Rob Perks's Blog: The Media and the Environment

Mountaintop Mining Revolt in Tennessee

2010-04-09T15:30:05Z

The fight to ban mountaintop removal in Tennessee via state legislation may have stalled, but momentum against this reckless coal mining method continues to build. The Tennessean weighs in with a hard-hitting editorial calling for an end to this "unsustainable" mining practice.

With its clearly stated position that "building a mountain peak is a job for nature, not humankind", the editorial praises EPA for its new policies to ensure that mining companies must meet tougher water quality standards before being allowed to blow up mountain peaks and dump the waste into Appalachian streams.

The paper also takes aim at the small group of Tennessee legislators who, despite broad bi-partisan support for the bill to curtail mountaintop mining, used parliamentary tricks to forestall a straight up and down vote -- accusing the lawmakers of routinely "oppos[ing] environmental initiatives at the behest of business."

[UPDATE: In a guest editorial in The Tennessean, Rep. Mike McDonald, the state legislator who co-sponsored the bill to ban "extreme strip mining", unleashes his fury on those elected officials who conspired to safeguard the coal industry's interests by scuttling the Scenic Vistas Protection Act. His closing line: "Mountaintop removal mining is an issue that affects all of us and therefore transcends partisan politics. Regardless of whether you are a Democrat or Republican, we all breathe the same air and drink the same water. We also, here in Tennessee, treasure our mountains. More reason for Congress to do what so far our state legislature has failed to do — prevent the destruction of the mountains that so many of us hold dear."]

Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) wins praise from the newspaper for his congressional legislation that would effectively end mountaintop removal mining. The editorial notes, however, that "[i]t's pretty clear that the industry will fight any effort to limit this process." Not that businesses aren't in the business of making money, says the editorial, "but when the means to achieving that profit exists through destructive and irreversible methods, industry must rethink those methods."

The editorial goes on to compare coal companies to cigarette companies -- "stonewalling against reform past the point of credibility"-- and deems mountaintop removal as "inherently bad." It concludes:

For every mining job it creates — and relative to other industries, there are not very many — that many or more jobs are lost in tourism, especially in the scenic mountainous areas of Tennessee. Once a mountaintop is blown up with dynamite, it can never be the same.

(Tennessee's Zeb Mountain / photo courtesy of United Mountain Defense)

Water Woes of Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining

2010-03-22T18:45:53Z

In case you missed it, Time magazine recently published a story (March 12) spotlighting the battle in West Virginia over mountaintop removal coal mining.

This excerpt sets the tone for the piece:

Some three million pounds of explosives are detonated each day in West Virginia for coal mining, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, and the process shears up to 800 feet of elevation off each mountain peak, says Margaret Palmer, director of the University of Maryland's Center for Environmental Science. The black scars run visibly up the spine of the central Appalachians. And the explosions don't sound lightly: "When they put these blasts off, it's horrendous," says Maria Gunnoe, 41, of the community advocacy group Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition, who lives in Bob White, W. Va., 12 miles north of Lindytown. Tremors from the blasts shake houses from the ground up, and it rains sand, coal dust and other particles in surrounding areas, residents say.

Another excerpt:

Mountaintop mining destroys the natural habitats of many local species, whether endangered ones such as flying squirrels or flourishing ones like salamanders. Further, mountaintop debris that is dug up or displaced by explosions is dumped in the valleys below, burying headwater streams, killing the aquatic species that live in the waters and impacting downstream water supplies. About 1,200 miles of streams have been buried in this manner in central Appalachia, according to a 2003 federal study.

That last figure is outdated, by the way. During the last two decades, nearly 2,000 miles of Appalachian streams have been buried by debris from mountaintop mining operations, which blast off the tops of mountains to get at the coal seams below. Although it may seem counterintuitive, the blasting of Appalachia's mountains and clearcutting of the forests pale in comparison to the extensive damage done to the region's waterways.

An analysis of water tested downstream from mountaintop removal mining operations in Appalachia shows high levels of toxins, with some samples testing 50 times the U.S. safety guidelines, according to a report by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The independent analysis of previously unreleased data suggests that 14 of 17 sites tested in West Virginia and Kentucky in 2007 and 2009 exceed federal standards for toxins such as arsenic, lead, mercury, and chromium. Six of nine West Virginia sites tested above safe levels for toxins and all eight Kentucky sites exceeded that level, with two sites registering extremely high readings. The data, which was not available publicly until requested under the federal Freedom of Information Act by environmental groups, was analyzed by toxicologist Carys Mitchelmore at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science.

“This is the first-line red flag,” Mitchelmore told the Charleston Gazette. “This is the best way to show what the whole toxicity of that pollution is.”

(Photo of WV stream contamination by J. Henry Fair)

Yale Event on Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining

2009-12-02T17:25:29Z

If you happen to be in New Haven, Connecticut tomorrow evening, please feel free to attend a screening of the amazing Yale-produced documentary on mountaintop removal: Leveling Appalachia.

During the last two decades, mountaintop removal mining in Appalachia has destroyed or severely damaged more than a million acres of forest and buried nearly 2,000 miles of streams. Leveling Appalachia: The Legacy of Mountaintop Removal Mining, a video report produced by Yale Environment 360 in collaboration with MediaStorm, focuses on the environmental and social impacts of this practice and examines the long-term effects on the region's forests and waterways. At a time when the Obama administration is reviewing mining permit applications throughout West Virginia and three other states, this video offers a first-hand look at what is at stake for Appalachia's environment and its people.

Following the screening, I'll be featured on a panel discussion alongside:

Chad Stevens, filmmaker, MediaStorm
Maria Gunnoe, Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition and 2009 Goldman Environmental Prize winner
Dr. Ben Stout, Associate Professor of Biology, Wheeling Jesuit University

Event details:

Thursday, December 3, 2009

5:00 p.m. - 6:30 p.m.

Kroon Hall, Burke Auditorium

195 Prospect Street

Free and open to the public

Verizon Wireless and its Not So Rowdy Friends of America

2009-09-16T02:20:28Z

"I'd seen big crowds. This wasn't a big crowd. It was puny and sort of bored." -- Bill Lynch

Forgive me for beating a dead horse, but I just can't resist a parting shot at Don Blankenship's pathetic Friends of America Labor Day rally, sponsored in part by spineless Verizon Wireless.

Someone forwarded me this hilarious column by Charleston Gazette columnist Bill Lynch, who attended the rally. This man was at Woodstock, so he knows a crowd when he sees one -- and apparently there wasn't much of one on top of that mined mountaintop.

Now, Blankenship promised 100,000 rally attendees and I even heard that right-wing blowhard Glenn Beck claimed that over 1 million people showed up. Not so, reports Bill Lynch:

I remember taking a long look at the audience gathered toward the stage, then looking at the gaping expanse of dusty, rocky ground behind them.

I giggled.

I thought conservatives were supposed to be good at math. What was referred to, as the largest Tea Party in America, was about the size of a county fair -- if you didn't count the livestock.

Bill writes that the rally wasn't at all what he expected. He almost didn't go, for fear of traffic, a surly crowd, and "a heavy-handed political message courtesy of Massey Energy."

Turns out he had nothing to worry about after all. He was able to zip right in to the event and snag a parking spot up close. He ambled up near the stage just as Fox big-mouth-on-campus Sean Hannity was "squawking about liberals, conservatives and the terror that is Barack Obama."

It seems the crowd proved more interested in the free concert by Hank Williams, Jr. Ditto the funnel cake booth, which did better business than the "lonely little corral where you could learn how global warming was a hoax. Nobody much cared."

After Hank finished singing, it started to rain and most people migrated to the parking lot. The only traffic problem Bill encountered was the crush of cars heading down the mountain toward home.

FACES: Grassroots Fail

2009-08-27T17:50:32Z

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 political agenda. But as is usually the case with industry's propaganda-driven tactics, the group was quickly exposed as nothing more than pure astroturf -- that is, a phony, industry-funded front group utterly lacking in genuine citizen support or involvement.

In fact, the faces for FACES are not real people who support the industry -- the soul-less PR firm that put this project together simply used stock photos to populate the website. Kudos to the good folks at Appalachian Voices for debunking this effort.

My buddy Jeff Biggers has all the dirty details on this troubling yet hilarious fiasco.

In your face FACES -- what a bunch of fossil fools!

[UPDATE: MSNBC's Rachel Maddow recently covered the FACES scandal, referring to it as "momentous political fakery."]

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Stephen Colbert Slams Supreme Court for Terrible Toxic 'Fill' Ruling

2009-07-02T13:40:13Z

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 Report, the hilarious host pilloried the Supremes for its ridiculous ruling in his segment "Judge, Jury and Executioner."

Watch the clip (the piece starts at the 1:51 minute mark):

Unless the Obama administration fixes the fraudulant 'fill rule' imposed by the Bush administration back in 2002, we might as well start calling the nation's premier environmental protection law the Clean Watered Down Act.