The Front Porch Blog, with Updates from AppalachiaThe Front Porch Blog, with Updates from Appalachia

BLOGGER INDEX

Ten Years In, the Clean Smokestacks Act Continues to Benefit Us All

Saturday, September 1st, 2012 | Posted by Brian Sewell | No Comments

Right now, members of Congress are at home hearing from their constituents about the issues they most care about. In this spirit, we joined residents of North Carolina working on water issues to visit the Charlotte office Sen. Kay Hagan. It was exciting to be in the Queen City, as it gears up for the Democratic National Convention, which Appalachian Voices will participate in next week.

On the issues important to us, Senator Hagan has voted on the side of clean air and water. She opposed a Senate Joint Resolution to overturn the Mercury and Air Toxics Rule, which will greatly reduce the amount of mercury that coal-fired power plants contribute to that air, water and fish. Hagan also opposed overturning the Cross-State Air Pollution rule which unfortunately has been having some trouble in the courts.

We took advantage of the opportunity to thank her for these votes, and encouraged her to remain strong on these issues, as we suspect these attacks will continue into the new Congress. The 112th Congress has been rated as one of the most anti-environmental Congresses ever, with 31 votes to undermine Clean Water Act protections and a total of 247 anti-environmental votes since January of 2011. (more…)

Read More ...



Speaking Truth to Power: Appalachian Voices at the DNC

Monday, August 27th, 2012 | Posted by Brian Sewell | No Comments

From the halls of Congress to small churches and community centers, Appalachian Voices has worked for years to make mountaintop removal an issue of national importance and awareness. Our members, volunteers and staff understand the importance of speaking truth to power with one strong collective voice. This is why next week we will travel to Charlotte, N.C., as all eyes turn to the Democratic National Convention.

During the convention, we’ll be tweeting, posting to Facebook and on our Front Porch Blog, sharing all of the important events happening in Charlotte and how they relate to our work to protect the communities of Central and Southern Appalachia. To make it easier for you to follow all the action, we’ve created a special page for all things DNC.

On September 3, Appalachian Voices and Greenpeace will host “Bourbon, Bluegrass and a Better Future for Appalachia,” where guests of honor Van Jones and Kentucky Rep. John Yarmuth will join us in spirited celebration of our work protecting one of America’s most culturally and environmentally diverse regions.

(more…)

Read More ...



A One-Two Punch in the Fight for Clean Water

Thursday, August 23rd, 2012 | Posted by Brian Sewell | 1 Comment

It has been a week of good news in the fight for stronger protections against coal ash pollution. A court settlement in South Carolina and a major decision regarding the 2008 TVA Kingston coal ash spill make for a one-two punch against the poorly regulated toxic waste.

A federal court found that the Tennessee Valley Authority is ultimately liable for the December 2008 coal ash spill. The failed pond at TVA's Kingston Plant released more than one billion gallons of toxic coal ash and covered 300 acres.

This morning, a federal court ruled that the Tennessee Valley Authority is liable for the massive coal ash spill at its Kingston Plant in December 2008. In his written opinion, U.S. District Judge Thomas Varlan ruled that the spill resulted ultimately from TVA’s “negligent nondiscretionary conduct” — far from the unpredictable geologic event that TVA lawyers claimed was the cause during the trial.

In fact, we know more than ever just how preventable the catastrophic spill was. In the months following the event, an engineering firm hired by TVA issued a report that identified the unstable layer of soil beneath the coal ash which had gone undetected for decades as TVA continued to pile on larger amounts of the toxic waste. Subsequent reports revealed internal agency memos that contained warnings that could have prevented the spill. And in his ruling, Varlan was sure to mention that had TVA investigated and addressed the unstable pond, the spill might have been avoided.

Shorty after the coal ash pond failed, it became clear that the Kingston spill would become the worst environmental disaster of its kind in American history. TVA initially estimated that 1.7 million cubic yards burst from the pond and into the Emory and Clinch Rivers. They later had to revise that estimate to more than 5.4 million cubic yards — more than a billion gallons and 100 times larger than the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill. (more…)

Read More ...



A Summer of Resistance: Civil Disobedience and the Barriers to Progress

Thursday, August 23rd, 2012 | Posted by Brian Sewell | 1 Comment


Photos of RAMPS’ “Mountain Mobilization” courtesy of documentary photographer Mark Schmerling.

On July 28, an action planned and carried out by RAMPS — or Radical Action for Mountain Peoples’ Survival, a group based in West Virginia — led a large group of mostly young protesters to march up the entrance of the Hobet surface mine in Lincoln County, W.Va. Once on the mine site, they climbed trees, chained themselves to heavy machinery and stood with banners that read “COAL LEAVES, CANCER STAYS,” and the optimistic “RESTORE OUR MOUNTAINS, REEMPLOY OUR MINERS.”

The intention of the action, according to RAMPS, was to shut down the mine — and they succeeded. But much of the media attention that resulted from it looked past the point that the protesters were trying to get across: the irremovable mountain of evidence of the devastation caused by mountaintop removal and an industry evading the causes and impacts of its own downturn. Instead, some stories focused on how quickly the situation surrounding the mine escalated which led to confrontations between protesters, counterprotesters and the police.

In a presidential election where everything is made out to be at stake, particularly the future of the coal industry in Appalachia, establishing a dialogue over repeated charges of a so-called “war on coal” has become nearly impossible. The once bright opportunity for collaboration and conversation has not only reached a tipping point, it has fallen off a cliff and is tumbling down a rocky embankment. (more…)

Read More ...



Celebrating the Past, Working for the Future

Wednesday, July 4th, 2012 | Posted by Brian Sewell | No Comments

I have only seen a bald eagle in the wild once. It was during an otherwise uneventful excursion on Lake James near Morganton, N.C. It soared silently overhead, and in a matter of seconds I felt my stomach tighten, the hair on my arms stood up and tears welled up in my eyes. I considered it a gift.

The patriotic pin

That’s the first memory that came to mind when I began to write this post — how I once was lucky enough to see a bald eagle, our national bird and a symbol of our national pride, glide across a lake. The Fourth of July calls not only for the commemoration of our still young nation’s independence, but for the multitude of things that make America great. But before we light up the sky tonight, it seems appropriate to reflect on the nature of our national pride.

Surveying my desk, the lack of red, white and blue makes me self-conscious. Finally, I spot one of the “I Heart Mountains” pins so ubiquitous around the Appalachian Voices office. Its blue ridges and bright red heart bring the same emotions as that tried and true trio of colors. But it’s the simple phrase that evokes feelings of pride for the places and people we work to protect. After all, when we say we love America, we mean we love the people and places in America as much as the ideals on which the nation was founded. (more…)

Read More ...



Reflecting on Gainesville Loves Mountains

Thursday, May 10th, 2012 | Posted by Brian Sewell | No Comments

————————————————————————————————————————————–
We’re happy to share this guest blog post by Kathy Selvage. Last month, Kathy traveled to Florida to speak at Gainesville Loves Mountains. There she found engaged citizens with open hearts and minds.
————————————————————————————————————————————–

I landed at the airport in Jacksonville, FL., on Saturday afternoon, April 14, 2012 at the behest of Jason Fults who invited me to be part of the second Gainesville Loves Mountains series of events and activities. The image of two smokestacks near Jacksonville, seen from high above the earth, seemed to drive their image into my chest as we descended. It haunted me for quite awhile but quickly dissipated by the warm and wonderful people I met afterward.

Saturday night was devoted to getting to know my extraordinary hosts, Jason Fults and Laurel Nesbit, and I was thankful for that time to unwind slightly before we wound ourselves up again for what has proven to be a whirlwind of events.

The very next morning, I attended service with amazing people at UC Gainesville. It was a beautiful service, amazingly inclusive, a wonderful sermon by a seemingly “too young to be a minister” young man named Vince Amil. The repetitive words from a song stuck with me: “When the worship is over, service begins.” After crossing a very inviting courtyard, we met at 11:00 in a separate room for an Adult Education Class on Mountaintop Removal. How cool is that? I left them with a book for the church library accessible to all to remind others of the consequences of burning fossil fuels in this country, the consequence that is most often left out and ignored, the consequence of the extraction process on the Appalachian region and its people. I left there knowing in my heart that these intelligent, thoughtful people would engage and continue to be creative in ways not yet imaginable by me.

Circles close quickly when we are open to others and will have heartfelt conversations with them. I met a woman in the Church who was born in Wise, VA, where I have lived nearly all my life. (more…)

Read More ...



Rebranding Bank of America’s Responsibility

Wednesday, May 2nd, 2012 | Posted by Brian Sewell | No Comments

————————————————————————————————————————————–
Join us in Charlotte on May 9 to remind Bank of America, the largest financier of the U.S. coal industry, of their responsibility to citizens and the environment. Visit our action page for more info and to sign up.
————————————————————————————————————————————–

BREAKING: Daring Action at Bank of America Stadium,” read the first email in my inbox this morning. Immediately, I thought what a crazed football fan might be capable of — in the offseason no less — if they were to break into the complex.

Turns out my imagination had taken the wrong course. The “daring action” at Bank of America Stadium targeted the bank itself. This morning, five activists from the Rainforest Action Network scaled the stadium walls before unfurling a banner suggesting a more appropriate name for the corporation. The “Bank of Coal” banner is a reminder to shareholders, board members and thousands on their daily commute, that the Charlotte-based bank cannot hide its long-standing relationship with coal industry under fluffy pronouncements of corporate responsibility.

(more…)

Read More ...



The EPA’s New Carbon Rule, Getting Serious About Climate Change

Sunday, April 1st, 2012 | Posted by Brian Sewell | No Comments

New EPA regulations that will cut carbon emissions that contribute to climate change and impact human health will become law later this year.

So we’re a little late to the punch on this one. Let’s take a moment to catch up. Last Tuesday, March 27, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency released the first-ever rules regulating carbon pollution from power plants. For those who didn’t already know this news, I should also mention this is not an April Fool’s joke, nor would it be a particularly funny one if it were.

The Tuesday announcement from the EPA represents the findings of a several year-process, beginning in 2007 with a U.S. Supreme Court decision. The ruling that got the ball rolling found that, under the Clean Air Act, the EPA could regulate greenhouse gas pollution that threatens Americans’ health and welfare by making us sick and contributing to global climate change and. But not only do they have the authority to regulate greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, they’re required to, unless they could prove a scientific basis for their refusal, the court ruled further. (more…)

Read More ...



Close Calls as Congress Defeats Rollbacks to EPA Boiler Rule and Speed-up of Keystone XL Pipeline

Wednesday, March 14th, 2012 | Posted by Brian Sewell | No Comments

"Expect Political Attacks" -- Narrowly successful votes on the Boiler MACT standards and Keystone XL pipeline may ramp up attacks on the EPA, again.

Get ready, because a hostile hive of lobbyists echoing industry cries that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is no more than big government, job-killing, mean, green machine may have just been shaken up again.

On Thurs., March 8, Congress narrowly defeated an amendment to a transportation funding bill authored by Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) that would delay the EPA’s proposed Boiler MACT regulations, receiving 52 of the 60 votes it needed to pass. An amendment to the bill to push through the controversial Keystone XL pipeline was also considered but fell just four votes short.

The Boiler MACT, or “maximum achievable control technology,” rule, will set new standards for more than 200,000 industrial boilers and incinerators by requiring technology that reduces harmful air pollutants such as mercury, arsenic and lead. The EPA maintains that the standards will offer major public health benefits, preventing 8,100 premature deaths and 5,100 heart attacks a year starting in 2015 and estimates that Americans would receive $12 to $30 in health benefits for every dollar spent to meet the proposed standards. But as expected, opponents and industry groups are crying foul. What about the jobs!? (more…)

Read More ...



Subcommittee Hearing A “Dog and Pony Show” With Your Ringmaster, Rep. Bill Johnson

Tuesday, March 6th, 2012 | Posted by Brian Sewell | No Comments

Welcome to the Subcommittee Circus

I’ll admit, this morning’s Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources hearing had my head spinning. Similar to the committee’s previous hearings on the stream buffer zone rule, statements made by the Republican majority committee members could cause concerns as to who exactly they’re representing.

The hearing seemed staged to give committee members yet another opportunity to barrage Director of the Office of Surface Mining Joseph Pizarchik with criticism over the Obama administration’s proposed budget for OSM, which includes proposed changes to the Abandoned Mine Lands amendments of 2006, and the highly contested handling of a rewrite of the stream buffer zone rule, a controversial topic dating back several years. On a second panel, Appalachian Voices’ Director of Programs Dr. Matt Wasson gave testimony in support of the Administration’s rewrite of the stream buffer zone rule, using data on job creation to turn some committee members’ claims of regulations as job-killers on their head. (more…)

Read More ...



MSHA’s “Rules to Live By” Remind Us of Real Risks

Thursday, February 2nd, 2012 | Posted by Brian Sewell | No Comments

On Jan. 31, the head of U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration, Joe Main, announced the next phase of the “Rules to Live By” training, a program with a catchy title that aims to reduce mining fatalities and injuries. The 14 targeted safety standards in the “Rules to Live By III: Preventing Common Mining Deaths” were chosen because violations related to each contributed to at least five deaths and five mine accidents between Jan. 1, 2000 and Dec. 31, 2010.

The third phase of the program also marks a shift toward increased scrutiny of surface mine safety with 11 of the 14 targeted standards directly related to surface mining operations, which are often thought of as safer than underground mines. Main said the need to shift the focus from deep mines to surface operations became clear in 2011 when five deaths occurred in just 41 days and emphasized that, although 2011 was the second safest year on record, two-thirds of the total 37 lives lost occured on coal, metal and nonmetal surface mines.

Of the 14 standards, eight are coal priority standards, including daily inspections of surface coal mines and plans for the safe control of all highwalls, pits and spoil banks, “which shall be consistent with prudent engineering design and will insure safe working conditions.”

An announcement made by MSHA on Tuesday describes the intent of Phase III:

Beginning April 1, MSHA will focus more attention on these 14 standards with enhanced enforcement efforts, increased scrutiny for related violations, and instructions to inspectors to more carefully evaluate gravity and negligence – consistent with the seriousness of the violation – when citing violations that cause or contribute to mining fatalities. MSHA inspectors will receive online training to promote consistency in enforcement activity across the agency.

Increased scrutiny of mine operator safety, effective regulation, inspection and enforcement can only be a good thing. When rules put in place to protect workers are seen as little more than threats to profits, they are ignored, and miners are taken from their families and loved ones by preventable deaths. MSHA should be commended on their efforts to stay up-to-date with the conditions that put workers at risk.

But Main’s announcement can also be read as a ironic reminder: Mountaintop removal puts entire communities at risk by imposing an economic, environmental, and public health burden on families. They have their own “Rules to Live By” that include clean air, water and economic and legal justice against a destructive industry encroaching on their homes. Most of these citizens have no way to defend themselves from the long list of negative impacts, conveniently considered “externalities” by the coal industry. And as peer-reviewed studies and mounting evidence show an increase in birth defects around these sites it’s becoming clearer than ever, citizens of Appalachia need stronger enforcement of their rules too.

Just like we need safe mines, we need safe communities. But we can’t have either when mountaintop removal is the mining method of choice.


Our Bright Energy Future — Are We There Yet?

Tuesday, November 8th, 2011 | Posted by Brian Sewell | No Comments

In Bonneville, Wash., some residents using wind power are facing an unusual problem: Too much energy. Now the Bonneville Power Administration is asking customers to volunteer their appliances to help balance supply and demand.

A story in the New York Times on Friday described the pilot project:

When excess supply threatens Bonneville’s grid, an operator in a control room hundreds of miles away will now dial up a volunteer’s water heater, raising the thermostat by 60 more degrees. Ceramic bricks in a nearby electric space heater can be warmed to hundreds of degrees. The devices then function as thermal batteries, capable of giving back the energy when it is needed. Microchips run both systems, ensuring that tap-water and room temperatures in the home hardly vary.

Utilities in the Pacific Northwest are rushing to find ways to store excess wind power that can overwhelm the grid.

As storms roll through, the combination of the wind power generated and Bonneville Power Administration’s hydroelectric plants supply the grid with so much energy, so fast that the surplus threatens to overwhelm the grid. The utility has the option of shutting down the producing turbines but devising a successful storage method is preferable. Cool, huh?

In the story, the director of reliability assessment at the the North American Electric Reliability Corporation, Mark K. Lauby, says that such storage innovations would be “the holy grail” as the nation shifts to greater reliance on renewable energy.

Some have found the grail and are putting it to good use. The rest of us watch as the fossil fuel industry wriggles more and more to maintain the myth. But solar and wind power are here and they’re becoming cheaper all the time.

In his Monday op-ed, Here Comes the Sun, NYT columnist Paul Krugman calls out the big oil propaganda that continues to cast a shadow over innovation in the renewables industry and criticizes the dangerous craze for increased natural gas drilling using hydraulic fracturing.

If you still think of solar power as some kind of hippie fantasy, blame our fossilized political system, in which fossil fuel producers have both powerful political allies and a powerful propaganda machine that denigrates alternatives.

It’s important to not fall prey to the cries of some in Congress that supporting clean energy is nothing more than a gamble or the epitome of government waste. It should be supported more, much like the federal backing given to fossil fuels.

Prices in the solar industry, adjusted for inflation, are falling at seven percent each year.

If the fossil fuel industry paid the costs of its impact on the climate and public health, solar power might already be competitive. Krugman is an economist by trade, but it doesn’t take an expert to figure out these practices would not be cost-effective if the fossil fuel industry went about them in an ethical way.

Economics 101 tells us that an industry imposing large costs on third parties should be required to “internalize” those costs — that is, to pay for the damage it inflicts, treating that damage as a cost of production. Fracking might still be worth doing given those costs. But no industry should be held harmless from its impacts on the environment and the nation’s infrastructure.

We can take advantage of the growing potential of renewable energies, if only we begin brushing away the cobwebs. The technology is advancing and costs are dropping, making destructive methods of extraction like fracking and mountaintop removal seem more antiquated every day.

Reading these stories and others like them help us think optimistically about a bright energy future. And considering the implications, they beg the question: Are we there yet?

Update: Another piece on the cost of solar, this one from the Washington Post blog. “Solar is getting cheaper, but how far will it go?” discusses grid parity and the prediction that solar could be cheaper than fossil fuels by 2018.



 

 


Facebook Twitter Instagram Youtube