits of growth in solar, wind, energy efficiency, and increased oil and gas exploration and consumption.
The Man: Governor Haslam was born and raised in east Tennessee. He grew up in Knoxville, where the Great Smoky Mountains meet up with the majestic Cumberland Plateau. He would later become mayor of Knoxville, focusing on historic preservation and balancing the city’s budget. In 2010, he was elected for his first term as Governor of Tennessee, succeeding Democrat Phil Bredesen. During the campaign, Mayor Haslam spoke out against mountaintop removal, saying that while we needed to mine coal, he opposed the practice of mountaintop removal (video below). Now that his party has a super-majority in both houses of the state legislature, the Governor has greater opportunity to have an impact on policies adopted by the State House and State Senate.
The Issue: Mountaintop removal is bringing down more 
