The Front Porch Blog

Kentucky Congressman John Yarmuth Joins Influential Energy and Commerce Committee

Friday, September 20th, 2013 | Posted by Brian Sewell | No Comments

A champion in the fight to end mountaintop removal, Kentucky Congressman John Yarmuth is joining the powerful House Committee on Energy and Commerce.

Kentucky Congressman John Yarmuth joined the powerful House Committee on Energy and Commerce this week, putting him in the middle of debates concerning environmental and energy policy.

The committee will also oversee the implementation of the Affordable Care Act. Yarmuth voted for Obamacare, and has been its lone defender in Kentucky’s federal delegation.

Yarmuth is filling the vacancy on the committee left by former Congressman Ed Markey of Massachusetts, who was recently elected to the U.S. Senate.

The panel’s ranking Democratic member, California Rep. Henry Waxman, proposed that Yarmuth serve on Energy and Power Subcommittee, the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee, and the Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade Subcommittee.

For years, Yarmuth has been a leader in the fight to end mountaintop removal coal mining. And as a Democrat from an Appalachian coal-mining state his voice is especially meaningful. Yarmuth has been a primary sponsor of the Clean Water Protection Act in previous sessions of congress and is currently a cosponsor on the bill.
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The 5 Worst Political Lies in Support of Mountaintop Removal

Wednesday, September 18th, 2013 | Posted by Thom Kay | No Comments

Part 4 in a 5 part series

Lie 4: Reclamation. More than a million acres of flattened mountains does not mean economic development after all.

Lie 4: More mountaintop removal coal mining will provide much needed flat, reclaimed land for economic development.

Central Appalachia has been mired in a mono-economy for the greater part of a century. In many counties, coal mining has been the only source of good paying jobs. Mining jobs sustained a livelihood for thousands of families over the years. But when the mining companies leave town, they leave very little behind.

Appalachia needs economic diversification. That, we are meant to believe, is where mountaintop removal comes in.

The mining method has irreversibly turned more than one million acres of Appalachian mountains into flat land, and flat land is more useful for building things like factories or Walmarts. In yesterday’s L.A. Times, West Virginia State Senator Art Kirkendoll called for more mountaintop removal, saying “Once you leave it flat, you have a place where you can diversify the economy with office parks and wind turbines.”
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Wielding New Power for Virginia

Tuesday, September 17th, 2013 | Posted by Tom Cormons | 1 Comment

I want my three children to grow up in a world where the water is safe to drink, the air is safe to breathe, and the beauty of our natural heritage remains intact. We can achieve this only through making major investments in clean energy, which also provides more jobs, saves money and leads to a more stable economy.

My home state of Virginia, alas, has a long way to go, and that’s why Appalachian Voices and partners have launched the New Power for the Old Dominion campaign.

The Old Dominion is stuck on using dirty energy from fossil fuels like coal, which desecrates our mountains and pollutes our environment. Virginia lags far behind others in taking advantage of clean energy from wind, solar and efficiency. Consider a couple of facts:

Virginia has a potential of at least 42000 megawatts of wind and solar energy. Dominion Virginia Power, which provides two-thirds of the state’s electricity, plans to develop less than 1 percent of that over the next 15 years
Virginia is ranked 37th in the nation for energy efficiency.

Our kids deserve better. We all deserve better. The bold campaign that Appalachian Voices and the Wise Energy for Virginia Coalition recently launched will insist that the state’s utilities, regulators and lawmakers get serious about clean energy. New Power for the Old Dominion lays out a practical, affordable, and morally-imperative plan for Virginia to get on the 21st century clean energy bandwagon. Now.

If you live in Virginia, I invite you to speak up for our state’s future and sign the pledge for clean energy today. And please consider sharing this with your Virginia friends.

Together, we can bring new power to the Old Dominion.

For Virginia,
Tom

The 5 Worst Political Lies in Support of Mountaintop Removal

Monday, September 16th, 2013 | Posted by Thom Kay | 1 Comment

Part 3 in a 5 part series

Lie 3 of 5: No candidate opposed to mountaintop removal has ever been elected to the U.S. Senate, or ever will be.

3. A candidate opposed to mountaintop removal cannot win a U.S. Senate race in Kentucky or West Virginia.

Despite what political supporters of the coal industry would have us believe, a candidate opposed to mountaintop removal coal mining can, and likely will, represent Kentucky or West Virginia in the U.S. Senate someday.

While it it has not happened yet, the past does not dictate the future. A woman has never been elected to the Senate in either state, but looking ahead to the 2014 elections, it seems likely that three of the four candidates — Natalie Tennant (D-WV), Shelley Moore-Capito (R-WV), and Alison Lundgren-Grimes (D-KY) — will be women. The primaries won’t happen until next year, but these women are the apparent front runners for their party nominations. It’s a pretty good bet that a woman will represent at least one of the two states in the Senate.

You may be thinking: “It’s about time. After all, more women serve in the Senate now than at any other time in history. But things will really have to change to put someone opposed to mountaintop removal in office.” Not according to a 2011 poll by Lake Research Partners and Bellwether Research, which found that in both Kentucky and West Virginia, voters had an unfavorable view of the mining practice.
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Mountaintop Removal in a Nutshell: Tremendous Environmental Capital Spent for Modest Energy Gains

Thursday, September 12th, 2013 | Posted by Brian Sewell | No Comments

To meet current U.S. coal demand through surface mining, an area the size of Washington, D.C. — about 68 square miles — would need to be mined every 81 days, according to a new study.

We talk a lot about the external costs of mountaintop removal. And by understanding the true costs that coal puts off on the landscapes, water and communities of Central Appalachia, it’s abundantly clear that the costs far outweigh the benefits to all but a few.

But still we hear arguments about the need for a balance between the environment and the economy.

As elected leaders and industry representatives delude themselves and others, yet another study has concluded that mountaintop removal is simply not worth it. Here’s the simple takeaway from the conclusion of “The Environmental Price Tag on a Ton of Mountaintop Removal Coal”: Tremendous environmental capital is being spent to achieve what are only modest energy gains.
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Another Clean Water Win! No More Sludge in the Ohio River

Thursday, September 12th, 2013 | Posted by Kara Dodson | No Comments

A Kentucky court ruling for clean water comes as the EPA finalizes revisions to rules governing power plant wastewater discharge. Tell the EPA to develop strong standards to protect clean water before September 20.

Here’s some good news for your Thursday — a Kentucky court ruled in favor of clean water in a landmark case that will protect the Ohio River from being further polluted by coal waste.

The ruling comes just in time for a nationwide revision to a 30-year-old U.S. Environmental Protection Agency guideline linked to the court’s decision.

Back in 2010, Louisville Gas & Electric’s Trimble County coal plant near Bedford, Ky., was permitted to store toxic waste byproducts in a wet pond that flowed into the Ohio River. That means the only barrier between a stream of heavy metals, including arsenic and selenium, and the drinking water source for millions of people was a settling pond. Essentially, the Kentucky Division of Water had given LG&E a free pass to slowly poison the river and the communities that rely on it.
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The 5 Worst Political Lies in Support of Mountaintop Removal

Thursday, September 12th, 2013 | Posted by Thom Kay | 3 Comments

Part 2 in a 5 part series

LIE 2: ECONOMY

Lie 2 of 5: Economy. Calling mountaintop removal an economic driver couldn’t be further from the truth.

Proponents of mountaintop removal mining use a very simple and straightforward logic to justify the practice: jobs are good for the economy, and mountaintop removal mining provides jobs, therefore mountaintop removal mining is good for the economy.

The argument is logical, but only if you ignore the actual, well-established and thoroughly understood impacts that mountaintop removal has had throughout the region.

Mountaintop removal equals job removal. Coal companies are always looking for ways to cut costs and make their workers more efficient. In other words, they want to get more coal while using fewer miners. That’s where surface mining comes in. Underground mining in Appalachia requires approximately 50 percent more miners than surface mining to acquire the same amount of coal.
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How Far Can Touting “Sustainable Coal” Get You?

Wednesday, September 11th, 2013 | Posted by Brian Sewell | 2 Comments

What's sustainable about coal? We'll leave it up to CoalBlue, a new group of Democrats supporting coal, to make that case.

What’s sustainable about coal? We’ll leave it up to CoalBlue, a new group of Democrats touting the so far undiscovered energy source, to make that case.

A few weeks ago, we heard of a new coal lobbying group (I know, just the thing the world needs) that aims to support something we have not heard of, something called “sustainable coal.”

Formed by current and former Democratic members of the U.S House of Representatives, along with several coal lobbyists, CoalBlue aims to mobilize Americans in support of sustainable coal as part of a sensible, “all of the above” energy strategy.

With the way the political winds have blown over the past several years, it’s no surprise that Democrats are attempting to rally to keep coal relevant in the national debate over energy policy. The “war on coal” rhetoric employed primarily by Republicans, as vexing and misguided as it is, has been effective in pushing voters in coal-producing regions further to the right.

But in many cases, individual Democrats have been just as outspoken in their disdain for the EPA and, more recently, the Obama administration’s proposed actions to avert climate change. With strength in numbers, a group like CoalBlue could be seen as a logical next step.
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Tenn. Tuesday: Football! Trampolines!! Technology!!!

Tuesday, September 10th, 2013 | Posted by JW Randolph | 2 Comments

Fall is right around the corner and football season is upon us, so let’s get rolling!

Now this is just the kind of headline every Tennessean wants to see: Chattanooga; America’s Next High-Tech Hub?

Here’s what Chattanooga Mayor Andy Berke has to brag about my hometown’s technological literacy and phenomenally fast internet:

In the past, we’ve called ourselves the ‘Boulder of the South.’ Then, the next Austin. All kinds of comparisons. My mantra has been: Now is our time. Let’s not worry about what others are doing. Let’s be proud of where we are and take advantage of all of our opportunities.

As if it wasn’t already cool enough that Chattanooga was opening its own trampoline park. C’mon guys, this isn’t even fair anymore.

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Now, some bad news that bears repeating. Appolo Fuels is applying for an 804-acre surface mining permit in Claiborne County. But you can help stop this monstrosity of a permit. How?

A joint public meeting is being held on Tuesday, September 24 as part of the local interagency working agreement. This is a new process in which all the relevant regulatory agencies are working together to issues mining and water pollution permits. You can find much, much more on the proposed mountaintop removal mine here.
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Hitting the Road to Promote New Power for the Old Dominion

Tuesday, September 10th, 2013 | Posted by Nathan Jenkins | No Comments

We’re hitting the road to tell Virginians about our plan to transition the commonwealth to clean energy. Find out when we’re coming to your town.

Starting today, Appalachian Voices and the Wise Energy for Virginia coalition are embarking on a statewide road tour to promote New Power for the Old Dominion, a commonsense campaign to change the direction of Virginia’s energy future.

Our events in Richmond and Charlottesville this week are the first stops on our tour where we’ll lay out the Wise Energy for Virginia coalition’s solution for a viable shift to clean energy in Virginia. It is a shift that Dominion Virginia Power, the commonwealth’s largest utility and the electric provider to a majority of Virginians, discounts in its recently released long-term planning report. The Dominion plan snubs energy efficiency and renewable energy in favor of additional nuclear power and new natural gas plants.

Dominion’s plan has token amounts of solar, and while it does not include significant wind, I realize it was written before Dominion’s successful bid for a potential 2,000-megawatt wind farm off Virginia’s gusty coast.*
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The 5 Worst Political Lies in Support of Mountaintop Removal

Monday, September 9th, 2013 | Posted by Thom Kay | 6 Comments

Part 1 in a 5 part series

LIE 1: BALANCE

According to some in Congress, supporting mountaintop removal is the same as advocating for a balance between the environment and economy.

Lie 1 of 5: Balance. According to some in Congress, supporting mountaintop removal is the same as advocating for a balance between the environment and the economy.

After spending a month back in their home states, Congress is back in session. Between the budget, the debt ceiling, Syria, energy efficiency bills, and the farm bill, they have plenty of work to do in a short period of time but rest assured the dialogue on Capitol Hill will contain the same old mix of logic and utter nonsense.

There are ethical and committed people working in Congress, both members and staff, but their work is often stifled by clever politicians catering to special interests and major donors. On every environmental issue under the sun, polluters and their allies are prone to misleading the public. Over the next two weeks, we’ll refute the five biggest, baddest lies about mountaintop removal coal mining.

1. When it comes to mountaintop removal, we need to strike a “balance” between the economy and the environment

Since arriving in Washington, D.C., six years ago and watching more Congressional hearings than I can count, one of the cliches that gets under my skin the most are the constant cries that we need a balance between the economy and the environment.
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Report Tracks the Erosion of Coal’s Energy Dominance

Wednesday, September 4th, 2013 | Posted by | No Comments

By Nolen Nychay
Editorial intern, Fall 2013

A report by Goldman Sachs finds that around the world “the window for thermal coal investment is closing.”

A report from Goldman Sachs’ commodities research team predicts a decline in global coal production as a result of decreasing demand. While coal-fired electricity still accounts for 36 percent of international electricity generation, according to the report, emerging global trends are predictive of a lower dependence on coal-produced energy in the near future.

Due to the recent boom in coal exports from China, the coal market is in a state of oversupply that is predicted to last until at least 2015. The resulting lower prices have put pressure on high-cost producers, forcing production cuts and the closure of marginal mines.

Goldman Sachs, a global investment banking and securities firm, developed this latest report as a reference for energy investors — especially those with investments in coal. The reaction to this analysis remains to be seen, but as the report definitively states, “The window for profitable investment in coal mining is closing.”
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