When the topic of energy is discussed, there is a truism about certain forms of energy being cheaper than renewable energy (wind, solar, geo-thermal, tidal/wave and so on) because of subsidies, hidden preferential treatment, loan guarantees (such as ones being demanded by nuclear), or, as in the case of Dirty Coal, the exemption from the monetary consequences of environmental devastation caused by Mountain Top Removal, air pollution, the slipshod disposal of ash and spills.
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Of course Dirty Coal is cheap when you can blow up mountains, push the debris into streams, contaminate drinking water, allow ash spills to sterilize ecosystems, allow soot and mercury to foul the air, and generous campaign contributions have assured no corrective action.
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COAL is the cheapest source of electricity. One major reason why is that mining companies and coal-burning utilities have managed to pass many of its health and environmental costs - from the dust miners breathe to greenhouse gases - onto society at large.
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In Massachusetts, where fly ash from the Salem power plant once contaminated the Lake Wenham water supply of Beverly, ash that is not reused in concrete production or other beneficial applications ends up in lined and covered landfills. Even in this state, though, there is no law mandating safe disposal. A bill co-sponsored by Representatives Lori Ehrlich of Marblehead and Mary Grant of Beverly would do so.
In Massachusetts, where fly ash from the Salem power plant once contaminated the Lake Wenham water supply of Beverly, ash that is not reused in concrete production or other beneficial applications ends up in lined and covered landfills. Even in this state, though, there is no law mandating safe disposal. A bill co-sponsored by Representatives Lori Ehrlich of Marblehead and Mary Grant of Beverly would do so.
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Kudos are owed Reps. Ehrlich and Grant for stepping forward for much-needed legislation to protect the Commonwealth from the hazards created by plants such as the coal-burning Salem power plant.
Kudos are owed Reps. Ehrlich and Grant for stepping forward for much-needed legislation to protect the Commonwealth from the hazards created by plants such as the coal-burning Salem power plant.
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The Center for Public Integrity offered a report, Coal Ash: The Hidden Story, that includes a map of Ash Country positioning waste ponds and landfills nationwide. The report is worth the read in its totality.
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Just as the TVA destroyed Harriman, Tennessee with a massive coal sludge spill on December 22, 2008, ...the U.S. coal industry engages in a massive publicity campaign pitching “clean coal” as a solution to both global warming and energy independence.
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According to CPI --
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Each year, power companies generate approximately
.130 million tons of coal ash
That's --
.130,000,000 TONS
OMG!
THAT'S
260,000,000,000 POUNDS
If I got my zeroes correct --
TWO HUNDRED SIXTY TRILLION POUNDS
EACH YEAR
In 2000, when efforts were made to regulate coal sludge, Browner sent the draft determination --
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March 5, 2000, to the OMB for review, which set off a frenzy of lobbying by the utility industry. The White House was inundated with letters from trade organizations such as the Edison Electric Institute and the Utility Solid Waste Activities Group (USWAG) — the industry’s voice on coal-ash disposal — criticizing the draft. One letter, signed by then-USWAG chairman Fred McGuire and 13 other industry representatives, warned that “the high costs of [hazardous] regulation… will ultimately be shared nationwide by employees, taxpayers, ratepayers, investors, and customers.” Another letter, from the presidents of 16 energy companies, blasted the proposal as “over-regulation and an unwarranted intrusion into an area of primary state responsibility.”
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In other words, don't force us to be environmentally responsible because it will cost too much!
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Industry refused to take the necessary steps to avoid the December 22, 2008 TVA disaster at Harrimon, Tennessee that devastated the environment.
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And let's pretend that it's the STATE'S RESPONSIBILITY when 23 states have provisions that prevent them from having laws that are more strict than federal standards.
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Seventy-seven members of Congress wrote letters to senior officials at the EPA, OMB, and the White House opposing the proposal [TO LABEL COAL-ASH HAZARDOUS]. One letter, signed by 11 representatives, summed up the tone. “[Coal] combustion wastes have long been recognized as posing little if any environmental compliance problems,” it reads. “No one can seriously claim that the states have failed to act responsibly in this area, or that Federal intervention is necessary.” Among the signers was Rep. Nick Rahall of West Virginia, who currently serves as chair of the House Committee on Natural Resources.
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No one can seriously claim that the states have failed to act responsibly???
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23 states have provisions that prevent them from enacting laws that are more stringent than federal law. That needs to change, but DIRTY COAL knows those laws.
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Explain that to the folks in Harrimon, Tennessee whose homes and lives were destroyed. Explain that to the ecosystem that was devastated. And when downstream drinking water is discovered to be contaminated because TVA failed to sequester the coal sludge, explain it away.
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Remember Rahall? He's the one who has suddenly expressed such great interest in the environmental impact of Cape Wind. You remember Cape Wind? The offshore wind project whose opposition has been mightily funded by DIRTY ENERGY.
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One analysis commissioned by USWAG pegged the costs as high as $13.8 billion annually.
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Remember USWAG is Utility Solid Waste Activities Group -- a Coal Industry Group. They're saying that to be environmentally responsible with coal ash disposal is simply too expensive.
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Industry representatives still argue that the states have adequate regulations. ....
The question isn’t whether we should regulate coal ash,” Roewer [USWAG Spokesperson] argues, “but who should be regulating the materials. We support the state regulations in place today.”
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There are NO state regulations in place.
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To hear congressional observers, the drama of the Tennessee spill has shifted the dynamic of the coal-ash debate enough to sway some who once doubted the severity of the problem. Case in point: Congressman Rahall, who so vigorously opposed the hazardous label, but who now remains open to the prospect. “We wouldn’t be opposed to it,” says Jim Zoia, Rahall’s staff director, explaining: “The amount of toxic material has changed with the advances of air-pollution control technologies over the last 20 years… We see coal ash as more of a threat [today].”
Rahall sent a letter dated Feb. 3 to the new EPA administrator, urging the agency to “expeditiously move forward with a rulemaking governing the disposal of coal combustion wastes under the auspices of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act,” although he does not push for a specific approach.
To hear congressional observers, the drama of the Tennessee spill has shifted the dynamic of the coal-ash debate enough to sway some who once doubted the severity of the problem. Case in point: Congressman Rahall, who so vigorously opposed the hazardous label, but who now remains open to the prospect. “We wouldn’t be opposed to it,” says Jim Zoia, Rahall’s staff director, explaining: “The amount of toxic material has changed with the advances of air-pollution control technologies over the last 20 years… We see coal ash as more of a threat [today].”
Rahall sent a letter dated Feb. 3 to the new EPA administrator, urging the agency to “expeditiously move forward with a rulemaking governing the disposal of coal combustion wastes under the auspices of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act,” although he does not push for a specific approach.
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In other words, let's pretend we'll take action to protect the environment, drinking water, and prevent coal ash leakage, but when YOU, the public forget about Harrimon, Tennessee and the potential threat to YOUR community, we'll bury it for another 10 OR 20 years.
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“The utilities are very well entrenched in Congress,” is how Stant puts it. In 2007 and 2008, according to the Center for Responsive Politics,
power companies donated $16 million to federal lawmakers’ political campaigns — split between Republicans ($8.1 million) and Democrats ($7.9 million) — and
spent $269.6 million on lobbying efforts.
USWAG alone — the industry organ on coal-ash disposal — has reported spending about $360,000 on influencing the EPA, the White House, and both houses over the past nine years. “There may be a lot of citizens who are up in arms about [coal ash],” Stant says, “but we don’t have nearly as much power as [the utilities].”
Industry representatives, for their part, don’t seem especially worried. USWAG’s Roewer says he’s had not one conversation with anyone pushing for hazardous-waste regulations, although he warns that, “if there were a draft [from EPA] saying as much, we’d certainly mount a campaign.” He suspects the agency will at some point propose to follow through on its delayed rulemaking regarding non-hazardous federal guidelines. And “those would still be implemented by the states,” he points out, “which is what we support.”
Industry representatives, for their part, don’t seem especially worried. USWAG’s Roewer says he’s had not one conversation with anyone pushing for hazardous-waste regulations, although he warns that, “if there were a draft [from EPA] saying as much, we’d certainly mount a campaign.” He suspects the agency will at some point propose to follow through on its delayed rulemaking regarding non-hazardous federal guidelines. And “those would still be implemented by the states,” he points out, “which is what we support.”
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The industry will support state regulations of coal ash that 23 states have no power to regulate?
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Before we all become potential victims of coal sludge spills, contaminated water and environmental destruction from collapsed dams and mountaintop removal, maybe we should review the campaign contributions of Representatives such as Rahall. Maybe we should support candidates who aren't prostitutes to Dirty Coal.
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COAL IS DIRTY. There is NO CLEAN COAL.
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Let's leave this planet better than we inherited it. Let's support alternative energy, phase out dirty coal, and leave a legacy of CLEAN ENERGY.
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Bill McKibben: I’ll Get Arrested to Stop the Burning of Coal
Cape Wind Opposition & the Power of Koch & Oil
Dirty Coal: Mountaintop Removal Section of "The Appalachians" Part 2
Dirty Coal: Mountaintop Removal in KY and WV
Dirty Coal: Toxic West Virginia: Mountaintop Removal- Episode 1
Greenwashing Dirty Coal Energy
Cape Wind: MMS hearing
More Wind Mills or Hot Air? Coal is Dirty!
The coal miners come to Cape to complain
Dirty Coal: Mountaintop Removal in KY and WV
Dirty Coal: Toxic West Virginia: Mountaintop Removal- Episode 1
Greenwashing Dirty Coal Energy
Cape Wind: MMS hearing
More Wind Mills or Hot Air? Coal is Dirty!
The coal miners come to Cape to complain
Coal is Dirty!
Mountain Justice Summer
Go Tell It On The Mountain
Pennies of Promise
Almost Level, West Virginia
Greenwashing Dirty Coal Energy
Mountain Justice Summer
Go Tell It On The Mountain
Pennies of Promise
Almost Level, West Virginia
Greenwashing Dirty Coal Energy
he divestment movement on US college campuses against Big Carbon (coal, oil and gas) signals more than just the arrival of a new, determined and idealistic generation of students. It is a harbinger of danger for investors.
stormwater pipe under an unlined coal ash pond at a shuttered plant in Eden, North Carolina, burst Sunday afternoon - draining tens of thousands of tons of coal ash into the Dan River.
