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Fwd: FW: [ACTNET-FRAC-NEWS] UK report: shale gas may increase risk of "dangerous climate change".
by James Kotcon 19 Jan '11

19 Jan '11

Strongly recommended reading. Good description of the shale gas process, as well as a couple specific environmental analyses. They ignore the "fugitive emissions" issue, but conclude the gas would have relatively little impact on greenhouse gas emissions in countries that have a cap on emissions, and would likely increase greenhouse gas emissions in countries without a carbon cap. Gas would NOT substitute for coal, but would merely be added to existing emissions. Jim Kotcon >>> "Grubb, Karen" <Karen.Grubb(a)fairmontstate.edu> 1/19/2011 2:07 PM >>> From: National Hydrofracking Team [mailto:ACTNET-FRAC-NEWS@LISTS.SIERRACLUB.ORG] On Behalf Of Peter Wray Sent: Wednesday, January 19, 2011 11:59 AM To: ACTNET-FRAC-NEWS(a)LISTS.SIERRACLUB.ORG Subject: Re: [ACTNET-FRAC-NEWS] UK report: shale gas may increase risk of "dangerous climate change". The full 87-page report is attached. It actually contains a comprehensive analysis of shale gas extraction in the US. Good reading for anyone interested in shale gas. Well illustrated with lots of useful data. Peter Wray. The Key Conclusions are: 1) Evidence from the US suggests shale gas extraction brings a significant risk of ground and surface water contamination and until the evidence base is developed a precautionary approach to development in the UK and Europe is the only responsible action. 2) There is little to suggest that shale gas will play a key role as a transition fuel in the move to a low carbon economy. 3) Without a meaningful cap on emissions of global GHGs, the exploitation of shale gas is likely to increase net carbon emissions. 4) Rapid carbon reductions require major investment in zero-carbon technologies and this could be delayed by exploitation of shale gas. ------ ========================================================== On 1/19/11 10:49 AM, "Jeff Schmidt" <jeff.schmidt(a)sierraclub.org> wrote: Interesting article having to do with the UK. Shale gas moratorium in UK urged by Tyndall Centre By Roger HarrabinEnvironment analyst, BBC News The UK government should put a moratorium on shale gas operations until the environmental implications are fully understood, a report says. The Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research report comes amid reports a firm has found reserves in Lancashire. In the US, officials are investigating claims that shale gas drilling has polluted water supplies. However, UK ministers have rejected a moratorium, saying that drilling for shale gas does not pose a threat. "We are aware that there have been reports from US of issues linked to some shale gas projects," a spokesman for the Department of Energy and Climate Change (Decc) told BBC News. "However, we understand that these are only in a few cases and that Cuadrilla (the firm testing for shale gas in Lancashire) has made it clear that there is no likelihood of environmental damage and that it is applying technical expertise and exercising the utmost care as it takes drilling and testing forward." 'Play it safe' The Tyndall report was commissioned by The Co-operative, an institutional investor in oil firms. It is pressing firms not to invest in shale gas until further studies have been carried out into the effects of pumping chemicals underground to help release the gas trapped in shale rocks. The Co-operative is concerned that Decc pronounced shale gas safe last week before the end of a consultation into the technology by MPs on the Commons energy and climate change select committee. Paul Monaghan, head of the organisation's social goals, said: "There should be no fracturing of rock for shale gas until legislation can catch up. "We are aghast that government accepted the assurances of industry on this while their own consultation had not even finished. There was a shale gas rush in the US and now they are looking into the implications - we need to do it the other way round." The Tyndall report also expresses concern that the exploitation of shale gas is bringing new greenhouse gas sources into play. It says: "This will further reduce any slim possibility of maintaining global temperature changes at or below 2C (3.6F) and thereby increase the risk of entering a period of 'dangerous climate change'." Gas security Shale gas has become an energy phenomenon since firms in the US found economic ways of extracting gas previously trapped in shale rocks, which have metamorphosed from clay deposits under pressure and heat. The process involves drilling horizontally into shale formations far underground, then using small explosions to fracture the shale - followed by a slurry of water, sand and chemicals to free the trapped gas. The US was gearing up to import gas, but experts suggest that the shale reserves may provide the nation with gas supplies for 100 years. Large deposits of shale gas are expected to be unearthed in China, Europe and South America too. Experts say the technological breakthrough increases energy security worldwide and reduces the diplomatic power of gas-rich nations, such as Russia. But there have been reports of problems with the technology in the US, such as cattle dying after drinking water from the fracturing process that found its way to the surface. In Pennsylvania, some residents can now set fire to their drinking water after methane leaked into wells. They are blaming shale gas extraction. The Tyndall report says that gas drilling in Lancashire will give rise to a range of local concerns including noise pollution, high levels of truck movements and land use demands. The Decc spokesman said: "We support industry's endeavours in pursuing energy sources (like shale gas), provided that tapping of such resources proves to be economically, commercially and environmentally viable. "All onshore oil and gas projects, including shale gas exploration and development, are subject to a series of checks, including local planning permission before they are able to move ahead with drilling activities." Mark Miller from Cuadrilla Resources said: "We disagree with the conclusions of the Tyndall Centre report which calls for a moratorium on shale gas activities as there are no grounds for a moratorium on this proven and long-standing technology. He added that Cuadrilla had received full local and national approvals from all appropriate bodies in order to explore for natural gas at each of its sites. Stephen Tetlow, chief executive of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, said: "While 90% of UK heating needs are met by gas energy, the UK is expected to have to import 80% of its gas supplies by 2020. "This is unsustainable, bad for our energy security, and very expensive." - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - To unsubscribe from the ACTNET-FRAC-NEWS list, send any message to: ACTNET-FRAC-NEWS-signoff-request(a)LISTS.SIERRACLUB.ORG Check out our Listserv Lists support site for more information: http://www.sierraclub.org/lists/faq.asp To view the Sierra Club List Terms Conditions, see: http://www.sierraclub.org/lists/terms.asp - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - To unsubscribe from the ACTNET-FRAC-NEWS list, send any message to: ACTNET-FRAC-NEWS-signoff-request(a)LISTS.SIERRACLUB.ORG Check out our Listserv Lists support site for more information: http://www.sierraclub.org/lists/faq.asp To view the Sierra Club List Terms & Conditions, see: http://www.sierraclub.org/lists/terms.asp

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Fw: StL Post-Dispatch: Arch Coal finds a passage to Asia
by pjgrunt＠gmail.com 19 Jan '11

19 Jan '11

Sent on the Sprint® Now Network from my BlackBerry® -----Original Message----- From: Fred Heutte <phred(a)SUNLIGHTDATA.COM> Sender: "Announcements from the National Coal Campaign team." <COAL-CAMPAIGN-ALERTS(a)LISTS.SIERRACLUB.ORG> Date: Wed, 19 Jan 2011 14:41:03 To: <COAL-CAMPAIGN-ALERTS(a)LISTS.SIERRACLUB.ORG> Reply-To: Fred Heutte <phred(a)SUNLIGHTDATA.COM> Subject: StL Post-Dispatch: Arch Coal finds a passage to Asia http://www.stltoday.com/business/local/article_8b13ce07-6cd2-58df-9e18-279b… Arch Coal finds a passage to Asia BY JEFFREY TOMICH • jtomich(a)post-dispatch.com > 314-340-8320 | (2) Comments | Posted: Wednesday, January 19, 2011 12:00 am Arch Coal Inc. announced on Tuesday an agreement with the operator of a British Columbia shipping terminal that will enable the miner to export 2 million tons of coal to Asia this year. The five-year deal with Canadian Crown Corp. Ridley Terminals Inc. provides Arch, based in Creve Coeur, access to 2.5 million metric tons of coal-handling capacity during each of the next four years. Financial terms weren't disclosed. It's the second West Coast coal terminal agreement in as many weeks for Arch, which is searching for ways to ship coal from its vast Wyoming surface mines to fast-growing energy markets in Asia. St. Louis-based Peabody Energy Corp. is also conducting engineering studies for a coal export facility somewhere on the U.S. or Canadian coast and is expected to announce plans early this year. "This transaction is another important step in accomplishing our strategic objective of expanding Powder River Basin coal sales into the Asia-Pacific region," Steven F. Leer, Arch's CEO, said in a statement. Arch's Black Thunder mine in northeast Wyoming is the largest coal mine in the nation, and the company has capacity to expand further in the Powder River basin if it can find customers. Coal demand in China and other Asian nations continues to rise. U.S. coal producers say the only limitation to shipping millions of tons of coal across the Pacific Ocean is port capacity. No West Coast port in the U.S. has dedicated coal-handling terminals and equipment, and what limited port capacity exists in Canada has historically been used for exporting Canadian coal used by Asian steel makers. Leer said Tuesday's agreement gives the company immediate access to a booming market. Last week, Arch paid $25 million for 38 percent of a Longview, Wash., shipping terminal being developed to supply coal to Asia as soon as next year. The terminal would ultimately be used to send up to 5 million tons of coal a year to power plant owners in China and other Asian nations. However, that project faces opposition from environmentalists who are challenging a permit to redevelop the site, a former Alcoa aluminum mill. The bulk commodity terminal near Prince Rupert, British Columbia, has been operating since the 1980s. It can load up to 12 million tons of coal per year, and there are expansion plans that could double capacity, Arch said. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - To unsubscribe from the COAL-CAMPAIGN-ALERTS list, send any message to: COAL-CAMPAIGN-ALERTS-signoff-request(a)LISTS.SIERRACLUB.ORG Check out our Listserv Lists support site for more information: http://www.sierraclub.org/lists/faq.asp To view the Sierra Club List Terms & Conditions, see: http://www.sierraclub.org/lists/terms.asp

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Remembering Bob Handley, West Virginia wilderness hero
by Frank Young 19 Jan '11

19 Jan '11

I'm sure that some of you knew cave explorer and Wilderness protector extraordinaire Bob Handley. From Mike Costello comes word that Bob passed away this past weekend at age 82. Bob has been on the board of directors of WV Highlands Conservancy for several years. Frank ----- Original Message ----- From: Cindy Rank To: WVHCBOARD(a)yahoogroups.com ; chey0000(a)hotmail.com Sent: Wednesday, January 19, 2011 4:13 PM Subject: Re: Re: [WVHCBOARD] Fwd: Remembering Bob Handley, West Virginia wilderness hero Donna LeMasters --- chey0000(a)hotmail.com, ... i may have her phone number in my spring review file as well --- will look for it... Also found this link from the April 2006 (?) issue of the Voice that had Bob on front page: http://www.leaveitwild.org/news/newsletter/issue/2006-07/wilderness_hero Cindy R. ________________________________ On Jan 19, 2011, Hugh Rogers <hugh.rogers(a)gmail.com> wrote: Does anyone know how to get in touch with Bob's friend Donna? And recall her last name? She had let us know that Bob had moved to his brother's place when he got too weak to stay at home, but I don't have that email now. Hugh On 1/19/11, George Beetham Jr. <geobeet(a)hotmail.com> wrote: > > In addition to his dry, wry sense of humor, I recall that when we were > scouting around for a place to eat dinner in Lewisburg a couple of years ago > he nixed one of the potential venues because they required a tie and jacket. > > > > > > > > > > > To: WVHCBOARD(a)yahoogroups.com > CC: Johnmc ferrin(a)aol.com > From: cdellis(a)wildblue.net > Date: Wed, 19 Jan 2011 12:03:58 -0500 > Subject: Re: [WVHCBOARD] Fwd: Remembering Bob Handley, West Virginia > wilderness hero > > > > > > > > That is too bad. I had only had a few chances to talk with him. Last time > we talked he told me that his father/uncle??? was Charley Handley...of > Handley Wildlife Management Area and other fame. Such a web of connection > and recollection for all of us... > ~Cindy Ellis > > > On Wed, Jan 19, 2011 at 9:54 AM, Hugh Rogers <hugh.rogers(a)gmail.com> wrote: > > > > > > > John: You probably have additional info about Bob Handley in your > fil es---or in those articles from last year about his long-ago caving > exploits. Mike's note below mourns him from the perspective of the > Wilderness Coalition, more good stuff he did in more recent years that > could be included in a remembrance. He was such a character. I'm going > to miss him at every board meeting. > > Hugh > > ---------- Forwarded message ---------- > From: Mike Costello <michael.costello(a)wvwild.org> > Date: Mon, 17 Jan 2011 12:06:52 -0500 > Subject: Remembering Bob Handley, West Virginia wilderness hero > To: Mike Costello <michael.costello(a)wvwild.org> > > "The forest gives us an opportunity to connect with our ancestors and others > who have loved this lan d before us." Bob Handley, 2007 > > It is with great sadness that we begin this week remembering dedicated > activist and outdoorsman, Bob Handley, who passed away this weekend at age > 82. > > Bob will be remembered for many accomplishments throughout his lifetime. > Some will remember him as an avid caver, who discovered numerous underground > passages and became the first West Virginian to receive the National > Speleological Society's prestigious Lew Bicking Award. Others will remember > Bob for becoming the oldest person ever to rappel from the New River Gorge > Bridge in 2006, when he accomplished the feat alongside his son, Todd, and > his granddaughter, Meghan, who was then the youngest rappeller at age 14. > > Those of us at the West Virginia Wilderness Coalition will remember Bob's > perseverance as an advocate for protection of wild lands across the southern > Monongahe la National Forest. Bob took great pride in his pursuits, and was > instrumental in establishing Spice Run and Big Draft, the very first > Wilderness areas in the Greenbrier River Watershed. For his service with > the Wilderness Coalition, Bob was recognized as a Wilderness Hero by the > Campaign for America's Wilderness in July of 2006. > > In his role as a volunteer, Bob was especially proud of his efforts to > persuade U.S. Representative Nick Rahall to join him on a hike through the > then-proposed Big Draft Wilderness Area. Congressman Rahall accepted Bob's > invitation, and Big Draft Wilderness, Bob's favorite area of the National > Forest, was later included in the historic Wild Monongahela Act. > > Bob was an inspiration to all of us who have worked to protect the Mon > Forest, and his legacy will continue to motivate those who were fortunate > enough to know him. As we carry on with our efforts, we must appreciate the > impact Bob had on our lives, both personally and professionally, and we can > only hope to embody his dedication to preserving our last remaining wild > places. > > West Virginia's forests, rivers and caves have lost a true friend, a devoted > guardian who will be greatly missed. > > Mike Costello > Campaign Coordinator > > West Virginia Wilderness Coalition > office: 304-497-2836* > mobile: 304.437.1082 > fax: 888.671.2140 > > *Note new office number > > > > -- > > Cynthia D. Ellis > RR 1 Box 163 > Red House, WV 25168 > 304 586-4135 > cdellis(a)wildblue.net > > "We know now, from brain science, that seeing is not a direct register of > what meets our eyes but a fast mental con struction that squares sensations > with memory and desire: what we believe and wish reality to be." ~Peter > Schjeldahl > > > > > > > > __._,_.___ Reply to sender | Reply to group | Reply via web post | Start a New Topic Messages in this topic (10) Recent Activity: Visit Your Group Working since 1967 for the conservation and wise management of West Virginia's natural resources MARKETPLACE Get great advice about dogs and cats. Visit the Dog & Cat Answers Center. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Stay on top of your group activity without leaving the page you're on - Get the Yahoo! Toolbar now. Switch to: Text-Only, Daily Digest • Unsubscribe • Terms of Use. __,_._,___

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Interesting SC blog post
by Jonathan Rosenbaum 19 Jan '11

19 Jan '11

Lot's of familiar people mentioned in this SC blog posting: http://sierraclub.typepad.com/scrapbook/2011/01/permit-nixed-for-huge-west-… -Jonathan

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Wednesday, January 19th- WVEC’s annual “Legislative Kick Off Blast” Benefit
by Frank Young 17 Jan '11

17 Jan '11

BlankWednesday, January 19th: WV Environmental Council's annual “Legislative Kick Off Blast” Benefit. WVEC office, 2206 Washington Street East, Charleston. From 7:00 PM – 10:30 PM. Live music, refreshments, 2011 Lobby team, great friends! Donation: $5 or whatever you can afford. Proceeds go in support of WVEC lobbying efforts.

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Fw: "Impacts of Coal" rally in Charleston onThursday
by Frank Young 17 Jan '11

17 Jan '11

**PLEASE FORWARD WIDELY** "Impacts of Coal" Rally Thursday, Jan 20 1:30pm Meet at Laidley Field Parking Area (1549 Piedmont Road at Elizabeth St, Charleston) Acting Governor Tomblin is hosting a "Rally for Coal" at the state capitol on Thursday to show his opposition to the EPA's veto of the Spruce No 1 mountaintop removal mine. The governor has announced that the purpose of his rally is to "show the EPA how coal impacts our lives, and the lives of our fellow countrymen.” So let's go and remind the governor of coal's impact — slurry injections, blasting, poisoned water, destruction of our communities, cancer and death. The EPA finally did its job and now it is under attack by our own state government. The governor does not speak for us. He speaks for the coal industry. We must show our support for the EPA's decision and make our voices heard. Please show up, bring your friends, bring a camera and bring signs, photos and any other visuals that illustrate the devastation that coal has wrought in our region. We will gather at the bus shelter at Laidley Field and leave at 1:30 to walk together to the capitol, near the acting governor's rally. IMPORTANT: * This is a non-violent event; we intend to demonstrate in a peaceful and respectful manner. * Please do not engage with pro-coal demonstrators, regardless of how they react to us. * Do not bring anything that could be construed as a weapon, including signs with wooden poles * Take responsibility for the safety of the people standing next to you __._,_.___ Reply to sender | Reply to group | Reply via web post | Start a New Topic Messages in this topic (1) Recent Activity: Visit Your Group Switch to: Text-Only, Daily Digest • Unsubscribe • Terms of Use. __,_._,___ -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- _______________________________________________ EC mailing list EC(a)osenergy.org http://osenergy.org/mailman/listinfo/ec

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Fw: [wvec-board] Fwd: "Impacts of Coal" rally in Charleston on Thursday
by Frank Young 17 Jan '11

17 Jan '11

**PLEASE FORWARD WIDELY** "Impacts of Coal" Rally Thursday, Jan 20 1:30pm Meet at Laidley Field Parking Area (1549 Piedmont Road at Elizabeth St, Charleston) Acting Governor Tomblin is hosting a "Rally for Coal" at the state capitol on Thursday to show his opposition to the EPA's veto of the Spruce No 1 mountaintop removal mine. The governor has announced that the purpose of his rally is to "show the EPA how coal impacts our lives, and the lives of our fellow countrymen.” So let's go and remind the governor of coal's impact — slurry injections, blasting, poisoned water, destruction of our communities, cancer and death. The EPA finally did its job and now it is under attack by our own state government. The governor does not speak for us. He speaks for the coal industry. We must show our support for the EPA's decision and make our voices heard. Please show up, bring your friends, bring a camera and bring signs, photos and any other visuals that illustrate the devastation that coal has wrought in our region. We will gather at the bus shelter at Laidley Field and leave at 1:30 to walk together to the capitol, near the acting governor's rally. IMPORTANT: * This is a non-violent event; we intend to demonstrate in a peaceful and respectful manner. * Please do not engage with pro-coal demonstrators, regardless of how they react to us. * Do not bring anything that could be construed as a weapon, including signs with wooden poles * Take responsibility for the safety of the people standing next to you __._,_.___ Reply to sender | Reply to group | Reply via web post | Start a New Topic Messages in this topic (1) Recent Activity: Visit Your Group Switch to: Text-Only, Daily Digest • Unsubscribe • Terms of Use. __,_._,___

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Fwd: Solar jobs leaving US
by James Kotcon 17 Jan '11

17 Jan '11

China is subsidizing solar panel manufacturing to the point where even local companies are leaving the US and starting joint ventures in China. This really needs to be a big issue with our state and federal leaders. I don't necessarily want to play the "China" card all the time, but this is happening and we need to let politicians know about it. Jim Kotcon >>> Mike Harman <mph1946(a)gmail.com> 1/15/2011 9:29 PM >>> Latest news re-economics of solar manufacturing: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/15/business/energy-environment/15solar.html?…

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Re: [EC] USGS - Water Resources and Gas production
by fmoose39＠hotmail.com 16 Jan '11

16 Jan '11

Yes he has done a lot of work in this field. sent from my AT&T Smartphone by HTC ----- Reply message ----- From: "Jonathan Rosenbaum" <freesource(a)cheat.org> Date: Sun, Jan 16, 2011 9:45 pm Subject: [EC] USGS - Water Resources and Gas production To: "Energy Committee" <ec(a)osenergy.org>, "Chuck Wyrostok" <wyro(a)appalight.com>, "Nicole Good" <nnncole(a)yahoo.com> http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2009/3032/pdf/FS2009-3032.pdf Is this our Dan Soeder from outings, because he co-wrote it? An interesting document. -Jonathan _______________________________________________ EC mailing list EC(a)osenergy.org http://osenergy.org/mailman/listinfo/ec

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USGS - Water Resources and Gas production
by Jonathan Rosenbaum 16 Jan '11

16 Jan '11

http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2009/3032/pdf/FS2009-3032.pdf Is this our Dan Soeder from outings, because he co-wrote it? An interesting document. -Jonathan

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EPA Water Administrator resigns post-Spruce
by Jim Sconyers 15 Jan '11

15 Jan '11

Interesting coincidence? EPA head of water programs resigns the day after announcing denial of the Spruce MTR permit. Jim Sconyers jim_scon(a)yahoo.com 304.698.9628 Remember: Mother Nature bats last. ----- Forwarded Message ---- From: "dfvet(a)aol.com" <dfvet(a)aol.com> To: jkotcon(a)wvu.edu; wyro(a)appalight.com; fmoose39(a)hotmail.com; karen.grubb(a)fairmontstate.edu; jim_scon(a)yahoo.com; blittle(a)citynet.net; heatherheilman(a)yahoo.com; nicolegood.wv(a)gmail.com; sallywilts(a)yahoo.com; bhaddaka(a)gmail.com; paynestake(a)frontier.com; freesource(a)cheat.org Sent: Fri, January 14, 2011 10:44:54 PM Subject: News of interest- EPA Water Administrator resigns post-Spruce EPA: Water administrator resigns (01/14/2011) * EMAIL THIS STORY * PRINT THIS STORY * READ FULL EDITION * CUSTOMIZE EDITION Advertisement Paul Quinlan, E&E reporter U.S. EPA's top water official, Pete Silva, announced his resignation today. Silva, whom President Obama appointed the assistant administrator for water in July 2009, plans to return to his home and family in California, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson said in a memo to staff. The announcement of Silva's departure comes a day after his office made a controversial decision to revoke the permit of one of the largest mountaintop mines ever proposed in Appalachia (Greenwire, Jan. 13). The decision on the West Virginia mine came as EPA's water office worked on regulations of ash from coal-burning plants and pollution limits for stormwater discharges. The office is also working on clarifying which waterways and wetlands it regulates under the Clean Water Act. "During his tenure, Pete has led a wide range of important actions to help protect the water we drink and safeguard the health of millions of Americans," Jackson wrote. "We have greatly valued his service, and we offer him our deepest thanks as he prepares to embrace new opportunities. We are beginning the search for his successor." Nancy Stoner, who came from the Natural Resources Defense Council to become the deputy assistant administrator for the water office, will serve as acting assistant administrator in Silva's absence. Silva leaves Feb. 12. "Nancy is exceptionally talented and knowledgeable, and I am confident that she will continue to contribute significantly to the office's excellent work in this role," Jackson wrote. Jackson also announced the appointment of Bicky Corman as deputy associate administrator for the Office of Policy and Joel Beauvais as senior adviser in the Office of General Counsel.

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emails/letters to Rahall & Rocke
by Jim Sconyers 14 Jan '11

14 Jan '11

Hi folks - We need to get emails and or letters to Rahall and Rockefeller supporting EPA's recent denial of the Spruce MTR permit. We can use our Convio system to enable members to send email or fax. Would need the introductory email to members telling briefly what happened, why it is good, and how they can help (by clicking to go to next screen). Then would need a sample email or talking points suggesting what they could say. Way it works is then they can click and the msg goes directly to designated recipients - Rahall and Rockefeller in this case. We need someone to take charge of this small project. Can you please? Jim Sconyers jim_scon(a)yahoo.com 304.698.9628 Remember: Mother Nature bats last.

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Barbara F. - Legislators are seeking stricter drilling rules
by Jonathan Rosenbaum 14 Jan '11

14 Jan '11

Legislators are seeking stricter drilling rules (http://www.weirtondailytimes.com/page/content.detail/id/557436.html) Barbara F. has introduced HB 2403.

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Fw: Breaking news: EPA vetoes Spruce Mine permit !!
by Jim Sconyers 13 Jan '11

13 Jan '11

Jim Sconyers jim_scon(a)yahoo.com 304.698.9628 Remember: Mother Nature bats last. ----- Forwarded Message ---- From: Chuck Wyrostok <wyro(a)appalight.com> To: Jim Sconyers <jim_scon(a)yahoo.com> Sent: Thu, January 13, 2011 10:59:14 AM Subject: Breaking news: EPA vetoes Spruce Mine permit !! Wow !! Chuck Wyrostok Sierra Club Outreach Organizer Toll free 877 252 0257 E : wyro(a)appalight.com www.frackcheckwv.net www.marcellus-wv.com ________________________________ From:wvec-board@yahoogroups.com [mailto:wvec-board@yahoogroups.com] On B ehalf Of Daniel Chiotos Sent: Thursday, January 13, 2011 10:39 AM To: build-it-up-wv-participants; wv-yalcoordinators; wvec-board Subject: [wvec-board] B reaking news: E PA vetoes Spruce Mine permit Breaking news: EPA vetoes Spruce Mine permit January 13, 2011 by Ken Ward Jr. Word is just coming down that the U.S. E nvironmental Protection Agency has vetoed the largest single mountaintop removal permit in West Virginia history. The move is part of an Obama administration crackdown aimed at reducing the effects of mountaintop removal coal-mining on the environment and on coalfield communities in Appalachian — impacts that scientists are increasingly finding to be pervasive and irreversible. The final E PA decision document is available here. E PA officials this morning were alerting West Virginia ’s congressional delegation to their action, and undoubtedly preparing for a huge backlash from the mining industry and its friends among coalfield political leaders. In making its decision to veto the U.S. Army Corps of E ngineers’ approval of the 2,300-acre mine proposed for the B lair area of L ogan County , E PA noted that it reviewed more than 50,000 public comments and held a major public hearing in West Virginia . E PA officials said their agency is “acting under the law and using the best science available to protect water quality, wildlife and Appalachian communities who rely on clean waters for drinking, fishing and swimming.” Peter S. Silva, E PA’s assistant administrator for water, said: The proposed Spruce No. 1 Mine would use destructive and unsustainable mining practices that jeopardize the health of Appalachian communities and clean water on which they depend. Coal and coal mining are part of our nation’s energy future, and E PA has worked with companies to design mining operations that adequately protect our nation’s water. We have responsibility under the law to protect water quality and safeguard the people who rely on clean water. The agency also said: EPA’s final determination on the Spruce Mine comes after discussions with the company spanning more than a year failed to produce an agreement that would lead to a significant decrease in impacts to the environment and Appalachian communities. The action prevents the mine from disposing the waste into streams unless the company identifies an alternative mining design that would avoid irreversible damage to water quality and meets the requirements of the law. Despite E PA’s willingness to consider alternatives, Mingo L ogan did not offer any new proposed mining configurations in response to E PA’s Recommended Determination. In addition, E PA argued: EPA believes that companies can design their operations to make them more sustainable and compliant with the law. L ast year, E PA worked closely with a mining company in West Virginia to eliminate nearly 50 percent of their water impacts and reduce contamination while at the same time increasing their coal production. These are the kinds of success stories that can be achieved through collaboration and willingness to reduce the impact on mining pollution on our waters. Those changes helped permanently protect local waters, maximize coal recovery and reduce costs for the operators. Readers will recall that the Obama EPA began looking more closely at the Spruce Mine in September 2009. B ut debate over the proposed operation dates back to the late 1990s, when then-U.S. District Judge Charles H. Haden II issued an injunction that blocked the mine, which then was proposed for more than 3,000 acres. After the Haden ruling, the company reduced the size of its proposal and the operation underwent much more intense scrutiny, in the form of a full-blown E nvironmental Impact Statement by the Corps of E ngineers, which approved the new mining configuration in January 2007. Cheers, Daniel Chiotos 2206 Washington St E . Charleston , WV , 25311 (304)886-3389 {www.seac.org} {http://bit.ly/builditupwvfacebook suggest the B uild It Up, WV Page to your Facebook folks today and help publicize an effort to build healthy economies in the WV Coalfields} __._,_.___ Reply to sender | Reply to group | Reply via web post | Start a New Topic Messages in this topic (1) R e c e nt Activity: Visit Your Group Switch to: Text-Only, Daily Digest • Unsubscribe • Terms of Use . __,_._,___

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Fwd: EPA vetoes Spruce Permit!
by Paul Wilson 13 Jan '11

13 Jan '11

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Verena Owen <verena_owen(a)prodigy.net> Date: Thu, Jan 13, 2011 at 11:00 AM Subject: EPA vetoes Spruce Permit! To: COAL-CAMPAIGN-ALERTS(a)lists.sierraclub.org EPA vetoes water permit for W.Va. mountaintop mine By VICKI SMITH - Associated Press [image: Bookmark and Share]<http://addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&pub=mianalytics> [image: email this story to a friend] E-MAIL<http://www.bnd.com/2011/01/13/1549733/epa-vetoes-water-permit-for-wva.html?…>[image: print story] PRINT<http://www.bnd.com/2011/01/13/v-print/1549733/epa-vetoes-water-permit-for-w…> TEXT SIZE: MORGANTOWN, W.Va. -- The Environmental Protection Agency said Thursday it is revoking a crucial water permit for West Virginia's largest mountaintop removal mine, formalizing an action it first threatened nine months ago. Assistant Administrator for Water Peter S. Silva said Arch Coal's Spruce No. 1 mine in Logan County would use "destructive and unsustainable" mining practices that jeopardize the health of Appalachian communities and cause irreparable damage to the environment. Arch did not immediately comment. The nearly 2,300- acre operation would bury 7 miles of stream, and EPA ruled it would likely harm downstream water quality. EAP said it was acting within its legal authority revoking a permit issued by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in 2007 and "using the best science" to protect water quality, wildlife and people. "Coal and coal mining are part of our nation's energy future, and EPA has worked with companies to design mining operations that adequately protect our nation's waters," Silva said. "We have a responsibility under the law to protect water quality and safeguard the people who rely on clean water." Michael Brune, executive director of the Sierra Club, praised the ruling as "a strong commitment to the law, the science and the principles of environmental justice." National Mining Association President Hal Quinn said EPA's action threatens the certainty of all similar permits that have been issued, "weakening the trust U.S. businesses and workers need to make investments and secure jobs." Spruce No. 1 went through a "robust 10-year review" process, he said, and the project has complied with every permit requirement. St. Louis-based Arch has long argued that killing the project would hurt West Virginia's economy and tax base, and have a chilling effect on the industry. The EPA said this is only the 13th time it has intervened after the corps issued a permit and that it reserves that power "for only unacceptable cases." Online: EPA's final decision on permit: http://water.epa.gov/lawsregs/guidance/cwa/dredgdis/404c-index.cfm COMMENTS Read more: http://www.bnd.com/2011/01/13/1549733/epa-vetoes-water-permit-for-wva.html?… - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - To unsubscribe from the COAL-CAMPAIGN-ALERTS list, send any message to: COAL-CAMPAIGN-ALERTS-signoff-request(a)LISTS.SIERRACLUB.ORG Check out our Listserv Lists support site for more information: http://www.sierraclub.org/lists/faq.asp To view the Sierra Club List Terms & Conditions, see: http://www.sierraclub.org/lists/terms.asp -- Paul Wilson Sierra Club 504 Jefferson Ave Charles Town, WV 25414-1130 Phone: 304-725-4360 Cell: 304-279-1361 "There is no forward until you have gone back" ~Buddha "In all things of nature there is something of the marvelous" ~ Aristotle

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Fwd: CATF Diesel campaign
by James Kotcon 12 Jan '11

12 Jan '11

I received a call from Jonathon Doster (below) with the Clean Air Task Force asking for our support/endorsement for a Diesel Clean-Up Campaign. After reading over these materials, it is not clear to me what would be involved other than support in principle for the Campaign. However, they are specifically targeting people in Rahall's District because Rahall will be the minority leader for the House Transportation Committee. I noticed that the Sierra club is not listed, nor are other Chapters. Does anyone know why the Club is not on board with this? Is there interest in endorsing this? Jim Kotcon >>> Jonathan Doster <jdoster(a)catf.us> 1/4/2011 5:18 PM >>> Hi Jim, Thanks SO much for taking the time out of your busy schedule to speak with me this afternoon. The insight is invaluable and the Task Force really appreciates it. A few things I wanted to follow-up with you about: 1. Attached is the organizational endorsement packet for our CATF diesel campaign. We'd LOVE to have both the Environmental Council and the Sierra Club sign on officially. We've heard from many a West Virginian that Rep. Rahall really does listen to constituents, and - as you know all too well - the more organizations we have on board, the better. Please take a look and let me know if there is a better person at the Environmental Council I should be speaking with (before the holidays, I'd emailed and called Don Garvin and haven't heard back from him yet). Hopefully we can sign you all up sooner rather than later. 2. I was also hoping you could provide contact information (email and/or phone number would be great) for: - Beth Little - Allen Traddle Again, I can't thank you enough. I'll be in touch in a week or two to figure out these two endorsement questions. -- Jonathan Doster Clean Air Task Force 27 E. Monroe, Suite 1100 Chicago, IL, 60603 312.427.2114 x 206 www.catf.us <http://www.citizenaction-il.org/>

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FW: [ACTNET-FRAC-NEWS] New Worldwatch Report on Synergies Between Renewable Energy and Natural Gas
by Grubb, Karen 12 Jan '11

12 Jan '11

From: National Hydrofracking Team [mailto:ACTNET-FRAC-NEWS@LISTS.SIERRACLUB.ORG] On Behalf Of Bruce Hamilton Sent: Wednesday, January 12, 2011 1:45 PM To: ACTNET-FRAC-NEWS(a)LISTS.SIERRACLUB.ORG Subject: [ACTNET-FRAC-NEWS] New Worldwatch Report on Synergies Between Renewable Energy and Natural Gas Not endorsing this, just passing along the fact that it is out there and worth a read. From: Saya Kitasei [mailto:Skitasei@worldwatch.org] Sent: Wednesday, January 12, 2011 7:37 AM To: Saya Kitasei Subject: New Worldwatch Report on Synergies Between Renewable Energy and Natural Gas Dear Friends and Colleagues, I am very pleased to announce that Worldwatch Report 184, Powering the Low-Carbon Economy: The Once and Future Roles of Renewable Energy and Natural Gas, was released last month. This report represents the culmination of the Natural Gas and Sustainable Energy Initiative’s work during 2010. In it, we examine important synergies between renewable energy and natural gas that will allow for reduced dependence on coal, speeding the transition to a low-carbon economy. A link to the report is available on our new Natural Gas and Sustainable Energy Initiative page: http://www.worldwatch.org/natural-gas-sustainable-energy/. Please feel free to email me if you are interested in an electronic copy. In 2011, we look forward to continuing our research on the synergies between renewable energy and natural gas, with an increased focus on international and state-level analysis. Best wishes for the new year, Saya Snow Kitasei Sustainable Energy Fellow Worldwatch Institute 1776 Massachusetts Ave NW Washington, DC 20036 phone: (202) 452-1999 x. 513 fax: (202) 296-7365 www.worldwatch.org/natural-gas-sustainable-energy/<http://www.worldwatch.org/natural-gas-sustainable-energy/> _______________________________________________ You received this message because you are subscribed to the COG mailing list: COG(a)lists.earthworksaction.org To manage your subscription, including viewing the list archive, changing your subscription to or from "daily digest", or removing yourself from the list, visit: http://coglist.earthworksaction.org<http://coglist.earthworksaction.org/> NOTE: Please do NOT address messages to this list using the BCC field. If a message to this list is addressed in the BCC field, it will be trapped, and indefinitely delayed, by the list spam filter until the administrator has time to review it.

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Fw: [ACTNET-FRAC-NEWS] Pennsylvania Governor Bans New Gas Wells on State Land - NYTimes.com
by Jim Sconyers 12 Jan '11

12 Jan '11

Now this is an eye-opener! Jim Sconyers jim_scon(a)yahoo.com 304.698.9628 Remember: Mother Nature bats last. ----- Forwarded Message ---- From: "Grubb, Karen" <Karen.Grubb(a)fairmontstate.edu> To: Jim Sconyers <jim_scon(a)yahoo.com> Sent: Tue, January 11, 2011 6:47:39 PM Subject: FW: [ACTNET-FRAC-NEWS] Pennsylvania Governor Bans New Gas Wells on State Land - NYTimes.com From:National Hydrofracking Team [mailto:ACTNET-FRAC-NEWS@LISTS.SIERRACLUB.ORG] On Behalf Of Jeff Schmidt Sent: Wednesday, October 27, 2010 10:12 AM To: ACTNET-FRAC-NEWS(a)LISTS.SIERRACLUB.ORG Subject: [ACTNET-FRAC-NEWS] Pennsylvania Governor Bans New Gas Wells on State Land - NYTimes.com http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/10/26/pennsylvania-governor-bans-fracki… - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - To unsubscribe from the ACTNET-FRAC-NEWS list, send any message to: ACTNET-FRAC-NEWS-signoff-request(a)LISTS.SIERRACLUB.ORG Check out our Listserv Lists support site for more information: http://www.sierraclub.org/lists/faq.asp To view the Sierra Club List Terms & Conditions, see: http://www.sierraclub.org/lists/terms.asp

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Fwd: Hydrofracking Team Call Wed, Jan 12th
by Paul Wilson 12 Jan '11

12 Jan '11

how many WV sierrans are on the Hydrofracking Team? Anybody else going to attend this conf. call tonight?? thx, paul ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Sierra Club Activist Network <community.manager(a)sierraclub.org> Date: Tue, Jan 11, 2011 at 8:57 PM Subject: Hydrofracking Team Call Wed, Jan 12th To: pjgrunt(a)gmail.com Paul, you have a group bulletin from *Hydrofracking Team<http://connect.sierraclub.org/Team/Hydrofracking_Team> *. *Visit Hydrofracking Team.<http://connect.sierraclub.org/Team/Hydrofracking_Team> * Message: Hi Fracktivists! Our news list has continued to grow over the holidays. We now have 3 Arkansans, 4 Colorodons ?, 6 ! Marylandians, 5 Michiganites, 4 North Carolinians, 4 Oklahomans, 6 Virginians, 2 each from Tennesee and NJ, as well as individuals from OH, MN, NM, and KY... and a TON of New Yorkers and Pennsylvanians. As we approach critical mass, I'd like define some goals for the next few months. 8pm ET Wednesday, Jan 12th Hydrofracking Team call Call number: 1 (866) 501-6174 Access Code: 900 367 87 337 # Agenda 1. 5 minutes - Gasland House Parties are here! -Jess and Sophie provide an update. 2. 20 minutes- Local actions for house parties and beyond. Is there text available for PA (Tom Au) and CO (Gopa Ross)? Any other areas wanting to see some activity on their issue please draft text for an action alert ASAP. For an example see the Frac Act alert: http://action.sierraclub.org/frac/. Based on the email from Alison Vicks today Arkansas, Tennessee, NY/PA/NJ/MD (DRBC), West Virginia, Idaho, and Ohio all have potential alerts. Who will try their hand at writing one? 3. 20 minutes- The Frac Act needs to be proposed this year- any updates from the sponsors? The members of the Natural Gas Caucus seem to me like an obvious place to focus our educational efforts. I'd like to hear from activists in the caucus members districts. Info follows. There was a letter from the Natural Gas Caucus *** http://naturalgascaucus.murphy.house.gov/ * to Ken Salazar, Dept of Interior asking the dept to "refrain from placing any new regulatory burdens on natural gas exploration and production today." The primary goals of the Caucus are: 1. The promotion of responsible exploration and development of natural gas; 2. Pushing legislation and a regulatory environment that encourages the production, transmission, distribution, and use of natural gas; 3. Exploring responsible ways to expand the use of natural gas - Chemical, manufacturing, transportation, and energy as it fits in a portfolio of energy resources; 4. And matching supply and demand to create a secure and stable environment for producers and users. ** *Members of the Caucus:* * * *Rep. Tim Murphy (PA)* - Co-Chair Rep. Dan Boren (OK) - Co-Chair Jason Altmire *- PA* *Spencer Bachus **- AL* *Rob Bishop - UT* *Marsha Blackburn - TN* *John Boozman - AR* *Kevin Brady - TX* *Henry Brown - SC* *Dan Burton - IN* *Dave Camp - MI* *Shelley Moore Capito - WV* Chris Carney - PA Bill Cassidy - LA *Jason Chaffetz - UT* Ben Chandler *- *KY *Howard Coble **- NC* *Mike Coffman **- CO* *Tom Cole **- OK* *Michael Conaway **- TX* Jim Costa *- *CA Mark Critz *-* PA Henry Cuellar *-* TX Lincoln Davis *-* TN Diana DeGette *- *CO Kathleen Dahlkemper *-* PA William Delahunt *- * MA Mike Doyle *- *PA *Jo Ann Emerson **- MO* *Mary Fallin **- OK* *John Fleming **- LA * *Virginia Foxx **- NC* Charles Gonzalez *-* TX *Jim Gerlach **- PA* *Bob Goodlatte **- VA* Bart Gordon *- *TN Gene Green *- * TX *Ralph Hall **- TX* *Greg Harper **- MS* *Wally Herger **- CA* Steve Kagen *- *WI *Steve King **- IA* *Doug Lamborn **- CO* John Larson *- *CT *Robert Latta **- OH* *Christopher Lee **- NY * *Frank Lucas **- OK* Ben Ray Lujan *-* NM *Cynthia Lummis **- WY* *Thaddeus McCotter **- MI* Betsy Markey *-* CO Jim Matheson *-* UT *Patrick McHenry **- NC* Charlie Melancon *-* LA Alan Mollohan *- *WV Jim Moran *- *VA Patrick Murphy *-* PA *Sue Myrick **- NC* Ed Perlmutter *- *CO *Joe Pitts **- PA* *Denny Rehberg **- MT* *Harold Rogers **- KY* *Mike Rogers **- MI* Ciro Rodriguez *-* TX *Peter Roskam **- IL* Mike Ross *-* AR Tim Ryan *- *OH John Salazar *- *CO Joe Sestak *-* PA *Aaron Schock **- IL* *John Shadegg **- AZ* Heath Shuler *-*NC *Bill Shuster **- PA* *Vic Snyder **- AR* *John Sullivan **- OK* John Tanner *- *TN Harry Teague *-* NM *Lee Terry **- NE* Bennie Thompson *-*MS *Glenn Thompson **- PA* *Todd Tiahrt** **- KS* *Fred Upton **- MI* *Joe Wilson **- SC* - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - To ------------------------------ *Visit Hydrofracking Team.<http://connect.sierraclub.org/Team/Hydrofracking_Team> * ------------------------------ Reply? Or other thoughts? If you have questions about the bulletin CONTENT, please visit the group's page and leave a comment<http://connect.sierraclub.org/Team/Hydrofracking_Team>, or contact the group owner. *Technical Issues?* Please reply to this message (or email community.manager(a)sierraclub.org) if you have questions or problems with the bulletin itself. If you want to stop getting email, you can either leave (unjoin) or set your email preferences<http://connect.sierraclub.org/editor/app/group/managegroupmembership.aspx?O…> . -- Paul Wilson Sierra Club 504 Jefferson Ave Charles Town, WV 25414-1130 Phone: 304-725-4360 Cell: 304-279-1361 "There is no forward until you have gone back" ~Buddha "In all things of nature there is something of the marvelous" ~ Aristotle

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Fw: [ACTNET-FRAC-NEWS] "EPA: Chesapeake Energy illegally buried W.Va.streams" -- WVGazette, SustainedOutrageBlog (Nov. 23, 2010)
by Jim Sconyers 12 Jan '11

12 Jan '11

This is the same Chesapeake that is touted by Mike Ross and others as such a good responsible gas developer. Jim Sconyers jim_scon(a)yahoo.com 304.698.9628 Remember: Mother Nature bats last. ----- Forwarded Message ---- From: "Grubb, Karen" <Karen.Grubb(a)fairmontstate.edu> To: James Kotcon <jkotcon(a)wvu.edu>; Jim Sconyers <jim_scon(a)yahoo.com>; Kevin Fooce <fmoose39(a)hotmail.com>; BethLittle <blittle(a)citynet.net>; Heather Heilman <heatherheilman(a)yahoo.com>; Nicole Good <nnncole(a)yahoo.com> Sent: Tue, January 11, 2011 6:23:34 PM Subject: FW: [ACTNET-FRAC-NEWS] "EPA: Chesapeake Energy illegally buried W.Va.streams" -- WVGazette, SustainedOutrageBlog (Nov. 23, 2010) I’ve got some old emails to go through. Again, if you already get these, let me know. From:National Hydrofracking Team [mailto:ACTNET-FRAC-NEWS@LISTS.SIERRACLUB.ORG] On Behalf Of Jeff Schmidt Sent: Wednesday, November 24, 2010 11:01 AM To: ACTNET-FRAC-NEWS(a)LISTS.SIERRACLUB.ORG Subject: [ACTNET-FRAC-NEWS] "EPA: Chesapeake Energy illegally buried W.Va.streams" -- WVGazette, SustainedOutrageBlog (Nov. 23, 2010) EPA: Chesapeake illegally buried W.Va. streams November 23, 2010 by Ken Ward Jr. http://blogs.wvgazette.com/watchdog/2010/11/23/epa-chesapeake-illegally-bur… Here’s a new gas drilling story from Vicki Smith over at The Associated Press: The Environmental Protection Agency says a subsidiary of Chesapeake Energy has promised to restore four northern West Virginia streams it filled illegally while building roads and laying pipeline for Marcellus shale gas drilling projects. EPA spokeswoman Donna Heron confirmed Monday that federal inspectors cited Chesapeake Appalachia LLC after four site visits this fall in Wetzel and Marshall counties. In one case, inspectors found that Blake Fork stream and a picturesque waterfall near New Martinsville had been completely filled with gravel for a road. Ed Wade, who took before and after photographs of the 20-foot wide stream, said many people used to visit the waterfall because of its beauty. “I don’t know if there was a miscommunication about where the road should go or what,” he said, “but they just took their dozers and ripped it out.” Blake Fork and three other streams affected by Chesapeake’s drilling activities are tributaries of Fish Creek, which flows into the Ohio River. Chesapeake spokesman Matt Sheppard said the company is working with EPA on what he called “isolated issues concerning earth-moving activity.” “As this matter is currently undergoing federal regulatory review, it would be inappropriate to offer public comment at this time,” he wrote in an e-mail, adding that Chesapeake is committed to responsible natural gas development. Heron said Chesapeake has indicated it will abide by the EPA’s administrative compliance orders, which were issued in October and earlier this month. Chesapeake is among dozens of companies rushing to tap the Marcellus shale field, a vast, mile-deep natural gas reserve underlying most of West Virginia, Pennsylvania, New York and portions of Ohio. It is believed to hold trillions of cubic feet of gas, but breaking it free from the rock requires horizontal drilling and water-intensive hydraulic fracturing technologies. How to better monitor the industry is a growing concern among environmentalists and property owners, who are looking to lawmakers for help preventing problems with water pollution, erosion and road destruction, among other things. The compliance orders say some of Chesapeake’s violations in Wetzel and Marshall counties date to 2007. Chesapeake was cited for illegally filling in Laurel Run near Cameron between January 2007 and December 2009. The filling of Blake Fork began in January 2008, the administrative orders show. Violations on Lynn Camp Run and Middle Fork Lynn Camp Run, both near New Martinsville, began in January 2010, the EPA said. The Middle Fork project involved not only construction of a well pad but also the installation of buried pipeline. The EPA says all four projects were done without a legally required permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The compliance orders require Chesapeake to remove the fill and restore the streams and wetlands “to pre-disturbance conditions.” Wade, a 40-year-old boilermaker, said it took several years to get state and federal regulators to adequately respond to his complaint about Blake Fork. “How are they going to put the waterfall back?” he wonders now. Wade is also skeptical Chesapeake will change its ways. “If someone’s watching them, they do right. It’s like a little kid: If they can get away with it, they’re going to,” he said. ” … They don’t care. It’s all about their bottom line.” Vicki’s story comes after a blog item from the Natural Resources Defense Council, following up on a report by the CBS show 60 Minutes: Last Sunday night, CBS’s 60 Minutes aired a report on natural gas production in America, including concerns about the environmental impacts. Interviewed on the program was Aubrey McClendon, the CEO of Chesapeake Energy, one of the country’s largest producers of natural gas and widely considered a leader in the field. Yet recent – and as of yet unreported – findings by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reveal that Chesapeake is also a company that violated the Clean Water Act four times in one county in West Virginia. In October and November 2010, EPA initiated four Clean Water Act enforcement actions against Chesapeake Energy. Through field investigations, EPA documented illegal discharges of dredge and fill material at several Chesapeake drilling sites in Wetzel County. It appears that the company built access roads for giant trucks directly through a stream without the permits required under section 404 of the Clean Water Act. We thank EPA for investigating activities in this remote corner of Appalachia. Here’s the 60 Minutes piece: http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7054210n --------- EPA cites Chesapeake for illegally filling streams By wire reports Wednesday, November 24, 2010 http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/business/s_710746.html The Environmental Protection Agency said a subsidiary of Chesapeake Energy Corp. has promised to restore four northern West Virginia streams it filled illegally while building roads and laying pipeline for Marcellus shale gas drilling projects. EPA spokeswoman Donna Heron said federal inspectors cited Chesapeake after four site visits this fall in Wetzel and Marshall counties. In one case, inspectors found that Blake Fork stream and a picturesque waterfall near New Martinsville had been completely filled with gravel for a road. Chesapeake spokesman Matt Sheppard said the company is working with EPA on what he called "isolated issues concerning earth-moving activity." ________________________________ - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - To unsubscribe from the ACTNET-FRAC-NEWS list, send any message to: ACTNET-FRAC-NEWS-signoff-request(a)LISTS.SIERRACLUB.ORG Check out our Listserv Lists support site for more information: http://www.sierraclub.org/lists/faq.asp Sign up to receive Sierra Club Insider, the flagship e-newsletter. Sent out twice a month, it features the Club's latest news and activities. Subscribe and view recent editions at http://www.sierraclub.org/insider/

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Fw: [Charleston Newspapers] Article - Drilling reforms expected to get legislative attention
by Frank Young 08 Jan '11

08 Jan '11

Industry representatives, while not ecstatic, seem resigned that there are going to be at least some regulations and permitting process changes relating to shale gas drilling.- Frank ----- Original Message ----- From: articles(a)cnpapers.com To: frankly(a)mtparty.org Sent: Saturday, January 08, 2011 6:21 PM Subject: [Charleston Newspapers] Article - Drilling reforms expected to get legislative attention fyoung(a)mountain.net sent you this article ----- January 8, 2011 Drilling reforms expected to get legislative attention By Ken Ward Jr. The Charleston Gazette Oil and gas lobbyists and environmental groups are both offering cautious reactions to a Department of Environmental Protection proposal for a wholesale rewrite of the way West Virginia regulates drilling operations across the state. Read more -----

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Re: [EC] PATH Case has been tolled
by James Kotcon 08 Jan '11

08 Jan '11

My suggestion is to re-introduce the PSDC Reform bill from last year. A number of those features, such as consideration of indirect impacts or consideration of energy efficiency alternatives, would still make a very useful contribution. If a media campaign were timed with the introduction of such a bill, it could generate some significant publicity. It is not clear how that would apply in this case, as the PATH tolling puts the deadline for introduction of their "final" textimony well after the end of the session, but I think that the Legislatuure is one arena where we can put some pressure on PATH. We should talk about this in the near future. JBK >>> "Frank Young" 01/07/11 9:00 PM >>> What kind of a "lobbying effort" do you mean, Jim? WV Highlands Conservancy still has about $ 3,000 of funds that were provided specifically for StopPATH related advertising. There has been a lot of StopPATH advertising in the eastern panhandle, but virtually none outside that region, as far as I know. The eastern panhandle media outlets reach west over to about Tucker County. Cindy Rank and I have control of these available funds. We would like for these funds for StopPATH advertising used in the Buckhannon-Weston and/or Charleston area media markets. We already have the print media and radio & TV media spots produced. Those were produced last year with grants from NTHP (National Trust for Historic Preservation) and Sierra Club. And so the "credits" roll at the end of the videos and on the print media ads give credit to, among others, Sierra Club for producing / airing these ads. The funds we have can be used entirely for air time and/or print media space. But we need someone who knows something about media advertising to coordinate having these ads aired and/or printed in the media markets I indicate above. Having someone knowledgeable about media advertising could help us get the most air time / print space for the $$$$ available. Frank Young ----- Original Message ----- From: "James Kotcon" <jkotcon(a)wvu.edu> To: <EC(a)osenergy.org> Sent: Friday, January 07, 2011 6:23 PM Subject: [EC] Fwd: [WVaPATH] Case has been tolled > The link below takes you to the 12-page order, but suffice it to say that the PSC has extended the Schedule for the PATH case again. > > PATH will have until March 31 to file additional data on its case, including revised electricity demands and reliability forecasts based on upgrades to other lines. They must also file a complete set of data, including all previous testimony, revisions, substitutions, additions and deletions, to assist intervenors in unraveling this increasingly complex case. > > Intervenors (that's us) must file motions for "discovery" on the supplemental PATH testimony by July 22, and must file our new "Direct" testimony by Aug. 11. After several rounds or responses, rebuttals and more discovery, the evidentiary hearings are scheduled from Oct. 11-26. > > The PSC's final decision on the applications is due by Feb. 9, 2012. > > > We should be thinking about any additional testimony we might need by Aug. 11, as well as how to continue the lobbying effort on this campaign. > > JBK > > >>>> Eric Burleyson <eric(a)riversdell.com> 1/7/2011 5:39 PM >>> > > Did not get my PSC email yet, but a new order is up on the PSC site: > http://www.psc.state.wv.us/scripts/WebDocket/ViewDocument.cfm?CaseActivityI… > > > > _______________________________________________ > EC mailing list > EC(a)osenergy.org > http://osenergy.org/mailman/listinfo/ec

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PSC's New Procedural Schedule in PATH Case
by Frank Young 08 Jan '11

08 Jan '11

WordPress.com PSC's New Procedural Schedule in PATH Case Bill | January 8, 2011 at 3:10 pm | Tags: Citizen Action, WV PSC | Categories: Uncategorized | URL: http://wp.me/piwFb-1ao According to the January 7, 2011 revision, the PSC set the following new deadlines for the PATH case procedural schedule: a.. Applicants file supplemental testimony on issue of electrical need and any other issues requiring supplementation. Noon, Thursday, March 31, 2011 b.. Deadline for propounding discovery on supplemental testimony due March 31, 2011. Noon, Friday, July 22, 2011 c.. Staffs and Intervenors' prepared direct testimony and rebuttal to the direct testimony of Applicants. Noon, Thursday, August 11, 2011 d.. Deadline for propounding discovery in response to testimony due August 11, 2011. Noon, Wednesday, August 24, 2011 e.. Applicants' rebuttal testimony to the direct testimony for Staff and Intervenors, and Staff and Intervenor rebuttal testimony to the direct testimony of one another. Noon, Friday, September 9, 2011 f.. Deadline for propounding discovery in response to the rebuttal testimony due September 9, 2011. Noon, Wednesday, September 21, 2011 g.. Written opening statements. Noon, Wednesday, October 5, 2011 h.. Evidentiary hearing begins. Noon, Tuesday, October 11, 2011 i.. Evidentiary hearing ends. Noon, Wednesday, October 26, 2011 j.. Initial briefs and proposed orders. Noon, Tuesday, November 22, 2011 k.. Reply briefs. Noon, Thursday, December 8, 2011 l.. Deadline for Commission decision. Thursday, February 9, 2012 Intervenors can get other important information about participating effectively in the case here. WordPress.com | Thanks for flying with WordPress! Manage Subscriptions | Unsubscribe | Publish text, photos, music, and videos by email using our Post by Email feature. Trouble clicking? Copy and paste this URL into your browser: http://subscribe.wordpress.com

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Fwd: [WVaPATH] Case has been tolled
by James Kotcon 07 Jan '11

07 Jan '11

The link below takes you to the 12-page order, but suffice it to say that the PSC has extended the Schedule for the PATH case again. PATH will have until March 31 to file additional data on its case, including revised electricity demands and reliability forecasts based on upgrades to other lines. They must also file a complete set of data, including all previous testimony, revisions, substitutions, additions and deletions, to assist intervenors in unraveling this increasingly complex case. Intervenors (that's us) must file motions for "discovery" on the supplemental PATH testimony by July 22, and must file our new "Direct" testimony by Aug. 11. After several rounds or responses, rebuttals and more discovery, the evidentiary hearings are scheduled from Oct. 11-26. The PSC's final decision on the applications is due by Feb. 9, 2012. We should be thinking about any additional testimony we might need by Aug. 11, as well as how to continue the lobbying effort on this campaign. JBK >>> Eric Burleyson <eric(a)riversdell.com> 1/7/2011 5:39 PM >>> Did not get my PSC email yet, but a new order is up on the PSC site: http://www.psc.state.wv.us/scripts/WebDocket/ViewDocument.cfm?CaseActivityI…

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Fwd: Sustainability in West Virginia: Spurring Economic Investment and Creating Jobs
by Paul Wilson 07 Jan '11

07 Jan '11

Anybody else get this stuff? paul ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Sen. Jay Rockefeller (Rockefeller) < Sen.Jay_Rockefeller(a)rockefeller.senate.gov> Date: Wed, Jan 5, 2011 at 4:39 PM Subject: Sustainability in West Virginia: Spurring Economic Investment and Creating Jobs To: Dear Friend, Last fall, I was excited to deliver remarks at the West Virginia Sustainability Summit, which was sponsored by the Discover the Real West Virginia Foundation in partnership with the Center for Economic Options. This was an incredible opportunity to highlight examples of how some of our West Virginia businesses are already employing sustainable practices and how we can use similar methods in the future. During these tough economic times, we all realize the importance of innovation and creative thinking about the expansion of our core industries. Forums like this one help us multiply our power to spur economic investment and create jobs. Sustainability is being employed across industries – from construction and agriculture, to innovations in manufacturing and exporting. These industries have learned through experience that employing sustainable practices can increase businesses’ bottom lines and create jobs as part and parcel of improving the environment for future generations. The Summit was an important discussion about how to use sustainable practices to preserve our existing industries and jobs, protect our environment and most importantly, grow our state’s economy and create new jobs. This is an area that I will continue to focus on and I look forward to working with you through the coming year. Please find below my remarks from the West Virginia Sustainability Summit. All the best, Jay *West Virginia Sustainability Summit* *Remarks* * * Thank you, President Clements, for that kind introduction. Thank you Mark for the work that you do to improve West Virginia’s economic future; and thank you to all of our guests and panelists for being a part of this important Summit – especially the man you will hear from next, Neil Hawkins. Neil – I am very happy that you are here and look forward to your remarks. I also want to thank the event sponsors, the Discover the Real West Virginia Foundation and the Center for Economic Options for hosting this event. And, thanks to Pam Curry for all of your help organizing – sometimes that is a thankless job – so thank you. We’re here to re-ignite a dialogue on sustainability and what it means to our state businesses, our residents, and our future. * * So, what does sustainability really mean? I think the best way to explain it is to give some examples of how some of our West Virginia businesses are already employing sustainable practices. We see sustainability in local restaurants’ commitment to buy from WV farmers and purchase from other state vendors. We see sustainability at Toyota’s Buffalo, W.Va. facility in their environmental management system (EMS). EMS remains a zero landfill contributor — reusing or recycling materials that otherwise would have been sent to landfills. Toyota is finding ways to reduce waste, water usage, greenhouse gas emissions, hazardous materials usage and wastewater discharge – and that is great. And, we see sustainability with energy companies like Dow and AEP who are working to sustain West Virginia’s and our nation’s energy future by working to lower our carbon footprint and find ways to expand sustainable energy technology. At Dow West Virginia Operation’s South Charleston facility, the company has been working to reduce energy, water use, waste generation, and has increased the facility’s land and habitat conservation. Sustainability is a word that is that is often used in various ways by many different groups and organizations. But at its broad base sustainability is about doing things and using products that are more environmentally friendly than they are currently done. * * I firmly believe that if we play our cards right, our state, which has been an energy producing state for generations, is poised to provide the single most important energy – and sustainability – innovation for the twenty-first century -- which is truly *clean* coal technology. New technologies already in place have allowed us to nearly triple coal’s use over the past 30 years, while vastly reducing air emissions for pollutants like sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and mercury. The question is not: should we try to address climate change? The question must be: what tools can we develop to improve our economy, secure coal’s future, and reduce emissions for our environment and the health of our families? The best answer, I think, lies broadly in “CCS” –carbon capture and storage. I fought very hard to have $3.4 billion included in the Recovery Act for CCS, and Senator Voinovich of Ohio and I have worked together over the past year to write bipartisan legislation which lays out a bold roadmap for CCS. Some have argued that transitioning to a sustainable economy means shifting away from West Virginia’s historic industries and towards new ‘green jobs’ that may or may not be there. This is not the case. CCS shows that we can make important strides in sustainability that encourage and build upon the important industries that we already have. I believe that CCS is just one piece – but a very important piece of West Virginia’s future in sustainable industry. * * But we’re not just talking about energy. Sustainability is being employed by all of our panelists here in every industry – from construction to agriculture, and from innovation to manufacturing and exporting. We have learned through example that employing sustainable practices can increase our businesses’ bottom lines and in turn can simultaneously create jobs and improve the environment for future generations. During these tough economic times, we all realize the importance of innovation and creative thinking about the expansion of our core industries. Ideas are the best things we have – and conversations like these only help us multiply our power to spur economic investment and expand business. We are here to explore ways to build upon the industries we have today and be a creator of industries of the future. * * Now, we all recognize that sustainability requires a partnership – at the local level – and a partnership between government and private industry. I was proud that much of last year’s Recovery Act went toward emerging sustainability projects and training our workforce in sustainability fields. The Recovery Act gave: - *$13.1 million* to support energy efficiency and renewable energy projects in West Virginia under the DOE’s State Energy Program. That money is going toward a statewide plan that prioritizes energy savings, creates jobs, increases the use of renewable energy, and reduces greenhouse gas emissions. - *$14 million* for the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant program – providing formula grants for projects that reduce total energy use and fossil fuel emissions, and improve energy efficiency across West Virginia. - *$15 million* to our state’s weatherization program which helps reduce the utility bills for our most vulnerable residents while providing needed jobs to West Virginians. - *$6 million* for West Virginia GREEN-UP which educates and trains workers for jobs in the new and emerging green energy sector and promotes green jobs entrepreneurship. And that’s just the beginning. * * The Recovery Act also gave much-needed resources to our research institutions – including West Virginia University and the National Energy Technology Lab (NETL) here in North Central West Virginia. Morgantown’s National Energy Technology Lab and NETL’s Regional University Alliance recently received $40 million to accelerate the development and deployment of industrial (CCS) technology. In addition, they’re working on some truly amazing and groundbreaking research, including a hydrogen fueling station at Yeager airport which is producing Hydrogen from water with coal-fired electricity. This is an example where we are indirectly using West Virginia coal to displace foreign oil in our transportation sector. This will not only reduce tailpipe emissions but also improve our national security. ** * * You’ve heard about some of the larger projects on sustainability, but I know that sustainability also happens every day on smaller scales – in small towns across West Virginia. All ideas about sustainability are important and all efforts to make it work are paving the way for a stronger future. There is great opportunity for sustainability and the development of sustainability practices here in West Virginia – and I know that with minds like yours, and conversations like these, we can help West Virginia lead this developing industry. We need to have a conversation in this state about how to use sustainable practices to: · Preserve our existing industries and jobs; · Protect our environment and; · Most importantly grow our state’s economy and create new jobs. I have no doubt that West Virginians and our businesses can lead the way – and I think today is the start. Thank you. -- Paul Wilson Sierra Club 504 Jefferson Ave Charles Town, WV 25414-1130 Phone: 304-725-4360 Cell: 304-279-1361 "There is no forward until you have gone back" ~Buddha "In all things of nature there is something of the marvelous" ~ Aristotle

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Fw: AMD Reclamation, Inc. discharges to Dunkard Creek
by James Kotcon 07 Jan '11

07 Jan '11

AMD Reclamation, inc., is Longview's affiliate that was treating water. Originally, they were supposed to treat the water clean enough for Longview to use as cooling water, but instead, they have an expired permit that allows water to discharge with pollutants above water quality standards. While ConSol's discharge appears to be a primary source of the discharges near the headwaters of Dunkard Creek that led to the Golden algae bloom and fish kill in Sept. 2009, the discharges from AMD Reclamation's plant (about five miles above the mouth of Dunkard Creek) appears to be the primary source of pollution that had already killed the lower five miles of Dunkard Creek. Now they are at it again. >>>>> Mine work proceeds though DEP permit status is in question 1/7/2011 3:32 AM By Bob Niedbala, Staff writer niedbala(a)observer-reporter.com AMD Reclamation Inc. is now drilling two boreholes into the Humphrey Mine at Calvin Run in Perry Township to allow it to pump water from the depths of the closed mine to its Shannopin Mine Steele Shaft treatment plant. However, questions about the permitting status of the project, which is being done by AMD to allow mining to continue in the area, are being raised by environmental groups as well as by the federal Office of Surface Mining. The questions were raised in light of a decision made by the state Department of Environmental Protection 10 months ago to revoke a revision to AMD's post-mining permit for the same project. DEP in February agreed to revoke the permit revision after two environmental groups filed an appeal claiming the project would increase pollution in Dunkard Creek and citing DEP's failure to provide public notice of the permit revision application. DEP also agreed at that time to pay $20,000 in legal fees to Citizens for Pennsylvania's Future (PennFuture), which appealed the revision along with Friends of Dunkard Creek. Though no application has been filed with DEP for another revision to AMD's post-mining permit for the Calvin Run project, construction of the line and drilling of the boreholes are now under way. "It's a slap in the face," said Kurt Weist, PennFuture senior attorney. "Somebody's gaming the system." The groups originally challenged the revision partly because the public should be able to review and comment on what DEP is doing, said Jim O'Connell, treasurer of Friends of Dunkard Creek. "It is very disappointing that after they have been ordered to cease operations (with the revocation of the permit revision), suddenly the work starts again," he said. Members of Friends of Dunkard Creek and PennFuture contacted state and federal regulatory agencies after noticing work being done at the Calvin Run site Dec. 23. After receiving the "citizen's complaint," the Office of Surface Mining issued a 10-day notice to DEP Dec. 29 requesting detailed information on the permitting status of the project, Chris Holmes, OSM spokesman, said. DEP will have until Jan. 13 to respond to the notice, he said. OSM has not ordered the work to be halted. "We will respond appropriately when we receive the information from Pa. DEP," Holmes said. DEP issued a statement saying only that it is preparing a response to the notice. "There are legal issues involved in this that make it inappropriate for us to comment further," said Katy Gresh, DEP spokeswoman. AMD also is now working with DEP to prepare the response, said Charles Huguenard, AMD vice president. He maintained, however, that the company had followed the guidance of DEP in permitting the project. "We feel we have done everything we were advised to do," Huguenard said. "DEP told us, 'Here is what you need to do' ... we just followed their guidance." Huguenard said the company received a National Pollution Discharge Elimination System Permit for the Calvin Run project from the Greene County Conservation District. Lisa Snider, manager of the conservation district, said the district, however, issued a standard NPDES permit for "surface construction activities only." The conservation district does not issue permits related to mining or water withdrawal associated with mining activities, she said. Those permits are issued by DEP. The Steele Shaft plant was constructed by AMD in 2003 with the help of state funding to treat polluted water from the abandoned Shannopin Mine. Acidic water in the mine had reached a level at which it could breach the surface and pollute Dunkard Creek. The project also allowed Dana Mining Co., a company affiliated with AMD, to mine Sewickley seam coal above the deeper Pittsburgh seam previously mined by Shannopin. As Dana's mining activities continued to move west, the company also needed to lower the pool of the adjacent Humphrey Mine. In 2005, DEP granted an informal permit revision to AMD allowing it to pump water from the Humphrey mine pool to Shannopin and to treat it at Steele Shaft. AMD also was granted a permit revision in November 2009 to drill two boreholes at Calvin Run and construct a pipeline to pump additional water from Humphrey to Steele Shaft, a revision DEP revoked in February after the appeal was filed. PennFuture and Friends of Dunkard Creek opposed the permit revision, saying the project would only allow AMD to discharge additional polluted water high in total dissolved solids into Dunkard Creek. The Steele Shaft plant cannot treat total dissolved solids and was originally issued a permit to discharge mine water under less restrictive standards because of the threatening breakout at Shannopin. No threat of a breakout exists at Humphrey, Weist said. Consol is currently treating water from Humphrey at a treatment plant in West Virginia and maintains the Humphrey pool level as required by its permits. The Calvin Run project was undertaken "purely to allow the extraction of coal from the Sewickley seam" in the area of the Humphrey Mine, Weist said. Weist also pointed out the renewal of the Steele Shaft plant's discharge permit is now more than two years overdue. DEP's own water quality experts have recommended that more stringent water quality limits be included in the permit renewal, he said. Copyright Observer Publishing Co. OSM asks state to provide information on permitting for AMD Reclamation Inc. project 1/6/2011 5:04 PM The U.S. Office of Surface Mining has issued a 10-day notice to the state Department of Environmental Protection asking it to provide information on the permitting of a project by AMD Reclamation Inc. to drill two bore holes into the closed Humphrey Mine at Calvin Run in Perry Township. AMD wants to drill the bore holes and construct a water line to pump mine water from the Humphrey Mine to its Shannopin Mine Steele Shaft treatment plant. The project would allow Dana Mining Co., a company affiliated with AMD, to mine coal in the area of the Humphrey Mine. DEP revoked a permit revision to AMD’s post mining activity permit for the same project in February after two environmental groups filed an appeal with the state Environmental Hearing Board. However, work on the Calvin Run project was started recently, apparently without the granting by DEP of another revision to the post mining permit. DEP said Thursday that it is preparing a response to OSM and would not comment further because the matter may involve legal issues. Copyright Observer Publishing Co.

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Judy Bonds memorial
by Jim Sconyers 07 Jan '11

07 Jan '11

There is a memorial event for Judy Bonds Jan. 15. Probably in Charleston. I'll send more details as they become available. Jim Sconyers jim_scon(a)yahoo.com 304.698.9628 Remember: Mother Nature bats last.

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[wvec-board] Fwd: [fom] Judy Bonds
by James Kotcon 04 Jan '11

04 Jan '11

>>> <dsgjr(a)aol.com> 1/4/2011 1:33 AM >>> This came this evening. For many of us Judy was the "face" of coal field activism. Her death is a loss to us all. Don Garvin ____________________________________ From: vernoncrmw(a)gmail.com To: fom(a)lists.riseup.net, mountainjusticesummer(a)lists.riseup.net, the-alliance-for-appalachia(a)googlegroups.com, Justice(a)lists.citizenscoalcouncil.org Sent: 1/3/2011 9:58:45 P.M. Eastern Standard Time Subj: [fom] Judy Bonds It is with great sorry that we mourn the passing today of Julia “Judy” Bonds, Executive Director of Coal River Mountain Watch. Judy was more than a co-worker, friend, and mentor: she became family. She inspired thousands in the movement to end mountaintop removal and was a driving force in making it what it has become. I can’t count the number of times someone told me they got involved because they heard Judy speak, either at their university, at a rally, or in a documentary. Years ago she envisioned a “thousand hillbilly march” in Washington, DC. In 2010, that dream became a reality as thousands marched on the White House for Appalachia Rising. Judy endured much personal suffering for her leadership. While people of lesser courage would candy-coat their words or simply shut up and sit down, Judy called it as she saw it. She endured physical assault, verbal abuse, and death threats because she stood up for justice for her community. I never met a more courageous person, one who faced her own death and spoke about it with the same voice as if it were a scheduled trip. Ultimately, Judy did all any one person could conceivably do to stop mountaintop removal. One of Judy’s last acts was to go on a speaking trip, even though she was not feeling well, shortly before her diagnosis. I believe, as others do, that Judy’s years in Marfork holler, where she remained in her ancestral home as long as she could, subjected her to Massey Energy’s airborne toxic dust and led to the cancer that wasted no time in taking its toll. Judy will be missed by all in this movement, as an icon, a leader, an inspiration, and a friend. No words can ever express what she has meant, and what she will always mean. We will tell stories about her, around fires, in meeting rooms, and any place where people are gathered in the name of justice and love for our fellow human beings. When we prevail, as we must, we will remember Judy as one of the great heroes of our movement. We will always remember her for her passion, conviction, tenacity, and courage, as well as her love of family and friends and her compassion for her fellow human beings. While we grieve, let’s remember what she said, “Fight harder.” -- Vernon Haltom Co-Director, Coal River Mountain Watch 304-854-2182 _www.crmw.net_ (http://www.crmw.net/)

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Emailing: Coal's burnout Have investors moved on to cleaner energy sources
by Frank Young 03 Jan '11

03 Jan '11

Coal's burnout: Have investors moved on to cleaner energy sources?http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/01/AR2… NEWS | LOCAL | POLITICS | SPORTS | OPINIONS | BUSINESS | ARTS & LIVING | GOING OUT GUIDE | JOBS | CARS | REAL ESTATE |SHOPPING Coal's burnout: Have investors moved on to cleaner energy sources? By Steven Mufson Washington Post Staff Writer Saturday, January 1, 2011; 5:42 PM The headline news for the coal industry in 2010 was what didn't happen: Construction did not begin on a single new coal-fired power plant in the United States for the second straight year. This in a nation where a fleet of coal-fired plants generates nearly half the electricity used. But a combination of low natural gas prices, shale gas discoveries, the economic slowdown and litigation by environmental groups has stopped - at least for now - groundbreaking on new ones. "Coal is a dead man walkin'," says Kevin Parker, global head of asset management and a member of the executive committee at Deutsche Bank. "Banks won't finance them. Insurance companies won't insure them. The EPA is coming after them. . . . And the economics to make it clean don't work." >From 2000 to 2008, construction started on 20 units in 19 plants, according to Edison Electric Institute. Last year, utilities and power-generating companies dropped plans to build 38 coal plants while announcing that they would retire 48 aging, inefficient ones, according to the environmental group Sierra Club. Although 2010 saw the collapse of climate legislation in the Senate, the Sierra Club is trumpeting such statistics as a sign that "coal is a fuel of the past." The battle over coal plants could sharpen in 2011, as the Environmental Protection Agency deploys regulations to improve the efficiency - and lower the greenhouse gas emissions - of big power plants. Starting Sunday, the EPA will require builders of plants big enough to emit 75,000 tons of carbon dioxide a year to use the "best available control technology" in order to obtain air permits, needed before construction. Utilities, oil refiners and other industries argue that this will add prohibitive costs, and many Republican lawmakers have vowed to handcuff the EPA, which is also planning to issue broader guidelines later in the year. In the wake of the midterm elections, President Obama identified promotion of natural gas use as an area of potential bipartisan action. He hopes to prod utilities and manufacturers into switching from coal to natural gas, which emits half the amount of greenhouse gases. The choice looms large given that the average age of the U.S. coal fleet is 43 years, with more than half the plants built before 1967. Word of coal's death might be premature, says Luke Popovich, spokesman for the National Mining Association. He said that several coal-fired plants begun earlier are still under construction. Duke Energy, for example, is expecting to finish its Cliffside and Edwardsport coal plants in 2012. Other companies have scrambled to get permits before the EPA regulations take effect, and projects in Texas, Kansas and Illinois have succeeded. A project in Mississippi is poised to break ground, though the Sierra Club is still fighting in court to revoke the plant's permits. Moreover, Popovich adds, the federal Energy Information Administration expects that the nation will need to build 30 to 40 new plants to supply the 21 gigawatts of new electricity demand expected by 2035. "Coal will remain the dominant source for electricity generation for the foreseeable future," he says. "So the big problem with the 'death of coal' message is that it is not, as we say, reality-based." It's the economy Even if coal is not dead, developments of the past two years have dimmed its future. The fate of the long-planned Smith Unit No. 1 coal plant in Kentucky is one example. The East Kentucky Power Cooperative announced plans five years ago to build the 278-megawatt plant, and it obtained permits from the Kentucky Public Service Commission. But environmental groups, joined by critics of federally subsidized loans to rural electric cooperatives, fought the project. Then the recession hit and tipped the scales. A couple of months ago, the cooperative slashed 9 percent from its forecast of electricity demand among the half-million customers it serves. As a result, East Kentucky Power canceled the Smith coal plant construction on Nov. 18, even though it has spent about $150 million stockpiling steel and parts. "And that's almost entirely due to the economy," says Nick Comer, the cooperative's manager of external affairs. Finishing the plant would have cost an estimated $819 million more. "Back in 2006-07, the economy was roaring. In our service territory we were seeing growth at about twice the national rate," Comer says. "There were a lot of new houses, new businesses; even manufacturing was expanding." But, Comer adds, "a lot of that has changed today. Housing starts are down. Manufacturers have cut back. So we expect demand for electricity is going to be down from what we had projected for a while." The story is the same across the nation. Coal consumption in the electric power sector during the first nine months of 2010 was up from 2009, but still down 5.7 percent from 2008's near-record levels, according to EIA figures. East Kentucky Power also signed a settlement with environmental groups under which it will install additional pollution control devices and further explore renewable energy options. Cheap natural gas American Electric Power, the nation's largest generator of electricity, is also taking a cautious approach. The only plant AEP has under construction is the highest efficiency model, known as "ultra supercritical." Under the new EPA guidelines, these high-efficiency plants could become the standard, reducing coal use. "We have no other coal-fueled generation planned at this time," says Pat D. Hemlepp, a spokesman for AEP. "The decline in demand has delayed the need for additional new generation." If AEP does need new generation capacity, it will turn to natural gas. In 2010, the wellhead price of natural gas has averaged $4.25 a thousand cubic feet, about 40 percent below the average price from 2005 to 2009 and well under half the peak price. Discoveries of new ways to tap natural gas trapped in shale rock have unlocked supplies that could keep prices in check for years to come. "When we do need new capacity, it is highly likely that we will look to natural gas plants instead of coal, especially if natural gas prices remain as low as projected," Hemlepp says. "The plants are less expensive to build, and current forward price projections favor gas over coal." It's a decision being made by utilities across the country. A recent Deutsche Bank report says that if gas prices remain between $4 and $6 a thousand cubic feet, "we believe that a coal to gas switch makes sense." States have their plans Even though Congress failed to enact climate legislation, more than half the states have adopted measures requiring utilities to use more renewable energy. To meet those targets, most investment will probably go into solar, wind, nuclear and energy efficiency projects. Environmental groups are gearing up to challenge coal plants state by state. The Sierra Club is expanding its ranks this year so that 100 full-time staffers will be working on the issue, and the Environmental Defense Fund is hiring additional lawyers to wage battle against coal. Given the age of the coal fleet, many of the oldest plants also run afoul of clean air guidelines on traditional pollutants. As a result, the Colorado Public Utilities Commission recently adopted a $1.4 billion plan that will end coal-fired electricity generation in the Denver area. It calls for Xcel Energy to close four coal-fired units in the region, switch another to natural gas and build a new gas-fired plant to help meet federal clean-air standards. The units are all more than 40 years old. The plan was required under the Colorado Clean Air-Clean Jobs Act, signed by Gov. Bill Ritter (D) in April. "Coloradans across the state made it clear that they did not want coal in their stockings this year," said Pam Kiely of Environment Colorado. "The PUC delivered an early Christmas present by deciding to stop burning dirty coal in the metro area." Action without legislation The Obama administration might also target coal-fired power plants as a way to meet its goals for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, even if legislation remains beyond its grasp. Administration officials have spoken of negotiating guidelines with big utilities, similar to automobile fuel efficiency standards, but utility executives say such talks are not yet taking place. Deutsche Bank's Parker thinks that a path to lower coal use not only makes financial sense but climate sense as well. "Switching coal to natural gas and renewable energy with a modest buildup of nuclear energy is achievable and could lead to a 29 percent reduction in CO2 emissions from the U.S. power sector by 2020 and a 44 percent reduction by 2030 compared to a 2005 baseline," the bank wrote in its November report on a low-carbon energy plan for the United States. At international climate talks, negotiators often use the year 2005 as a baseline. At the Copenhagen climate talks a year ago, the Obama administration pledged a 17 percent reduction in overall U.S. emissions by 2020. In 2002, there were plans to install 36,000 megawatts of new coal-fired power by 2007. Only one-eighth of that was completed. Deutsche Bank predicts coal's share of electric power generation will tumble further, from 47 percent in 2009 to 34 percent in 2020 and 22 percent in 2030. It put it this way in its report: "Based on today's energy fundamentals, the rational economic decision is to shutter inefficient coal plants and replace them with natural gas combined-cycle power plants." http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/01/AR201101010…

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Fwd: Climate Ground Zero Direct Action in West Virginia
by James Kotcon 03 Jan '11

03 Jan '11

I am not sure what is going on here. I guess this message speaks for itself. JBK >>> Miranda Miller <miranda.rae.miller(a)gmail.com> 1/2/2011 12:49 PM >>> ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Laura Steepleton <lnsteep(a)gmail.com> Date: Fri, Dec 31, 2010 at 4:12 PM Subject: Climate Ground Zero Direct Action in West Virginia To: Virginiagraf(a)aol.com, rmeads(a)shepherd.edu, ssoltow(a)gmail.com, rglenn51989(a)gmail.com, ktreve01(a)shepherd.edu, lynwidmyer(a)gmail.com, tkthorson(a)comcast.net, pwaitster(a)gmail.com, smorrick(a)aol.com, rh1936(a)frontier.com, jan.hafer(a)gallaudet.edu, Brent(a)potomacriverkeeper.org, Rkphillipsjr(a)yahoo.com, bethraps(a)earthlink.net, wind.dance(a)earthlink.net, glnelson(a)hughes.net, dccates(a)gmail.com, info(a)sleepycreekwatershedassociation.org, goldfairy39(a)gmail.com, mike(a)mtvsolar.com, robinmills4(a)yahoo.com, russell(a)morgancountyusa.org, Ronald Wilson <ronwwilson1(a)yahoo.com>, irongate12(a)aol.com, bluheron7(a)netscape.com, blueheron7(a)netscape.com, rainbowjams(a)yahoo.com, angelbemer(a)yahoo.com, carolwv08 <Carolwv08(a)suddenlink.net>, cmathews(a)shepherd.edu, Carly Queen <queenc(a)nwf.org>, Brittany Harthan < britharthan(a)yahoo.com>, Brannon Jones <jones.brannon(a)gmail.com>, briant(a)pshift.com, Buckey Boone <buckey(a)svlas.org>, Collin Jones < jollincones(a)gmail.com>, Jane Laura Doyle <janelauradoyle(a)gmail.com>, elisayoung(a)meigscan.org, firefly19 <firefly19(a)bellsouth.net>, Kara French < sprinklesomesunshine(a)yahoo.com>, "Rachel F." <earthactionteam(a)gmail.com>, benard fiorillo <bfiorillo(a)gmail.com>, forestmongrel(a)gmail.com, LJ VANISH < moviemaniac7303(a)hotmail.com>, Miranda Miller <miranda.rae.miller(a)gmail.com>, "Nathan W. Joseph" <njoseph(a)uvm.edu>, Nativa Kesecker < lovinthedrumin(a)yahoo.com>, nickelpickle(a)hotmail.com, northernrockiesrisingtide(a)gmail.com, gladysann <tinymite01(a)bellsouth.net>, steve <steves1952(a)gmail.com>, sarahlu1983(a)yahoo.com, Sarah.McManus(a)ncf.edu, bo webb <webb.bo(a)gmail.com>, Angela Wiley <wileya120(a)gmail.com>, Trevor Swan <trevorswan3(a)gmail.com> It is with great sadness and regret that we must inform you that the vast majority of the activists with Climate Ground Zero have decided to separate from the CGZ name and Mike Roselle. At this point, the only people still affiliated with CGZ at its base camp in Rock Creek are Mike Roselle, Robert “Dr. Bob” Slusarenko, and Tom Smyth. Many of you are aware that the environment on the Ford Addition, CGZ’s base of operations, has become an unhealthy space that is difficult, if not impossible, to operate a successful campaign in. We have spent year attempting to create a healthier and more supportive working environment by confronting a variety of destructive behaviors, including alcoholism, violence and other abusive actions. Unfortunately, Mike Roselle has attempted to block this process and make unilateral decisions about our communal living and working space. Mike responded to our attempt to eject an abusive person from our community by cutting off all future funding for the action campaign. We cannot run a successful campaign of autonomous direct action against MTR under these conditions. Due to the fact that Climate Ground Zero is set up fiscally as a for-profit consulting business of Mike’s, with sole control of the finances resting in his hands, we must make a break with the CGZ name and identity completely in order to rebuild a healthy and successful campaign. We remain steadfastly committed to using sustained and direct, nonviolent interventions and general civil resistance tactics as one piece of a large tactical puzzle to defend the land and people. We see this separation as necessary to continue our work to abolish strip mining. We also remain committed to battling Massey Energy in civil court as we defend ourselves against their specious Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation. We’re actively looking for a place in the Coal River Valley to which we can relocate the action campaign and for funders to support continued direct action in southern West Virginia. We are currently in the process of setting up alternative financial infrastructure. For the moment, anyone interested in lending support to the action campaign is encouraged to contact us at: wvdirectaction(a)gmail.com. When we have new infrastructure set up, we will send an announcement with all the pertinent information. More than ever, we need our friends and allies to support us as we continue to improve and strengthen the campaign of active resistance in the West Virginia coalfields. Too much time and energy has been lost to dealing with the internal problems at Climate Ground Zero. We greatly look forward to rebuilding a campaign that provides the healthy and supportive environment necessary to most effectively contribute to a vibrant and diverse movement against strip mining in Appalachia. Thank you all for your support over the last two years. We are all proud of what we have done and the work we will continue to do. For the mountains, Mathew Louis-Rosenberg, Annie Jane Cotten, Kim Ellis, David Baghdadi, Charles Suggs, Laura Steepleton, Bridgette O’Brien, Grumble, Glen Collins, Maureen Farrell, Laura von Dohlen, Dea Goblirsch, Dave German, Ivan, Andrew Munn -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "SSCWVU" group. To post to this group, send email to sscwvu(a)googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to sscwvu+unsubscribe(a)googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/sscwvu?hl=en.

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Fwd: NEWS ADVISORY: U.S. Renewables Now Neck-in-Neck with Nuclear Power
by James Kotcon 27 Dec '10

27 Dec '10

Really interesting data on US energy consumption. Looks like biomass is one of the big sectors, but I suspect that the majority of that is ethanol and biodiesel. The key line is: “Members of the incoming Congress are proposing to slash cost-effective funding for rapidly expanding renewable energy technologies while foolishly plowing ever-more federal dollars into the nuclear power black hole,” said Ken Bossong, Executive Director of the SUN DAY Campaign. “The numbers clearly show this would be betting on the obvious loser while ignoring the clearly emerging winner in the energy race.” JBK >>> Ken Bossong <sun-day-campaign(a)hotmail.com> 12/27/2010 7:08 AM >>> SUN DAY CAMPAIGN 6930 Carroll Avenue, Suite #340; Takoma Park, MD 20912 301-270-6477 x.11 sun-day-campaign(a)hotmail.com News Advisory RENEWABLE ENERGY NECK-IN-NECK WITH NUCLEAR POWER EACH NOW PROVIDE 11% OF DOMESTIC ENERGY PRODUCTION BUT NON-HYDRO RENEWABLES GROW 11.5% WHILE NUCLEAR OUTPUT DROPS For Immediate Release: December 27, 2010 Contact: Ken Bossong, 301-270-6477 x.11 Washington DC -- According to the most recent issue of the "Monthly Energy Review" by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), "nuclear electric power accounted for 11% of primary energy production and renewable energy accounted for 11% of primary energy production" during the first nine months of 2010 (the most recent period for which data have been released). More specifically, renewable energy sources (i.e., biomass/biofuels, geothermal, solar, water, and wind) accounted for 10.9% of domestic energy production and increased by 5.7% compared to the same period in 2009. Meanwhile, nuclear power accounted for 11.4% of domestic energy production but provided 0.5% less energy than a year earlier. Among the renewable energy sources, biomass and biofuels accounted for 51.95%, hydropower for 31.50%, wind for 10.52%, geothermal for 4.65%, and solar for 1.38%. Comparing the first three-quarters of 2010 against the same period in 2009, hydropower declined by 5.2% but geothermal expanded by 1.8%, solar grew by 2.4%, biomass/biofuels increased by 10.0%, and wind grew by 26.7%; combined, non-hydro renewables expanded by 11.5%. Preliminary data also show that fossil fuels accounted for 78% of primary energy production. Overall, U.S. primary energy production rose by 2% compared with the first nine months of 2009. “Members of the incoming Congress are proposing to slash cost-effective funding for rapidly expanding renewable energy technologies while foolishly plowing ever-more federal dollars into the nuclear power black hole,” said Ken Bossong, Executive Director of the SUN DAY Campaign. “The numbers clearly show this would be betting on the obvious loser while ignoring the clearly emerging winner in the energy race.” And according to EIA’s latest "Electric Power Monthly," renewable energy sources accounted for 10.18% of U.S. electrical generation during the first three-quarters of 2010. Compared to the same period in 2009, renewables - including hydropower - grew by 2.2%. While conventional hydropower dropped by 5.2%, non-hydro renewable used in electrical generation expanded by 16.8% with geothermal growing by 4.9%, biomass by 5.5%, wind by 27.3%, and solar by 47.1%. Non-hydro renewables accounted for 3.9% of total electrical generation from January 1 - September 30, 2010 -- up from 3.5% the year before. # # # # # # # # The U.S. Energy Information Administration released its most recent "Monthly Energy Review" on December 22, 2010. It can be found at: http://www.eia.gov/emeu/mer/overview.html. The relevant charts from which the data above are extrapolated are Tables 1.1 and 1.2. EIA released its most recent "Electric Power Monthly" on December 17, 2010; see: http://www.eia.gov/cneaf/electricity/epm/epm_sum.html. The relevant charts are Tables ES1.A and ES1.B. The quotation in the first paragraph of this release was originally posted by the EIA on its web page accompanying the release of the “Monthly Energy Review” but has since been removed without explanation. The original EIA posting can be found at the following two sites: http://ehsmanager.blogspot.com/2010/12/eias-primary-report-of-recent-energy… http://www.akbizmag.com/from-our-elected-officials.html. ======================= The SUN DAY Campaign is a non-profit research and educational organization founded in 1993 to promote sustainable energy technologies as cost-effective alternatives to nuclear power and fossil fuels.

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Fwd: DEP Public Notice - County - Kanawha - Notice of Intent to Approve Permi...
by Duane330＠aol.com 27 Dec '10

27 Dec '10

Forwarded is the permit announcement for the Emerald Bilfuels plant set for Institute, WV in the Kanawha River valley.

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Fwd: WVNS story: EPA Starts Clean Air Act Process for Controlling Greenhouse Gases
by Paul Wilson 27 Dec '10

27 Dec '10

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Public News Service <wvns(a)newsservice.org> Date: Fri, Dec 24, 2010 at 8:50 AM Subject: WVNS story: EPA Starts Clean Air Act Process for Controlling Greenhouse Gases To: PaulWilson <pjgrunt(a)gmail.com> Public News Service-WV December 24, 2010 EPA Starts Clean Air Act Process for Controlling Greenhouse Gases CHARLESTON, W.Va. - It's a move that promises to have quite an impact on West Virginia. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is starting the process under the Clean Air Act for controlling greenhouse gas emissions by the nation's 500 fossil fuel power plants. Advocates of the EPA action say it will create new jobs for West Virginians, but others are apprehensive about the effect on the state's coal industry. The assistant EPA administrator for air and radiation, Gina McCarthy, says it's too early to say much about what EPA's rules will look like, but says the agency will start by encouraging a phase-in of cost-effective technologies under already well-established Clean Air Act programs. "You will see measurable reduction. This is where there are the most significant and reasonable opportunities for us to have pollution reduction, and also to provide certainty to these industries." McCarthy says the agency will be flexible in how the rules will be applied, and will not place an overall cap on how much carbon utilities can emit. Pat Hemlipp is a spokesman for American Electric Power (AEP), one of the nation's largest consumers of coal. AEP supported cap-and-trade, which was blocked by Republicans in the Senate. He praises the EPA's approach, with reservations. "Especially, their recognition that any program should be as flexible as possible. But we remain concerned that the Clean Air Act is going to constrain how flexible the agency can be, because the Clean Air Act does not allow much flexibility." Critics of climate change regulations say they will damage the coal and electricity industries in West Virginia, and have questioned how expensive control technologies will be. McCarthy insists the technologies are ready and will be good for jobs in those areas. "They will be making investments in new control technologies, investments that will not only sustain jobs in the U.S. but actually grow jobs in the U.S." The rules will be drafted with industry input and public comments, and will start with new power plants or plants undergoing major changes. Click here to view this story on the Public News Service RSS site and access an audio version of this and other stories: http://www.publicnewsservice.org/index.php?/content/article/17660-1<http://www.publicnewsservice.org/index.php?/content/article/17660-1> --- To be removed from this list please send an e-mail to remove(a)publicnewsservice.org <remove(a)publicnewsservice.org?subject=remove>and put the word "remove" in the subject line. -- Paul Wilson Sierra Club 504 Jefferson Ave Charles Town, WV 25414-1130 Phone: 304-725-4360 Cell: 304-279-1361 "There is no forward until you have gone back" ~Buddha "In all things of nature there is something of the marvelous" ~ Aristotle

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New Coal-To-Liquids proposal in WV
by James Kotcon 23 Dec '10

23 Dec '10

I just saw this. An effort to get a CTL plant onto Weirton's property would be politically difficult to oppose. Weirton Steel has long had a history of support form organized labor in WV, and therefore has had political support that few industries would likely see. Just the name alone will create support for any proposal to bring back those jobs. This does not appear to be a well-funded proposition, yet. If the Steelworkers have signed on, that will create some momentum, and minimize labor conflicts. And if the Governor backs it, look for state subsidies. jim Kotcon >From the Wheeling (WV) News-Register, Dec. 10, 2010. Available at: http://www.news-register.net/page/content.detail/id/549692/Thousands-of-Job… Thousands of Jobs May Be on the Way Officials gather to discuss coal-to-liquids plant December 10, 2010 - By IAN HICKS Major players in a proposed coal-to-liquids plant say they are on the verge of resurrecting Weirton's industrial heritage and putting more than 1,000 people to work in the city. Officials with Weirton Energy, the company seeking to build the faculty, met with acting Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin and Delegate Pat McGeehan, R-Hancock, in Wheeling Thursday to discuss the project. If all goes according to investors' plans, such a plant could be operational within 18 months and reach full capacity in two to three years. According to Weirton Energy's chief engineer, Al Norman, the plant would represent a capital investment of about $2 billion and bring at least 1,100 jobs to the city, with the potential for that figure to top 3,000 in the future. The company has reached an agreement in principle to establish an "amalgamated" labor union under the current United Steelworkers Local 2911, according to union President Mark Glyptis. McGeehan said after meeting with Tomblin, he believes the governor is solidly behind the initiative. Tomblin's support, he said, will be key in clearing the final hurdle for this proposal to become reality - land acquisition. Weirton Energy wants to build the plant on property presently held by steelmaker ArcelorMittal. Though some of the facilities haven't been used since the late 1960s, the Luxembourg-based company has been reluctant to part with the property. Weirton Energy's attorney, Robert D'Anniballe, said the company is "exploring best opportunities" to acquire the land, though he did not go into detail regarding those opportunities. Company officials would not confirm they are seeking to garner the property through eminent domain; however, the Weirton Redevelopment Authority at an August meeting discussed the possibility of attempting to exercise that power on ArcelorMittal's properties at the north end of town. No specific development projects were discussed at that meeting. Norman called the mill property an "industrial graveyard" for which cleanup costs likely will top $100 million. ArcelorMittal is "faced with the immediate cleanup of this property if that plant shuts down," he said. However, Norman said Weirton Energy's plan would absolve the steel company from any environmental cleanup obligations and place that burden squarely on his company. He estimated it could save ArcelorMittal $30 million in annual operation costs. Norbert Keilbach, Weirton Energy's chairman of the board and chief executive officer, said the Weirton location is perfect because many of the components needed already are in place, including infrastructure, transportation and "a ready-made pool of competent labor and experienced labor." A stipulation of the union's contract with ArcelorMittal prevents the sale of those properties without union approval. Glyptis said he is in full support of the project, noting he would prefer the property be used in such a manner rather than sold piecemeal to businesses that rely on low-wage labor. Keilbach said many of the jobs to be created would pay $100,000 or more annually. McGeehan, who has made bringing a coal-to-liquids plant to Hancock County a priority during his term as a legislator, said industry has always been crucial to the area and it must be a part of the future for the Ohio Valley to thrive. "We can't afford to miss this opportunity, because there's never going to be another one like it," said McGeehan.

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Fw: Updated Natural Gas Talking Points
by Jim Sconyers 23 Dec '10

23 Dec '10

Updated Sierra Club position FYI. Jim Sconyers jim_scon(a)yahoo.com 304.698.9628 Remember: Mother Nature bats last. ---------- Forwarded message ---------- We have posted some updated natural gas reform talking points on Clubhouse. Thank you to the Activist Network team members that helped provide feedback. http://clubhouse.sierraclub.org/communications/talking-points/energy/natura… Let me know if you have trouble accessing these. -- Oliver Bernstein Senior Communications Strategist Sierra Club Phone: 512.477.2152 Cell: 512.289.8618

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Fw: Institute for Southern Studies Report: Two years after Tennessee coal ash disaster, still waiting for federal oversight
by Jim Sconyers 22 Dec '10

22 Dec '10

Jim Sconyers jim_scon(a)yahoo.com 304.698.9628 Remember: Mother Nature bats last. ----- Forwarded Message ---- From: Emily Enderle <eenderle(a)EARTHJUSTICE.ORG> To: COAL-COMBUSTION-WASTE(a)LISTS.SIERRACLUB.ORG Sent: Wed, December 22, 2010 3:32:15 PM Subject: Institute for Southern Studies Report: Two years after Tennessee coal ash disaster, still waiting for federal oversight great article with an excellent table. SPECIAL REPORT: Two years after Tennessee coal ash disaster, still waiting for federal oversight By Sue Sturgis Today marks two years since a coal ash impoundment collapsed at the Tennessee Valley Authority's Kingston power plant in eastern Tennessee, sending a billion-gallon tidal wave of toxic waste into a nearby community and rivers. The disaster also pushed the issue of coal ash regulation into the public policy spotlight, with incoming Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson vowing to replace the existing patchwork of weak state regulations with federal rules to prevent a similar disaster in the future. But on the second anniversary of the Kingston spill, the American public is still waiting for federal protections from the hazards of coal ash -- with no idea when those might be in place. This week the EPA released its upcoming regulatory agenda, which addresses the final rulemaking for coal ash. The agenda classes the coal ash rule as a "long-term action," with the date of the final release "to be determined." "We are two years out from this environmental disaster with no certainty on when the final rules will be published," said Lisa Evans, an attorney with the nonprofit environmental law firm Earthjustice. "We don't think this is a good place to be." Following the Kingston disaster, EPA set out to count the number of coal ash dumps, tallying more than 600 impoundments and similar units at coal-fired power plants nationwide. More than half of those that have been rated are classed as high or significant hazards, meaning a failure could kill people or cause extensive property damage. But coal ash doesn't present a hazard only when impoundments collapse: It's been linked to 137 cases of environmental contamination in 34 states, with impoundments and other dumpsites leaching toxins to groundwater. An EPA risk assessment [pdf] found that people who live near coal ash impoundments and drink from wells have as much as a 1 in 50 chance of getting cancer due to arsenic contamination -- 1,800 times EPA's regulatory limit. Coal ash also contains other toxins including lead, thallium and radioactive elements. In May of this year, after a long delay and heavy lobbying by industry interests, the agency took the unusual step of releasing not one but two proposals for regulating coal ash. The stricter version favored by public health and environmental advocates would regulate coal ash as a special waste under Subtitle C of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, which governs hazardous waste. The other option embraced by the utility industry would treat coal ash like ordinary solid waste under RCRA Subtitle D. Under the stricter Subtitle C option, EPA has enforcement authority and the regulations are mandatory in every state. But under the weaker Subtitle D approach, EPA would issue "guidelines" that are not federally enforceable -- and that states may choose not to adopt. A recent EPA analysis identified 30 states that it predicts would not adopt the federal guidelines as law -- including disaster-stricken Tennessee. The following chart taken from comments on the proposed rules [pdf] by an alliance of environmental groups lists the coal-ash generating states that EPA expects would and would not adopt Subtitle D guidelines: The choice between Subtitle C and D also has significant environmental justice implications, since an analysis by the same environmental organizations found that communities near coal plants in the states that are not expected to implement the Subtitle D guidelines are more likely to be impoverished, non-white and to have a larger-than-average child population. "In other words," the groups noted in their comments, "a weak EPA rule would apply new safeguards for coal ash regulation in states where coal ash presents a relatively small, or even non-existent, environmental justice problem, while failing to add protections in states where environmental justice communities are heavily impacted by coal ash disposal." Another Kingston spill highlights hazards Following the release of the proposed rules, the EPA held seven public hearings around the country to collect comments. It also extended the comment period from August to November. The agency collected more than 400,000 comments -- an unusually high number that shows the public's intense interest in the issue. The continuing risk from the lack of strict federal oversight was underscored last week when another impoundment at TVA's Kingston plant -- this one holding a type of coal ash waste commonly used to make drywall -- sprung a leak into the nearby Emory River, which was devastated by the 2008 spill. TVA has plugged the leak but says it still does not know the exact cause. Following the discovery of the leak by TVA, the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation ordered the utility to install a synthetic liner in the impoundment, which is now lined only with clay. But Evans questions why TDEC didn't require TVA to install a liner when the impoundment was constructed a year ago -- and why the agency has not imposed a Clean Water Act fine for the discharge into the Emory. The latest leak at the Kingston plant rattled residents of the nearby Swan Pond community, where the 2008 disaster damaged 42 homes and left people suffering from respiratory and other health problems. About 500 million gallons of spilled coal ash remains in the area today, with cleanup ongoing and expected to take another three years. "Are we really safe? Really?" Swan Pond resident Sarah McCoin asked the Chattanooga Times Free Press. Some of the affected residents filed lawsuits over the 2008 disaster. While about 90 suits have been dropped or dismissed, another 55 are pending in federal court in Knoxville, Tenn., with trials slated to start late next year. While TVA's board adopted a policy last year to convert all of its wet coal ash ponds to dry storage, that's expected to take at least a decade. In the meantime, Evans and other environmental advocates are hoping that EPA will release the final coal ash rule by the end of 2011. Once the federal rules are in place, states have as long as two years to revamp their own rules to comply with the new requirements. Some observers have noted that the closer we get to the 2012 election, the harder it will be for the Obama administration to buck the electric utility industry, which objects to strict regulation as too costly. The industry has considerable political clout, having invested more than $16.2 million in the 2010 federal election cycle alone, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. "Delay does not work in our favor," Evans said. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - To unsubscribe from the COAL-COMBUSTION-WASTE list, send any message to: COAL-COMBUSTION-WASTE-signoff-request(a)LISTS.SIERRACLUB.ORG Check out our Listserv Lists support site for more information: http://www.sierraclub.org/lists/faq.asp

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Fw: From today's Knoxville News Sentinal
by Jim Sconyers 22 Dec '10

22 Dec '10

Jim Sconyers jim_scon(a)yahoo.com 304.698.9628 Remember: Mother Nature bats last. ----- Forwarded Message ---- From: Joshua Ulan Galperin <josh(a)CLEANENERGY.ORG> To: COAL-COMBUSTION-WASTE(a)LISTS.SIERRACLUB.ORG Sent: Wed, December 22, 2010 10:25:16 AM Subject: From today's Knoxville News Sentinal Josh Galperin Policy Analyst and Research Attorney Southern Alliance for Clean Energy PO Box 1842 Knoxville, TN 37901 (O) 865.637.6055 X 23 (F) 865.524.4479 josh(a)cleanenergy.org www.cleanenergy.org <http://www.cleanenergy.org/> Please think about the environment before printing this email. CONFIDENTIAL LEGAL COMMUNICATION / WORK PRODUCT: The information transmitted is intended only for the person or entity to whom it is addressed, and may contain privileged and confidential attorney-client communications and/or confidential attorney work product. If you receive this message in error, please send a reply e-mail to the sender and delete the material from any and all computers. Unintended transmissions shall not constitute waiver of the attorney-client or any other privilege. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - To unsubscribe from the COAL-COMBUSTION-WASTE list, send any message to: COAL-COMBUSTION-WASTE-signoff-request(a)LISTS.SIERRACLUB.ORG Check out our Listserv Lists support site for more information: http://www.sierraclub.org/lists/faq.asp

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Two News Items of interest to Mon river watershed denizens.
by James Kotcon 21 Dec '10

21 Dec '10

>From Don Strimbeck's daily news summary. JBK Grants offered to study impact of Marcellus shale drilling By Kim Leonard PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW Tuesday, December 21, 2010 The Colcom Foundation is offering nonprofit organizations $1 million in grants to study Marcellus shale development, and provide lessons and advice about environmentally sound natural gas drilling practices. Amid controversy and mixed messages about the effects of well-drilling, "Who can you trust? There is a great deal at stake," said John F. Rohe, vice president of philanthropy for the Downtown-based foundation that focuses on conservation and the effects of overpopulation. Colcom announced its Marcellus Environmental Fund on Monday to address the "accelerating environmental impact" of drillers boring into the deep Marcellus layer and fracturing shale to extract gas. "The foundation would like to see a higher sense of trustworthiness and integrity" as drilling expands, Rohe said. The main question is whether the industry follows safe practices, or whether Western Pennsylvania might repeat one of its past mistakes, such as uncontrolled coal mining, he said. Colcom has funded cleanups of old mining sites. Applications can be submitted until Jan. 14 for grants to be given out in February. A second round of proposals is due March 14, for awards to be distributed in May. The foundation, created by the late Cordelia Scaife May, hasn't specified a number of grants, or amounts to be given out. Money will go toward public education, environmental monitoring and identifying best practices for the industry, for example. "This is not designed to be anti-drilling," Rohe said of the grants. "Possibly, the primary beneficiaries of this fund are the responsible drillers." Kathryn Z. Klaber, executive director of drilling industry trade group the Marcellus Shale Coalition, said yesterday the industry "recognizes that an educated citizen and landowner are the best partners in developing this clean-burning, job-creating resource." Working with regulators and others, gas drillers have "enhanced well-casing standards to protect drinking water and backed a permitting fees increase, enabling DEP to hire additional inspectors at no cost to the taxpayer. To the degree that other organizations seek to contribute to this fact-based debate, we encourage that." Kim Leonard can be reached at kleonard(a)tribweb.com or 412-380-5606. Pittsburgh Tribune Review Chemical plant courted for West Virginia By Bloomberg News Tuesday, December 21, 2010 Bayer AG, the world's largest maker of polyurethane, is trying to persuade potential investors to build a chemical plant on company sites in West Virginia using ethane from adjacent shale-gas deposits. The Leverkusen, Germany-based company is in talks to lease or sell unused parts of two sites covering 1,460 acres for construction of a plant known as a cracker, Bryan Iams, a spokesman for Bayer in Pittsburgh, said yesterday. The cracker would convert ethane into ethylene, a key ingredient in plastics such as polyethylene. The Bayer properties sit atop the Marcellus shale formation, which according to Energy Department estimates is the largest known U.S. gas field. New drilling techniques are boosting production from shale formations, keeping U.S. prices of natural-gas low relative to oil. That's prompted chemical makers Dow Chemical Co., Eastman Chemical Co. and Chevron Phillips Chemical Co. to use more gas as a raw material. Chevron Phillips received preliminary approval last month from Texas regulators to reopen a cracker shut in 2008 at its Sweeny complex, according to a filing on the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality's website. Eastman is opening a mothballed cracker in Longview, Texas, because it says low-cost gas has made the United States more competitive. Dow plans to use 30 percent more ethane, a component of natural gas, at its Gulf Coast crackers. "The burning question is what to do with all the ethane coming out of the Marcellus shale," said John Schirra, a senior account manager at U.S. chemical maker Ashland Inc. The Marcellus formation in Western Pennsylvania and northern West Virginia is unusually rich in natural-gas liquids including ethane, said Dennis Yablonsky, chief executive officer of the Allegheny Conference, a Pittsburgh-based economic development group. The region has no crackers, he said. "We are unabashedly trying to attract" the chemical industry, Yablonsky said in a telephone interview. "We have had positive feedback that the general premise does make sense." Proposals for getting Marcellus gas to the chemical industry involve piping it to crackers on the Gulf Coast, where the country's chemical industry is concentrated. Pittsburgh Chemical Day, an annual conference that brings together companies such as Bayer, Eastman and PPG Industries Inc., will focus its May 10 event on using Marcellus shale gas to bolster investment in the regional chemical industry, said Schirra, an organizer of the meeting. Bayer's sites in New Martinsville and Institute, W.Va., have access to rail, water and road transportation, Iams said. An ethylene plant adjacent to Bayer's West Virginia plastics or pesticide plants would cut its raw-materials costs and draw more manufacturers to the area, he said. It would cost at least $500 million and require about 4 years to build an ethane cracker capable of producing 1 million metric tons of ethylene a year, Hassan Ahmed, a New York-based analyst at Alembic Global Advisors, said in a telephone interview.

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Fwd: TN Coal Ash bill
by James Kotcon 20 Dec '10

20 Dec '10

Attached are comments on EPA's coal ash rule from Tennessee. Of particular interest is Attachment 3 which is a bill introduced in the TN legislature last year to regulate coal ash. The comments identify eight issues that are covered in the bill that ought to apply to the so-called beneficial use disposal sites in WV. As far as I can tell, the Tennessee bill does not address the issue of adequate testing of coal ash, and appears to allow continued reliance on the discredited TCLP methods to test for toxicity of ash leachates. Does anyone see any other issues that need to be addressed? I hope to begin drafting some legislation over this coming week, and any comments (or help drafting) would be appreciated. JBK >>> Louise Gorenflo <lgorenflo(a)gmail.com> 12/13/2010 2:43 PM >>> Wallace Attached are the comments I wrote for the EPA Coal Ash regs. It describes our efforts to get a good bill passed by the TN legislature - and our failure. The attachments include a copy of the proposed bill. Louise Gorenflo TN Chapter 391-484-2633

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Fwd: [Charleston Newspapers] Article - $80M in bonds OK'd for power plants
by James Kotcon 20 Dec '10

20 Dec '10

I have never fully figured out what these economic development bonds do, but they apparently dramatically lower the cost of borrowed money for coal-fired power plants. Soon as I get a "Round Tuit", I want to figure out what these actually mean and whether it is a good use of our time to fight this practice. See link to attached news article. If there is an economist, banker, business major, or just someone who can balance a checkbook, who wants to do some behind the scenes work over the next few months, let me know. We can figure out what these do and how to fight them. Jim Kotcon >>> <articles(a)cnpapers.com> 12/17/2010 7:01 AM >>> jkotcon(a)wvu.edu sent you this article ----- December 16, 2010 $80M in bonds OK'd for power plants ( http://www.wvgazette.com/News/201012160888 ) By Eric Eyre ( about:contact/revprler+jitnmrggr+pbz+return=/News/201012160888 ) The Charleston Gazette P>CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Appalachian Power received the go-ahead Thursday to issue up to $60 million in bonds that will help pay for landfill improvements and a scrubber on a power-generating unit at the John Amos Power Plant near Winfield. T ... Read more ( http://www.wvgazette.com/News/201012160888 ) -----

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Fwd: Fw: "Fracking Wonderland" video on you tube
by James Kotcon 20 Dec '10

20 Dec '10

Merry Christmas. May this little clip light up your holiday spirit (your fighting spirit, that is). JBK >>> Paula Carrell <Paula.Carrell(a)sierraclub.org> 12/16/2010 2:48 PM >>> --------------------------- cc:Mail Users----------------------------- ** Remember to DELETE the 'Sender: ...' lines above before REPLYing ** ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For those working on Shale Gas issues: Fracking Wonderland. A Christmas shout-out for all our friends at the Gas & Oil Commissions! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-R4rYXdDhI&feature=player_embedded ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To get off this list, send email to: LISTSERV(a)LISTS.SIERRACLUB.ORG Make the message text (not the Subject): SIGNOFF CONS-FRED

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FW: call or e-mail Rockefeller!
by Grubb, Karen 16 Dec '10

16 Dec '10

From: Vickie Wolfe [mailto:ibtreehugger@gmail.com] Sent: Thursday, December 16, 2010 8:19 PM To: Ben Stout; Bill Becker; Carol Warren; cindyrank; Daniel Chiotos; haning2; Frank Young; James Kotcon; Jeff Biggers; Kathryn Stone; matt noerpel; Matt Sherald; Rory McIlmoil; Vivian Stockman; Don Alexander; asd; ashevillejoe; bbailey; benji; Bill Price; Brenda Wilson home; Charles Pique; Chuck Wyrostok; connigl; dana.kuhnline; Dave Cooper; dbady; Gary Zuckett; info; Janet Keating; Jim Sconyers; Joe Jarrell; John Palmer; John Stone; johnwilkinson2; joseph mathis; Julia Sendor; Julian Martin; Julie Archer; JW Randolph; Grubb, Karen; Leslee McCarty; lisadaniels; Mary Wildfire; maryanne.hitt; matt; Mel Tyree PhD; mhendryx; Mike Harman; mjanes; mmany; Norm Steenstra; Patricia Feeney; Randy White; Ray Haning; Rick Wilson; Robin Wilson; Rose Edington; Sally Shepherd; Sarah Halstead; savanna lyons; swatson; Ted Boettner; Tom Pendleton; Trevor Swan; unclesteve197; Vernon Haltom; webb.bo; Willa Mays; bill.mccabe; jeff; Antrim Caskey; Bob Kincaid; bobby mitchell Subject: call or e-mail Rockefeller! from Coal Tattoo: http://blogs.wvgazette.com/coaltattoo/2010/12/16/w-va-sen-jay-rockefeller-t… This just in from the office of West Virginia Sen. Jay Rockefeller: Senator Jay Rockefeller has informed Senate Leadership that he will insist on a vote on his EPA-suspension legislation this year. If left with no other option, Senator Rockefeller will seek to suspend the rules on the Omnibus Appropriations bill to bring up his legislation. I.e., this is legislation to suspend for two years EPA's authority to regulate GHGs from stationary sources, like coal-fired power plants. Let him know how you feel about this!! His e-dress is senator(a)rockefeller.senate.gov<mailto:senator@rockefeller.senate.gov> -- ```````````````````````````````````````````````````` Vickie L. Wolfe PHONE: (304) 744-8777 E-MAIL: IBTreehugger(a)gmail.com<mailto:IBTreehugger@gmail.com> ```````````````````````````````````````````````````` "It is horrifying that we have to fight our own government to save our environment." -Ansel Adams "At the present time, there are six billion people on this planet pursuing a vision that is devouring the earth. That's our problem . . . Our problem is a world-devouring vision that six billion people are pursuing. "Now what can we do about this vision? We can't legislate it away or vote it away or organize it or even shoot it away. We can only teach it away. If the world is saved, it will be saved by people with changed minds, people with a new vision. . . . That's our path of hope for the future." --Daniel Quinn, 2000

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Need letters re: PATH Power Line
by Frank Young 14 Dec '10

14 Dec '10

BlankThe proposed PATH power line would be an "interstate highway" to ship even more Mountaintop Removal coal from the Ohio Valley to east coast cities. We have a unique opportunity and a short window of time to have the application for this unnecessary monstrosity dismissed by the WV Public Service Commission. NOW WE NEED YOUR HELP! We need you to write a short letter (one sentence will do) and send it - by fax, if possible, because speed is important! - to the PSC and copy them to our new governor, Earl Ray Tomblin. (Addresses/fax numbers below.) You CAN'T just say you're against PATH (that's kind of a given, you know?), you need to tie it to the PSC staff's motion to dismiss the PATH application. ALWAYS include the case number. Something like: RE: Case No. 09-0770-E-CN - Potomac Appalachian Transmission Highline (PATH) I urge the members of the Public Service Commission to accept the recommendation of its staff that the PATH application should be dismissed. [Then sign your name, including your address.] Here's where to send it: Ms. Sandra Squire Executive Secretary Public Service Commission of West Virginia 201 Brooks Street Charleston, West Virginia 25301 Fax: 304-340-0325 cc: The Hon. Earl Ray Tomblin Office of the Governor 1900 Kanawha Blvd E Charleston, WV 25305 Phone: (304) 558-2000 Fax: (304) 342-7025 You can email the governor using this link: http://www.governor.wv.gov/Pages/contact.aspx. Just copy and paste it into your browser. Thanks, everyone! Our efforts are making a difference in this fight, and we need you to help keep it going! WV Environmental Council Government Affairs Committee Frank Young, Chair

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Re: [EC] WV PSC Staff 'Drops the Bomb' on PATH
by James Kotcon 12 Dec '10

12 Dec '10

As an organizational intervenor, we are required to go through our attorney on this. I have contacted Elena and Abbie for input, and will work with Bill on any filing. Please note that this motion to dismiss came from PSC Staff, not the Consumer Advocate Division as discussed in some e-mail chains. I certianly would encourage individuals to file comments in support of the Motion, but the Club's response must come from our attorneys. JBK >>> Jonathan Rosenbaum 12/11/10 5:52 PM >>> I received a copy from the WvaPath yahoo group where it was requested that "Everyone, I mean _everyone_, who is an intervenor needs to file a simple joinder statement to the PSC staff's motion to dismiss. You can put it in the form of a formal filing, or you can send it as a letter." Sounds like we need to do more than just watch PSC activity on this one. -Jonathan On 12/11/2010 4:20 PM, James Kotcon wrote: While this is indeed good news, it is worth noting that we were at about this point with TrAIL. During the evidentiary hearings, we had largely refuted all of TrAILCo's claims. In their final briefs, Staff had recommended against the line. At that point TrAILCo went into high pressure, back room "negotiations" to make a deal. We have no direct evidence that the Governor's Office got involved, but based on the e-mails from PSC Staff, I think it was likely. At any rate, two months later, Staff "agreed" to (or was told to agree to) a Settlement which added a few additional jobs and the TrAILCo line was approved. I recommend that we keep a constant watch on PSC Staff activity over the next few weeks. As they say, "Fool Me Twice, Shame On Me!" Jim Kotcon >>> "Frank Young" 12/10/10 10:58 PM >>> >From Bill Howley's 'The Power Line' blog- available at: http://calhounpowerline.com/ -------------------------------------------------------- WV PSC Legal Staff Files Motion to Dismiss PATH Application December 10, 2010 The PSC lawyers hit every single issue we have been presenting here on The Power Line for the last month. In particular, the staff points to Dominion’s Alternative 1 as being far superior to PATH in every respect. The staff cites the multiple results of PJM’s failure to consider Alternative 1 as being the primary reasons why AEP/Allegheny’s PATH application no longer meets the basic standards for a high voltage transmission line certificate of need as set out in WV statutes. The motion to dismiss is a recitation of all of the failures of PJM’s transmission planning process. The motion is a direct assault on PJM’s deceptive, misleading and contorted actions as more and better alternatives to PATH have appeared in the last year. The staff concludes: Staff moves the Commission (1) to dismiss PATH’S Application without prejudice; (2) permit for re-filing once a new analysis has been completed that includes all the recent developments; (3) order the Applicants to file updated testimony in regards to the economic and environmental aspects of this project, including a discussion of the need to rebuild the Pruntytown-Mt. Storm line. [the part of Alternative 1 that is owned by Allegheny] The staff’s motion effectively requires AEP/Allegheny and PJM to make a fair assessment of all viable alternatives to PATH within any new PATH application. Now it is up to the Commissioners of the WV PSC to stand up for our state against the self-appointed power company cartel, PJM Interconnection. The Commission staff has stated the case clearly for all to see. Their motion is a masterful summary of all that is wrong with the PATH project and PJM’s corrupt “planning” process. http://calhounpowerline.com/ __._,_.___ Reply to sender | Reply to group | Reply via web post | Start a New Topic Messages in this topic (1) Recent Activity: Visit Your Group Working since 1967 for the conservation and wise management of West Virginia's natural resources Switch to: Text-Only, Daily Digest * Unsubscribe * Terms of Use . __,_._,___ _______________________________________________ EC mailing list EC(a)osenergy.org http://osenergy.org/mailman/listinfo/ec

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Fw: PATH LINE may get dismissed - YOUR HELP IS NEEDED FAST - act by
by Jim Sconyers 11 Dec '10

11 Dec '10

Jim Sconyers jim_scon(a)yahoo.com 304.698.9628 Remember: Mother Nature bats last. ----- Forwarded Message ---- From: Tina Rappaport <tinazipp(a)gmail.com> Sent: Sat, December 11, 2010 2:07:16 PM Subject: PATH LINE may get dismissed - YOUR HELP IS NEEDED FAST - act by Dear friends across the beautiful state of West Virginia, We are at a historic crossroad and YOU can make a difference. The Consumer Advocate Division of the WV Public Service Commission has recommended to the Commission that the PATH application be dismissed, for now. We are pushing for you and all your friends, relatives and neighbors to flood the WV PSC with a brief letter of support by Tuesday, Dec. 14th or sooner. Summarized details about this latest development can be found below and the full document may be accessed on Bill Howley's blog What you need to know is that this is huge and we want the PSC to listen to the PSC's Consumer Advocate Division AND the good people of West Virginia. Please send a short note and have everyone you know do the same. This is the moment to act and encourage others to do the same. You may use this simple note: Send and address to: (You can save a stamp if you scan your letter and email it to Ali Haverty at almahaverty(a)gmail.com and she'll FAX it in) Sandra Squire Executive Secretary Public Service Commission of West Virginia 201 Brooks Street Charleston, West Virginia 25301 DATE: December ____, 2010 RE: Case Number: 09-0770-E-CN To the Commissioners of the West Virginia Public Service Commission, I/We fully support the PSC staff's motion to dismiss this case. Respectfully yours, (Your Name/s and address) INTERVENORS - Bill Howley isn't worrying about serving those not on the PSC email list this time, and I suggest we all follow suit and just get this done fast and simple. Read below for more details. My best always, Tina Rappaport, 304-655-0003 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Folks whether or not you are an intervernor or not you should send a note to the West Virginia PSC Today NOW ASAP stating your support for the PSC’s Staff’s motion to Dismiss the PATH Case. The address of the PSC and case number as a reminder. The case number should be on all correspondence. The PATH case number is 09-0770-E-CN. The WV PSC Address - Sandra Squire Executive Secretary Public Service Commission of West Virginia 201 Brooks Street Charleston, West Virginia 25301 Please do this Now…John Cobb Here is Bill Howely’s not to us all on this Important Need… From:WVaPATH@yahoogroups.com [mailto:WVaPATH@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Bill Howley Everyone, I mean everyone, who is intervenor in the PATH Case needs to file a simple joinder statement to the PSC staff's motion to dismiss. You can put it in the form of a formal filing, or you can send it as a letter. I'm not going to worry about serving everyone else by mail on this one. We just need to overwhelm the Commissioners with a major show of support for the motion to dismiss. This may be our only shot at killing this thing. We need to pull out all the stops and get it done by the middle of next week. Take a few minutes and bang out a simple statement "I fully support the PSC staff's motion to dismiss." It can be that simple. But we have to let the Commissioners know that people across the state want this stopped. Invite everyone you know who is not an intervenor to send letters. This is a great time for everyone else to get their nose into the PSC case. To help you understand today’s Motion to Dismiss the Path Case I have excerpt key portions of the PSC Staff’s Motion to Dismiss…feel free to use any portion of this or just state your support the Staff’s Motion to dismiss…John Cobb! This is a (simplified recap) of the PSC’s Staff’s Motion to Dismiss PATH12/10/2010: The Staffof the West Virginia Public Service Commission respectfully submits Staff’s Motion, requesting that the Commission dismiss Power Companies application for PATH as insufficient, or in the alternative, require the Applicants to request a tolling and implement further case processing procedures. Staff asserts certain new developments pertaining to the status of the Dominion Power Alternative 1, to PATH to Rebuild the Mt. Storm-Doubs 500kV, transmission line…and to rebuild the Mt Storm – Pruntytown transmission line at a lower cost than the PATH project means that theCommission does not have all the information it needs to properly evaluate this PATH project and other reasonable alternatives. Further, the result ofthese rebuilds will be a more stable line with 65% increased capacity. Now, the owner of that line needs to rebuild it because of the advanced age of its infrastructure and the inherent danger of a collapse. The Staff of the PSC asserts that “It is ludicrous to continue to move forward with the PATH project while major changes are being contemplated for critical transmission infrastructures that should be factored into assessment of the need for PATH.” The Staff further asserts that, “Certain PJM approved upgrades to the transmission system have potentially moved all potential future voltage violations and potential blackouts out beyond 2019.” It is now possible that the PATH project might not be needed until 2020 or beyond. Given the lack of information concerning a full and meaningful evaluation of these issues, Staff believes this Application as currently filed is incomplete and should be dismissed. The estimated cost for the entirety of Dominion Rebuild Alternative 1, is $500-600 million as compared to over $2.1 billion for the PATH project. The Staff further declares “Even more glaring, the “Liberty” project alternative all located in Pennsylvania, which is several hundred million dollars cheaper than PATH and resolves all of the thermal and reactive violations through 2025, has been rejected as a replacement for by PATH by PJM and the Power Companies because it does not provide as much of a megawatt margin as the PATH project.” Under West Virginia Code 524-2-1 la(d)( l), a proposed transmission line must 66.. .economically, adequately and reliably contribute to meeting the present and anticipated requirements for electric power ...” As PJM has not done so, Staff believes the Applicants need to provide an analysis and testimony as to how PATH economically contributes to meeting the requirements for electric power in light of viable alternatives that are significantly cheaper and provide most of the same benefits. Once again, the Application as it is currently filed lacks information as to how the PATH project strikes this balance in light of the alternatives that have been proposed. This omission is especially striking for Dominion Alternative 1. That alternative involves the rebuild of two lines and the addition of voltage compensators, actions which will occur on existing rights-of-way, which will result in the taking of little to no additional public land, and which should have very little environmental impact, especially compared to PATH. The question that comes to mind given these factors is does PATH represent a reasonable balance betweenreasonable power needs and reasonable environmental factors when there is an alternative that will have substantially lower environmental impacts that resolves the identified power problems in the near and medium term? Staff believes this Application is further deficient due to the lack of that analysis and should be dismissed. Obviously, this analysis and the economic analysis should focus on, but not necessarily be limited too, Dominion Alternative 1 as this Commission, the State of West Virginia and its residents all have a large stake in that alternative and a portion of that alternative has already been approved by PJM. Further, it is reasonable to include in any new testimony a discussion of the need to rebuild the Pruntytown-Mt. Storm line. The rebuild of that line is a major component of Dominion Alternative 1, that line is approximately the same age as the Mt. Storm-Doubs line which needs to be rebuilt due to its age, and is owned by a subsidiary of Allegheny Power, the parent of one of the Applicants in this proceeding. Therefore, Staff moves the Commission (1) to dismiss PATH’S Application without prejudice; (2) permit for re-filing once a new analysis has been completed that includes all the recent developments; (3) order the Applicants to file updated testimony in regards to the economic and environmental aspects of this project, including a discussion of the need to rebuild the Pruntytown-Mt. Storm line. John Cobb 2/11/2010 304-452-9634

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Fw: HISTORIC VICTORY: NYS Becomes First State to Prohibit Hydrofracking!
by Jim Sconyers 11 Dec '10

11 Dec '10

Jim Sconyers jim_scon(a)yahoo.com 304.698.9628 Remember: Mother Nature bats last. ----- Forwarded Message ---- From: Catskill Mountainkeeper <info(a)catskillmountainkeeper.org> To: jim_scon(a)yahoo.com Sent: Sat, December 11, 2010 5:02:22 PM Subject: HISTORIC VICTORY: NYS Becomes First State to Prohibit Hydrofracking! Having trouble viewing this email? Click here You're receiving this email because of your relationship with Catskill Mountainkeeper. Please confirm your continued interest in receiving email from us. You may unsubscribe if you no longer wish to receive our emails. Catskill Mountainkeeper BREAKING NEWS December 11, 2010 HISTORIC VICTORY FOR THE CITIZENS OF NEW YORK STATE In an amazing victory for the citizens of New York State, Governor David A. Paterson has issued an Executive Order directing the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) to conduct further comprehensive review and analysis of high-volume hydraulic fracturing in the Marcellus Shale. The Executive Order requires that, if approved, high-volume, horizontal hydraulic fracturing would not be permitted until July 1, 2011, at the earliest. New York State becomes the first state to have a formal prohibition on high volume horizontal hydrofacking because of concerns about environmental impacts. Regretablly instead of signing the "Moratorium Bill" legislation sent to him that included a prohibition on vertical hyrdofracking that was passed by on overwhelming bi partisan majority in both houses of the State government he decided instead to succumb to industry pressure and issue the Executive Order that eliminates vertical wells from the prohibition. While the Executive Order is historic and proves that our concerns over hydrofracking are legitimate it is also a disappointment because vertical wells are also dangerous. The gas and oil industry lobby deliberately misinterpreted a section of the Moratorium Bill claiming it would bring all gas drilling in New York State to a halt. The bill only specified a moratorium on drilling for wells using hydrofracking, whether they are vertically or horizontally drilled. A moratorium banning the fracking of vertical wells is very important for several reasons: 1. Gas companies have been clear that they plan to drill vertical wells in the Utica and Marcellus shale with the intention of converting them to horizontal wells. 2. While the State Senate was considering a two-year moratorium on horizontal wells the gas industry threatened to drill and frack 16 vertical wells every square mile in retribution if a moratorium on fracked horizontal wells was passed. 3. Some of the worst water contamination problems, such as in Dimock, PA came from vertical wells drilled and fractured in the Marcellus Shale. We now look to Governor Elect Andrew Cuomo to protect the Citizens of New York from the dangers of hydro fracking by any method including vertical drilling and horizontal drilling and including all shale formations. BELOW IS THE GOVERNORS PRESS RELEASE To embed this news release, copy the code below and paste it into your website or blog. http://readme.readmedia.com/Governor-Paterson-Issues-Executive-Order-on-Hyd…</a>' width='572' height='490' border='0' frameborder='0'>Preview Governor Paterson Issues Executive Order on Hydraulic Fracturing * by New York State Office of the Governor ALBANY, NY (12/11/2010)(readMedia)-- Governor David A. Paterson has issued an Executive Order directing the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) to conduct further comprehensive review and analysis of high-volume hydraulic fracturing in the Marcellus Shale. The Executive Order requires that, if approved, high-volume, horizontal hydraulic fracturing would not be permitted until July 1, 2011, at the earliest. This should allay any fears that high-volume hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling under study by DEC will commence without assurances of safety. "We in government must always focus on protecting the well-being of those whom we represent and serve, but we also have an obligation to look to the future and protect the long-term interests for our State and its residents," Governor Paterson said. "Therefore, I am proud to issue this Executive Order, which will guarantee that before any high-volume, horizontal hydraulic fracturing is permitted, the Department of Environmental Conversation will complete its studies and certify that such operations are safe." Permits for high-volume, horizontal hydraulic fracturing can not be issued until the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) completes a Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement (SGEIS), which is currently being developed. As a result, there is already in place a de-facto moratorium on such permits. The Governor issued the Executive Order contemporaneously with his veto of S.8129-B/A.11443-B, which would have suspended the issuance of new oil and gas drilling permits through May 15, 2011, including all conventional, low-volume, vertical oil and gas wells. "This legislation, which was well intentioned, would have a serious impact on our State if signed into law. Enacting this legislation would put people out of work - work that is permitted by the Department of Environmental Conservation and causes no demonstrated environmental harm, in order to effectuate a moratorium that is principally symbolic," Governor Paterson said. "Symbols can have great importance, but particularly in our current terrible economic straits, I cannot agree to put individuals out of work for a symbolic act." "I am sympathetic to the sponsors' desire to protect the environment and public health, and I respect the concerns that produced this legislation," the Governor continued. "But this legislation does not accomplish this purpose, since the activities at the heart of the moratorium are not currently taking place, and would not take place until well after the legislation's proposed moratorium." The bill goes well beyond high-volume, horizontal hydraulic fracturing and effectively would result in a moratorium on all new oil and gas well drilling in this State. The cessation of such new activity, even for a limited period, would have substantial negative financial consequences for the State, local governments, landowners and small businesses involved in conventional oil and gas production. The Division of the Budget estimates that the bill would cause a substantial reduction in State revenues from the loss of permit fees and tax revenue. With a $315 million budget gap in the current fiscal year, and a projected gap of over $9 billion in the 2011-12 State fiscal year, New York simply cannot afford to send hundreds and perhaps thousands of jobs, and millions of dollars in capital investment to Pennsylvania and other states to our south. ### Additional news available at www.ny.gov/governor | High resolution images available at www.ny.gov/governor/mediaimages | password: paterson | New York State | Executive Chamber | press.office(a)chamber.state.ny.us | 212.681.4640 | 518.474.8418 | Follow us on Facebook and Twitter Support Mountainkeeper This is a complex and extended battle requiring tremendous resources. Catskill Mountainkeeper needs your financial support to continue to represent you in this fight. About Catskill Mountainkeeper Catskill Mountainkeeper is an independent, not for profit, 501c3 community based environmental advocacy organization, dedicated to creating a flourishing sustainable economy in the Catskills and preserving and protecting the area's long term health. We address issues of water integrity for the Delaware and Susquehanna River Systems, the defense of the vast woodlands that encompass the Catskill Forest Preserve and the New York City Watershed as well as farmland protection. We promote "smart" development that balances the economic needs and concerns of the Catskill regions' citizens and the protection of our abundant but exceedingly vulnerable natural resources. Forward email This email was sent to jim_scon(a)yahoo.com by info(a)catskillmountainkeeper.org. Update Profile/Email Address | Instant removal with SafeUnsubscribe™ | Privacy Policy. Catskill Mountainkeeper | PO Box 381 | Youngsville | NY | 12791

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Re: [EC] WV PSC Staff 'Drops the Bomb' on PATH
by James Kotcon 11 Dec '10

11 Dec '10

While this is indeed good news, it is worth noting that we were at about this point with TrAIL. During the evidentiary hearings, we had largely refuted all of TrAILCo's claims. In their final briefs, Staff had recommended against the line. At that point TrAILCo went into high pressure, back room "negotiations" to make a deal. We have no direct evidence that the Governor's Office got involved, but based on the e-mails from PSC Staff, I think it was likely. At any rate, two months later, Staff "agreed" to (or was told to agree to) a Settlement which added a few additional jobs and the TrAILCo line was approved. I recommend that we keep a constant watch on PSC Staff activity over the next few weeks. As they say, "Fool Me Twice, Shame On Me!" Jim Kotcon >>> "Frank Young" 12/10/10 10:58 PM >>> >From Bill Howley's 'The Power Line' blog- available at: http://calhounpowerline.com/ -------------------------------------------------------- WV PSC Legal Staff Files Motion to Dismiss PATH Application December 10, 2010 The PSC lawyers hit every single issue we have been presenting here on The Power Line for the last month. In particular, the staff points to Dominion’s Alternative 1 as being far superior to PATH in every respect. The staff cites the multiple results of PJM’s failure to consider Alternative 1 as being the primary reasons why AEP/Allegheny’s PATH application no longer meets the basic standards for a high voltage transmission line certificate of need as set out in WV statutes. The motion to dismiss is a recitation of all of the failures of PJM’s transmission planning process. The motion is a direct assault on PJM’s deceptive, misleading and contorted actions as more and better alternatives to PATH have appeared in the last year. The staff concludes: Staff moves the Commission (1) to dismiss PATH’S Application without prejudice; (2) permit for re-filing once a new analysis has been completed that includes all the recent developments; (3) order the Applicants to file updated testimony in regards to the economic and environmental aspects of this project, including a discussion of the need to rebuild the Pruntytown-Mt. Storm line. [the part of Alternative 1 that is owned by Allegheny] The staff’s motion effectively requires AEP/Allegheny and PJM to make a fair assessment of all viable alternatives to PATH within any new PATH application. Now it is up to the Commissioners of the WV PSC to stand up for our state against the self-appointed power company cartel, PJM Interconnection. The Commission staff has stated the case clearly for all to see. Their motion is a masterful summary of all that is wrong with the PATH project and PJM’s corrupt “planning” process. http://calhounpowerline.com/ __._,_.___ Reply to sender | Reply to group | Reply via web post | Start a New Topic Messages in this topic (1) Recent Activity: Visit Your Group Working since 1967 for the conservation and wise management of West Virginia's natural resources Switch to: Text-Only, Daily Digest * Unsubscribe * Terms of Use . __,_._,___

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WV PSC Staff 'Drops the Bomb' on PATH
by Frank Young 10 Dec '10

10 Dec '10

>From Bill Howley's 'The Power Line' blog- available at: http://calhounpowerline.com/ -------------------------------------------------------- WV PSC Legal Staff Files Motion to Dismiss PATH Application December 10, 2010 The PSC lawyers hit every single issue we have been presenting here on The Power Line for the last month. In particular, the staff points to Dominion’s Alternative 1 as being far superior to PATH in every respect. The staff cites the multiple results of PJM’s failure to consider Alternative 1 as being the primary reasons why AEP/Allegheny’s PATH application no longer meets the basic standards for a high voltage transmission line certificate of need as set out in WV statutes. The motion to dismiss is a recitation of all of the failures of PJM’s transmission planning process. The motion is a direct assault on PJM’s deceptive, misleading and contorted actions as more and better alternatives to PATH have appeared in the last year. The staff concludes: Staff moves the Commission (1) to dismiss PATH’S Application without prejudice; (2) permit for re-filing once a new analysis has been completed that includes all the recent developments; (3) order the Applicants to file updated testimony in regards to the economic and environmental aspects of this project, including a discussion of the need to rebuild the Pruntytown-Mt. Storm line. [the part of Alternative 1 that is owned by Allegheny] The staff’s motion effectively requires AEP/Allegheny and PJM to make a fair assessment of all viable alternatives to PATH within any new PATH application. Now it is up to the Commissioners of the WV PSC to stand up for our state against the self-appointed power company cartel, PJM Interconnection. The Commission staff has stated the case clearly for all to see. Their motion is a masterful summary of all that is wrong with the PATH project and PJM’s corrupt “planning” process. http://calhounpowerline.com/ __._,_.___ Reply to sender | Reply to group | Reply via web post | Start a New Topic Messages in this topic (1) Recent Activity: Visit Your Group Working since 1967 for the conservation and wise management of West Virginia's natural resources Switch to: Text-Only, Daily Digest • Unsubscribe • Terms of Use. __,_._,___

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FW: Democracy for America Training Opportunity
by Grubb, Karen 10 Dec '10

10 Dec '10

From: Denise Binion [mailto:dbinion@gmail.com<mailto:dbinion@gmail.com>] Sent: Wednesday, December 08, 2010 8:44 PM To: Denise Binion Subject: Democracy for America Training Opportunity Hi everyone, I had a call from the National Democracy For America recently in response to a survey I filled out last month. They are interested in putting on the Campaign Academy training and it would be the first one ever for WV! They are very interested in promoting progressive politics in WV. They are also interested in tailoring the training to include specific projects that would be of interest or helpful to us (e.g. Marcellus Shale drilling/water protection, State Democratic Party Chair, as well as State and local issues. It would be great to have the benefit of the training before the start of the 2012 campaigns. I have talked with several people from various progressive groups throughout the state and there seems to be a lot of interest in attending this training. There certainly is a need and also a great deal of dissatisfaction within the Democratic Party over the way things are going. This is a great opportunity at a critical time in this state and the nation. We can't afford to cede any more ground to the Republicans and DINOcrats. WV is especially desperate for some real Democratic government. Since it's based on Howard Dean's 50 State Strategy, there is no reason why we couldn't turn it into a 55 county strategy and would certainly help Progressives. I'm thinking it is something that OFA members, Brain Trust, DFA, environmental organizations and other progressive groups around the state would be interested in. We are looking at Flatwoods as a meeting site, making it equally accessible for 1st CD, 2nd and 3rd CD folks. Registration cost will be ~ $70 ($40 for low income or students) + lodging cost which is yet to be negotiated. There is also a possibility for a limited amount of scholarships. They need 80-100 participants to hold the training. What are your thoughts about participating in this training and do you think there are others in your area organizations that may be interested. The way things look right now, we're on our own to promote Democratic policies. No one is going to this, it looks like we're going to have to save ourselves. Please send me your thoughts, ideas and suggestions. Denise Binion ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Don't tell me what you believe. Tell me what you do and I'll tell you what you believe. - Timothy Lange

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FW: [wvec-board] Marcellus Shale- on WV Public Broadcasting tonight (Thursday)
by Grubb, Karen 10 Dec '10

10 Dec '10

From: wvec-board(a)yahoogroups.com [mailto:wvec-board@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Frank Young Sent: Thursday, December 09, 2010 5:47 PM To: WVHCBOARD(a)yahoogroups.com; wvec-board(a)yahoogroups.com; Chuck Wyrostok Subject: [wvec-board] Marcellus Shale- on WV Public Broadcasting tonight (Thursday) Tonight on The Law Works (8:30 p.m. on WV PBS TV) host Dan Ringer takes on the legal topics around Marcellus Shale Gas drilling in West Virginia. Special guests are attorneys Kenneth Tawney and Andrew Graham. West Virginia Public Broadcasting<http://www.facebook.com/wvpubcast>: __._,_.___ Reply to sender<mailto:fyoung@mountain.net?subject=Re%3A%20Narcellus%20Shale-%20on%20WV%20Public%20Briadcasting%20tonight%20%28Thursday%29> | Reply to group<mailto:wvec-board@yahoogroups.com?subject=Re%3A%20Narcellus%20Shale-%20on%20WV%20Public%20Briadcasting%20tonight%20%28Thursday%29> | Reply via web post<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/wvec-board/post;_ylc=X3oDMTJxbDlsbmxoBF9TAzk3…> | Start a New Topic<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/wvec-board/post;_ylc=X3oDMTJmNmkxanNuBF9TAzk3…> Messages in this topic<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/wvec-board/message/1952;_ylc=X3oDMTM1djZrZnF2…> (1) Recent Activity: Visit Your Group<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/wvec-board;_ylc=X3oDMTJmcXZoc2VlBF9TAzk3MzU5N…> . __,_._,___

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creative anti-ash ad
by Jim Sconyers 10 Dec '10

10 Dec '10

Now this is clever - if the stuff is so harmless, then take a few tons home! Jim Sconyers jim_scon(a)yahoo.com 304.698.9628 Remember: Mother Nature bats last. ----- Forwarded Message ---- From: Midge Sweet <sweetmidge(a)GMAIL.COM> To: COAL-COMBUSTION-WASTE(a)LISTS.SIERRACLUB.ORG Sent: Fri, December 10, 2010 2:13:53 AM Subject: Your home can be home to an extra helping of coal ash! Check out FACE's award-winning ad in the local paper, now on the Fall-line Alliance's website: http://faceenvironment.org/ -- Midge Sweet Georgians for Smart Energy Coalition 404-688-5430/w • 404-667-4476/cell www.georgiansforsmartenergy.org - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - To unsubscribe from the COAL-COMBUSTION-WASTE list, send any message to: COAL-COMBUSTION-WASTE-signoff-request(a)LISTS.SIERRACLUB.ORG Check out our Listserv Lists support site for more information: http://www.sierraclub.org/lists/faq.asp Sign up to receive Sierra Club Insider, the flagship e-newsletter. Sent out twice a month, it features the Club's latest news and activities. Subscribe and view recent editions at http://www.sierraclub.org/insider/

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Fwd: Newcomers Will Hold Sway in Many State Legislatures
by James Kotcon 08 Dec '10

08 Dec '10

Fascinating article. It suggests that, because so many legislators are inexperienced, lobbyists will have more influence than usual as newcomers will not know the process as well as the lobbyists do. We have our work cut out for us. JBK >>> Paula Carrell <paula.carrell(a)sierraclub.org> 12/8/2010 11:15 AM >>> --------------------------- cc:Mail Users----------------------------- ** Remember to DELETE the 'Sender: ...' lines above before REPLYing ** ---------------------------------------------------------------------- fyi http://www.governing.com/blogs/politics/newcomers-will-hold-sway-many-state… --- This message was sent by paula.carrell(a)sierraclub.org via http://addthis.com. Please note that AddThis does not verify email addresses. Make sharing easier with the AddThis Toolbar: http://www.addthis.com/go/toolbar-em ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To get off this list, send email to: LISTSERV(a)LISTS.SIERRACLUB.ORG Make the message text (not the Subject): SIGNOFF CONS-FRED

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Wyoming's fed-bucking approach to environmental policy
by Paul Wilson 07 Dec '10

07 Dec '10

Info Frack forward Wyoming's fed-bucking approach to environmental policy News - From the October 01, 2010 issue of High Country News<http://www.hcn.org/issues/42.17> by Cally Carswell Document Actions <http://www.hcn.org/issues/42.17/frack-forward/image_viewer> On Sept. 15, Wyoming activated new rules requiring energy companies to identify the chemicals they inject underground to break up rocks in order to free trapped oil and gas. Critics suspect that the process -- known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking -- can contaminate groundwater. Evidence has been elusive, though, in part because drilling companies have been allowed to keep their chemical recipes largely secret. The new rules -- the nation's strictest -- were a surprisingly easy sell in Wyoming, where extractive industries almost single-handedly keep state coffers plump and exercise proportional political clout. At Democratic Gov. Dave Freudenthal's behest, the state's Oil and Gas Conservation Commission unanimously signed off on them in June. Though Halliburton protested some, most in the industry seemed unfazed. At the end of this month, the Associated Press reported that drillers even seemed "eager to comply." Anticipating similar moves by President Obama's Environmental Protection Agency, which recently increased its scrutiny of fracking, Wyoming wrote the rules as a message to the feds: Your help is not needed here. Federal "meddling" has always irked Wyoming's leaders. But under Freudenthal, the state has favored a curious strategy for fending off federal regulators: Beat them to the punch with its own cutting-edge environmental policies. In 2007, with a lawsuit pending over the U.S. Fish and Wildlife's decision not to list the greater sage grouse as endangered, Freudenthal ordered state officials, conservationists and industry reps to map the bird's vital habitat. Within those "core areas," the state has tightly restricted oil, gas and wind development, all thought to disrupt grouse breeding -- a significant improvement over the Bureau of Land Management's style of developing first and dealing with impacts later. It's not a perfect plan -- core areas are strategically penciled to exclude the best gas patches, say critics, making places like the Powder River Basin sacrifice zones. And Freudenthal has called the grouse "one of the ugliest, stupidest birds I ever knew." Still, he's willing to defend it to protect Wyoming's natural gas industry. His office estimates that a listing would subject 83 percent of gas producers to new regulations. "What we live on in this state is mineral revenues," said Freudenthal energy advisor Aaron Clark in 2009, "and we would be subjecting a lot of that to the vagaries of the Endangered Species Act." For now, the plan has kept federal regulation at bay. When the Interior Department this year again declined to protect the grouse, officials commended Wyoming's efforts. And Interior Secretary Ken Salazar has encouraged other states with sagebrush habitat to adopt the core-area model. Wyoming hopes the feds will be similarly seduced by its new fracking law, as well as pioneering rules developed over the last two years for future carbon capture and sequestration projects. Shannon Anderson, a lawyer for the Powder River Basin Resource Council, a local environmental group, calls the latter "generally good rules." But they're less cautious than similar rules drafted by the EPA, which aim to protect drinking water by considering only deep, briny aquifers as potential carbon storage sites. Wyoming's rules could allow injections in shallow geologic formations, potentially even those that overlie drinking water sources. "They were designed to beat EPA and hopefully get them to follow, rather than dictate, Wyoming's approach," Anderson says. It's encouraging to see Wyoming advance environmental regulation instead of relax it, as the previous governor did to ease coalbed methane development, and as the Bush-Cheney administration did with fracking. But local environmentalists caution that the new policies aren't necessarily evidence that Wyoming's gone green. "All these rules are baby steps in terms of what we really need to accomplish to address the impacts we have in the state," Anderson says, adding that Wyoming is in "an already compromised position." Between 2001 and 2005, sage grouse populations near coalbed methane development in the Powder River Basin declined by 82 percent. Freudenthal refuses to moderate Wyoming's anti-wolf stance, jeopardizing the state's chances to manage the animals. And requiring frackers to disclose their chemicals won't protect groundwater if drillers remain exempt from the Safe Drinking Water Act. "The idea is to get these rules in place and stop Congress from passing (comprehensive legislation), which would actually protect public health and safety," Anderson says. Imperfect as it may be, Wyoming's breakaway approach to environmental regulation is gaining favor among some surprising constituencies. Last month, Cathy Woollums, an executive of MidAmerican Energy Holdings Co., a coal-reliant utility behemoth, came to the Wyoming Legislature with an unexpected request: Regulate greenhouse gases. Congressional inaction is creating too much uncertainty in the utility business, she said. And, in any case, MidAmerican would rather answer to Wyoming than the EPA. -- Paul Wilson Sierra Club 504 Jefferson Ave Charles Town, WV 25414-1130 Phone: 304-725-4360 Cell: 304-279-1361 "There is no forward until you have gone back" ~Buddha "In all things of nature there is something of the marvelous" ~ Aristotle

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Re: [EC] Wyoming's fed-bucking approach to environmental policy
by DSGJr＠aol.com 07 Dec '10

07 Dec '10

Both bills being proposed for regulating Marcellus shale drilling in WV -- the DEP bill and the Judiciary Subcommittee A bill -- require the listing of frac fluid contents. don garvin In a message dated 12/7/2010 10:05:18 A.M. Eastern Standard Time, fyoung(a)mountain.net writes: Thanks, Paul. Would that WV's leaders be as pro-active. Doing the "right things"- even for the wrong reason- is better than the "sue the feds" approach West Virginia takes to natural resource extraction regulation. Frank Young ----- Original Message ----- From: _Paul Wilson_ (mailto:pjgrunt@gmail.com) To: _WV Chapter Energy Committee_ (mailto:EC@osenergy.org) Sent: Wednesday, October 13, 2010 10:20 AM Subject: [EC] Wyoming's fed-bucking approach to environmental policy Info Frack forward Wyoming's fed-bucking approach to environmental policy News - _From the October 01, 2010 issue of High Country News_ (http://www.hcn.org/issues/42.17) by Cally Carswell Document Actions (http://www.hcn.org/issues/42.17/frack-forward/image_viewer) On Sept. 15, Wyoming activated new rules requiring energy companies to identify the chemicals they inject underground to break up rocks in order to free trapped oil and gas. Critics suspect that the process -- known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking -- can contaminate groundwater. Evidence has been elusive, though, in part because drilling companies have been allowed to keep their chemical recipes largely secret. The new rules -- the nation's strictest -- were a surprisingly easy sell in Wyoming, where extractive industries almost single-handedly keep state coffers plump and exercise proportional political clout. At Democratic Gov. Dave Freudenthal's behest, the state's Oil and Gas Conservation Commission unanimously signed off on them in June. Though Halliburton protested some, most in the industry seemed unfazed. At the end of this month, the Associated Press reported that drillers even seemed "eager to comply." Anticipating similar moves by President Obama's Environmental Protection Agency, which recently increased its scrutiny of fracking, Wyoming wrote the rules as a message to the feds: Your help is not needed here. Federal "meddling" has always irked Wyoming's leaders. But under Freudenthal, the state has favored a curious strategy for fending off federal regulators: Beat them to the punch with its own cutting-edge environmental policies. In 2007, with a lawsuit pending over the U.S. Fish and Wildlife's decision not to list the greater sage grouse as endangered, Freudenthal ordered state officials, conservationists and industry reps to map the bird's vital habitat. Within those "core areas," the state has tightly restricted oil, gas and wind development, all thought to disrupt grouse breeding -- a significant improvement over the Bureau of Land Management's style of developing first and dealing with impacts later. It's not a perfect plan -- core areas are strategically penciled to exclude the best gas patches, say critics, making places like the Powder River Basin sacrifice zones. And Freudenthal has called the grouse "one of the ugliest, stupidest birds I ever knew." Still, he's willing to defend it to protect Wyoming's natural gas industry. His office estimates that a listing would subject 83 percent of gas producers to new regulations. "What we live on in this state is mineral revenues," said Freudenthal energy advisor Aaron Clark in 2009, "and we would be subjecting a lot of that to the vagaries of the Endangered Species Act." For now, the plan has kept federal regulation at bay. When the Interior Department this year again declined to protect the grouse, officials commended Wyoming's efforts. And Interior Secretary Ken Salazar has encouraged other states with sagebrush habitat to adopt the core-area model. Wyoming hopes the feds will be similarly seduced by its new fracking law, as well as pioneering rules developed over the last two years for future carbon capture and sequestration projects. Shannon Anderson, a lawyer for the Powder River Basin Resource Council, a local environmental group, calls the latter "generally good rules." But they're less cautious than similar rules drafted by the EPA, which aim to protect drinking water by considering only deep, briny aquifers as potential carbon storage sites. Wyoming's rules could allow injections in shallow geologic formations, potentially even those that overlie drinking water sources. "They were designed to beat EPA and hopefully get them to follow, rather than dictate, Wyoming's approach," Anderson says. It's encouraging to see Wyoming advance environmental regulation instead of relax it, as the previous governor did to ease coalbed methane development, and as the Bush-Cheney administration did with fracking. But local environmentalists caution that the new policies aren't necessarily evidence that Wyoming's gone green. "All these rules are baby steps in terms of what we really need to accomplish to address the impacts we have in the state," Anderson says, adding that Wyoming is in "an already compromised position." Between 2001 and 2005, sage grouse populations near coalbed methane development in the Powder River Basin declined by 82 percent. Freudenthal refuses to moderate Wyoming's anti-wolf stance, jeopardizing the state's chances to manage the animals. And requiring frackers to disclose their chemicals won't protect groundwater if drillers remain exempt from the Safe Drinking Water Act. "The idea is to get these rules in place and stop Congress from passing (comprehensive legislation), which would actually protect public health and safety," Anderson says. Imperfect as it may be, Wyoming's breakaway approach to environmental regulation is gaining favor among some surprising constituencies. Last month, Cathy Woollums, an executive of MidAmerican Energy Holdings Co., a coal-reliant utility behemoth, came to the Wyoming Legislature with an unexpected request: Regulate greenhouse gases. Congressional inaction is creating too much uncertainty in the utility business, she said. And, in any case, MidAmerican would rather answer to Wyoming than the EPA. -- Paul Wilson Sierra Club 504 Jefferson Ave Charles Town, WV 25414-1130 Phone: 304-725-4360 Cell: 304-279-1361 "There is no forward until you have gone back" ~Buddha "In all things of nature there is something of the marvelous" ~ Aristotle ____________________________________ _______________________________________________ EC mailing list EC(a)osenergy.org http://osenergy.org/mailman/listinfo/ec

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Fw: [WVHCBOARD] Fwd: [wvpanhandlenaturalists] (PVAS) INTRODUCTION TO MARCELLUS SHALE GAS DRILLING
by Frank Young 06 Dec '10

06 Dec '10

Jim and all- FYI. I am sending this mostly to add to the picture of how many groups are concentrating on this. Like the Eveready Bunny, It just keeps growing and growing and growing .................... :-) Frank -------------------------------------------------------- From: WVHCBOARD(a)yahoogroups.com [mailto:WVHCBOARD@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Cynthia D. Ellis Sent: Monday, December 06, 2010 6:28 PM To: West Virginia Highlands Conservancy Subject: [WVHCBOARD] Fwd: [wvpanhandlenaturalists] (PVAS) INTRODUCTION TO MARCELLUS SHALE GAS DRILLING ------ Forwarded message ---------- From: Kathy Bilton <kathy(a)fred.net> Date: Mon, Dec 6, 2010 at 6:19 PM Subject: [wvpanhandlenaturalists] (PVAS) INTRODUCTION TO MARCELLUS SHALE GAS DRILLING To: Potomac Valley Audubon <info(a)potomacaudubon.org> INTRODUCTION TO MARCELLUS SHALE GAS DRILLING The Sleepy Creek Watershed Association invites PVAS members and friends to the SCWA Semi-Annual General Membership Meeting on December 9, 2010 to hear a presentation on the extraction of natural gas from Marcellus Shale and its impacts on our land and water. John M. S. King, Environmental Resource Analyst for the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection, will offer a community education session on the subject to include its benefits and drawbacks at 7 p.m. at the Morgan County Board of Education at 247 Harrison Street. Although there has been natural gas drilling in West Virginia and neighboring states for years, Marcellus Shale extraction relies on new technologies that pose significant and numerous threats to water quantity and quality. Volunteer monitoring groups in the state are calling for strong government regulation to guide the industry. Leasing land for drilling can be lucrative for landowners who receive both signing bonuses and royalties, but these drilling activities use huge amounts of water and numerous dangerous chemicals. The drilling issue is causing divisiveness in communities as some landowners refuse to sign leases because of their concerns about environmental damage. Join SCWA to learn about the issue before it presents itself in Morgan County. All members are urged to attend, and the public is welcome. There will be a short business meeting before the program to elect officers. Refreshments will be served. For more information, call Gale Foulds at 304 258 6155. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/wvpanhandlenaturalists/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/wvpanhandlenaturalists/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: wvpanhandlenaturalists-digest(a)yahoogroups.com wvpanhandlenaturalists-fullfeatured(a)yahoogroups.com <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: wvpanhandlenaturalists-unsubscribe(a)yahoogroups.com <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ -- Cynthia D. Ellis RR 1 Box 163 Red House, WV 25168 304 586-4135 cdellis(a)wildblue.net How did it get so late so soon? It's night before it's afternoon. December is here before it's June. My goodness how the time has flewn. How did it get so late so soon? Dr. Seuss -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- No virus found in this message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 10.0.1170 / Virus Database: 426/3300 - Release Date: 12/06/10 __._,_.___ Reply to sender | Reply to group | Reply via web post | Start a New Topic Messages in this topic (2) Recent Activity: Visit Your Group Working since 1967 for the conservation and wise management of West Virginia's natural resources MARKETPLACE Stay on top of your group activity without leaving the page you're on - Get the Yahoo! Toolbar now. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hobbies & Activities Zone: Find others who share your passions! Explore new interests. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Get great advice about dogs and cats. Visit the Dog & Cat Answers Center. Switch to: Text-Only, Daily Digest . Unsubscribe . Terms of Use. __,_._,___

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CONFIDENTIAL: Beyond Coal Campaign Plan for 2011
by James Kotcon 06 Dec '10

06 Dec '10

PLEASE DO NOT FORWARD THIS BEYOND THE ENERGY COMMITTEE. I was just on a conference call with Club leaders regarding the details of the Beyond Coal Campaign Plan for the Northeast in 2011. Of 78 actions/issues in the NE, 12 are in WV. These include our priority campaigns such as PATH and the Mingo CTL, as well MTR, and the WVU SSC's goals for the Presidents Climate Commitment. They have added some plans to push for closures of old dirty plants such as Phil Sporn, and others, and the goal is to get the PSC to approve plans by the end of 2011 to shut them down at some not-to-distant time in the future. There will also be a significantly larger push for alternative energy, as well as efficiency, than in the past. I asked about the Club's position on the CCS facility at the Mountaineer plant, but forgot to ask about coal ash as a separate set of targets. What else do we want the Club to do in WV? Is this realistic as a "work plan"? I was interested to see how many states have a "Beyond Coal" organizer, which West Virginia does not. We do have the Marcellus organizer, and I am curious if we can get that renewed, or get some longer-term resources. At the same time, there will be a continuing emphasis on legal and technical issues, so we need to recognize how much the Club is already doing in WV. Whaddya Think? Jim Kotcon

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Fw: Dispute in Pennsylvania Town Highlights EPA's Coal Ash Dilemma
by Jim Sconyers 06 Dec '10

06 Dec '10

Jim Sconyers jim_scon(a)yahoo.com 304.698.9628 Remember: Mother Nature bats last. ----- Forwarded Message ---- From: Lisa Graves-Marcucci <lgmarcucci(a)ENVIRONMENTALINTEGRITY.ORG> To: COAL-COMBUSTION-WASTE(a)LISTS.SIERRACLUB.ORG Sent: Mon, December 6, 2010 9:33:35 AM Subject: Dispute in Pennsylvania Town Highlights EPA's Coal Ash Dilemma This story, published by the Center for Public Integrity, highlights some of my western PA colleagues and the dangers plaguing their small community. Dispute in Pennsylvania Town Highlights EPA's Coal Ash Dilemma:http://www.publicintegrity.org/blog/entry/2735/ Best, LGM -- Lisa Graves Marcucci Environmental Integrity Project PA Coordinator, Community Outreach lgmarcucci(a)environmentalintegrity.org 412-897-0569 (cell) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - To unsubscribe from the COAL-COMBUSTION-WASTE list, send any message to: COAL-COMBUSTION-WASTE-signoff-request(a)LISTS.SIERRACLUB.ORG Check out our Listserv Lists support site for more information: http://www.sierraclub.org/lists/faq.asp Sign up to receive Sierra Club Insider, the flagship e-newsletter. Sent out twice a month, it features the Club's latest news and activities. Subscribe and view recent editions at http://www.sierraclub.org/insider/

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Fw: Massey's Blankenship to retire Dec. 31
by Frank Young 03 Dec '10

03 Dec '10

Early Christmas Present! fyoung(a)mountain.net sent you this article ----- December 3, 2010 Massey's Blankenship to retire Dec. 31 By Ken Ward Jr. The Charleston Gazette P> Read the news release CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Don Blankenship, the outspoken and controversial CEO of Ma ... Read more -----

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Fw: BIO FUELS TAKE WINGS..."Hamburg with Vegetable Oil"
by Jim Sconyers 03 Dec '10

03 Dec '10

Jim Sconyers jim_scon(a)yahoo.com 304.698.9628 Remember: Mother Nature bats last. ----- Forwarded Message ---- From: Allan Tweddle <atweddle(a)compositetranstech.com> To: Janet Keating <ohvec(a)ezwv.com>; Vivian Stockman <vivian(a)ohvec.org>; Julian Martin <martinjul(a)aol.com>; Frank YOUNG <fyoung(a)mountain.net>; Jim Haught <haught(a)wvgazette.com> Cc: Debbie.Boger(a)sierraclub.org; Don GARVIN <dsgjr(a)aol.com>; Mark Bettinger <mark.bettinger(a)sierraclub.org> Sent: Fri, December 3, 2010 12:21:43 PM Subject: [EC] BIO FUELS TAKE WINGS..."Hamburg with Vegetable Oil" Colleagues and Friends of the Earth: As many of you know, I have with a team of colleagues, with energy and enthusiasm, and with mostly West Virginia Angel investors, established a new manufacturing Company here in West Virginia. We are cautiously optimistic that we will, upon completion of our development work, and implementation of a full manufacturing plant, begin to offer to equip the airlines of the world with a system that will reduce the carbon footprint of every plane that deploys our system...and save them operating expense while doing so. The scientific talents of the Touchstone Research Laboratories in Wheeling have been our partners in this leading edge work. As our market is the airlines of the world, in particular the cargo planes, we track the business trends and progress through appropriate trade publications, in this case Air Cargo World. www.aircargoworld@ubmaviation.com In the most recent 12/3/2010 on line issue, is an exciting development is reported that in which any and all who are concerned about Global Warming should see encouragement, progress and hope. And it is ironic, that Nazi Germany, the country that out of desperation in isolation of WW II, gave us that environmentally horrific process known as “Fischer Trope” process for converting Coals to Liquid*. The Germans of today have now shown us a sustainable and renewable approach to a jet fuel...using vegetable oil! And while other airlines have experimented with bio-fuel mixes, Lufthansa seems to be the first airline to put the fuel into daily flights. *(Today, the largest plant on the planet using the Fischer Trope process is in Segundo South Africa. The Minister for the Environment for the Government of South Africa stated a few months ago that that plant is the largest single source of greenhouse gasses on the planet! Downstream life threatening carcinogenic and cardiac health conditions are among the worst on the planet! And our West Virginia politicians want to use an "improved" version of this process???) Here’s the article...I thought your readership and members might enjoy reading it...and know that there are some entrepreneurs and industries that are earnestly and profitably, trying to use renewable energy sources to slow, stop and reverse global warming while too many others are wasting time, energy and our money trying to preserve the Neanderthal sources of energy that are causing global warming. Of course, in fact, they are driven by established EU requirements to reduce their carbon footprint with specific time frame and levels, so in spite of our Congressional foot-dragging, and irresponsible attacks on the EPA, Europe is ahead of us in mandating a reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. Enjoy in good health and happy holidays Allan Hamburg linked with vegetable oil 01/12/2010 4:43 pm Lufthansa will operate daily A321 flights next year between Hamburg and Frankfurt using a biofuel blend made from 50 percent hydro-treated vegetable oil. The flights will begin in April 2011 for six months as part of the "Burn Fair" project to study the long term impact of sustainable bio-fuels on aircraft performance. When burned, the fuel made from the biomass material emits the CO2 it naturally absorbs when it grows, thereby helping neutralize overall CO2 emissions. The biofuel is being provided by Finland-based Neste Oil and comes from sustainable sources to ensure the bio-feedstock does not compete for food, water nor land. Neste Oil is a member of RSB (Roundtable on Sustainable Biofuels) and RSPO (Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil). “We see great opportunities in the use of bio-synthetic kerosene. But we are first gathering experience with it in daily practice. Indeed, Lufthansa is the world’s first airline to utilize biofuel in flight operations. This is a further consistent step in the sustainability strategy, which Lufthansa has for years been successfully pursuing,” said Wolfgang Mayrhuber, Lufthansa CEO. “Daily biofuel flights are a significant step forward in our pursuit of a sustainable future for aviation. Airbus is bringing together feedstock producers, fuel refiners and airlines, and with today’s announcement, we have taken yet another step towards making this real,” added Tom Enders, Airbus president and CEO. Last October, an Airbus aircraft operated the first commercial flight of 50 percent blended Gas-to-Liquid (GTL), and in February 2008, an A380 aircraft successfully completed the world’s first ever flight by a commercial aircraft using GTL. Now the manufacturer is launching engine options for a new version of the A320 — the A320neo — with either a LEAP-X engine by CFM International or a PurePower PW1100G engine by Pratt & Whitney. According to Airbus, the new engines are quieter, boast lower operating costs and will reduce fuel consumption by 15 percent. "Finding the necessary resources for the A320neo wasn't exactly a walk in the park,” explained Enders. “The enabler was to devise a stringent phasing of critical engineering assets throughout our various development programs and to optimize the management and organization of all our programs and R&T projects. Our international engineering centers, suppliers and partners play a big role in this.” Airbus officials forecast the market for A320neo-equipped aircraft expanding to 4,000 during the next 15 years. _______________________________________________ EC mailing list EC(a)osenergy.org http://osenergy.org/mailman/listinfo/ec

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BIO FUELS TAKE WINGS..."Hamburg with Vegetable Oil"
by Allan Tweddle 03 Dec '10

03 Dec '10

Colleagues and Friends of the Earth: As many of you know, I have with a team of colleagues, with energy and enthusiasm, and with mostly West Virginia Angel investors, established a new manufacturing Company here in West Virginia. We are cautiously optimistic that we will, upon completion of our development work, and implementation of a full manufacturing plant, begin to offer to equip the airlines of the world with a system that will reduce the carbon footprint of every plane that deploys our system...and save them operating expense while doing so. The scientific talents of the Touchstone Research Laboratories in Wheeling have been our partners in this leading edge work. As our market is the airlines of the world, in particular the cargo planes, we track the business trends and progress through appropriate trade publications, in this case Air Cargo World. www.aircargoworld@ubmaviation.com In the most recent 12/3/2010 on line issue, is an exciting development is reported that in which any and all who are concerned about Global Warming should see encouragement, progress and hope. And it is ironic, that Nazi Germany, the country that out of desperation in isolation of WW II, gave us that environmentally horrific process known as "Fischer Trope" process for converting Coals to Liquid*. The Germans of today have now shown us a sustainable and renewable approach to a jet fuel...using vegetable oil! And while other airlines have experimented with bio-fuel mixes, Lufthansa seems to be the first airline to put the fuel into daily flights. *(Today, the largest plant on the planet using the Fischer Trope process is in Segundo South Africa. The Minister for the Environment for the Government of South Africa stated a few months ago that that plant is the largest single source of greenhouse gasses on the planet! Downstream life threatening carcinogenic and cardiac health conditions are among the worst on the planet! And our West Virginia politicians want to use an "improved" version of this process???) Here's the article...I thought your readership and members might enjoy reading it...and know that there are some entrepreneurs and industries that are earnestly and profitably, trying to use renewable energy sources to slow, stop and reverse global warming while too many others are wasting time, energy and our money trying to preserve the Neanderthal sources of energy that are causing global warming. Of course, in fact, they are driven by established EU requirements to reduce their carbon footprint with specific time frame and levels, so in spite of our Congressional foot-dragging, and irresponsible attacks on the EPA, Europe is ahead of us in mandating a reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. Enjoy in good health and happy holidays Allan Hamburg linked with vegetable oil 01/12/2010 4:43 pm Lufthansa will operate daily A321 flights next year between Hamburg and Frankfurt using a biofuel blend made from 50 percent hydro-treated vegetable oil. The flights will begin in April 2011 for six months as part of the "Burn Fair" project to study the long term impact of sustainable bio-fuels on aircraft performance. When burned, the fuel made from the biomass material emits the CO2 it naturally absorbs when it grows, thereby helping neutralize overall CO2 emissions. The biofuel is being provided by Finland-based Neste Oil and comes from sustainable sources to ensure the bio-feedstock does not compete for food, water nor land. Neste Oil is a member of RSB (Roundtable on Sustainable Biofuels) and RSPO (Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil). "We see great opportunities in the use of bio-synthetic kerosene. But we are first gathering experience with it in daily practice. Indeed, Lufthansa is the world's first airline to utilize biofuel in flight operations. This is a further consistent step in the sustainability strategy, which Lufthansa has for years been successfully pursuing," said Wolfgang Mayrhuber, Lufthansa CEO. "Daily biofuel flights are a significant step forward in our pursuit of a sustainable future for aviation. Airbus is bringing together feedstock producers, fuel refiners and airlines, and with today's announcement, we have taken yet another step towards making this real," added Tom Enders, Airbus president and CEO. Last October, an Airbus aircraft operated the first commercial flight of 50 percent blended Gas-to-Liquid (GTL), and in February 2008, an A380 aircraft successfully completed the world's first ever flight by a commercial aircraft using GTL. Now the manufacturer is launching engine options for a new version of the A320 - the A320neo - with either a LEAP-X engine by CFM International or a PurePower PW1100G engine by Pratt & Whitney. According to Airbus, the new engines are quieter, boast lower operating costs and will reduce fuel consumption by 15 percent. "Finding the necessary resources for the A320neo wasn't exactly a walk in the park," explained Enders. "The enabler was to devise a stringent phasing of critical engineering assets throughout our various development programs and to optimize the management and organization of all our programs and R&T projects. Our international engineering centers, suppliers and partners play a big role in this." Airbus officials forecast the market for A320neo-equipped aircraft expanding to 4,000 during the next 15 years.

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Wellington gob-coal plant permit hearing on December 7th
by Duane330＠aol.com 02 Dec '10

02 Dec '10

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> It is herewith proposed that MVCAC submit testimony in opposition to the 5-year extension of the permit for the Wellington gob burning power plant in Fayette County, PA, just a few miles north of Morgantown. Please let me know if you have comments. . . . . . . . Duane Nichols, MVCAC Spokesperson. Public Hearing on Plan to Construct Waste Coal-Fired Power Plant in Greene County On the evening of December 7th the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection will hold a public meeting and hear citizen testimony on Wellington Development LLC's proposal to build a 525 megawatt waste-coal-fired power plant in Nemacolin, Greene County, PA. If constructed, this facility would serve as a massive new source of pollution for Greene County and our region as a whole, including the Pittsburgh metropolitan area, Shenandoah National Park, the James River Face Wilderness Area, Dolly Sods, and Otter Creek Wilderness area. Wellington first received a permit to build the facility in 2005. (Several years ago GASP joined the Sierra Club, the National Parks Conservation Association, and the Chesapeake Bay Foundation in an ultimately unsuccessful legal effort to invalidate the 2005 permit). Five years later the plant still has not been constructed. Wellington is now seeking a 5-year extension on their construction permit. Our region is already out of attainment for fine particulates and ozone. If built this project would impose an additional air pollution burden on our region for decades to come. The PADEP hearing is scheduled for December 7th at United Mine Workers Hall 92 Pershing Boulevard Nemacolin PA, 15351 _(map)_ (http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?llr=izlefwcab&et=1104012270817&s=244&e=001fABDckg… R9QMDxcuu7Q2ULyFP8umfo6g7TJl_KO2gv5OMa5AK384h49sYfOkhzTUEgmEvkBMOtRNCgTEwGPg tmey_xoY5SFiMl3R9cYiRqohq3l3DZzwyjP0RDwUWlQHGFOggCagBU2WvncXCiPAdhqhWxKXjTgB O0o8fW1r-T9B6ORmRM4Ixvl7-GHkETolevXug3-gN8L6IfLTAHACVo2-ZXdCJRuzF94JZ5cVnwpY 4VRUygODHbxETMy4FRyWdVwepG0z-zvulDmLfeZUBfHFQKk9a18qO-EUCNT5l72IRVrec1q9w0h- mOs0ThHE4EAM7VrXpoUbLO6qXCXub42MhjlMNemVe6R4BvUqqyW8pSGvoNf29TIPy8zp_Hv7x8Rd qJijBmp8T8M9dOMtgfOJxfxBaKAbodiD4N1Q==) An informational meeting will start at 6:00 p.m., public testimony will start at 7:00 p.m. Those wishing to present oral testimony during the hearing should contact Community Relations Coordinator Katherine Gresh, at (412) 442-4000, before December 7, 2010 to register. Commentators should provide three written copies of their remarks to aid in transcription. Each commenter's oral testimony shall be limited to 10 minutes. More information on the project is available in the _Pennsylvania Bulletin _ (http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?llr=izlefwcab&et=1104012270817&s=244&e=001fABDckg… DywhkjFWH2EDS4kEZRFDcCxfjWYmmCDft9H3w-QaEdhK7je3yLYA9QUWLdEONJ4lVMGCBzOC2fMP ukOXn_oiv9TdPSs=) (search for Wellington)

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Fwd: CA GOP Recovery Plan
by James Kotcon 26 Nov '10

26 Nov '10

This is from my father-in-law in California. I wonder if we could find some WV Republicans who might get on board? JBK >>> "Bob Elliott" <rdelliott(a)socal.rr.com> 11/26/2010 2:16 PM >>> latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-trounstine-california-republica201 01126,0,2900700.story latimes.com Op-Ed A California GOP recovery program Its trouncing in the Nov. 2 election shows that the state's voters aren't interested in 'tea party' stances; Republicans should pursue a more centrist approach. By Phil Trounstine and Jerry Roberts November 26, 2010 In the wake of the disastrous showing by Meg Whitman, Carly Fiorina and the rest of the California Republican Party ticket, the leaders of the Golden State GOP should recalibrate their politics and policies to become relevant once again. The state's Republicans are now so trapped in their ideological hall of mirrors that they have become a distorted caricature of themselves. The midterm election demonstrated that they utterly fail to reflect the impulses of the vast majority of California voters, who tend toward fiscal conservatism and social moderation. Many Republican values have a wide following: smaller government, lower taxes, reduced regulation, economic growth, individual freedom and law and order, to name a few. The California GOP should fight for these ideals. But it needs to incorporate them into a platform that begins with a realistic growth agenda. Investment in roads, bridges, dams and/or levees, ports, water projects, redevelopment projects and schools and universities - all of these things and more are wholly consistent with their philosophical worldview. The party's fixation on opposing everything the Democrats propose is hurting Republicans more than it is their opponents. The GOP should take the lead in advocating an economic rebound strategy that relies on Silicon Valley innovation, green jobs and high-tech research and development. The party could integrate this with increased exports for a growing agricultural sector and a healthy and expanding service economy. Republicans don't have to continually serve the interests of the wealthiest 2% of California families; they can focus also on the struggling middle class. And they need to remember that California is not Kentucky or Alaska or any other state where the so-called tea party is a big deal. In California, tea party ideology has little appeal to the vast majority of voters. It's time for leaders of the California Republican Party to rethink their general strategy and agenda. Here are some ideas it should consider: .A change of position on providing a path to citizenship. The party should strongly favor securing the borders against illegal immigration; that's a matter of defending our national sovereignty and integrity. But that position doesn't need to be in conflict with extending eventual citizenship to some of those who are currently living here illegally. Just as the Republican Party was the Northern standard-bearer for the abolition of slavery in the 1850s and 1860s, so the California Republican Party could advocate for citizenship for honest working men and women who have come to the U.S. to make better lives for themselves and their families. According to the Los Angeles Times/USC postelection survey, about 8 in 10 Latinos, half the independents and even 4 in 10 Republicans support a path to citizenship. Even greater percentages support other ideas for integrating illegal immigrants. Republicans are driving away Latinos - nearly a quarter of the voters - with their anti-immigrant policies and rhetoric. .Getting on board with green jobs and environmental conservation. By arguing that people must pick between the environment and economic development, Republicans are creating a false choice. And voters know it. California Republicans have made fighting environmental regulation a cause. But plenty of people, including George Shultz and the late David Packard, have demonstrated that you can be a rock-ribbed Republican and also favor preserving and enhancing the environment. Of course, environmentalism has to be balanced against other competing interests, such as healthy agriculture, water supplies for cities and reasonable growth in and around urban areas. But pragmatic environmentalism could win the party votes. .Developing a bench. The party should start grooming young, bright, articulate Republicans throughout the state. It should teach them about practical politics, polling and other insider skills. It should train them in how to talk to reporters and how to think on their feet and answer questions without betraying their ignorance. It should teach them how to talk to ordinary people without sounding as if they're preaching or reciting talking points. In other words, the GOP should do what big-time college athletic programs do: recruit. .Changing the party's stance on abortion. There's a way to move to the center on this issue. The party could support a woman's right to choose in line with Roe vs. Wade without endorsing or even supporting abortion. The idea that abortion is a moral choice is not incompatible with the idea that this moral choice must be made by individuals, not the state. The party could also focus on reducing the number of abortions by supporting rather than opposing family planning. Barry Goldwater did. The party's goal should be to build a coalition based on an overarching goal of reducing the number of abortions rather than wasting breath yammering about abstinence and opposing sex education for teens. .Sounding sensible, not strident. The problem with the tea party rhetoric is that it sounds like the ravings of a crazy old uncle who really ought to be locked in the attic. The vast majority of California voters are moderate, independent-minded, practical people. They don't much care if an idea comes from a Democrat or a Republican. They care if it works. They're not against government; they want just enough of it to handle the important things. They're not opposed to all taxes; they're opposed to taxes that seem unfair, onerous or overly broad. They want to control the borders, but they also want to be fair to people who have worked hard to make a living, no matter where they come from. They're not pro-abortion, but they want women and their doctors - not Assembly members and state senators - to make choices about the life and death of fetuses. California voters are tired of people running for office who sound as if they think they know everything and whose answers are purely ideological. The Republicans need to have a hard head. But they also need to demonstrate a soft heart. And maybe a touch of humility. Phil Trounstine and Jerry Roberts write regularly about politics at their website, calbuzz.com. This article was adapted from one of their posts. Copyright C 2010, Los Angeles Times <http://www.latimes.com/> http://secure-us.imrworldwide.com/cgi-bin/m?ci=us-400338h&cg=0&cc=1&ts=noscr ipt

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Nissan Leaf Commercial
by James Kotcon 24 Nov '10

24 Nov '10

This is also pretty cool. Maybe I missed it as it apparently has been out for a while, but it is worth watching. This is how we should be doing our messaging. JBK http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNeEVkhTutY

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Fwd: electric vehicle charging stations w "solar trees"
by James Kotcon 24 Nov '10

24 Nov '10

>>> Paula Carrell <Paula.Carrell(a)sierraclub.org> 11/23/2010 7:32 PM >>> OK, this is seriously cool . . . http://sierraclub.typepad.com/compass/2010/11/envision-solar.html and an interesting way to counter the fear that EVs will end up increasing (coal-fired) power plant demand not necessarily . . . I want a "solar tree" at home pc

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Fwd: WVNS story: Massey's Violations Hurting its Bottom Line?
by Paul Wilson 22 Nov '10

22 Nov '10

Massey CEO was also subject of a Morning Edition piece on Saturday morning NPR. fyi, paul ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Public News Service <wvns(a)newsservice.org> Date: Mon, Nov 22, 2010 at 4:44 AM Subject: WVNS story: Massey's Violations Hurting its Bottom Line? To: PaulWilson <pjgrunt(a)gmail.com> Public News Service-WV November 22, 2010 Massey's Violations Hurting its Bottom Line? CHARLESTON, W.Va. - The coal-mining company Massey Energy is apparently up for sale, and shareholders may not be thankful for the company's record of violations of law and regulations. The company confirms it is now seriously considering takeover offers, and a number of stock watchers say privately that Massey's environmental and mine safety problems have cost it. Rob McGarrah, who follows stocks for the huge *AFL-CIO* pension funds, says accidents and environmental violations cause down-time and run up huge legal fees. "Contesting every single violation, questioning the legality of the enforcement efforts on the part of federal and state officials: None of this is good for productivity. It's not good for the overall health of the company." No one at Massey returned a call requesting comment. The company has fought with the unions before, but McGarrah says Massey could be a better neighbor and more profitable if it were less combative. Speaking to investors last week, company CEO Don Blankenship claimed that their finances have been hurt by regulations that he says target Massey. "Practices that we've employed at Massey successfully for years, that improve health and safety, are now being discarded; that's as well as the fact that environmental regulations have reached the point that they're fully unreasonable." According to McGarrah, other large coal operators seem to have fewer of these problems. "Other companies, and we are invested in them, do not have anywhere near the same troubles with federal investigations or federal mine safety enforcement." Over the last ten years shares in such mining companies as Consol, Peabody and Arch Coal have shown a tremendous rise. But even before the accident at its Upper Big Branch mine last April which focused national attention on the firm and its record, Massey Energy's share price was about where it had been a decade before. Click here to view this story on the Public News Service RSS site and access an audio version of this and other stories: http://www.publicnewsservice.org/index.php?/content/article/17060-1<http://www.publicnewsservice.org/index.php?/content/article/17060-1> --- To be removed from this list please send an e-mail to remove(a)publicnewsservice.org <remove(a)publicnewsservice.org?subject=remove>and put the word "remove" in the subject line. -- Paul Wilson Sierra Club 504 Jefferson Ave Charles Town, WV 25414-1130 Phone: 304-725-4360 Cell: 304-279-1361 "There is no forward until you have gone back" ~Buddha "In all things of nature there is something of the marvelous" ~ Aristotle

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Fw: [fom] Fwd: [NoCoal] Wind in the heart of King Coal
by Frank Young 21 Nov '10

21 Nov '10

----- Original Message ----- From: Frank Young To: Daniel Chiotos ; FOM Cc: ec(a)osenergy.org Sent: Sunday, November 21, 2010 5:51 PM Subject: Re: [fom] Fwd: [NoCoal] Wind in the heart of King Coal Danny, When a potential electrical power developer- whether wind, solar or coal powered- gets to looking into a specific generating facility location, one of the first things the developer does is to apply to regional grid operator (known as PJM in this 13 state region) for a technical analysis of how much power could be put on the power grid from that location utilizing the existing transmission line infrastructure. This is done far in advance of applying for any permits. I know of some potential wind power locations that had this PJM grid connection analysis done nearly ten years ago- Rich Mountain in Randolph County, for example- yet no permits applications have even been filed for this location. Sometimes these power grid analyses show that significant megawatts of electricity can be put on the grid with little or no additional transmission line construction. This was the case at the Mt. Storm Shell-Nedpower wind farm in Tucker County. That facility was built such that it crossed directly under an existing 500 KV transmission line. All that was needed was construction of a power substation that was tied directly into the existing transmission line there. On the other hand, at the Beech Ridge wind farm facility in Greenbrier County, Invenergy had to construct almost 20 miles of its own transmission line to connect with an existing APCo transmission line near Nettie in Nicholas County. And some perhaps otherwise good wind locations are so far from transmission lines that it would be costs prohibitive to develop that site and costructuct and maintain the additional transmission lines necessary to connect to the existing power grid. My main point is that just because a potential power developer asks PJM for a technical analysis of grid capacity in the area, it does not mean that construction nor even a permit application is imminent. Although PJM keeps these transmission access technically analyzed locations on its website indefinitely, it does not mean that the sites will ever be developed. Some will sooner, some will later, and some will probably never be developed for technical, financial or other reasons. Frank Young, member Beech Ridge Wind Technical Advisory Committee for WV Sierra Club ----- Original Message ----- From: Daniel Chiotos To: FOM Sent: Sunday, November 21, 2010 3:01 PM Subject: [fom] Fwd: [NoCoal] Wind in the heart of King Coal can anyone ID the renewable energy projects that this map shows & the current state of them? This map looks like way more wind than I've heard of - so I'm wondering whether it is tracking wind that is in every state of the permit? Check out the map, pretty interesting...I wonder how many jobs would be developed if all of these renewable energy projects came to be... link is below Cheers, Daniel Chiotos Keeper of the Mountains Foundation Operations Director http://www.mountainkeeper.org 179 Summers St, Suite 234 Charleston, WV, 25301 (304)886-3389 - cell (304)205-0920 - office "WE ARE THE KEEPERS OF THE MOUNTAINS, LOVE THEM OR LEAVE THEM, JUST DON'T DESTROY THEM. IF YOU DARE TO BE ONE TOO, CALL 304-542-1134 OR 304-205-0920." - Larry Gibson ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Ted Nace <ted(a)tednace.com> Date: Sun, Nov 21, 2010 at 2:55 PM Subject: [NoCoal] Wind in the heart of King Coal To: nonewcoalplants(a)energyjustice.net The PJM regional transmission organization is tracking 39,000 MW of proposed wind (more than all other proposed renewable and nonrenewable generation sources combined) in Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia and the District of Columbia. See this interactive map for details. _______________________________________________ No New Coal Plants! (nonewcoalplants(a)energyjustice.net) Energy Justice Network http://www.energyjustice.net Un/Subscribe, change your settings or access the archives at: http://energyjustice.net/mailman/listinfo/nonewcoalplants_energyjustice.net

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Fwd: [WVaPATH] Zoning exception denied in MD for PATH substation
by James Kotcon 20 Nov '10

20 Nov '10

In case you have not heard. JBK >>> Bill Howley <billhowley(a)hughes.net> 11/19/2010 7:13 AM >>> Last night, the Frederick County, MD Board of Zoning Appeals _denied_ a special zoning exception that would have allowed the construction of the huge Kemptown Substation at the eastern end of PATH. This is a serious setback for PATH. Allegheny will no doubt go to state court to fight this. The MD PSC has already claimed sole authority to site the substation in Frederick County, although state law may not let them do that. There will clearly be a major court fight pitting the Frederick County Commission against AEP/Allegheny and the MD PSC. This will cause serious problems for PATH in MD.

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W.Va. board temporarily blocks ICG mine water permit
by Frank Young 18 Nov '10

18 Nov '10

This will be of interest to Jim Kotcon and perhaps others of you. This action springs directly from a Sierra Club legal appeal. Frank ----- Original Message ----- From: Cindy Rank To: WVHCBOARD(a)yahoogroups.com Sent: Thursday, November 18, 2010 5:37 PM Subject: [WVHCBOARD] ICG Patriot Mining Mine in northern WV --- using coal ash in backfill;;; http://blogs.wvgazette.com/coaltattoo/ W.Va. board temporarily blocks ICG mine November 18, 2010 by Ken Ward Jr. Word is just coming in that West Virginia’s Environmental Quality Board has temporarily blocked a water pollution permit for International Coal Group subsidiary Patriot Mining Company’s New Hill West Mine up in Monongalia County. I’ve posted a copy of the board’s order here, a copy of a motion for stay here and International Coal Group’s response to that motion here. Sierra Club lawyers sought the temporary stay because the company had planned to begin blasting tomorrow, and a hearing on the group’s appear of the water pollution permit was not scheduled to begin until mid-December. The water permit in question already covers discharges from five previously approved surface mining permits, and now Patriot Mining wants to add another 225-acre operation that would discharge into Scotts Run of the Monongahela River drainage. If you take a minute and read the original notice of appeal filed by the Sierra Club, you’ll see that this case has the potential to be pretty darned interesting. The appeal cites, among other things, what the Sierra Club says it the mine’s inability to meet the new water quality standards outlined in EPA’s major guidance document on conductivity. __._,_.___ Reply to sender | Reply to group | Reply via web post | Start a New Topic Messages in this topic (1) Recent Activity: Visit Your Group Working since 1967 for the conservation and wise management of West Virginia's natural resources Switch to: Text-Only, Daily Digest • Unsubscribe • Terms of Use. __,_._,___

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Fwd: [wvec-board] Officials Seek Stronger Drilling Rules
by James Kotcon 14 Nov '10

14 Nov '10

See attached news item from Don Garvin regarding legislation. Now is a good time for some letters to the editor saying that these rules are very reasonable and are easily achievable by the industry, but that they will of course claim that the sky is falling and that this is the end of their industry. JBK

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coal to gas news
by Jim Sconyers 14 Nov '10

14 Nov '10

Jim Sconyers jim_scon(a)yahoo.com 304.698.9628 Remember: Mother Nature bats last. ----- Forwarded Message ---- From: Vivian Stockman <vivian(a)ohvec.org> To: fom(a)lists.riseup.net Sent: Sun, November 14, 2010 5:38:11 AM Subject: Developments casts doubt on Baard project Developments casts doubt on Baard project

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Fw: 2011 Green Jobs Conference Workshops Now Available
by Jim Sconyers 12 Nov '10

12 Nov '10

SC has "scholarships" for members who want to go. Jim Sconyers jim_scon(a)yahoo.com 304.698.9628 Remember: Mother Nature bats last. ----- Forwarded Message ---- From: David Foster <event-information(a)certain.com> To: Jim Sconyers <jim_scon(a)yahoo.com> Sent: Fri, November 12, 2010 12:01:11 PM Subject: 2011 Green Jobs Conference Workshops Now Available Good Jobs, Green Jobs National Conference and Expo 2010 Dear Jim, A while back we emailed to let you know that registration was open for the 2011 Good Jobs, Green Jobs National Conference, which is being held February 8-10 in Washington, D.C. Now, we are excited to announce that the workshop program is now available to view online. We encourage you to register for the 2011 Conference now to be sure to take advantage of this once-a-year opportunity. Every year, the Good Jobs, Green Jobs Conference brings together stakeholders from across the spectrum of those working to create good, green jobs across the country. This year, we again received hundreds of proposals, and after careful review, have selected the most interesting and informative sessions that will truly define what is happening now in this critical green jobs effort. The 2011 Good Jobs, Green Jobs National Conference is the leading forum for sharing ideas and strategies for building the green economy. This year’s Conference — focused on putting these ideas into practice and creating good green jobs across the country — will bring together leaders from the labor, environmental, government and business communities for a discussion on how to move our economy forward with good, safe jobs that help to protect the environment for the next generation. This year’s workshops represent important concentrations in building the green economy, including: Green Infrastructure and Transportation; State and Local Initiatives and Partnerships; Workforce, Economic Development and Youth Education; Emerging Green Sectors: Recycling, Chemicals, Water, Agriculture and Other Growing Industries; Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency; Business, Investments and New Markets; and Clean Energy Manufacturing. Register today, check back to www.greenjobsconference.org for updates, and follow us on Twitter or Facebook for the the latest news about the 2011 Conference. See you in February. Sincerely, David Foster BlueGreen Alliance Registration Powered by Certain Meetings Event Management Software :: Online Event Management :: Online Registration Meeting Management Software :: Conference Registration :: Event Planner Software © 2009 Certain Software ®, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Privacy Policy.

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powerful letter from EPA's Lisa jackson
by Jim Sconyers 12 Nov '10

12 Nov '10

I found this response to Republican attack amazing. Jim Sconyers jim_scon(a)yahoo.com 304.698.9628 Remember: Mother Nature bats last.

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Fwd: from the Center for Media and Democracy: Natural Gas and Money, a "Bacteria that Ills the American System"
by Paul Wilson 11 Nov '10

11 Nov '10

CMD Reports Natural Gas and Money, a "Bacteria that Ills the American System"<http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=FS5r3ewNYRykmDL8uO0v…> by Steve Horn Money, plain and simple, is what Salon.com blogger Glenn Greenwald<http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=3Z8HzJnFvS3EOwXoeYco…>called "the bacteria that ills the American political system" in a talk<http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=YXh171UwM4MZ%2F%2F9n…>given at the University of Wisconsin-Madison on November 3, 2010. Indeed, when looking at issues individually, one can see that this is obviously the case, whether it be health care<http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=3JLOTJrOAiR0lAGipSiD…>, Wall Street<http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=emmsvp%2FnKdSLa2eKlG…>, war<http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=kMN%2FKZifrrym1evjIy…>, or on national security issues<http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=Kfb80oclXd9JroAzwPia…>. It's all the same and he who pays the piper calls the tune<http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=YLzxI1kuu8BcXhTplaxY…>. Should anyone be surprised, then, that every statewide race in Pennsylvania<http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=FNC8wo2PDfO3LUOLpfJh…>, a state in which there are no limits on campaign contributions<http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=zwkMezzIYrhJwizYOlJp…>, was ruthlessly barraged<http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=Py5OEhmWILlpQo2GmRkc…>by campaign money from oil companies? If you're surprised, you clearly haven't had your eyes open during other election cycles<http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=VUrJ0R%2F4DwtlIdo1jd…> . Read the rest of this item<http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=LOQ3Dk2Aw9lrryDdRjl%…> -- Paul Wilson Sierra Club 504 Jefferson Ave Charles Town, WV 25414-1130 Phone: 304-725-4360 Cell: 304-279-1361 "There is no forward until you have gone back" ~Buddha "In all things of nature there is something of the marvelous" ~ Aristotle

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Fwd: The Atlantic: Dirty Coal, Clean Future
by James Kotcon 10 Nov '10

10 Nov '10

Long, but worth reading. This pretty directly conflicts with the Sierra Club position that we need to end the burning of coal by 2050, but it is pretty in line with industry and US-DOE positions. JBK >>> Oliver Bernstein <oliver.bernstein(a)SIERRACLUB.ORG> 11/10/2010 11:15 AM >>> http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2010/12/dirty-coal-clean-future… Dirty Coal, Clean Future To environmentalists, “clean coal” is an insulting oxymoron. But for now, the only way to meet the world’s energy needs, and to arrest climate change before it produces irreversible cataclysm, is to use coal—dirty, sooty, toxic coal—in more-sustainable ways. The good news is that new technologies are making this possible. China is now the leader in this area, the Google and Intel of the energy world. If we are serious about global warming, America needs to work with China to build a greener future on a foundation of coal. Otherwise, the clean-energy revolution will leave us behind, with grave costs for the world’s climate and our economy. By James Fallows Through the past four years I’ve often suggested that China’s vaunted achievements are less impressive, or at least more complicated, seen up close. Yes, Chinese factories make nearly all of the world’s consumer electronic equipment. But the brand names, designs, and most of the profits usually belong to companies and people outside China. Yes, China’s accumulated trade surpluses have made it the creditor for America and much of the world. But the huge share of its own wealth that China has sunk into foreign economies ties its fate to theirs. Yes, more and more Chinese people are very rich. But hundreds of millions of Chinese people are still very poor. Yes, Chinese factories lead the world in output of windmills and solar-power panels. But China’s environmental situation is still so dire as to pose the main threat not just to the country’s public health and political stability but also to its own economic expansion. This report will have a different tone. I have been learning about an area of Chinese achievement that is objectively good for the world as a whole, including the United States. Surprising enough! And China’s achievement dramatically highlights a structural advantage of its approach and a weakness of America’s. It involves the shared global effort to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions, of which China and the United States are respectively the No. 1 and No. 2 producers, together creating more than 40 percent of the world’s total output. That shared effort is real, and important. The significant Chinese developments involve more than the “clean tech” boom that Americans have already heard so much about. Instead a different, less publicized, and much less appealing-sounding effort may matter even more in determining whether the United States and China can cooperate to reduce emissions. This involves not clean tech but the dirtiest of today’s main energy sources—coal. Mining coal is notoriously dangerous, the remnants of those mines disfigure the Earth, and the by-products of coal’s combustion fill the air not simply with soot, smoke, and carbon dioxide but also with toxic heavy metals like mercury and lead, plus corrosive oxides of nitrogen and sulfur, among other pollutants. When I visited coal towns in China’s Shandong and Shanxi provinces, my face, arms, and hands would be rimed in black by the end of each day—even when I hadn’t gone near a mine. People in those towns, like their predecessors in industrial-age Europe and America, have the same black coating on their throats and lungs, of course. When I have traveled at low altitude in small airplanes above America’s active coal-mining regions—West Virginia and Kentucky in the East, Wyoming and its neighbors in the Great Basin region of the West—I’ve seen the huge scars left by “mountain-top removal” and open-pit mining for coal, which are usually invisible from the road and harder to identify from six miles up in an airliner. Compared with most other fossil-fuel sources of energy, coal is inherently worse from a carbon-footprint perspective, since its hydrogen atoms come bound with more carbon atoms, meaning that coal starts with a higher carbon-to-hydrogen ratio than oil, natural gas, or other hydrocarbons. The proposition that coal could constitute any kind of “hope” or solution, or that a major environmentalist action plan could be called “Coal Without Carbon,” as one I will describe is indeed named—this goes beyond seeming interestingly contrarian to seeming simply wrong. For the coal industry, the term “clean coal” is an advertising slogan; for many in the environmental movement, it is an insulting oxymoron. But two ideas that underlie the term are taken with complete seriousness by businesses, scientists, and government officials in China and America, and are the basis of the most extensive cooperation now under way between the countries on climate issues. One is that coal can be used in less damaging, more sustainable ways than it is now. The other is that it must be used in those ways, because there is no plausible other way to meet what will be, absent an economic or social cataclysm, the world’s unavoidable energy demands. This is not an argument against all-out effort on all other fronts, from conservation and efficiency to improved battery technology to wind- and solar-power systems to improved nuclear facilities. Amory Lovins, of the Rocky Mountain Institute, has argued for years that designing buildings and transportation systems to waste less energy from the start is by far the cheapest way to reduce damaging emissions (a position reinforced by influential studies from McKinsey & Company). “Good ideas about climate change are not in competition with one another,” Roger Aines, a climate scientist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, told me when I visited this summer. “We need every possible solution, and then we need more.” This is an argument for recognizing that China has faced reality, in launching an all-out effort to “decarbonize” coal—and for recognizing America’s difficulty in doing the same. 37 Billion Tons Let’s review the basics. This material will be elementary for some readers and controversial for a few others, but laying it out helps clarify the problem to be solved and the real options from which to choose. Also, the quantities and numbers involved here are so vast—the standard unit in discussing carbon-dioxide emissions is the gigaton, or 1 billion metric tons—that it helps to have some indicators of scale. All human activity together puts roughly 37 billion tons (37 gigatons) of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere each year. That number has been rising, as the world’s population grows and the number of cars, factories, and power plants increases. Twenty years ago, it was less than 25 billion tons. Twenty years from now, it could well be 50 billion tons. Carbon dioxide is not the only greenhouse gas—that is, a substance that affects the atmosphere’s ability to absorb and emit heat, so that a growing portion of the sun’s energy is trapped to warm the planet rather than radiating back into space. Methane, nitrous oxide, aerosols, and other emissions play a major role, and ton per ton can be more powerful in greenhouse effect. But the focus is on carbon dioxide because we produce so much of it, and because its effects are so long-lasting. Carbon dioxide added to the atmosphere persists for many decades, even centuries—unlike methane, which can disperse within a single decade. This means that when more carbon dioxide is emitted than natural systems absorb, the concentration in the atmosphere continually goes up. Before James Watt invented the steam engine in the late 1700s—that is, before human societies had much incentive to burn coal and later oil in large quantities—the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere was around 280 parts per million, or ppm (meaning 280 carbon-dioxide molecules per million molecules of “dried air,” or air with the water removed). It is thought to have fluctuated between about 180 and 280 ppm through the previous 800,000 years. By 1900, as Europe and North America were industrializing, it had reached about 300 ppm. Now the carbon-dioxide concentration is at or above 390 ppm, which is probably the highest level in many millions of years. “We know that the last time CO2 was sustained at this level, much of the Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets were not there,” Michael Mann, a climate scientist at Penn State, told me. Because of the 37 billion annual tons of carbon-dioxide emissions, the atmospheric carbon-dioxide level continues to go up by about two ppm a year. For perspective: by the time today’s sixth-graders finish high school, the world carbon-dioxide level will probably have passed 400 ppm, and by the time most of them are starting families, it will have entered the 420s. Have we so far come across anything that is “controversial”? No: such political controversy as exists mainly concerns the exact connection between rising carbon-dioxide levels and future climate change, and how harmful (and to whom) that change would be. That the atmospheric carbon-dioxide level is rapidly going up, and that recent years have been on average the warmest in recorded history, no one bothers to dispute. And in any case, all parties to the negotiations I’m describing, including the heads of the major coal-mining and electric-power utilities in the United States and China, accept as settled fact that greenhouse-gas emissions are an emergency they must confront, because of the likely disruptive effects on the world’s climate. At a U.S.-China environmental conference this summer in San Francisco, I heard one utility-company official after another testify, confession-meeting style, about the vast extent of their current emissions and their need to reform. The main uncertainties involve what might happen as carbon-dioxide levels reach 450 ppm and above. In particular, the question is how and when “positive feedback” loops would kick in, so that the hotter things get, the faster they will get even hotter. The main way this would happen would be through melting of the polar ice sheets, which would mean less white ice surface to reflect the sun’s heat, and more blue water surface to absorb it. Similarly, the vast Arctic permafrost areas could have a positive-feedback effect as they thaw. They are essentially frozen peat bogs, which contain huge amounts of methane. As they began to melt, they would release their methane, which in turn could trigger even faster melting and more methane release. “The reality of it is that in many cases, there may not be any fixed threshold for ‘irreversible’ change,” Michael Mann told me. “What we have with rising CO2 levels in general is a dramatically increasing probability of serious and deleterious change in our climate.” He went down the list: more frequent, severe, and sustained heat waves, like those that affected Russia and the United States this summer; more frequent and destructive hurricanes and floods; more frequent droughts, like the “thousand-year drought” that has devastated Australian agriculture; and altered patterns of the El Niño phenomenon, which will change rainfall patterns in the Americas. In other cases, he said, there could be important thresholds. For example, the possibility of dramatic rises in ocean levels, which could affect the habitability of New York, London, Shanghai, Miami, the entire Netherlands, and many other modern conurbations, along with coastal areas in India, Bangladesh, and elsewhere. “It would be nice to know where such thresholds are so we can avoid crossing them,” Mann said. “We can’t know that. What we do know for certain is that with each fraction of a degree of warming, the probability of such potentially catastrophic outcomes goes up.” The Inevitability of Coal That’s the big picture. Now come the parts of the background that are somewhat less familiar but bear on the argument that the only real salvation must involve coal. Recall the 37 billion tons of worldwide annual carbon-dioxide emissions. On a per capita basis, that would mean about six tons for each of the planet’s 6-billion-plus people. But of course it doesn’t work that way. For the United States, emissions are about 25 tons per person. For Europe as a whole, they’re about 11 tons. (The difference is smaller houses, smaller cars, fewer sprawling suburbs, and in the case of France, much heavier reliance on nuclear power to generate electricity. Nuclear plants are expensive and obviously create waste-disposal problems, but they emit practically no greenhouse gases.) Japan’s level is slightly below Europe’s. For China, the emission level is about eight tons per person. Overall, China’s economy is more energy-intensive than America’s or Europe’s—its bias toward construction and heavy manufacturing, plus its on-average shoddy standard of building insulation, mean that it takes more fuel, electricity, and raw energy to produce a dollar’s worth of output in China than in the U.S. But overall living standards are still so much lower in China that per capita emissions there are barely one-third the U.S. level. India’s per capita emission level is about three tons per year, less than half of China’s (because India has so many fewer factories). For Kenya and other barely industrialized countries, it’s about one ton per person per year. The range of these figures suggests the technical challenges ahead. As one climate scientist put it to me, “To stabilize the CO2 concentration in the atmosphere, the whole world on average would need to get down to the Kenya level”—a 96 percent reduction for the United States. The figures also suggest the diplomatic challenges for American negotiators in recommending that other countries, including those with hundreds of millions in poverty, forgo the energy-intensive path toward wealth that the United States has traveled for so many years. Indeed, in comparisons between the United States and China, the emissions figures probably understate the real gap in per capita energy use. David Mohler is the chief technology officer for Duke Energy Company, which is based in Charlotte and is a leading electricity and natural-gas provider in the Carolinas and parts of the Midwest. He travels frequently to China, and he took me through a comparison of electricity use in the two countries, as a proxy for overall energy use and emissions. At face value, he said, there was about a 5-to-1 difference between U.S. and Chinese per capita electricity-use levels. Each American is on average responsible for about 13.6 megawatt-hours of electricity use per year, counting residential heating and lighting, a pro-rated share of industrial and commercial demand, and so on. For each Chinese, the average is about 2.6. “But around half of that Chinese electricity consumption was for manufactured products for export,” Mohler said. That is, China’s surge in electric capacity has disproportionately gone toward its factory- export boom, rather than toward home air-conditioning and lighting, elevators, TVs and computers, electric cars, or any other in-China use by Chinese people (though to see a blazingly lit Chinese city at night is to recognize that plenty of power is already being used). “So in a sense, their ‘real’ per capita use is only about 1.5 megawatt-hours,” Mohler said, “and ours, counting what went into the products we import, could be 10 times that much.” Mohler’s point was less about abstract equity than practical reality. People in rural China, in my experience, don’t really care that people somewhere else—Los Angeles or Houston, even Shanghai or Tianjin—are using more electricity and gasoline than they are. They just want to use more themselves! I assume the same to be true of their counterparts from Nigeria to India to North Korea. “You go in the countryside in China, and people don’t have any power to pump their water,” Mohler said. “Of course they’re going to want those powered pumps. Anyone would.” And hot water for their baths, and refrigerators for their kitchens, and air-conditioners for their bedrooms—and cars. Thus the bind. The atmosphere needs to absorb dramatically less carbon dioxide, while people around the world are certain to want dramatically more of the products and comforts whose creation and operation send carbon dioxide and other gases into the sky. Isn’t “clean energy” the answer? Of course—because everything is the answer. The people I spoke with and reports I read differed in emphasis, sometimes significantly. Some urged greater stress on efficiency and conservation; some, a faster move toward nuclear power or natural gas; some, an all-out push for solar power and other renewable sources; others, immediate preparation for “geo-engineering” or “abatement” projects to offset the effects of climate disruption once they occur. But in a sense they were all in harmony, because everything on all the lists works toward the same end. The best-known illustration of the need for an all-fronts approach is the “carbon wedge” analysis from the Carbon Mitigation Initiative at Princeton. Its premise is that to keep the carbon-dioxide level from going into the 500s, or twice its pre-industrial-age level, over the next 50 years, the world collectively will need to reduce its carbon-dioxide emissions by a total of about 26 billion tons per year. (Technically, CMI measures its goals in billions of tons of carbon contained within the carbon dioxide. For clarity, I’ve converted the figures.) To reach that total, CMI proposes seven “stabilization wedges” of a little less than 4 billion tons of carbon dioxide each. A 4-billion-ton “wedge” through efficiency efforts of all kinds; another wedge of that size through renewable power; another through avoiding deforestation and changing agricultural practices. Eventually it adds up. “There are many good options,” Julio Friedmann, a geologist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, told me soon after I first met him in Beijing two years ago. “But there are no unlimited options. Each is limited by cost, limited by scale, limited by physics and chemistry, limited by thermodynamics. For example, there’s nothing wrong with switchgrass as a biofuel”—one of George W. Bush’s novel proposals—“but there’s not a lot of energy in it.” We’ll hear from Friedmann again. This emphasis on limits is what begins pointing us back to coal. “Emotionally, we would all like to think that wind, solar, and conservation will solve the problem for us,” David Mohler of Duke Energy told me. “Nothing will change, our comfort and convenience will be the same, and we can avoid that nasty coal. Unfortunately, the math doesn’t work that way.” The math he has in mind starts with the role that coal now plays around the world, and especially for the two biggest energy consumers, America and China. Overall, coal-burning power plants provide nearly half (about 46 percent this year) of the electricity consumed in the United States. For the record: natural gas supplies another 23 percent, nuclear power about 20 percent, hydroelectric power about 7 percent, and everything else the remaining 4 or 5 percent. The small size of the “everything else” total is worth noting; even if it doubles or triples, the solutions we often hear the most about won’t come close to meeting total demand. In China, coal-fired plants supply an even larger share of much faster-growing total electric demand: at least 70 percent, with the Three Gorges Dam and similar hydroelectric projects providing about 20 percent, and (in order) natural gas, nuclear power, wind, and solar energy making up the small remainder. For the world as a whole, coal-fired plants provide about half the total electric supply. On average, every American uses the electricity produced by 7,500 pounds of coal each year. Precisely because coal already plays such a major role in world power supplies, basic math means that it will inescapably do so for a very long time. For instance: through the past decade, the United States has talked about, passed regulations in favor of, and made technological breakthroughs in all fields of renewable energy. Between 1995 and 2008, the amount of electricity coming from solar power rose by two-thirds in the United States, and wind-generated electricity went up more than 15-fold. Yet over those same years, the amount of electricity generated by coal went up much faster, in absolute terms, than electricity generated from any other source. The journalist Robert Bryce has drawn on U.S. government figures to show that between 1995 and 2008, “the absolute increase in total electricity produced by coal was about 5.8 times as great as the increase from wind and 823 times as great as the increase from solar”—and this during the dawn of the green-energy era in America. Power generated by the wind and sun increased significantly in America last year; but power generated by coal increased more than seven times as much. As Americans have read many times, Chinese companies are the world’s leaders in manufacturing solar panels, often using technology originally developed in the United States. Many of the panels are used inside China for its own rapidly growing solar-power system; still, solar energy accounts for about 1 percent of its total power supply. In his book PowerHungry, Bryce describes a visit to a single coal mine, the Cardinal Mine in western Kentucky, whose daily output supports three-quarters as much electricity generation as all the solar and wind facilities in the United States combined. David MacKay, of the physics department at Cambridge University in England, has compiled an encyclopedia of such energy-related comparisons, which is available for free download (under the misleadingly lowbrow title Sustainable Energy—Without the Hot Air). For instance: he calculates that if the windiest 10 percent of the entire British landmass were completely covered with wind turbines, they would produce power roughly equivalent to half of what Britons expend merely by driving each day. Similar patterns apply even more starkly in China. Other sources of power are growing faster in relative terms, but year by year the most dramatic increase is in China’s use of coal. “Coal simply is going to be with us for decades,” a technical adviser to China’s energy ministry told me this summer in Beijing. “We hope someday to have 15 percent of our power from renewable sources. Even so, the percentage of power generated by coal will not drop by more than a few points, and the absolute amount will quickly grow.” Another government energy expert in Beijing said that the only serious limit on how fast Chinese power companies can increase their use of coal is the capacity of the country’s transportation system. “It’s kind of an existential question, whether they can handle the physical volumes they are planning to consume,” he said. “Right now railroads are at capacity, you have entire highways being blocked with coal trucks, and the problems cascade.” Part of the reason China has committed some $80 billion over the next decade to build light-rail networks across the country is to get human passengers off the main rail lines, opening up more capacity to move coal. “People without a technical background think, ‘Coal is dirty! It’s bad,’” I was told in Beijing by Ming Sung, a geologist and energy expert who was born in Shanghai, worked for decades in America and became a citizen, and has now returned to China. “But will you turn off your refrigerator for 30 years while we work on renewables? Turn off the computer? Or ask people in China to do that? Unless you will, you can’t get rid of coal for decades. As [U.S. Energy Secretary] Steven Chu has said, we have to face the nightmare of coal for a while.” Coal will be with us because it is abundant: any projected “peak coal” stage would come many decades after the world reaches “peak oil.” It will be with us because of where it’s located: the top four coal-reserve countries are the United States, Russia, China, and India, which together have about 40 percent of the world’s population and more than 60 percent of its coal. It will be with us because its direct costs are in most circumstances far lower than those of the alternatives—that’s why so much is used. (Prices vary widely from place to place and company to company, but one utility executive said that the lowest-price coal plant might generate electricity for 2 cents per kilowatt-hour, while the same amount of power from a new wind farm in the same area might cost 20 cents.) It will be with us because its indirect costs, in miner deaths, environmental destruction, and carbon burden on the atmosphere are unregulated and “externalized.” Power companies that answer to shareholders or ratepayers have a hard time justifying a more expensive choice. “Coal is so cheap because its dirtiness still doesn’t count against it,” an air-pollution expert with the Natural Resources Defense Council told The Wall Street Journal 10 years ago. In the absence of climate legislation in the United States and international agreements to reduce emissions, the dirtiness still doesn’t count. Coal will be with us because changing a power infrastructure—like building a new transportation system or extending cable or fiber-optic connections through an entire country—is the very opposite of a “virtual” process, and takes many years to complete. And it will be with us because of a surprising constraint: after a century in which medical diagnosis and treatment, computer and communications systems, aerospace and nanotech industries, and nearly every other form of technology have routinely achieved the magical, energy production is essentially what it was in the time of James Watt. With the main exception of nuclear-power plants and the hoped-for future exception of practical nuclear-fusion systems, we mostly create electricity by burning something that was once underground—coal, oil, natural gas—to boil water and turn turbines with the steam. (Windmills use the wind’s force, and hydropower systems use falling water, to turn turbines directly.) The computer of 10 years from now will be unrecognizably more powerful than today’s, and its predictably increased capability will make medical, navigation, and other systems better, too. If the power plant of 10 years from now is even slightly more efficient than today’s, that will be a major achievement. The most advanced of today’s “ultra-supercritical” coal-fired plants, which operate at very high temperatures and pressures to maximize the efficiency of combustion, convert up to 48 percent of the coal’s potential energy to electric power; the rest is lost as heat. “Subcritical” plants typically have efficiencies in the mid-30s. The costliest and most advanced technology is an improvement—but not a breakthrough. A breakthrough is what it would take to move beyond reliance on coal. “I know this is a theological issue for some people,” Julio Friedmann of Lawrence Livermore said. “Solar and wind power are going to be important, but it is really hard to get them beyond 10 percent of total power supply.” He pointed out the huge engineering achievement it has taken to raise the efficiency of solar photovoltaic cells from about 25 percent to about 30 percent; whereas “to make them useful, you would need improvements of two- or threefold in cost,” say from about 18 cents per kilowatt-hour to 6 cents. He recited a skeptic’s line used about the Carter administration’s clean-energy programs—“You’re not going to run a steel plant with solar panels”—and then made a point that summarized the outlook of those who have decided they can best wage the climate fight by working on dirty, destructive coal. “It is very hard to go around the world and think you can make any difference in carbon-loading the atmosphere without some plan for how people can continue to use coal,” Friedmann said. “It is by far the most prevalent and efficient way to generate electricity. People are going to use it. There is no story of climate progress without a story for coal. In particular, U.S.-China progress on coal.” The Technical Challenge What would progress on coal entail? The proposals are variations on two approaches: ways to capture carbon dioxide before it can escape into the air and ways to reduce the carbon dioxide that coal produces when burned. In “post-combustion” systems, the coal is burned normally, but then chemical or physical processes separate carbon dioxide from the plume of hot flue gas that comes out of the smokestack. Once “captured” as a relatively pure stream of carbon dioxide, this part of the exhaust is pressurized into liquid form and then sold or stored. Refitting an existing coal plant can be very costly. “It’s like trying to remodel your home into a mansion,” a coal-plant manager told me in Beijing. “It’s more expensive, and it’s never quite right.” Apart from research projects, only two relatively small coal-fired power plants now operate in America with post-combustion capture. Designing a capture system into a plant from the start is cheaper than doing refits. But even then the “parasitic load” of energy required to treat, compress, and otherwise handle the separated stream of carbon dioxide can come to 30 percent or more of the total output of a coal-fired power plant—so even more coal must be burned (and mined and shipped) to produce the same supply of electricity. Without mandatory emission limits or carbon prices, burning coal more cleanly is inevitably more expensive than simply burning coal the old way. “When people like me look for funding for carbon capture, the financial community asks, ‘Why should we do that now?’” an executive of a major American electric utility told me. “If there were a price on carbon”—a tax on carbon-dioxide emissions—“you could plug in, say, a loss of $30 to $50 per ton, and build a business case.” “Pre-combustion” systems are fundamentally more efficient. In them, the coal is treated chemically to produce a flammable gas with lower carbon content than untreated coal. This means less carbon dioxide going up the smokestack to be separated and stored. Either way, pre- or post-, the final step in dealing with carbon is “sequestration”—doing something with the carbon dioxide that has been isolated at such cost and effort, so it doesn’t just escape into the air. Carbon dioxide has a surprisingly large number of small-scale commercial uses, starting with adding the sparkle to carbonated soft drinks. (This is not a big help on the climate front, since the carbon dioxide is “sequestered” only until you pop open the bottle’s top.) All larger-scale, longer-term proposals for storing carbon involve injecting it deep underground, into porous rock that will trap it indefinitely. In the right geological circumstances, the captured carbon dioxide can even be used for “enhanced oil recovery,” forcing oil out of the porous rock into which it is introduced and up into wells. These efforts are in one way completely different from “advanced research and development” as we often conceive of it, and in another way very much the same. They are different in that the scientists and entrepreneurs involved do not seem to count on, or even hope for, the large breakthroughs we have come to assume in biological sciences and info-tech. Consistent with two centuries of incremental improvement in power systems since the time of James Watt, practical refinements and ever-improving efficiency are the goal. They are similar in the operational advantage conferred by doing. Because Google indexes more data and handles more queries than any competitor, it can more quickly determine which innovations are succeeding (News, Translate, Earth, Maps) and which are failing (Wave), and exactly how the promising products still need to be improved. The first million copies of each new chip that Intel produces help it debug the production process, so that subsequent millions are cheaper and increasingly defect-free. “Whenever you scale something up, there are always differences from what you planned,” an engineer from a major American technology company told me. “It’s never quite the same. China is building plants like mad, so they can afford to experiment. We are not.” In the search for “progress on coal,” like other forms of energy research and development, China is now the Google, the Intel, the General Motors and Ford of their heyday—the place where the doing occurs, and thus the learning by doing as well. “They are doing so much so fast that their learning curve is at an inflection that simply could not be matched in the United States,” David Mohler of Duke Energy told me. “In America, it takes a decade to get a permit for a plant,” a U.S. government official who works in China said. “Here, they build the whole thing in 21 months. To me, it’s all about accelerating our way to the right technologies, which will be much slower without the Chinese. “You can think of China as a huge laboratory for deploying technology,” the official added. “The energy demand is going like this”—his hand mimicked an airplane taking off—“and they need to build new capacity all the time. They can go from concept to deployment in half the time we can, sometimes a third. We have some advanced ideas. They have the capability to deploy it very quickly. That is where the partnership works.” The good aspects of this partnership have unfolded at a quickening pace over the past decade, through a surprisingly subtle and complex web of connections among private, governmental, and academic institutions in both countries. Perhaps I should say unsurprisingly, since the relationships among American and Chinese organizations in the energy field in some ways resemble the manufacturing supply chains that connect factories in China with designers, inventors, and customers in the United States and elsewhere. The difference in this case is how much faster the strategic advantage seems to be shifting to the Chinese side. In the normal manufacturing supply chain—Apple creating computers, Walmart outsourcing clothes and toys—the United States provides branding, design, and a major market for products, while China supplies labor, machines, and the ability to turn concepts into products at very high speed. In the quest for cleaner coal, America’s contribution is mainly “soft power”—advice, coordination, prodding, and expertise—in hopes of influencing what Chinese organizations do. Ten years ago, at the end of the Clinton administration, the Chinese and American governments signed a “Fossil Energy Protocol,” to coordinate research on better use of coal and oil. Political leaders have come and gone since then, but the cast of technicians, civil servants, and business officials on each side has been relatively stable and has gotten used to working together. After taking office as secretary of energy last year, Steven Chu—a celebrity in China because of his Chinese heritage and his Nobel Prize—gave a new push to these efforts, hiring additional staff members for the U.S.-China office and committing $75 million to a joint Clean Energy Research Center. The efforts of two scientists we’ve already met, Julio Friedmann and Ming Sung, illustrate what Americans can and cannot do to shape what happens in China—and the mounting advantages on China’s side relative to America’s. Friedmann, who is in his mid-40s, has become one of the world’s experts on sequestration: how and where carbon dioxide can safely be stored underground. He was trained in geology at MIT and the University of Southern California and initially went to work for ExxonMobil. But by the early 2000s he had become fascinated with the emerging science of underground carbon-dioxide storage. “At that point, it was clear that nearly all of the really cool work was being done in the national labs,” he told me. In 2004 he and his family moved from Maryland to California, where he joined Lawrence Livermore. He is now the head of the Carbon Management Program there and the technical leader of a government-university-business consortium that this summer won a Department of Energy competition to help develop carbon-sequestration projects in China. To give an idea of the consortium’s range, it includes three universities, three national laboratories, two scientific nongovernmental organizations, and six large corporations, among them General Electric, Duke Energy, and AEP. After talking with Friedmann many times in China, I finally asked about the ethnic derivation of his name. His grandparents were Ashkenazim from Poland and Hungary who left for Latin America in the 1930s; his parents, raised in Colombia and Venezuela, met on an arranged date at Grossinger’s in the Catskills. Although Friedmann bikes to work through the bucolic Northern California setting of the Lawrence Livermore lab—a setting punctuated by the watchtowers and electrified fencing that surround the plutonium stockpile for the lab’s weapons-research center—he comes across as a fast-talking, high-pressure East Coast urban type. In many meetings in America and China in the past two years, I have seen him turn that intensity to one great question: how quickly geologists from America and elsewhere can work with their counterparts in China to improve systems for pumping carbon dioxide underground, and to identify the right rock formations where it can safely be stored. On a typical trip to China, he will spend half his time in Beijing or Shanghai, meeting with government and corporate officials—and the other half in Xi’an or the Inner Mongolian wilderness, where many of the most promising storage locations are found. What he and his team have to offer, from the American part of the supply chain, is expertise on geological formations, on computer models for how the “plume” of liquefied carbon dioxide will settle into porous rock, and on other benefits of America’s decades of experience in petroleum geology. He can also put Chinese plant managers, scientists, and bureaucrats in touch with overseas counterparts they would otherwise never meet. “Projects like these are sort of like the school dance,” he told me. “You’re not getting married, but you’re figuring out how to interact. We need to start the process in a way that gives people the confidence to do it again, and again, and again. The confidence is the product.” The more often Chinese and foreign officials work together, the more easily they continue to work together. This might sound trivial, but I’ve become convinced that the steady expansion of these contacts will make a major difference in how an ever more powerful China deals with the rest of the world. What does Friedmann, or the United States, get from the process? “More tons sequestered, rather than emitted, in China,” he told me. But also something unavailable in America: a chance to see new technology in new plants and learn how it works. “In the U.S. today, there is not a single demonstration of capturing CO2 from a coal-fired plant at large scale,” he said. “The technologies have been a little too expensive to actually implement. That’s why we started looking at China.” They can afford to build, and Americans can hope to watch and learn. Ming Sung’s role illustrates a similar balance of influence and knowledge between the United States and China. Sung, who is in his early 60s, was born in Shanghai and raised there and in Hong Kong, where his family fled in 1958. Ten years later he came to the United States for college and graduate studies in geology. He became a U.S. citizen, worked in the newly formed Department of Energy during the Carter administration, and then left for a 25-year career around the world as an executive with Shell Oil. After he retired from Shell and founded a software company, he and his wife decided to move back to China. He now works in Beijing for a Boston-based nonprofit environmental group called the Clean Air Task Force. (Disclosure: my sister is on the board.) In the early 2000s the task force, originally a conventional anti-air-pollution group, embraced the necessity of cleaning up coal. In Beijing, Sung gave me a copy of its latest working paper, in both Chinese and English, called “Coal Without Carbon.” The group has sponsored research on sequestration, on post-combustion capture, and on the “cleanest” of the emerging pre-combustion coal technologies—“underground coal gasification.” In this process, jets of air (or pure oxygen), sometimes with steam or various chemicals, are blasted into coal seams deep underground. They interact chemically with the coal to produce a gas that flows back up a pipe and can be burned. It leaves in the ground much of the carbon, sulfur, nitrogen, and other elements that create greenhouse gases and other pollutants when coal is burned. “And this can be very cheap,” Sung told me. “You don’t have to mine the coal. You don’t have to send men underground or haul coal around or dispose of ash. All the dirty stuff stays buried.” Because of these and other savings, he said, coal used this way could match or beat the price of today’s standard dirty power plant. But in advocating the whole range of “clean coal” technologies, Sung and his team have the same problem Julio Friedmann has with carbon sequestration: it’s not happening in the United States. There’s one significant exception: the Texas Clean Energy Project, a plant being built outside Odessa, which will apply underground-gasification technology to capture 90 percent of its carbon, more than any other commercial plant in the world. It received a $450 million federal award, just over half from the Department of Energy’s Clean Coal Power Initiative and the rest from the American Recovery and Reinvestment stimulus program (toward the $2.1 billion total capital cost). If it works as promised, this facility will be an advance over any coal-fired plant operating anywhere: it will gasify coal underground, eliminating the cost and damage of mining; it will sell urea (for fertilizer) and other chemical by-products of the underground gasification; and it will use the captured carbon dioxide for enhanced oil recovery in the nearby Permian Basin oil fields—all in addition to generating power. But otherwise, to see new technology in action and to influence the next dozen coal plants being built in the world, Ming Sung had to go back to China. “For the last 30 years, we have not been able to build a coal-to-gas conversion plant in this country,” a U.S. coal-company official told me. “China has done many. That is what we need to learn from them, all that production and operating experience.” And in exchange? “We do have safety and environmental information that we can definitely provide.” Ten years ago, the United States and many other countries set joint targets of building a series of experimental low- emissions, high-efficiency coal-fired power plants: FutureGen in America, ZeroGen in Australia, various European efforts without a “Gen” name, and GreenGen in China. America’s FutureGen was proposed early, and China’s GreenGen was proposed late. Now—surprise!—GreenGen is closest to being completed, with its scheduled opening moved up from 2015 to 2013, and FutureGen has only recently begun to move beyond the congressional-wrangling stage. What Sung takes from the interaction is both operational knowledge and the chance to influence China’s decisions in some way. What he has provided is another sort of connection, between Chinese organizations and the private businesses that mine coal and generate electricity in the United States. “That is the reason we are here—to get companies together,” Sung said. “It is taking too long for governments to agree on policies, so we believe in B-to-B connections.” At a crucial point, he arranged a meeting in Beijing between the CEO of Duke Energy, Jim Rogers, and Zhang Guobao, vice chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission, essentially China’s director of industrial policy. “After the meeting, Zhang said, ‘I fully support this collaboration,’” Sung told me. “With that sentence, what more could you ask for?” Duke got serious about China only two and a half years ago, after Rogers, the CEO, took his grandson on a trip there in the summer of 2008 as a high-school graduation present. The elder Rogers, like so many first-time visitors, was stunned by the scale and dynamism of what he saw. He immediately urged his senior management team to learn about and visit China. “There is something you can’t sense from your office in America,” the director of Duke’s China operations, a 30-year-old woman named River Lu, told me. She grew up in Shenzhen, just north of Hong Kong. “Here you feel the pollution, you feel the growth, you feel the energy.” (Her Chinese name is Lu Yun; she chose the English name “River” in her teens. The creativity and often beauty of these chosen names is a dependable pleasure of meeting young English-speaking Chinese.) Although she did not leave China until her mid-20s, for graduate work at the Monterey Institute of International Studies, she has a native-American accent, which she says comes from watching Friends and Ally McBeal on Hong Kong TV. David Mohler, Duke’s chief technology officer, was one of the first visitors and most frequent return travelers. “We learned that China is preparing, by 2025, for 350 million people to live in cities that don’t exist now,” he told me. “They have to build the equivalent of the U.S. electrical system”—that is, almost as much added capacity as the entire U.S. grid—“by 2025. It took us 120 years.” Rogers, Mohler, and the company as a whole moved quickly from being impressed or frightened by Chinese growth to determining how they could work with it. “We realized there was no way we could duplicate their speed, the scale, or the constancy of energy policy within the United States,” Mohler said. “So we wondered if we could find Chinese partners to work with in applying these clean technologies, so we could bring the benefits of their speed and scale back to the United States.” In his speeches and interviews, Rogers frequently emphasizes that by 2050, Duke will need to replace or rebuild every one of its existing power plants in the United States, except for its hydroelectric facilities. Some, because of age; the rest, to meet what Duke considers to be inevitably tightening clean-energy standards. “We will have a huge need for capital,” Mohler said. Duke’s capital budget for the next three years is $18 billion, and only in China can the company find that plus the operational experience of seeing cleaner-coal technologies as they are deployed. Duke Energy supported the Obama administration’s now-abandoned climate bill, because it would have added predictability to the future standards the company will have to meet. With or without a bill, it is looking to China for future financing. Within months of Rogers’s first visit, Duke had opened an office in China, headed by River Lu. Within a year of the visit, in the summer of 2009, Duke signed an agreement for joint research with China’s largest energy company, Huaneng, and with the government’s Thermal Power Research Institute. Within the clean-energy world, the institute’s director of technology, Xu Shisen, is a celebrity known for his advocacy of clean-coal projects. Huaneng has bought a share in a new low-emissions Duke plant in Edwardsport, Indiana. [Correction: The Memorandum of Understanding between Duke and Huaneng, which involves employees of each company visiting the other’s plants and sharing information and research, does not include direct investment by Huaneng. Duke has a joint-venture understanding with another Chinese company, the ENN group, toward developing merchant solar panel plants in the United States.] “As China meets its capacity, it is likely that the best technologies will be commercialized and applied here faster than anywhere else,” River Lu said. “We want to be involved in that process.” China’s cooperation with the United States on coal is good news for the world. If the two countries had decided to make this another arena for demonstrating their respective toughness—if, as at the failed Copenhagen talks last winter, they had mainly exchanged accusations about who was more to blame for emissions problems—they would have guaranteed that the problems could not be solved. If that cooperation breaks down, Julio Friedmann said, “we’ll end up paying twice as much to get the same learnings—and delaying the technology on both sides by another decade.” Both sides seem to have looked for ways to keep the cooperation going. They have not been in the newspapers, but they deserve recognition for attempting to do the world’s work. But China’s very effectiveness and dynamism, beneficial as they may be in this case, highlight an American failure—a failure that seems not transient or incidental but deep and hard to correct. The manifestation of the failure is that China is where the world’s “doing” now goes on, in this industry and many others. If you want to learn how the power plants of the future will work, you must go to Tianjin—or Shanghai, or Chengdu—to find out. Power companies from America, Europe, and Japan are fortunate to have a place to learn. Young engineers and managers and entrepreneurs in China are fortunate that the companies teaching the rest of the world will be Chinese. The deeper problem is the revealed difference in national capacity, in seriousness and ability to deliver. The Chinese government can decide to transform the country’s energy system in 10 years, and no one doubts that it will. An incoming U.S. administration can promise to create a clean-energy revolution, but only naïfs believe that it will. “The most impressive aspect of the Chinese performance is their determination to do what is needed,” Julio Friedmann told me. “To be the first, to be the biggest, to have the best export technology for cleaning up coal.” America obviously is not displaying comparable determination—and the saddest aspect of the U.S. performance, he said, is that it seems not deliberate but passive and accidental, the product of modern America’s inability to focus public effort on public problems. “No one in the U.S. government could ever imagine a 10-year plan to ensure U.S. leadership in solar power or batteries or anything else,” Joseph Romm, a former Department of Energy official who now writes the blog Climate Progress, told me. “It’s just not possible, so nobody even bothers to propose it.” The Chinese system as a whole has great weaknesses as well as great strengths. Its challenges, as I have reported so often in these pages, make the threats facing America look trivial by comparison. But its response to the energy challenge—including its commitment to dealing with the dirty, unavoidable reality of coal—reveals a seriousness about facing big problems that America now appears to lack. --- Oliver Bernstein Senior Communications Strategist Sierra Club Phone: 512.477.2152 Cell: 512.289.8618 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - To unsubscribe from the COAL-CAMPAIGN-ALERTS list, send any message to: COAL-CAMPAIGN-ALERTS-signoff-request(a)LISTS.SIERRACLUB.ORG Check out our Listserv Lists support site for more information: http://www.sierraclub.org/lists/faq.asp

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Fw: New Kingston Coal Ash Movie
by Jim Sconyers 09 Nov '10

09 Nov '10

Jim Sconyers jim_scon(a)yahoo.com 304.698.9628 Remember: Mother Nature bats last. ----- Forwarded Message ---- From: Joshua Ulan Galperin <josh(a)CLEANENERGY.ORG> To: COAL-COMBUSTION-WASTE(a)LISTS.SIERRACLUB.ORG Sent: Mon, November 8, 2010 5:00:16 PM Subject: New Kingston Coal Ash Movie I wanted to make sure that everybody had a chance to look at this excellent short documentary from Alexandra Cousteau and Expedition Blue Planet. Its a great short film about coal ash, using Kingston as a valuable example. *** http://vimeo.com/16524532 "Nearly two years after the TVA Kingston Coal Ash Spill, many have already forgotten its impacts on the community and the environment and yet the TVA coal ash spill is still the largest industrial spill in American history. It was six times larger in volume than the BP Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico. In September 2010 Alexandra Cousteau and Expedition Blue Planet visited Kingston, Tennessee to find out exactly what the toll of "clean coal" is on water quality, water ecosystems and the communities that lie fractured by the pollution of their waterways." Josh Galperin Policy Analyst and Research Attorney Southern Alliance for Clean Energy PO Box 1842 Knoxville, TN 37901 (O) 865.637.6055 X 23 (F) 865.524.4479 josh(a)cleanenergy.org www.cleanenergy.org <http://www.cleanenergy.org/> Please think about the environment before printing this email. CONFIDENTIAL LEGAL COMMUNICATION / WORK PRODUCT: The information transmitted is intended only for the person or entity to whom it is addressed, and may contain privileged and confidential attorney-client communications and/or confidential attorney work product. If you receive this message in error, please send a reply e-mail to the sender and delete the material from any and all computers. Unintended transmissions shall not constitute waiver of the attorney-client or any other privilege. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - To unsubscribe from the COAL-COMBUSTION-WASTE list, send any message to: COAL-COMBUSTION-WASTE-signoff-request(a)LISTS.SIERRACLUB.ORG Check out our Listserv Lists support site for more information: http://www.sierraclub.org/lists/faq.asp To view the Sierra Club List Terms & Conditions, see: http://www.sierraclub.org/lists/terms.asp

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drilling in WV state park okayed because of old mineral severance deed
by Frank Young 03 Nov '10

03 Nov '10

http://blogs.wvgazette.com/watchdog/2010/11/03/supreme-court-paves-way-for-… Supreme Court paves way for Chief Logan drilling November 3, 2010 by Ken Ward Jr. The West Virginia state Supreme Court of Appeals has just issued an opinion that affirms a Logan Circuit Court decision paving the way for oil and gas drilling at Chief Logan State Park. Justices ruled that a state law that bans such drilling does not apply, because it was enacted after a 1960 deed in which previous owners of the property preserved their mineral rights and the right to drill for oil and gas. You can read the opinion here. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to Heartwood's "issues" group. To post to this group, send email to issues(a)heartwood.org To unsubscribe from this group, send email to issues+unsubscribe(a)heartwood.org For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/a/heartwood.org/group/issues?hl=en __._,_.___ Reply to sender | Reply to group | Reply via web post | Start a New Topic Messages in this topic (1) Recent Activity: Visit Your Group Working since 1967 for the conservation and wise management of West Virginia's natural resources MARKETPLACE Hobbies & Activities Zone: Find others who share your passions! Explore new interests. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Get great advice about dogs and cats. Visit the Dog & Cat Answers Center. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Stay on top of your group activity without leaving the page you're on - Get the Yahoo! Toolbar now. Switch to: Text-Only, Daily Digest • Unsubscribe • Terms of Use. __,_._,___

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Re: [EC] Fw: DAILY UPDATE 3 November 2010. News of interest to Mon river wate...
by DSGJr＠aol.com 03 Nov '10

03 Nov '10

Privately, Miley has always been supportive. So it's good to see him go public. Of course, he may not agree with us on everything we want in a bill. don In a message dated 11/3/2010 10:48:30 A.M. Eastern Standard Time, Karen.Grubb(a)fairmontstate.edu writes: On the local Bridgeport CBS news last night, Tim Miley was interviewed about what priorities would be with the new legislative session. He said, 1. Sorting out the new governor and new election, 2. Marcellus gas drilling legislation to protect roads, environment, etc. From: ec-bounces(a)osenergy.org [mailto:ec-bounces@osenergy.org] On Behalf Of DSGJr(a)aol.com Sent: Wednesday, November 03, 2010 11:33 AM To: jkotcon(a)wvu.edu; jbc329(a)earthlink.net; lesleemac1(a)frontier.com; ec(a)osenergy.org Subject: Re: [EC] Fw: DAILY UPDATE 3 November 2010. News of interest to Mon river watershed... We've been talking, but not about specifics yet. He really went after an industry guy at last interim session about all the out-of-state trucks and workers. Orphy is a good guy. I am basically NOT talking to anyone yet (except DEP and judiciary committee staff) about what should be in a bill. I am waiting to see what DEP proposes, which I will know more about on Nov. 10, and what judiciary subcommittee A proposes, which we will see at interims Nov.15-17. When we know those two things, we will be able to decide if we need/want our own bill. don In a message dated 11/3/2010 10:10:58 A.M. Eastern Standard Time, jkotcon(a)wvu.edu writes: Is someone talking to Orphy Klempa about what needs to go in a Marcellus bill? JBK >>> "Donald C. Strimbeck" <dcsoinks(a)comcast.net> 11/3/2010 4:07 AM >>> Don Strimbeck, Sec/Treas Upper Mon River Assoc UpperMon.org MonRiverSummit.org WVU t-shirts & prints - FindHarri.com 109 Broad Street, P. O. Box 519 Granville WV 26534-0519 304-599-7585 (fax 4131) dcsoinks(a)comcast.net ----- Original Message ----- From: Donald C. Strimbeck To: Veronica Coptis ; Tom Bond ; Shari Wilson ; Scott Brewer ; Robert Vagnetti ; Mark Estlack ; Loretta Florence ; Judy Hunter ; John King ; Joel Morris ; Janice Christopher ; Ida Hughes ; Glen Kelly ; Garry Berti ; Connie Watson ; Chuck Wyrostok ; Chip West ; Catherine Lozier ; Carol Mapstone ; Brian K. Parker ; Bradley Omanson ; Bill Weiss ; Bill Hughes ; Bonnie Hall Sent: Wednesday, November 03, 2010 4:07 AM Subject: DAILY UPDATE 3 November 2010. News of interest to Mon river watershed denizens. DUNKARD CREEK-3NovY2K10 Wheeling WV THE INTELLIGENCER Wednesday 3 November 2010: Klempa Looks to Take On Drilling in Senate November 3, 2010 - By CASEY JUNKINS Staff Writer With increasingly more Marcellus Shale natural gas drilling taking place throughout West Virginia's Northern Panhandle, state Sen.-elect Orphy Klempa knows it is time for the Legislature to act. "Right now, there is entirely too much drilling with not enough regulations in place," said Klempa, D-Ohio, following his Tuesday general election victory over Republican Charles Schlegel of Wheeling. "We need to make sure these gas companies are respecting our land." Klempa, who has served as a state delegate since his 2006 election, will replace outgoing 1st District state Sen. Ed Bowman, D-Hancock, who decided not to seek re-election this year. Klempa carried 58.7 percent of the vote in the district, which includes all of Hancock and Brooke counties, along with most of Ohio County. Unofficial election totals indicate Klempa garnered a total of 17,044 votes, with 7,632 coming in Ohio County, 4,292 in Brooke County and 5,120 in Hancock County. Schlegel, meanwhile, carried a total of 12,015 ballots, including 5,437 in Ohio County, 2,448 in Brooke County and 4,130 in Hancock County. "It seems like every time I'm in a race, it goes down to the last moment," Klempa said, noting he campaigned throughout the district. "My wife and I worked very hard because this was by no stretch of the imagination a good year to be a Democrat." Schlegel, though disappointed in the results, pledged to support Klempa's efforts in Charleston. "This was a very clean race," Schlegel said. "The voters of Ohio, Hancock and Brooke counties are getting a good representative. ... He (Klempa) will do a good job for us." Klempa also thanked Schlegel for the amicable race, noting, "This was not a mud-slinging campaign." "Charlie (Schlegel) is a man of honor. I wish him all the best," Klempa said. The senator-elect added he hopes to continue the work he began in the House in his new role, including confronting some of the state's unfunded liabilities. "I am very humbled by the level of support I got. I plan to do the very best I can do for the voters," Klempa added. North Huntingdon Township moving forward with plans to regulate Marcellus Shale drilling By Michael DiVittorio MCKEESPORT DAILY NEWS Tuesday, November 2, 2010 North Huntingdon Township officials are moving forward with their plans to help regulate Marcellus Shale drilling. Planning commissioner Virginia Stump brought up the idea of creating a gas drilling ordinance last month to help reduce negative effects regarding such drilling. Township planning director/engineer Andrew Blenko announced at Monday night's planning commission meeting that a draft ordinance is being prepared by assistant township manager Michael Turley, and could be available for review by the planning commission within weeks. Blenko said a meeting took place about four weeks ago with Westmoreland County and gas company officials regarding Marcellus Shale drilling and what could and what should be regulated. Murrysville and Jefferson Hills both passed gas drilling ordinances earlier this year, and township officials have copies of those documents for review. "We're not trying to outlaw the drilling. We're trying to outlaw the negative impacts of it," Blenko said. "The noise, the additional storm water run-off, damage to our local roads, potential ground water contamination, the long-term health effects, if any, the public safety aspects of it. Those can all be regulated. There's no reason why gas wells can't coexist alongside our commercial or residential areas of the township. "I think that's what everybody's trying to do is come up with a set of regulations that will reasonably safeguard against some of those negative impacts while allowing it to coexist." The engineer said he will meet with Turley today to discuss the ordinance. Stump said she likes the language and some of the stipulations in the Murrysville ordinance. "What I thought was pretty good about it is they have all new definitions," she said. "There's so much new terminology with this type of industry. You have to update the ordinance just for the terminology, and they had an application fee of $5,000 and the company has to put up an escrow of $25,000 so that the expenses that the municipality has with engineering and what have you, the municipality's not left holding the bag of those expenses." Planning Commissioner Bernard Solomon said he read an article about a woman and her daughters getting sick from chemicals used at a Marcellus Shale site. "What are they going to do to our underground water resources that we depend on?" Solomon questioned. Blenko said a possible tour of a Marcellus Shale site is being scheduled through Westmoreland County officials. The proposed ordinance could be available for public input in December. Blenko said it would have to come through the planning commission before it is brought to township commissioners. "Things are moving," he said. "I know it's been a long time coming. We kind of wanted to see what other people were doing." The township was scheduled to get its first Marcellus Shale well along Hahntown-Wendel Road this summer. Atlas Energy was to drill the well on a 9.5-acre parcel near Barnes Lake Road. Blenko said the last communication he had with Atlas Energy was in May, and that parcel is not an active Marcellus Shale site. In other matters, the planning commission tabled a motion to approve the Hampton Heights plan of lots, phases 1 through 3. It is a proposed 85-lot residential subdivision on the site of the former Carradam Golf Course. Blenko said RWS Development needed an extension to address some sewer issues. The site is outside the sewer lines of the Municipal Authority of Westmoreland County. Blenko said there are plans for deep sewers to pump into MAWC lines, and the plan will be addressed by the planning commission again at next month's meeting. The planning commission tabled the plan last month because of sewer-related concerns. Michael DiVittorio can be reached at mdivittorio(a)dailynewsemail.com or 412-664-9161. CEOs: Third World thirst to boost coal By Chris Togneri PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW Wednesday, November 3, 2010 The coal industry rebounded from the global recession and is poised to ride developing countries' thirst for steel and energy production for decades to come, said industry analysts and CEOs of energy producers Tuesday at the 14th annual Met Coke World Summit, Downtown. "Coal is the fuel for the entire world," said J. Brett Harvey, CEO of Cecil-based Consol Energy Inc. "I don't see any change in that for the next 50 years." Consol projects shipping more than 700,000 tons of coal from the United States to China in the fourth quarter. Harvey; Don Blankenship, CEO of Richmond, Va.-based Massey Energy Co.; Michael Thomson, CEO of Knoxville, Tenn.-based SunCoke Energy; and John Elmore, director of Jindal Steel and Power Ltd. in India, talked about trends in the industry at an event attended by about 250 coal industry insiders. The summit continues today. Blankenship agreed that coal is the fuel of the present and the future, particularly in developing countries. Access to electricity improves quality of life and leads to longer life expectancy, he said. "It's strange that that idea hasn't caught on," he told the audience, eliciting a round of laughter. The Massey CEO predicted coal use will increase by 81 percent in "emerging" countries and 1 percent in developed countries by 2035. Brazil, Russia, India and China, which make up 43 percent of the world's population, will account for much of that growth, he said. Coal is "good for the environment" because it is the cheapest way to raise living standards by providing electricity to poor countries, Blankenship said. "It bothers me that we are spending so much on renewable energy that supposedly will improve the environment when there is a lot of suffering going on," he said after his presentation. China, India and Brazil will continue to be major importers of coal, particularly metallurgical coal for production of coke and steel, the CEOs said. Brazil, which will host the soccer World Cup in 2014 and the Summer Olympics in 2016, has limited resources but a strong economy. Its need to build infrastructure quickly makes it a major player, they agreed. "The same thing happened in China (before it hosted the 2008 Olympics), but it just kept going," Harvey said. "They are raising their standard of living. We could see the same thing in Brazil. Maybe not on the same pace, but once they get a taste of it ..." The auto industry's rising thirst for steel also drives coal use, the CEOs said. Particularly in China, car production is soaring with plenty of room to grow, Blankenship said, noting that 128 people out of every 1,000 people in China own cars, compared to 765 out of 1,000 in the United States. China last year produced 13.3 million vehicles, compared to 8.8 million in North America, the Massey CEO said. Africa will become a major importer of coal as the country begins to modernize, Harvey and Blankenship said. Blankenship declined to answer questions regarding a possible sale of Massey or whether he might step down. In a conference call with analysts last week, he acknowledged the rumors, saying Massey is "considering all options," but declined to discuss specifics. Massey runs the Upper Big Branch mine in Montcoal, W.Va., where an April 5 explosion killed 29 miners and injured two. It was the deadliest U.S. mine disaster in 40 years. State, federal and company investigations are ongoing. Chris Togneri can be reached at ctogneri(a)tribweb.com or 412-380-5632. ----- Original Message ----- From: <stombond(a)hughes.net> To: "Donald C. Strimbeck" <dcsoinks(a)comcast.net>; "jOHN ELEYETTE" <JMELEYETTE(a)rocketmail.com> Sent: Tuesday, November 02, 2010 9:46 PM Subject: Letter to the Wheeling Intelligencer > Mr. Strimbeck: > I sent the following letter to the Wheeling Intelligencer a couple of > days ago. It is a response to the article "Chesapeake Energy Officials > Pledge to Maintain Roads" published in your newsletter dated the 29th. > You may use it if your want to. > > As a person with training as a chemist, I was highly amused by the > article "Chesapeake Energy Officials Pledge to Maintain Roads" in the 29 > October 2010 INTELLIGENCER. It includes a statement of Stacey R. Brodak, > manager of corporate development for Chesapeake concerning the 25,000 > gallons or so of chemicals in frac fluid for a Marcellus well. > > Her claims are right about all of them. HOWEVER, isopropanol is also > used to denature alcohol, to make it undrinkable. Petroleum distillates > is a very broad category (many different compounds) used for solvent > properties. It is toxic, but is considered to have low toxicity. Guar > gum, citric acid (think citrus fruits), potassium chloride, are, in fact > food ingredients. Sodium and potassium carbonate are very similar and > are sometime used as food additives. Glutaradldehyde is used in water > treatment for killing algae and as a disinfectant for medical equipment. > It causes severe irritation of eyes and respiratory system. It is a > source of occupational asthma. > > Ammonium persulfate is an extremely strong oxidizing agent listed as > having low toxicity. It is used to etch copper and would doubtless cause > other metals to dissolve. Formaldehyde is another protein denaturant. > Among its uses is in embalming fluid. It is used in resins for plywood > type materials, glue, etc. It is the source of eye irritation when these > products are used. It is a known human carcinogen. Borate salts are > toxic, but probably not at the concentration they are used in frac > fluid. These things are what go down to begin with. > > Now, what about the stuff that comes up with the "flowback." At the > several hundred degree temperatures and huge pressures solubility of > many compounds increase compared to solubility at the surface. What else > comes up with the cuttings, which present a very large surface area for > solution of the shale components? The shale contains a huge number of > complex compounds. Things that come up with the flowback include heavy > metals, highly poisonous, which the body accumulates because there is no > mechanism to eliminate them, and radioactivity. One case is known where > the radioactivity of returning frac water was 1000 times the allowed > radioactivity of drinking water. > > Ms. Brodak's list almost invariably cites external uses of the > compounds. The objection is to drinking these compounds in surface water > and ground water contaminated by flowback! I don't doubt her integrity, > she is an executive and not educated in chemistry. But who put that list > on hydraulicfracturing.com ought to have his backside kicked. We're not > all rubes out here. > > Somebody ought to be out there sampling and testing for a wide range of > contaminants. The whole Marcellus industry has its collective fingers > crossed, screaming "There's nothing wrong with our work!" and "Just > think about the money it will bring in." They are in the same position > as the original oil and gas industry and the strip mining industry: they > are running a humongous experiment while doing all they can to block out > any bad news. > By Mari Margil, Ben Price Licking, Pennsylvania defies state law by banning corporations from dumping fracking wastewater. In Pennsylvania-a central target for natural gas drilling and the controversial drilling practice known as horizontal hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking"-local communities don't have the legal authority to keep unwanted drilling from happening. As fracking's impacts on water safety make headlines and public resistance to drilling grows, some towns have tried to use land use zoning to keep drilling companies out-but they can't use zoning laws to stop an activity the state has declared legal. (At best, they can zone where the corporations site their drill pads. But since drilling is not vertical but horizontal, there's no way to contain its impact on a community's water and environment.) Taking local control One small community in western Pennsylvania wanted more say over what happens within its borders. Licking Township, population 500, chose to defy state law with its own local ordinance, banning corporations from dumping fracking wastewater within its borders. Licking sits atop the Marcellus Shale, a geological formation that contains large and mostly untapped natural gas reserves. On Oct. 12, 2010, the Licking Township Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to ban corporations from dumping fracking wastewater within the township. "When it comes to land use issues and the preservation of important resources, the local community is best suited to set priorities as they feel impacts most acutely," said Mik Robertson, chairman of the Licking Township Supervisors. Pennsylvania's preferential laws for drilling companies are not unique. For years, the drilling industry has worked closely with government to pave the way for widespread drilling, eliminating regulatory barriers that may stand in its way. The so-called "Halliburton Loophole" was inserted into the federal Safe Drinking Water Act to exempt companies drilling for natural gas, including those drilling in the Marcellus Shale (which extends from New York to West Virginia) from having to comply. Corporations have also been exempted from a host of other laws and regulations, and states have enacted laws pre-empting municipalities from taking steps to reign in the industry. The residents of Licking felt that they should be the ones to decide what happens in their township. "People have the right to determine what is suitable for their community, as they are most directly affected by intended or unintended consequences of resource extraction," said Robertson. The dangers of fracking The residents of Licking aren't alone in their concerns about fracking. Across the Appalachian highlands, residents worried about the health effects of fracking have been calling on their elected officials to protect them. In New York, a citizen movement convinced the state Senate to place a 9-month moratorium on the practice while its safety is evaluated. However, the moratorium is only temporary and has not been voted into state law. Fracking involves pumping water laced with sand and a cocktail of chemicals underground to fracture the shale rock and release the natural gas. In the process, thousands of gallons of toxic wastewater are produced and can contaminate waterways and drinking water. Natural gas wells are often driven through aquifers. The impacts from drilling can include exploding wells, groundwater contamination, and fish kills. Recently, the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture quarantined cattle believed to have drunk from a frack wastewater spill. Their milk was no longer considered safe to drink. A new study by researchers at the University of Buffalo found that fracking also releases uranium trapped in the rock, raising additional health concerns. Collateral damage includes lost property value, drying up of mortgage loans for prospective home buyers, and the threatened loss of organic certification for farmers. And it's not only rural communities feeling the pressure. In Pittsburgh and Buffalo (both of which straddle the Marcellus), gas extraction corporations have quietly signed leases with landowners to drill under the surface. A new direction Drafted with the help of Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF), the "Licking Township Community Water Rights and Self-Government Ordinance" is the first of its kind in the nation. The City of Pittsburgh is also considering a CELDF-drafted ordinance, which is scheduled for a vote on November 16. With an expected veto-proof majority of City Council members in favor, that ordinance would impose an outright ban on gas drilling by corporations within city limits. Communities across the Marcellus Shale region, including Lehman Township in eastern Pennsylvania, are also considering CELDF ordinances that would ban corporations from drilling or from extracting water to use in drilling. In addition to banning corporate disposal of frack wastewater, Licking Township's ordinance asserts the right to local self-government and the community's right to a healthy environment and to clean water. In adopting the ordinance, Licking joins more than a dozen other communities in legally recognizing the rights of nature and subordinating corporate constitutional rights to the rights of human and natural communities. By recognizing the rights of nature, Licking is effectively protecting ecosystems and natural communities within the township from efforts by corporations to drill there-or by higher levels of governments to authorize that drilling. Residents of the community are empowered by the ordinance to enforce those rights on behalf of threatened ecosystems. By prohibiting the introduction of frack wastewater into the Township's environment, Licking's new law effectively blocks hydro-fracturing. Critics of the ordinance claim that, by denying corporations that violate its prohibitions the civil rights protections conferred on them by the courts, the ordinance goes too far. Robertson responds to these charges, saying, "People have rights, like the gifts of nature. People have rights to property. Property does not have rights. Corporations are property." Corporations may sue to overturn the ordinance, with the argument that it violates their corporate constitutional rights. Such a lawsuit would finally raise imperative questions about whose rights trump whose: Do the court-endowed privileges of corporations override the inalienable rights of the people and ecosystems of Licking Township, nullifying their claim to have a legal right to their health, safety, and welfare? Or does the community have the right to make critical decisions to protect its well-being-and that of the ecosystems upon which it depends? ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- Mari Margil and Ben Price wrote this article for YES! Magazine, a national, nonprofit media organization that fuses powerful ideas with practical actions. Mari is the associate director and Ben is projects director of the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, a nonprofit, public interest law firm providing legal services to communities facing threats to their local environment, agriculture, economy, and quality of life. Washington PA Observer Reporter Wednesday 3 November 2010: Sessions to provide info on roustabout training 11/3/2010 3:33 AM Free information sessions on Marcellus Shale roustabout training will be held in November and December by Westmoreland County Community College in partnership with Pennsylvania College of Technology at WCCC's Greene County Education Center, EverGreene Technology Park, Waynesburg. The sessions are designed for those interested in applying for free training for roustabout jobs in the natural gas drilling and production industry and will be conducted from 3 to 4:30 p.m. Nov. 12; 10 to 11:30 a.m. Nov. 20; and 3 to 4:30 p.m. Dec. 8. Roustabouts prepare sites for natural gas well drilling, set up and operate drilling rigs and dismantle rigs for movement to another location. They work around moving equipment such as forklifts, back hoes and excavators and carry 80-pound bags of concrete and heavy pipe. "This is physically demanding work requiring 12-hour shifts outside in all kinds of weather," said James Hayes, WCCC director of work force development. Some drilling jobs require 14 consecutive working days with 14 days off. "Employers will not tolerate drugs, and workers will be randomly drug tested," said Hayes. The three-week roustabout training program will run Jan. 17 through Feb. 4, and classes meet Monday through Friday. The training is a highly interactive, industry-oriented program and will be taught by expert instructors. Class size is limited to 15 students. The sessions will provide information on drilling rig jobs, the free training program and the application process. The sessions are free, but prospective applicants must register by calling Pennsylvania CareerLink Greene County at 724-852-2900. Copyright Observer Publishing Co. Don Strimbeck, Sec/Treas Upper Mon River Assoc UpperMon.org MonRiverSummit.org WVU t-shirts & prints - FindHarri.com 109 Broad Street, P. O. Box 519 Granville WV 26534-0519 304-599-7585 (fax 4131) dcsoinks(a)comcast.net

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Re: [EC] Fw: DAILY UPDATE 3 November 2010. News of interest to Mon river watershed...
by DSGJr＠aol.com 03 Nov '10

03 Nov '10

We've been talking, but not about specifics yet. He really went after an industry guy at last interim session about all the out-of-state trucks and workers. Orphy is a good guy. I am basically NOT talking to anyone yet (except DEP and judiciary committee staff) about what should be in a bill. I am waiting to see what DEP proposes, which I will know more about on Nov. 10, and what judiciary subcommittee A proposes, which we will see at interims Nov.15-17. When we know those two things, we will be able to decide if we need/want our own bill. don In a message dated 11/3/2010 10:10:58 A.M. Eastern Standard Time, jkotcon(a)wvu.edu writes: Is someone talking to Orphy Klempa about what needs to go in a Marcellus bill? JBK >>> "Donald C. Strimbeck" <dcsoinks(a)comcast.net> 11/3/2010 4:07 AM >>> Don Strimbeck, Sec/Treas Upper Mon River Assoc UpperMon.org MonRiverSummit.org WVU t-shirts & prints - FindHarri.com 109 Broad Street, P. O. Box 519 Granville WV 26534-0519 304-599-7585 (fax 4131) dcsoinks(a)comcast.net ----- Original Message ----- From: Donald C. Strimbeck To: Veronica Coptis ; Tom Bond ; Shari Wilson ; Scott Brewer ; Robert Vagnetti ; Mark Estlack ; Loretta Florence ; Judy Hunter ; John King ; Joel Morris ; Janice Christopher ; Ida Hughes ; Glen Kelly ; Garry Berti ; Connie Watson ; Chuck Wyrostok ; Chip West ; Catherine Lozier ; Carol Mapstone ; Brian K. Parker ; Bradley Omanson ; Bill Weiss ; Bill Hughes ; Bonnie Hall Sent: Wednesday, November 03, 2010 4:07 AM Subject: DAILY UPDATE 3 November 2010. News of interest to Mon river watershed denizens. DUNKARD CREEK-3NovY2K10 Wheeling WV THE INTELLIGENCER Wednesday 3 November 2010: Klempa Looks to Take On Drilling in Senate November 3, 2010 - By CASEY JUNKINS Staff Writer With increasingly more Marcellus Shale natural gas drilling taking place throughout West Virginia's Northern Panhandle, state Sen.-elect Orphy Klempa knows it is time for the Legislature to act. "Right now, there is entirely too much drilling with not enough regulations in place," said Klempa, D-Ohio, following his Tuesday general election victory over Republican Charles Schlegel of Wheeling. "We need to make sure these gas companies are respecting our land." Klempa, who has served as a state delegate since his 2006 election, will replace outgoing 1st District state Sen. Ed Bowman, D-Hancock, who decided not to seek re-election this year. Klempa carried 58.7 percent of the vote in the district, which includes all of Hancock and Brooke counties, along with most of Ohio County. Unofficial election totals indicate Klempa garnered a total of 17,044 votes, with 7,632 coming in Ohio County, 4,292 in Brooke County and 5,120 in Hancock County. Schlegel, meanwhile, carried a total of 12,015 ballots, including 5,437 in Ohio County, 2,448 in Brooke County and 4,130 in Hancock County. "It seems like every time I'm in a race, it goes down to the last moment," Klempa said, noting he campaigned throughout the district. "My wife and I worked very hard because this was by no stretch of the imagination a good year to be a Democrat." Schlegel, though disappointed in the results, pledged to support Klempa's efforts in Charleston. "This was a very clean race," Schlegel said. "The voters of Ohio, Hancock and Brooke counties are getting a good representative. ... He (Klempa) will do a good job for us." Klempa also thanked Schlegel for the amicable race, noting, "This was not a mud-slinging campaign." "Charlie (Schlegel) is a man of honor. I wish him all the best," Klempa said. The senator-elect added he hopes to continue the work he began in the House in his new role, including confronting some of the state's unfunded liabilities. "I am very humbled by the level of support I got. I plan to do the very best I can do for the voters," Klempa added. North Huntingdon Township moving forward with plans to regulate Marcellus Shale drilling By Michael DiVittorio MCKEESPORT DAILY NEWS Tuesday, November 2, 2010 North Huntingdon Township officials are moving forward with their plans to help regulate Marcellus Shale drilling. Planning commissioner Virginia Stump brought up the idea of creating a gas drilling ordinance last month to help reduce negative effects regarding such drilling. Township planning director/engineer Andrew Blenko announced at Monday night's planning commission meeting that a draft ordinance is being prepared by assistant township manager Michael Turley, and could be available for review by the planning commission within weeks. Blenko said a meeting took place about four weeks ago with Westmoreland County and gas company officials regarding Marcellus Shale drilling and what could and what should be regulated. Murrysville and Jefferson Hills both passed gas drilling ordinances earlier this year, and township officials have copies of those documents for review. "We're not trying to outlaw the drilling. We're trying to outlaw the negative impacts of it," Blenko said. "The noise, the additional storm water run-off, damage to our local roads, potential ground water contamination, the long-term health effects, if any, the public safety aspects of it. Those can all be regulated. There's no reason why gas wells can't coexist alongside our commercial or residential areas of the township. "I think that's what everybody's trying to do is come up with a set of regulations that will reasonably safeguard against some of those negative impacts while allowing it to coexist." The engineer said he will meet with Turley today to discuss the ordinance. Stump said she likes the language and some of the stipulations in the Murrysville ordinance. "What I thought was pretty good about it is they have all new definitions," she said. "There's so much new terminology with this type of industry. You have to update the ordinance just for the terminology, and they had an application fee of $5,000 and the company has to put up an escrow of $25,000 so that the expenses that the municipality has with engineering and what have you, the municipality's not left holding the bag of those expenses." Planning Commissioner Bernard Solomon said he read an article about a woman and her daughters getting sick from chemicals used at a Marcellus Shale site. "What are they going to do to our underground water resources that we depend on?" Solomon questioned. Blenko said a possible tour of a Marcellus Shale site is being scheduled through Westmoreland County officials. The proposed ordinance could be available for public input in December. Blenko said it would have to come through the planning commission before it is brought to township commissioners. "Things are moving," he said. "I know it's been a long time coming. We kind of wanted to see what other people were doing." The township was scheduled to get its first Marcellus Shale well along Hahntown-Wendel Road this summer. Atlas Energy was to drill the well on a 9.5-acre parcel near Barnes Lake Road. Blenko said the last communication he had with Atlas Energy was in May, and that parcel is not an active Marcellus Shale site. In other matters, the planning commission tabled a motion to approve the Hampton Heights plan of lots, phases 1 through 3. It is a proposed 85-lot residential subdivision on the site of the former Carradam Golf Course. Blenko said RWS Development needed an extension to address some sewer issues. The site is outside the sewer lines of the Municipal Authority of Westmoreland County. Blenko said there are plans for deep sewers to pump into MAWC lines, and the plan will be addressed by the planning commission again at next month's meeting. The planning commission tabled the plan last month because of sewer-related concerns. Michael DiVittorio can be reached at mdivittorio(a)dailynewsemail.com or 412-664-9161. CEOs: Third World thirst to boost coal By Chris Togneri PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW Wednesday, November 3, 2010 The coal industry rebounded from the global recession and is poised to ride developing countries' thirst for steel and energy production for decades to come, said industry analysts and CEOs of energy producers Tuesday at the 14th annual Met Coke World Summit, Downtown. "Coal is the fuel for the entire world," said J. Brett Harvey, CEO of Cecil-based Consol Energy Inc. "I don't see any change in that for the next 50 years." Consol projects shipping more than 700,000 tons of coal from the United States to China in the fourth quarter. Harvey; Don Blankenship, CEO of Richmond, Va.-based Massey Energy Co.; Michael Thomson, CEO of Knoxville, Tenn.-based SunCoke Energy; and John Elmore, director of Jindal Steel and Power Ltd. in India, talked about trends in the industry at an event attended by about 250 coal industry insiders. The summit continues today. Blankenship agreed that coal is the fuel of the present and the future, particularly in developing countries. Access to electricity improves quality of life and leads to longer life expectancy, he said. "It's strange that that idea hasn't caught on," he told the audience, eliciting a round of laughter. The Massey CEO predicted coal use will increase by 81 percent in "emerging" countries and 1 percent in developed countries by 2035. Brazil, Russia, India and China, which make up 43 percent of the world's population, will account for much of that growth, he said. Coal is "good for the environment" because it is the cheapest way to raise living standards by providing electricity to poor countries, Blankenship said. "It bothers me that we are spending so much on renewable energy that supposedly will improve the environment when there is a lot of suffering going on," he said after his presentation. China, India and Brazil will continue to be major importers of coal, particularly metallurgical coal for production of coke and steel, the CEOs said. Brazil, which will host the soccer World Cup in 2014 and the Summer Olympics in 2016, has limited resources but a strong economy. Its need to build infrastructure quickly makes it a major player, they agreed. "The same thing happened in China (before it hosted the 2008 Olympics), but it just kept going," Harvey said. "They are raising their standard of living. We could see the same thing in Brazil. Maybe not on the same pace, but once they get a taste of it ..." The auto industry's rising thirst for steel also drives coal use, the CEOs said. Particularly in China, car production is soaring with plenty of room to grow, Blankenship said, noting that 128 people out of every 1,000 people in China own cars, compared to 765 out of 1,000 in the United States. China last year produced 13.3 million vehicles, compared to 8.8 million in North America, the Massey CEO said. Africa will become a major importer of coal as the country begins to modernize, Harvey and Blankenship said. Blankenship declined to answer questions regarding a possible sale of Massey or whether he might step down. In a conference call with analysts last week, he acknowledged the rumors, saying Massey is "considering all options," but declined to discuss specifics. Massey runs the Upper Big Branch mine in Montcoal, W.Va., where an April 5 explosion killed 29 miners and injured two. It was the deadliest U.S. mine disaster in 40 years. State, federal and company investigations are ongoing. Chris Togneri can be reached at ctogneri(a)tribweb.com or 412-380-5632. ----- Original Message ----- From: <stombond(a)hughes.net> To: "Donald C. Strimbeck" <dcsoinks(a)comcast.net>; "jOHN ELEYETTE" <JMELEYETTE(a)rocketmail.com> Sent: Tuesday, November 02, 2010 9:46 PM Subject: Letter to the Wheeling Intelligencer > Mr. Strimbeck: > I sent the following letter to the Wheeling Intelligencer a couple of > days ago. It is a response to the article "Chesapeake Energy Officials > Pledge to Maintain Roads" published in your newsletter dated the 29th. > You may use it if your want to. > > As a person with training as a chemist, I was highly amused by the > article "Chesapeake Energy Officials Pledge to Maintain Roads" in the 29 > October 2010 INTELLIGENCER. It includes a statement of Stacey R. Brodak, > manager of corporate development for Chesapeake concerning the 25,000 > gallons or so of chemicals in frac fluid for a Marcellus well. > > Her claims are right about all of them. HOWEVER, isopropanol is also > used to denature alcohol, to make it undrinkable. Petroleum distillates > is a very broad category (many different compounds) used for solvent > properties. It is toxic, but is considered to have low toxicity. Guar > gum, citric acid (think citrus fruits), potassium chloride, are, in fact > food ingredients. Sodium and potassium carbonate are very similar and > are sometime used as food additives. Glutaradldehyde is used in water > treatment for killing alge and as a disinfectant for medial equipment. > It causes severe irritation of eyes and respiratory system. It is a > source of occupational asthma. > > Ammonium persulfate is an extremely strong oxidizing agent listed as > having low toxicity. It is used to etch copper and would doubtless cause > other metals to dissolve. Formaldehyde is another protein denaturant. > Among its uses is in embalming fluid. It is used in resins for plywood > type materials, glue, etc. It is the source of eye irritation when these > products are used. It is a known human carcinogen. Borate salts are > toxic, but probably not at the concentration they are used in frac > fluid. These things are what go down to begin with. > > Now, what about the stuff that comes up with the "flowback." At the > several hundred degree temperatures and huge pressures solubility of > many compounds increase compared to solubility at the surface. What else > comes up with the cuttings, which present a very large surface area for > solution of the shale components? The shale contains a huge number of > complex compounds. Things that come up with the flowback include heavy > metals, highly poisonous, which the body accumulates because there is no > mechanism to eliminate them, and radioactivity. One case is known where > the radioactivity of returning frac water was 1000 times the allowed > radioactivity of drinking water. > > Ms. Brodak's list almost invariably cites external uses of the > compounds. The objection is to drinking these compounds in surface water > and ground water contaminated by flowback! I don't doubt her integrity, > she is an executive and not educated in chemistry. But who put that list > on hydraulicfracturing.com ought to have his backside kicked. We're not > all rubes out here. > > Somebody ought to be out there sampling and testing for a wide range of > contaminants. The whole Marcellus industry has its collective fingers > crossed, screaming "There's nothing wrong with our work!" and "Just > think about the money it will bring in." They are in the same position > as the original oil and gas industry and the strip mining industry: they > are running a humongous experiment while doing all they can to block out > any bad news. > By Mari Margil, Ben Price Licking, Pennsylvania defies state law by banning corporations from dumping fracking wastewater. In Pennsylvania-a central target for natural gas drilling and the controversial drilling practice known as horizontal hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking"-local communities don't have the legal authority to keep unwanted drilling from happening. As fracking's impacts on water safety make headlines and public resistance to drilling grows, some towns have tried to use land use zoning to keep drilling companies out-but they can't use zoning laws to stop an activity the state has declared legal. (At best, they can zone where the corporations site their drill pads. But since drilling is not vertical but horizontal, there's no way to contain its impact on a community's water and environment.) Taking local control One small community in western Pennsylvania wanted more say over what happens within its borders. Licking Township, population 500, chose to defy state law with its own local ordinance, banning corporations from dumping fracking wastewater within its borders. Licking sits atop the Marcellus Shale, a geological formation that contains large and mostly untapped natural gas reserves. On Oct. 12, 2010, the Licking Township Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to ban corporations from dumping fracking wastewater within the township. "When it comes to land use issues and the preservation of important resources, the local community is best suited to set priorities as they feel impacts most acutely," said Mik Robertson, chairman of the Licking Township Supervisors. Pennsylvania's preferential laws for drilling companies are not unique. For years, the drilling industry has worked closely with government to pave the way for widespread drilling, eliminating regulatory barriers that may stand in its way. The so-called "Halliburton Loophole" was inserted into the federal Safe Drinking Water Act to exempt companies drilling for natural gas, including those drilling in the Marcellus Shale (which extends from New York to West Virginia) from having to comply. Corporations have also been exempted from a host of other laws and regulations, and states have enacted laws pre-empting municipalities from taking steps to reign in the industry. The residents of Licking felt that they should be the ones to decide what happens in their township. "People have the right to determine what is suitable for their community, as they are most directly affected by intended or unintended consequences of resource extraction," said Robertson. The dangers of fracking The residents of Licking aren't alone in their concerns about fracking. Across the Appalachian highlands, residents worried about the health effects of fracking have been calling on their elected officials to protect them. In New York, a citizen movement convinced the state Senate to place a 9-month moratorium on the practice while its safety is evaluated. However, the moratorium is only temporary and has not been voted into state law. Fracking involves pumping water laced with sand and a cocktail of chemicals underground to fracture the shale rock and release the natural gas. In the process, thousands of gallons of toxic wastewater are produced and can contaminate waterways and drinking water. Natural gas wells are often driven through aquifers. The impacts from drilling can include exploding wells, groundwater contamination, and fish kills. Recently, the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture quarantined cattle believed to have drunk from a frack wastewater spill. Their milk was no longer considered safe to drink. A new study by researchers at the University of Buffalo found that fracking also releases uranium trapped in the rock, raising additional health concerns. Collateral damage includes lost property value, drying up of mortgage loans for prospective home buyers, and the threatened loss of organic certification for farmers. And it's not only rural communities feeling the pressure. In Pittsburgh and Buffalo (both of which straddle the Marcellus), gas extraction corporations have quietly signed leases with landowners to drill under the surface. A new direction Drafted with the help of Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF), the "Licking Township Community Water Rights and Self-Government Ordinance" is the first of its kind in the nation. The City of Pittsburgh is also considering a CELDF-drafted ordinance, which is scheduled for a vote on November 16. With an expected veto-proof majority of City Council members in favor, that ordinance would impose an outright ban on gas drilling by corporations within city limits. Communities across the Marcellus Shale region, including Lehman Township in eastern Pennsylvania, are also considering CELDF ordinances that would ban corporations from drilling or from extracting water to use in drilling. In addition to banning corporate disposal of frack wastewater, Licking Township's ordinance asserts the right to local self-government and the community's right to a healthy environment and to clean water. In adopting the ordinance, Licking joins more than a dozen other communities in legally recognizing the rights of nature and subordinating corporate constitutional rights to the rights of human and natural communities. By recognizing the rights of nature, Licking is effectively protecting ecosystems and natural communities within the township from efforts by corporations to drill there-or by higher levels of governments to authorize that drilling. Residents of the community are empowered by the ordinance to enforce those rights on behalf of threatened ecosystems. By prohibiting the introduction of frack wastewater into the Township's environment, Licking's new law effectively blocks hydro-fracturing. Critics of the ordinance claim that, by denying corporations that violate its prohibitions the civil rights protections conferred on them by the courts, the ordinance goes too far. Robertson responds to these charges, saying, "People have rights, like the gifts of nature. People have rights to property. Property does not have rights. Corporations are property." Corporations may sue to overturn the ordinance, with the argument that it violates their corporate constitutional rights. Such a lawsuit would finally raise imperative questions about whose rights trump whose: Do the court-endowed privileges of corporations override the inalienable rights of the people and ecosystems of Licking Township, nullifying their claim to have a legal right to their health, safety, and welfare? Or does the community have the right to make critical decisions to protect its well-being-and that of the ecosystems upon which it depends? ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- Mari Margil and Ben Price wrote this article for YES! Magazine, a national, nonprofit media organization that fuses powerful ideas with practical actions. Mari is the associate director and Ben is projects director of the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, a nonprofit, public interest law firm providing legal services to communities facing threats to their local environment, agriculture, economy, and quality of life. Washington PA Observer Reporter Wednesday 3 November 2010: Sessions to provide info on roustabout training 11/3/2010 3:33 AM Free information sessions on Marcellus Shale roustabout training will be held in November and December by Westmoreland County Community College in partnership with Pennsylvania College of Technology at WCCC's Greene County Education Center, EverGreene Technology Park, Waynesburg. The sessions are designed for those interested in applying for free training for roustabout jobs in the natural gas drilling and production industry and will be conducted from 3 to 4:30 p.m. Nov. 12; 10 to 11:30 a.m. Nov. 20; and 3 to 4:30 p.m. Dec. 8. Roustabouts prepare sites for natural gas well drilling, set up and operate drilling rigs and dismantle rigs for movement to another location. They work around moving equipment such as forklifts, back hoes and excavators and carry 80-pound bags of concrete and heavy pipe. "This is physically demanding work requiring 12-hour shifts outside in all kinds of weather," said James Hayes, WCCC director of work force development. Some drilling jobs require 14 consecutive working days with 14 days off. "Employers will not tolerate drugs, and workers will be randomly drug tested," said Hayes. The three-week roustabout training program will run Jan. 17 through Feb. 4, and classes meet Monday through Friday. The training is a highly interactive, industry-oriented program and will be taught by expert instructors. Class size is limited to 15 students. The sessions will provide information on drilling rig jobs, the free training program and the application process. The sessions are free, but prospective applicants must register by calling Pennsylvania CareerLink Greene County at 724-852-2900. Copyright Observer Publishing Co. Don Strimbeck, Sec/Treas Upper Mon River Assoc UpperMon.org MonRiverSummit.org WVU t-shirts & prints - FindHarri.com 109 Broad Street, P. O. Box 519 Granville WV 26534-0519 304-599-7585 (fax 4131) dcsoinks(a)comcast.net

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Fwd: Fw: DAILY UPDATE 3 November 2010. News of interest to Mon river watershed denizens.
by James Kotcon 03 Nov '10

03 Nov '10

Is someone talking to Orphy Klempa about what needs to go in a Marcellus bill? JBK >>> "Donald C. Strimbeck" <dcsoinks(a)comcast.net> 11/3/2010 4:07 AM >>> Don Strimbeck, Sec/Treas Upper Mon River Assoc UpperMon.org MonRiverSummit.org WVU t-shirts & prints - FindHarri.com 109 Broad Street, P. O. Box 519 Granville WV 26534-0519 304-599-7585 (fax 4131) dcsoinks(a)comcast.net ----- Original Message ----- From: Donald C. Strimbeck To: Veronica Coptis ; Tom Bond ; Shari Wilson ; Scott Brewer ; Robert Vagnetti ; Mark Estlack ; Loretta Florence ; Judy Hunter ; John King ; Joel Morris ; Janice Christopher ; Ida Hughes ; Glen Kelly ; Garry Berti ; Connie Watson ; Chuck Wyrostok ; Chip West ; Catherine Lozier ; Carol Mapstone ; Brian K. Parker ; Bradley Omanson ; Bill Weiss ; Bill Hughes ; Bonnie Hall Sent: Wednesday, November 03, 2010 4:07 AM Subject: DAILY UPDATE 3 November 2010. News of interest to Mon river watershed denizens. DUNKARD CREEK-3NovY2K10 Wheeling WV THE INTELLIGENCER Wednesday 3 November 2010: Klempa Looks to Take On Drilling in Senate November 3, 2010 - By CASEY JUNKINS Staff Writer With increasingly more Marcellus Shale natural gas drilling taking place throughout West Virginia's Northern Panhandle, state Sen.-elect Orphy Klempa knows it is time for the Legislature to act. "Right now, there is entirely too much drilling with not enough regulations in place," said Klempa, D-Ohio, following his Tuesday general election victory over Republican Charles Schlegel of Wheeling. "We need to make sure these gas companies are respecting our land." Klempa, who has served as a state delegate since his 2006 election, will replace outgoing 1st District state Sen. Ed Bowman, D-Hancock, who decided not to seek re-election this year. Klempa carried 58.7 percent of the vote in the district, which includes all of Hancock and Brooke counties, along with most of Ohio County. Unofficial election totals indicate Klempa garnered a total of 17,044 votes, with 7,632 coming in Ohio County, 4,292 in Brooke County and 5,120 in Hancock County. Schlegel, meanwhile, carried a total of 12,015 ballots, including 5,437 in Ohio County, 2,448 in Brooke County and 4,130 in Hancock County. "It seems like every time I'm in a race, it goes down to the last moment," Klempa said, noting he campaigned throughout the district. "My wife and I worked very hard because this was by no stretch of the imagination a good year to be a Democrat." Schlegel, though disappointed in the results, pledged to support Klempa's efforts in Charleston. "This was a very clean race," Schlegel said. "The voters of Ohio, Hancock and Brooke counties are getting a good representative. ... He (Klempa) will do a good job for us." Klempa also thanked Schlegel for the amicable race, noting, "This was not a mud-slinging campaign." "Charlie (Schlegel) is a man of honor. I wish him all the best," Klempa said. The senator-elect added he hopes to continue the work he began in the House in his new role, including confronting some of the state's unfunded liabilities. "I am very humbled by the level of support I got. I plan to do the very best I can do for the voters," Klempa added. North Huntingdon Township moving forward with plans to regulate Marcellus Shale drilling By Michael DiVittorio MCKEESPORT DAILY NEWS Tuesday, November 2, 2010 North Huntingdon Township officials are moving forward with their plans to help regulate Marcellus Shale drilling. Planning commissioner Virginia Stump brought up the idea of creating a gas drilling ordinance last month to help reduce negative effects regarding such drilling. Township planning director/engineer Andrew Blenko announced at Monday night's planning commission meeting that a draft ordinance is being prepared by assistant township manager Michael Turley, and could be available for review by the planning commission within weeks. Blenko said a meeting took place about four weeks ago with Westmoreland County and gas company officials regarding Marcellus Shale drilling and what could and what should be regulated. Murrysville and Jefferson Hills both passed gas drilling ordinances earlier this year, and township officials have copies of those documents for review. "We're not trying to outlaw the drilling. We're trying to outlaw the negative impacts of it," Blenko said. "The noise, the additional storm water run-off, damage to our local roads, potential ground water contamination, the long-term health effects, if any, the public safety aspects of it. Those can all be regulated. There's no reason why gas wells can't coexist alongside our commercial or residential areas of the township. "I think that's what everybody's trying to do is come up with a set of regulations that will reasonably safeguard against some of those negative impacts while allowing it to coexist." The engineer said he will meet with Turley today to discuss the ordinance. Stump said she likes the language and some of the stipulations in the Murrysville ordinance. "What I thought was pretty good about it is they have all new definitions," she said. "There's so much new terminology with this type of industry. You have to update the ordinance just for the terminology, and they had an application fee of $5,000 and the company has to put up an escrow of $25,000 so that the expenses that the municipality has with engineering and what have you, the municipality's not left holding the bag of those expenses." Planning Commissioner Bernard Solomon said he read an article about a woman and her daughters getting sick from chemicals used at a Marcellus Shale site. "What are they going to do to our underground water resources that we depend on?" Solomon questioned. Blenko said a possible tour of a Marcellus Shale site is being scheduled through Westmoreland County officials. The proposed ordinance could be available for public input in December. Blenko said it would have to come through the planning commission before it is brought to township commissioners. "Things are moving," he said. "I know it's been a long time coming. We kind of wanted to see what other people were doing." The township was scheduled to get its first Marcellus Shale well along Hahntown-Wendel Road this summer. Atlas Energy was to drill the well on a 9.5-acre parcel near Barnes Lake Road. Blenko said the last communication he had with Atlas Energy was in May, and that parcel is not an active Marcellus Shale site. In other matters, the planning commission tabled a motion to approve the Hampton Heights plan of lots, phases 1 through 3. It is a proposed 85-lot residential subdivision on the site of the former Carradam Golf Course. Blenko said RWS Development needed an extension to address some sewer issues. The site is outside the sewer lines of the Municipal Authority of Westmoreland County. Blenko said there are plans for deep sewers to pump into MAWC lines, and the plan will be addressed by the planning commission again at next month's meeting. The planning commission tabled the plan last month because of sewer-related concerns. Michael DiVittorio can be reached at mdivittorio(a)dailynewsemail.com or 412-664-9161. CEOs: Third World thirst to boost coal By Chris Togneri PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW Wednesday, November 3, 2010 The coal industry rebounded from the global recession and is poised to ride developing countries' thirst for steel and energy production for decades to come, said industry analysts and CEOs of energy producers Tuesday at the 14th annual Met Coke World Summit, Downtown. "Coal is the fuel for the entire world," said J. Brett Harvey, CEO of Cecil-based Consol Energy Inc. "I don't see any change in that for the next 50 years." Consol projects shipping more than 700,000 tons of coal from the United States to China in the fourth quarter. Harvey; Don Blankenship, CEO of Richmond, Va.-based Massey Energy Co.; Michael Thomson, CEO of Knoxville, Tenn.-based SunCoke Energy; and John Elmore, director of Jindal Steel and Power Ltd. in India, talked about trends in the industry at an event attended by about 250 coal industry insiders. The summit continues today. Blankenship agreed that coal is the fuel of the present and the future, particularly in developing countries. Access to electricity improves quality of life and leads to longer life expectancy, he said. "It's strange that that idea hasn't caught on," he told the audience, eliciting a round of laughter. The Massey CEO predicted coal use will increase by 81 percent in "emerging" countries and 1 percent in developed countries by 2035. Brazil, Russia, India and China, which make up 43 percent of the world's population, will account for much of that growth, he said. Coal is "good for the environment" because it is the cheapest way to raise living standards by providing electricity to poor countries, Blankenship said. "It bothers me that we are spending so much on renewable energy that supposedly will improve the environment when there is a lot of suffering going on," he said after his presentation. China, India and Brazil will continue to be major importers of coal, particularly metallurgical coal for production of coke and steel, the CEOs said. Brazil, which will host the soccer World Cup in 2014 and the Summer Olympics in 2016, has limited resources but a strong economy. Its need to build infrastructure quickly makes it a major player, they agreed. "The same thing happened in China (before it hosted the 2008 Olympics), but it just kept going," Harvey said. "They are raising their standard of living. We could see the same thing in Brazil. Maybe not on the same pace, but once they get a taste of it ..." The auto industry's rising thirst for steel also drives coal use, the CEOs said. Particularly in China, car production is soaring with plenty of room to grow, Blankenship said, noting that 128 people out of every 1,000 people in China own cars, compared to 765 out of 1,000 in the United States. China last year produced 13.3 million vehicles, compared to 8.8 million in North America, the Massey CEO said. Africa will become a major importer of coal as the country begins to modernize, Harvey and Blankenship said. Blankenship declined to answer questions regarding a possible sale of Massey or whether he might step down. In a conference call with analysts last week, he acknowledged the rumors, saying Massey is "considering all options," but declined to discuss specifics. Massey runs the Upper Big Branch mine in Montcoal, W.Va., where an April 5 explosion killed 29 miners and injured two. It was the deadliest U.S. mine disaster in 40 years. State, federal and company investigations are ongoing. Chris Togneri can be reached at ctogneri(a)tribweb.com or 412-380-5632. ----- Original Message ----- From: <stombond(a)hughes.net> To: "Donald C. Strimbeck" <dcsoinks(a)comcast.net>; "jOHN ELEYETTE" <JMELEYETTE(a)rocketmail.com> Sent: Tuesday, November 02, 2010 9:46 PM Subject: Letter to the Wheeling Intelligencer > Mr. Strimbeck: > I sent the following letter to the Wheeling Intelligencer a couple of > days ago. It is a response to the article "Chesapeake Energy Officials > Pledge to Maintain Roads" published in your newsletter dated the 29th. > You may use it if your want to. > > As a person with training as a chemist, I was highly amused by the > article "Chesapeake Energy Officials Pledge to Maintain Roads" in the 29 > October 2010 INTELLIGENCER. It includes a statement of Stacey R. Brodak, > manager of corporate development for Chesapeake concerning the 25,000 > gallons or so of chemicals in frac fluid for a Marcellus well. > > Her claims are right about all of them. HOWEVER, isopropanol is also > used to denature alcohol, to make it undrinkable. Petroleum distillates > is a very broad category (many different compounds) used for solvent > properties. It is toxic, but is considered to have low toxicity. Guar > gum, citric acid (think citrus fruits), potassium chloride, are, in fact > food ingredients. Sodium and potassium carbonate are very similar and > are sometime used as food additives. Glutaradldehyde is used in water > treatment for killing alge and as a disinfectant for medial equipment. > It causes severe irritation of eyes and respiratory system. It is a > source of occupational asthma. > > Ammonium persulfate is an extremely strong oxidizing agent listed as > having low toxicity. It is used to etch copper and would doubtless cause > other metals to dissolve. Formaldehyde is another protein denaturant. > Among its uses is in embalming fluid. It is used in resins for plywood > type materials, glue, etc. It is the source of eye irritation when these > products are used. It is a known human carcinogen. Borate salts are > toxic, but probably not at the concentration they are used in frac > fluid. These things are what go down to begin with. > > Now, what about the stuff that comes up with the "flowback." At the > several hundred degree temperatures and huge pressures solubility of > many compounds increase compared to solubility at the surface. What else > comes up with the cuttings, which present a very large surface area for > solution of the shale components? The shale contains a huge number of > complex compounds. Things that come up with the flowback include heavy > metals, highly poisonous, which the body accumulates because there is no > mechanism to eliminate them, and radioactivity. One case is known where > the radioactivity of returning frac water was 1000 times the allowed > radioactivity of drinking water. > > Ms. Brodak's list almost invariably cites external uses of the > compounds. The objection is to drinking these compounds in surface water > and ground water contaminated by flowback! I don't doubt her integrity, > she is an executive and not educated in chemistry. But who put that list > on hydraulicfracturing.com ought to have his backside kicked. We're not > all rubes out here. > > Somebody ought to be out there sampling and testing for a wide range of > contaminants. The whole Marcellus industry has its collective fingers > crossed, screaming "There's nothing wrong with our work!" and "Just > think about the money it will bring in." They are in the same position > as the original oil and gas industry and the strip mining industry: they > are running a humongous experiment while doing all they can to block out > any bad news. > By Mari Margil, Ben Price Licking, Pennsylvania defies state law by banning corporations from dumping fracking wastewater. In Pennsylvania-a central target for natural gas drilling and the controversial drilling practice known as horizontal hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking"-local communities don't have the legal authority to keep unwanted drilling from happening. As fracking's impacts on water safety make headlines and public resistance to drilling grows, some towns have tried to use land use zoning to keep drilling companies out-but they can't use zoning laws to stop an activity the state has declared legal. (At best, they can zone where the corporations site their drill pads. But since drilling is not vertical but horizontal, there's no way to contain its impact on a community's water and environment.) Taking local control One small community in western Pennsylvania wanted more say over what happens within its borders. Licking Township, population 500, chose to defy state law with its own local ordinance, banning corporations from dumping fracking wastewater within its borders. Licking sits atop the Marcellus Shale, a geological formation that contains large and mostly untapped natural gas reserves. On Oct. 12, 2010, the Licking Township Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to ban corporations from dumping fracking wastewater within the township. "When it comes to land use issues and the preservation of important resources, the local community is best suited to set priorities as they feel impacts most acutely," said Mik Robertson, chairman of the Licking Township Supervisors. Pennsylvania's preferential laws for drilling companies are not unique. For years, the drilling industry has worked closely with government to pave the way for widespread drilling, eliminating regulatory barriers that may stand in its way. The so-called "Halliburton Loophole" was inserted into the federal Safe Drinking Water Act to exempt companies drilling for natural gas, including those drilling in the Marcellus Shale (which extends from New York to West Virginia) from having to comply. Corporations have also been exempted from a host of other laws and regulations, and states have enacted laws pre-empting municipalities from taking steps to reign in the industry. The residents of Licking felt that they should be the ones to decide what happens in their township. "People have the right to determine what is suitable for their community, as they are most directly affected by intended or unintended consequences of resource extraction," said Robertson. The dangers of fracking The residents of Licking aren't alone in their concerns about fracking. Across the Appalachian highlands, residents worried about the health effects of fracking have been calling on their elected officials to protect them. In New York, a citizen movement convinced the state Senate to place a 9-month moratorium on the practice while its safety is evaluated. However, the moratorium is only temporary and has not been voted into state law. Fracking involves pumping water laced with sand and a cocktail of chemicals underground to fracture the shale rock and release the natural gas. In the process, thousands of gallons of toxic wastewater are produced and can contaminate waterways and drinking water. Natural gas wells are often driven through aquifers. The impacts from drilling can include exploding wells, groundwater contamination, and fish kills. Recently, the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture quarantined cattle believed to have drunk from a frack wastewater spill. Their milk was no longer considered safe to drink. A new study by researchers at the University of Buffalo found that fracking also releases uranium trapped in the rock, raising additional health concerns. Collateral damage includes lost property value, drying up of mortgage loans for prospective home buyers, and the threatened loss of organic certification for farmers. And it's not only rural communities feeling the pressure. In Pittsburgh and Buffalo (both of which straddle the Marcellus), gas extraction corporations have quietly signed leases with landowners to drill under the surface. A new direction Drafted with the help of Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF), the "Licking Township Community Water Rights and Self-Government Ordinance" is the first of its kind in the nation. The City of Pittsburgh is also considering a CELDF-drafted ordinance, which is scheduled for a vote on November 16. With an expected veto-proof majority of City Council members in favor, that ordinance would impose an outright ban on gas drilling by corporations within city limits. Communities across the Marcellus Shale region, including Lehman Township in eastern Pennsylvania, are also considering CELDF ordinances that would ban corporations from drilling or from extracting water to use in drilling. In addition to banning corporate disposal of frack wastewater, Licking Township's ordinance asserts the right to local self-government and the community's right to a healthy environment and to clean water. In adopting the ordinance, Licking joins more than a dozen other communities in legally recognizing the rights of nature and subordinating corporate constitutional rights to the rights of human and natural communities. By recognizing the rights of nature, Licking is effectively protecting ecosystems and natural communities within the township from efforts by corporations to drill there-or by higher levels of governments to authorize that drilling. Residents of the community are empowered by the ordinance to enforce those rights on behalf of threatened ecosystems. By prohibiting the introduction of frack wastewater into the Township's environment, Licking's new law effectively blocks hydro-fracturing. Critics of the ordinance claim that, by denying corporations that violate its prohibitions the civil rights protections conferred on them by the courts, the ordinance goes too far. Robertson responds to these charges, saying, "People have rights, like the gifts of nature. People have rights to property. Property does not have rights. Corporations are property." Corporations may sue to overturn the ordinance, with the argument that it violates their corporate constitutional rights. Such a lawsuit would finally raise imperative questions about whose rights trump whose: Do the court-endowed privileges of corporations override the inalienable rights of the people and ecosystems of Licking Township, nullifying their claim to have a legal right to their health, safety, and welfare? Or does the community have the right to make critical decisions to protect its well-being-and that of the ecosystems upon which it depends? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mari Margil and Ben Price wrote this article for YES! Magazine, a national, nonprofit media organization that fuses powerful ideas with practical actions. Mari is the associate director and Ben is projects director of the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, a nonprofit, public interest law firm providing legal services to communities facing threats to their local environment, agriculture, economy, and quality of life. Washington PA Observer Reporter Wednesday 3 November 2010: Sessions to provide info on roustabout training 11/3/2010 3:33 AM Free information sessions on Marcellus Shale roustabout training will be held in November and December by Westmoreland County Community College in partnership with Pennsylvania College of Technology at WCCC's Greene County Education Center, EverGreene Technology Park, Waynesburg. The sessions are designed for those interested in applying for free training for roustabout jobs in the natural gas drilling and production industry and will be conducted from 3 to 4:30 p.m. Nov. 12; 10 to 11:30 a.m. Nov. 20; and 3 to 4:30 p.m. Dec. 8. Roustabouts prepare sites for natural gas well drilling, set up and operate drilling rigs and dismantle rigs for movement to another location. They work around moving equipment such as forklifts, back hoes and excavators and carry 80-pound bags of concrete and heavy pipe. "This is physically demanding work requiring 12-hour shifts outside in all kinds of weather," said James Hayes, WCCC director of work force development. Some drilling jobs require 14 consecutive working days with 14 days off. "Employers will not tolerate drugs, and workers will be randomly drug tested," said Hayes. The three-week roustabout training program will run Jan. 17 through Feb. 4, and classes meet Monday through Friday. The training is a highly interactive, industry-oriented program and will be taught by expert instructors. Class size is limited to 15 students. The sessions will provide information on drilling rig jobs, the free training program and the application process. The sessions are free, but prospective applicants must register by calling Pennsylvania CareerLink Greene County at 724-852-2900. Copyright Observer Publishing Co. Don Strimbeck, Sec/Treas Upper Mon River Assoc UpperMon.org MonRiverSummit.org WVU t-shirts & prints - FindHarri.com 109 Broad Street, P. O. Box 519 Granville WV 26534-0519 304-599-7585 (fax 4131) dcsoinks(a)comcast.net

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Fwd: State energy efficiency rankings
by James Kotcon 02 Nov '10

02 Nov '10

West Virginia ranks 43rd in energy efficiency among the states, dropping from 35th place in the first scorecard in 2006. Lossing points for building codes was one contributor. JBK ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To get off this list, send email to: LISTSERV(a)LISTS.SIERRACLUB.ORG Make the message text (not the Subject): SIGNOFF CONS-FRED The American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) has released <http://www.aceee.org/sector/state-policy/scorecard> a new report ranking states by the strength of their energy efficiency policies. Has your chapter won substantial victories to improve energy efficiency in your state? If so, be sure to let us know by filling out our victory reporting form <http://tinyurl.com/y8fn9an> . In the meantime, if you're looking for some good news, check out these recent victories won by Sierra Club activists throughout the country: Scott Elkins, Director for Chapter Coordination Sierra Club 612-659-9124

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Re: [EC] Fwd: [GW-ACT-LEADERS] Environmental Regs Cause Nat Gas to Replace Coal for Electric Generation
by Jim Sconyers 30 Oct '10

30 Oct '10

SC and the Wetzel folks are trying to drag EPA in on the air pollution aspect of Marcellus. Jim Sconyers jim_scon(a)yahoo.com 304.698.9628 Remember: Mother Nature bats last. ________________________________ From: Beth Little <blittle(a)citynet.net> To: James Kotcon <jkotcon(a)wvu.edu>; ec(a)osenergy.org Sent: Sat, October 30, 2010 7:32:35 PM Subject: Re: [EC] Fwd: [GW-ACT-LEADERS] Environmental Regs Cause Nat Gas to Replace Coal for Electric Generation I've really been wrestling with this, because I want to see ALL coal phased out, and I don't want the amount of gas drilling it would take to replace it. I also don't want any stupid developments like coal to liquid, windmills on every forested ridge in WV, biomass plants burning up all the trees, power lines through WV taking (supposed) renewable energy from the midwest to the east coast. So what's left. My answer is efficiency, but I don't see it happening, because of the influence of the fossil fuel industry on our government (both legislators and regulators), the influence of the fossil fuel industry on voters through misleading advertising and public relations, and the natural resistance of people to change, especially giving up their wasteful habits. What I'm left with is working like hell for regulations to minimize impacts and suing whenever possible to slow the destruction down. Maybe we can slow it down enough to cause some blackouts. That's probably the only thing that will bring any real change. If EPA regulations are going to be the reason for retiring lots of coal, maybe that is the place to go for regulating gas drilling. ________________________________ From: ec-bounces(a)osenergy.org [mailto:ec-bounces@osenergy.org] On Behalf Of James Kotcon Sent: Saturday, October 30, 2010 6:36 PM To: ec(a)osenergy.org Subject: [EC] Fwd: [GW-ACT-LEADERS] Environmental Regs Cause Nat Gas to Replace Coal for Electric Generation This investment newsletter predicts phasing out 20-25 % of coal capacity by 2020, due solely to mercury, NOx and SO2 regulations. Natural gas (and some renewables) will be taking up the slack. How do we get ready for this? JBK ________________________________ No virus found in this message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 10.0.1153 / Virus Database: 424/3228 - Release Date: 10/30/10 _______________________________________________ EC mailing list EC(a)osenergy.org http://osenergy.org/mailman/listinfo/ec

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Fwd: [GW-ACT-LEADERS] Environmental Regs Cause Nat Gas to Replace Coal for Electric Generation
by James Kotcon 30 Oct '10

30 Oct '10

This investment newsletter predicts phasing out 20-25 % of coal capacity by 2020, due solely to mercury, NOx and SO2 regulations. Natural gas (and some renewables) will be taking up the slack. How do we get ready for this? JBK

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TransGas hearing results
by James Kotcon 29 Oct '10

29 Oct '10

The hearing before the WV Air Quality Board over our appeal of the air permit for the TransGas Coal-To-Liquids plant was held Wed & Thursday. I just got off a conference call with some folks over the results. The comment below reflect my understanding of what happened, so someone please correct me if I get it wrong. Basically, the AQB listened carefully to our arguments, and appeared to grasp some key points made by our wonderful attorney, Elena Saxonhouse. One of our major issues is the claim by DEP & TransGas that the facility is a "Minor Source" rather than a "Major Source". Major Sources have significantly more stringent requirements for an air permit, including requirements that the facility model pollutant dispersion, and that they determine the "Best Available Control Technology" (BACT). TransGas did not include certain emissions in their application, which kept them under the threshold for Major Source. DEP approved the permit as submitted by TransGas, arguing that any emissions not included in the permit would be violations of the permit. Our concern is that, once the plant is built, these emissions could be added to the permit as a minor modification and they would continue operating as a major source without meeting the intent of the Clean Air Act. One major source of emissions is a "flare" used to burn off waste gases. Unfortunately, flares are inherently hard to monitor, and DEP simply assumed that the emissions would be small and therefore the facility as a whole would meet the Minor Source limit. The Air Quality Board seemed receptive to our argument that, to be adequately protective, the air permit had to either measure the emissions to show they were under the limit, or they would have to assume that they could be larger than DEP assumed. Another major source is that Transgas never included emissions from a wastewater treatment plant. They argued that the plant has not been designed yet, and that they may ship the water off site to another facility, and therefore the emissions should not be included in their air permit. We argued that simply omitting the emissions from a required step in the process was not permitted under the Clean Air Act, as it would allow any major source to avoid major source requirements simply by segmenting the facility into tiny little parts, when the whole facility was still a major source. While the Air Quality Board listened carefully to two full days of testimony, and we have good legal arguments, we should not assume that the AQB is a friendly body. Closing briefs will be filed over the next few weeks, so we do not expect a decision for a couple months. On a related note, I hope you all saw the announcement this week by Gov. Manchin that TransGas had settled on an "engineering and procurement contractor". In addition, they had reached an agreement with the Affiliated Construction Trades union to assure that the plant would be built by union labor. We remain very skeptical that this plant would ever get financing, and it was not clear that the EPC contractor or anyone else has actually committed to building anything. The facility's air permit is under challenge (by us), none of the other needed permit applications have even been submitted, and many key features still do not have a final design (e.g., waste water treatment). So even if the air permit were approved, they are still a long way from ever getting anything built. We should not assume we have already lost, but neither should we take for granted that such a crazy idea will be easily rejected. Endless pressure, endlessly applied! Jim Kotcon 304-2903-8822 (office) 304-594-3322 (home)

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Fwd: WV Governor, TransGas Development Systems Announce Coal to Gasoline Project
by Paul Wilson 29 Oct '10

29 Oct '10

fyi, paul ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: DAVID E ORTMAN <deortman(a)msn.com> Date: Fri, Oct 29, 2010 at 12:16 AM Subject: RE: WV Governor, TransGas Development Systems Announce Coal to Gasoline Project To: pjgrunt(a)gmail.com, coal-campaign-alerts(a)lists.sierraclub.org FR: David E. Ortman, Seattle, WA Regarding coal to gasoline, Scientific American was not impressed in 2007. http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=worse-than-gasoline Apparently some are proposing to use nuclear energy to power the damn conversion process! ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 28 Oct 2010 20:59:37 -0400 From: pjgrunt(a)GMAIL.COM Subject: Fwd: WV Governor, TransGas Development Systems Announce Coal to Gasoline Project To: COAL-CAMPAIGN-ALERTS(a)LISTS.SIERRACLUB.ORG fyi, paul ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: *Frank Young* <fyoung(a)mountain.net> Date: Thu, Oct 28, 2010 at 4:21 PM Subject: [EC] Fw: Governor, TransGas Development Systems Announce Coal to Gasoline Project To: ec(a)osenergy.org, wvec-board(a)yahoogroups.com, WVHCBOARD(a)yahoogroups.com In Mingo County, coal to liquids- long awaited announcement .................... ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: **<governor(a)wv.gov> Date: Thu, Oct 28, 2010 at 2:35 PM Subject: Governor, TransGas Development Systems Announce Coal to Gasoline Project To: trouserdude(a)gmail.com Oct. 28, 2010 *GOVERNOR, TRANSGAS DEVELOPMENT SYSTEMS ANNOUNCE COAL TO GASOLINE PROJECT **TransGas president says that coal to gasoline project will be first in the nation and a model for the country to regain its energy independence and put Americans to work* Contact: Melvin Smith, 304-558-2000 or Adam Victor, 917-816-3700 or adamvictor(a)transgasdevelopment.com CHARLESTON, W.Va. – After four years of continuous effort, Gov. Joe Manchin and TransGas Development Systems President Adam Victor, along with several state and local representatives, today announced that the company has selected its Engineering Procurement Contractor (EPC) and technology provider for its coal to gasoline facility that will be built in Mingo County, West Virginia. This facility will be the nation’s first and largest of its kind in the world. Representatives from the state Building and Construction Trades Council, along with representatives from the EPC contractor and the project technology provider were also present for today’s announcement. The project will be built by SK Engineering & Construction and will utilize the technology of Uhde GmbH, one of the world’s largest construction companies, using premier coal gasification technology. The governor commended the efforts of TransGas Development Systems, SK Engineering and Uhde GmbH for their partnership with the state of West Virginia. “This project indicates how serious we are about matching our abundant coal resources with the technology available to produce clean energy. West Virginia is fully committed to being a leader in energy self-sufficiency and this development shows that we are dedicated to using our coal resources as prudently as possible. This project’s success will truly be far-reaching for the coal industry,” said the governor. During today’s meeting, Victor reminded officials that four years ago, he was on the verge of relocating his operations overseas after facing years of challenges while trying to convince officials across the Northeast to make the tough decision to support necessary energy infrastructure development. Only after Mr. Victor met Governor Manchin did he realize that West Virginia could be a place where energy infrastructure could be built and supported by state and local officials. “Four years ago, TransGas found, in Governor Joe Manchin, a leader who understood the importance of coal as the primary asset to developing America’s future energy independence. Moreover, he understood the need to forcefully address the many fallacies that have arisen surrounding the environmental effects of mining and using coal. “Governor Joe Manchin also understood that a fleet of coal to liquid plants would form the cornerstone of a resurgence of American industrial might – built by skilled American unionized construction tradesmen, working in close concert with project owners. Simply put, if not for the governor, we would not have invested the time, nor effort into this project and this project would not exist today,” said TransGas president, Adam Victor. Victor praised the governor for bringing the construction trades union together with his chosen contractor and technology provider to ensure that this project will be built by skilled West Virginia workers, on time and under budget. This project will convert regional coal into 756,000 gallons of premium grade ultraclean gasoline a day. Put in proper perspective, less than fifty of these Coal to Gasoline facilities nationwide would eliminate 100 percent of America’s need to import foreign gasoline; create nearly 150,000 jobs and make the United States a net exporter of gasoline. SK E&C (www.skec.com) is an arm of SK group (www.sk.com), Korea's third largest corporation and one of the leading business organizations in the world. SK is made up of 40 companies including seven that are listed on the Korea Stock Exchange. SK has a presence on six continents and 25,000 employees. SK E&C is one of the world’s most qualified engineering, procurement, construction, and maintenance services organizations. Their experience includes Korea’s largest oil refinery, the Cadereyta and Madero Refinery upgrades in Mexico, full-scale refinery projects in Kuwait, Brazil and Ghana. Udhe GmbH is one of Germany's ThyssenKrupp AG's 670 companies who employ almost 200,000 employees worldwide. In addition to a 50-year history of developing gasification technologies, Udhe is one of the world's leading engineering groups specializing in the design of chemical, refining and other industrial plants in all four corners of the globe with more than 2,000 plants to its credit. More information on TransGas Development Systems LLC is available at http://www.transgasdevelopment.com/ . Contact: Adam Victor, 917-816-3700 or adamvictor(a)transgasdevelopment.com # # # Cheers, Daniel Chiotos Keeper of the Mountains Foundation Operations Director http://www.mountainkeeper.org 179 Summers St, Suite 234 Charleston, WV, 25301 (304)886-3389 - cell (304)205-0920 - office* <http://appalachiarising.org/> "WE ARE THE KEEPERS OF THE MOUNTAINS, LOVE THEM OR LEAVE THEM, JUST DON'T DESTROY THEM. IF YOU CARE TO BE ONE TOO, CALL 304-542-1134 OR 304-205-0920."* - Larry Gibson _______________________________________________ EC mailing list EC(a)osenergy.org http://osenergy.org/mailman/listinfo/ec -- Paul Wilson Sierra Club 504 Jefferson Ave Charles Town, WV 25414-1130 Phone: 304-725-4360 Cell: 304-279-1361 "There is no forward until you have gone back" ~Buddha "In all things of nature there is something of the marvelous" ~ Aristotle - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - To unsubscribe from the COAL-CAMPAIGN-ALERTS list, send any message to: COAL-CAMPAIGN-ALERTS-signoff-request(a)LISTS.SIERRACLUB.ORG Check out our Listserv Lists support site for more information: http://www.sierraclub.org/lists/faq.asp Sign up to receive Sierra Club Insider, the flagship e-newsletter. Sent out twice a month, it features the Club's latest news and activities. Subscribe and view recent editions at http://www.sierraclub.org/insider/ -- Paul Wilson Sierra Club 504 Jefferson Ave Charles Town, WV 25414-1130 Phone: 304-725-4360 Cell: 304-279-1361 "There is no forward until you have gone back" ~Buddha "In all things of nature there is something of the marvelous" ~ Aristotle

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Fw: Governor, TransGas Development Systems Announce Coal to Gasoline Project
by Frank Young 28 Oct '10

28 Oct '10

In Mingo County, coal to liquids- long awaited announcement .................... ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: <governor(a)wv.gov> Date: Thu, Oct 28, 2010 at 2:35 PM Subject: Governor, TransGas Development Systems Announce Coal to Gasoline Project To: trouserdude(a)gmail.com Oct. 28, 2010 GOVERNOR, TRANSGAS DEVELOPMENT SYSTEMS ANNOUNCE COAL TO GASOLINE PROJECT TransGas president says that coal to gasoline project will be first in the nation and a model for the country to regain its energy independence and put Americans to work Contact: Melvin Smith, 304-558-2000 or Adam Victor, 917-816-3700 or adamvictor(a)transgasdevelopment.com CHARLESTON, W.Va. – After four years of continuous effort, Gov. Joe Manchin and TransGas Development Systems President Adam Victor, along with several state and local representatives, today announced that the company has selected its Engineering Procurement Contractor (EPC) and technology provider for its coal to gasoline facility that will be built in Mingo County, West Virginia. This facility will be the nation’s first and largest of its kind in the world. Representatives from the state Building and Construction Trades Council, along with representatives from the EPC contractor and the project technology provider were also present for today’s announcement. The project will be built by SK Engineering & Construction and will utilize the technology of Uhde GmbH, one of the world’s largest construction companies, using premier coal gasification technology. The governor commended the efforts of TransGas Development Systems, SK Engineering and Uhde GmbH for their partnership with the state of West Virginia. “This project indicates how serious we are about matching our abundant coal resources with the technology available to produce clean energy. West Virginia is fully committed to being a leader in energy self-sufficiency and this development shows that we are dedicated to using our coal resources as prudently as possible. This project’s success will truly be far-reaching for the coal industry,” said the governor. During today’s meeting, Victor reminded officials that four years ago, he was on the verge of relocating his operations overseas after facing years of challenges while trying to convince officials across the Northeast to make the tough decision to support necessary energy infrastructure development. Only after Mr. Victor met Governor Manchin did he realize that West Virginia could be a place where energy infrastructure could be built and supported by state and local officials. “Four years ago, TransGas found, in Governor Joe Manchin, a leader who understood the importance of coal as the primary asset to developing America’s future energy independence. Moreover, he understood the need to forcefully address the many fallacies that have arisen surrounding the environmental effects of mining and using coal. “Governor Joe Manchin also understood that a fleet of coal to liquid plants would form the cornerstone of a resurgence of American industrial might – built by skilled American unionized construction tradesmen, working in close concert with project owners. Simply put, if not for the governor, we would not have invested the time, nor effort into this project and this project would not exist today,” said TransGas president, Adam Victor. Victor praised the governor for bringing the construction trades union together with his chosen contractor and technology provider to ensure that this project will be built by skilled West Virginia workers, on time and under budget. This project will convert regional coal into 756,000 gallons of premium grade ultraclean gasoline a day. Put in proper perspective, less than fifty of these Coal to Gasoline facilities nationwide would eliminate 100 percent of America’s need to import foreign gasoline; create nearly 150,000 jobs and make the United States a net exporter of gasoline. SK E&C (www.skec.com) is an arm of SK group (www.sk.com), Korea's third largest corporation and one of the leading business organizations in the world. SK is made up of 40 companies including seven that are listed on the Korea Stock Exchange. SK has a presence on six continents and 25,000 employees. SK E&C is one of the world’s most qualified engineering, procurement, construction, and maintenance services organizations. Their experience includes Korea’s largest oil refinery, the Cadereyta and Madero Refinery upgrades in Mexico, full-scale refinery projects in Kuwait, Brazil and Ghana. Udhe GmbH is one of Germany's ThyssenKrupp AG's 670 companies who employ almost 200,000 employees worldwide. In addition to a 50-year history of developing gasification technologies, Udhe is one of the world's leading engineering groups specializing in the design of chemical, refining and other industrial plants in all four corners of the globe with more than 2,000 plants to its credit. More information on TransGas Development Systems LLC is available at http://www.transgasdevelopment.com/ . Contact: Adam Victor, 917-816-3700 or adamvictor(a)transgasdevelopment.com # # # Cheers, Daniel Chiotos Keeper of the Mountains Foundation Operations Director http://www.mountainkeeper.org 179 Summers St, Suite 234 Charleston, WV, 25301 (304)886-3389 - cell (304)205-0920 - office "WE ARE THE KEEPERS OF THE MOUNTAINS, LOVE THEM OR LEAVE THEM, JUST DON'T DESTROY THEM. IF YOU CARE TO BE ONE TOO, CALL 304-542-1134 OR 304-205-0920." - Larry Gibson

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Fwd: ENEWS: Climate Change and the Future of Coal
by James Kotcon 26 Oct '10

26 Oct '10

Climate Change and the Future of Coal: A Legal Perspective presented at WVU College of LawMichaelB. Gerrard the Andrew Sabin Professor of Professional Practice atColumbia Law School, will present "Climate Change and the Future ofCoal, " at 11 a.m., Monday, Nov. 1 in the Marlyn E. Lugar Courtroom atthe WVU Law Center. For full release, see: http://wvutoday.wvu.edu/n/2010/10/26/climate-change-and-the-future-of-coal-… RESEARCH

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Re: [EC] Fwd: Article - Patriot Coal reports $46M third-quarter loss
by Jim Sconyers 25 Oct '10

25 Oct '10

Can't make money mining coal in WV - who'd a thunk it! And our recent hammering them on selenium will ramp up the cost of mining considerably. Jim Sconyers jim_scon(a)yahoo.com 304.698.9628 Remember: Mother Nature bats last. ________________________________ From: James Kotcon <jkotcon(a)wvu.edu> To: ehansen(a)downstreamstrategies.com; pbjmwood(a)gmail.com; jim_scon(a)yahoo.com Sent: Mon, October 25, 2010 10:03:05 AM Subject: Fwd: Article - Patriot Coal reports $46M third-quarter loss Note: Forwarded message is attached. The attached news article may suggest why Patriot is a little desperate. JBK

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shutting coal-fired plants in Colorado
by Jim Sconyers 22 Oct '10

22 Oct '10

http://www.wvgazette.com/ap/ApTopStories/201010210966 Shutting down coal plants on Colorado. Jim Sconyers jim_scon(a)yahoo.com 304.698.9628 Remember: Mother Nature bats last.

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climate change deniers at the highest levels - scary
by Jim Sconyers 21 Oct '10

21 Oct '10

FYI Jim Sconyers jim_scon(a)yahoo.com 304.698.9628 Remember: Mother Nature bats last. ----- Forwarded Message ---- From: John Blair <Ecoserve1(a)AOL.COM> To: COAL-COMBUSTION-WASTE(a)LISTS.SIERRACLUB.ORG Sent: Thu, October 21, 2010 3:44:40 PM Subject: Fwd: [air-mail] Coal waste Thanks again to environmental consultant extraordinaire, Alex Sagady for his sharp eye on these things. Check out the Valley Watch website at: http://valleywatch.net John Blair "First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win." Mahatma Gandhi 800 Adams Avenue Evansville, IN 47713 812-464-5663 In accordance with title 17 U. S. Code, Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior general interest in receiving similar information for research and educational purposes. Begin forwarded message: From: ajs(a)sagady.com > >Date: October 21, 2010 11:28:33 AM CDT > >To: air-mail(a)yahoogroups.com > >Subject: [air-mail] Coal waste > > > > >In FR Today: >Coal Combustion Residual Surface Impoundments; Data Availability, >64974-64976 >http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2010/2010-26657.htm > > > > > > > >__._,_.___ > > >Your email settings: Individual Email|Traditional >Change settings via the Web (Yahoo! ID required) >Change settings via email: Switch delivery to Daily Digest | Switch to Fully >Featured >Visit Your Group | Yahoo! Groups Terms of Use | Unsubscribe > > >__,_._,___ - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - To unsubscribe from the COAL-COMBUSTION-WASTE list, send any message to: COAL-COMBUSTION-WASTE-signoff-request(a)LISTS.SIERRACLUB.ORG Check out our Listserv Lists support site for more information: http://www.sierraclub.org/lists/faq.asp To view the Sierra Club List Terms & Conditions, see: http://www.sierraclub.org/lists/terms.asp

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Fw: Coal ash in water worries officials
by Jim Sconyers 20 Oct '10

20 Oct '10

Jim Sconyers jim_scon(a)yahoo.com 304.698.9628 Remember: Mother Nature bats last. ----- Forwarded Message ---- From: Midge Sweet <sweetmidge(a)GMAIL.COM> To: COAL-COMBUSTION-WASTE(a)LISTS.SIERRACLUB.ORG Sent: Wed, October 20, 2010 10:23:01 AM Subject: Re: Coal ash in water worries officials Dear Friend – Since taking office, President Obama has directed his Administration to craft policies to create a clean energy economy and protect our environment and public spaces. There is no better example of the achievements made towards those goals and the harmony between them than in the Southwest. For example, just two weeks ago, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced the first ever Solar Energy projects on public lands, the first projects in a series to be built on public lands after complete environmental analyses by the Department of Interior. We would like to invite you to join a conference call Thursday, October 21st at 5:00 PM ET to have a conversation with Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and other Administration officials about clean energy and the environment in the Southwest. We would like to tell you about some of the initiatives this Administration has started, and then we would like to take your questions and hear your ideas and stories. Please feel free send this invitation out widely to your networks. You can also RSVP by sending an email torfee(a)who.eop.gov. We are looking forward to it. Call-in Information: Date: Thursday, October 21th, 2010 Time: 5:00 PM EDT Number: (800) 762-6085 Name: Southwest Energy and Environmental Call This call is for information purposes only, and not for press or attribution. Thank you. Greg Nelson, Deputy Director, White House Office of Public Engagement ________________________________ Dear Friend – Since taking office, President Obama and his Administration have made environmental protection a top priority and have authorized new initiatives to protect our natural resources and great outdoors. In the Midwest, actions such as the EPA’s Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, Clean Air and Water Initiatives, and the America’s Great Outdoors Initiative all show the commitment the President and his Administration have made to protecting the environment and air and water conservation. This president also recognized the power of actively engaged citizens to contribute new ideas and has committed his Administration to engaging communities to hear their ideas on issues important to them. As part of that commitment, we would like to invite you to a conference call this Friday, October 22nd at 3:30pm to have a conversation with Administrator Lisa Jackson and other Administration officials about environmental protection and the Midwest. We would like to share with you some of the initiatives this Administration has started, and take your questions and hear your ideas and stories. Please feel free send this invitation out widely to your networks. You can also RSVP by sending an email torfee(a)who.eop.gov. We are looking forward to it. Call-in Information: Date: Friday, October 22, 2010 Time: 3:30 PM EST Number: (800) 230-1092 Name: Midwest Environmental Call This call is for information purposes only, and not for press or attribution. On Wed, Oct 20, 2010 at 9:46 AM, Lisa Evans <levans(a)earthjustice.org> wrote: More contamination from Duke Plants in NC: > >Coal ash in water worries officials > >Mecklenburg urges state to get stricter on Duke discharge at Mountain Island. > >By Bruce Henderson >bhenderson(a)charlotteobserver.com >Posted: Tuesday, Oct. 19, 2010 > >Coal ash is showing in settling ponds next to Duke Energy's Riverbend Steam >Station at Mountain Island Lake. The discharge is laden with heavy metals that >can be toxic at high levels. 2008 OBSERVER FILE PHOTO - JEFF WILHELM > > >Charlotte-Mecklenburg says state regulators should enforce stricter standards >over what a coal-fired Duke Energy power plant is putting into Charlotte's main >water supply. > >Twice this year, including this month, county staff have detected arsenic above >state standards in Mountain Island Lake near an ash pond discharge pipe from the >Riverbend plant. In May, at the same place, staff members found zinc at nearly >four times the standard. > >Arsenic and zinc are among the metals found in coal ash. The metals could cause >cancer and other diseases if they're swallowed in high doses. > >Duke's discharges into Mountain Island, Lake Wylie and Lake Norman are under >scrutiny as its state permits come up for renewal. A public hearing on permits >for the Riverbend, Allen and Marshall plants, which pipe an average of 23 >million gallons a day from their ash basins into the Catawba, will be held >tonight in Mooresville. > >The N.C. Division of Water Quality has proposed permits that require Duke to >monitor several metals, but doesn't set limits on how much is too much. A state >official says limits are applied only when samples show a "reasonable potential" >to break water standards. > >"The absence of limits in the permit does not mean (the plant) will be allowed >to violate water-quality standards," said Sergei Chernikov, a state >environmental engineer. > >Duke, too, says limits aren't needed because the state already scrutinizes its >discharge. > >"Test after test, sample after sample, shows that Mountain Island Lake has very >good water quality and is protected by current regulations," said Dave Mitchell, >Duke's environmental managing director. "Adding limits just for limits' sake >doesn't protect the lake any more" than current procedures. > >But David Caldwell, an environmental supervisor for Charlotte-Mecklenburg Storm >Water Services, said the state is counting on the size of 2,914-acre Mountain >Island to dilute Duke's wastes. > >"That stuff is sitting on the lake bottom in sediment," he said. "It's got to go >somewhere." > >One of those places is in fish, which take in metals that accumulate up the food >chain. Samples taken nearly a decade ago found high levels of mercury, a toxic >metal also found in coal ash, in Mountain Island fish. > >The county has asked the state to set limits for 14 metals in Riverbend's >discharge, take samples more frequently and monitor water upstream and >downstream of the plant. Mecklenburg also wants the state to analyze fish tissue >once a year. > >"It just seems to make good, common sense to be monitoring this," Caldwell said. > >Duke says Riverbend, which dates to 1929, is scheduled to be closed by 2015. > >Charlotte-Mecklenburg made a similar request for the Allen plant, which >discharges into Lake Wylie. The county cited Duke's own sampling that found high >levels of copper, arsenic and selenium, an element that can be toxic to >wildlife, in its discharge water. > >Duke says it regularly samples water upstream and downstream of its plants and >analyzes fish, as the county asked, reporting their findings to the state. The >utility says it would be redundant to add those requirements to its discharge >permits. > >Chernikov, the state engineer, said the water-quality division does a >statistical analysis of previous water samples to learn whether limits should be >placed on pollutants. The analysis is prescribed by state and federal rules, he >said, and assumes worst-case conditions to err on the side of protecting >environmental health. > >Under their proposed permits, Riverbend, Allen and Marshall would have metals >limits only for copper and iron. > >The permit for the Marshall plant proposes new discharge limits for selenium >beginning in mid-2012. The delay is intended to let Duke prepare for the >stricter regulation, Chernikov said. > >Charlotte-Mecklenburg Utilities, whose Mountain Island water intake is >downstream from the Riverbend plant, won't be filing comments to the state, a >spokesman said. The lake supplies drinking water for about 700,000 people in >Mecklenburg County, Mount Holly and Gastonia. > >"This is our primary water source," said Catawba Riverkeeper David Merryman, who >has also called for limits on metals. "There's not really a fallback." > >Merryman's own tests earlier this year also found high levels of arsenic near >the Riverbend discharge. Tests of fish tissue found no metals above state >guidelines. > >Duke's new permits contain one major change that pleases environmental advocates >like Merryman. For the first time, Duke will be required to monitor the >groundwater around its ash basins and fix any contamination it finds. > >Duke has already found contamination in wells it voluntarily sank close to its >ash ponds at all three plants. Naturally-occurring iron and manganese accounts >for much of the contamination. > >The difference now is that Duke will be under state orders to fix groundwater >violations it finds in a new, outer ring of wells around the ponds. The utility >could face fines if it doesn't comply. > >The water-quality division directed Duke and Raleigh's Progress Energy last >December to install the wells at their 14 coal-fired plants by the end of this >year. Groundwater monitoring will be added to the plants' discharge permits as >they're renewed. > >The Environmental Protection Agency is also mulling tougher rules on ash. > > > >Read more: >http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2010/10/19/1771891/coal-ash-in-water-worri… > > > >Lisa Evans >Senior Administrative Counsel >Earthjustice >21 Ocean Ave. >Marblehead, MA 01945 >T: (781) 631-4119 >F: (212) 918-1556 >www.earthjustice.org > >*please consider the environment before printing > >The information contained in this email message may be privileged, confidential >and protected from disclosure. If you are not the intended recipient, any >dissemination, distribution or copying is strictly prohibited. If you think that >you have received this email message in error, please notify the sender by reply >email and delete the message and any attachments. > >- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - >To unsubscribe from the COAL-COMBUSTION-WASTE list, send any message to: >COAL-COMBUSTION-WASTE-signoff-request(a)LISTS.SIERRACLUB.ORG > >Check out our Listserv Lists support site for more information: >http://www.sierraclub.org/lists/faq.asp > -- Midge Sweet Georgians for Smart Energy Coalition 404-688-5430/w • 404-667-4476/cell www.georgiansforsmartenergy.org - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - To unsubscribe from the COAL-COMBUSTION-WASTE list, send any message to: COAL-COMBUSTION-WASTE-signoff-request(a)LISTS.SIERRACLUB.ORG Check out our Listserv Lists support site for more information: http://www.sierraclub.org/lists/faq.asp

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Untapped Wealth: Offshore Wind Can Deliver Cleaner, More Affordable Energy and More Jobs Than Offshore Oil
by William V. DePaulo, Esq. 20 Oct '10

20 Oct '10

*The attached report, generally supportive of Google's proposed offshore wind farm, was prepared by oceana.org who describe themselves as follows: **Oceana, founded in 2001, is the largest international organization focused solely on ocean conservation. Our offices in North America, Central America, South America and Europe work together on a limited number of strategic, directed campaigns to achieve measurable outcomes<http://na.oceana.org/en/about-us/our-victories>that will help return our oceans to former levels of abundance. We believe in the importance of science in identifying problems and solutions. Our scientists work closely with our teams of economists, lawyers and advocates to achieve tangible results for the oceans.* * http://na.oceana.org/ FROM EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: Offshore Wind Potential* 1. A small fraction of U.S. renewable energy resources1 is enough to power the country several times over. This could be done in a cost-effective way that minimizes carbon dioxide emissions which drive climate change and threaten our oceans. 2. A modest investment in offshore wind could supply almost half the current electricity generation on the East Coast. 3. Delaware, Massachusetts and North Carolina could generate enough electricity from offshore wind to equal current electricity generation, entirely eliminating the need for fossil fuel based electric generation. n New Jersey, Virginia and South Carolina could supply 92%, 83% and 64% of their current electricity generation with offshore wind, respectively. In all these states, wind could provide more energy than the states currently get from fossil fuels. 4. Offshore wind power offers more environmental benefits and fewer impacts than traditional fuels such as nuclear power, natural gas, coal and oil. *GENERAL FINDINGS* 1. Offshore wind power is located near population centers where electricity demand is highest. Coastal states account for more than three-quarters of U.S. electricity consumption. Other renewable energy is further from these high-demand areas. 2. Offshore wind power is less expensive than many alternatives. In some cases, offshore wind could actually lower electric bills. 3. Offshore wind creates more jobs than offshore drilling. Long-term jobs would be created to support offshore wind development for skilled workers and scientists, including electricians, meteorologists, welders, and turbine operators just to name a few. 4. Offshore wind technology can help build the U.S. economy. While the U.S. has not yet installed any offshore wind farms, Europe has been doing so for 20 years and has become the leading supplier of offshore wind turbines. Building our own domestic manufacturing base would strengthen our economy, allow U.S. expenditures to remain here at home, and allow the U.S. to become an offshore wind technology exporter. n Offshore wind projects should be designed to minimize environmental impacts by using new techniques and technology in the construction, operation and decommissioning process, and by protecting the environment in the siting process. 5. Choosing wind instead of oil and gas, rather than taking an “all-of-the-above” approach, will increase efficiency and lower costs for power production overall.

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Re: [EC] Fwd: How VA is Losing the Competition for Clean Energy Jobs : Virginia Chapter Sierra Club
by kevin fooce 19 Oct '10

19 Oct '10

PA has solar, MD has solar ands biomass OH has been working on this for years and has a Green Energy Ohio group. Kevin Fooce fooce(a)hotmail.com 304-751-1448 work 304-675-6687 home 304-593-2875 cell Date: Tue, 19 Oct 2010 11:49:01 -0700 From: jim_scon(a)yahoo.com Subject: Re: [EC] Fwd: How VA is Losing the Competition for Clean Energy Jobs : Virginia Chapter Sierra Club To: fmoose39(a)hotmail.com; jkotcon(a)wvu.edu; ec(a)osenergy.org; wvec-board(a)yahoogroups.com and are there good sites in other adjoining states besides OH? PA wind turbine plant, . . . Jim Sconyers jim_scon(a)yahoo.com 304.698.9628 Remember: Mother Nature bats last. From: kevin fooce <fmoose39(a)hotmail.com> To: Jim Sconyers <jim_scon(a)yahoo.com>; Jim Kotcon <jkotcon(a)wvu.edu>; ec(a)osenergy.org; wvec-board(a)yahoogroups.com Sent: Tue, October 19, 2010 1:24:52 PM Subject: RE: [EC] Fwd: How VA is Losing the Competition for Clean Energy Jobs : Virginia Chapter Sierra Club I can put a list of projects, organizations, and politicians that are pushing this agenda. Might need someone to for a good write-up though. Can ask my wife, she is a excellent writer. Would take sometime though. I believe this is a good idea that needs published on a wide format so everyone in our state can see the problems we have on clean energy and energy efficiency. The big question is how far do we want to go? Do we want the schools listed? Some of the schools such as OU have positive aspects along with the fact they are now creating a composting facility for the whole city, to Oberlin being one of the top schools in the country for sustainability. Or maybe even list the LEED platinum facility that Hocking tech now host along with being a leader worldwide on fuel cell technologies and other programs they offer. Or would we want to look just at the solar sector and the fact that Ohio now host a 12 megawatt farm with another solar farm to come which will be one of the largest in the nation. Ohio also plays host to First Solar located in Toledo now employing 1500 people and sales about 80% of it's products to China. Or maybe we want to look at the Burger plant that burns a mixture of biomass and coal and will soon be all biomass. Or maybe the fact that Ohio has programs for the farmers to turn the manure into electricity, fertilizer, and Jiffy peat pots. The list is large, what do we want to focus on? Kevin Fooce fooce(a)hotmail.com 304-751-1448 work 304-675-6687 home 304-593-2875 cell Date: Mon, 18 Oct 2010 16:50:15 -0700 From: jim_scon(a)yahoo.com To: jkotcon(a)wvu.edu; ec(a)osenergy.org; wvec-board(a)yahoogroups.com Subject: Re: [EC] Fwd: How VA is Losing the Competition for Clean Energy Jobs : Virginia Chapter Sierra Club I'd love to see us put together a message that highlights all the clean energy projects and jobs in, say Ohio, and asking why not us? Jim Sconyers jim_scon(a)yahoo.com 304.698.9628 Remember: Mother Nature bats last. From: James Kotcon <jkotcon(a)wvu.edu> To: ec(a)osenergy.org; wvec-board(a)yahoogroups.com Sent: Mon, October 18, 2010 1:27:31 PM Subject: [EC] Fwd: How VA is Losing the Competition for Clean Energy Jobs : Virginia Chapter Sierra Club Here is a fascinating approach to attracting attention to Green Energy. Why not West Virginia too? JBK >>> Paula Carrell <Paula.Carrell(a)sierraclub.org> 10/18/2010 1:09 PM >>> You all might want to take a look at how the VA Chapter is garnering attention for their take on (unrealized) clean energy opportunities in Virginia. http://vasierraclub.org/2010/10/power-failure-how-virginia-is-losing-the-co… _______________________________________________ EC mailing list EC(a)osenergy.org http://osenergy.org/mailman/listinfo/ec _______________________________________________ EC mailing list EC(a)osenergy.org http://osenergy.org/mailman/listinfo/ec

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FW: [ACTNET-FRAC-NEWS] Sierra Club's Fracking Regulatory Action Center (FRAC) is now on line an
by James Kotcon 19 Oct '10

19 Oct '10

You might find this interesting. JBK _____ From: National Hydrofracking Team [mailto:ACTNET-FRAC-NEWS@LISTS.SIERRACLUB.ORG] On Behalf Of Bruce Hamilton Sent: Tuesday, October 19, 2010 2:58 PM To: ACTNET-FRAC-NEWS(a)LISTS.SIERRACLUB.ORG Subject: [ACTNET-FRAC-NEWS] Sierra Club's Fracking Regulatory Action Center (FRAC) is now on line and available to help your work Colleagues, As part of the Sierra Club's efforts to enact strong standards for the natural gas drilling industry, we're pleased to introduce a new tool, the Fracking Regulatory Action Center (FRAC). This online resource http://sierraclub.org/naturalgas/rulemaking/ is a regularly-updated collection of natural gas rulemaking efforts across the country. FRAC will help connect activists with policy experts, allowing everyone to share what we know and to build on each other's research to secure strong rules for the gas industry. States, municipalities and the federal government are all working on regulatory efforts. FRAC's goal is to track all of these actions and to make it easy for activists to engage with them. The Action Center contains links to key technical documents, records, deadlines and hearing locations, and it points activists toward grassroots groups working on each rulemaking. Action Center users can also find technical comments and reports prepared for rules across the country. You can access the Action Center by visiting http://www.sierraclub.org/naturalgas and clicking on the "Fracking Regulatory Action Center" link. While you're there, check out the rest of the page to learn about the Club's efforts to clean up the natural gas industry. Special thanks to Lane Boldman, Adrian Cotter, Jessica Helm, Craig Segall, Joanne Spalding and Alison Vicks for their work on this. This database will grow and deepen as the activist community uses it. For questions or comments about FRAC, or to add regulatory information, please contact Alison.Vicks(a)sierraclub.org We welcome your feedback on how to improve this tool. Bruce Hamilton - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - To unsubscribe from the ACTNET-FRAC-NEWS list, send any message to: ACTNET-FRAC-NEWS-signoff-request(a)LISTS.SIERRACLUB.ORG Check out our Listserv Lists support site for more information: http://www.sierraclub.org/lists/faq.asp Sign up to receive Sierra Club Insider, the flagship e-newsletter. Sent out twice a month, it features the Club's latest news and activities. Subscribe and view recent editions at http://www.sierraclub.org/insider/

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Fwd: ENEWS: WVU's Law School Lecture
by James Kotcon 19 Oct '10

19 Oct '10

>>> ENEWS ENEWS <ENEWS(a)mail.wvu.edu> 10/19/2010 2:38 PM >>> MOUNTAINEER E-NEWS Tuesday, Oct. 19, 2010 TOP OF THE NEWS LECTURES/PRESENTATIONS 1) Marcellus Shale development to be discussed at College of Law Daniel J. Soeder, a researcher and scientist at the U.S. Department of Energy's National Energy Technology Laboratory in Morgantown will discuss environmental implications from Marcellus Shale natural gas drilling and production at 5 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 20 in room 157 at the WVU Law Center. The event includes a reception before the presentation at 4 p.m. in the WVU Law Center Lobby.

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Fwd: How VA is Losing the Competition for Clean Energy Jobs : Virginia Chapter Sierra Club
by James Kotcon 19 Oct '10

19 Oct '10

Here is a fascinating approach to attracting attention to Green Energy. Why not West Virginia too? JBK >>> Paula Carrell <Paula.Carrell(a)sierraclub.org> 10/18/2010 1:09 PM >>> You all might want to take a look at how the VA Chapter is garnering attention for their take on (unrealized) clean energy opportunities in Virginia. http://vasierraclub.org/2010/10/power-failure-how-virginia-is-losing-the-co…

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Fwd: FracTracker Training Invitation for Oct 25th Meeting in Morgantown, WV
by Jonathan Rosenbaum 18 Oct '10

18 Oct '10

-------- Original Message -------- Subject: FracTracker Training Invitation for Oct 25th Meeting in Morgantown, WV Date: Mon, 11 Oct 2010 17:24:01 -0400 From: Malone, Samantha Lynn <slm75(a)pitt.edu> To: Malone, Samantha Lynn <slm75(a)pitt.edu> Dear Colleagues, On behalf of Dr. Conrad Dan Volz at the Center for Healthy Environments and Communities (CHEC <http://www.chec.pitt.edu/>) of the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health and the Foundation for Pennsylvania Watersheds, I would like to invite you or another representative within your group to attend a training on Monday, October 25, 2010 of key personnel who are working to address Marcellus Shale gas extraction's (MSGE) impact on the environment and public health in West Virginia. During this training, CHEC will introduce participants to FracTracker, a combination of an interactive blog (http://fractracker.org) and data tool (http://data.fractracker.org), that is serving as a vital data-sharing tool in the Marcellus Shale play and beyond. The training is also an open forum for participants to discuss current and anticipated environmental and public health concerns such as emergency preparedness and response to blow outs or spills, degrading road infrastructure, and surface and drinking water contamination. Because the issues we are facing span across many fields, meeting invitees include representatives from diverse groups. This is one of many trainings we are hosting throughout PA, WV, and NY, OH, and MD. Click here to learn more about CHEC and this project: http://www.fractracker.org/p/about-us.html. *Meeting Details:* October 25, 2010 -- 1pm -- 4pm 317 Percival Hall, West Virginia Evansdale Campus, Morgantown, WV 26506 Contact phone # on day of event: 724-554-0989. Free to attend. Parking is free. Permits will be provided upon arrival. An agenda and additional meeting specifics will be sent to registered attendees prior to the training. Important -- In order to work with FracTracker's data tool (http://data.fractracker.org) during the training, you must be registered with the data tool. It is free to register, but please do this online as soon as possible. If you run into problems registering for the tool please contact: support(a)rhizalabs.com <mailto:support@rhizalabs.com>. In addition to registering for the data tool online, please also accept or decline this invitation in a return email to me at slm75(a)pitt.edu <mailto:slm75@pitt.edu> as soon as possible. In that email, please let me know whether CHEC can distribute your contact information to all attendees of the training for networking purposes. Once we receive your RSVP we will send you a confirmation email with more details about the training. Best, Samantha -Samantha Malone, MPH, CPH- Communications Specialist & Doctoral Student Center for Healthy Environments & Communities University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health Office: 412-624-9379 100 Technology Dr. Suite 553 BRIDG Pittsburgh, PA 15219-3130 slm75(a)pitt.edu <mailto:slm75@pitt.edu> | samanthamalone119(a)gmail.com <mailto:samanthamalone119@gmail.com> | www.chec.pitt.edu

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Fwd: News Data Highlights Role of Forests in Fight Against Climate Change
by James Kotcon 17 Oct '10

17 Oct '10

See attached report on carbon storage in National Forests. JBK

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80-PAGE EPA DECISION ON SPRUCE NO. 1 - PROPOSING TO BLOCK 2200+ ACRE MOUNTAIN TOP REMOVAL PROJECT IN LOGAN COUNTY
by William V. DePaulo, Esq. 17 Oct '10

17 Oct '10

For any who have not yet had access to the lengthy EPA decision document, it is attached. It is certain to be the subject of important litigation in the US District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia.

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Fwd: [GW-ACT-LEADERS] National Solar Jobs Census 2010
by James Kotcon 14 Oct '10

14 Oct '10

WOW!!!! Can we get copies of this report to our legislators? JBK >>> Edward Mainland <emainland(a)COMCAST.NET> 10/14/2010 3:07 PM >>> National Solar Jobs Census 2010 This is the most thorough, up-to-date job survey on the US solar industry, with data for every state. Nationally, solar energy provides 93,000 jobs in 2010 and is expected to grow another 24,000 jobs by August 2011. By comparison, coal mining employed 86,859 workers in 2008, a nearly 10-fold job reduction since 1920, even though we use far more coal today than in 1920. Coal supplies nearly half the nation’s electricity while solar energy provides much less than 1% of electric power and hot water. Employment in the California solar industry is forecast to grow about 4500 new jobs over the next year, increasing from 17,352 to 21,804. By comparison, fossil-fuel power generation is expected to grow only 210 new jobs in California, from 13,854 to 14,055. Fossil fuel is used to generate 60% the state’s electric power, while solar energy provides less than 1% of electricity and hot water. Link to download report: http://www.greenlmi.com/resources/ Final+TSF+National+Solar+Jobs+Census+2010+Web+Version.pdf+2.zip - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - To unsubscribe from the CONS-SPST-GLOBALWARM-CHAIRS list, send any message to: CONS-SPST-GLOBALWARM-CHAIRS-signoff-request(a)LISTS.SIERRACLUB.ORG Check out our Listserv Lists support site for more information: http://www.sierraclub.org/lists/faq.asp

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GOOGLE OFFSHORE WIND PROJECT COULD OBVIATE NEED FOR BOTH TRAIL AND PATH
by William V. DePaulo, Esq. 12 Oct '10

12 Oct '10

[image: The New York Times] <http://www.nytimes.com/> ------------------------------ October 12, 2010 Offshore Wind Power Line Wins Praise, and Backing By MATTHEW L. WALD<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/w/matthew_l_wald…> WASHINGTON — Google<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/companies/google_inc/index.html…>and a New York financial firm have each agreed to invest heavily in a proposed $5 billion transmission backbone for future offshore wind farms<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/w/wind_power/i…>along the Atlantic Seaboard that could ultimately transform the region’s electrical map. The 350-mile underwater spine, which could remove some critical obstacles to wind power development, has stirred excitement among investors, government officials and environmentalists who have been briefed on it. Google and Good Energies <http://www.goodenergies.com/>, an investment firm specializing in renewable energy, have each agreed to take 37.5 percent of the equity portion of the project. They are likely to bring in additional investors, which would reduce their stakes. If they hold on to their stakes, that would come to an initial investment of about $200 million apiece in the first phase of construction alone, said Robert L. Mitchell, the chief executive of Trans-Elect<http://www.trans-elect.com/contact.htm>, the Maryland-based transmission-line company that proposed the venture. Marubeni <http://www.marubeni.com/company/data.html>, a Japanese trading company, has taken a 10 percent stake. Trans-Elect said it hoped to begin construction in 2013. Several government officials praised the idea underlying the project as ingenious, while cautioning that they could not prejudge the specifics. “Conceptually it looks to me to be one of the most interesting transmission projects that I’ve ever seen walk through the door,” said Jon Wellinghoff, the chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission<http://www.ferc.gov/>, which oversees interstate electricity transmission. “It provides a gathering point for offshore wind for multiple projects up and down the coast.” Industry experts called the plan promising, but warned that as a first-of-a-kind effort, it was bound to face bureaucratic delays and could run into unforeseen challenges, from technology problems to cost overruns. While several undersea electrical cables exist off the Atlantic Coast already, none has ever picked up power from generators along the way. The system’s backbone cable, with a capacity of 6,000 megawatts, equal to the output of five large nuclear reactors, would run in shallow trenches on the seabed in federal waters 15 to 20 miles offshore, from northern New Jersey to Norfolk, Va. The notion would be to harvest energy from turbines in an area where the wind is strong but the hulking towers would barely be visible. Trans-Elect estimated that construction would cost $5 billion, plus financing and permit fees. The $1.8 billion first phase, a 150-mile stretch from northern New Jersey to Rehoboth Beach, Del., could go into service by early 2016, it said. The rest would not be completed until 2021 at the earliest. Richard L. Needham, the director of Google’s green business operations group, called the plan “innovative and audacious.” “It is an opportunity to kick-start this industry and, long term, provide a way for the mid-Atlantic states to meet their renewable energy goals,” he said. Yet even before any wind farms were built, the cable would channel existing supplies of electricity from southern Virginia, where it is cheap, to northern New Jersey, where it is costly, bypassing one of the most congested parts of the North American electric grid while lowering energy costs for northern customers. Generating electricity from offshore wind is far more expensive than relying on coal<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/c/coal/index.h…>, natural gas <http://www.nytimes.com/info/natural-gas/?inline=nyt-classifier>or even onshore wind. But energy experts anticipate a growing demand for the offshore turbines to meet state requirements for greater reliance on local renewable energy as a clean alternative to fossil fuels. Four connection points — in southern Virginia, Delaware, southern New Jersey and northern New Jersey — would simplify the job of bringing the energy onshore, involving fewer permit hurdles. In contrast to transmission lines on land, where a builder may have to deal with hundreds of property owners, this project would have to deal with a maximum of just four, and fewer than that in its first phase. Ultimately the system, known as the Atlantic Wind Connection, could make building a wind farm offshore far simpler and cheaper than it looks today, experts said. Environmentalists who have been briefed on the plan were enthusiastic. Melinda Pierce, the deputy director for national campaigns at the Sierra Club <http://www.sierraclub.org/>, said she had campaigned against proposed transmission lines that would carry coal-fired energy around the country, but would favor this one, with its promise of tapping the potential of offshore wind. “These kinds of audacious ideas might just be what we need to break through the wretched logjam,” she said. Projects like Cape Wind<http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/29/science/earth/29wind.html>, proposed for shallow waters just off Cape Cod in Massachusetts, met with fierce objections from residents who felt it would mar the ocean vista. But sponsors of the Trans-Elect project insist that the mid-Atlantic turbines would have less of a visual impact. The hurdles facing the project have more to do with administrative procedures than with engineering problems or its economic merit, several experts said. By the time the Interior Department<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/i/interio…>could issue permits for such a line, for example, the federal subsidy program for wind will have expired in 2012, said Willett M. Kempton<http://www.ceoe.udel.edu/people/profile.aspx?willett>, a professor at the School of Marine Science and Policy at the University of Delaware<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/u/univers…>and the author of several papers on offshore wind. Another is that PJM Interconnection <http://www.pjm.com/home.aspx>, the regional electricity group that would have to approve the project and assess its member utilities for the cost, has no integrated procedure for calculating the value of all three tasks the line would accomplish — hooking up new power generation, reducing congestion on the grid and improving reliability. And elected officials in Virginia have in the past opposed transmission proposals that would tend to average out pricing across the mid-Atlantic states, possibly raising their constituents’ costs. But the lure of Atlantic wind is very strong. The Atlantic Ocean is relatively shallow even tens of miles from shore, unlike the Pacific, where the sea floor drops away steeply. Construction is also difficult on the Great Lakes because their waters are deep and they freeze, raising the prospect of moving ice sheets that could damage a tower. Nearly all of the East Coast governors, Republican and Democratic, have spoken enthusiastically about coastal wind and have fought proposals for transmission lines from the other likely wind source, the Great Plains. “From Massachusetts down to Virginia, the governors have signed appeals to the Senate not to do anything that would lead to a high-voltage grid that would blanket the country and bring in wind from the Dakotas,” said James J. Hoecker <http://www.huschblackwell.com/james-hoecker/>, a former chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/f/federal…>, who now is part of a nonprofit group that represents transmission owners. He described an Atlantic transmission backbone as “a necessary piece of what the Eastern governors have been talking about in terms of taking advantage of offshore wind.” So far only one offshore wind project, Bluewater Wind off Delaware, has sought permission to build in federal waters. The company is seeking federal loan guarantees to build 293 to 450 megawatts of capacity, but the timing of construction remains uncertain. Executives with that project said the Atlantic backbone was an interesting idea, in part because it would foster development of a supply chain for the specialized parts needed for offshore wind. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/s/ken_salazar/in…>, whose agency would have to sign off on the project, has spoken approvingly of wind energy and talked about the possibility of an offshore “backbone.” In a speech this month, he emphasized that the federal waters were “controlled by the secretary,” meaning him. Within three miles of the shore, control is wielded by the state. Nonetheless, if the offshore wind farms are built on a vast scale, the project’s sponsors say, a backbone with just four connection points could expedite the approval process. In fact, if successful, the transmission spine would reduce the regulatory burden on subsequent projects, said Mr. Mitchell, the Trans-Elect chief executive. Mr. Kempton of the University of Delaware and Mr. Wellinghoff of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission said the backbone would offer another plus: reducing one of wind power’s big problems, variability of output. “Along the U.S. Atlantic seaboard, we tend to have storm tracks that move along the coast and somewhat offshore,” Mr. Kempton said. If storm winds were blowing on Friday off Virginia, they might be off Delaware by Saturday and off New Jersey by Sunday, he noted. Yet the long spine would ensure that the amount of energy coming ashore held roughly constant. Wind energy becomes more valuable when it is more predictable; if predictable enough, it could replace some land-based generation altogether, Mr. Kempton said. But the economics remain uncertain, he warned, For now, he said, the biggest impediment may be that the market price of offshore wind energy is about 50 percent higher than that of energy generated on land. With a change in market conditions — an increase in the price of natural gas, for example, or the adoption of a tax on emissions of carbon dioxide from coal- or gas-generated electricity — that could change, he said.

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