The Progressive Caucus is taking questions our about energy! They have a lot on their plate, with the upcoming Waxman-Markey climate bill, and the Clean Water Protection Ac (HR 1310) now passing 150 cosponsors.

Please take a moment to vote, to ask Congressional Representatives about mountaintop removal.

During the campaign, President Obama promised to make protecting Appalachian streams a primary task of his EPA. Earlier this week Mike Shapiro, the Acting Assistant Administrator for the EPA Office of Water, testified before the the House Subcommittee on Water Resources and the Environment regarding the EPA’s priorities in the upcoming year. Many in Appalachia are curious about where the well-being of our region falls on that list of priorities.

In response to the recent public outcry about EPA’s approval of dozens of new mining permits (including many mountaintop removal sites with multiple valley fills), freshman Democratic Congressman Tom Perriello (VA-05) sought to get some straight answers from EPA on how they plan to handle the mountaintop removal issue moving forward.

Congressman Perriello: Mr Shapiro, my understanding is that the EPA is currently reviewing about 150 to 200 mountaintop removal permits, and of the ones reviewed so far, roughly 90% have been permitted. Do you expect that percentage to remain in place with the remaining permits?

Mr. Shapiro: Its tough to predict. As you indicated, we’ve started a review focusing on those that were furthest along in the process, and as you indicated a relatively small percentage had been identified for further review by the agency in discussion with the Army corps of Engineers and the permittees

As we go forward it depends on the mix of proposals that are present. The kinds of considerations that weigh in our judgment when we decide to raise issues have to do with the scope and scale of the impact of the proposed mine, the sensitivity of the resources that might be impacted and at least our initial assessment of the degree to which damages have been avoided to the maximum extent practicable.

I think that although the evidence we have in the first 200 is the best we have to project into the future, we can’t guarantee, we’re not shooting for a specific percentage. We’re really shooting to identify those that are seriously problematic and to try and address them.

Congressman Perriello: When you say you’re looking at the ones furthest along, do you mean that have done the most to look at potential impacts on the ecosystem and environment, or simply furthest along in terms of investment and development?

Mr. Shapiro: Furthest along in the Corps permitting process, thank you for that question to allow me to clarify. What had happened is that because of some uncertainty involving lawsuits that were in play, there had been a hold up in the backlog of permits – had developed over time. So in fairness to the permitees we have focused early attention on those that were furthest along in terms of temporally their readiness for permitting in the view of the Corps’ process. As we work out way through that backlog we’ll try to do that in a way that respects the amount of time its taken already to get the permit up to where it is.

Congressman Perriello: Is their an issue at all with a lack of funding for oversight that hinders your ability to review and suggest alternatives to some of these mountaintop removal situations, around Appalachia in particular.

Mr. Shapiro: At this point I think we have, in my view, resources to do the job in front of us. Like anyone else, I think if we had more staff who were experienced in this area its possible we could move faster, but we were able to juggle the resources we have by focusing on those that are the highest priority, getting the maximum results in terms of our investment in staff.

Watch the video here. The exchange with Congressman Perriello begins at about 1:56:20.

The American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 cleared its first of many hurdles to passage yesterday, passing the Energy and Commerce Committee by a vote of 33-25. The vote was mostly party line, with three conservative Democrats defecting (Mike Ross (AR-04), Jim Mathson (UT-02), and Charlie Melancon (LA-03)) and one Republican voting with the Democratic Majority (Mary Bono Mack (CA-45)).

Reactions are mixed from environmentalists and industry alike, but here is a partial round-up:

1Sky Celebrates
Sierra Club Applauds
Greenpeace: Broad Coalition Criticizes Climate bill
Scholars and Rouges has mixed emotions
Climate Bill Wins Enough Votes to Pass, but at What Cost?

President Obama’s statement

I commend Chairman Waxman and the Members of the Energy and Commerce Committee for a successful effort to pass a comprehensive energy and climate bill out of their committee today. We are now one step closer to delivering on the promise of a new clean energy economy that will make America less dependent on foreign oil, crack down on polluters, and create millions of new jobs all across America. The bill is historic for what it achieves, providing clean energy incentives that encourage innovation while recognizing the concerns of sensitive industries and regions in this country. And this achievement is all the more historic for bringing together many who have in the past opposed a common effort, from labor unions to corporate CEOs, and environmentalists to energy companies. I applaud the committee for its action and look forward to signing comprehensive legislation.

There is some hope that the bill may be strengthened as it goes to the Ways and Means Committee in the House (and potentially several other committees), but most seem to believe that the bill will continue to get weaker. Consensus in the environmental community seems to be that the bill is imperfect, and even disappointing in many regards in its leniency to the fossil fuel industry which is destroying the climate in the first place. However, people seem excited because if passed this bill will begin to regulate carbon dioxide emissions, a dire and necessary step in order to prevent catastrophic climate change within our lifetimes. President Obama, Chairman Waxman, and others believe that a win begets a win. For the environmental movement – passing a bill that regulates greenhouse gas emissions – even in an imperfect vehicle such as Waxman-Markey, must be the first of many such wins if we are to accomplish what the science says is necessary to save the planet as we know it.

While several dozen people were outside Duke Energy headquarters protesting CEO Jim Rogers’ decision to construct new coal-fired power plants in North Carolina and Indiana, Scott Gollwitzer, Appalachian Voices’ In-house Counsel, was inside asking questions at the annual shareholders’ meeting.

When it was his turn, Gollwitzer briefly described the devastating social and environmental impacts of mountaintop removal coal mining for Rogers and the shareholders. He then outlined Duke’s justification for burning it in North Carolina:

(1) Duke’s power plants are designed to burn a percentage of Central Appalachian coal;

(2) approximately fifty percent of Duke’s coal is extracted by mountaintop removal;

(3) Duke uses mountaintop removal coal to maximize profits because it is “allegedly” less expensive than other Central Appalachian coal; and

(4) mountaintop removal coal is regulated by state and federal agencies.

Then Gollwitzer mused, “I think everyone in this room would agree that just because something is legal, say slavery, doesn’t make it moral. I ask you then—and this is a yes or no question—just because mountaintop removal is legal, is it moral to burn it to maximize profits when alternative sources of Central Appalachian coal are available at comparable prices?”

Rogers answered that “Duke will be looking to move away from mountaintop removal coal mining as its existing coal purchasing contracts expire.” He also expects “increased regulation of mountaintop removal from Washington, D.C.”

“So it’s neither moral or immoral?” pressed Gollwitzer. “It was a yes or no question.”

“For us it’s a little bit of a balancing act, but I think you’re on the right side of this issue,” replied Rogers. “It’s not sustainable.”

“Jim Rogers has all but admitted that burning mountaintop removal coal is immoral. This is a huge step in ending the destruction of the people, communities and ecosystems of central Appalachia,” said Gollwitzer. “Honestly, I was flummoxed by his candor because Duke has been working to scuttle state legislation that would prohibit the purchase of mountaintop removal coal.”

The Appalachian Mountains Preservation Act introduced by NC state representative Pricey Harrison, would prohibit North Carolina’s investor-owned utilities from burning mountaintop removal coal. While the bill prohibits these utilities from entering into new contracts to purchase coal from mountaintop removal operations, it does not interfere with existing contracts.

Great news for the struggling economy of Appalachia and the South…

Washington, DC: The experts behind a group of new reports summarized their findings today showing that new coal plants present serious financial risks to southern utilities and ratepayers, especially in light on looming federal regulations on carbon dioxide emissions.

“Our analyses have shown that uncertainty about future coal plant construction costs and the costs of complying with impending federal regulation of plant carbon dioxide emissions represent significant risks for utilities and their customers,” said David Schlissel, a Senior Consultant for Synapse Energy Economics. “In particular, the federal government is likely to mandate significant reductions in carbon dioxide emissions. The costs of complying with this expected federal action are likely to increase the cost of generating power at new coal-fired plants by tens to hundreds of millions of dollars each year, making coal an even more expensive option than energy efficiency and renewable resources.”

Citing a growing body of evidence, which includes financial reports from Virginia, South Carolina, Kentucky and Louisiana, the experts highlighted the clear economic benefits of renewable energies and energy efficiency in the South, and across the Nation.

Michael Fisher, Vice President and Principal Associate of Abt Associates, which authored the Virginia report found that, “Investments in energy efficiency are considerably less expensive and more beneficial to the Virginia economy than building a new coal-fired power plant to meet Virginia’s energy needs.”…

“The relative economic gains to Virginia from energy efficiency investments are substantial, with Gross State Product increasing by upwards of a billion dollars annually and employment increasing by over 5,000 new jobs,” continued Fisher.

In all of the reports, the findings clearly indicated that new coal-fired power plants were not needed.

“In our analysis of East Kentucky Power Cooperative we found the proposed Smith coal plant was not originally approved on the basis of the demand for electricity, but rather for business needs. Since then energy demand has slowed considerably and the need for the plant is even less. Now, with changes in federal policies, the plant serves no purpose at all. In baseball, three strikes means you’re out. The Smith coal plant would be a highly polluting, expensive, and unnecessary burden on Kentucky ratepayers,” said Tom Sanzillo, a Senior Associate with TR Rose Associates.

“These reports make it clear that the South is not an exception,” said Mark Kresowik, Corporate Accountability Representative for the Sierra Club. “Coal plants are simply a poor investment, no matter where in the country you are building them. We need to be investing wisely, especially in these economic times, and that means looking at energy efficiency and renewable energy projects that can create jobs and help fight global warming, without the drawbacks of coal.”

###
Reports:

Old Dominion Electric Cooperative’s Hampton Roads Power Plant, Virginia

Resources

Santee Cooper’s Pee Dee Power Plant, South Carolina
https://coastalconservationleague.org/Page.aspx?pid=842

East Kentucky Power Cooperative’s Smith Power Plant, Kentucky
https://kentucky.sierraclub.org/Resources/Environmental_Research/RightDecision/FullReport.pdf

Dominion Resources’ Wise County Power Plant, Virginia
https://www.wiseenergyforvirginia.org/downloads/WisePowerReport0309.pdf

Entergy’s Little Gypsy Power Plant, Louisiana https://www.all4energy.org/sites/default/files/The_Mysterious_Little_Gypsy.pdf

Encouraging news from our friends in Virginia at Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards:

Contact:
Kathy Selvage (276) 523-4380, (276) 219-2721
Adam Wells (276) 523-4380, (804) 240-4372
samsva@gmail.com
www.samsva.org

Community delivers letter to DMME urging denial of Ison Rock Ridge permit with over 300 signatures.

Concerned residents delivered a letter addressed to Jackie Davis at the Virginia Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy office requesting that the Department deny the proposed mountaintop removal permit on Ison Rock Ridge near the town of Appalachia in Wise County, Virginia. The letter, which was accompanied by the signatures of over 300 potentially impacted community members, was based on an earlier EPA directive to the US Army Corps of Engineers to deny the ‘nationwide 21’ permit for surface mining operations on Ison Rock Ridge.

“These signatures represent the overwhelming community opposition to strip mining on Ison Rock Ridge.” Said Larry Bush, retired mine federal mine inspector and chairman of the board for Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards. “These signatures came from our friends and neighbors here in the coal camps”, said Bush.

After presenting their letter to DMME, the group displayed two certificates. One, a “Certificate of Appreciation” the other, a “Certificate of Failure to Protect Communities and Follow Science”. A spokesperson from the group informed DMME that one of the two awards would be given once DMME makes a decision on the pending permit. A ruling from DMME is expected within the next week. It is their hope to award the “Certificate of Appreciation”

Residents of the town of Appalachia, Andover, Inman, Derby and other nearby communities fear that strip mining on Ison Rock Ridge would seriously degrade their quality of life and put their family’s safety at risk. Portions of the proposed permit are within town limits. The EPA’s letter to the Army Corps cites that the cumulative impacts of prior surface mining operations in the Powell River watershed render the ecosystems unable to absorb any more damages from sedimentation and heavy metal run-off.

“The EPA has created a clear mandate.” Said Derby resident Bob Mullins who worked to gather over 100 of the signatures from his neighbors. “ Now it’s DMME’s turn to show that they will follow the science laid out by the EPA and listen to the voices from the community. I hope that DMME will deny this permit.”

The Ison Rock Ridge permit covers nearly 1,300 acres and would destroy three miles of streams and fill nine lush valleys with more than 11 million cubic yards of rock and dirt. The massive mountaintop removal coal mine would surround the community of Derby, bringing destruction within a half mile of the historic district. Other nearby affected communities include Andover, Inman, and Osaka and the Town of Appalachia.

Another letter, also signed by community members, was delivered to the EPA this morning thanking the Agency for taking action to protect the communities threatened by strip mining on Ison Rock Ridge. This letter was delivered at a meeting, hosted by the Power Past Coal project, between the EPA and 6 delegates from across the county representing different stages of the coal ‘life cycle’. This meeting is a part of the final events of the “100 days of action to power past coal”.

Attached is a media advisory for this event as well as both letters from the community.

“What we’re doing today is just one more step to prove to DMME that this permit should not be granted.” Said retired coal miner Pete Ramey, President of Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards. “We hope to soon be able to send a thank you letter to DMME like the one delivered today to EPA.”

This is a really beautiful letter from Bo Webb to Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia.

Dear Sen. Byrd: Restoring mountains could be your greatest legacy

Dear Sen. Byrd, I write you today as a grandfather, and as a deep admirer of your inimitable contribution to our beloved state of West Virginia. As the son of a coal miner, I will always value your work to ensure economic investment and proper safety in our coalfields.

Soon, as you know, as the colorful peepers of red bush and wake robins pull from the clinch of winter, I will take my granddaughter’s hand and roam our Clay Branch hollows in search of ramps. This has been a 150-year tradition in my family in the Coal River mountain range, as I am sure it was for your family along Wolf Creek.

This year, though, instead of that pungent smell of wild ramps and the blossoms of spring, my granddaughter will be exposed to the sickening haze of ammonium nitrate and diesel oil, and the after shower of silica dust that blankets our hollow like a plague. Our ancestral mountain in the Peachtree community is being destroyed for a mountaintop removal operation.

In your wonderful book last year, Letter to a New President: Commonsense Lessons for Our Next Leader, you wrote that we should never turn our backs on the lessons of our coal-mining fathers. My father, like others in my family, first started working in the mines at age 11. But it is the grave of my Uncle Clyde Williams, who died in the mine at Leevale here on Coal River Mountain at age 17, that also hovers in my mind as I walk these hills, gather herbs and berries, and hunt and fish with my grandchildren.

I want my children and grandchildren to have the right to dream and flourish as great contributors to our state in West Virginia. I don’t want them to feel compelled to leave our state to look for employment or to realize their dreams. I want them to know that the rule of law protects them, their families and our mountains.

You, more than any other person in our state, understand this. When you went to Washington, D.C., for the first time to represent West Virginia, more than 130,000 union coal miners proudly toted their lunch pails and went to their jobs in the underground mines in our state. And you, as our voice in Washington, proudly made sure their safety and security were priorities to the rest of the country. Today, only 20,000 West Virginia coal miners make up those ranks. In many respects, strip mining and mountaintop removal operations have robbed my generation and my children of a chance to maintain our great Appalachian heritage, our beloved mountains and vibrant streams, and above all, any diverse economic development in our community.

In responding to the recent EPA decision to scrutinize mountaintop removal permits more closely last week, you wrote: “Every job in West Virginia matters. Everyone involved must act swiftly in concert and cooperation to remedy any problems that threaten coal jobs and the people who live in the local communities where coal is mined.”

Sen. Byrd, as a grandfather, I write to you: If our grandchildren are going to have any jobs and future at all in West Virginia, we must get beyond the stranglehold of mountaintop removal coal operations and find a way to bring new jobs and life to our mountain communities.

This could be your greatest legacy, among many, Sen. Byrd. Your public role in co-sponsoring the Appalachian Mountain Restoration Act (S.696) to defend the health and safety of our communities and putting an end to mountaintop removal and its destruction of our local economies, would place our state back on track for responsible mining, more coal mining employment, and a step toward a diversified economy that includes loans and investment in manufacturing of renewable energy products, such as wind turbine and solar panels, and high-technology operations.

In your powerful Letter to a New President, you wrote: “What determines the quality of American democracy is the use we make of our power. We have institutions in place to help this country avoid the misuse of our power. Those institutions are Congress, the courts and public opinion. The more we cut off true debate and the exchange of ideas, and let those in power use emotion, misdirection and the manipulation of truth to whip the nation into action, the more likely we are to make dangerous mistakes in how we use our power. A representative democracy only works when the people are involved. We need them.”

We need you now more than ever, Sen. Byrd, to bring new jobs, and restore a new sense of democracy to the coalfields of West Virginia.

Courtesy of Bob Kincaid and our friends at Head On Radio

President-Elect Obama’s new Secretary of the Department of Energy has not been shy about the fact that the United States has to transition away from coal to survive.

In fact, Chu says:

Coal is my worst nightmare.

Dr. Chu, currently Director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and a Stanford University professor, also says he doubts that carbon sequestration is an effective tool to save the coal industry.

Chu said existing pilot projects involving a few million tons of carbon dioxide sequestration are far too small to tell if the process would work on the scale needed.

“It’s sort of a research and development issue,” he said. “I think we have to do this if we’re going to go forward with coal, but it’s not a guarantee that we have a solution with coal.”

Chu, a Nobel laureate, can be seen below speaking on his thoughts on renewable energy at the Berkley labs. His remarks on coal begin roughly 28 minutes in.

Courtesy of our friends at KFTC and the MIT Community Innovations Lab:

The House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming held an important hearing yesterday on Bush’s 11th hour rule-making shenanigans. As most of our readers will know, one of those last minute rule changes is a repeal of the 25 year old Stream Buffer Zone rule – an important guard against the dumping of mountaintop removal mining waste into our streams – which just landed in the Federal Register today.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr gives perhaps the most significant and compelling testimony on mountaintop removal mining I have ever seen, and I hope you will take 10 minutes to watch him describe in his own words – and the words of his late father – exactly what is happening to the Appalachian Mountains.

(Unofficial transcript, beginning around 3:10)

I’ve filed very detailed testimony about some of the worst of these actions, but I just wanted to give you a real life expression of what’s going on. I flew only a few weeks ago over the Appalachian Mountains over eastern Kentucky, and West Virginia mainly, and the Cumberland Plateau. If the American people could see what I saw on that trip, there would be a revolution in this country. We are literally cutting down the Appalachian Mountains, these historic landscapes where Daniel Boone and Davy Crockett roamed. The Appalachians, Chairman, were a refuge during the Pleistocene ice age 20,000 years ago when – where I live and the district Congressman Hall represents was under 2 miles of ice at that time. The rest of North America turned into a tundra where there was no forest. And the last refuge for those forests was the Appalachian Mountains. And when the tundras and glaciers withdrew, all of America was reseeded from the seed stock in those forests. So it’s the mother forest of all north America, and that’s why it’s the most diverse and abundant temperate forest in the world. Because it’s the longest living. And today, these mining companies with the help of their indentured servants in the White House are doing what those glaciers couldn’t accomplish. What the Pleistocene Ice Age couldn’t accomplish which is to flatten the Appalachian mountains and destroys those forests. They’re using draglines, which are 22 stories high. I flew under one of them in a Piper Cub. They cost 1/2 billion dollars and practically dispense of the need for human labor.

When my father was fighting strip mining in Appalachia back in the 1960s – I remember a conversation I had with him when I was 14 years old – where he said they are not just destroying the environment, they are permanently impoverishing these communities, because there is no way that they will ever be able to regenerate an economy from these barren moonscapes that are left behind And he said they are doing it so they can break the unions. And that’s exactly what happened. When he told me that there were 140, 000 union miners in WV digging coal out of tunnels in the ground. Today there are fewer than 11,000 miners left in the state, a very few of them are unionized because the strip industry isn’t. They are taking more coal out of WV than they were in 1968, but the difference is back then at least some of that money was being left in that state for salaries and pensions and reinvestment in that communities. Today, virtually all of it is going to leaving the state and going straight up to Wall Street to the big banking houses and to the corporate headquarters of Arch Coal, Massey Coal, and Peabody Coal – mainly Massey coal and then to the big banking houses like Bank of America and Morgan which own these operations.

95% of the coal in WV is owned by out of state interests which are liquidating the state for cash, literally, using these giant machines and 2500 tons of explosives that they detonate every day, in West Virginia – the power of a Hiroshima bomb once a week. They are blowing the tops off the mountains to get at the coal seams beneath, they take these giant machines and they scrape the rock and debris and rubble into the hollows and into the adjacent river valleys. They flattened out the landscapes, they flatten out the valleys. They have already flattened 400,000 acres of the Appalachian Mountains. By the time they get done, within a decade, if this rule goes through and you don’t succeed in getting rid of it, they will have flattened 2200 miles, – an area the size of Delaware. According to EPA they have already buried 1200 miles of America’s rivers and streams, these critical headwater streams that are critical to the hydrology and to the water quality and to the abundance of wildlife and the forests and the biota of those regions. Its all illegal. You can not in the United States under the Clean Water Act dump rock, debris, and rubble into a waterway without a Clean Water Act permit and you can not get such a permit.

So, Kentuckians for the Commonwealth, and my good friend Joe Lovett sued the companies in federal court in front of a conservative Republican federal judge, Judge Charles Hayden, and he said during this hearing. He said to the Corps of Engineers Colonel, who was there to testify, “You know this is illegal. It says so in the Clean Water Act. How did you happen to start writing these permits to allow the companies to break the law, and engage in this criminal activity?” The Colonel answered, “I don’t know your honor, we just kind of oozed into it.” And Judge Hayden at the end of that hearing said exactly what I just said. Its all illegal, its been illegal since day one, and he enjoined all mountaintop mining. Two days from when we got that decision lobbyists for Peabody coal and Massey coal met in the back door of the Interior Dept with Gale Norton’s first deputy chief Steven J. Griles, who was a former lobbyist for those companies, and together they re-wrote they interpretation of one word of the Clean Water Act – the definition of the word “fill” to change 30 years of statutory interpretation and make it legal not just in WV, but in every state of this country to dump rock, debris, rubble, garbage, any solid material into any waterway in the united states without a Clean Water Act permit. All you need today, according to the Administration is a rubber stamp from the Corps of Engineers, which in some districts you can get through the mail or over the telephone. Now, the last vestige of protection that we had in WV was a Stream Buffer Zone law that was upheld also by Judge Charles Hayden, which said that you can’t do this if you are within 100 feet of a stream. Well this is the law today that this Administration is trying to get rid of before it leaves office to make it so there is absolutely no way – there is not a single obstacle or impediment – to these companies just coming and flattening the entire Appalachian chain.

Update: The netroots are all over this one! Please see WattHead, IGHIH, the NRDC switchboard, and DailyKos.

Update II: Great additions from Adam at Get Energy Smart, David at SolveClimate, and iLoveMountains.org

Don Blankenship was caught on tape running his mouth about what atheists and communists his opponents are. When Barack Obama and John McCain both agree that we need to act on climate change AND stop mountaintop removal, Blankenship is truly a lost voice in the wilderness. SO, he does what anybody in a losing political position would do, he screams and calls a majority of the country Osama Bin Laden.

(DeSmogBlog has more)

Kevin at Desmog asks the perfect question:

How can we convince a Blankenship that his company has to deal with things like carbon, mercury and nitrogen oxide emissions when he thinks climate change is a lie and people who care about the environment are crazy “Greeniacs”?