Supreme Court Denies Arch Coal More Mountaintop Removal at Spruce Mine No. 1

The Supreme Court did a good thing today, rejecting an appeal from Arch Coal to review a decision by the U.S. District Court of Appeals. The original ruling of the District Court, which goes back to April of last year, found that the EPA could withdraw a previously approved Clean Water Act permit. The permits are granted to allow for pollution of waters and the filling in of streams. Coal companies need these permits to operate their mountaintop removal mines and dump the waste rock and soil or “overburden” from the mines into adjacent valleys and streams.

            Arch coal had sought the permit, and received the permit from the Army Corps of Engineers, to expand its Spruce Mine No. 1 in West Virginia. The Spruce Mine is already huge; with the permit it would have made it the largest such mine in the Mountain State. The EPA had rescinded the permit retroactively, after the Corps had granted the permit.

            Arch Coal said that wasn’t kosher. The District Court said it was. And now the Supreme Court has said that decision stands. We are not totally out of the woods on this, but this is a good turn of events.

The Educational Director Who Could

This is a great story. Bill Bigelow taught high school social studies in Portland, Oregon for almost 30 years before becoming the curriculum editor of Rethinking Schools and the co-director of the Zinn Educational Project. In 2011, while he was developing academic activities on coal and climate change for Rethinking Schools magazine, he came across The United States of Energy, a pro-coal propaganda “curriculum” for fourth grade students that had been sponsored by the coal industry and published by Scholastic, the well-known education publisher.

            Bigelow wrote a critique of The United States of Energy and teamed up with another prominent educator. Before long the Center for Biological Diversity, Friends of the Earth, and Greenpeace were on board with the effort.

            As a result, Scholastic severed ties with the coal industry and stopped distribution of The United States of Energy. Scholastic also began a review of its “In School Marketing” program.

            I love stories like this, when one individual brings about a needed change by simply speaking the truth. Now if Bigelow and Rethinking Schools could just get the coal companies out of the schoolrooms of Appalachia, where they still run the show.

Duke Energy Wants to Have Its Cake and Eat It, Too. And They Want to Have Your Cake and Eat It Too, Too

Sorry about that coal ash spill thingy. You folks don't mind paying for it now, do you?

This news item has my head spinning. In a move that goes way beyond having unmitigated gall, Duke Energy, whose spill of between 50,000 and 82,000 tons of coal ash fouled North Carolina’s Dan River last month, now says that the power company’s customers should pick up the bill to clean up the company’s dozens of coal ash storage sites.

            Lynn Good, Duke Energy’s CEO, told the Charlotte Observer that since rate payers had enjoyed the electricity the company provided for generations they are the ones who should pay for the cleanup of the byproduct of producing that electricity.

            OK, so I sell you a guitar. Years later, due to my bad business practices, I incur debts. I then tell you that since you bought a guitar and benefited from my bad business practices, you should pay my bills. That is exactly what Duke is trying to do here. They want to have their cake and eat it, too. And they want to have your cake and eat it too, too.

Hat tip to my friend Amy for this story.

CPAC = Big Crazy, At Least Where the Environment Is Concerned

photo Reuters

It looks like the darling of this year’s Conservative Political Action Conference, in what is an apparent flirtation with the GOP presidential nomination, was Rand Paul, the son of Ron Paul and, like his father, a firebrand libertarian.

            Paul’s message of less and less government has some staying power for this conference. The Kentucky Senator was similarly lauded at last year’s CPAC. As the way things are going for Appalachians, I have little hope that things will change for the better in those states. They can continue to expect toxic spills in their rivers. With a Rand Paul administration, however, that dismal future would be a certainty. For him, the companies that mine coal can pretty much do as they please, and he dismisses mountaintop removal by saying, “I don’t’ think that anyone is going to be missing a hill or two here and there.”

            Looking at some of the other things to come out of CPAC, it certainly seems like a lot of Big Crazy is going on there. Here we have William Peter Pendly, author of Sagebrush Rebel: Reagan's Battle with Environmental Extremists and Why It Matters Today speaking on president Obama’s fictitious “war on fossil fuels.” Later in the video someone in on the panel discussion dismisses concern or action on climate change by saying that there is a “prejudice against the man-made,” due to “human racism.” That, in essence, folks who are concerned about melting glaciers, rising oceans, possible worsening weather events such as drought, floods, and more sever storms, are only concerned because of their prejudice against the human race. Is that Big Crazy or what?

West Virginia Leaders in Washington Sing the Same Old Tune

West Virginia leaders sing the same old tune

It seems that in Washington things remain quite the same,

with the law makers from West Virginia continuing to toe the line for King
Coal. Once again, this is from Ken Ward, who knows way more about West Virginia
and coal than I ever could, and his Coal Tattoo blog.

West Virginia Water Bill in Final Sausage-Making Phase

Fat possums: Water bill coming down to the wire

Ken Ward’s Coal Tattoo blog on the ins and outs of the West

Virginia legislation crafted in response to January’s chemical spill in the Elk
River. Lots of last minute sausage making moves going on, and Ken sums things
up really well.

Good News About Coal And Coal Mining? Can You Believe It?

Wow. That’s all I can think right now. Wow. I just got this news story in from Reuters. In a consent decree reached with the Department of Justice and the Environmental Protection Agency Alpha Natural Resources and its subsidiaries have agreed to spend about $200 million to install and operate wastewater treatment systems and begin upgrades to current systems to reduce toxic runoff from their mines that pollute streams throughout Appalachia.

            Alpha will also pay $27.5 million in civil penalties for thousands of permit violations. This is the largest penalty in history for violations of Section 402 of the Clean Water Act.

            In other good news, Spaniards are showing some good sense in banning mountaintop removal from the beautiful mountains of their northern region.

            Is today Christmas? It sort of feels that way to me right now.

UPDATE: For more on the Alpha story check out Ken Ward's blog here. 

Snoopy and Charlie Brown are happy for the mountains and the folks who live there.

Even the Dead Can't Rest in Peace When There Are Mountaintop Mines

The struggles of a family to visit and maintain the integrity of their loved ones’ graves continue in West Virginia. The story was big news last year, and the family has been struggling with the coal company since 2008.

The "Graveyard in the Sky" photo Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition, Maria Gunnoe/Associated Press

 As you can see from the photo, the mountaintop removal mining operation completely encircles what remains of a community’s graveyard. Members of the Jarrell family, as well as environmental activists, claim that Alpha Natural Resources and its subsidiary Independence Coal Company, which operates the mountaintop removal coal mine, violated state law and an agreement reached between the coal company and the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection to preserve access to the graves and keep mining at least 100 feet away from the graveyard. The plaintiffs also claim that mining has toppled gravestones in the cemetery.

            The family members can visit their loved ones’ graves, but before they are allowed to do so they must first give notice to Alpha 10 days ahead of their planned visit, endure a 30-minute safety course, surrender their cell phones and cameras to the coal company, and be escorted by Alpha employees up a dirt road that is only accessible by four-wheel drive.

            The family claims that these requirements of the coal company in essence deprives them of their ability to visit the graves of their loved ones and to bury their dead at this cemetery in the future. Lest you think that this is a unique situation, there are plenty more “mine bound” cemeteries in the Mountain State.

            Can you imagine visiting your parents' or grandparents' graves under such conditions? And what’s this thing about cell phones and cameras?

Hope and Change Not Coming to West Virginia Any Time Soon

There may be little hope that things will actually change for the folks living in southern West Virginia. Despite the inconvenience and health risks that the chemical spill of 4-methylcyclohexane methanol brought to their homes, businesses, and schools for the last seven weeks, it looks like effective legislation to regulate the types of storage tanks that hold MCHM and similar dangerous substances will not be forthcoming. Stalled in committee, a chemical regulation bill looks unlikely to pass before the West Virginia legislative session closes in a week.

            By the way, I did not get this story from the usual domestic news sources that I rely upon, the New York Times, Washington Post, NPR, etc. I didn’t even see the story in the Charleston Gazette, which has done some fine reporting on the poisonous spill. I got the news from Al Jazeera, a news source that has been a bombing target of the U.S. and British governments.

            I’m feeling especially cynical right now.

The tank that leaked thousands of gallons of MCHM into West Virginia's Elk River, poisoning the drinking water for 300,000 residents. Note the evidence of corrosion streaming down the side of the aged tank. photo Tom Hindman Getty Images