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Hope in the Mountains
Yesterday was a great day for the people of Appalachia and for all of America. In a bold departure from Bush-era energy policy, the Obama administration suspended a coal company's permit to dump debris from its proposed mountaintop mining operation into a West Virginia valley and stream. In addition, the administration promised to carefully review upward of 200 such permits awaiting approval by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
With yesterday's action, President Obama has signaled his intention to save this region. His moratorium on these permits will allow the administration to develop a sensible long-term approach to dealing with this catastrophic method of coal extraction.
I join hundreds of Appalachia's embattled communities in applauding
this news. Having flown over the coalfields of Appalachia and walked
her ridges, valleys and hollows, I know that this land cannot withstand
more abuse. Mountaintop-removal coal mining is the greatest
environmental tragedy ever to befall our nation.
This radical form of
strip mining has already flattened the tops of 500 mountains, buried
2,000 miles of streams, devastated our country's oldest and most
diverse temperate forests, and blighted landscapes famous for their
history and beauty. Using giant earthmovers and millions of tons of
explosives, coal moguls have eviscerated communities, destroyed homes,
and uprooted and sickened families with coal and rock dust, and with
blasting, flooding and poisoned water, all while providing far fewer
jobs than does traditional underground mining.
The backlog of permit applications has been building since Appalachian groups won a federal injunction against the worst forms of mountaintop removal in March 2007. But the floodgates opened on Feb. 13 when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit in Richmond overturned that injunction. Since then, the Corps has been working overtime to oblige impatient coal barons by quickly issuing the pending permits. Each such permit amounts to a death sentence for streams, mountains and communities. Taken together, these pending permits threatened to lay waste to nearly 60,000 acres of mountain landscape, destroy 400 valleys and bury more than 200 miles of streams.
The Corps already had issued a dozen permits before the White House stepped in, and coal companies have begun destroying some of these sites. The bulldozers are poised for action on the rest. Typical of these is Ison Rock Ridge, a proposed 1,230-acre mine in southwest Virginia that would blow up several peaks and threaten a half-dozen communities, including the small town of Appalachia.
In a valiant effort to hold back destruction, the Appalachia Town Council, citing its responsibility for the "health, safety, welfare, and properties" of its residents, recently passed an ordinance prohibiting coal mining within the town limits without approval from the council. But that ordinance lacks the power to override the Army Corps of Engineers' permit. And while the Obama administration order will reverse the Bush-era policies and stop the pillaging elsewhere, the town of Appalachia remains imperiled.
The White House should now enlarge its moratorium to commute Appalachia's death sentence by suspending the dozen permits already issued. The Environmental Protection Agency should then embark on a rulemaking effort to restore a critical part of the Clean Water Act that was weakened by industry henchmen recruited to powerful positions in the Bush administration. Former industry lobbyists working as agency heads and department deputies issued the so-called "fill rule" to remove 30-year-old laws barring coal companies from dumping mining waste into streams. This step cleared the way for mountaintop removal, which within a few years could flatten an area of the Appalachians the size of Delaware. This change must be reversed to restore the original intent of the Clean Water Act and prevent mining companies from using our streams and rivers as dumps.
The Obama administration's decision to suspend these permits and take a fresh look at mountaintop removal is consistent with Obama's commitment to science, justice and transparency in government and his respect for America's history and values. The people of Appalachia, Va., and the other towns across the coalfields have been praying that Barack Obama's promise of change will be kept. Thanks to yesterday's decision, hope, not mining waste, is filling the valleys and hollows of Appalachia.
- Posted in
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23 Comments so far
Show AllPresident Obama has my vote for his re-election on this issue alone.
Hopefully the downstream states of Kentucky and Tennessee that voted against Obama will appreciate the fact that this legislation will improve water quality in their rivers.
Sioux Rose
We citizens owe a debt of gratitude to Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. for his passionate and tireless commitment to environmental preservation.
Recall the game plan of Grover Norquist and his legion, that government be robbed of the monies needed to provide REAL services for persons in need. It seems to me that now that Obama has given the lion's share to the military (the promise to continue war into Afghanistan, continuation of an absolutely OBSCENE military budget) and those all-important guity-as-sin bankers... what precious little $ is left in the pot he is FREE to direct at the programs that matter, like this one. If only the priorities were reversed and the REAL funds went to the many programs needed to resurrect this nation's body, mind, and "soul."
"Oh daddy, won't you take me back to New Lindberg county,
down by the green rushes where paradise waits..."
"I'm sorry my son, but yer too late in askin...
Mr. Peabody's coal train has hauled it away..."
John Prine
That Jesus sticker won't get you into Heaven anymore...
It's "_Muhlenberg_ County"
And it's "_Green River_" where Paradise waits"
Paradise was a small farming town in western Kentucky that was obliterated by open-cast-type strip mining. A big TVA power plant sits atop the strip mine spoil where the town used to be.
A lot of the spoil is acid and even 40 years later supports nothing but scrubby pines and some hardy grass.
And almost forgot; its "your flag decal won't get you into heaven any more"
---USAn
Thanks... I have a lousy memory for lyrics unless ive seen them written...
"Mountaintop-removal coal mining is the greatest environmental tragedy ever to befall our nation."
Not to put too fine a point to it, but I suspect that the Navaho would say this is hyperbole---that southwest uranium mine tailings are ultimately far worse. Invisible death.
-30-
If they said it was hyperbole, they would most certainly be wrong.
I've seen some trashed parts of the western US, (Butte, Mt and the Powder River strip mines around Gilette, WY are the worst) but the MTR mines in SW West Virginia outdoes them all.
---USAn---
YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW !!! This alone shall shatter the anti-Obama claim that Obama's for Big Coal. Take this and that and this and that !! YES YES YES !!
Terrance Mitchell
Redfield, South Dakota
I commend Obama's shutting down waste disposal of coal into streams and rivers. But, Obama is still straddling two irreconcilable positions on coal.
Coal is not clean and never will be. I refer you to Jeff Goddell's, work on the subject published under the title, Big Coal, The Dirty Secret Behind America's Energy Future. The science is refutable that CST are not viable for the near or long term future. Moreover, they are only being tested on a small scale at two coal fired facilities. The technology is too expensive to implement on a large scale, and even if a collective effort to do so drastically increased these efforts coal would be too expensive to burn placing its market viability outside the reach of working people. But any legitimate environmentalist not partnering with corporate efforts (incremental reform environmentalist like Kennedy) knows coal is the greatest problem facing long term viability of our species. Obama has promised efforts toward sustainable sources asserting he will double it, but fails to tell the public that sustainable solutions only represent 3.8% of the energy grid in this country. Other egregious problems are China's current expansion of coal which further possess risk to human life on a planetary scale. Coal needs to be shut down, or at least no further permits granted to build fired plants. Obama has thrown his lot in with coal. Apparently, so has Kennedy by ignoring the comprehensive issues of coals long term viability.
Hope in the Mountains
Is Obama going to Denver?
Thank you to Robert for a well written piece on the importance of this decision. I have seen mountains that have lost their tops in TN and W VA, and talked with people who live there, and the many ways toxins get into their communities and local ecosystems are usually not fully described; Kennedy's piece was more comprehensive than usual.
But if the permit "holds" turn into permits never issued (as I pray they will), this will make coal-fired electricity much more expensive (again, as it should be).
Does Robert Kennedy support Cape Wind? Have other Kennedys changed their positions on this?
I was born on Cape Cod, and think off-shore wind, such as proposed by Cape WInd, would be a far more elegant way to power the Cape than the current source: diesel boiling water to turn turbines which could be turned by wind much more directly and renewably.
Less coal! More wind! And more conservation so that we can function with less electricity overall.
"But if the permit "holds" turn into permits never issued (as I pray they will), this will make coal-fired electricity much more expensive (again, as it should be)."
This is not true.
MTR represents a rather small faction of US coal production and most of this coal could still be produced by other methods. Left intact, Coal River and Kayford Mts. could produce more wind energy than the coal itself. This is why banning it should be completely uncontroversial. The fact that it is "controversial" just shows the power of that Massey Energy and a couple smaller companies have.
But yes, electricity from fossil fueled sources should be more expensive - the best way to do this would be a carbon tax at the tipple or wellhead. Forget cap-and trade. But just like single payer medical care, such a thing would be way too "socialistic".
---USAn---
If the Obama administration starts actually making sure deep mining is safe for miners and for local communities (human and ecosystems), then a return to deep mining would be a great short-term "stimulus" move: more jobs, less destruction. But ONLY as a temporary transition away from ANY coal.
Yes to wind on Coal River (as well as Cape Wind). Can Kayford still be converted to wind? That would be making silk out of a sow's ear! (or phoenix rising from ashes, or whatever analogy best applies.) It depends on the wind there, and proximity to the grid (one "advantage" of coal is that it could be mined one place, and burned another, damaging MANY habitats in the process).
I'm all for a carbon tax on all fossil fuels. My daughter is an ecologist turned environmental lawyer; she resigned from her job helping Australian companies trade emissions and buy offsets because she knew the ecology of "cap and trade" wasn't ecological; it was just "permission to pollute." I know cap and trade proponents in this country "promise" it won't be as meaningless as it was initially in Europe and as has been so far in Australia, but it is still essentially "permission to pollute."
A friend suggested the term "carbon royalties" instead of "carbon tax." Good idea: and the royalties should go to the people and ecosystems where carbon-based fuels are extracted AND to the taxpayers as a whole, to help "offset" the higher costs of fuels for lower income folks, to help build regional, municipally-owned renewal power sources, and other ways of benefitting the common good. Not socialism. Just "of the people, by the people, for the people."
Also, as you said, a carbon tax/royalty should be applied "at the tipple or well-head." The further upstream the tax is applied, the cheaper it is to implement. Emissions trading just gives jobs to a lot of lawyers and bureaucrats and corporate types. Economists and ecologists could help set rates for the carbon tax/AKA royalties in response to science-based needs to slow emissions.
Thank you RFK Jr. This is heartening news. We should thank Obama and at the same time continue to push him on his backward views regarding "clean" coal.
The Demoks only function as ballast on the left side of the godzilla monster to prevent the Repuks from tipping the hideous thing over. Kennedy cannot advocate for the people's energy independence, or economic, or political independence from elites because he knows he'll be scrubbing his own toilet as a result.
Or not. It appears that this was just a head fake.
http://washingtonindependent.com/35617/epa-clarifies-we-are-not-halting-mountaintop-mining?ref=fp6
One would think that in a real democracy, such mining schemes could be simply stopped by the local governments based on a referendum or public hearing.
Yeah, I know, the right to make a maximum profit is absolutely sacrosanct; "Its What Makes America Great" (TM).
---USAn---
Mountains? - Who needs mountains? High up there, difficult to reach, thinning air, cold and windy. Rainy too. Burn it down to a more humane level, scrape it off.
Everyone should be living at the waterlevel, waiting for the sea to rise a few interesting units. Lots of new development-action in that as whole coast-lines are adjusted, housing prices will go back up, jobs aplenty.
Mountains? - Them we need only to run away to. Burn them down, make them lower and easier to access. Or did I miss something?
Actually this is somewhat over-simplified and mis-leading. What has actually happened is that the EPA has taken up more of their proper over-sight role in assigning the Corps of Engineers more careful review of stream water impacts from coal mining. As to a 'moratorium' it doesn't exist. EPA has subsequently stated that it does not intend to hold up the permitting process (as Zaphod mentioned below), which made the mining union happy, so - activists beware - it's not grinding to a halt yet! Given the no-bid MIC contract connections of the Corps of Engineers, I suspect you won't see a lot of halting of coal mining without stronger action from some empowered agent, which currently apparently doesn't exist.
I work for MSHA and spend time in the Appalacian coalfields fairly regularly. No surface mines I know of in WV or KY are unionized. Few underground mines are unionized in this area anymore either. Operators like Massy, IGC, Murray are fiercely, slanderously, anti-union. Consol only has a couple union mines left in SW Pennsylvania and positioning itself to eventually be union free too.
The pay in the mines still beats Wal-Mart for sure, but the work hours are going back up and the pay for new miners is starting to go down. The mines even seem to deliberately not hire anyone who lives near the portal. Most of the miners commute in from a couple counties away. Can you guess why that is?
---USAn---
from local blog in KY:
I work for MSHA and spend time in the Appalacian coalfields fairly regularly. No surface mines I know of in WV or KY are unionized. Few underground mines are unionized in this area anymore either. Operators like Massy, IGC, Murray are fiercely, slanderously, anti-union. Consol only has a couple union mines left in SW Pennsylvania and positioning itself to eventually be union free too.
The pay in the mines still beats Wal-Mart for sure, but the work hours are going back up and the pay for new miners is starting to go down. The mines even seem to deliberately not hire anyone who lives near the portal. Most of the miners commute in from a couple counties away. Can you guess why that is? - PJD