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WASHINGTON, Aug. 22 — The Bush administration is set to issue a regulation on Friday that would enshrine the coal mining practice of mountaintop removal. The technique involves blasting off the tops of mountains and dumping the rubble into valleys and streams. It has been used in Appalachian coal country for 20 years under a…

Last week, the North Carolina General Assembly overwhelmingly approved an underwhelming, potentially disastrous Renewables and Efficiency Portfolio Standard (REPS). REPS legislation requires utilities to provide a certain percentage of its power from “renewable” sources. The North Carolina REPS calls for an unambitious 12.5% by 2021. Worse, the bill forces ratepayers to assume the costs of…

Hat-tip to the legendary Stephen Wusso and Grist

It’s a Small World: Google Earth Outreach

July 27th was a dirty day for Big Coal in North Carolina. The Environmental Integrity Project’s report ranked North Carolina among the “dirtiest dozen” states for air pollution from coal-fired power plants and pinned three plants in North Carolina as among the fifty worst carbon dioxide emitters. Of the nation’s 378 large-scale coal-fired power plants,…

No ecosystem scarred by mountaintop removal will ever retain its original beauty or bio-diversity. Reclamation is generally a joke. And not a single inch of Appalachia should ever be subject to the shame of being strip-mined. However, scientists and foresters are using one post-mine land use that I think is very interesting, and could at…

Part 1 Part 2

Two days ago, Citibank downgraded coal stocks “across the board” pointing in significant respects to the industry’s failure to produce timely responses to climate stabilization policy imperatives by, for example, delaying advanced coal technologies with carbon capture and perpetuating its “bad guy” brand. A day after HSBC cut its rating on the industry, Citigroup followed,…

A mild winter and recent drought throughout the southeast have made our forests subject to some of the smallest, most destructive of insects. Timber owners in Alabama and Georgia have already noticed widespread southern pine beetle infestations throughout pine stands. The tiny beetles, about the size of a grain of rice, burrow into the inner…