Posted by Rob Perks in Curbing Pollution , Saving Wildlife and Wild Places , Solving Global Warming
What is up with the U.S. Department of Interior these days? Unlike the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which appears to be walking the walk on mountaintop removal coal mining thanks to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson's leadership, it's quite another story...
Posted by Rob Perks in Curbing Pollution , Health and the Environment , Solving Global Warming
Without a doubt coal is dirty and dangerous. Consider that the nation's power plants spew out 130 million tons of coal combustion waste every year. Much of this so-called coal ash, which is what's left at the bottom of the smokestacks after coal gets burned...
Posted by Rob Perks in Curbing Pollution , Health and the Environment , Saving Wildlife and Wild Places , Solving Global Warming
Kudos to the USA Today for coming out strong in its opposition to the worst of the worst coal mining: mountaintop removal. Today's excellent, hold-no-punches editorial declares "it's time to protect forests, streams from environmental degradation." It kicks off this way: Buried...
Posted by Rob Perks in Curbing Pollution , Health and the Environment , Saving Wildlife and Wild Places , Solving Global Warming
Let me get this straight. President Obama, touting his administration's support for clean energy, visited Florida yesterday to tour the DeSoto Next Generation Solar Energy Center, with its solar panels sprawling across 180 acres that can generate power for 3,000 homes. Yet on Coal River...
Posted by Rob Perks in Curbing Pollution , Health and the Environment , Saving Wildlife and Wild Places , Solving Global Warming
Since many of our elected leaders seem to be worried about costs, they should consider this: fossil fuels cost the United States about $120 billion a year, according to a study by the National Academy of Sciences. This cost is measured primarily by thousands...
Posted by Rob Perks in Curbing Pollution , Health and the Environment , Saving Wildlife and Wild Places , Solving Global Warming , U.S. Law and Policy
Now that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has made it clear that mountaintop removal coal mining poses a severe threat to the environment -- most notably to water quality -- in Appalachia, the fate of this abominable practice appears to rest...
Posted by Rob Perks in Curbing Pollution , Health and the Environment , Solving Global Warming
Are you drinking water contaminated by coal pollution? Apparently, that's what folks living in the shadows of the South Carolina Electric & Gas coal plant fear. A chilling story published in the Charleston Post & Courier tells how local residents "have wondered for years about...
Posted by Rob Perks in Curbing Pollution , Health and the Environment , Solving Global Warming , U.S. Law and Policy
Kudos to Congressman Ed Markey (D-MA) for bird-dogging the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on the need to regulate pollution from coal-fired power plants. Yesterday, Rep. Markey sent a letter to EPA requesting information on the agency's findings related to the...
Posted by Rob Perks in Curbing Pollution , Solving Global Warming
The Environmental Protection Agency is grappling with two critical issues regarding how to protect America's water supplies from dirty coal: permitting mountaintop removal coal mining and regulating toxic coal ash. Mountaintop removal coal mining continues to ravage Appalachia's communities and...
Posted by Rob Perks in Curbing Pollution , Health and the Environment
This morning I was sipping a bottled water and perusing my blackberry in a hospital waiting room while my son awaited treatment for a broken elbow. I came upon an email forwarded by a colleague, which provided a link to a jaw-dropping story...
Posted by Rob Perks in Curbing Pollution , Saving Wildlife and Wild Places , Solving Global Warming , The Media and the Environment
First there was Reclamation Fail (inspired by my new favorite funny website). Now there is... Grassroots Fail The back story is that the coal industry hired a PR firm to concoct this faux grassroots group to support its dirty energy...
Posted by Rob Perks in Curbing Pollution , Saving Wildlife and Wild Places
If you're looking for guaranteed belly laughs, you gotta check out failblog. There's no sense in describing the insanely funny photos -- the humor is self-explanatory. The site inspired me to create a "fail" for mountaintop removal... Reclamation Fail The above is...
Posted by Rob Perks in Curbing Pollution , Health and the Environment , Solving Global Warming
I'm scratching my head (and shaking my fist) over this nugget of information: "The Tennessee site of one of the nation's worst coal ash spills failed to make a federal list of ash storage ponds posing the highest potential threat...
Posted by Rob Perks in Curbing Pollution , Saving Wildlife and Wild Places , Solving Global Warming , The Media and the Environment , U.S. Law and Policy
Last week the U.S. Supreme Court made a dreadful decision to allow the dumping of toxic gold mine waste into a pristine Alaskan lake. The court deemed this pollution allowable as "fill material" under the Clean Water Act. Well, last night on The Colbert...
Posted by Rob Perks in Curbing Pollution , Health and the Environment , Solving Global Warming
After pressure by NRDC and others, today the Environmental Protection Agency just released the list of 44 "high hazard" coal ash disposal sites around the nation. At the behest of the Department of Homeland Security, the EPA had initially refused to reveal the...
