Dirty Coal Fights Clean Environment With Lobbyists

RAN published ---

This week, EPA admin Lisa Jackson announced that they’d be delaying and reviewing two permits for mountaintop removal mining operations and calling into question more that 100 pending permits that threaten mountains, waterways and communities across Appalachia.

That’s a big deal for a region that has been devastated by mountaintop removal coal mining.

But one day after the big announcement, the EPA released a clarification saying that although the permits were under review, they expected that “the bulk of these pending permit applications will not raise environmental concerns.”

“Not raise environmental concerns?” WTF? Why?

Because Big Coal has some deep pockets. In less than 24 hours, the industry quickly mobilized a massive army of lobbyists and reactionary politicians to lobby against a mountaintop removal moratorium.

But we've got something Big Coal doesn't: our voices.

Making Coal Risky Business

The EPA’s decision elevates the risk of doing business with Big Coal, but also illustrates how the coal industry is becoming persona non grata in many political and economic sectors. Appalachian communities and environmentalists have effectively been turning these companies into pariahs so that investors, utilities and politicians stay away from them.

Last December, Bank of America reacted, after being tied too closely to mining companies, with a public policy about mountaintop removal. Their statement included: “Bank of America is particularly concerned about surface mining conducted through mountaintop removal in locations such as central Appalachia. We therefore will phase out financing of companies whose predominant method of extracting coal is through mountaintop removal.” Anti-mining advocates effectively transformed companies like Massey Energy into the “poster children of mountaintop removal.” The bank, already caught in an economic public relations nightmare, distanced their public image far from the practice.

Last week in Knoxville, TN, 14 anti-coal activists were arrested protesting at the headquarters of the Tennessee valley Authority (TVA). TVA is largest utility (and consumer of coal) in the nation. They are also responsible for the coal ash waste spill that occurred in east Tennessee over last Christmas.

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DirtyMoney comments --
Within the next decade, more than $200 billion has been projected to be invested in new coal fired power plants, oil refineries, and pipelines. Once built, emissions from these projects will completely negate any emissions reductions made through efficiency and clean energy.

Bank of America, Citi, and Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) are leading financiers of these dirty deals—securing investments of billions of dollars every year for dirty energy projects.

Billionaires for Coal Convention at Merril Lynch Headquarters

BTW, what ever happened to Merril Lynch? Bad investments?

If we don't speak out, who will? Dirty Coal?

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