Ken Ward Jr. of the Charleston Gazette reports on his Coal Tattoo blog:

Tomorrow’s edition of the Federal Register (available here by the magic of the Internet) will include this notice from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, making good on part of the Obama administration’s plans for dealing with mountaintop removal coal mining.

As outlined last month, the Corps is proposing to eliminate the use of its streamlined permit process — in this case Nationwide Permit 21, or NWP 21 — for the approval of surface coal mining in Appalachia.

But the new Federal Register notice includes at least one twist that has critics of the Corps (and of mountaintop removal) a little concerned … I’ll get to that in a minute.

I’ve mentioned before that a federal judge already has told the government to stop using this streamlined permit procedure, at least in Southern West Virginia, where most mountaintop removal mining is taking place. Oddly, the Obama administration, while saying it wants to do away with NWP 21 for this kind of mining, also filed a notice that it would appeal that court decision.

…

Tomorrow’s notice kicks off a 30-day comment period on the Corps’ proposals.

The notice includes a very straightforward statement from the federal government about the impacts of mountaintop removal that have environmental regulators concerned:

Read the entire article on Coal Tattoo.

Sit down on a porch with someone from the American South and you’ll learn why the region is renowned for its storytelling tradition. In the book Something’s Rising: Appalachians Fighting Mountaintop Removal (University Press of Kentucky), authors Silas House and Jason Howard tell the story of mountaintop removal coal mining through the voices of 12 Appalachians who’ve been directly affected by this devastating practice. Each subject is introduced by a vivid profile, and then House and Howard get out of the way and let them speak. Studs Terkel, no slouch himself in the oral history realm, has called Something’s Rising “oral history at its best,” and I have to concur: Although I was familiar with the mountaintop removal issue, these personal accounts brought it home for me in an incredibly powerful new way. I recently spoke with House and Howard about their book, the growing movement against mountaintop removal, and the outlook for the future.

Read the entire conversation on the Utne website.

Congressman Kennedy said these words earlier this year when speaking to a group of Appalachian citizens, and I hope we can all keep them close to heart:

Unfortunately, we live in a culture that places a value on human beings according to how much money they have. If you happen to be wealthy, you must have done a great job and you deserve everything you get. That’s what our culture tells us. And you know what? After a while, you start to believe it.

And if our culture tells people who are poor in this country that they are worthless enough times, it’s not surprising that after awhile people begin to believe it. They start to internalize that they don’t deserve a voice, and they shouldn’t fight the big corporations who are destroying their land and taking all of their natural resources. They start to accept that companies are making all this money at their expense and dumping all the refuse in their backyard.

It’s quite extraordinary to see it happen. Frankly, it’s the part of our society and its culture that needs to change the most. We’ve got to pass laws. But moreover we’ve got to change the culture.

That’s what Dr. King created in the civil rights movement. He understood very fundamentally that we are all endowed by our creator with certain inalienable rights. Dr. King understood that we were all worth something. And then he said, “We need everybody to be part of this in order for this to work.” Dr. King didn’t just go to the preachers. He reached beyond the powerful few and enlisted every person in America who believed the time for justice and equality was now. Everybody had a role to play. People weren’t waiting for someone else to do the job.

There are people out there who fought and died to make this country a better place. They did it because they knew this was about making our country a land of opportunity where everybody could live.

Right now this isn’t a land of opportunity if our most basic natural resources, which belong to everybody, are being polluted and torn apart. Instead of being stewards of our future and preserving our natural commons, we are absolutely despoiling them for future generations. We need to do better than that. And we have an opportunity to pass on a much better future to our children.

I’d like to thank all of you for what you are doing to make this movement so much deeper in meaning. It’s a great effort that you’re undertaking. It’s much more than legislating. It’s about educating people that we learn who we are as a people through nature. It is part of our whole culture as a country.

It is impossible to overstate the support the Kennedys have given to the people of Appalachia over many many generations, and our thoughts and prayers are certainly with Congressman Kennedy and his family during this turbulent time for them. He remains one of my heroes and a true advocate for change in Washington, DC and we wish them all the best.

As many of you know, yesterday the Army Corps announced that they would be moving forward with suspending the Nationwide Permit 21(NWP 21) process for mountaintop removal and valleyfill operations for Appalachian states. Instead, the Army Corps will be using a slightly more in-depth “individual permitting process” in their review of Section 404 Clean Water Act permits. Notably, the individual permits will include a period of public comment for individual projects. This is a step in the right direction for Appalachian communities and something that many coalfield groups – including members of the Alliance for Appalachia – have been fighting for for many years.

However, one of the main concerns (discussed in Ken Ward’s article below) is that the Corps will continue to allow the use of the NWP 21 permits until a final decision is reached, even though they acknowledge that NWP 21 permits are not sufficient for assessing impacts from large-scale mining operations like mountaintop removal.

The official notice is here, and Ken Ward has a handy summary over at Coal Tattoo.

There is also a 30 day public comment period on the change, and we encourage everyone to please take a moment to comment on this important step.

How much does a ton of coal weigh?

It sounds like a funny question, but – if you’re burning coal for energy – all tons are not created equal. The value of coal comes not from the raw tonnage, but from the heat content of that coal. The higher the heat content, the fewer tons you have to burn to get the same amount of energy.

Appalachia has been mined for coal for centuries, and everyday we are mining deeper, thinner seams of poorer quality coal. The declining heat content means we have to dig even more coal just to produce the same amount of energy we used to.

Heat content is measured in “British Thermal Units,” or “Btu”s for short. Using data from the Energy Information Administration (and some admittedly poor graph-making skills in Microsoft Word) we can see that the heat content (Btu/ton) of a ton of coal has been steadily in decline for the last several decades.

Appalachian Voices applauds moving NC towards wind energy and supports action by the North Carolina Senate to pass Senate Bill 1068.

The original version of this bill, developed by the hard work of the Wind Technical Advisory Group, attempted to design a permitting regime that would allow for the responsible development of wind in NC while preserving the state’s mountain views, its forests and wildlife, its sounds and coastlines.

Appalachian State University’s
Broyhill Inn Wind Turbine

Wind is an emission-free renewable source of energy that can be developed in an environmentally responsible manner, reducing our dependence on dirty forms of energy, such as coal, while preserving NC’s mountains and coast. As Senate Bill 1068 states, wind is critical to fulfilling the goals of the state’s renewable energy standard.

While not perfect, the original draft of the bill was, we believe, a good first step towards responsible wind energy development in NC.

However, the anticipated amendments in the Senate Finance Committee will effectively ban any large-scale wind development in the mountains of NC.

We view this as a step in the wrong direction. We’re eager to work with mountain legislators on a bill that will both address their concerns and move the state forward on developing wind energy.

Ask your Senators to support the original version of Senate 1068 by sending them an email today at:
https://aire-nc.org/s1068

The latest documentary film to examine mountaintop removal coal mining in Appalachia, “Coal Country,” premiered Saturday, July 11 night to a standing-room-only crowd. While the event was mostly uneventful, during the screening there were boos and heckling from pro-mountaintop removal people in the audience and Capitol Police escorted several coal miners from the building after the screening.

Photojournalist Antrim Caskey was on hand for the event – read her full account at Climate Ground Zero’s blog.

Visit the Coal Country movie website

Read an account by West Virginia Public Broadcasting

According to the Society of Environmental Journalists:

EPA released an update of its National-Scale Air Toxics Assessment on June 24, 2009.

The results indicate that almost every person in the US lives in an area where the cancer risk exceeds 10 in 1 million after a lifetime of exposure to selected air toxics, well in excess of EPA’s general target of 1 in 1 million. For 2 million people, the risk is far worse, exceeding 100 in 1 million. The average risk is 36 in 1 million.

For noncancer respiratory risks, nearly everyone in the country lives in an area where the hazard index was higher than EPA’s target of 1.0, and the index was 10 or higher for more than 22 million people. The news was better for noncancer neurological risks, but about 350,000 people still live in areas exceeding the EPA target hazard index of 1.0.

For all three types of health effects evaluated, there are large risk differences between census tracts, between counties, between states, and between regions.

Visit SEJ’s website to read the entire article.

The following email was sent to the 36,000+ supporters of iLoveMountains.org. To sign up to receive free email alerts, click here.

Dear Mountain Lover,

“Mountaintop removal coal mining is the worst environmental tragedy in American history. When will the Obama administration finally stop this Appalachian apocalypse?“

So began an op-ed by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in Friday’s edition of The Washington Post. As Mr. Kennedy noted:

“Mining syndicates are detonating 2,500 tons of explosives each day — the equivalent of a Hiroshima bomb weekly — to blow up Appalachia’s mountains and extract sub-surface coal seams….

“On this continent, only Appalachia’s rich woodlands survived the Pleistocene ice ages that turned the rest of North America into a treeless tundra. King Coal is now accomplishing what the glaciers could not — obliterating the hemisphere’s oldest, most biologically dense and diverse forests.”

So when will the Obama administration and Congress take action to stop mountaintop removal coal mining?

The answer may be this: only when enough people demand it.

That’s why we’re asking you to visit your members of Congress this August — and to tell them that now is the time to stop mountaintop removal coal mining.

Learn more about visiting your representative.

Every August, Congress goes into recess, with many members returning home to hear from their constituents.

With your help, we can make sure your members of Congress learn about the destruction of mountaintop removal coal mining – and hear from constituents like you that itís time to end “this Appalachian apocalypse.”

Dedicating just an hour or two of your time this August will make a tremendous difference in ending mountaintop removal coal mining.

Click here to sign up for an in-district visit with your representative.

Thank you for taking action.

Matt Wasson
iLoveMountains.org

written by By Robert F. Kennedy Jr. – Printed in the Washington Post on Friday, July 3, 2009

Mountaintop removal coal mining is the worst environmental tragedy in American history. When will the Obama administration finally stop this Appalachian apocalypse?

If ever an issue deserved President Obama’s promise of change, this is it. Mining syndicates are detonating 2,500 tons of explosives each day — the equivalent of a Hiroshima bomb weekly — to blow up Appalachia’s mountains and extract sub-surface coal seams. They have demolished 500 mountains — encompassing about a million acres — buried hundreds of valley streams under tons of rubble, poisoned and uprooted countless communities, and caused widespread contamination to the region’s air and water. On this continent, only Appalachia’s rich woodlands survived the Pleistocene ice ages that turned the rest of North America into a treeless tundra. King Coal is now accomplishing what the glaciers could not — obliterating the hemisphere’s oldest, most biologically dense and diverse forests. Highly mechanized processes allow giant machines to flatten in months mountains older than the Himalayas — while employing fewer workers for far less time than other types of mining. The coal industry’s promise to restore the desolate wastelands is a cruel joke, and the industry’s fallback position, that the flattened landscapes will provide space for economic development, is the weak punchline. America adores its Adirondacks and reveres the Rockies, while the Appalachian Mountains — with their impoverished and alienated population — are dismantled by coal moguls who dominate state politics and have little to prevent them from blasting the physical landscape to smithereens.

Obama promised science-based policies that would save what remains of Appalachia, but last month senior administration officials finally weighed in with a mixture of strong words and weak action that broke hearts across the region. The modest measures federal bureaucrats promised amount to little more than a tepid pledge of better enforcement of existing laws.

. . . and it continues on the Washington Post website.

Every year, Larry Gibson, CNN Hero and founder of The Keepers of the Mountains Foundation, welcomes community members to a peaceful, alcohol-free weekend of fellowship, camping, live music, good food and great company at what remains of his family’s homeplace on Kayford Mountain. Sponsored by The Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition (OHVEC) and the West Virginia chapter of the Student Environmental Action Coalition (SEAC), it is traditionally a time for families, friends and neighbors who stand on both sides of the mountaintop removal mining issue to come together to celebrate and give thanks for the beauty of the Appalachian mountains and those who call them home.

However, the 27th Annual 4th of July Music Festival, or “Mountain Keepers Festival” as it’s come to be known by many locals in southern West Virginia, was interrupted this year by a small group of seemingly-intoxicated, angry people wearing miner stripes, the standard uniform for employees on Massey Energy mountaintop removal coal mine sites. Before finally leaving the mountain, they shouted obscenities and threats of violence and death to festival-goers. You can watch the video here. [Please note that this video is not suitable for children and contains obscenities and death threats].

Despite reported threats that the celebration would be disturbed and an article in the Charleston Gazette addressing these fears on Friday, Gibson said he was unable to get protection from law enforcement. In fact, it took police over two hours to respond to calls when the belligerent group showed up and started making threats to the crowd, which included several miners who had put aside differences for the day and were attending the festival in peace. “Not all of the mountaintop removal supporters exhibited such vile and immature behavior. Some ran interference and even kicked the worst of them off the mountain,” festival goer Jen Osha said.

“Out of the twenty people who disrupted our event, only two were actually miners. Other than that they were just people who wanted to interrupt a peaceful gathering to try and cause violence. I’m glad they didn’t succeed,” said Gibson. “The only thing they did was to make the miners of West Virginia look bad; I’m confident that real miners would not have come up with such an irresponsible action,” he added, noting that the point of their antics was to scare people away. “The whole intent of this thing was to intimidate the people who came to my place and the fact that if they intimidate them, they won’t come back and support what I’m trying to do here.”

Fighting to save his land from mountaintop removal since 1986, Larry has become a hero to thousands of local citizens and families who are forced to live with the impacts of mountaintop removal on their homes, the air they breathe and water they drink.

Luckily, violence was avoided and no one was hurt. “We’ll hold steady and we’ll hold back and the violence will not come from the keepers of the mountains and the people who live in them,” said Gibson. “We will win this war. We fought a battle this weekend and we won because they didn’t get any violence from us.”

Gibson was also quick to point out that this behavior is not representative of all miners in southern West Virginia. “I really don’t think this is a mindset at all of people who work in the mining industry as far as working people,” he said. “I think it’s just a handful of rogue miners who refuse to understand that there’s a better way to do this.”

Dana Kuhnline of Charleston, WV said, “Overall I was impressed with the dignity and bravery of those getting harassed. I know that some people felt unsafe and headed home — but it was also pouring rain by this point and it was during the last act of the day, so people were able to enjoy the whole day and probably would have headed out because of the weather.”

This threatening act is not the first attempt of intimidation by mountaintop removal supporters. The June 23rd Protest at Marsh Fork Elementary saw hundreds of mountaintop removal supporters shout obscenities and threats of violence at local families and saw one peaceful protester slapped in the face by a woman in miner’s stripes. A number of personal threats have also been made to local community members who want to see an end to stop mountaintop removal mining.

The big question for many residents in Southern West Virginia, is whether or not their government officials will address the escalating harassment and threats.

“We call upon Governor Manchin to take action and immediately stop the threats and harassment now. This is the second time that we have asked the coal companies and our government to tone it down,” said Judy Bonds of Coal River Mountain Watch. “This behavior makes all miners look bad.”

Once again the people of “Wild and Wonderful West Virginia” turn to their Governor for help. Will Joe Manchin take immediate action to bring people together for a peaceful dialogue about what is truly best for the future and prosperity of the families living in the coalfields, as well as “outsiders” who like to visit the region for its beautiful land and people? Or, as Ken Ward wrote on July 6th, will he sit back and let this be fought out in the street, as it was during the coal wars at the beginning of the 20th Century?

Here are excerpts from a recent Lexington Herald-Leader article about MACED’s recent study:

FRANKFORT — The coal industry takes $115 million more from Kentucky’s state government annually in services and programs than it contributes in taxes, according to a study to be released Thursday.

The Berea-based Mountain Association for Community Economic Development, or MACED, spent a year examining the coal industry’s impact on the state’s general fund and road fund.

“The coal industry is pretty free about discussing the positive impact of coal on the state. But there’s almost no public discussion about the cost,” said MACED President Justin Maxson.

…

In its latest study, MACED determined that coal delivered $527 million to the state in 2006, mostly through coal severance, corporate income, sales and vehicle taxes, plus taxes on 17,903 people employed in mining and 52,429 people in jobs that depend on mining.

The same year, MACED said, the coal industry cost the state $642 million.

This includes $239 million for frequent repairs to about 3,800 miles in the coal-haul road system, where trucks weighing up to 120,000 pounds crush the pavement as they carry coal from mines to tipples, trains, barges and power plants. Companies purchase state decals for the right to run coal trucks overweight, but that revenue offsets very little of the cost of road repairs.

…

“Our purpose here isn’t to beat up on coal,” Maxson said. “It’s education. We want to lay out a complete picture so our elected leaders can make informed decisions about how we proceed with our energy policy, our economic development policy and our fiscal policy.”

For all the wealth that coal produced over the last century, Eastern Kentucky’s coal counties remain among the nation’s poorest, Maxson said. Destructive mining practices, such as mountaintop removal, sacrifice the region’s natural beauty, and with it other possible employers, such as tourism, he said.

…

Today, less than 1 percent of all employed Kentuckians work in coal mining, MACED reported.

Visit the Lexington Herald-Leader’s website to read the entire article.