COPENHAGEN, CHARLESTON, AND COAL RIVER MOUNTAIN

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Today, the confluence between mountaintop removal coal mining and climate change is front and center on the streets of Charleston, West Virginia and on stage at the “COP15″ United Nations Climate Summit in Copenhagen.

In Charleston, activists from around the region are gathering in front of the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection headquarters to demand an end to blasting at Coal River Mountain — ground zero in the fight against mountaintop removal coal mining.

And in Copenhagen, Google is unveiling a new layer in Google Earth that dramatically illustrates the choice to be made at Coal River Mountain — a choice between a clean energy future and the increased threat of climate change.

Click here to watch the YouTube video that Google will be showing at Copenhagen:

As Lorelei Scarbro, who lives in Rock Creek, West Virginia, at the foot of Coal River Mountain, says in the video, Coal River Mountain represents a crossroads in our future.

Massey Energy plans to mine more than 6000 acres of mountaintop at Coal River Mountain, which would destroy the opportunity to build a 320 megawatt wind farm on the ridges of Coal River Mountain.

Instead of 320 megawatts of clean energy that would power more than 70,000 homes indefinitely, Massey’s plans would release 134 million tons of C02 — the equivalent of putting 1.5 million more cars on the road for 17 years.

That’s what makes Coal River Mountain a “cauldron of Climate Change,” in Lorelei’s words. That’s why Google is showing millions of Google Earth users and the delegates in Copenhagen what’s at stake at Coal River Mountain, and why people from around the region are gathering today in Charleston.

Can you stand with the activists in Charleston and the delegates in Copenhagen today by taking two simple actions?

1. Watch the Coal River Mountain Video and forward it to your friends and family. Ask them to join you in stopping mountaintop removal coal mining by signing up at iLoveMountains.org.

2. Email your Senators and tell them to pass the Appalachian Restoration Act. If Congress is serious about addressing climate change, we need this bill to dramatically reduce mountaintop removal coal mining, which is a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions.

Thank you for taking a moment today to help secure a clean energy future for all of us.

Matt Wasson
iLoveMountains.org

L.A.’s Coal Ban Leads to Another Abandoned Power Plant

According to GreenBiz.com

The Sierra Club enjoyed a victory last week when a Utah-based utility announced it would walk away from plans to build a coal-fired generating unit in the state.

According to the environmental group’s tally, 100 coal plants have been foiled or abandoned since 2001, the beginning of an era it dubbed the “Coal Rush.”

The Intermountain Power Agency (IPA) announced Thursday it has given up plans to build an additional coal-fired unit. Its biggest customer—the city of Los Angeles—signaled its intent July 2 to phase out use of all coal-based electricity by 2020. IPA’s expansion project had effectively died in its original iteration when the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power pulled out of the deal in 2007, Reuters reported.

Visit GreenBiz.com to read the rest of the article.

EPA: MOST US RESIDENTS EXPOSED TO EXCESSIVE AIR POLLUTION RISK

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.

PLEASE CALL CONGRESS: We should regulate Coal Combustion Waste

A coalition of 109 organizations, including Appalachian Voices and the Environmental Integrity Project, is pushing back against Congressmen who do not want to regulate the disposal of coal combustion waste.

Please call your Congressperson and ask him/her not to sign on to letters sponsored by industry that seek weak CCW ”guidelines” that skimp on environmental protections.  See below for more details

Urgent response needed – please help us prevent special interests from stalling our efforts for enforceable regulation of coal combustion wastes (CCW):

Congressional leaders, including PA Congressman Tim Holden, are circulating “Dear Colleague” letters seeking to maintain the status quo for disposal of toxic coal combustion wastes (CCW).  Industry lobbyists are working hard to convince lawmakers that federal CCW “guidelines,” rather than national disposal standards, are all that is needed to protect human health and the environment:  they say current state regulations of coal combustion wastes are “adequate.”

Following the TVA Kingston fly ash disaster, we know otherwise— CCW is toxic, and states are turning a blind eye to regulatory controls in an effort to preserve the so-called beneficial use status of these wastes.

Don’t be fooled—the status quo of patchwork state regulations may save the utility companies money, but it does little to safeguard humans or the environment, particularly our water sources, from the hazards posed by arsenic, mercury, chromium, selenium, and other CCW constituents.

The US EPA’s 2007 Risk Assessment found that communities closest to CCW impoundments can have a 1 in 50 risk of cancer: that’s 2,000 times higher than threshold beyond which the EPA deems any cancer risk to be unacceptable—1 in 100,000.

And, the prestigious National Academy of Sciences (NAS) concluded that current state practices of calling the wastes “beneficial” did not prove their safety.  The NAS recommended a federal regulatory standard and much more scientific studies.

Please join us by calling your Congressperson and asking him/her not to sign on to letters sponsored by industry that seek weak CCW ”guidelines” that skimp on environmental protections.  Please ask them to, instead, support the following principles:

• Consistent and enforceable federal regulations, not guidelines, are needed to prevent coal ash disasters like the TVA spill and more insidious, but no less dangerous and on-going releases.
• Enforceable federal regulations can simultaneously promote coal ash recycling and protect the public and environment from toxic leaching from coal ash.  Federal law already allows the EPA to distinguish between waste disposal and beneficial re-use of wastes. Following this precedent, the EPA can regulate coal ash as a hazardous waste when disposed in a landfill, but as a non-hazardous product when it is safely recycled.  EPA has made these distinctions many times before without damaging the market for recycled products.
• The cost of implementing safe standards is marginal.  In 2000, the EPA estimated that the cost of compliance with tailored hazardous waste regulations would be about $1 billion, annually – just 0.4 percent of utility industry sales.  In a 2005 report, EPA reduced this cost estimate to $521 million for comparable standards.  Even industry estimates of $5-6 billon is reasonable in light of the high risk posed by the waste.

Find your Congressional Members and their phone numbers by clicking on the following link – listing is by state:

http://www.gpoaccess.gov/cdirectory/browse-cd-aug08.html

Thanks for making these important calls – and for sharing this action alert with your friends, family and colleagues!

Lisa Graves Marcucci
Environmental Integrity Project
PA Coordinator, Community Outreach
412-897-0569

Greenpeace says Waxman-Markey climate change bill not strong enough to stop global warming

Greenpeace is calling for renewed leadership from President Obama and Congress following the release of the drastically weakened Waxman-Markey climate and energy bill today. The American Climate and Energy Security Act (ACES) was already in need of improvement when first released as a discussion draft in March, and has become severely worse as members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee actively worked to weaken the bill on behalf of fossil fuels industries and other corporate polluters.

“Despite the best efforts of Chairman Waxman, this bill has been seriously undermined by the lobbying of industries more concerned with profits than the plight of our planet. While science clearly tells us that only dramatic action can prevent global warming and its catastrophic impacts, this bill has fallen prey to political infighting and industry pressure. We cannot support this bill in its current state...”

Read the entire release and statement by Greenpeace

Capitol Power Plant to burn only gas

By Robin Bravender, E&E reporter

(05/01/2009) House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) announced today that the aging Capitol Power Plant will no longer burn coal, a practice that has long been criticized by environmental groups.

Stephen Ayers, the acting architect of the capitol, has reported that coal would be burned at the plant only if it is needed as an emergency backup. The Architect of the Capitol made the transition to natural gas as the primary fuel source for generating steam in March, according to a statement from Pelosi’s office.

In February, days before a scheduled protest against coal combustion at the plant, Pelosi and Reid called on Ayers to switch the plant entirely to natural gas (E&ENews PM, Feb. 26).

“For years, the Capitol Power Plant has been the largest source of carbon emissions on the Capitol Complex,” Reid said today. “The Architect’s switch to cleaner burning natural gas shows that the House and Senate are leading by example in reducing our emissions. I look forward to working with the Architect’s office to achieve even greater energy savings and efficiency through our greening programs.”

The nearly century-old plant, located just south of House office buildings, has been a contentious issue for years in Congress. Environmentalists and D.C. residents have continually called for the plant to stop burning coal, while lawmakers from coal-producing states have fought efforts to switch the plant entirely to natural gas.

Converting another boiler to burn natural gas will allow the plant to eliminate the use of coal even in the case of emergency situations, Ayers told Pelosi in an April 24 letter. The conversion could be completed as early as November 2010 or as late as October 2011, he said.

Willie Nelson in the new movie “Fuel”

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

For more information, contact:  Lisa Doty 828-265-4852

MOUNTAINKEEPERS & APPS FILM COUNCIL SPONSOR

SHOWING OF “FUEL”

Boone, NC (February 24, 2009)—Willie Nelson is not only an accomplished singer/songwriter, but he also is quite an advocate for our planet.  He now devotes as much of his time and energy to that passion as he does his touring.

He and several other celebrities and public figures appear in a newly released documentary – “Fuel” - that addresses America’s addiction to oil and what it will take to change our course. Nelson is quite outspoken about his concerns around the sustainability of our life style and our slow response to the world’s predicament.

In collaboration with the APPS Films Council, the MountainKeepers are bringing “Fuel” to the I.G. Greer Super Cinema on the ASU campus for three showings next week. Admission to all shows is only $1.00.
Thurs., February 26:  7:00 and 9:30 p.m.
Fri., February 27:  7:00 and 9:30 p.m.
Sat., February 28:  7:00 p.m - This showing is expressly for the community and will be followed by discussion hosted by the MountainKeepers.

Internet Movie Database (IMDb) summarized the film this way, “Record high oil prices, global warming, and an insatiable demand for energy: these issues define our generation. The film exposes shocking connections between the auto industry, the oil industry, and the government, while exploring alternative energies such as solar, wind, electricity, and non-food-based biofuels. Josh Tickell and his Veggie Van take us on the road to discover the pros and cons of biofuels, how America’s addiction to oil is destroying the U.S. economy, and how green energy can save us, but only if we act now.”

MountainKeepers has been an independent, fact-based voice for sustainability in the High Country for the past decade.  “Fuel” is the first in a series of award-winning documentary films we are sponsoring to educate ourselves and our community about the challenges we face as a society and what we can do about them.

For more information about the film, go to http://www.thefuelfilm.com.  For more information on MountainKeepers, go to http://www.mountainkeepers.org.

A New Study from Greenpeace Shows that Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) is a “False Hope”

Greenpeace’s new study, “False Hope: Why Carbon Capture and Storage Won’t Save the Climate,” discounts industry claims that CCS technology could save the Earth from the effects of climate change. The Greenpeace study shows that CCS technology is just a smokescreen that hides the real solutions to climate change: use of renewable energy sources and greater energy efficiency. These two options are available to us today and carry none of the risks of CCS. 

Is Clean Coal Really Clean?

Clean Coal is an expensive and inefficient way to make coal more marketable in comparison to other alternative energies.  When posed with the question, what is this Clean Coal that the presidential candidates are rooting for, Dear Umbra has an answer to what Clean Coal really is within her environmental advice column on Grist.org.  Click the read more link below to see what Umbra thinks about Clean Coal.

Renewable Energy Initiatives

Wind Turbines are a form of renewable energy that harness the power of ever circulating wind.

In 2007 Bush signed a $162 Billion war supplemental in order to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan until 2009.  This federal money is put into perspective by the Apollo Alliance and Policy Matters Ohio’s Renewable Energy Policy Project, which states a $72 billion investment, would yield 74,000 megawatts of renewable energy in the U.S.  The aforementioned energy output is 16% of the national energy production in 2007.
Increased reliance on renewable energy reduces the reliance on antiquated sources of energy such as coal, which contributes to air pollution by releasing millions of tons of sulfur dioxide, nitrous oxides, and mercury into the atmosphere, while devastating hundreds of mountains, communities, and streams.  Mountain Top Removal is an intensive way to obtain coal by blowing the tops off mountains.  MTR has destroyed 470 mountains while devastating the surrounding streams and communities.
Supplements to renewable energy will not only increase our national independence, but it will decrease our dependence on dirty sources of energy and in turn decrease pollution, the damage to our mountains, communities and water sources.  Renewable energy is a perpetual energy source that can provide jobs and wealth to a community.  Why is this renewable energy not being funded when it is a mere portion of the federal money being spent on less sustainable efforts?

ALERT: Request public hearing on Mercury and other pollutants from the proposed Cliffside coal plant

If you are concerned about global warming, air and water pollution, or mountaintop removal coal mining, we need your help to push Duke Energy’s dirty coal plant “off the Cliffside”.  Please request a new set of public hearings in your area about the dangers of mercury and air pollution from the proposed Cliffside coal-fired power plant near Charlotte, NC.

Contact Secretary Bill Ross of the North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources and ask for public hearings in your area.  You can request a hearing in three ways:

1. Send an email: (click here for a sample)
2. Write a letter: (click here for a sample)
3. Make a call: (919) 733-4984, then call us to with the results, (828) 262-1500

We have a right to know how many tons of hazardous air pollutants Duke Energy will pump into our air and water!

Here is more information on the hearing process, and here’s more about the proposed expansions of the Cliffside plant.

photo courtesy of Southern Alliance for Clean Energy

NC Dept of Environment and Natural Resources to Limit Pollutants from the New Cliffside Power Plant

The North Carolina Department of Environment and Natural Resources will ensure “maximum achievable” limits of hazardous pollutants at the new Cliffside coal-fired power plant.

All Hands on Deck for Virginia!

Larry Bush, Pete Ramey, and Kathy Selvage; Citizens of Wise County and founders of the Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards

One week from today, citizens of Wise County, Virginia, will deliver a mile-long petition to Dominion Resources opposing their plans for a dirty coal fired power plant in Wise County.  If you don’t know the background of this campaign yet, click here to learn more.

As you can see from the petition-meter on the right, we still have a lot of petition signatures to gather, and this is where you come in.  We have done our best to make it easy for you to organize your networks in support of the people of Wise County who are fighting this terrible threat.  Here’s what you can do:

Click here to add the NO DIRTY COAL PLANT! Petition to your facebook profile.  But don’t just add it, tell your friends about it and encourage them to sign the petition and put a meter on their own profiles.

Click the “Adopt a Yard” button on the petition meter on the right, and it provides instructions on how to put a meter on almost any website.

people can sign the petition by going to: http://www.appvoices.org/index.php?air/vapetition
and they can learn all about the campaign at:
http://cleanenergyva.org/?p=44

Thanks for your help and we’ll keep you updated on the campaign.

Sign the Mile-Long Petition for Clean Energy in Virginia!

You don’t have to be a Virginian to be affected by the pollution from Dominion’s proposed coal-fired power plant in Southwest Virginia, and wherever you’re from, the folks in Southwest Virginia could sure use your help in their fight to save their homes and community from mountaintop removal and (to add insult to injury) another coal-fired power plant Dominion’s proposing to build in their back yard. 

So SIGN THIS PETITION - and if you have a blog or Facebook account, click the “Adopt a Yard” link, copy the code and put a petition meter on your site. 

We have three weeks to make this a mile long, so y’all pitch in now!

Roy Carter, Candidate for Congress, Opposes Mountaintop Removal Mining