This is one of the coolest things I’ve seen in awhile.

Collateral is an independent weekly newsshow produced in Philadelphia, PA by Woodshop Films

A great tool from the always wonderful grist.org

Update: First email in my inbox this morning was my weekly Grist, and what should headline their newsletter but “No Peaking: Bush administration eases restrictions on mountaintop-removal mining,” with a look into the Bush Administration’s proposed rule change, as well as links to each article of interest (and the 38 page D.O.I rule change from the Federal Register…ew!)

This is interesting. The DOE is teaming up with one of this Summer’s biggest movie stars – Remi – the “rat” in Pixar’s 2007 summer release Ratatouille to promote the switch from incandescent to ENERGY STAR compact fluorescent lights. Get ’em while they’re young!

View the charming ad here.

Next I want to see Nemo promoting clean tidal power 🙂

The next great technological advancement in coal extraction…

Earth Removal Mining!

Barack Obama recently spoke on mountaintop removal during a speech in Lexington, Kentucky.

He said the country also needs a forward-thinking energy policy, and he alluded to his disapproval of the coal mining process of mountaintop removal.

“We’re tearing up the Appalachian Mountains because of our dependence on fossil fuels,” he said, sparking loud applause.

Senator Christopher Dodd has spoken directly to the proposed Buffer Zone rule change:

I oppose Bush’s proposal to relax environmental rules on mountaintop removal. This rule change is an example of special interests, in this case coal companies, running the government. When big coal companies make the rules, worker safety and the environment suffer.
Instead of expanding coal companies’ right to destroy the environment while mining for coal, the government should be working to develop truly clean and safe coal technologies. This means protecting our climate with new technologies, protecting mine workers by enforcing safety rules and standing up to the big companies, and protecting communities and our natural landscapes by using only safe and clean extraction methods. This can only be accomplished by opposing mountaintop removal.

Bill Richardson also provided a strong statement on the issue:

The Administration’s decision to streamline mountaintop mining isn’t good for anyone. Instead it’s a gift to the industry that has been most loyal to the GOP at the expense of mine workers and the environment. What this nation needs is a 21st century energy policy that will reduce the pressure to dig up and burn every last ounce of coal, no matter how dangerous or how destructive. Coal can fit into this picture with new technologies, but the Administration is hanging onto the last scraps of a failed energy policy as long as it can.

In the West, and in Appalachia, people are fighting to protect their communities, their jobs, and the environment in the face of this rapacious policy. Jim Webb said it best before he was elected senator to the coal state of Virginia: ‘The ever-hungry industrialists (realized) that (Appalachia) sat arop one huge vein of coal. And so the rape began. The people from the outside showed up with complicated contracts… Soon the (local folks) were treated to a sundering of their own land… The Man got his coal, and the profits it brought when he shipped it out. (The local people) got their wages, black lung, and the desecration of their land.'” (From Born Fighting, Jim Webb, 2004).

Richardson also throws us a bonus quote from Senator Jim Webb, who himself needs to start leading on this issue.

(h/t DevilsTower at DKos)

Hat-tip to the legendary Stephen Wusso and Grist

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 least help us regain some of Appalachia’s lost forest cover to help combat global warming by recycling enormous amounts of Carbon Dioxide. That is reforestation using a new blight-resistant hybrid of the nearly extinct American Chestnut Tree.

Some brief background;
The Chestnut Tree was the dominant canopy tree of the Appalachian region, ranging from Maine to Mississippi and East to the Ohio Valley. It grew up to 150 feet tall and 10 feet in diameter. A blight, a fungus from the American Chestnut’s Asian counterpart, was first discovered in New York City in 1904. The blight ruptures the bark of the tree, destroying its ability to grow large or robustly, and it killed nearly all of the existing specimens over the course of just a few decades. Learn more here, or from the American Chestnut Foundation website.

So, fast-forward to 2007, when scientist have learned that the loose soil of previous mine sites is at least good for something besides looking ugly – planting American Chestnuts!
Well, its actually a hybrid between the Chinese and American Chestnuts. The tree is “100% blight resistant” and “94% American,” and it is flourishing in Appalachia.

Coal-mining industry employees, university researchers, schoolchildren and other volunteers led by Case’s foundation have planted more than 3,000 chestnuts in seven Appalachian states, Kempthorne said. That’s helping turn around the fate of the “spreading chestnut tree” in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s 1840 paean to the village blacksmith.

“The coal fields of Appalachia match up almost perfectly with what once was the natural range of the American chestnut,” Kempthorne said. “We have discovered that chestnuts grow twice as fast on the loosely packed soils commonly found on reclamation sites. This bodes very well for what is about to occur.”

I hope that interested parties continue to look for ways to constructively use abandoned mine land. I’d also like to say that we’ve got PLENTY of land deforested and destroyed by mountaintop removal and strip-minung – roughly a million acres – that we shouldn’t have to create any more. Lets use what we’ve got.

Part 1

Part 2

Our bill – The Clean Water Protection Act (HR 2169) would amend the Federal Water Pollution Control Act.

There’s a hearing in the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee specifically on the FWPCA and the Clean Water Act.

Listen to it live!

As the 2008 elections heat up (for another 17 months!) I’d like to occasionally embed some relevant videos of speeches regarding energy and the environment. Three cheers for the first second “YouTube election!”

Senator Obama (D) in Detroit on auto emissions:Senator Edwards (D) at a Biomass Conversion Center in Nevada, IA:

Senator Clinton (D) on her Energy Policy:

Governor Richardson (D) (former Secretary of Energy under Clinton) on New Mexico’s global warming record:

and speaking to the DFA on energy/environment:

John McCain (R) on energy/security:

Giuliani (R) on “Energy Independence” (repeating the old “US is the Saudi Arabia of coal” line):

Mitt Romney (R) in Detroit:Congressman Kucinich (D) can not be considered a major candidate, but is nonetheless a Congressional champion on mountaintop removal, and an environmental leader in DC:
https://kucinich.us/node/215/play

Whoda thought YouTube helps cure homesickness?

Some of the greatest musicians in these parts singin a classic by “The Band.”

Thanks to Willzhead, and I’d also encourage you to read this blog post of his.