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

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Legal Update: Shining the White Hot Spotlight of Justice

Wednesday, February 23rd, 2011 | Posted by Sandra Diaz | 2 Comments

Our legal case involving the two Kentucky coal companies’ 20,000+ violations of the Clean Water Act is making Big Coal squirm. On Monday February 21, 2011 Frasure Creek Mining and the Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet made an unprecedented move to appeal Judge Shepherd’s decision to the Kentucky Appeals Court. In early February, Judge Shepherd allowed Appalachian Voices, KFTC, Kentucky Riverkeeper and Waterkeeper Alliance to intervene in the proposed settlement between the Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet and two of the largest mountaintop removal coal companies (International Coal Group and Frasure Creek Mining) in the state. His decision allowed us to initiate a discovery and deposition process against the two coal companies and the Cabinet in order to determine whether the settlement they negotiated in secret was “fair, adequate, reasonable and consistent with the public interest.”

The appeal by the Cabinet and the coal companies is a blatant attempt to do an “end around” Judge Shepherd by jumping up to the appeals court level before discovery, establishment of facts or even a hearing on the merits. We are preparing an exhaustive response showing why this move is premature, not consistent with Kentucky law and not in the best interest of Kentuckians.

The appeal just shows how desperate they are to avoid third party, independent review of their secret deal. Not surprising since the Cabinet characterized the intervention of citizens groups as “unwarranted burdens.” We expected the coal companies and the Cabinet to pull out all the stops to try and get out of having citizens groups review the circumstances that led to the inadequate consent judgments. The cozy relationship between the Cabinet and the coal companies can’t stand the white hot spotlight of our investigation. They know it and they are squirming like worms on the hook trying to get out of Judge Shepherds court ordered discovery/deposition process so they can keep things hidden. It will be interesting to see if the Appeals Court buys their specious arguments.

In yet another blatant example of how the Cabinet continues to allow the coal companies get away with token clean water act “compliance”, we discovered a huge problem in the proposed corrective action plan submitted by ICG. After the Cabinet completed its investigation of the clean water act violations, they attributed most of the problems to incompetent water monitoring contractors hired by the coal companies. Many of the blatantly false discharge monitoring reports were improperly signed by an unauthorized ICG contractor named Jody Salisbury, an employee of S & S Water Monitoring. The Cabinet announced its settlement with the coal companies noting, “that both GSL and S & S Monitoring, Defendants’ contractors during the time of the subject violations, to the knowledge and belief of the Cabinet, are no longer in business.” Last week we discovered what amounts to a shell game.

The corrective action plan submitted by ICG indicates that from this point forward, their water samples will be collected by a new company called East Kentucky Water Monitoring. According to the Kentucky Secretary of State, that company was incorporated on Dec. 17, 2010 by brothers Jody and Nathan Salisbury who previously worked for S&S Water Monitoring. The filing lists the same Oil Springs, Kentucky address as that previously listed for S&S Water Monitoring. The Salisbury brothers didn’t even bother to get a post office box to hide the fact that East Kentucky Water Monitoring is fundamentally the same outfit as S & S.

Interesting in light of the fact that the state cabinet claims that the inaccuracies are “mostly transcription errors” made by the water monitoring company that took the samples. Why would ICG hire what amounts to the same company that made all those so-called “transcription errors” to continue working for them? One rational reason as to why a company might continue employing an incompetent contractor that cost them thousands of dollars is because that contractor is providing a valuable service by not doing the job correctly. If the average American hired an accountant to do their taxes and they were subsequently audited and fined thousands of dollars by the IRS, would they turn around and hire the same incompetent accountant again?

This bizarre journey began when Donna Lisenby, our Director of Water Programs blew the dust off of water monitoring reports that coal companies are legally required to submit to the state, and that the state is legally required to review. She was dismayed to find higher than allowed levels of pollutants, but also gross and obvious falsification of these reports. Partnering with a number of allies, we submitted our “intent to sue” to the state of Kentucky, who then had 60 days to respond by either taking legal action themselves or allowing us to move forward with our suit.

On the 59th day, the Kentucky Cabinet of Energy and Environment announced their own settlement plan, which laid the blame at the feet of water monitoring contractors, citing above mentioned “transcription errors” as the cause of the discrepancies in water discharge reports. The two companies voluntarily agree to pay a combined total fine of $660,000. This is a pittance (0.1%) of the maximum allowed by the Clean Water Act. For 20,000 violations, the companies could have been fined up to $740 million. The settlement deal cut between the coal companies and the Cabinet is so inadequate that it won’t compel adherence with the Clean Water Act, especially if the exact same contractors continue collecting water samples. It simply does not protect the public’s interest in ensuring safe drinking water.

Ironic that Len Peters, Kentucky Cabinet Secretary recently griped in an Op-Ed that federal Clean Water laws were too onerous for the state to comply with. So why did the Cabinet feel the need to give themselves more work by voluntarily choosing to defend coal companies who are potentially breaking the law, instead of letting our team proceed with our case in federal court? The Cabinet chose to make more work for itself when it entered into a plea bargain with the coal companies giving them minimal fines.

With the appeal made this week, the Cabinet under the Beshear Administration shows they have plenty of staff time and resources to continue taking legal action to defend the coal companies who are polluting public water supplies. In a nutshell, it means Beshear will go to great lengths to allow coal companies to continue polluting while obstinately refusing to use those same resources to protect waterways in Kentucky. It is really sad that the governor and the Cabinet continue to aid and abet law breaking coal companies rather than protect the people. Rest assured that Appalachian Voices, Kentuckians for the Commonwealth, Kentucky Riverkeeper, Waterkeeper Alliance, Appalachian Citizens’ Law Center, Pace Law School Environmental Litigation Clinic and the Capua Law Firm will continue fighting BOTH the coal companies and the Beshear administration until they stop polluting Kentucky waterways. We will not yield or rest until we exhaust every legal means necessary to bring these polluters to justice.


Duke Makes “Progress” In Taking Over the World

Tuesday, January 18th, 2011 | Posted by Sandra Diaz | No Comments

Duke Energy and Progress Energy are about unite their “wonder twin powers” to become the largest electric utility in the country. What form they will take remains to be seen, but there are lots of opinions. The companies expect to have the deal finalized by the end of the year, according to Forbes With 7 million customers in North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Indiana, Kentucky and Ohio, coal provides more than half of their electricity generation including new coal-fired power plants currently being built in North Carolina and Indiana.

merger
What does the merger mean for the future of the Southeast’s energy supply? According to Jim Rogers, who will become executive chairman of the new company and is currently the CEO of the current Duke Energy, the merger will increase the company’s ability to “deploy a ‘tsunami of capital’ to retire and replace old plants, upgrade the grid, meet stricter environmental regulations and improve energy efficiencies.”

Hopefully, this capital will be used to do things like stopping the use coal retrieved by blowing up mountains. Jim Rogers has admitted to feeling the heat on encouraging the ravaging of Appalachian mountains and communities.

“I’m under incredible pressure on mountaintop mining…I’m doing the math now and looking to determine my contracts and posing the question to my team, what if we made a policy decision that we’re not going to buy coal as a consequence of mountaintop mining. I actually can see a future where coal is not in the equation in 2050.”

The fact that Jim Rogers even said this aloud is testament to the wonderfully powerful movement to end mountaintop removal mining.

But we definitely were suspicious. Appalachian Voices’ staff scientist questioned Duke’s intention in June of last year to ask their suppliers to quote the price of coal mined without blasting Appalachian mountaintops in a Charlotte Observer article about the news.

“I definitely smell a rat,” said Matt Wasson, program director at Appalachian Voices in Boone. “I have very strong suspicions that this is not about a sincere effort to protect mountaintops from coal mining.”

(more…)

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The People vs. Big Coal- Appalachia Water Watch

Tuesday, December 14th, 2010 | Posted by Sandra Diaz | No Comments

Appalachia Water Watch program

Our Appalachia Water Watch team has been busy busting Big Coal in Kentucky with great results. After finding over 20,000 violations of the Clean Water Act, including evidence of tampering and falsification of discharge monitoring reports, we filed a legally required 60-day intent-to-sue letter. On day 59, the state of Kentucky announced a settlement, including $660,000 in fines against the coal companies, which preempted our case. While the state’s action is historic, the fines represent less than 1% of the maximum that could be levied under the Clean Water Act. Worse, evidence of tampering and falsification revealed in the 60-day notice and our comments to the EPA, were attributed to clerical errors by the state.

Today, our Water Watch team and other plaintiffs are in Frankfort, Kentucky to file a motion to intervene in the state’s settlement. At a pre-hearing press conference, Donna Lisenby of Appalachian Voices explained why the settlement does not sufficiently redress the companies’ violations or deter future violations, since it shifts the responsibility for the violations away from the coal companies and towards the water monitoring contractors.

(more…)

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Another Bank Just Says No to Mountaintop Removal

Tuesday, November 16th, 2010 | Posted by Sandra Diaz | No Comments

Green WallPNC Bank recently decided that funding mountaintop removal mining doesn’t go with their big green wall (the largest vertical green garden in North America). They recently joined a growing list of banks who have decided that it’s just not worth the public humiliation to bankroll the destruction of America’s oldest mountains for coal. Our friends at Rainforest Action Network have been actively engaged in a grassroots campaign to pressure banks from funding this destructive mining technique that has already destroyed over 500 mountains and over 2000 miles of streams.

An excerpt from PNC’s policy statement:

MTR is the subject of increasing regulatory and legislative scrutiny, with a focus on the permitting of MTR mines. While this extraction method is permitted, PNC will not provide funding to individual MTR projects, nor will PNC provide credit to coal producers whose primary extraction method is MTR.

RAN recently won a Benny Award from the Business Ethic Network for their Global Finance Campaign. Appalachian Voices won a award for playing a supporting role by providing them the data needed to identify their targets. GO TEAM!


Blowing Up Mountains for Coal- Costly and Unsustainable

Wednesday, November 3rd, 2010 | Posted by Sandra Diaz | No Comments

NOTE: The following Letter to the Editor appeared in The Mountain Times in the November 4, 2010 issue.

Dear Editor,
A mountains of thanks to The Mountain Times for coverage of one of the most important issues affecting our Appalachian mountains—mountaintop removal coal mining—in your October 28 article about Trees on Fire.

Mountaintop removal has already destroyed over 500 Appalachian mountains, devastating an expanse of more than 1.2 million acres. The rubble created from blasting mountaintops is dumped directly into the adjacent river valleys, burying streams and poisoning the drinking water of local residents.

While North Carolina’s majestic mountains do not contain coal, we are each directly connected to the issue, and to the people of Appalachia, through our use of electricity – some of which is produced with mountaintop removal mined coal.

According to your article, Blue Ridge Electric Membership Corporation (BREMCO) and Duke Energy, BREMCO’s supplier, claim that “the price difference between mountaintop removed coal and traditionally mined coal is what keeps them using the product.”

We here in North Carolina love our mountains and residents are adamantly opposed to receiving their electricity from a practice responsible for destroying mountains and devastating the physical health of Appalachian people. Our mountains and neighbors are worth more that that. (more…)

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California Dreamin’ About Ending Mountaintop Removal

Tuesday, October 19th, 2010 | Posted by Sandra Diaz | No Comments




Executive Director Willa Mays (top), Director of Programs Matt Wasson (middle) and Director of Development and Communications Sandra Diaz (bottom) talk with attendees to 2010 Bioneers about the work of Appalachian Voices. View more photos and download larger resolution versions

This past weekend, Appalachian Voices took the message of “they’re blowing up our mountains, and there oughta be a law” to the premier environmental event of the year, the Bioneers conference. The main conference takes place in San Rafael, Ca, with several locations that “beam” this conference across the nation through a live video stream. With a multimedia Google Earth presentation that highlights both the problem of and the solution to mountaintop removal, we engaged participants, who hailed from all over the country, in why we need them to join the national movement to end mountaintop removal.

It was a great testament to the strength of our movement that many conference-goers were already familiar with the problem of mountaintop removal. We then educated them on the solution- making mountaintop removal illegal through an act of Congress. After signing a pledge to help end mountaintop removal, many left the booth adorned with “I Heart Mountains” buttons and temporary tattoos to help further spread the word.

Appalachian Voices wasn’t the only one to bring this important message to Bioneers. James Hansen, top climate scientist at NASA whose has been actively protesting mountaintop removal, spoke to the issue, as well Bioneers board member David Orr in his panel on climate change.

The documentary, Your Environmental Road Trip (YERT, showed at Bioneers, highlighted Larry Gibson, a leader in the movement to end mountaintop removal.

The Bioneers conference is an event meant to inspire and motivate people to become agents of change for the planet. We were glad to demonstrate that the campaign to end mountaintop removal is one of the most important movements that all in attendance should join.


ODEC Delays Coal Plant Proposal, Wise Energy Coalition Calls on ODEC to Withdraw

Wednesday, September 8th, 2010 | Posted by Sandra Diaz | No Comments


September 8th, 2010 · No Comments

MEDIA RELEASE

www.WiseEnergyForVirginia.org

September 8, 2010

Appalachian Voices Tom Cormons (301) 910-8973

Sierra Club, Virginia Chapter Glen Besa (804) 387-6001

Chesapeake Climate Action Network Lauren Glickman (804) 335-0915

Southern Environmental Law Center Cale Jaffe (434) 760-0816

Wise Energy for Virginia Coalition calls on ODEC to permanently withdraw delayed coal plant proposal

The Wise Energy for Virginia Coalition lauded Old Dominion Electric Cooperative’s announcement today to delay plans for what would be the largest coal-fired power plant in Virginia. The temporary halt will allow the company, its customers, government officials and the conservation community to explore alternatives that will cost less and cause less harm to the environment.

Dendron, Va

Dendron, Virginia

The coalition has long opposed the $6 billion coal plant and has mobilized tens of thousands of citizens across the state who are concerned about air pollution, mercury poisoning of waters, mountaintop removal coal mining and the consequences of a warming planet. Since 2002, plans for 133 coal-fired plants in the U.S. have been dropped for economic, environmental and other reasons, according to the Sierra Club.

ODEC, according to its press statement, is delaying the project for a coal plant in Surry County by one-and-a-half to two years. The coalition today called on the utility to pull the plug on the coal plant altogether and instead commit to deploying more energy efficiency resources and to pursuing cleaner sources of energy, including offshore wind and solar. These sources of energy would more than offset the 1,500 megawatts from the delayed plant.

Appalachian Voices:

“The degree of citizen opposition to the plant is clearly more than ODEC bargained for. Opponents in Dendron and Surry County really made their voices heard. When the Surry County Planning Commission took this up, at least 200 people showed up and the great majority of speakers opposed the plant. This gives ODEC a sense of what to expect if it pursues state and federal permits and they can already see the opposition building in the greater Hampton Roads area and among their retail co-ops’ ratepayers,” said Tom Cormons, Virginia Director.

Chesapeake Climate Action Network:

“We are encouraged that ODEC recognizes that inevitable carbon pollution regulation will continue to make fossil fuels an incredibly poor investment. As ODEC continues to voice their commitment to this plant, we will continue to make every effort to obstruct this project while pursuing alternatives like energy efficiency and renewable energy sources,” said Mike Tidwell, CCAN director.

Sierra Club:

“This is a prudent pause by ODEC. With the advances in efficiency and renewable energy this delay allows ODEC to keep their options open,” said Glen Besa, Virginia Director of the Sierra Club.

Southern Environmental Law Center:

“All Virginians-watermen on the Chesapeake Bay, downwind families affected by smog and soot pollution, ODEC customers who would be facing higher electric bills to pay for the new plant-can breathe a sigh of relief, but this is not over. The coalition remains engaged in the permitting processes before the Army Corps of Engineers and elsewhere, and we hope to work with ODEC on the clean energy alternatives that produce jobs, keep electricity rates down, and reduce harmful air and water pollution,” said SELC senior attorney Cale Jaffe.

Also, this just in from the Daily Press.

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Photographer Awarded for Photos on Beauty of Coal Country

Monday, September 6th, 2010 | Posted by Sandra Diaz | 1 Comment

pictureCarl Galie, an photographer hailing from Winston-Salem, was recently awarded the first ever Art for Conservation Grant to go towards the printing of his work for public display. He has been very active with Appalachian Voices in our work to end mountaintop removal, both through action online and visiting decision-makers to tell them about his experience taking photos in the Appalachian coalfields.

His series, “Lost on the Road to Oblivion, The Vanishing Beauty of Coal Country” hones in on the beauty of the coalfields in order to highlight the needless destruction of many of the central and southern Appalachian mountains through mountaintop removal coal mining.

According to Galie, “Lost on the Road…” is an attempt to educate the public about mountaintop removal by showing the effects this mining practice is having on our nation’s oldest mountains and the potential impact on watersheds beyond the coalfields. It is also intended to gain support for the Clean Water Protection Act (HR 1310) and the Appalachia Restoration Act (S 696).”

Galie is looking to exhibit his photos in galleries in North Carolina, since the state is one of the top consumers of mountaintop removal coal.

We appreciate your good work, Carl!

To see Carl’s photography, please visit his website.


NY Times on Coal River Wind Project, Editorial Too

Thursday, August 26th, 2010 | Posted by Sandra Diaz | No Comments

This month, the New York Times ran a story in the front page of the Business Section about the battle over Coal River Mountain. This mountain, the last standing in the Coal River Valley, is slated for a 6,600 square mile mountaintop removal mine. But local residents, led by grandmother Lorelei Scarbro, has a different vision: a 328 megawatt wind farm. Appalachian Voices and Google Earth Outreach teamed up with the Coal River Wind project to create an interactive Google Earth tour and an accompanying video of the mountain’s plight. The tour was displayed at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen last summer.

Two days later, the New York Times came out with its most strongly worded editorial opposing mountaintop removal.

Read:
NYT Times Article: Beyond Fossil Fuels: A Battle in Mining Country Pits Coal Against Wind
NYT Editorial: A Mountain in the Stream

Watch:


TVA idling units at 3 coal plants- as good as it sounds?

Thursday, August 26th, 2010 | Posted by Sandra Diaz | No Comments

TVA's Kingston Plant with its Coal Ash in the foreground
The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), a New Deal initiative designed to uplift the Tennessee and surrounding Appalachian states by providing electricity to the region, is now better known for one of the largest environmental disasters on the east coast (not including the BP oil spill). A few days before Christmas of 2008, 1 billion gallons of toxic coal ash sludge inundated the Emory and Tennessee Rivers. They have been cleaning up their coal ash and their reputation ever since. Both have been difficult and there is still plenty of toxic mud left in the river and on their public image.

The newest attempt for the TVA to “clean up their act” is their recent announcement to idle nine units at three of their coal-fired power plants, equaling about 1000 megawatts. The TVA has been under intense pressure to clean up its air pollution ever since it was sued by the state of North Carolina to do so. (the 4th Court of Appeals overturned the NC win). TVA CEO Tom Kilgore says TVA is doing this because they are interested in ” replacing some coal with other, cleaner fuel sources allows a reduction in air emissions including carbon”. Some of those options include nuclear and energy efficiency.

(more…)

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Enviro News Magazine Covers Mountaintop Removal

Thursday, August 26th, 2010 | Posted by Sandra Diaz | No Comments

LINK TV is an online TV program supported by notables like Danny Glover and Harry Belafonte, recently ran a piece about mountaintop removal in their news program. Its a very dramatic piece and will get you fired up. But my only wish is that they showed more of the middle ground, less of the anger and more of the sustained passion that so many people have. Not that anger is not justified or have its place, but there are more nuances to this mountaintop removal movement. As a movement, we need to learn to talk to those who support mountaintop removal, because, most people want the same things- security for their families.

We do need to attract economic options to Appalachian coal regions that does cost people their health, their mountains and their communities. But it will be difficult to do that when mountains are blasted, streams are buried and polluted, and drinking water is orange from heavy metal and smells like sulfur. But we will prevail- we have a national movement. If you are not already, please join us today.


UNC Students Win Commitment to Phase Out Coal on Campus

Wednesday, May 12th, 2010 | Posted by Sandra Diaz | No Comments

Students at the University of North Carolina won a commitment from campus administrators to phase out the use of coal to generate power at the Chapel Hill campus by 2020. The student-led Coal-Free UNC campaign also pushed administrators to end the use of mountain-top removal coal as quickly as possible.

UNC’s campus is currently powered by a coal-fired co-generation plant, which efficiently heats and powers the university’s infrastructure. Last fall, after being approached by the Coal-Free UNC student group, school Chancellor Holden Thorpe appointed an Environmental Policy Task Force to find an alternative to coal-fired power.

There are coal cars pulling up on rail up to the plant and that’s not particularly good symbolism for a university that teaches people about climate change and the frontiers of energy research.

-UNC Chancellor Holden Thorp

Though the task force puts the coal deadline at May 1, 2020, an aspirational date of 2015 has been set as well.

Appalachian Voices’ Matt Wasson, who testified before the Energy Task Force on April 14th, clarified that the university was purchasing coal from mountaintop removal mines in Virginia, despite a claim on the university’s website to the contrary. Wasson declined to criticize the University for “unwittingly” using mountaintop removal coal and attributed the misunderstanding to the changing definition of the practice.

“Industry and state regulators have been running from the term ‘mountaintop removal’ in recent years,” said Wasson, “Defining mountaintop removal is a moving target.”

But Wasson also left no doubt about the University’s connections to mountaintop removal, using Google Earth to show task force members images of widespread destruction caused by the specific mines with which UNC currently has contracts.

Wasson also told the task force that eliminating the use of coal by 2015 was both reasonable and prudent.

“North Carolina’s utilities pay more for coal than any other utilities in the country, and that price is only going to go up as Central Appalachian coal supplies dwindle and environmentally devastating giveaways by the Bush Administration to the coal industry are reversed,” said Wasson. “Getting out ahead of these trends and moving to biomass or natural gas in the near-term would be a prudent move for the university.”

The next mission for the task force and student environmental groups is to decide on an alternative fuel for the plant and to find ways to reduce energy demand and increase efficiency on campus.



 

 


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