West Virginia Blue
The Best Blogging Community in West Virginia Democratic politics, progressive policies, the good life and free living in Wild, Wonderful West Virginia.
(- bumped by CA Berkeley WV) It's the second Friday this week. And since something happened on Tuesday, we might have something to talk amongst ourselves. Seems like a long time since we have gotten together in more than just pairs.
Raise a glass of the beverage of your choice in honor of The Hulk, to our own Tom Price, and to the Mountaineer spirit. Give yourself a break from the Gibbs War.
Sign. My. Cast.
8:00PM, Peking Restaurant, 139 S. Queen Street, Martinsburg is the time and place.
It's the second Friday this week. And since something happened on Tuesday, we might have something to talk amongst ourselves. Seems like a long time since we have gotten together in more than just pairs.
(Welcome to WVaBlue mtngirl2! Thanks for your post. - promoted by wvblueguy)
I am writing this blog in response to the decision made by the West Virginia State Board of Education to provide in excess of 8 million dollars to Kanawha County to build a "School of the Future" while other projects in Southern West Virginia were ignored and Marsh Fork Elementary in the Coal River Valley of Raleigh County was offered only a portion of what would be needed to build a new school safe from the threats that the children in this school face daily. As a child I attended school in a coal town. Even though we had fantastic teachers who always did the best they could, the resources that were needed weren't always available. Every day millions of dollars in coal passed through our town on trains and trucks, thanks to the work of the fathers of many of my classmates, but still we did not receive needed resources, adequate facilities or the same opportunities available to children who attended school in Princeton or Bluefield.
As I have watched the events that have unfolded in the last year I can't help but see the similarities of these situations. The fact that the children of the coalfields are not given equal treatment by our state government is glaringly obvious. We eventually received a new high school, built on an old strip mine site that was really unstable and not suitable for building. We moved into a largely uncompleted school in the fall of 1983 and to my knowledge many of the completions were never made. Structural problems have appeared as a result of where the school was built. It is now an elementary/middle school because the declining populations of the small communities forced an unwanted but accepted consolidation of the county's four smallest high schools and in the near future the middle school students will face the same consolidation and I suspect the elementary will soon follow.
I have written all of this history to say that the children of the coalfields deserve better. The communities where billions of dollars in coal are extracted by the blood and sweat of their citizens should be some of the wealthiest in this state. Instead the coal counties of Appalachia are the poorest in the nation. The people who are subjected daily to coal dust, bad roads, unregulated coal companies, poverty and poor health conditions, should instead have the best kept roads (funded by the coal companies in my opinion), state of the art health facilities, libraries and schools along with the promise of bright futures for their children. Instead children grow up thinking that they aren't important and that they can never have professional careers because they would have to leave their homes to find work. They accept whatever insecure jobs are available from non-union coal mines or fast food establishments so that they can remain in the area where they grew up. This is oppression.
The children of the coalfields of Appalachia deserve so much more than they are given. The children of the Coal River Valley attend school in a 70 year old building that sits below the Shumate dam, which is one of the largest coal sludge impoundments in the nation. Less than 400 feet away is a coal silo with another one being constructed, a coal haul road and a coal preparation plant. They live with the daily threat of a break in the coal sludge dam that is situated directly above their school, now containing millions of gallons of thick, toxic coal sludge. Add to all of that a large mountaintop removal coal mining site where blasting is occurring daily, adding to the already ever present coal dust and the instability of the Shumate Dam.
It would seem to me that the number one project for a new school in West Virginia would be a new school for Marsh Fork Elementary followed closely by other inadequate schools in Southern West Virginia. With the health and lives of so many children and staff at stake, how can a "School of the Future" for Kanawha County be so important that it has received the largest amount of the available funding? More and more in West Virginia we are losing our communities. For too many years the people of Southern West Virginia have sacrificed so that other areas (i.e. Charleston, Parkersburg, Morgantown) may prosper. And, the people of Appalachia sacrifice every day for the comfort of America. We, the people of Southern West Virginia must demand our share of the wealth that is extracted from our mountains and it should begin with investments in the future of the children of the coalfields.
We want your feedback! Please take a few minutes to submit your ideas on what the Federal Government can do to help support economic and community development in your community and across Appalachia.
To help ensure that Appalachia takes full advantage of economic recovery efforts, the Appalachian Regional Commission, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and several other Federal agencies are coordinating the "Appalachian Regional Development Initiative" (ARDI) to identify what the Federal Government can be doing to help create stronger and more diversified Appalachian economies.
Several listening sessions are being held throughout Appalachia to gather opinions from local stakeholders on the challenges facing communities across Appalachia and potential opportunities for economic and community development. Not everyone will be able to attend these sessions, therefore we have created a Webpage so that concerned citizens and private, public, and non-profit sector leaders across Appalachia can share their thoughts.
The many federal partners involved in this Appalachian effort will compile the feedback collected at the listening sessions and from the online feedback website into a summary report. This report will help inform federal development strategies aimed at diversifying and strengthening economic and community development in Appalachia.
Please feel free to pass along this email and the feedback website to anyone who might be interested.
Missing Parsons Report (Matthew and Billy Parsons) performing John Prine's Paradise on April 7, 2010 at The House of Art in Bluefield, WV. While the song is about a place in Muhlenberg County, Kentucky the same words apply to the coal fields of southern West Virginia.
When I was a child my family would travel
Down to Western Kentucky where my parents were born
And there's a backwards old town that's often remembered
So many times that my memories are worn.
And daddy won't you take me back to Muhlenberg County
Down by the Green River where Paradise lay
Well, I'm sorry my son, but you're too late in asking
Mister Peabody's coal train has hauled it away
Well, sometimes we'd travel right down the Green River
To the abandoned old prison down by Adrie Hill
Where the air smelled like snakes and we'd shoot with our pistols
But empty pop bottles was all we would kill.
And daddy won't you take me back to Muhlenberg County
Down by the Green River where Paradise lay
Well, I'm sorry my son, but you're too late in asking
Mister Peabody's coal train has hauled it away
Then the coal company came with the world's largest shovel
And they tortured the timber and stripped all the land
Well, they dug for their coal till the land was forsaken
Then they wrote it all down as the progress of man.
And daddy won't you take me back to Muhlenberg County
Down by the Green River where Paradise lay
Well, I'm sorry my son, but you're too late in asking
Mister Peabody's coal train has hauled it away
When I die let my ashes float down the Green River
Let my soul roll on up to the Rochester dam
I'll be halfway to Heaven with Paradise waitin'
Just five miles away from wherever I am.
It's the second Friday this week. And since my taxes have been lowered since January 2009, we're getting a bigger refund on the 9th. Seems like a long time since we have gotten together.
Raise a glass of the beverage of your choice in honor of the fallen miners, to the Mountaineer spirit, to the grit in a great tournament, and in defiance to the preaching of hate by folks from the #NetherRegionsofGlennbeckistan.
8:00PM, Peking Restaurant, 139 S. Queen Street, Martinsburg is the time and place.
n an attempt to further pressure EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson to enforce the Clean Water Act and halt mountaintop removal coal mining (MTR), activists early this morning erected two 20-foot-tall, purple tripod structures in front of the agency's headquarters. A pair of activists perched at the top of the tripods have strung a 25-foot sign in front of the EPA's door that reads, "EPA: pledge to end mountaintop removal in 2010." Six people are locked to the tripods and say they won't leave unless Administrator Jackson commits to a flyover visit of the Appalachian Mountains and MTR sites, which she has never done before.
This is the latest in a series of actions and activities aimed at pressuring the EPA to take more decisive action on mountaintop removal coal mining. Today's tactic is modeled on the multi-day tree-sits that have been happening in West Virginia to protect mountains from coal companies' imminent blasting. Called the worst of the worst strip mining, the practice blows the tops off of whole mountains to scoop out the small seams of coal that lie beneath.
"We're losing our way of life and our culture," said Chuck Nelson, who worked as a coal miner in West Virginia for three decades and came to DC to support today's protest. "Mountaintop removal should be banned today. The practice means total devastation for communities, the hardwood forests, the ecosystems, and the headwaters. Why should our communities sacrifice everything we have?"
Written by James F. Fox of the University of Kentucky and J. Elliott Campbell of the University of California, Merced, the paper leaves no doubt that, even if CCS works and is widely deployed, questions will remain about the climate change impacts of mountaintop removal.
[snip]
In fact, this paper reports that mountaintop removal's life-cycle carbon dioxide emissions are 17 percent greater if you include carbon dioxide from sources other than the actual burning of the coal - emissions from cutting down and burning forests, potential release of carbon previously locked up in the soils of the mountains, and from mining and transportation equipment.
That's the potential high-end of those emissions if you assume coal is burned in a conventional power plant.
If the industry switches to CCS-equipped plants that capture most of the emissions from coal-burning, then these other carbon dioxide sources would actually account for nearly twice the emissions of coal burning.
Let's try a little bit of advanced math here. If it takes 30% more fuel to create the same amount of energy after carbon-capture and storage is added to a coal-fired electric plant... and if, conservatively, only 50% of that coal came from mountain top removal coal mines... let's see...
100 + 17 = 117 (100% at plant + 17% more)
0 + 17 + .3 * 17 / 2 = 19.55 (0% at plant + 17% more +
19.55 / 117 = 17%
That means that even if we are able to advance CCS technology to the point where it can capture 100% of the greenhouse gases produced during electricity production, we'd still be producing 17% as much CO2 as we started out with.
So much for the carbon neutral claims Big Coal has been advertising. That's just one more way that clean coal ain't.
The Kentucky Coal Association announced a new general counsel Tuesday: Lloyd Cress, who was the state's commissioner of environmental protection under former Gov. Ernie Fletcher.
"I look forward to assisting Kentucky's coal industry meet the increasing challenges that it confronts in providing the energy, jobs and tax revenue that benefit Kentucky so greatly," Cress said in a prepared statement.
Cress is married to U.S. District Judge Karen Caldwell.
Cress' hiring is part of a management makeover at the coal association. Last month, the group hired Bill Bissett, chief of staff and senior vice president at Marshall University in West Virginia, as its president.
It would be great if Cress also looked forward to helping the industry meet its challenge to provide all those wonderful benefits as safely as possible, with as little environmental damage as possible, and in ways that met and exceeded the standards set by every regulating body.
But, maybe that's just not what he's getting paid for.
-Jeff Friedrich on the end of Climate Ground Zero's 9-day treesit: "Lies Don Blankenship Told Me: Why Climate Activists Are Heading To The West Virginian Coal Fields."
- Nitchman and Blevins still in jail. Total bail at $9,624.00.
- Logan Banner managing editor Michael Browning asks why we should care about celebrities' views on coal mining - unless, of course, they're named Ted Nugent or Hank Williams Jr and get a check from Blankenship for a rally that the Banner helped promote.
- Blankenship political operative Roman Stauffer would probably have a good idea what the schedule of disgraced judge Elliott "Spike" Maynard looks like. Stauffer, who's been pushing for a Maynard challenge to Rep. Rahall, says Spike is going to talk to John Raese's mouthpiece, Hoppy Kercheval, Monday at 10:00 a.m. Will Don's pal announce a coal owner-funded run?
- Mollohan and Rahall joined Capito's coal caucus.
- And President Obama took time from his smackdown of the House GOP at their Baltimore retreat to take a question from Capito.
Since their first night in the trees Massey has been harassing the sitters using sleep deprivation tactics; this is harming the hearing of both the security and the sitters. Security personnel are perpetually shining bright lights and employing the noise-making machines. A few hours ago Eric Blevins took action by calling the state police and reporting a noise violation. Quite soon after he called the noise machines turned off but they have since been turned back on. In a similar vein of harassment, Massey security has tied a rope to a smaller tree next to Amber's platform. They are pulling and releasing the rope so that the sapling smacks the bottom of her platform, hoping that she will feel unsafe and come down.
- Governor Manchin will meet with Bo Webb and other coalfields residents today.
- The stenographer of the week award goes to Bill Archer of The Bluefield Daily Telegraph for covering FACES of Coal.
- Big Laurel Coal is cited for ignoring dangers that contributed to a Virginia mine electrician's death.
-and Friends of Coal: The coloring book. really.
First off, here's all the important logistical details:
WHAT: The University of Charleston will present a public conversation between Waterkeeper Alliance President and environmentalist Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., and Massey Energy Chairman and CEO Don Blankenship titled the Forum on the Future of Energy. The event will advance the national discussion about U.S. energy policy and its impact on jobs, the environment, the economy, and national security.
WHEN: Thursday, Jan. 21, 2010, at 6:15 pm
WHO: Don Blankenship - Chairman and CEO, Massey Energy Co.
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. - President, Waterkeeper Alliance
Dr. Edwin H. Welch - President, University of Charleston, event moderator
WHERE: University of Charleston's Geary Auditorium; live remote broadcast in Eddie King Gymnasium
If you want to attend in person, the tickets for the auditorium are "sold out" (they were never available for sale to the public), but free admission is available for the remote broadcast in the Eddie King Gymnasium.
The Forum has generated considerable interest and demand for tickets has exceeded the auditorium capacity. Event organizers will distribute tickets in advance, and no additional seats will be available. For all others, the forum will be broadcast live in Eddie King Gymnasium on the university's campus.
To accommodate television coverage, the University of Charleston requests that the audience be seated prior to 6:15 p.m. Those holding tickets will be seated in their respective sections, on a first-come, first-served basis, with early arrivals seated at the front. Doors will open at 5:00 p.m. and entry into the event will be through the Keenan lot entrance of Riggleman Hall only.
All interested parties are invited to submit questions for the participants in advance. Dr. Welch, as moderator, will ask the participants a balance of representative, challenging questions chosen from those submitted.
There's a lot of national interest in the debate and the fact that it is happening at all is significant. It is one more sign that folks are starting to take planning for West Virginia's post-carbon future a little more seriously.
New Report Warns of Decline of Central Appalachian Coal Argues for New Focus on Economic Diversification and Renewable Energy for the Region
MORGANTOWN, WV - As the legislative season begins across Central Appalachia, a new report by Downstream Strategies details future challenges to coal production in the region and argues that policy-makers should strongly support renewable energy and the development of new economic opportunities for coal-producing areas.
"Coal has contributed significantly to local and state economies in Central Appalachia, but production has fallen substantially over the last 12 years as other coal basins and sources of fuel have become more competitive," said lead author Rory McIlmoil. "This trend is expected to continue as mining costs increase due to the depletion of the lowest cost coal reserves, and as new environmental regulations are implemented. As this happens, local and state economies will need new sources of jobs and revenue to replace coal mining jobs and taxes."
According to the report, Central Appalachian coal production is projected to fall by nearly 50% within the next ten years. Central Appalachia includes the coal-producing counties in southern West Virginia, eastern Kentucky, southwest Virginia, and eastern Tennessee
The report points to renewable energy and energy efficiency as two sectors where new jobs and tax revenues can be created, as the region has a wealth of clean energy resources. The report concludes that losses related to the decline of the coal industry can be recaptured by gains from wind, solar, low-impact hydro, and sustainable biomass production, and from a strong focus on energy efficiency improvements.
To support the diversification of the regional energy economy, the report outlines a series of policy instruments, including requiring each state to provide 25% of their energy from renewable sources; the provision of grants, tax credits, clean energy bonds, or low-interest loans to support renewable energy development and manufacturing; the implementation and strengthening of net metering laws; and the development of workforce programs aimed at providing the skills and knowledge required for renewable energy industries. The study also argues for strong incentives for local ownership of energy development, to help maximize the local economic benefits of renewable energy projects.
"Given that coal production is projected to decline significantly in the coming decades, diversification of Central Appalachian economies is now more critical than ever," said co-author Evan Hansen, President of Downstream Strategies. "State leaders should use this legislative session to increase support for new economic development across the region, especially in the rural areas set to be the most impacted by a sharp decline in the region's coal economy."
In December 2009, West Virginia Senator Robert C. Byrd stated, "West Virginians can choose to anticipate change and adapt to it, or resist and be overrun by it. The time has arrived for the people of the Mountain State to think long and hard about which course they want to choose."
According to McIlmoil, "The same is true for all of Central Appalachia, and we hope this report helps policy-makers understand the changes that are coming so that they can support new industries. The renewable energy sector offers one of the greatest opportunities for economic development."
Downstream Strategies is an environmental consulting company in Morgantown, West Virginia, with program areas in environmental policy, environmental science, and geographic information systems. The company provides science, research, and tools to organizations, businesses, and agencies. It offers clients an alternative to mainstream environmental consulting by combining sound interdisciplinary skills with a core belief in the importance of protecting the environment and linking economic development with natural resource stewardship.
- U.S. mining deaths hit a record low in 2009, thanks to stricter safety regulations.
Don Nehlen and Friends of Coal's "Be more like China" plan foiled?
- Got a question for one of the participants in the upcoming Kennedy-Blankenship debate? Go here to submit it.
- The four Climate Ground Zero activists arrested last week have been freed.
"It was a trumped up charge by Walker Cat," said James McGuinness, " who we were told by correctional officers has just been sold to an out of state company. At this point it is not about jobs..."
Copyright 2009 West Virginia Blue
Site content may be used for any purpose without explicit permission unless otherwise specified.
This site exists thanks to financial support from BlogPAC, the tireless efforts of volunteer contributors and continued participation from this community. The views expressed at West Virginia Blue belong soley to their respective authors.
