Is coal the new oil?

WVa Blue and Daily Kos regular Faithfull looks at the recent spike in coal prices and asks, "Are we on the verge of seeing electricity rates pull a "gas-prices?"

A great, informative post on DailyKos that you can read here.

Gore on coal issues

Former vice-president Al Gore made a surprise appearance at Netroots Nation and took some questions.

wvblueguy of WVaBlue asked him about mountaintop removal and coal-to-liquid technology.

Gore's take on MTR?

"Mountaintop mining is an atrocity. It is an outrage."

[...]

"It's all done in automated way. That's why the coalminers lost all of their jobs. When we make this transition to renewable fuels, we have to keep them in mind. We ought to guarantee a good job in the fresh air and sunshine for every single coal miner who has been affected by the transition over to renewable fuels."

Here's the video:



More on this here in the original WVaBlue post.

Recommended reading: Coal to Liquid Plan Means a Kentucky Fried Earth

By Kevin Grandia, managing editor of DeSmogblog.

This one's up on HuffPo:

(excerpt)
An announcement today for plans to construct a $4 billion coal to liquid fuel facility in Kentucky is a sign of the desperate times America is in.

Converting coal to liquid fuel has not been used on a large scale since the 1930’s when Nazi Germany developed the technology because the country had lots of coal but no petroleum of its own.

But the sell-job is well underway right now in Kentucky to re-frame coal to liquid as a miracle answer to America’s energy woes.

Mountain Keepers Festival is this weekend

From a press release:

July 5 & 6: Mountain Keepers Music Festival

About an hour south of Charleston, W.Va., Kayford Mountain is an island of green West Virginia in midst of a Mars-scape of massacred mountains. People from across the United States and beyond travel to Kayford Mountain to get a shocking first-hand look at mountaintop removal operations. Every year, folks also converge on Kayford Mountain for events that celebrate everyone's work for environmental justice. Join the celebration on Saturday, July 5th and Sunday, July 6th--come to the annual Mountain Keepers Music Festival, held at the Stanley Heirs Park on the mountain.

The free two-day event features local and regional musicians playing a variety of bluegrass, gospel, country and old-time music, as well as children's games, a pot-luck meal, free camping and a silent auction. Attendees are encouraged to bring a covered dish for a potluck

Photo: Larry Gibson steps over a crack in the ground he says was caused by blasting at nearby Princess Beverly mountaintop mine. Gibson is fighting to save the land his family has owned on Kayford Mountain for more than 100 years. The family land is surrounded by the coal mines. Herald-Dispatch file.

Mountaintop removal to increase?

Using another British paper today.

The Guardian reports that Virginia will host a new power plant by the number two utility in America.

The move almost certainly will increase Virginia's use of the mining practice known as mountaintop removal, in which peaks are sheared off to reach the coal inside.

Mountains near Kayford, W.Va., seen in this Jan. 2, 2000 file photo, show how mountaintop removal mining has flattened many mountain peaks. File photo/The Associated Press

W.Va. Democrats vote down mountaintop removal ban

It was a close vote at the state convention on a resolution calling for a freeze in new permits.

The Gazette:

The final vote on the Healthy Jobs, Healthy Communities, and Healthy Mountains Resolution 215 to 190.

Seder's mountaintop removal segment

On his last live broadcast, Air America's Sam Seder had a few guests of note to our region.

In addition to regular panelist, W.Va. resident and Firedoglake blogger Christy Hardin Smith, he interviewed filmmaker David Novick, whose documentary "Burning the Future" has been airing on Sundance this month (It comes out on DVD in June).

In Burning the Future: Coal in America, writer/director David Novack examines the explosive forces that have set in motion a groundswell of conflict between the coal industry and residents of West Virginia. Confronted by an emerging coal-based US energy policy, local activists watch the nation praise coal without regard to the devastation caused by its extraction. Faced with toxic ground water, the obliteration of 1.4 million acres of mountains, and a government that appeases industry, our heroes demonstrate a strength of purpose and character in their improbable fight to arouse the nation's help in protecting their mountains, saving their families, and preserving their way of life.

Audio of the interview is below.

Photo courtesy of West Virginia Highlands Conservancy
Mining at Kayford Mountain in Raleigh County, W.Va., draws some of the harshest criticism from mountaintop removal opponents.

Grandfather takes on the coal industry

America's best journalist, Amy Goodman, recently did a good segment on mountaintop removal featuring West Virginia activist Ed Wiley.

You can find a transcript, audio and video of it at Democracy Now.

Companies agree to temporarily limit operations at MTR mines

From AP:

HUNTINGTON, W.Va. - A trio of coal companies has agreed to temporarily limit operations at three mountaintop removal mines opposed by environmentalists.

The deal struck Wednesday settles the latest round in a long-running battle pitting the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition and several other groups against the Army Corps of Engineers and coal mine operators. OVEC won a court ruling in March 2007 that the corps violated federal law by issuing valley fill permits for mountaintop removal mines without conducting extensive environmental reviews.

Mountaintop removal on NPR

WVaBlue and Daily Kos regular "Faithfull" can be heard on NPR discussing mountaintop removal.

All Things Considered, April 21, 2008 · Lobbyists are everywhere on Capitol Hill. But it's not always high-priced professionals that get lawmakers' attention. A cadre of Appalachian residents has come to lobby for environmental protections from coal-mining waste. For many, it was their first trip to Washington, D.C.

Listen here.

File photo/The Herald-Dispatch

The belated Earth Day post

- A bill to an mountaintop removal has advanced in Tennessee.

The measure seeks to ban surface coal mining within 100 feet of rivers and streams, or if it alters ridgelines in elevations higher than 2,000 feet. The Senate panel voted 8-1 to advance the bill.

-The West Virginia Young Democrats have adopted a resolution opposing mountaintop removal:

From AP:

The Young Democrats -- with more than 30 active chapters for party members 36 and younger -- adopted a resolution at its state convention earlier this month calling for a moratorium on new mountaintop removal mining permits.

The move came after considerable debate and changes to the language, according to Rod Snyder, the group's president.

"We know this is very controversial,'' he said.

The group has a video of their visit to Kayford Mountain that I found over at WVaBlue.



Photo by NASA

Mountaintop removal news

Cecil Roberts, speaking for the United Mine Workers says the union would not oppose a ban on mountain top removal.

From the Gazette:

"As a long-term goal, I don't think we would be opposed to that," said Phil Smith, communications director for the union and chief spokesman for UMW President Cecil Roberts.

"This is something we ought to be talking about," Smith said. "This is an agenda for future discussions."

OVEC provides a press release on the campaign of activists to block an MTR site near Hawk's Nest State Park. (Some excerpts):

ANSTED, W.VA. -- Early Saturday (April 5) morning, dozens of mountaintop removal opponents converged on Gauley Mountain for Blessing of the Mountain II, intending to pray near a mountaintop removal operation above the Fayette County community of Ansted. But, a similar number of employees of CONSOL coal company were already there, blocking access to the prayer site.

[...]

The mountaintop removal opponents read prayers, sang hymns and spoke against mountaintop removal. At one point, a CONSOL worker stepped into the midst of the service and it looked as if the situation could turn volatile. But the crowd began singing “Amazing Grace,” easing the tension between the two groups.

After the services concluded, many from both sides stood and talked calmly with one another about the need for change.

[...]

The Ansted Historical Preservation Council planned the vigil. Fliers for the event said people were invited to join in prayer, to seek “Divine intervention and wisdom to contradict the devastation created by mountaintop removal mining practices.”

The council has been organizing in Ansted and surrounding tourism-dependent communities, attempting to stop a 286-acre Powellton Coal mountaintop removal operation which would be visible from the New River Gorge Bridge and would affect the Gauley River National Recreation Area. The permit boundary allows mining right up to the boundary of Hawks Nest State Park.

Candidates on mountaintop removal

Faithfull at DailyKos has Hillary Clinton's answer on mountaintop removal.

Clinton on West Virginia Public Radio:

I am concerned about it for all the reasons people state, but I think its a
difficult question because of the conflict between the economic and
environmental trade-off that you have here.

I'm not an expert. I don't know enough to have an independent opinion, but I sure would like people who could be objective, understanding both the economic necessities and environmental damage to come up with some approach that would enable us to retrieve the coal but would enable us to do it in a way that wouldn't damage the living standards and the other important qualities associated with people living both under the mountaintop and people who are along the streams.

You know, maybe there is a way to recover those mountaintops once they have been stripped of the coal. You know, I think we've got to look at this from a practical perspective.

---

Obama spoke on the issue in an August 2007 stop in 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.

Valley fill bill

The West Virginia Senate Energy Industry and Mining Committee is meeting Wednesday to discuss SB 588, a bill introduced by Sen. Jon Blair Hunter, which would ban valley fills.

The committee will hear first from representatives of the WV Coal Association who oppose the bill.

They will be followed by the bill's supporters, including attorney Joe Lovett, novelist and former Mountain Party candidate for governor Denise Giardinia and West Virginia Highlands Conservancy mining chair Cindy Rank.

The W.Va equivalent of damming the Grand Canyon?

The Surface Mine Board is considering an appeal for a mountaintop removal permit in Fayette County.

From Vivian Stockman at OVEC:

The permit borders the Hawks Nest State Park. With this permit, mountaintop removal would be visible from the historic Midland Trail and the New River Gorge Bridge.

The Surface Mine Board is scheduled to hold a hearing on this permit Wednesday, Feb. 13 at 8:30 a.m. at the WV DEP building in Kanawha City.

Obama up in Virginia

Faithfull at WVaBlue points out that Obama, an anti-mountaintop removal candidate, is leading in the coal state of Virginia.

Virginia is showing that not only can a candidate who opposes mountaintop removal be competitive...but two seperate polls are showing that Senator Barack Obama is up by 15+% in a mountaintop removal state.
Two polls have confirmed Obama over 50%, and Clinton under 40%.

Bill to ban valley fills introduced

W.Va. Senator Jon Blair Hunter, a Democrat from Monongalia County, has introduced legislation to end the practice of valley fills, in which thousand of miles of streams are buried under the rubble created by mountaintop removal coal mining.

From a press release:
“I introduced Senate Bill 588 because I fervently believe that God did not intend for us to destroy the mountains, the streams, the forests and His people in order to mine coal,” Sen. Hunter said.

[...]

“Senator Hunter's bill would stop mountain top removal operators from continuing to use West Virginia's mountain streams as giant garbage cans to dispose of billions of tons of mining waste,” said Joe Lovett executive director of the Appalachian Center for the Economy and the Environment. “West Virginians overwhelmingly oppose mountaintop removal, and I hope that the Manchin administration and others in the Legislature will stand with Senator Hunter to stop the permanent destruction of a huge swath of one of the oldest mountain ranges in the world. It is time for the madness of mountaintop removal to come to an end, and Senator Hunter's bill is an important step in that direction.”

Bio on Hunter from Sen. Byrd's Web site:

Jon Blair Hunter was elected to the West Virginia Senate from the 14th District in 1997. He was recently appointed co-chair of the Senate Education Subcommittee on Productive and Safe Schools. Senator Hunter is a native West Virginian, born in Richwood and raised in Nitro. He served in the U.S. Army and earned a bachelor's degree in sociology and a master's degree in social work at the University of Wisconsin. His professional "hats" have included college professor, community organizer, and administrator and executive director of numerous community and senior citizen organizations and programs. He served as Executive Director of the Region VI Area Agency on Aging from 1981 to 1991, coordinating senior citizen programs in north central West Virginia. He is a member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, and has served on the boards of many other civic organizations.