Coal is America's dirtiest energy source -- and the country's leading source of global warming pollution. Coal mining destroys land, pollutes thousands of miles of streams and brings massive environmental damage to mountain communities.Yet coal companies are doing everything they can -- including buying millions of dollars in TV ads -- to push the myth of "clean coal" technology. But they can't hide the truth: "Clean coal" doesn't exist, and alternatives are ready to take the place of dirty power plants and repower America with clean energy. That's reality.
Posted by Rob Perks in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places , Solving Global Warming
Rising above a picturesque valley in southern West Virginia, like an oasis in the midst of coal country, Coal River Mountain represents the last, best hope for a community resisting the legacy of dirty energy in this part of Appalachia. ...continued→
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...continued→
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...continued→
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...continued→
Posted by Rob Perks in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places , Solving Global Warming
J. Henry Fair is a phenomenal photographer who generously lends his images to NRDC. He has been particularly helpful to me by providing for our use his starkly captivating photos of mountaintop removal coal mining. By hook or by crook, whether...continued→
Posted by Rob Perks in Solving Global Warming
Bo Webb is a proud and patriotic American who lives in Appalachia. A former Marine who fought for his country in Vietnam, Bo resides in the Coal River Valley of southwestern West Virginia. For years, he has fought for the region he loves as coal...continued→
Posted by Rob Perks in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places , Solving Global Warming
The message was like a punch in the gut: "The blasting has begun." Coal River Mountain in southern West Virginia, heretofore America's "most endangered" mountain, is now under assualt by Massey Energy, the nation's fourth-largest coal company and the worst offender...continued→
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...continued→
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...continued→
Posted by Rob Perks in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places , Solving Global Warming
"The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine; with me you are but aliens and tenants. Throughout the land that you hold, you shall provide for the redemption of the land." (Leviticus 25:23-24) "In another...continued→
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...continued→
Posted by Rob Perks in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places , Solving Global Warming
Go tell it on the mountain! Today the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is taking unprecedented action to bring to an end the saga of the infamous Spruce Mine, jamming a stake in the heart of what would have been the largest mountaintop removal project in the history...continued→
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...continued→
Posted by Rob Perks in Health and the Environment , Saving Wildlife and Wild Places , Solving Global Warming
"You can't put a mountain back." -- Judy Bonds Across the Appalachians, companies are blowing entire mountaintops to smithereens to get at the thin coal seams below. The communities of the region are paying the cost in their health, their...continued→
Posted by Rob Perks in Solving Global Warming
At a congressional hearing today on the Clean Water Act, two House representatives from West Virginia (Nick Rahall and Shelley Moore Capito) shifted the questioning to mountaintop removal coal mining during EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson's testimony. Kind of like at a hockey game when...continued→
Posted by Rob Perks in Health and the Environment , Solving Global Warming
On the heels of last month's jaw-dropping New York Times expose of widespread water pollution in the U.S., the newspaper just published this follow-up story focusing on one of the culprits: pollution from coal-fired power plants. The NYT story highlights...continued→
Posted by Rob Perks in Health and the Environment , Saving Wildlife and Wild Places , Solving Global Warming
Right now the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is holding public hearings in six Appalachian states on mountaintop removal coal mining. This controversial practice is at long last under intense scrutiny by the Obama administration, with the U.S. Environmental...continued→
Posted by Rob Perks in Health and the Environment , Solving Global Warming
Last night "60 Minutes" aired an in-depth story on the problems with coal ash, a byproduct of the burning of coal at power plants. Leslie Stahl focused on last year's nightmare before Christmas, when an impoundment pond containing 50-year's worth of coal ash...continued→
Posted by Rob Perks in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places , Solving Global Warming
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, following through on EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson's pledge to restore science to environmental regulation, has ruled that all 79 pending applications for mountaintop removal coal mining would violate the Clean Water Act. The agency's review of each permit deemed that...continued→
Posted by Rob Perks in Health and the Environment , Saving Wildlife and Wild Places , Solving Global Warming
The coalfields of eastern Kentucky are ground zero for mountaintop removal coal mining. Explosives rock the peaks and echo through the hollows. Twenty-story draglines scrape out enough dirt to fill several dump trucks with every scoop. Earth-movers literally move the...continued→
Posted by Rob Perks in Solving Global Warming
"Turn on more lights, burn more coal." -- Don Blankenship Don Blankenship is the CEO of Massey Energy, the largest coal producer in Appalachia and the most notorious perpetrator of mountaintop removal mining. Mr. Blankenship, known as "the scariest polluter in America", makes millions of dollars...continued→
Posted by Rob Perks in Health and the Environment , Saving Wildlife and Wild Places , Solving Global Warming
Common-sense tells us that blowing up a mountain and dumping the waste into valley streams is bad for water quality. But that logic has yet to thwart mountaintop removal coal mining. So I take it as a positive sign that the U.S. Environmental...continued→
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...continued→
Posted by Rob Perks in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places , Solving Global Warming
I live in Maryland and am proud to be represented in Congress by Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD). Not only does he have a 100% rating from the League of Conservation Voters, but Sen. Cardin is leading the fight in Congress to end...continued→
Posted by Rob Perks in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places , Solving Global Warming , The Media and the Environment
"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...continued→
Posted by Pete Altman in Solving Global Warming
The New York Times has revealed the results of an extensive study of Clean Water Act enforcement showing systemic breakdowns compliance and enforcement throughout the US, finding that as a result "An estimated one in 10 Americans have been exposed...continued→
Posted by Rob Perks in Solving Global Warming
A few days late and a thousand dollars short. That's how I'd describe the belated victory over Verizon Wireless. I mean, I appreciate the sentiment, Lowell, but really, this embarrassing episode for your company easily could have been avoided. OK,...continued→
Posted by Rob Perks in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places , Solving Global Warming
Today marks a good day in the struggle to stop mountaintop removal coal mining. Citing concerns about severe water quality impacts, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) blocked all 79 pending mountaintop mining permits until the agency completes a more in-depth environmental review of the...continued→
Posted by Rob Perks in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places , Solving Global Warming
Thus far, the Obama administration's approach to the controversial practice of mountaintop removal coal mining has been...shall we say...herky-jerky. Some days we're up, as when EPA announced in the spring that all such mining permits are on hold until further review. Other...continued→
Posted by Frances Beinecke in Green Enterprise , Solving Global Warming
Van Jones has been hit by a nasty smear campaign designed to discredit him and his goal of creating millions of green jobs for Americans. The intensity of Glenn Beck's attacks shows once again the untold lengths the far right...continued→
Posted by Rob Perks in Solving Global Warming
Yesterday, thousands of miners and their families trekked to the top of a reclaimed mountaintop mine site in West Virginia to celebrate Labor Day at a free concert and picnic organized by Don Blankenship, CEO of the nation's fourth-largest coal company. The event, essentially a political...continued→
Posted by Rob Perks in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places , Solving Global Warming
By now it's clear that Verizon Wireless can hear us, but so far they refuse to listen. The company seems inexplicably content to weather the public firestorm it created by choosing to sponsor coal baron Don Blankenship's anti-climate "Friends of America"...continued→
Posted by Rob Perks in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places , Solving Global Warming
Everyone engaged in the fight over mountaintop removal is anticipating a big announcement next week (possibly Tuesday or Wednesday) by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. NRDC and our grassroots partners want to put a stop -- once and for all -- to this extreme strip...continued→
Posted by Rob Perks in Solving Global Warming
Just as the Fox network is the undisputed television home for conservative political ideology, is Verizon Wireless setting itself up to become the right-wing's exclusive phone provider? Despite all of its attempts to bill itself as a "green" company, in the face of tens of thousands of...continued→
Posted by Rob Perks in Solving Global Warming
In response to my post yesterday about Verizon Wireless sponsoring Massey's anti-mountain, pro-coal Labor Day rally, a firestorm erupted on Verizon's Facebook page. (If you're in the mood to chuckle, just scroll through the angry catcalls from the climate-hater crowd in the comments section...continued→
Posted by Rob Perks in Health and the Environment , Solving Global Warming
Information obtained from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency reveals the existence of nearly twice as many toxic coal ash dumps across the country as the agency previously indicated to the public. The results of NRDC's recent Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request -- filed jointly with Sierra...continued→
Posted by Rob Perks in Solving Global Warming
As a long-time customer, I was appalled to learn that Verizon Wireless has hopped into bed with Don Blankenship, chairman, CEO and president of Massey Energy, one of the largest coal companies in America and one of the driving forces behind the...continued→
Posted by Rob Perks in Health and the Environment , Solving Global Warming
Since late December last year, the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), the nation's largest public utility, has been spending about a million bucks a day cleaning up more than a billion gallons of toxic coal ash sludge that spilled out of a holding pond...continued→
Posted by Rob Perks in Solving Global Warming
Just when you think the coal industry has learned its lesson, the fossil fools stoop to a new low. First came those lame lumps of coal singing Christmas carols. Next came Peabody's homage to Joe Camel. Then coal lobbyists got...continued→
Posted by Rob Perks in Solving Global Warming
A lawsuit links Dominion Power to hiding coal ash pollution. And when I say links, I mean that literally. Seriously, what is it with coal companies and golf courses? I mean you can't throw a piece of blasted rubble in...continued→
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...continued→
Posted by Rob Perks in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places , Solving Global Warming
The state motto is "Virginia is for Lovers", and Virginians sure love their mountains. Think about what might happen if a coal company proposed to blow up peaks in the beloved Blue Ridge range? No way, no how -- there would be...continued→
Posted by Rob Perks in Health and the Environment , Solving Global Warming
A few weeks after the December disaster in Tennessee, in which a ruptured waste "containment pond" at a TVA power plant spilled over a billion gallons of liquefied coal ash into the Emory River and over 300 acres of the surrounding community, I blogged about the health...continued→
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...continued→
Posted by Rob Perks in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places , Solving Global Warming
Tsk, tsk ACCCE. This group of "clean" coal propagandists is to blame for the phony "grassroots" campaign that involved hiring a notorious "astro-turf" consulting firm to forge letters to Congress opposing the recently passed climate bill. My colleague Pete Altman shares the latest coverage on dirty...continued→
Posted by Rob Perks in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places , Solving Global Warming
In about an hour I will leave my office and walk two blocks over to Lafayette Park, located directly across from the White House, for a candlelight prayer vigil being led by religious leaders and organizations calling on the Obama administration to halt the...continued→
Posted by Rob Perks in Health and the Environment , Solving Global Warming
I guess you could say I'm in a Tennessee state of mind these days. Lately, I've been blogging the zany boycott launched against the Volunteer State by angry mountaintop miners who demand the right to blow up Tennessee's beloved mountains, which...continued→
Posted by Rob Perks in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places , Solving Global Warming
If the out-of-state mining companies boycotting Tennessee for not allowing its mountains to be blown up expected sympathy for their lame-brained stunt, they got a wake-up call this morning in the form of blistering editorials in two of Tennessee's leading newspapers....continued→
Posted by Rob Perks in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places , Solving Global Warming
My recent interview on mountaintop removal is now available on the "Electric Politics" podcast. You can listen to it here. Below is the description of the show: From Heaven To Hell In a horrific sacrifice to darkness, the money men of Washington continue to...continued→
Posted by Rob Perks in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places , Solving Global Warming
Everyone knows that Dolly Parton is still working 9-to-5, just to try to make a living. But some Big Coal bad-guys, out to make a political statement, are aiming their fire at the reigning queen of country music. A few weeks...continued→
Posted by Rob Perks in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places , Solving Global Warming
A scathing independent report concludes that the massive coal ash spill which devastated a Tennessee town was no accident -- it was negligence. And other waste storage facilities managed by the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) could be ticking time bombs. Recall that in the dead of night last December...continued→
Posted by Rob Perks in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places , Solving Global Warming
It's pretty clear the coal industry is getting some professional PR help to fan the flames of its flimsy protest against Tennessee for refusing to let mining companies level the beloved Smokeys. The latest coverage of the bone-headed boycott over mountaintop removal comes courtesy of the Washington Post....continued→
Posted by Rob Perks in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places , Solving Global Warming
I own a pick-up truck that my neighbors sometimes borrow. One neighbor, who usually uses the truck to haul away lawn debris, always returns the truck in meticulous condition. No matter how often I tell him not to bother, he...continued→
Posted by Rob Perks in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places
When I checked into the hotel in Nashville I was tickled to find on the nightstand a complimentary copy of the magazine "Gardens & Guns." The evocatively silly name, which I must admit instantly appealed to me as a son of the South, belied...continued→
Posted by Rob Perks in Health and the Environment , Solving Global Warming
I've been traveling and so am just catching up on what's happening in the world of coal ash pollution. It just so happens that the issue remains on the front-burner, as evidenced by a few recent news stories. First, the latest...continued→
Posted by Pete Altman in Solving Global Warming
So how much did opponents of the federal climate bill really spend in the run-up to the House vote last month? It is usually hard to tell, since the predominant reporting system is meant to capture only expenses incurred to directly...continued→
Posted by Rob Perks in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places , Solving Global Warming
The Associated Press is reporting on an issue I blogged last week -- the boycott of Tennessee by coal companies, sparked by what the industry says is that state's "hostility" toward mountaintop removal coal mining. As the AP story explains, "angry"...continued→
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...continued→
Posted by Rob Perks in Solving Global Warming
The clean energy economy is upon us -- but will the U.S. heed the call? That's the gist of today's Washington Post story with this stark headline: Asian Nations Could Outpace U.S. in Developing Clean Energy. Excerpt: President Obama...continued→
Posted by Rob Perks in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places , Solving Global Warming
Today the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, in compliance with new Obama administration policy on mountaintop removal coal mining, has proposed eliminating the use of its streamlined permit process for the approval of surface coal mining in Appalachia. For far too long,...continued→
Posted by Pete Altman in Solving Global Warming
It was a surprise when Sarah Palin announced that she would step down as Governor of Alaska. But it isn't so surprising that America's biggest quitter doesn't think Americans are up to the challenge of creating a clean energy economy...continued→
Posted by Rob Perks in Health and the Environment , Solving Global Warming
Dr. Sanjay Gupta, accompanied by anti-pollution advocate Erin Brockovich, recently investigated the Tennessee coal ash spill -- the largest environmental disaster in U.S. history. Read the companion CNN story and watch the segment here: Last week NRDC and our allies...continued→
Posted by Rob Perks in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places , Solving Global Warming
About 10 years ago St. Louis-based Arch Coal, the nation's second-largest coal mining company, launched an ill-fated PR campaign with full-color newspaper ads touting mountaintop removal as "the right thing to do." It now looks like the company is trading soft persuasion for hardball tactics with its newest...continued→
Posted by Rob Perks in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places , Solving Global Warming
I'm looking forward to attending the world premier of Coal Country in Charleston, West Virginia this weekend. This documentary -- by the directors of the award-winning PBS series Appalachia -- captures the struggle of miners and activists in the battle over the world's worst...continued→
Posted by Rob Perks in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places , Solving Global Warming
This evening, shortly after dusk, I'll join millions of my fellow Americans simultaneously celebrating our nation's liberty by gazing skyward to watch explosions in the sky. When you think about the 4th of July, you think one thing: fireworks. And lots of them, as loud as possible!...continued→
Posted by Rob Perks in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places , Solving Global Warming
(Photo by J. Henry Fair) It is a national shame that mining companies are allowed to blast America's oldest mountains to smithereens -- all for the sake of dirty coal. Indeed, it is unfathomable that here in America, where...continued→
Posted by Rob Perks in Solving Global Warming
Pollution and poverty caused by the development of oil reserves have deprived tens of million of Nigerians their basic human rights, according to Amnesty International, which calls oil a "resource curse" for the region. "People living in the Niger Delta have to...continued→
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...continued→
Posted by Rob Perks in Solving Global Warming
Today at 3:30 pm EDT the U.S. Senate will hold an important hearing on mountaintop removal coal mining. This is the most extreme strip mining in use and it has resulted in the destruction of some 500 mountains in Appalachia, along with the forests,...continued→
Posted by Rob Perks in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places , Solving Global Warming
As a reminder, later today will be a critically important Senate hearing before the Environment and Public Works subcommittee on "The Impacts of Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining on Water Quality in Appalachia." The hearing (which I'll be Tweeting live!) is being...continued→
Posted by Rob Perks in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places , Solving Global Warming
It does not bode well that the U.S. Supreme Court yesterday ruled 6-3 in favor of treating America's waterways like dumps. Specifically, the Court decided that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers can legally permit the disposal of polluted wastewater...continued→
Posted by Rob Perks in Solving Global Warming
As reported today in Grist, there are nearly four dozen coal ash waste disposal sites in the U.S. that are so hazardous that were they to fail, "they could kill untold numbers of nearby residents." Coal ash sites -- which are less regulated than...continued→
Posted by Rob Perks in Solving Global Warming
One man's trash is another man's treasure, they say. Well, it appears that Tennessee's toxic coal sludge is headed out of state. [UPDATE: The latest issue of GQ magazine covers the coal ash spill.] The Tennessee Valley Authority is shipping some of...continued→
Posted by Rob Perks in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places , Solving Global Warming
Seriously, I read it in Grist, not The Onion. Reminder: In West Virginia a lot of coal is removed by...wait for it...actually removing the tops of the mountains. Below are a few photos I took in the so-called "Mountain State"...continued→
Posted by Rob Perks in Solving Global Warming
Last week, the Mayor and City Council of Keyser, West Virginia formally endorsed a proposed 23-turbine Pinnacle Wind Farm, a $125 million project that will generate an average of $432,000 in annual local taxes, create 150 construction and six permanent jobs, and help...continued→
Posted by Rob Perks in Curbing Pollution , Saving Wildlife and Wild Places , Solving Global Warming , U.S. Law and Policy
Here we go again: Today the federal appeals court (4th Circuit) in Richmond rejected a request by public interest groups to reconsider its decision last month to overturn a lower court ruling that had curtailed mountaintop removal coal mining in West Virginia. With a...continued→
Posted by Rob Perks in Solving Global Warming
First the Oscars, then Major League Baseball, followed by the NBA...and now the "Great White Way." That's right. With the guidance of my colleague Allen Hershkowitz, NRDC is helping Broadway green up its act to save energy and the environment. The BROADWAY GOES...continued→
Posted by Rob Perks in Solving Global Warming
My friend Jeff Biggers, a noted author on Appalachia and a strong ally in the fight against mountaintop removal, just emailed me the link to his latest HuffPo blog with a one-word note: "depressing." One click revealed the shocking, utterly heartbreaking news that...continued→
Posted by Rob Perks in Solving Global Warming
A Tennessee town's sad saga may take a turn for the better now that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has decided to take control over the cleanup of the worst coal pollution disaster in U.S. history. Last December, a waste...continued→
Posted by Rob Perks in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places , Solving Global Warming
Some 300 National Guard troops are pouring into southern West Virginia by order of Gov. Joe Manchin III. The soldiers are being dispatched to aid in disaster relief in the wake of flooding over the weekend caused by a wave of powerful storms that...continued→
Posted by Rob Perks in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places , Solving Global Warming
This just in (courtesy of Ken Ward's Coal Tattoo blog): The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which under the Bush administration simply rubber stamped mining permits, yesterday suspended its controversial approval of A&G Coal Corp.'s Ison Rock Ridge Surface Mine in Wise...continued→
Posted by Rob Perks in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places , Solving Global Warming
Calling mountaintop removal mining "the worst ongoing environmental tragedy our country has ever endured," NRDC Senior Attorney Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. is helping our push to persuade Congress to enact legislation that will end the destruction of Appalachia. Kennedy is enlisting concerned citizens to...continued→
Posted by Rob Perks in Health and the Environment , Saving Wildlife and Wild Places , Solving Global Warming
What a horrible tragedy last week when 21 polo horses mysteriously collapsed and died. According to the toxicology reports, the horses likely perished from an overdose of selenium in an incorrectly mixed vitamin supplement. The accidental overdose brought to mind the slow selenium poisoning of Appalachia's drinking water due to...continued→
Posted by Rob Perks in Solving Global Warming
J Henry Fair is a fine friend and fabulous photographer who has graciously granted NRDC permission to use his photos of mountaintop removal coal mining. He and his amazing work -- more like works of art, really -- were profiled...continued→
Posted by Pete Altman in Solving Global Warming
Earlier this week, Senator Kit Bond of Missouri issued a "report" on green jobs, essentially an exercise in taking statements from various reports on green jobs out of context and ignoring what those reports actually have to say. The Senator's report...continued→
Posted by Rob Perks in Health and the Environment , Saving Wildlife and Wild Places , Solving Global Warming
On the eve of President Obama's 'First 100 Days' in office, Jeff Biggers provides an excellent recap of where the administration stands on dirty coal. As he points out, in general the outlook is good but current conditions are still hazy. ...continued→
Posted by Rob Perks in Solving Global Warming
U.S. News & World Report conducted an in-depth interview with Lisa Jackson, head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. When asked point-blank about EPA's scrutiny of mountaintop removal, she gave this encouraging -- and courageous -- response: Q. The EPA...continued→
Posted by Rob Perks in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places , Solving Global Warming
Congratulations to Maria Gunnoe for winning the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize, which is considered the "Nobel prize" for grassroots environmentalists. Maria, one of six activists from different continents to earn the $150,000 award, is a native West Virginian who has put her life on the...continued→
Posted by Pete Altman in Curbing Pollution , Environmental Justice , Green Enterprise , Health and the Environment , Nuclear Weapons, Waste and Energy , Solving Global Warming
The US Chamber of Commerce has been drinking its own Kool-Aid again, and trying this time to get members of Congress to think it's green tea. The Chamber is attempting to convince policymakers that burdensome regulations are blocking clean energy...continued→
Posted by Rob Perks in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places , Solving Global Warming
Get this: The Appalachian region is home to the nation's least happy people, according to a recent Gallup opinion poll. While it makes perfect sense that Hawaii is the state with the happiest residents, it's surprising that Kentucky (#49) and West Virginia...continued→
Posted by Allen Hershkowitz in Curbing Pollution , Health and the Environment , Saving Wildlife and Wild Places
The coal industry and its friends are threatening to destroy water quality protection in Tennessee, the heart of NRDC's Greater Cumberland Plateau BioGem. The Governor and the Tennessee Legislature should oppose this unprecedented assault on Tennessee's streams and rivers. The...continued→
Posted by Rob Perks in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places , Solving Global Warming
Fact: The Appalachians are the nation's oldest and the world's most biologically diverse mountains. (Consider that more plant, tree and animal species can be found in one acre in the North Carolina Blue Ridge mountains than in all of Europe's forests.)...continued→
Posted by Rob Perks in Solving Global Warming
I must confess that I'm too busy to blog today. But for the latest on mountaintop removal do yourself a favor and check out Ken Ward's always informative Coal Tattoo blog. Today Ken writes about how the EPA has objected to three more...continued→
Posted by Rob Perks in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places , Solving Global Warming
Great editorial cartoon that appeared in the Knoxville News-Sentinel on March 30th....continued→
Posted by Rob Perks in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places , Solving Global Warming
What do Sheryl Crow, Emmylou Harris, Kathy Mattea and "Big" Kenny Alphin (of Big & Rich) have in common? Sure, they're all popular country music artists. And, yes, they all make their home in Nashville, the geographic center of that genre's recording industry. They also love mountains...continued→
Posted by Rob Perks in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places , Solving Global Warming
When you look at the photo above what do you see? Some might see the classic image of mountaintop removal -- a former Appalachian peak leveled and left lifeless by the most devastating and senseless stip mining method ever devised. More of a...continued→
Posted by Rob Perks in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places , Solving Global Warming
As a bill to ban mountaintop removal in Tennessee comes up for a vote today in the State Legislature, it's great to see the Knoxville News-Sentinel come out strongly in favor of the legislation. In urging Gov. Phil Bredesen and legislators to "consider serious restrictions on...continued→
Posted by Rob Perks in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places , Solving Global Warming
Greenwire reports that the Army Corps of Engineers reinstated a permit yesterday for a controversial Kentucky coal mining project hours after the EPA had publicly pledged to review pending mountaintop removal projects. It would appear then that the Corps has little regard...continued→
Posted by Rob Perks in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places , Solving Global Warming
Perhaps not content with EPA's mixed message on mountaintop removal, Sens. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) and Ben Cardin (D-MD) today teamed up to introduce legislation that would end the dumping of mining waste into streams. Senator Cardin, Chairman of the Water and...continued→
Posted by Rob Perks in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places , Solving Global Warming
Yesterday was a wild ride on the mountaintop removal front, with many people suffering whiplash from EPA's dueling press releases. Appalachian-based environmental journalist extraordinaire, Ken Ward, Jr., offers some after action perspective in his Coal Tattoo blog this morning. Today's...continued→
Posted by Rob Perks in Solving Global Warming
A few hours ago I applauded EPA's move today to revisit two pending mining permits at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers that would allow mountaintop removal in Kentucky and West Virginia. Like many others, I held out hope that EPA's action would lead to...continued→
Posted by Rob Perks in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places , Solving Global Warming
According to the following press release issued today by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the agency is weighing in on the federal permit process for the controversial coal mining technique known as mountaintop removal. It's too early to tell what this may mean but it seems like a...continued→
Posted by Rob Perks in Moving Beyond Oil , Solving Global Warming
Spring in Washington is a lovely time, with cherry blossoms about to bloom and tourists trekking to the Mall to gaze at monuments. But our fair city is about to see a different influx this week, as attendees arrive for the so-called...continued→
Posted by Rob Perks in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places , Solving Global Warming
"We're tearing up the Appalachian Mountains because of our dependence on fossil fuel." -- Barack Obama At a campaign stop in Kentucky last fall, then-candidate Barack Obama denounced mountaintop removal coal mining. It remains to be seen whether President Obama will...continued→
Posted by Rob Perks in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places , Solving Global Warming
Today the Tennessee legislature will hold its first hearing on a bill to ban mountaintop removal coal mining in the state. The Scenic Vistas Protection Act would outlaw mining on ridges in Tennessee over 2000 feet, but places no restrictions on...continued→
Posted by Rob Perks in Solving Global Warming
Right now more than 150 activists from around the country are walking the halls of Congress, urging their elected leaders to end mountaintop removal coal mining. We're trying to persuade Congress to pass the Clean Water Protection Act (H.R. 1310), a bill that would close...continued→
Posted by Pete Altman in Curbing Pollution , Environmental Justice , Health and the Environment , Solving Global Warming
Today NRDC is publishing new data on the contaminated coal waste that more than eighty proposed coal-fired power plants would create if built. We are also publishing data on waste from existing coal plants, including our estimates of the toxic...continued→
Posted by Pete Altman in Curbing Pollution , Solving Global Warming
**Update** The Associated Press is reporting today that most of the slurry spill from the New Page plant hit the riverbank on the West Virginia side of the river, rather than entering the river directly. Bullet dodged? Perhaps, until the next really...continued→
Posted by Rob Perks in Solving Global Warming
I can feel the momentum shifting in the fight to end mountaintop removal coal mining. Last week, bi-partisan legislation to help halt mountaintop mining was introduced in Congress. The Clean Water Protection Act (CWPA), a bill that would prevent coal companies from legally dumpining...continued→
Posted by Pete Altman in Curbing Pollution , Health and the Environment , Solving Global Warming
There's some encouraging news this week that the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) may swear off wet fly ash storage at coal-fired power plants, but who knows if we can trust them to do so when the heat is off months...continued→
Posted by Rob Perks in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places , Solving Global Warming , U.S. Law and Policy
Earlier this month -- on Friday the 13th -- a federal appeals court in Richmond, VA dealt a devastating blow to the environment by overturning a 2007 lower court decision curtailing mountaintop removal, the world's most destructive coal mining technique. I blogged this bad news. Clearly, the...continued→
Posted by Rob Perks in Solving Global Warming
The Coen brothers, the brilliantly funny film-makers behind 'Fargo', 'O Brother Where Art Thou', 'Burn After Reading' and other movie gems, have produced the latest Reality Coalition commercial ridiculing the myth of 'clean' coal. Enjoy! ...continued→
Posted by Rob Perks in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places , Solving Global Warming
Earlier this month, state legislators in Georgia introduced a bill (HB 276) that would outlaw the use of coal mined by mountaintop removal for power generation. This followed similar legislation introduced last year in North Carolina. Although this controversial strip...continued→
Posted by Rob Perks in Solving Global Warming
Most parody songs are done tongue-in-cheek. Not so this heartfelt, heartbreaking twist on John Denver's famous ode to West Virginia, put together by the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition. In under four minutes this particular parody, paired with powerful video footage, succintly tells the...continued→
Posted by Rob Perks in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places , Solving Global Warming , U.S. Law and Policy
On this unluckiest of all days, there is a horror story for those trying to save Appalachia's mountains from senseless destruction in pursuit of the world's dirtiest fossil fuel. A federal appeals court today overturned a lower court ruling curtailing mountaintop removal --...continued→
Posted by Rob Perks in Solving Global Warming
Previously I blogged about Big Coal's very bad week. Well, it looks like it's shaping up to be a very rough year for the industry -- cheers to that! Now the governors of Wisconsin, South Carolina and Georgia are jumping on...continued→
Posted by Theo Spencer in Curbing Pollution , Solving Global Warming , The Media and the Environment
If you spent most of your time swanning around on the New York socialite circuit ... got featured on MSNBC.com for having one of the most extravagent beachfront homes among the world's "filthy rich" ... and smiled for cameras all...continued→
Posted by Theo Spencer in Curbing Pollution , Health and the Environment , Solving Global Warming
Another week, another nail in the coffin of dirty coal. A big, big nail. NV Energy (the company formerly known as Sierra Pacific Resources) has shelved plans to build a 1,500 megawatt coal-fired power plant -- the controversial Ely Energy...continued→
Posted by Rob Perks in Solving Global Warming
Watching TV yesterday I stumbled upon a great mountaintop removal film now airing on the Sundance channel. I recall hearing about "Burning the Future" last year while it was being filmed, but I hadn't realized it was out. This movie even features a cameo by...continued→
Posted by Rob Perks in Solving Global Warming
I've traveled all over this great land but I've never been to Indiana. Perhaps that's just as well. An illuminating and alarming news report details all the ways in which Indiana is flirting with a coal catastrophe. Consider this: Indiana's...continued→
Posted by Rob Perks in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places , Solving Global Warming
It will be made a wasteland, parched and desolate before me; the whole land will be laid waste because there is no one who cares. (Jeremiah 12:11) My heart lept at the news that a Christian environmental group in Tennessee...continued→
Posted by Pete Altman in Solving Global Warming
We were going to ignore the latest nonsense from the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE) until we saw this week's Bloomberg story: "Clean-Coal Debate Pits Al Gore's Group Against Obama, Peabody." In the article, Bloomberg cites a recent...continued→
Posted by Barbara Finamore in Greening China
Most people are now aware of the 1.1 billion gallons of toxic coal plant sludge that escaped from the Kingston coal plant and made its way through the Tennessee Valley late on December 22nd. This incident caused tremendous damage and...continued→
Posted by Rob Perks in Curbing Pollution , Health and the Environment , Solving Global Warming
Since the day the waste storage pond broke at the TVA power plant in Tennessee, deluging downstream communities with toxic coal ash sludge, NRDC has been following the issue, assisting our local partners and pushing federal officials to respond. To...continued→
Posted by Rob Perks in Solving Global Warming
The New York Times' Green Inc. blog, citing a flurry of news stories around the country, called this "a tough week for coal." In the words of Tom Zeller: "The coal industry -- which suffers from an image problem to begin with...continued→
Posted by Pete Altman in Solving Global Warming
In Washington, you can tell always tell how bad things are for a politician or an interest group when they feel the need to brag about getting any good media coverage. When it comes to big coal and the utilities...continued→
Posted by Rob Perks in Curbing Pollution , Health and the Environment , Solving Global Warming
A few days after the devastating TVA coal ash spill in Tennessee, NRDC received an urgent call for help from our local allies at United Mountain Defense. At UMD's behest, we alerted our contacts at Duke University and urged them to conduct on-site, independent testing...continued→
Posted by Julia Bovey in Curbing Pollution , Solving Global Warming , The Media and the Environment
I was struck with confusion, convinced I had misunderstood. But there is was: Hi, JuliaBovey AmericasPower (AmericasPower) is now following your updates on Twitter. AmericasPower! I'm so flattered. It's only the most deceptive, sneakiest, best-funded front for the coal industry...continued→
Posted by Rob Perks in Solving Global Warming
Move over Big Oil, and make room for America's new profiteers: Big Coal. Hey you, Exxon, why not take a breather and let Peabody enjoy the spotlight for a while? Peabody Energy is the world's largest private-sector coal company. Its coal products...continued→
Posted by Rob Perks in Curbing Pollution , Health and the Environment , Solving Global Warming
I wonder if the PR flacks at the Tennessee Valley Authority have ever read the classic book, Toxic Sludge is Good for You. That thought occurred to me after reading how the TVA tweaked and twisted its talking points on the massive coal ash spill last...continued→
Posted by Rob Perks in Solving Global Warming
Here's some good news... Today, U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said his agency will revisit the Bush administration's last-minute industry-friendly rule changes, including those paving the way for oil shale development in the Rockies and easing federal mining restrictions that served as the...continued→
Posted by Pete Altman in Solving Global Warming
It just goes to show you that even $10-20 million worth of advertising won't buy you love. The "clean coal" myth was swamped this December and January by the coal ash spills in Tennessee and Alabama. Here are just some...continued→
Posted by Rob Perks in Solving Global Warming
During last month's debacle of a PR stunt -- cartoon coal chunks singing parody holiday carols -- I remarked that I hadn't seen anything this cynical since Joe Camel shilled cigarettes. Leave it to Peabody to blur the distinction even more with its new advertisement. ...continued→
Posted by Rob Perks in Curbing Pollution , Health and the Environment , Solving Global Warming
Turns out that this public agency -- the Tennessee Valley Authority -- is not at all interested in hearing from the public. Yesterday morning, NRDC issued an action alert on our website urging people to ask TVA to cover the costs...continued→
Posted by Rob Perks in Curbing Pollution , Health and the Environment , Solving Global Warming
The Washington Post reports today on the sudden emergence of coal ash waste treatment as a high-priority issue in the wake of last month's devastating storage pond break at TVA's Kingston power plant in eastern Tennessee. The disaster has sparked national attention, prompting state and federal regulators and...continued→
Posted by Rob Perks in Solving Global Warming
In the wake of the worst coal ash spill in U.S. history government, officials are waking up to the shocking fact that this toxic waste is not federally regulated as hazardous. And with a patchwork of inconsistent and woefully insufficient standards dealing...continued→
Posted by Rob Perks in Solving Global Warming
My colleague John Walke passed along what he dubbed "stunning, positive" news. A federal judge today ruled that the Tennessee Valley Authority must reduce emissions at four of its coal-fired power plants in Tennessee and Alabama because their windblown air pollution...continued→
Posted by Rob Perks in Solving Global Warming
Steven Chu, Presdent-elect Obama's choice to head the U.S. Department of Energy, faced the Senate yesterday at his nomination hearing. By all accounts, Dr. Chu is a brilliant scientist (and Nobel Prize-winning physicist!), who appears committed to pursuing national policy that will help the U.S. achieve greater energy...continued→
Posted by Rob Perks in Curbing Pollution , Health and the Environment , Solving Global Warming
The flurry of first-hand reports are still coming in on the massive TVA ash spill in eastern Tennessee last month. Legal activist Erin Brockovich weighed in today on her visit to the disaster site with a moving depiction of the dangers...continued→
Posted by Rob Perks in Curbing Pollution , Health and the Environment , Solving Global Warming
That massive spill at the Tennessee Valley Authority's (TVA) Kingston Fossil Plant, which flooded over 400 acres with 1 billion gallons of toxic coal ash sludge, has local residents coping not just with disrupted lives and damaged property but also with concerns about...continued→
Posted by Frances Beinecke in Curbing Pollution , Health and the Environment , Solving Global Warming
Americans have been assaulted on the airwaves with ads about so-called "clean coal." What happened in East Tennessee, where a breach of a coal ash pond at a power plant send a billion gallons of toxic sludge into nearby communities,...continued→
Posted by Rob Perks in Curbing Pollution , Health and the Environment , Solving Global Warming
I just returned from a Congressional hearing convened by Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) to address the big coal ash spill last month in Tennessee. As tee'd up by Ben Jervey on NRDC's Greenlight blog, this hearing follows a damning New...continued→
Posted by Pete Altman in Curbing Pollution , Environmental Justice , Solving Global Warming
As the New Year of 2009 dawns, the PR flacks charged with greenwashing coal's image must be praying for a fresh start. It's hard enough to fix up the image of the world's dirtiest energy source, without your clients finding...continued→
Posted by Rob Perks in Curbing Pollution , Saving Wildlife and Wild Places , Solving Global Warming
Imagine an Olympic size swimming pool brimming with highly toxic waste. Now imagine over 1,600 such sludge-filled pools -- or about a billion gallons. That's how much liquified coal waste -- "fly ash" -- broke through an earthen dike at a Tennessee Valley Authority power plant...continued→
Posted by Pete Altman in Health and the Environment
When we found the video footage from Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship's now infamous speech in West Virginia last month, we didn't quite know what to expect. Now that the video has been viewed by thousands and thousands of people...continued→
Posted by Pete Altman in Curbing Pollution , Health and the Environment , Living Sustainably , Saving Wildlife and Wild Places , Solving Global Warming
It is always a headache for corporate pr flacks when reality intrudes and negates months of planning and millions in spending trying to persuade the public of something that just isn't so. So the flacks at coal front-group ACCCE (pronounce...continued→
Posted by Rob Perks in Solving Global Warming
This morning I dropped by the local studio of Pacifica radio station (WPFW 89.3FM) to be interviewed on the show EarthbeatRadio about the coal industry's cynical and dishonest "smokestack and mirrors" advertising, aimed at convincing (or at least confusing) people about...continued→
Posted by Rob Perks in Solving Global Warming
I was flummoxed...flabbergasted...dumbstruck...by the headline of this recent opinion column in the Tucson Citizen: "Consider coal as gift this holiday season." Say what? No surprise to see that the author is with the notorious coal front-group ACCCE. The point of this blatant propaganda is...continued→
Posted by Rob Perks in Solving Global Warming
The lumpy little coal characters who sang their way to infamy last week may be gone, but it's doubtful the coal industry will learn a lesson from the PR fiasco. In case you missed it, one of the highlights for...continued→
Posted by Rob Perks in Curbing Pollution
Big Coal's worst...advertising...campaign...ever is no more! As reported by ABC News, it appears that those dirty, rotten Coal Carolers are no longer singing on ACCCE's website. Now that those ill-conceived, naughty little lumps have gone the way of Joe Camel, we...continued→
Posted by Rob Perks in Solving Global Warming
UPDATE: After taking too many lumps, ACCCE pulls plug on Coal Caroler campaign!! See details. Bless their dirty little black hearts...the industry hacks responsible for the infamous Coal Carolers decided to pull from their website the parody of "Silent Night"...continued→
Posted by Pete Altman in Solving Global Warming
UPDATE: After taking too many lumps, ACCCE pulls plug on Coal Caroler campaign! See details. The latest attempt to soften coal's deadly, dangerous image has been drawing a lot of attention lately, and based on this ABC News story,...continued→
Posted by Rob Perks in Solving Global Warming
How's this for an eye-catching headline? Wind, Water And Sun Beat Biofuels, Nuclear And Coal For Clean Energy That comes from a story published today in ScienceDaily, which opens with this unequivocal sentence: "The best ways to improve energy security, mitigate global...continued→
Posted by Rob Perks in Solving Global Warming
UPDATE: After taking too many lumps, ACCCE pulls plug on Coal Caroler campaign!! See details. Hooray Rachel Maddow, for ridiculing the cuddly yet craven Coal Carolers on her MSNBC show last night. Like she said: "Where are the 'War on Christmas'...continued→
Posted by Pete Altman in Curbing Pollution , Solving Global Warming
By now, you've probably read about Massey Energy CEO and U.S. Chamber of Commerce Director Don Blankenship's now infamous November 20, 2008 speech in West Virginia. Several people - including NRDC's own Frances Beinecke - have expressed their views about...continued→
Posted by Rob Perks in Curbing Pollution , Solving Global Warming
Kudos to the good folks at Climate Progress for giving me my chuckle of the day: the Shell oil company is using this unintentionally ironic image to tout technology to capture and store carbon pollution from coal plants. Here...continued→
Posted by Frances Beinecke in Curbing Pollution , Solving Global Warming
Many of the issues we work on take decades to get the results we want. But at other times, things begin to fall into place with surprising speed. That’s happening now with dirty coal.Over the past year, one after another...continued→
How to generate millions of jobs, break our dependence on oil and reduce the pollution that causes global warming.
