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Fwd: WVNS story: Marcellus Drilling Job Boom? Not for West Virginians
by Paul Wilson 21 Jun '12

21 Jun '12

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Public News Service <wvns(a)newsservice.org> Date: Wed, Jun 20, 2012 at 4:25 AM Subject: WVNS story: Marcellus Drilling Job Boom? Not for West Virginians To: PaulWilson <pjgrunt(a)gmail.com> Marcellus Drilling Job Boom? Not for West Virginians Dan Heyman, Public News Service-WV http://www.publicnewsservice.org/index.php?/content/article/27054-1 Join the discussion: facebook.com/PublicNewsService<http://www.facebook.com/PublicNewsService> Twitter: @pns_news <http://twitter.com/#!/pns_news> @pns_WV<http://twitter.com/#!/pns_WV> Google+: plus.to/publicnewsservice <http://plus.google.com/106260479325451709866> (06/20/12) CHARLESTON, W.Va. - Statistics confirm what some in West Virginia already suspected: Local residents are not seeing the employment boom expected in the Marcellus natural gas fields. In fact, Workforce West Virginia reports a slight decline this year in the number of West Virginians working directly in natural-gas production. Dave Efaw, secretary-treasurer of the West Virginia State Building Trades, says they've been fighting to see local workers get these jobs, but many are going to people brought in from out of state. "There has been no increase in job numbers for West Virginians. The unemployment has increased in northern West Virginia, while all this Marcellus Shale industry is booming." The industry claims West Virginians lack the skills for many of those positions - but Efaw says that isn't true. The economic boost which also was predicted from out-of-state workers staying and eating here is proving to be very limited, Efaw says. Recent figures show an increase in West Virginians doing things such as building pipelines, although Efaw says local workers expected to see a lot more. "Kind of like a gold rush. They led us to believe there's this great resource in West Virginia, which there is - and we're on the outside, looking in." At least 17 county and local governments in Ohio and northern West Virginia have passed resolutions calling for more jobs for local workers. Efaw says people are reacting to what they're seeing every day. "When you go through northern West Virginia, you see a lot of out-of-state license plates. That's why I think people are signing these resolutions - because they want to see West Virginians working on these projects." West Virginia State Building Trades has been distributing yard signs and bumper stickers promoting local jobs for local workers. Efaw says they've given out hundreds of the signs. "It's hard to go anywhere in the area and not see one of them, and the bumper stickers - I mean, we bought thousands of those. We have given out thousands." There may be some jobs coming to run the plants being built to use the gas and its byproducts, Efaw says, but for the next several years, the bulk of the work will be in drilling and building infrastructure. 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/27054-1<http://www.publicnewsservice.org/index.php?/content/article/27054-1> --- 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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Fwd: WVNS story: Study: Fracking Unlikely To Cause Quakes Big Enough To Feel
by Paul Wilson 18 Jun '12

18 Jun '12

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Public News Service <wvns(a)newsservice.org> Date: Mon, Jun 18, 2012 at 5:19 AM Subject: WVNS story: Study: Fracking Unlikely To Cause Quakes Big Enough To Feel To: PaulWilson <pjgrunt(a)gmail.com> Study: Fracking Unlikely To Cause Quakes Big Enough To Feel Public News Service-WV http://www.publicnewsservice.org/index.php?/content/article/26980-1 Join the discussion: facebook.com/PublicNewsService<http://www.facebook.com/PublicNewsService> Twitter: @pns_news <http://twitter.com/#!/pns_news> @pns_WV<http://twitter.com/#!/pns_WV> Google+: plus.to/publicnewsservice <http://plus.google.com/106260479325451709866> (06/18/12) CHARLESTON, W.Va. - A scientific study<http://tinyurl.com/7qaeaet>has found that natural gas hydraulic fracturing (fracking) is unlikely to cause earthquakes strong enough to feel. However, it says there is somewhat more danger from injecting the wastewater that results from the process. Murray Hitzman, professor of Economic Geology at Colorado School of Mines, chaired the committee that wrote the report. He says, in some cases, fracking caused earthquakes too small to be felt, but little more. "The process of hydraulic fracturing a well, as presently implemented for shale-gas recovery, does not pose a high risk for inducing felt seismic events." Some residents living near Marcellus gas wells have been concerned about what some have said is an increase in small earthquakes. The industry has dismissed those fears. Hitzman points out that technologies like fracking have a long track record, which should be reassuring. "There are very large numbers of wells and/or fields, and the number of historical felt events is actually quite small." However, Hitzman says, injecting large amounts of liquid into the earth can cause other problems. Wastewater wells have not been a big issue so far, but they are growing in size and number as the industry spreads, he says. "If we have more wells, we have more chance of events. And if we have more events, there's more probability of higher-magnitude events." The research committee called for more study and said the government and industry should develop ways to avoid potential problems. It also warned people drilling wastewater disposal wells to be more aware of underground faults in the rock. The study was sponsored by the Department of Energy and done in conjunction with the National Academies of Sciences and Engineering. The full report is available from the National Academies Press at www.nap.edu<http://tinyurl.com/7qaeaet> . 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/26980-1<http://www.publicnewsservice.org/index.php?/content/article/26980-1> --- 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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Re: [EC] Not yet the Last chance to comment on EPA's Greenhouse Gas rule
by James Kotcon 13 Jun '12

13 Jun '12

EPA has extended the coment period on this rule till June 25. Now is a good time to get your friends, family, and neighbors to send comments! JBK >>> "James Kotcon" 06/11/12 1:10 PM >>> The deadline for comments on EPA's Greenhouse gas rule ends tomorrow, June 12. If you have not already done so, please click on the link below and submit comments in support of the rule. http://www.regulations.gov/#!submitComment;D=EPA-HQ-OAR-2011-0660-0001 State your opinions, or copy and paste the Sample Comments below. Thanks: Jim Kotcon Sample Comments: Dear Administrator Jackson, I strongly support the proposed new standards to clean up dangerous carbon pollution from new power plants. By setting carbon pollution protections, the EPA is moving forward to clean up and modernize the way we power our country -- ensuring healthier kids, families and workers, while creating much-needed jobs and fighting climate disruption. Carbon pollution is the main contributor to climate disruption and is linked to life-threatening air pollution like asthma-inducing smog, making it a serious hazard to Americans' health and future. Thank you for protecting our families by proposing new standards to clean up dangerous carbon pollution from new power plants!

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Re: [EC] [wvec-board] Not yet the Last chance to comment on EPA's Greenhouse Gas rule
by James Kotcon 12 Jun '12

12 Jun '12

EPA has extended the coment period on this rule till June 25. Now is a good time to get your friends, family, and neighbors to send comments! JBK >>> "James Kotcon" 06/11/12 1:10 PM >>> The deadline for comments on EPA's Greenhouse gas rule ends tomorrow, June 12. If you have not already done so, please click on the link below and submit comments in support of the rule. http://www.regulations.gov/#!submitComment;D=EPA-HQ-OAR-2011-0660-0001 State your opinions, or copy and paste the Sample Comments below. Thanks: Jim Kotcon Sample Comments: Dear Administrator Jackson, I strongly support the proposed new standards to clean up dangerous carbon pollution from new power plants. By setting carbon pollution protections, the EPA is moving forward to clean up and modernize the way we power our country -- ensuring healthier kids, families and workers, while creating much-needed jobs and fighting climate disruption. Carbon pollution is the main contributor to climate disruption and is linked to life-threatening air pollution like asthma-inducing smog, making it a serious hazard to Americans' health and future. Thank you for protecting our families by proposing new standards to clean up dangerous carbon pollution from new power plants! __._,_.___ 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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Re: [EC] Not yet the Last chance to comment on EPA's Greenhouse Gas rule
by James Kotcon 12 Jun '12

12 Jun '12

EPA has extended the coment period on this rule till June 25. Now is a good time to get your friends, family, and neighbors to send comments! JBK >>> "James Kotcon" 06/11/12 1:10 PM >>> The deadline for comments on EPA's Greenhouse gas rule ends tomorrow, June 12. If you have not already done so, please click on the link below and submit comments in support of the rule. http://www.regulations.gov/#!submitComment;D=EPA-HQ-OAR-2011-0660-0001 State your opinions, or copy and paste the Sample Comments below. Thanks: Jim Kotcon Sample Comments: Dear Administrator Jackson, I strongly support the proposed new standards to clean up dangerous carbon pollution from new power plants. By setting carbon pollution protections, the EPA is moving forward to clean up and modernize the way we power our country -- ensuring healthier kids, families and workers, while creating much-needed jobs and fighting climate disruption. Carbon pollution is the main contributor to climate disruption and is linked to life-threatening air pollution like asthma-inducing smog, making it a serious hazard to Americans' health and future. Thank you for protecting our families by proposing new standards to clean up dangerous carbon pollution from new power plants!

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Fwd: DEP Rules Summary
by James Kotcon 11 Jun '12

11 Jun '12

See note from Don Garvin below: This Gas rule may be the major battle of the Marcellus campaign. JBK Office of Oil & Gas 35 CSR 8 – Rule Governing the Development of Horizontal Wells – This is a new rule, necessitated by the passage of HB 401 on December 14, 2011. OOG has taken the applicable sections of the existing rule governing conventional oil and natural gas wells (35 CSR 4 – Oil and Gas Wells and Other Wells) and transferred them to this new rule, and further expanded on the new Natural Gas Horizontal Well Control Act in the following areas: erosion and sediment control plan; site construction plan; water management plan; well site safety plan; casing and cementing standards; well records, including records and disclosure of chemicals used in the hydraulic fracturing process; water supply testing; and construction standards for large wastewater pits and freshwater impoundments. >>> <DSGJr(a)aol.com> 6/11/2012 1:18 PM >>> Larry Harris sent me this late last week while I was in the hospital. He is on the DEP Advisory Council. This is a summary. Apparently the actual rules have not been posted yet for public comment, etc. The Advisory Council meets on June 21 at 1:30 PM at DEP in Charleston. There is a new horizontal drilling rule proposed. It is the last item in the document. There are no details provided yet. don garvin

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Last chance to comment on EPA's Greenhouse Gas rule- June 12
by James Kotcon 11 Jun '12

11 Jun '12

The deadline for comments on EPA's Greenhouse gas rule ends tomorrow, June 12. If you have not already done so, please click on the link below and submit comments in support of the rule. http://www.regulations.gov/#!submitComment;D=EPA-HQ-OAR-2011-0660-0001 State your opinions, or copy and paste the Sample Comments below. Thanks: Jim Kotcon Sample Comments: Dear Administrator Jackson, I strongly support the proposed new standards to clean up dangerous carbon pollution from new power plants. By setting carbon pollution protections, the EPA is moving forward to clean up and modernize the way we power our country -- ensuring healthier kids, families and workers, while creating much-needed jobs and fighting climate disruption. Carbon pollution is the main contributor to climate disruption and is linked to life-threatening air pollution like asthma-inducing smog, making it a serious hazard to Americans' health and future. Thank you for protecting our families by proposing new standards to clean up dangerous carbon pollution from new power plants!

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Fwd: WVNS story: WV Wildlife Area Hit By Fracking
by Paul Wilson 01 Jun '12

01 Jun '12

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Public News Service <wvns(a)newsservice.org> Date: Tue, May 29, 2012 at 6:32 AM Subject: WVNS story: WV Wildlife Area Hit By Fracking To: PaulWilson <pjgrunt(a)gmail.com> WV Wildlife Area Hit By Fracking Public News Service-WV http://www.publicnewsservice.org/index.php?/content/article/26666-1 Join the discussion: facebook.com/PublicNewsService<http://www.facebook.com/PublicNewsService> Twitter: @pns_news <http://twitter.com/#!/pns_news> @pns_WV<http://twitter.com/#!/pns_WV> Google+: plus.to/publicnewsservice <http://plus.google.com/106260479325451709866> (05/29/12) CHARLESTON, W.Va. - People living near a state wildlife preserve are complaining that it is being torn up by natural gas exploration operations (fracking). The state of West Virginia does not own the mineral rights for the Lewis Wetzel Wildlife Management Area. Therefore, like a private landowner, the state has limited ability to control activities by the three drilling companies operating on 12 large well-pads located in the game and hiking preserve. Longtime Wetzel County resident Bill Hughes says he has repeatedly complained about problems, including runaway erosion and heavy truck traffic. "It's a total embarrassment to the state to have these things in their own back yard. Every resident, every taxpayer in the state of West Virginia owns part of Lewis Wetzel. I want my land taken care of better than this." State officials say they have the sites under investigation, and inspectors are due there next week. Department of Environmental Protection spokeswoman Kathy Cosco says her office is treating the complaints the same way they would on any private land. Overall, she says, state regulators have been slowed by the need to hire more inspectors and put a new law signed late last year into effect. "We've had to play catch-up. Industry and the market changed things quickly, and so quite frankly what you find is the regulation side is playing catch-up to the industry." Hughes says one problem is the level of commotion, the traffic and industrial activity, in what should be quiet wilderness. "Dirt, noise, diesel fumes, disturbances. I'm sure the deer are having a hard time finding a place that's a little bit of peace and quiet for them." He says one of the big well pads, with a number of individual drilling rigs on it, has been plagued by massive erosion that has filled a nearby creek with mud. "Tree roots and the trees just slipped on down the hill, and rainfall over the past month or two has cut another channel because the old existing creek bed is buried -- there's probably four or five foot of mud." The drilling companies did not return calls requesting comment. 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/26666-1<http://www.publicnewsservice.org/index.php?/content/article/26666-1> --- 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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Fwd: Investor Risks from Oil Shale
by Paul Wilson 01 Jun '12

01 Jun '12

fyi, paul ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Clayton Daughenbaugh <claytonhd(a)xmission.com> Date: Wed, May 30, 2012 at 5:08 PM Subject: Investor Risks from Oil Shale To: CONS-AWL-RESILIENT-HABITATS(a)lists.sierraclub.org Attached.**** ** ** --clayton**** - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - To unsubscribe from the CONS-AWL-RESILIENT-HABITATS list, send any message to: CONS-AWL-RESILIENT-HABITATS-signoff-request(a)LISTS.SIERRACLUB.ORG Check out our Listserv Lists support site for more information: http://www.sierraclub.org/lists/faq.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: EIP and Public Justice Sue FirstEnergy on behalf of LBRAG at nation's largest coal ash pond - Little Blue
by Jim Sconyers 30 May '12

30 May '12

This is huge. ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: "Lisa Widawsky Hallowell" <lhallowell(a)environmentalintegrity.org> Date: May 30, 2012 1:57 PM Subject: EIP and Public Justice Sue FirstEnergy on behalf of LBRAG at nation's largest coal ash pond - Little Blue To: <COAL-COMBUSTION-WASTE(a)lists.sierraclub.org> **apologies for cross-posting****** ** ** EIP and Public Justice, on behalf of the Little Blue Regional Action Group (formerly “Citizens Against Coal Ash”), filed a notice letter for violations of the Clean Water Act, Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, Emergency Planning and Community Right to Know Act, and PA Clean Streams Law at FirstEnergy’s Little Blue Run Coal Ash Impoundment today. The NOI is available here:**** ** ** http://www.environmentalintegrity.org/news_reports/05_30_2012.php**** ** ** ** ** Lisa Widawsky Hallowell**** Attorney**** Environmental Integrity Project**** 1 Thomas Circle, Suite 900**** Washington, DC 20005**** 202.294.3282 (direct/mobile)**** 202.296.8822 (fax) **** lhallowell(a)environmentalintegrity.org **** ** ** *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

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NYTimes.com: Even in Coal Country, the Fight for an Industry
by william.depaulo＠gmail.com 30 May '12

30 May '12

This page was sent to you by: william.depaulo(a)gmail.com. Even in Coal Country, the Fight for an Industry http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/30/business/energy-environment/even-in-kentu… ---------------------------------------------------------- ABOUT THIS E-MAIL This e-mail was sent to you by a friend through NYTimes.com's E-mail This Article service. For general information about NYTimes.com, write to help(a)nytimes.com. NYTimes.com 620 Eighth Avenue New York, NY 10018 Copyright 2012 The New York Times Company

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SHALE OIL IN OHIO
by William V. DePaulo, Esq. 24 May '12

24 May '12

Chesapeake Raises Big Bet in Ohio By DANIEL GILBERT<http://online.wsj.com/search/term.html?KEYWORDS=DANIEL+GILBERT&bylinesearch…>And RYAN DEZEMBER<http://online.wsj.com/search/term.html?KEYWORDS=RYAN+DEZEMBER&bylinesearch=…> Aubrey McClendon, CEO of Chesapeake Energy <http://online.wsj.com/public/quotes/main.html?type=djn&symbol=CHK>Corp., once described oil buried in a layer of rock that stretches from the outskirts of Cleveland to West Virginia as "the biggest thing to hit Ohio since the plow." Mr. McClendon bet big on that new oil field, the Utica Shale, paying billions of dollars over the last two years for drilling rights to 1.3 million acres of it, or about 5% of Ohio's land area. Now, Chesapeake is raising its bet—ramping up drilling on a promising but unproven oil field, at a time when the embattled natural-gas giant is under financial stress and facing heightened scrutiny from investors. Battered by the lowest natural-gas prices in a decade, Chesapeake is selling off some of its most lucrative assets and taking out increasingly expensive loans in a bid to transform itself into an oil power. The cash-strapped company, whose stock market valuation is under $10 billion, has more than $13 billion in debt on its balance sheet and total obligations of close to $24 billion, ratings agencies say. Key to its ambition is the Utica, which Ohio officials estimate holds 1.3 billion to 5.5 billion barrels of oil. The Utica, which spans parts of five states, often draws comparisons to the huge Eagle Ford Shale in Texas, which could hold 3.4 billion barrels of oil, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. On Tuesday, a Chesapeake executive told an industry conference in Austin that the Utica could generate a higher rate of return than any of Chesapeake's other properties. But analysts say that relatively little is known about the true potential of the Utica. Chesapeake has only released results from nine of the 59 wells it has drilled in the Utica, and none of the nine have been in operation for long. Chesapeake says that oil made up less than a third of its average peak production from eight of the wells, with natural gas accounting for half and the rest coming from liquid gases like ethane and propane. The limited data the company has released "fail to wow," analysts at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. wrote last month. [image: CHKUTICA] [image: CHKUTICA] None of the nine wells is in what executives call the "oil window," the sweet spot the Oklahoma City-based company believes holds the most crude. "We haven't cracked the code on the oil window," Mr. McClendon said at an industry conference last month in New York. "The prize is big if you can do that." The Utica is far from Chesapeake's only oil property. It is spending more money on the proven Eagle Ford in south Texas and ramping up drilling in the Mississippi Lime field that straddles the border between Oklahoma and Kansas. Chesapeake isn't alone in its belief that the Utica holds a lot of oil. BP<http://online.wsj.com/public/quotes/main.html?type=djn&symbol=BP.LN> PLC, Exxon Mobil<http://online.wsj.com/public/quotes/main.html?type=djn&symbol=XOM>Corp., Hess <http://online.wsj.com/public/quotes/main.html?type=djn&symbol=HES>Corp., Anadarko Petroleum<http://online.wsj.com/public/quotes/main.html?type=djn&symbol=APC>Corp. and Devon Energy<http://online.wsj.com/public/quotes/main.html?type=djn&symbol=DVN>Corp., among others, have bought Utica drilling fields in Ohio. In December, Total<http://online.wsj.com/public/quotes/main.html?type=djn&symbol=tot>SA, the French oil giant, paid Chesapeake $610 million for a stake in its holdings in the Utica, with the promise to cover $1.4 billion of drilling costs. Total declined to comment. "While we agree with the view that the Utica is an emerging play and there is little publicly available well information, we have drilled and tested a sufficient number of wells for us to have a high level of confidence," Jim Gipson, a Chesapeake spokesman, said Wednesday. The company plans to disclose details about its oil production in the coming months, he said. Chesapeake has staked more on the Utica than any other producer by far. It has leased twice as much land as its nearest competitor, Chevron<http://online.wsj.com/public/quotes/main.html?type=djn&symbol=CVX>Corp. Of the 223 permits the state has issued for Utica wells, Chesapeake has obtained 162. It is drilling with 10 rigs there, the most of any company, and plans to operate 22 rigs in 2013, which would amount to almost 18% of its working rigs. Chesapeake is continuing to expand its holdings in the Utica. In the first quarter of this year, Chesapeake spent $900 million acquiring drilling rights—more than half of what it has budgeted for the entire year—with much of the activity in the Utica, where it had already spent $2 billion. The company said Tuesday that it plans to dedicate 8% of its capital spending, or up to $600 million, on the Utica in 2013, which doesn't include Total's contribution. Ramping up drilling may help Chesapeake demonstrate the oil and gas potential in the Utica, allowing it to add to its reserves. Until that potential is proven by drilling, the company can't use its Utica holdings as collateral to take out reserve-based loans because the amount of oil and gas there is uncertain, said Neal Dingmann, an analyst with investment bank SunTrust Robinson Humphrey Inc. Chesapeake currently draws on a $4 billion line of credit, backed by reserves, for its daily cash needs. To raise cash, Chesapeake in December 2011 completed a sale of $1.25 billion in preferred shares in a newly created subsidiary for some of its Utica holdings to private-equity firms led by EIG Global Energy Partners. Chesapeake must pay a steep 7% annual return to the investors, as well as 3% of the royalties from the first 1,500 wells, beginning this year and is committed to drilling 50 wells a year in the Utica through 2016. The company is under pressure to raise as much as $11.5 billion before the end of the year to bridge a widening gap between its cash flow and spending. It is shopping its entire 1.5 million acres in a lucrative west Texas oil field, which makes up 5% of its production, to pay for drilling in places like the Utica that it believes will prove even more profitable. The cash crunch, combined with corporate-governance controversies, has pushed Chesapeake's stock down 51% in the last 12 months. It closed Wednesday at $15.09. For years, Mr. McClendon has taken a small stake in every well that Chesapeake drills, sharing equally in their costs and profits. In November, he pledged his stakes in the company's wells in the Utica and elsewhere as collateral to borrow up to $1 billion from EIG, which didn't become widely known until April. The revelation that he borrowed from a company doing business with Chesapeake has rocked the company in recent weeks. Chesapeake has said that allowing Mr. McClendon to invest in the wells aligned him with shareholders and that his borrowing didn't pose a conflict of interest, though they have agreed to end the practice in 2014. Board members are reviewing his financing deals with firms that have relationships with Chesapeake. Mr. McClendon has apologized for what he calls "distractions" and agreed to step down as chairman. But he has not changed his tune about the Utica. Earlier this month, Mr. McClendon said that a natural-gas well drilled in Ohio's rural Harrison County "may very well be our best shale well ever." Analysts say it is too early to determine whether the Utica will prove as profitable as other major U.S. oil fields. "It's an Eagle Ford lookalike, it's got that kind of potential," said David Tameron, a senior analyst at Wells Fargo Securities LLC. But he cautioned, "We don't have a history with any of these wells." *Write to * Daniel Gilbert at daniel.gilbert(a)wsj.com and Ryan Dezember at ryan.dezember(a)dowjones.com - ** - - - -

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PNC finances MTR
by Jim Sconyers 23 May '12

23 May '12

http://delaware.sierraclub.org/2012-05-22-pncbank PNC has branches in Morgantown. It would be fun to set up an action targeting them for their enabling of mountaintop removal. -- Jim Sconyers jimscon(a)gmail.com 304.698.9628 Remember, Mother Nature bats last.

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Fwd: WVNS story: Who Pays for Dominion Hope's Natural Gas Gambles?
by Paul Wilson 23 May '12

23 May '12

fyi, paul ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Public News Service <wvns(a)newsservice.org> Date: Wed, May 23, 2012 at 8:55 AM Subject: WVNS story: Who Pays for Dominion Hope's Natural Gas Gambles? To: PaulWilson <pjgrunt(a)gmail.com> Who Pays for Dominion Hope's Natural Gas Gambles? Public News Service-WV http://www.publicnewsservice.org/index.php?/content/article/26594-1 Join the discussion: facebook.com/PublicNewsService<http://www.facebook.com/PublicNewsService> Twitter: @pns_news <http://twitter.com/#!/pns_news> @pns_WV<http://twitter.com/#!/pns_WV> Google+: plus.to/publicnewsservice <http://plus.google.com/106260479325451709866> (05/23/12) CHARLESTON, W.Va. - Gas utility Dominion Hope has lost $22 million hedging on natural gas prices, and this week a judge will decide if the company can pass more than $9 million of that on to its customers. Under the direction of the Public Service Commission, Dominion Hope started hedging six years ago to try to protect against gas price spikes. But the bets lost money consistently, with higher losses recently. The company now wants ratepayers to cover its fiscal 2011 losses. Byron Harris, who heads the PSC's Consumer Advocate Division, says something might need to be changed. "The fact that they have consistently lost money is something I think we need to look at, and if there is a better way, I think that's something we definitely need to look at." Harris says Dominion Hope's hedging was done properly, as designed with the Consumer Advocate Division. Dominion Hope spokesman Chuck Penn says his company didn't make any mistakes. "Gas prices have essentially collapsed, down more than 70 percent since 2008. The entire market failed to foresee the drastic decline in prices that would occur." For every dollar Hope lost and charges to customers, Virginia Power Energy Marketing Group stands to profit. That's another Dominion subsidiary which Hope made these bets with. Energy market consultant George Donkin was hired by the Affiliated Construction Trades to look into the rate case. He says that kind of deal raises questions. "Any time you have a transaction involving corporate affiliates, it needs to be recognized that the transaction is now taking place at arm's length." According to Byron Harris, that does raise red flags, although it doesn't seem illegitimate. "The fact that they contract with their affiliate really has no impact. The reason that Hope paid above-market prices is because they've been hedging into this declining market." By comparison, Mountaineer Gas also hedges, but has lost about 25 percent less per unit of gas purchased. The hedging only protects against price increases, but gas prices have fallen dramatically, mostly because of large amounts of gas coming from the Marcellus shale formations under the eastern U.S. The Administrative Law Judge's decision will be posted on the PSC's website, case no. 11-1103-G-30C. 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/26594-1<http://www.publicnewsservice.org/index.php?/content/article/26594-1> --- 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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First Energy efficiency plans lag in WV
by Jim Sconyers 22 May '12

22 May '12

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Rashay Layman <rashay.layman(a)sierraclub.org> Date: Tue, May 22, 2012 at 4:03 PM Subject: Re: need mileage reimbursement To: Jim Sconyers <jimscon(a)gmail.com> FYI, http://www.statejournal.com/story/18573803/firstenergy-efficiency-programs-…

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Fwd: WVNS story: Impact of 'War On Coal' Questioned - Mining Jobs Actually Up
by Paul Wilson 21 May '12

21 May '12

great story from the WV Public News Service...... ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Public News Service <wvns(a)newsservice.org> Date: Mon, May 21, 2012 at 4:27 AM Subject: WVNS story: Impact of 'War On Coal' Questioned - Mining Jobs Actually Up To: PaulWilson <pjgrunt(a)gmail.com> Impact of 'War On Coal' Questioned - Mining Jobs Actually Up Public News Service-WV http://www.publicnewsservice.org/index.php?/content/article/26543-1 Join the discussion: facebook.com/PublicNewsService<http://www.facebook.com/PublicNewsService> Twitter: @pns_news <http://twitter.com/#!/pns_news> @pns_WV<http://twitter.com/#!/pns_WV> Google+: plus.to/publicnewsservice <http://plus.google.com/106260479325451709866> (05/21/12) CHARLESTON, W.Va. - The mining industry and most of the state's political leaders accuse the Environmental Protection Agency and the White House of waging a "war on coal." But according to Workforce West Virginia, the number of mining jobs is near a two-decade high. Ted Boettner, executive director of the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy, analyzed the employment numbers. He says the environmental policies actually have very little impact on the number of mining jobs here. He says that number is actually higher now that at any time since Bill Clinton's first term. "Last year there were more people employed in the coal mining industry than at any time since 1995. In fact, since Obama took office we've seen an increase of 1500 people in the mining industry." The industry has attacked the EPA for tightening rules on mountaintop removal and air pollution from coal-fired power plants. Boettner says those changes have far less impact than simple supply and demand. Many of the state's mines produce high-quality metallurgical coal. Since "met" coal is used to make steel rather than burned for power, demand for it is largely unaffected by efforts to slow global climate change. And Boettner says the price is up around the world. "We're exporting more and more of that coal. Metallurgical coal during its peak was well over $200 a ton, whereas steam coal was $60, $75 a ton." Over the long term, Beottner says, he expects less coal to be burned to produce electricity. But he says that has more to do with cheap natural gas than any federal policies. "The fact of the matter is the EPA has very little impact on price and production. Meanwhile, what does have a big impact is discovering 180 trillion cubic feet of Marcellus gas." Boettner says another factor is thinner Appalachian coal seams. He says that means more miners are needed to get the same amount of coal. More information is at tinyurl.com/d6ojrsy. 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/26543-1<http://www.publicnewsservice.org/index.php?/content/article/26543-1> --- 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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Fwd: Tell Gov. Tomblin: This is outrageous
by Paul Wilson 21 May '12

21 May '12

I signed and posted on my Facebook wall. fyi, paul ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Josh Nelson, CREDO Action <act(a)credoaction.com> Date: Mon, May 21, 2012 at 8:03 AM Subject: Tell Gov. Tomblin: This is outrageous To: Paul Wilson <pjgrunt(a)gmail.com> ** [image: Tell Governor Tomblin: Stop spending taxpayer money to promote the coal industry's misleading talking points!] <http://act.credoaction.com/r/?r=6891581&id=40465-3414728-Evb4Sxx&t=1> photo: Joost J. Bakker IJmuiden Clicking here will automatically add your name to this petition to West Virginia Governor Earl Ray Tomblin:<http://act.credoaction.com/r/?r=6891582&id=40465-3414728-Evb4Sxx&t=2> * "Using taxpayer money to pay for anti-EPA coal industry political attacks is an outrageous breach of public trust. As a West Virginia resident, I urge you to put an end to the state's sponsorship of the annual "coal forum" and stop your brazen shilling for the dirty coal industry." <http://act.credoaction.com/r/?r=6891582&id=40465-3414728-Evb4Sxx&t=3> * Automatically add your name: <http://act.credoaction.com/r/?r=6891582&id=40465-3414728-Evb4Sxx&t=4> [image: Take action now!] <http://act.credoaction.com/r/?r=6891582&id=40465-3414728-Evb4Sxx&t=5> Learn more about this campaign<http://act.credoaction.com/r/?r=6891581&id=40465-3414728-Evb4Sxx&t=6> [image: CREDO Action | more than a network, a movement.] *Tell Gov. Tomblin: Taxpayer money shouldn't promote coal propaganda and right-wing attacks on the EPA.<http://act.credoaction.com/r/?r=6891581&id=40465-3414728-Evb4Sxx&t=7> * Dear Paul, An explosive article published Wednesday on the Charleston Gazette's website exposed that West Virginia taxpayer money is being used to promote the coal industry's misleading attacks on the Environmental Protection Agency and President Obama's attempts to protect public health.1 *In the past two years, Governor Tomblin and the state legislature have set aside $58,500 in taxpayer money for a series of annual events called "the coal forum," in which coal industry staffers and pro-coal elected officials will attack EPA's efforts to protect public health as "the EPA's war on coal."* It is bad enough that Governor Tomblin is supporting pro-coal policies that throw people's health under the bus, but to be so brazen about using taxpayer money to parrot right-wing and coal industry political attacks is a stunning breach of public trust. *Tell Governor Tomblin: Don't spend taxpayer money on political attacks. Click here to automatically sign the petition.* <http://act.credoaction.com/r/?r=6891582&id=40465-3414728-Evb4Sxx&t=8> Everything about these events just reeks. This year's "coal forums," which are scheduled to take place this week in Charleston, Wheeling and Beckley, are literally being planned and promoted by a coal industry public relations firm owned by a registered lobbyist!2 These forums are a blatant attempt to advance the one-sided interests of the coal industry, which is working to reverse life saving federal pollution limits. Absent from the forums will be scientists, public health professionals and anyone else who might tell the truth about the devastating impacts of coal and the need to protect West Virginians from dirty coal pollution.3 *Mother Jones' Kate Sheppard characterized the issue well: "It's not surprising that the coal industry is down on Obama. But there aren't many states where the industry would have direct state support in advancing that agenda."4* The Coal Forum's Twitter account gives a good indication of the anti-Obama sentiment the events will be pushing, with several recent Tweets highlighting "Obama's war on coal" and one actually saying "Obama faces trouble in coal country."5 *Tell Governor Tomblin: Don't spend taxpayer money on political attacks. Click here to automatically sign the petition.* <http://act.credoaction.com/r/?r=6891582&id=40465-3414728-Evb4Sxx&t=9> Governor Tomblin has a well-deserved reputation for acting as a mouthpiece for West Virginia's powerful coal industry. His re-election website is largely committed to defending the coal industry and attacking the EPA.6 And of course, his list of campaign contributions reads like a who's who of power brokers in the dirty coal industry.7 But the blatant use of state-funds to promote what clearly amounts to coal industry propaganda and right-wing political attacks is truly brazen, even for him. Click below to automatically sign the petition and send a strong message to Governor Tomblin: *http://act.credoaction.com/r/?r=6891582&id=40465-3414728-Evb4Sxx&t=10* Thanks for fighting against the West Virginia government's shameful shilling for dirty coal. Josh Nelson, Campaign Manager CREDO Action from Working Assets <http://act.credoaction.com/r/?r=11&id=40465-3414728-Evb4Sxx&t=11> 1. W.Va. taxpayers fund anti-Obama coal campaign<http://act.credoaction.com/r/?r=6891583&id=40465-3414728-Evb4Sxx&t=12>, Charleston Gazette, 5/16/12 2. Coal PR firm set up state's anti-Obama meetings<http://act.credoaction.com/r/?r=6891585&id=40465-3414728-Evb4Sxx&t=13>, Charleston Gazette, 5/18/12 3. Events<http://act.credoaction.com/r/?r=6891586&id=40465-3414728-Evb4Sxx&t=14>, The Coal Forum 4. West Virginia Funds Pro-Coal Attack on Obama Admin.<http://act.credoaction.com/r/?r=6891587&id=40465-3414728-Evb4Sxx&t=15>, Mother Jones, 5/17/12 5. The Coal Forum<http://act.credoaction.com/r/?r=6891594&id=40465-3414728-Evb4Sxx&t=16>, Twitter 6. W. Va. Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin on Coal<http://act.credoaction.com/r/?r=6891584&id=40465-3414728-Evb4Sxx&t=17>, YouTube, 1/13/12 7. Contributions to Tomblin, Earl Ray<http://act.credoaction.com/r/?r=6891591&id=40465-3414728-Evb4Sxx&t=18>, National Institute on Money in State Politics ------------------------------ [image: Facebook]<http://act.credoaction.com/r/?r=6891592&id=40465-3414728-Evb4Sxx&t=19> *Share on Facebook* Post to your wall<http://act.credoaction.com/r/?r=6891592&id=40465-3414728-Evb4Sxx&t=20> [image: Twitter]<http://act.credoaction.com/r/?r=6891593&id=40465-3414728-Evb4Sxx&t=21> *Tweet this* Post to Twitter<http://act.credoaction.com/r/?r=6891593&id=40465-3414728-Evb4Sxx&t=22> © 2012 CREDO. All rights reserved. To remove yourself (Paul Wilson) from this list, please visit our subscription management page at: http://act.credoaction.com/s?i=40465-3414728-Evb4Sxx To change your email address or update your contact info, please visit: http://act.credoaction.com/subscrip/coa.html?id=40465-3414728-Evb4Sxx -- 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: Public Source article on Dana Mining's abuse of the Steele Shaft site agreement
by James Kotcon 20 May '12

20 May '12

Excellent articel about the on-fging water quality problems associated with Longview's affiliate AMDRI. The quote from Charlie Huguenard is particlurly enlightening. Jim Kotcon

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PJM Capacity Market Results Announced
by Frank Young 19 May '12

19 May '12

WordPress.comNote this PJM paragraph: "Although the RPM auction procured sufficient resources to meet the projected demand, some generating units may need to remain available beyond their proposed retirement dates until transmission upgrades are completed. These units would be operated under “reliability must run” agreements." I wonder what this bodes for First Energy's recently announced closure of Albright and other older generating facilities.- Frank ----- Original Message ----- From: The Power Line To: fyoung(a)mountain.net Sent: Saturday, May 19, 2012 10:39 AM Subject: [New post] PJM Capacity Market Results Announced New post on The Power Line PJM Capacity Market Results Announced by Bill Here is a link to PJM's press release on the just concluded capacity auction results. PJM is a cartel, and these annual auctions determine what companies and power plants can sell their power in PJM three years in the future. By disguising its cartel gatekeeping as an auction, PJM maintains a facade of "market based" neutrality. In fact, we know that the RPM system is "gameable" and is really a PIG (protection of incumbent generators). So what happened at the auction? Here's what PJM said: This year, the auction procured 164,561 MW of capacity resources at a base price of $136 per MW. A megawatt is enough electricity to power 800 to 1,000 homes. PJM’s all-time peak demand is 158,448 MW. Prices were higher in northern Ohio and the Mid-Atlantic region. How much higher were prices in the Mid-Atlantic region? The price of capacity in much of the Mid-Atlantic area will be $167 per megawatt. That is only $31 more than the PJM overall base price. This if far below the differences in RPM prices that PJM cited as a need for PATH. What does PJM say caused this shift? In addition to new generation, most of it natural gas-fired, the capacity auction also procured 14,833 MW of demand response, a 5 percent increase over last year, and energy efficiency, a 12 percent increase. The amount of demand response was also a record for PJM, as well as for renewable generation. Solar increased to 56 MW of solar — a 22 percent increase over last year – and wind increased to 796 MW – a 15 percent increase. Because all of these sources of capacity are far less polluting than coal, most of them are located in Mid-Atlantic states, a trend that is accelerating. Its a good thing that PJM, FE and AEP did not railroad state regulators into approving PATH. All rate payers in PJM would have been stuck with a very expensive white elephant. Speaking of FE, here is the auction result for the ATSI region of PJM, the northern region of Ohio and the heart of FE's business: In northern Ohio served by FirstEnergy, the price will be $357 per megawatt. This is a classic example of gaming the RPM system. FE announced a lot of coal plant closures early, instead of whining like AEP's "chiefs" have been. These plant closures, which FE said would be accomplished before 2015-16, the period of this year's RPM auctions, resulted in a severe decline in generating capacity in FE's home region. This will make it more likely for FE to appeal to PJM to keep these plants open to insure reliability, called Reliability Must Run, or RMR, in PJM jargon. Or, as the last paragraph of the press release describes it: Although the RPM auction procured sufficient resources to meet the projected demand, some generating units may need to remain available beyond their proposed retirement dates until transmission upgrades are completed. These units would be operated under “reliability must run” agreements. FE's gaming of the RPM market in 2015-16 artificially drove up prices in the ATSI zone, insuring at least some of its plants slated for closure will get RMR status from PJM and can remain open. As Keryn points out, FE beat AEP like a rented mule in the plant closure game. The high ATSI zone prices also completely undercut the PATH argument that capacity prices in eastern PJM are higher than prices in western PJM. The press release also notes, as we have in recent posts on The Power Line, that the FE plant closures have completely altered the transmission picture in PJM away from Project Mountaineer and unnecessary boondoggles such as PATH. Bill | May 19, 2012 at 9:39 am | Tags: Alternatives to PATH, PJM Fakery, Power Companies & PATH | Categories: Uncategorized | URL: http://wp.me/piwFb-1yq Comment See all comments Unsubscribe or change your email settings at Manage Subscriptions. Trouble clicking? Copy and paste this URL into your browser: http://calhounpowerline.com/2012/05/19/pjm-capacity-market-results-announce… Thanks for flying with WordPress.com

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Fwd: DEP Draft Permit to Operate gas compressor stations
by James Kotcon 17 May '12

17 May '12

We need to comment on this one. JBK >>> <DSGJr(a)aol.com> 5/17/2012 1:58 AM >>> From: dep.online(a)wv.gov To: DSGJR(a)aol.com Sent: 5/16/2012 1:44:49 P.M. Eastern Standard Time Subj: DEP Public Notice - Counties - All - Notice for the Draft/Proposed Title V General Permit to Operate Natural Gas Compressor Facilities - R30-NGGP-2012 The following was sent to you because you are a Member of the DEP Public Notice mailing list. =========================================================== Wednesday, May 16, 2012 @ 2:44 PM =========================================================== NOTICE OF COMMENT PERIOD FOR DRAFT/PROPOSED OPERATING PERMIT Title V of the Federal Clean Air Act and the state Air Pollution Control Act requires that all major sources and certain minor sources have a permit to operate which states all requirements (e.g. emission limitations, monitoring requirements, etc.) established by regulations promulgated under the aforementioned programs. The Division of Air Quality (DAQ) has determined that the draft/proposed permit referenced herein meets this requirement. The DAQ is providing notice to the general public of its preliminary determination to issue a General Operating Permit (R30-NGGP-2012) to operate Natural Gas Compressor Facilities. Facilities are designed and operated for the purpose of gathering, dehydrating, transmitting, processing or compressing Natural Gas. Facilities will include some or all of the following equipment: Indirect Heat Exchangers, Engines, Turbines, Storage Vessels, Glycol Dehydration Units and Mobile Glycol Reclaimer. This notice solicits comments from the public and affected state(s) concerning the above preliminary determination and provides an opportunity for such parties to review the basis for the proposed approval and the "draft" permit. This notice also solicits comments from the U.S. EPA concerning the same preliminary determination and provides an opportunity for the U.S. EPA to concurrently review the basis for the proposed approval as a “proposed” permit. This notice also incorporates changes to the General Requirements of the applicable preconstruction permit(s). Upon issuance of Title V General Permit a facility can apply to DAQ for Title V General Permit Registration. The registration process will not be advertised for public comment. All written comments submitted by the public and affected state(s) pursuant to this notice must be received by the DAQ within thirty (30) days of the date of publication of this notice. Under concurrent review, written comments submitted by the U.S. EPA must be received by the DAQ within forty- five (45) days from the date of publication of this notice or from the date the U.S. EPA receives this draft/proposed permit, whichever is later. In the event that the 30th/45th day is a Saturday, Sunday, or legal holiday, the comment period will be extended until 5:00 p.m. on the following regularly scheduled business day. The public shall have 135 days from the date of publication of this notice to file petitions for concurrently reviewed permits. Upon notice by the U.S. EPA to the DAQ, prior to the end of the 45-day notice period, the U.S. EPA may choose to hold the 30 day comment period on the draft permit and the 45 day comment period on the proposed permit sequentially. During the public comment period any interested person may submit written comments on the draft permit and may request a public hearing, if no public hearing has already been scheduled. A request for a public hearing shall be in writing and shall state the nature of the issues proposed to be raised in the hearing. The Director of the DAQ shall grant such a request for a hearing if he concludes that a public hearing is appropriate. Any public hearing shall be held in the general area in which the facility is located, after 30 day notice is given. The DAQ will consider all written comments prior to final action on the permit. Copies of the DAQ Fact Sheet and Draft/Proposed Permit may be downloaded from the DAQ's web site at the following address: http://www.dep.wv.gov/daq, then Permitting, Title V Guidance, Natural Gas General Permit (R30-NGGP-2012). Copies of the Permit Application, DAQ Fact Sheet, and Draft/Proposed Permit are available for public review at the following location between the hours of 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.: WV Department of Environmental Protection Division of Air Quality 601 57th Street SE Charleston, WV 25304 Contact: U.K.Bachhawat (304) 926-0499, Ext 1256 Comments and questions concerning this matter should be addressed to the above referenced individual. =========================================================== To view past notices of open public comment periods or to unsubscribe from this Mailing List, login at: http://apps.dep.wv.gov//MLists2/

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Fwd: WVNS story: Statistics Suggest EPA Regs Not Actually Job Killers
by Paul Wilson 17 May '12

17 May '12

fyi, paul w. ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Public News Service <wvns(a)newsservice.org> Date: Thu, May 17, 2012 at 4:07 AM Subject: WVNS story: Statistics Suggest EPA Regs Not Actually Job Killers To: PaulWilson <pjgrunt(a)gmail.com> Statistics Suggest EPA Regs Not Actually Job Killers Public News Service-WV http://www.publicnewsservice.org/index.php?/content/article/26458-1 Join the discussion: facebook.com/PublicNewsService<http://www.facebook.com/PublicNewsService> Twitter: @pns_news <http://twitter.com/#!/pns_news> @pns_WV<http://twitter.com/#!/pns_WV> Google+: plus.to/publicnewsservice <http://plus.google.com/106260479325451709866> (05/17/12) CHARLESTON, W.Va. - Employment figures suggest that new Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) air pollution rules that cut carbon, mercury, and soot are not the job killers they are accused of being. The EPA has been rolling out new air pollution limits under the Clean Air Act. Many of West Virginia's political leaders have attacked the regulations as bad for the economy, but job numbers show that employment has not gone away, it has just moved around. Joe Mendelsen, policy director of the National Wildlife Federation Climate & Energy program, says Americans can actually have it both ways - if the powers-that-be will allow it. He explains that the Clean Air Act and EPA policies that help the nation transition from dirty energy to clean energy actually do create jobs. "Just recently, the Bureau of Labor Statistics put out a study that showed that over 3.1 million new jobs have been created through our 'environmental economy,' if you will, and it's growing." The EPA has been attacked for what the coal industry calls a "war on coal," although the EPA argues the new limits on soot alone will save more than 8,000 lives a year. A whole host of American jobs go along with clean energy - jobs that cannot be outsourced, he adds - such as those associated with wind turbines. It's not only about making the turbines themselves, he says. Just like the car industry, a vast supply chain is necessary to make the parts that come together to create the turbine. "Wind-energy facilities don't emit carbon pollution and are good for our climate. There is steel that needs to be made to go into those; there are tool-and-die manufacturers in other facilities that are making the parts that go into those wind turbines; there are people on the ground who are doing the construction jobs." Employment figures show that Americans can create jobs while also cleaning up the air, making it safer to breathe and improving the health of people and animals for generations to come, Mendelsen says. 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/26458-1<http://www.publicnewsservice.org/index.php?/content/article/26458-1> --- 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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Coal Forum
by Jim Sconyers 16 May '12

16 May '12

I'm free for the one in Wheeling. Anyone want to go and pass out flyers or.....???* May 23, 2012 Wheeling, WV Oglebay Resort 10:00 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. Featuring Congressman David McKinley* http://blogs.wvgazette.com/coaltattoo/2012/05/16/w-va-taxpayers-fund-anti-o… W.Va. taxpayers fund anti-Obama coal campaign May 16, 2012 by Ken Ward Jr. <http://blogs.wvgazette.com/coaltattoo/files/2012/05/obamamay2012.jpg> Folks in West Virginia may have heard about a series of upcoming events aimed at attacking President Obama and his Environmental Protection Agency’s efforts to reduce the coal industry’s impacts on the environment, public health and the global climate system. A group called “The Coal Forum<http://www.wvcoalforum.org/content/view/33/1/>” is sponsoring the events, which include meetings next week in Charleston, Wheeling and Beckley. Listed speakers include Congresswoman Shelley Moore Capito, Congressman Nick Joe Rahall, Congressman David McKinley and UMWA President Cecil Roberts. Next week’s meetings are described on the Coal Forum’s website as events: *… To discuss EPA’s War on Coal and, specifically, the agency’s greenhouse gas and Utility MACT proposed rules.* *These rules will significantly affect West Virginia jobs, and in fact, have already resulted in the announced premature closure of several state power plants. The purpose of the Coal Forum events are to increase awareness of the harmful impacts these rules will have on the economy of Appalachia and to discuss strategies for reversing them.* What you may not realize is that these events are sponsored and paid for by West Virginia taxpayers. -- Jim Sconyers jimscon(a)gmail.com 304.698.9628 Remember, Mother Nature bats last.

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Fwd: Rivesville plant
by James Kotcon 13 May '12

13 May '12

Here is a story on the proposed Rivesville energy plant. Looks like they are happy to burn coal waste, but not municipal waste. we need to keep our eyes on this one. JBK >>> Kevin Smith <a_clean_wv(a)yahoo.com> 5/12/2012 7:28 PM >>> some not so good news if this gets approved: http://timeswv.com/local/x1640793968/Proposed-plant-faces-many-hurdles Kevin President & North Central WV Representative, West Virginia Environmental Council "All Shades Of Green" __._,_.___ 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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Conservative Thinktanks Launch Anti-Wind Campaigns
by Frank Young 11 May '12

11 May '12

Blankhttp://www.alternet.org/environment/155359/conservative_thinktanks_lau… >From the article: "Recent developments in the campaign against wind power include: " • Putting forward Alec-drafted bills overturning those measures in Michigan, Ohio, West Virginia, Colorado, Montana and Washington state." Ironically, the West Virginia so-called "alternative energy" legislation does not require even one kilowatt of wind (nor of solar) generated electricity. Frank

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Fwd: FRACKING AND BLASTING AMERICA... AND SHIPPING ENERGY OVERSEAS
by Paul Wilson 11 May '12

11 May '12

really good email campaign that goes to the Council on Environmental Quality and our reps in Congress. fyi, paul ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: David Dow <ddow420(a)comcast.net> Date: Thu, May 10, 2012 at 5:06 PM Subject: Fwd: FRACKING AND BLASTING AMERICA... AND SHIPPING ENERGY OVERSEAS To: Patricia Matejcek Gmail <patachek3(a)gmail.com>, Alison Robb < nature(a)cape.com>, Paul Wilson <pjgrunt(a)gmail.com> fyi Begin forwarded message: *From: *Catskill Citizens for Safe Energy <info(a)catskillcitizens.org> *Date: *May 10, 2012 9:51:50 AM EDT *To: *ddow420(a)comcast.net *Subject: **FRACKING AND BLASTING AMERICA... AND SHIPPING ENERGY OVERSEAS* * * **<http://org2.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=1XHz0cFmZWZPUXEuzPSwX…> * * *FRACKING AND BLASTING AMERICA . . . AND SHIPPING* [image: Take Action!]<http://org2.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=%2BXglNioIEv1MIWLDULr…> *ENERGY OVERSEAS* *Demand an energy policy that makes sense. Take Action!*<http://org2.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=GzKIE0PG6weeSDfVM8XKI…> * * Energy companies love to wrap themselves in the flag of energy independence, but in fact they have a history of exploiting American resources in a way that benefits foreign nations, not the United States. In recent decades, mountaintop removal (MTR) coal mining has destroyed an area the size of Rhode Island. Biologically diverse ecosystems have been wiped out. Thousands of miles of streams have been poisoned, or have disappeared under mountains of rubble. Contaminated air and water have created a health crisis for rural communities that face epidemic rates of birth defects and childhood disease. Adding insult to grievous injury, we've been shipping our Appalachian coal overseas. And now, rather than rethinking the insanity of MTR, the U.S. is about to embark on yet another ruinous venture, one that will create an even greater environmental and health crisis here at home so energy corporations can make a killing abroad. The broad outlines of the gas industry’s master plan are clear—frack the hell out of America so U.S. energy companies can become leading exporters of natural gas. The industry has already begun spending tens of billions of dollars to construct pipelines and export terminals to ship liquefied natural gas (LNG) to Europe and Asia. When these terminals are complete, the industry will be able to sell U.S. gas in foreign markets at prices that may be five or six or seven times the current rate here at home. Gas corporations will make out like bandits, while the U.S. taxpayer will be left to cope with the environmental damage and the inevitable public health crisis that will follow in the wake of contaminated air and drinking water supplies. * * [image: No Frack!] * * * * * * *ALBANY INACTION AND MISDIRECTION* * * * * *Demand protective legislation. Take Action!<http://org2.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=j11HY8xqzZAJigdJgIfOS…> * *[image: Take Action!]<http://org2.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=XiM6yDLX54xDX6m6rMD4y…> * * * - In 2005, the gas industry wanted a state law that would force landowners to have gas known to be under their land extracted against their will. No problem. A compulsory integration bill, written by lobbyists, sailed through both houses of the legislature with unanimous support. In 2008, the industry was back in Albany because it wanted a well-spacing law to facilitate shale gas extraction. Once again, the legislature quickly gave the industry what it wanted. - But although ordinary New Yorkers have been demanding basic protections from fracking for years, the legislature still hasn’t managed to enact a single law in the *public *interest. Will this year be any different? Will the legislature pass a bill requiring a much-needed health impact assessment of fracking? Will it close the drilling waste loophole that lets the industry dump toxic waste without adequate supervision? Will it accomplish anything at all before the current session winds down? - The Cuomo Administration and the DEC continue to offer conflicting estimates of when fracking will get underway in New York. We’ve been told it will be this spring, or in the summer, or in the fall, or maybe sometime before the end of the year, or perhaps never. It’s hard to read these mixed signals as anything more than a cynical ploy to keep the public confused and activists off guard. - Recently DEC Commissioner Martens told the press that his department will “consider” local laws that prohibit fracking when it issues drilling permits, but he failed to say whether the DEC will actually *respect*the laws enacted by dozens of communities who don’t trust Governor Cuomo, or the DEC, or the legislature to offer them the protections they deserve. * SUNGEVITY * Recently, Catskill Citizens partnered with *Sungevity<http://org2.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=5aJJu6TgYWJ2%2BJ6wjGC…> ,* a company that provides solar installations for home and businesses. If someone purchases a solar installation through our website, the purchaser and Catskill Citizens each get a check for $750. We didn’t form this partnership because we’re desperate for money, or because we’ve sold out to corporate interests. We did it because we think the company has a business model that deserves recognition. Sungevity is one of several companies that will install photovoltaic (PV) systems on homes at no cost to the homeowner—the company makes its money by collecting the available tax incentives and through monthly leasing payments that are less than the homeowner’s savings on their utility bill. This not-a-penny-out-of- pocket-ever business model is important because it undermines the argument that renewable energy systems are expensive and beyond the reach of ordinary Americans. Solar is here now—and anyone can afford it. *Can New York Learn from Texas?<http://org2.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=uInpa8N%2FyRpVjKQpKur…> Economist Jannette Barth’s latest analysis of the economic impact of shale gas plays. * *Read more about LNG exports by entering the word “exports in the “Search” feature of our **website*<http://org2.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=o0%2BnVCwdEOAjf2T6HWx…> *.* *STOP THE FRACK ATTACK!* On July 28, citizens from all across the country will rally in Washington, D.C. for a national day of action. Read more at stopthefrackattack.org<http://org2.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=PC8e1W40kj05dTQCb3ecp…> . Please share this Update link, cut and paste to Facebook and Twitter: http://bit.ly/KSEZMA<http://org2.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=%2BYL6yZIBLMygM7ZXtl8…> <http://org2.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=mjN1ncbnOnhVMzzQwaXFq…> For more information email info(a)catskillcitizens.org or call (845) 468 7063 *Two out of three people who find out about fracking think the risks aren't worth the rewards. Public awareness is the key to our success, so spread the word! * <http://org2.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=kWqs66uaEQ%2BiyaHllT9…> Please donate to Catskill Citizens for Safe Energy. *To unsubscribe from this email list, please email info(a)catskillcitizens.org and type unsubscribe in the header.* [image: empowered by Salsa] <http://www.salsalabs.com/?email> **** -- 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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oil/gas/coal anti-wind energy campaign?
by Frank Young 10 May '12

10 May '12

BlankI have suspected for some time that at least some anti-wind activists are encouraged, whether innocently or knowingly, by miss-information disseminated by oil and/or gas, and/or coal, and/or other fossil fuel interests.- Frank http://influencealley.nationaljournal.com/2012/05/wind.php "Earlier this year, a national conservative think tank fellow organized a gathering in Washington to hear how local wind energy opponents were fighting wind projects in their communities and to discuss launching a national public relations strategy to subvert the industry and influence wind energy policies. The gathering and a strategy memo outlining a national PR campaign against wind energy caught the attention of the pro-clean energy Checks and Balances Project, which charged that oil-and-gas backed think tanks were working to organize local NIMBY groups into a national campaign against wind energy. "This is the first time that we've seen this level of coordination," said Gabe Elsner, the co-director of the Checks and Balances Project. But, the meeting's organizer and attendees say the February event was simply a gathering of likeminded activists, not a grand strategy funded by oil and gas interests. The national PR campaign the activists discussed never got off the ground, but the meeting did appear to plant a seed as the attendees continue to discuss launching a future anti-wind campaign." Complete article at: http://influencealley.nationaljournal.com/2012/05/wind.php

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Fwd: May 15 Seminar: West Virginia Energy Efficiency Incentive Program
by James Kotcon 08 May '12

08 May '12

Anyone want to check this out? I am tied up in interviews that day. Jim Kotcon. >>> EnergySaveWV <system(a)acteva.com> 5/7/2012 8:04 AM >>> Seminar: West Virginia Energy Efficiency Incentive Program The Lighting Rebates are HERE!!! Join representatives from FirstEnergy's West Virginia Lighting Rebate Program as we present the details of this exciting rebate program! We will also present on new Federal lamp legislation, LED lighting updates, and the basics of lighting retrofits. Join us on Tuesday, May 15th, 2012 from 7:30 a.m. - 11:00 a.m. at the Best Western - 100 Lodgeville Road, Bridgeport, West Virginia, 26330 AGENDA: 7:30 a.m. - Continental Breakfast 8:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m. Rebate Presentation, Lighting Technology Presentation, & Lighting Product Showcase REGISTER HERE: http://a3.acteva.com/orderbooking/bookEvent/A317736?emailAttendeeId=3211253… Future seminars to be held in Morgantown, Parkersburg, and Martinsburg in June. Keep your eyes peeled. If You are unable to make this seminar, we also offer weekly webinars: Program Overview and Application Assistance Webinar Every Monday from 2-3pm EST Join us for a weekly webinar for the Mon Power and Potomac Edison energy efficiency incentive program. This webinar will provide you with an overview of the Lighting for Business Program, as well as one-on-one support to guide you through filling out an application. To log-in, click here. (Type in name and email. Leave box unchecked. A dial-in number will be provided once you log-on.) This mail was sent from SAIC, Inc., 11 Penn Plaza, New York, NY, US 10001. If you would like to stop receiving emails from SAIC, Inc. please click here This email is powered by Acteva! Acteva is located at 456 Montgomery St., 8th Floor, San Francisco, CA 94104 http://www.acteva.com

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Carbon Pollution Standard
by James Kotcon 06 May '12

06 May '12

As discussed at the Chapter ExCom, attached is a sample postcard to support EPA's proposed carbon standard for new power plants. This is a great member involvement tool. Our goal is to get several hundred comments from West Virginia by June 5. I will be printing copies onto cardstock (and use that if you plan to have people mail them), but any good paper will suffice for signatures if you collect them yourselves.Jim Kotcon 304-293-8822 (office) 304-594-3322 (home) As a quick reminder, the Proposed Carbon Standards: • Require new power plants to limit carbon pollution to 1,000 lbs CO2 per megawatt-hour • Apply to all new power plants, except for those with air permit in-hand that can begin construction in 12 months Links for more information:Talking Points, template Letters to the Editor, OpEds, etc. http://clubhouse.sierraclub.org/carbon Username: clubhouse Password: explorehttp://www.beyondcoal.org/dirtytruth/carbonhttp://clubhouse.sierracl… You can find the Carbon presentation, as well as guidelines, custom slides for specific groups (i.e. labor, sportsmen, etc.) at: https://sites.google.com/a/sierraclub.org/carbonpresentations/ (for access, email Nicole.ghio(a)sierraclub.org)

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Re: [EC] Fwd: [Charleston Newspapers] Article - N.Y. firm has energy-plant plans for Marion County
by fmoose39＠hotmail.com 04 May '12

04 May '12

Seen the article and I am curious also. sent from my AT&T Smartphone by HTC ----- Reply message ----- From: "Jim Sconyers" <jimscon(a)gmail.com> Date: Fri, May 4, 2012 10:46 am Subject: [EC] Fwd: [Charleston Newspapers] Article - N.Y. firm has energy-plant plans for Marion County To: "James Kotcon" <jkotcon(a)wvu.edu> Cc: "Bill Price" <Bill_Price(a)sierraclub.org>, "Mark Kresowik" <Mark.Kresowik(a)sierraclub.org>, <ec(a)osenergy.org>, "Zachary Fabish" <Zachary.Fabish(a)sierraclub.org> The story seems to contradict itself. The guy is apparently planning coal-to-liquid, not trash to gas. Remember Mingo County plans? On Fri, May 4, 2012 at 9:50 AM, James Kotcon <jkotcon(a)wvu.edu> wrote: > Now that Albright is resolved, we need to pay some attention to this > proposal for Rivesville. > > JBK > > >>> <articles(a)cnpapers.com> 5/4/2012 6:45 AM >>> > jkotcon(a)wvu.edu sent you this article > ----- > May 3, 2012 > *N.Y. firm has energy-plant plans for Marion County<http://www.wvgazette.com/News/201205030294> > * > By The Associated Press<http://contact/jroznfgre+nc+bet+return=/News/201205030294> > The Associated Press > P>FAIRMONT, W.Va. -- A New York company wants to retrofit the old > coal-fired Rivesville Power Station to run on synthetic gas and build a > Fairmont plant to produce synthetic diesel from trash. > > WBOY-TV says Allied Geo-Plasma Energy Services mainly ... > Read more <http://www.wvgazette.com/News/201205030294> > ----- > > _______________________________________________ > EC mailing list > EC(a)osenergy.org > http://osenergy.org/mailman/listinfo/ec > -- Jim Sconyers jimscon(a)gmail.com 304.698.9628 Remember, Mother Nature bats last.

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Fwd: [Charleston Newspapers] Article - N.Y. firm has energy-plant plans for Marion County
by James Kotcon 04 May '12

04 May '12

Now that Albright is resolved, we need to pay some attention to this proposal for Rivesville. JBK >>> <articles(a)cnpapers.com> 5/4/2012 6:45 AM >>> jkotcon(a)wvu.edu sent you this article ----- May 3, 2012 N.Y. firm has energy-plant plans for Marion County ( http://www.wvgazette.com/News/201205030294 ) By The Associated Press ( contact/jroznfgre+nc+bet+return=/News/201205030294 ) The Associated Press P>FAIRMONT, W.Va. -- A New York company wants to retrofit the old coal-fired Rivesville Power Station to run on synthetic gas and build a Fairmont plant to produce synthetic diesel from trash. WBOY-TV says Allied Geo-Plasma Energy Services mainly ... Read more ( http://www.wvgazette.com/News/201205030294 ) -----

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Fwd: Wyoming got EPA to delay fracking study finding
by Paul Wilson 04 May '12

04 May '12

fyi, paul. there is a reference to Marcellus in this WY article. ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Fran Hunt <fran.hunt(a)sierraclub.org> Date: Fri, May 4, 2012 at 9:51 AM Subject: Wyoming got EPA to delay fracking study finding To: CONS-AWL-RESILIENT-HABITATS(a)lists.sierraclub.org http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2012/05/03/national/a12092… AP Exclusive: Wyoming got EPA to delay frack finding By MEAD GRUVER, Associated Press Thursday, May 3, 2012 (05-03) 12:29 PDT Cheyenne, Wyo. (AP) -- Wyoming's governor persuaded the head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to postpone an announcement linking hydraulic fracturing to groundwater contamination, giving state officials — whom the EPA had privately briefed on the study — time to attempt to debunk the finding before it rocked the oil and gas industry more than a month later, an investigation by The Associated Press has found. During the delay, state officials raised dozens of questions about the finding that the controversial procedure that has become essential to unlocking oil and gas deposits in Wyoming and beyond may have tainted groundwater near the gas patch community of Pavillion. Gov. Matt Mead contacted EPA Director Lisa Jackson and persuaded her to hold off any announcement, according to state emails and an interview with the governor. The more than 11,000 emails made available to AP in response to a state records request show that Wyoming officials took advantage of the postponement to "take a hard line" and coordinate an "all-out press" against the EPA in the weeks leading up to the announcement Dec. 8. Meanwhile, the chief state regulator of oil and gas development fretted over how the finding would affect state revenue. And even as the state questioned the EPA's science, there were internal doubts about how effective those objections would be. "It's already too late. The White House has already seen the report with conclusions," wrote Gary Strong, an engineer with the Wyoming Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, following a presentation by EPA deputy assistant regional administrator Martin Hestmark. The emails indicate that the federal agency was being pressed by the White House to release its report. But the state's questions did set the stage for additional groundwater and household well water sampling in the Pavillion area that began a couple weeks ago. The struggle by both Wyoming officials and the EPA for message control shows the extent to which they fretted about the findings. Wyoming depends on oil and gas for its economic well-being while environmentalists have pushed the Obama <http://www.sfgate.com/barack-obama/>administration to crack down on a process responsible for increasing U.S. onshore production. The worry wasn't misplaced: Though the findings were unique to Pavillion, they ricocheted amid heightened scrutiny of fracking in other drilling regions including the Marcellus Shale states of New York, Ohio and Pennsylvania. The emails also suggest an uneasy partnership now that the EPA and Wyoming, as well as U.S. Geological Survey and two American Indian tribes, say they are working together on further study of the Pavillion groundwater. However, some recent re-sampling by the EPA of household well water in the Pavillion area took Mead and other state officials by surprise. They had presumed that only two monitoring wells the EPA had drilled to test for groundwater pollution would be retested this spring. "I won't tell anybody not to test. But if you're going to test, you need to bring everyone in the process," Mead said in an interview Monday. The EPA did not make Jackson available for an interview. EPA Region 8 Director Jim Martin said in a statement through spokesman Richard Mylott that the EPA "has been transparent and has relied on the best science" to inform Pavillion-area residents about their water. Environmentalists including the Natural Resource Defense Council and Sierra Club have looked to the Obama administration EPA to get tougher on fracking, the practice of cracking open oil and gas deposits by pumping pressurized water, fine sand and chemicals down well holes. They maintain that fracking is a threat to clean groundwater. The EPA study in the Pavillion area followed years of complaints from homeowners that their well water took on a chemical stink around the time that fracking picked up in their neighborhood about eight years ago. Environmentalists welcomed the draft report as validation of their concerns. Wyoming is the third-ranked state for onshore gas production and ninth for onshore oil production. Nearly every new oil and gas well in Wyoming that isn't a coal-bed methane well is fracked. In internal emails that followed the Nov. 4 briefing, state officials expressed support for fracking as critical to oil and gas extraction, a $7.7 billion a year industry in Wyoming that accounts for 20 percent of the state's gross domestic product. "The limiting of the hydraulic fracturing process will result in negative impacts to the oil and gas revenues to the state of Wyoming. A further outcome will be the questioning of the economic viability of all unconventional and tight oil and gas reservoirs in Wyoming, across the United States, and ultimately in the world," wrote Tom Doll, supervisor of the Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, in a long email that circulated among top state officials. Wyoming's top state regulator of oil and gas development, including essentially all fracking in the state, Doll was a district manager for Tulsa, Okla.-based Williams Production Company until 2008. The spark for Doll's missive was the closed-door meeting at Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality headquarters in Cheyenne two days earlier. EPA administrator Martin briefed Wyoming officials about what the EPA was about to announce based on its research in Pavillion. Doll took part by phone. "Contaminants present at high concentrations in the deep monitoring wells are likely a result of hydraulic fracturing," read a "Key Findings" slide in an EPA PowerPoint shown at the meeting. Each slide was marked "Confidential--Do Not Disclose." The public announcement more than a month later stated that the groundwater "contains compounds likely associated with gas production practices, including hydraulic fracturing." The EPA also suggested at the private meeting that gas development likely had contaminated household well water in the Pavillion area but that current data did not definitively support such a link. The EPA has made no such claim in public to date. Emails show that Mead sought to reach Jackson within hours. Mead confirmed that he got her to hold off on the findings report until state officials could review the data. "When I talked to Lisa Jackson they were going to release the findings regardless. That wasn't even the question. The question was on the timing of it. We wanted a chance to see what are they basing this on," Mead told the AP. "She said, `Well, maybe we can hold off a couple weeks to give you guys this data.'" The EPA released raw data on pollution in the two monitoring wells at a public meeting in Pavillion on Nov. 9, five days after the private state briefing. Among the pollutants was the carcinogen benzene as high as 50 times the EPA limit. The EPA showed a PowerPoint similar to the one shown at the private meeting but without announcing any findings. There was no "Key Findings" slide. Releasing the data and findings outside of the purview of two "working groups" angered state regulators. The working groups made up of state and EPA officials had been examining the Pavillion pollution for the better part of a year. Wyoming didn't take the news from the private EPA briefing sitting down. The state could "get ahead of the curve" by assigning its own experts to review the data, suggested John Corra, the environmental quality director. "Sort of an all out press," Corra wrote to Doll and others Nov. 7. Doll suggested to Corra and others in a Nov. 19 email that Wyoming take "a hard line" after one EPA official told them to drop their concerns. "EPA has not substantially defended their explanation, the data is questionable on many levels, and EPA has ignored our alternative explanations," Doll wrote. Dozens of questions from state regulators followed. They included why the monitoring well water samples had high pH readings. The EPA report referred to the high pH and mentioned the detection of potassium hydroxide, a basic chemical used in fracking. Pavillion residents didn't hear about the finding before the public announcement, said John Fenton, chairman of Pavillion Area Concerned Citizens. Fenton said he was unhappy that regulators hadn't kept local residents fully apprised of the latest developments concerning their water supply. Yet he held EPA in higher regard than the state officials he said ignored Pavillion for years, prompting residents to request the EPA investigation. "Those of us living out here, we don't trust the state," he said. State officials actively kept the media in the dark about the upcoming EPA announcement, even as reporters questioned them about the data. "My sense is that the reporter was searching for a conflict to write about, and I tried to head that off," Corra wrote Nov. 29 to several other state officials about one reporter's questions. Another state regulator suggested that Wyoming officials keep in mind how they're perceived while they questioned the EPA data. "This could go on for a long time, during which we'll likely continue to be in an adversarial discussion with EPA, the public and the press," the Department of Environmental Quality's groundwater chief, Kevin Frederick, wrote to Corra on Dec. 2. "Is there a way to shift the focus of discussion to show the State in a more positive light while the present uncertainties continue to simmer?" The additional sampling since agreed to has extended the study of the Pavillion groundwater. Peer review of the sampling results, set to begin this spring, now is scheduled for this fall. -- *Frances A. Hunt* Director, Resilient Habitats Campaign Sierra Club 50 F Street, NW Washington, DC 20001 fran.hunt(a)sierraclub.org 202-675-2386 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - To unsubscribe from the CONS-AWL-RESILIENT-HABITATS list, send any message to: CONS-AWL-RESILIENT-HABITATS-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: Attend the Sportsmen's Marcellus Shale Summit on Saturday, June 16
by Paul Wilson 04 May '12

04 May '12

fyi, paul ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Trout Unlimited <trout(a)tu.org> Date: Thu, May 3, 2012 at 2:54 PM Subject: Attend the Sportsmen's Marcellus Shale Summit on Saturday, June 16 To: pjgrunt(a)gmail.com [image: Trout Unlimited] <http://www.tu.org> *Join sportsmen and women for the Sportsmen's Marcellus Shale Summit on Saturday, June 16, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Pocono Environmental Education Center, in Dingmans Ferry, Pennsylvania.* Worried about the new gas wells, roads, and pipelines, you see being developed around your favorite trout stream or hunting blind? Supportive of natural gas development, but want to make sure you protect hunting, fishing, and trapping at the same time? Then please join us! Sportsmen and women and conservation groups in the heart of the Marcellus Shale region are working together to identify and propose solutions to ensure gas drilling and hydraulic fracturing not only create economic benefits for our communities, but also protect our hunting, fishing and trapping heritage. Through the Sportsmen's Marcellus Shale Summit, we will look at how natural gas drilling is affecting hunters and anglers, our communities, and our sporting heritage. At the summit you will learn more about the Sportsmen Alliance for Marcellus Conservation<http://www.mmsend6.com/link.cfm?r=769127283&sid=18785329&m=1939214&u=TROUT&…>and hear fish and wildlife experts in the field, along with sportsmen and women with first-hand experience, discuss the following topics: - How the interests of sportsmen and women can be protected through policies and practices that safeguard the sporting experience while supporting a robust energy economy - State and regional updates on drilling and impacts on fish and wildlife - Key areas that need protection in the Marcellus region - Updates on how we're working collaboratively with industry to protect our sporting heritage Registration will open at 8:15 a.m. and opening remarks will begin at 9 a.m. The conference will conclude by 4 p.m. Register now<http://www.mmsend6.com/link.cfm?r=769127283&sid=18785330&m=1939214&u=TROUT&…> *Sportsmen's Marcellus Shale Summit Travel Information:* click here<http://www.mmsend6.com/link.cfm?r=769127283&sid=18785331&m=1939214&u=TROUT&…> © 2011 Trout Unlimited - all rights reserved. Contact Us <trout(a)tu.org> | TU.ORG<http://www.mmsend6.com/link.cfm?r=769127283&sid=18785332&m=1939214&u=TROUT&…> You are receiving this email because this email address is associated with a Trout Unlimited Membership or has opted to receive email communications from Trout Unlimited. To modify your communication preferences, email us at trout(a)tu.org or call 1-800-834-2419. Trout Unlimited 1300 N. 17th Street, Suite 500 Arlington, VA 22209 Unsubscribe from all TU email communication<http://www.mmsend6.com/link.cfm?r=769127283&sid=18785333&m=1939214&u=TROUT&…>, including news, action alerts and membership offers. Click here<http://www.mmsend6.com/link.cfm?r=769127283&sid=18785334&m=1939214&u=TROUT&…>to unsubscribe. -- 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] REMINDER: National Coal Ash Call, Weds, May 2, 1-2:30 pm ET (NOTE TIME CHANGE FROM ORIGINAL NOTICE)
by Jim Sconyers 01 May '12

01 May '12

Coal ash free conf call tomorrow. On Tue, May 1, 2012 at 11:09 AM, Bill Price <bill.price(a)sierraclub.org>wrote: > FYI. this call is put together by EarthJustice, and will be an opportunity > for discussion about the coal ash issues all across the region. > > See below for call in number. > > ---------- Forwarded message ---------- > From: Jeremy Graham <jgraham(a)earthjustice.org> > Date: Tue, May 1, 2012 at 10:26 AM > Subject: REMINDER: National Coal Ash Call, Weds, May 2, 1-2:30 pm ET (NOTE > TIME CHANGE FROM ORIGINAL NOTICE) > To: Jeremy Graham <jgraham(a)earthjustice.org> > > > *--Apologies for cross-posting--* > > ** ** > > ** ** > > Dear Coal Ash Allies:**** > > ** ** > > Please join our National Coal Ash Call this Wednesday, May 2 from 1 -2:30 > pm Eastern. This is the second of our quarterly calls on this critical > public health issue.**** > > ** ** > > We will provide an update on the amendment to the Transportation Bill that > currently threatens EPA’s authority to regulate coal ash, and we will > discuss how you can help defeat this measure. We will also provide an > update on EPA’s and OSM's activities and hear important developments from > activists in the field. Lastly, we will discuss a new nationwide > initiative for citizens and grassroots groups.**** > > ** ** > > Thank you in advance for calling in. Please call: 866.501.6174, PIN > 2249224.**** > > ** ** > > A detailed agenda is pasted below with links to additional information > concerning some of the topics. If you have any suggested additions to the > agenda, please send me an email.**** > > ** ** > > Sincerely,**** > > ** ** > > Lisa Evans**** > > Senior Administrative Counsel**** > > Earthjustice**** > > ** ** > > **** > > Agenda**** > > National Coal Ash Call**** > > May 2, 2012**** > > 1 -2:30 pm Eastern Time**** > > ** ** > > Introduction: Jared Saylor, Earthjustice**** > > ** ** > > Update on Transportation Bill and What You Can Do to Defeat the McKinley > Amendment: Emily Enderle, Earthjustice, (17 min)**** > > ** ** > > -- See: Sample Action Alert: > https://secure.earthjustice.org/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&i… > **** > > -- See: Link to Bill: > http://earthjustice.org/blog/2012-april/tr-ash-talk-the-coal-breath-of-betr… > **** > > ** ** > > Update on Status of EPA Rule and Coal Ash Rule Lawsuit: Lisa Evans, > Earthjustice (2 min)**** > > -- See: Link to Complaint: > http://earthjustice.org/blog/2012-april/tr-ash-talk-it-s-about-time**** > > ** ** > > New Damage Cases: Eric Schaeffer, Environmental Integrity Project (2 min)* > *** > > -- See: Link to Report: > http://www.environmentalintegrity.org/news_reports/04_27_2012.php**** > > ** ** > > Reports from the Field:**** > > ** ** > > (1) North Carolina "Call to Action" in Asheville, Sandra Diaz, > Appalachian Voices and Hartwell Carson, French Broad Riverkeeper (3 min)** > ** > > (2) Shareholder Resolutions, Barbara Jennings, Midwest Coalition > for Responsible Investment (3 min)**** > > (3) Doctors to D.C.: Barb Gottlieb, Physicians for Social > Responsibility (3 min)**** > > -- See: > http://www.psr.org/news-events/news-archive/psr-briefs-senate-on-dangers-fr… > **** > > -- See: http://www.psr.org/assets/pdfs/coal-ash-petition.pdf **** > > (4) Fight against Fugitive Dust, Kathy Little or Deborah Payne, > Kentucky Environmental Foundation (3 min)**** > > -- See: http://youtu.be/q-fX8JORSME**** > > (5) West Virginia: Wins and Losses: Curt Havens, Lisa Graves > Marcucci (TBD) (3 min)**** > > ** ** > > Coal Ash Minefilling Rule—Another Front? (TBD) (3 min)**** > > ** ** > > National Citizen Petition Initiative: Russ Maddox, Alaska Center for the > Environment (10 min)**** > > -- See:Link to Petition Process: > http://yosemite.epa.gov/r10/cleanup.nsf/1a16218b78d8c4d58825674500015b42/97… > **** > > -- http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/com/petition.html**** > > ** ** > > Open Discussion: 30 min**** > > ** ** > > ** ** > > > > -- > > Bill Price, Organizing Representative > > Sierra Club > > Environmental Justice Program > > Beyond Coal to Clean Energy Campaign > > Phone: 304-389-8822 (Cell) > > Email: bill.price(a)sierraclub.org > > -- Jim Sconyers jimscon(a)gmail.com 304.698.9628 Remember, Mother Nature bats last.

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Fwd: ACT:: Register for Wednesday, May 2 webinar and discussion about "Using Communications To Win Your Campaigns!"
by Paul Wilson 30 Apr '12

30 Apr '12

this should be of interest for future work on WV Energy Efficient issues. fyi, paul ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Verena Owen <verena_owen(a)prodigy.net> Date: Mon, Apr 30, 2012 at 12:35 PM Subject: ACT:: Register for Wednesday, May 2 webinar and discussion about "Using Communications To Win Your Campaigns!" To: COAL-CAMPAIGN-ALERTS(a)lists.sierraclub.org Please join us Wednesday, May 2nd at 8 PM ET/ 7 CT/ 5 PT for the Beyond Coal Campaign's monthly call and webinar. I am looking forward talking to you all, Verena Using Communications To Win Your Coal and Clean Energy Campaigns!Join us for a Webinar on May 2 <https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/821646358>*Space is limited.* Reserve your Webinar seat now at: https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/821646358Please join us for a webinar on Wednesday, May 2, at 8 PM ET/7 CT/ 5PT. Our special guest presenter will be Orli Cotel from the Club's Communications Department. The topic will be "Using Communications to Win Your Campaigns," and she will discuss the latest polling and research on messaging, talk about the current structure of the Communications department and the resources available to the Beyond Coal Campaign, as well as how communications tools can help influence decision makers and move targets in the right direction. After her presentation we will have our usual Q and A session.*Title:*Using Communications To Win Your Campaigns!*Date:*Wednesday, May 2, 2012*Time:*8:00 PM - 9:00 PM EDTAfter registering you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the Webinar.*System Requirements* PC-based attendees Required: Windows® 7, Vista, XP or 2003 ServerMacintosh®-based attendees Required: Mac OS® X 10.5 or newer ---------------------------------------------------------------------------Verena OwenVolunteer Co-LeadBeyond Coal Campaign Verena.Owen(a)sierraclub.orgSierraclub.org/coal - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 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 -- 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: President Obama can stop the massive mountaintop removal Spruce Mine
by Paul Wilson 24 Apr '12

24 Apr '12

incase you do not get the CREDO emails....fyi, paul ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Josh Nelson, CREDO Action <act(a)credoaction.com> Date: Tue, Apr 24, 2012 at 8:02 AM Subject: President Obama can stop the massive mountaintop removal Spruce Mine To: Paul Wilson <pjgrunt(a)gmail.com> ** [image: Protect West Virginia from mountaintop removal coal mining!] <http://act.credoaction.com/r/?r=6881576&id=38944-3414728-V0xAANx&t=1> Clicking here will automatically add your name to this petition to the White House Council on Environmental Quality:<http://act.credoaction.com/r/?r=6881577&id=38944-3414728-V0xAANx&t=2> * "As a West Virginia resident, I'm writing to voice my opposition to the destruction of mountains at the Spruce Mine in Logan County. Support EPA's veto of the Spruce Mine and direct the Army Corps of Engineers to revoke the mine's permit." <http://act.credoaction.com/r/?r=6881577&id=38944-3414728-V0xAANx&t=3> * Automatically add your name: <http://act.credoaction.com/r/?r=6881577&id=38944-3414728-V0xAANx&t=4> [image: Take action now!] <http://act.credoaction.com/r/?r=6881577&id=38944-3414728-V0xAANx&t=5> Learn more about this campaign<http://act.credoaction.com/r/?r=6881576&id=38944-3414728-V0xAANx&t=6> [image: CREDO Action | more than a network, a movement.] *Tell President Obama: Protect West Virginia from a massive mountaintop removal mine. .<http://act.credoaction.com/r/?r=6881576&id=38944-3414728-V0xAANx&t=7> * Dear Paul, Arch Coal is moving forward with the largest mountaintop removal coal mining operation in West Virginia's history — but *President Obama's White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) has the power to step in and block this disastrous project.* The Environmental Protection Agency had already vetoed a permit for the Spruce Mine in Logan County, but last month, a federal judge overruled the agency paving the way for the project.1 The court's decision means that the destruction of mountains and burying of streams with 110 million yards of mining waste could begin very soon — unless the Council on Environmental Quality steps in. *Tell the Council on Environmental Quality: Protect West Virginia from mountaintop removal at the Spruce Mine. Click here to automatically sign the petition.* <http://act.credoaction.com/r/?r=6881577&id=38944-3414728-V0xAANx&t=8> In situations where agencies within the federal government differ on environmental matters, it is the role of the Council on Environmental Quality to weigh in and resolve the matter. And by directing the Army Corps of Engineers to revoke the Spruce Mine permit, the CEQ can stop this highly polluting and disastrous project once and for all. *Mountaintop removal mining is a process in which coal companies use explosives to literally blow the tops off of the mountains, dumping the leftover rocks and dirt into streams and valleys below. The practice is linked with high mortality rates, contaminated drinking water and increased flooding, among other problems.2* EPA's veto of the permit for expanded mountaintop removal mining at the Big Spruce Mine in Logan County was the right decision for public health and the environment, but unless the Council on Environmental Quality steps in, this massive mine will soon begin operations. West Virginians have been dealing with the devastation of mountaintop removal mining for far too long. Let's make sure the CEQ know that we expect it to use its power to protect West Virginia's residents, mountains and waterways from dirty and destructive mountaintop removal mining. Click below to automatically sign the petition to the White House Council on Environmental Quality: *http://act.credoaction.com/r/?r=6881577&id=38944-3414728-V0xAANx&t=9* *Thank you* for fighting for public health and the environment in West Virginia. Josh Nelson, Campaign Manager CREDO Action from Working Assets <http://act.credoaction.com/r/?r=11&id=38944-3414728-V0xAANx&t=10> 1. Judge Overturns EPA Veto of Spruce Mine Permit<http://act.credoaction.com/r/?r=6881578&id=38944-3414728-V0xAANx&t=11>, West Virginia Gazette, 3/23/12 2. Community Impacts of Mountaintop Removal<http://act.credoaction.com/r/?r=5537553&id=38944-3414728-V0xAANx&t=12>, Appalachian Voices ------------------------------ [image: Facebook]<http://act.credoaction.com/r/?r=6881579&id=38944-3414728-V0xAANx&t=13> *Share on Facebook* Post to your wall<http://act.credoaction.com/r/?r=6881579&id=38944-3414728-V0xAANx&t=14> [image: Twitter]<http://act.credoaction.com/r/?r=6881580&id=38944-3414728-V0xAANx&t=15> *Tweet this* Post to Twitter<http://act.credoaction.com/r/?r=6881580&id=38944-3414728-V0xAANx&t=16> © 2012 CREDO. All rights reserved. To remove yourself (Paul Wilson) from this list, please visit our subscription management page at: http://act.credoaction.com/s?i=38944-3414728-V0xAANx To change your email address or update your contact info, please visit: http://act.credoaction.com/subscrip/coa.html?id=38944-3414728-V0xAANx -- 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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Energy Efficiency Planning Meeting
by James Kotcon 18 Apr '12

18 Apr '12

To the Energy Committee: Here is a new opportunity to make a real difference. Working with Energy Efficient West Virginia (EEWV) the WV Chapter wants to develop a major campaign to promote energy efficiency. That's where you come in. While it is important to fight bad mining practices and polluting power plants, we will not really make substantive progress as long as people want more and more electricity and coal is the low cost provider. No realistic effort to address global warming is possible without fundamental restructuring and reductions in our energy use. The good news is that EE is actually cheaper, faster, safer, and cleaner than any other source of energy. So how do we get there, especially here in West Virginia? WV SC and EEWV will hold a joint EE campaign planning meeting in Flatwoods at 3-6 PM, Saturday, April 28. Start making plans to attend. We need new ideas, new volunteers, and fresh leadership, and this is your chance to be part of something great. The options range from local education efforts, to working with the PSC, to statewide legislative in initiatives. What we do depends on what YOU want to do, so come be a part of the planning. Let me know if you can participate, or if you know someone else who should be involved. Mark you calendars now, more details soon. Jim Kotcon 304-293-8822 (office) 304-594-3322 (home)

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Fwd: NPS Denies PATH's Request for Continued Abeyance of the EIS
by James Kotcon 16 Apr '12

16 Apr '12

News Flash. PATH is still dead. JBK >>> Elena Saxonhouse <elena.saxonhouse(a)sierraclub.org> 4/16/2012 4:44 PM >>> Good to see PATH still looking dead. A new EIS and substation will be major hurdles if they decide to resurrect the project. Elena Saxonhouse Staff Attorney Sierra Club 85 Second Street, 2nd Floor San Francisco, CA 94105 415-977-5765 ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Keryn Newman <stoppath(a)frontiernet.net> Date: Mon, Apr 16, 2012 at 1:28 PM Subject: NPS Denies PATH's Request for Continued Abeyance of the EIS To: CONS-ELP-TRANS-LINES-FORUM(a)lists.sierraclub.org On Feb. 27, the NPS denied PATH's request for continued, indefinite abeyance of their application and thereby denied PATH's permit without prejudice. See letter from NPS here ( http://www.stoppathwv.com/documents/NPS-PATH-Denial.pdf ). If this is old news to any of you, pardon the duplication, however it's news to us. NPS sat on this information and only posted it on the project website some time after March 15, without any notice. If PATH is resurrected, they have to submit a new application for an EIS. This is the second of PATH's three lifelines that has been cut. They failed to file further appeals on the Frederick Co., MD, BZA decision at the end of March, so that process is over, with the BZA denial standing. The only support PATH continues to receive is their FERC Formula Rate cost recovery and incentives, which FERC is apparently content to leave in place until PATH makes a Sec. 205 filing to abandon the project. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - To unsubscribe from the CONS-ELP-TRANS-LINES-FORUM list, send any message to: CONS-ELP-TRANS-LINES-FORUM-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: RE: Deb Nardone
by James Kotcon 12 Apr '12

12 Apr '12

To Energy Committee: Attached are Natural Gas Campaign Plans developed recently by the Colorado and Ohio Chapters of Sierra Club. While some of this strikes me as highly diffuse, with too many policy objectives and not enough priority setting or focus, these do give some good examples of what goes into, and comes out of, a campaign planning process. Enjoy. Jim Kotcon >>> Deb Nardone <deb.nardone(a)sierraclub.org> 4/12/2012 4:36 PM >>> Thanks Jim, I’m already committed to a call from 5 – 6:30 ET with the Lone Star Chapter, but am very interested in participating on future calls. I’m currently working with a few other chapters on the gas strategies/campaign planning, so can pass along items of interest. The Colorado Chapter just went through a comprehensive planning process, their plan is attached. The OH Chapter also has a draft strategy, attached. Once these plans are completed, we’re working with Advancement to draft a state specific funding proposal, and will hopefully bring in the $ for chapter based gas staff. Please let me know when you set up your next call, and am willing to help out if needed as you plan for upcoming gas work. All the best, Deb From: James Kotcon [mailto:jkotcon@wvu.edu] Sent: Thursday, April 12, 2012 1:19 PM To: Chuck Wyrostok; 'Elizabeth Little'; 'Jim Sconyers'; deb.nardone(a)sierraclub.org; 'Jim Kotcon' Subject: Re: Deb Nardone Deb: As Chair of the Chapter's Marcellus campaign, I think it would be great to have you join us tonight. Let me know if you need the current agenda and call-in info for 6 PM, and I would like to add a few minutes to have you discuss those c-3 dollars, as we are targeting a large part of this year's activities toward that kind of work. Jim Kotcon 304-293-8822 (office) 304-594-3322 (home) >>> "Chuck Wyrostok" <wyro(a)appalight.com> 4/11/2012 8:28 PM >>> I had a lengthy conversation with Deb Nardone today. She called to see if we needed any technical help with comments to the DEP on the centralized pits proposal. I said we had a pretty good handle on it..thanks. She also said there may be national c3 money available for the Marcellus campaign. She said there would have to be a state strategy and work plan in place to before trying to secure funds. I told her that we were in the process of renewing the campaign and had planned a conference call for Thursday. She said she would be available to be on it, but realized that state chapters sometimes need to steer their own ship. If we want her on the call, will someone invite her tomorrow? I'll be on the road doing my weekly "take the veterans to the hospital" day. I'm thinking that this first organizational call tomorrow may not be the best one as far as her use of time. Chuck Chuck Wyrostok Sierra Club Outreach Organizer Toll free 877 252 0257 E: outreach(a)marcellus-wv.com www.marcellus-wv.com

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Re: [EC] NEw Jersey coal??
by Paul Wilson 08 Apr '12

08 Apr '12

I saw this announcement via Linkedin and wonder what the strategic benefit can be for having a Coal Campaign Organizer in NJ but nothing in WV?? *The Beyond Coal Campaign is hiring an Associate Organizing Rep in New Jersey*<http://www.linkedin.com/e/-51mdjt-h0pq69ph-5i/ava/105098655/669627/eml-anet…> Started by Joshua Ramey-Renk, Director of Talent Acquisition and Development at Sierra C I am getting a bit frustrated with the all this sc bs. fyi, paul -- 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: WVNS story: Economist: Clean Air Rules Don't Slow Economy by Raising the Power Costs
by Paul Wilson 06 Apr '12

06 Apr '12

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Public News Service <wvns(a)newsservice.org> Date: Fri, Apr 6, 2012 at 4:22 AM Subject: WVNS story: Economist: Clean Air Rules Don't Slow Economy by Raising the Power Costs To: PaulWilson <pjgrunt(a)gmail.com> Interesting story out of WV.... Economist: Clean Air Rules Don't Slow Economy by Raising the Power Costs Public News Service-WV http://www.publicnewsservice.org/index.php?/content/article/25762-1 Join the discussion: facebook.com/PublicNewsService<http://www.facebook.com/PublicNewsService> Twitter: @pns_news <http://twitter.com/#!/pns_news> @pns_WV<http://twitter.com/#!/pns_WV> Google+: plus.to/publicnewsservice <http://plus.google.com/106260479325451709866> (04/06/12) CHARLESTON, W. Va. – West Virginia's critics of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) charge that its new rules to force power plants to cut air pollution will cause electricity rates to rise, thereby slowing the economy. But economist Josh Bivens, with the Economic Policy Institute (EPA), disagrees. Bivens says the jobs created by new investments in pollution reduction will more than offset the losses. His research indicates the argument that "regulations kill jobs" is often a myth, which he says is the case with the clean air rules. "The reason why electricity becomes more expensive is because the utilities have to hire people. The boost from the extra jobs created by the investments, I estimate, outweighs the negatives." Bivens' findings are detailed in a new report, Going Green Won't Kill Jobs During Hard Times <http://tinyurl.com/ckkm24a>, published in *New Scientist*magazine. According to Bivens, some argue that government-mandated investments could pull resources from other productive places in the economy – although he notes that is only the case if the economy is growing quickly. He points out that the problem with this downturn, like all slow periods, is that private money is sitting idle. In effect, he says, the EPA is forcing some of that idle money to become productive again. "Financial capital is not scarce. Corporate liquid savings are at all-time highs; we've got historically low interest rates. There's just no evidence that these investments are going to necessarily crowd out some other private investment." Bivens' analysis does not include the health benefits of breathing cleaner air, although he says those will have a significant impact, as well. "By those measures, this seems like a really big winner, mostly driven by the benefits to health and quality of life identified by EPA." Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin, Sen. Joe Manchin and all three West Virginia members of Congress have publicly attacked the EPA's Clean Air Act rules. 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/25762-1<http://www.publicnewsservice.org/index.php?/content/article/25762-1> --- 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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Fwd: WVNS story: Are EPA Coal Plant Rules what the Public Wants?
by James Kotcon 04 Apr '12

04 Apr '12

Not sure if you saw this, but this is an important public opinion poll done for the American Lung association. Significant majorities support EPA's proposed new greenhouse gas rules, and even larger majorities support mercury and air toxics rules. Most people view these as health rules, and we need to keep emphasizing that aspect as we talk about the rules. Ohio and PA voters were surveyed separately, and even these coal-friendly states support EPA rules. JBK >>> Public News Service <wvns(a)newsservice.org> 4/4/2012 4:29 AM >>> Are EPA Coal Plant Rules what the Public Wants? Public News Service-WV http://www.publicnewsservice.org/index.php?/content/article/25687-1 Join the discussion: facebook.com/PublicNewsService ( http://www.facebook.com/PublicNewsService ) Twitter: @pns_news ( http://twitter.com/#!/pns_news ) @pns_WV ( http://twitter.com/#!/pns_WV ) Google+: plus.to/publicnewsservice ( http://plus.google.com/106260479325451709866 ) (04/04/12) CHARLESTON, W.Va. - The Environmental Protection Agency's new rules to protect Americans from carbon pollution emitted by new coal plants are getting a chilly reception from some in West Virginia. Sen. Joe Manchin has criticized them, and Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin is calling on the public to object to them. However, a new bipartisan survey ( http://www.lung.org/healthy-air/outdoor/resources/clean-air-survey-mar2012.… ) finds tougher air-pollution standards are exactly what American voters want. The results show that 72 percent agree with the EPA's new carbon-pollution limits, according to Peter Iwanowicz, assistant vice president of the American Lung Association, which commissioned the survey. "EPA has taken this step to address carbon pollution from power plants but, as we saw in our poll, the public expects EPA to do more when it comes to dealing with power-plant emissions and other pollution problems." Iwanowicz says the survey also found that a 2-to-1 majority believes these first-ever limits will create jobs rather than destroy them, by encouraging innovation. Opponents argue the measures will raise electricity prices and slow the coal industry. The public sees this as a health issue, Iwanowicz says, adding that that's the right way to look at it. "With carbon pollution or any pollution from power plants, it's simple: Power-plant pollution kills, and it makes people sick. So for us, enforcing these clean-air protections are going to improve public health." He says the combination of pollution and raising the air temperature, which carbon dioxide does, leads to more smog - which can be deadly. "For people with asthma, especially children, smog triggers asthma attacks. For seniors with chronic lung disease, their symptoms are worse when smog levels are high. More people are hospitalized for respiratory ailments during levels with high smog than otherwise. It's a serious public health threat that needs to be addressed." Survey results are online at lung.org ( http://www.lung.org/healthy-air/outdoor/resources/clean-air-survey-mar2012.… ). 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/25687-1 ( http://www.publicnewsservice.org/index.php?/content/article/25687-1 ) --- To be removed from this list please send an e-mail to remove(a)publicnewsservice.org and put the word "remove" in the subject line.

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Awesome letter Re: Manchin says he'll fight new EPA rules
by Jim Sconyers 04 Apr '12

04 Apr '12

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Elisa Young <elisayoung1(a)yahoo.com> Date: Wed, Apr 4, 2012 at 8:29 AM Subject: Fw: Re: Manchin says he'll fight new EPA rules To: COAL-COMBUSTION-WASTE(a)lists.sierraclub.org Maybe send Manchin a word or two. I fired off this letter to Manchin from his website with the subject line: Employment statistic request. You can send your own here: http://manchin.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/contact-form Dear Senator Manchin: I read an article in the Charleston Gazette this morning where you expressed concern about the number of jobs that would be lost if environmental protections to protect public health and safety that the EPA has approved move forward, and your vow to fight these protections: http://sundaygazettemail.com/News/201204030140 My family has long lived on the border of Ohio and West Virginia (Meigs/Mason/Gallia Counties) where 4 of AEPs power plants are concentrated (2nd largest concentration in the United States, second only to Morgantown, WV). I have personally witnessed the lives of people in community being harmed and even shortened due to coal dependency and specifically American Electric Power's emissions. Ohio has consistently taken home the prize for the worst air quality in the nation, and within that ranking, our county has the highest asthma rate in the state, the highest lung cancer death rate, the shortest life expectancy, the highest uninsured rate for children and families, and rank the second highest in the state for all cancer deaths combined (second only to another rural, coal-producing county in Southern Ohio). The air quality in our schools under the power plants was ranked as being in the top third percentile for the worst air quality in the nation (post scrubbers). I lost one neighbor to lung cancer who never touched a cigarette in her life. Her husband also died of respiratory illness. I lost 6 neighbors to cancer, had cancer myself (and 2 more precancerous conditions that we have no family history of - did I mention I don't have health insurance?), and remember when one friend's husband died, her sharing this story: Both she and her best friend's husbands were dying of cancer in the same hospital, one room apart from each other (one lived almost immediately under the power plants, the other about 2 miles out from the power plants on the Ohio side of the river - the majority of the pollutants fall within 15). When Sue's husband died (an hour before Lola's), she shared that within the next month, they would have exceeded their lifetime maximum health care benefits of $1 million. She didn't want her husband to go, but had no idea how they would have made it once their health insurance ended. Another story (just to put a face on this), a friend who's husband worked at the Gavin plant in Cheshire (a village my family helped found when they moved here in 1798 and that AEP bought and depopulated recently due to "clean coal" experiments gone wrong), who died from cancer, told me that as he was dying, she promised to get him a black granite headstone with yellow roses. The cemetery where he was buried was immediately behind the power plant he gave his life to. Within a year of his death, the roses had been eaten off the granite. When Dorothy called the company to have the granite headstone recarved, they asked her what on earth she'd done to it. SHE hadn't done anything. Did I mention the cemetery is next to the school? I remember when my best friend got cancer, I drove her to the hospital to get the pathology results from her biopsy, and then had to call her husband, who did consulting work as an engineer and was traveling, to give him the news, because she couldn't speak except to hand me the phone and tell me to do it. She was sitting their staring into the air on one side of me, and he was yelling at me to put his wife on the phone on the other side, while I'm trying to process that I will probably lose my best friend. I should probably tell you that both her dogs died from cancer, too. One died while she was receiving radiation and chemo treatments in Chicago - I had to give she and her husband the vet report when Hoofie was diagnosed with terminal lymphoma, and was the last one to see her alive. The other, Wheezy, died from cancer after she moved away to New England. Her oncologist had told her if she wanted to get healthy she would have to move away from here. So yes, I lost my best friend. I was dumbfounded to read, "Those workers installed more than $1 billion worth of scrubbers and other equipment to reduce nitrogen oxide emissions by up to 90 percent, he said." What those scrubbers meant was worse air emission problems around John Amos (Maybe you've forgotten) http://www.opinionbug.com/2379/mysterious-blue-haze-frightens-charleston-wv… http://www.google.com/search?q=John+amos+haze+charleston&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&… These were the same emissions problems caused by the scrubbers on the Ohio side of the river - a stone's throw away - that lead to the purchase and depopulation of Cheshire - a village my family founded in 1798 that AEP destroyed after the scrubbers were installed. The scrubbers cause that blue haze you all experienced down in Charleston, same as they did here, triple the amount of solid waste, and create much more toxic waste. Since the scrubbers were installed, the radiation levels have skyrocketed to being 1000 times higher than the EPA says is "acceptable." http://manchin.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/contact-form I could send you a volume about the people I've know who have died here, but I'm sure you are a busy man. I would like to hear your side of the statistics, since it bears no resemblance to the reality that exists in my community, compliments of coal. I would like to see the actual numbers your quote is based on that states, "Between 2006 and 2011, at AEP power plants in West Virginia, you created 27.7 million work hours on environmental construction projects," Manchin told his audience. Your jobs are killing us. Sincerely, Elisa Young P.O. Box 518 Athens, Ohio 45701 --- On *Wed, 4/4/12, Vivian Stockman <vivian(a)ohvec.org>* wrote: From: Vivian Stockman <vivian(a)ohvec.org> Subject: [fom] Manchin says he'll fight new EPA rules To: fom(a)lists.riseup.net Date: Wednesday, April 4, 2012, 11:26 AM April 3, 2012 Manchin says he'll fight new EPA rules By Paul J. Nyden<http://www.wvgazette.com/News/contact/cwalqra+jitnmrggr+pbz+return=/News/20…> WINFIELD, W.Va. -- Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., said Tuesday he will vigorously oppose new greenhouse-gas rules proposed last week by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. During a speech at the John Amos Power Plant near Winfield, Manchin stressed the importance of national energy independence and the impact coal, gas and other energy resources have on creating good-paying jobs. Today, Manchin said, coal generates 45 percent of all energy used in the United States and "is projected to produce the lion's share of energy decades into the future." Between 2006 and 2011, Manchin said Tuesday, AEP had as many as 3,200 construction workers at its John Amos plant, now one of the world's cleanest coal plants. Those workers installed more than $1 billion worth of scrubbers and other equipment to reduce nitrogen oxide emissions by up to 90 percent, he said. "Between 2006 and 2011, at AEP power plants in West Virginia, you created 27.7 million work hours on environmental construction projects," Manchin told his audience. "This plant is an example that when government works as a partner, not an adversary, we can put thousands of people back to work, and find the balance between the economy and environment." Last week, EPA officials proposed what the agency called a "common-sense" requirement that any new coal-fired power plants include equipment to control their greenhouse-gas emissions. "Right now there are no limits to the amount of carbon pollution that future power plants will be able to put into our skies -- and the health and economic threats of a changing climate continue to grow," EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson said at the time. "We're putting in place a standard that relies on the use of clean, American-made technology to tackle a challenge that we can't leave to our kids and grandkids." m <http://www.wvgazette.com/storyfooter/News> ore here: http://www.wvgazette.com/News/201204030140 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 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 -- Jim Sconyers jimscon(a)gmail.com 304.698.9628 Remember, Mother Nature bats last.

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Fwd: [ECOLOG-L] Call for contributions to special issue on Hydrofracking
by Paul Wilson 03 Apr '12

03 Apr '12

This seems to be in the editing stage so we should see it sometime in the near future. fyi, paul ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: David Dow <ddow420(a)comcast.net> Date: Tue, Apr 3, 2012 at 1:44 AM Subject: Fwd: [ECOLOG-L] Call for contributions to special issue on Hydrofracking To: Patricia Matejcek Gmail <patachek3(a)gmail.com>, Paul Wilson < pjgrunt(a)gmail.com>, Alison Robb <nature(a)cape.com> fyi Begin forwarded message: *From: *Scott Bearer <sbearer(a)TNC.ORG> *Date: *April 2, 2012 10:12:30 PM EDT *To: *ECOLOG-L(a)LISTSERV.UMD.EDU *Subject: **[ECOLOG-L] Call for contributions to special issue on Hydrofracking* * * Dear Colleagues, Apologies for the limited timeframe in this Call for Papers. We will be editing an upcoming issue of the journal Environmental Practice< http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayJournal?jid=ENP>, published by Cambridge University Press and the official journal of the National Association of Environmental Professionals<http://www.naep.org/>. For publication in December 2012, this special issue of Environmental Practice will focus on the various environmental, socio-economic, and policy issues surrounding hydraulic fracturing and unconventional gas development. We hope that you find Environmental Practice, and particularly this "Hydrofracturing" issue, to be of interest and will consider submitting a manuscript. The deadline for manuscript submission is 15 May 2012. Sample issues of the journal can be found at: http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayJournal?jid=ENP Guidelines for publication can be found at: http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayMoreInfo?jid=ENP&type=ifc Sincerely yours, Scott Bearer, The Nature Conservancy Tamara Gagnolet, The Nature Conservancy Scott L. Bearer, Ph.D. Senior Scientist The Nature Conservancy Community Arts Center 220 West Fourth Street, 3rd Floor Williamsport, PA 17701 sbearer(a)tnc.org (570) 321-9092 (Office/Mobile) nature.org -- 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: Big feature story on Beyond Coal in Mother Jones magazine
by Paul Wilson 02 Apr '12

02 Apr '12

fyi, paul ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Orli Cotel <orli.cotel(a)sierraclub.org> Date: Mon, Apr 2, 2012 at 3:34 PM Subject: Big feature story on Beyond Coal in Mother Jones magazine To: COAL-CAMPAIGN-ALERTS(a)lists.sierraclub.org Team, I'm excited to share this lengthy feature on the succeses of the Beyond Coal campaign that came out today in Mother Jones magazine. This very thorough article by Mark Hertsgaard shows the strategy and power of the Beyond Coal effort. This piece was months in the making and involved many people on the Beyond Coal team - big thank you to everyone who helped out and talked with this reporter. I've copied and pasted the whole article below, but I recommend clicking through to the actual story online so that you can see all the interactive maps, graphics etc that they've included in the story: http://motherjones.com/print/169521 Please help share, tweet, and spread the word - and congratulations on all of the amazing work you are doing that makes a story like this possible. Orli -- http://motherjones.com/environment/2012/04/beyond-coal-plant-activism * * * * How a Grassroots Rebellion Won the Nation's Biggest Climate Victory Activists have imposed a de-facto moratorium on new coal—and beat the Obama EPA to the punch. By Mark Hertsgaard <http://motherjones.com/authors/mark-hertsgaard> | Mon Apr. 2, 2012 3:00 AM PDT ------------------------------ By most accounts, the summer of 2010—when climate legislation died its slow, agonizing death on Capitol Hill<http://motherjones.com/blue-marble/2010/07/we-know-we-dont-have-votes> [1]—was not a happy time for environmentalists. So why was Mary Anne Hitt feeling buoyant, even hopeful? Part of the reason, no doubt, were the endorphins of first-time parenthood. Baby Hazel, born in April 2010, was fair like her mother and curly haired like her father. She was also an 11th-generation West Virginian, which perhaps explained her mom's other preoccupation: stopping mountaintop-removal coal mining<http://motherjones.com/mojo/2010/01/blowing-mountains-not-great-idea> [2] in Appalachia. Hitt had spent the better part of a decade in Boone, North Carolina, running an organization called Appalachian Voices that sought to end mountaintop removal <http://appvoices.org/end-mountaintop-removal/> [3]. [image: Emission Impossible]<http://motherjones.com/special-reports/2012/03/emissions-impossible-deposin…> [4] - How a Bunch of NIMBYs Won the Nation's Biggest Climate Victory Yet <http://motherjones.com/environment/2012/04/emission-impossible>[5] - Map: The Cross-Country Fight Against Coal <http://motherjones.com/environment/2012/03/cross-country-fight-against-coal> [6] - Calculator: How Much Does Using Coal Really Cost You?<http://motherjones.com/blue-marble/2012/03/calculator-true-cost-using-coal-…> [7] - Why Is It So Hard to Clean Up Coal?<http://motherjones.com/environment/2012/03/clean-coal-myth> [8] - Timeline: How We Learned to Love—and Hate—Natural Gas<http://motherjones.com/environment/2012/03/timeline-how-natural-gas-frackin…> [9] - A Photographer's View of Big Coal<http://motherjones.com/blue-marble/2012/03/coal-photos> [10] Wading through her backlog of emails after she returned from maternity leave, Hitt was struck by how "defeated and despondent" her fellow environmentalists sounded. She understood why, of course: "We'd just spent a great deal of money, time, and energy trying to pass a climate bill," an effort that had cost mainstream green groups more than $100 million<http://climateshiftproject.org/report/climate-shift-clear-vision-for-the-ne…> [11]. But Hitt's emails were telling other stories, too—stories that were not getting her Beltway colleagues' attention. Across the country grassroots activists were defeating plans to build coal-fired power plants, the source of a quarter of America's greenhouse gas emissions. The movement's center of gravity was in the South and Midwest, "places like Oklahoma and South Dakota, not the usual liberal bastions where you'd expect environmental victories," she recalls. (The defeat of the Shady Point II plant<http://www.sierraclub.org/environmentallaw/coal/getBlurb.aspx?case=ok-shady…> [12] in Oklahoma was particularly sweet, coming in the home state of DC's leading climate denier, Sen. James Inhofe<http://motherjones.com/mojo/2009/09/inhofe-climate-skeptic-roadshow> [13].) Hitt knew about these victories because she had helped bring them about. In 2008 she had left Appalachian Voices and taken a job as deputy director of the Sierra Club's Beyond Coal campaign <http://beyondcoal.org/> [14], which aimed to defeat every proposed coal plant, anywhere in the country. "I realized the Sierra Club was winning," she explains, "and I wanted to win." By the time Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) declared the cap-and-trade bill dead in July 2010, the Beyond Coal campaign had helped prevent construction of 132 coal plants and was on the verge of defeating dozens more. It had imposed, noted Lester Brown<http://www.earth-policy.org/plan_b_updates/2011/update101> [15] of the Earth Policy Institute, "a de facto moratorium on new coal-fired power plants." To be sure, the activists had help. The recession caused electricity demand to plummet <http://www.eenews.net/public/climatewire/2009/10/29/1> [16], as did a shift to more energy-efficient appliances, motors, and industrial processes. Why build a power plant, coal or otherwise, if demand didn't justify it? Coal was also hurt by its own rising costs—especially as natural gas, its chief competitor, stayed relatively cheap<http://205.254.135.24/forecasts/steo/report/natgas.cfm> [17]. But those economic trends only made coal somewhat vulnerable, argues Tom Sanzillo, a former New York state deputy comptroller who has worked with the Beyond Coal campaign; it was grassroots activism that leveraged vulnerability into outright defeat. The movement's strength was grounded in retail politics—people talking with friends and neighbors, pestering local media, packing regulatory hearings, protesting before state legislatures, filing legal challenges, and more. The movement had no official membership rolls; it was populated by clean energy advocates, public health professionals, community organizers, faith leaders, farmers, attorneys, students, and people like Verena Owen, a self-described permit nerd from Illinois who was inspired to oppose coal by a friend who died of lung cancer in her 40s. Stopping new coal plants may be "the most significant achievement of American environmentalists since the passage of the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act," says one activist. "My friend had four boys, just like I do," says Owen. "I never had to read the news to find out what the air quality was; I could just call her, and if she was having trouble breathing, that told me all I needed to know." Owen proved so capable, she was recruited to work with Hitt in leading the Beyond Coal campaign. Stopping new coal plants may be "the most significant achievement of American environmentalists since the passage of the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act" in the 1970s, says Michael Noble of the Minnesota environmental group Fresh Energy. As this article goes to press, 166 proposed coal-fired power plants have been canceled, legally barred, or otherwise stopped from going forward in the United States. That means that each year, 654 million metric tons of carbon, the equivalent of 9.5 percent of US emissions<http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/emissions/usinventoryreport.html> [18], won't be entering the atmosphere. The proposed cap-and-trade legislation would, at best, have reduced annual emissions by 16 percent as of 2020. (That's compared with 2010—though compared with 1990, the baseline used by scientists and international negotiations, cap and trade would have achieved only a 5 percent reduction<http://pdf.wri.org/usclimatetargets_2010-06-08.pdf> [19] (PDF).) [image: The River Rouge plant on the banks of the Detroit River emits enough pollution to cause 44 deaths each year. See more photos of the River Rouge plant.]See more photos<http://motherjones.com/blue-marble/2012/03/coal-photos> [10] of the River Rouge plant.So why does this landmark shift in the fight against climate change remain unknown to most Americans? Largely it's because national media and even many environmentalists view the climate issue through the lens of official Washington. When cap-and-trade legislation failed, the conventional wisdom became that the US was simply incapable of taking meaningful action; corporate polluters were too strong, the political system too dominated by industry money, the public too confused and apathetic. But the moratorium on new coal shows that Americans "don't have to wait for Washington to get the country on the right climate track," Hitt argues. "This campaign has demonstrated we can do this state by state, plant by plant, town by town. Not just that we can do it, but we *are* doing it." That success—a clear demand backed by a grassroots campaign, rather than an incremental, inside-the-Beltway strategy—presents a lesson for organizers, but it also presents challenges as Beyond Coal grapples with the complexities inherent in its name. What will replace the power from the coal plants not being built? How will communities deal with the loss of the taxes they pay, and the decent-paying, often union, jobs they bring? How the movement answers those questions may shape climate politics—including whatever ultimately happens in Washington—for years to come. Last year, New York mayor Michael Bloomberg put $50 million into the Beyond Coal campaign, with the explicit goal of shutting down a third of the nation's coal plants by 2020. Beyond coal's one moment in the national spotlight came last summer, when on a searing July morning, New York mayor Michael Bloomberg stood before a microphone<http://www.mikebloomberg.com/index.cfm?objectid=520210BA-C29C-7CA2-F3FA50FC…> [20] in Alexandria, Virginia. Behind him, shimmering in the 100 degree heat, loomed the five smokestacks of the Potomac River Generating Station. The plant, which began operating in 1949 and was never required to install modern pollution controls, has been in the crosshairs of local activists for years; shortly before Bloomberg's appearance, Beyond Coal had released a study that showed its pollution was drifting across the Potomac to Washington, DC. (The plant is now slated to shut down<http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/aug2011/2011-08-30-091.html> [21] this year.) Flanked by Hitt and Sierra Club executive director Michael Brune, mayor Bloomberg announced that his personal foundation, Bloomberg Philanthropies, would contribute $50 million<http://motherjones.com/blue-marble/2011/07/bloomberg-sierra-club-align-agai…> [22] to the campaign's new push to close existing coal plants. Bloomberg, who has long been passionate about public health (recall his 2006 restaurant trans-fat ban<http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/06/nyregion/06fat.html> [23]), cited EPA data<http://www.catf.us/resources/publications/files/The_Toll_from_Coal.pdf> [24] (PDF) to explain his decision: "Every year, coal-burning power plants like this one cause more than 200,000 asthma attacks nationwide, many of them affecting children," he said. "Coal pollution also kills 13,000 people every year and costs us $100 billion in medical expenses. "Thirteen thousand people," he repeated, "from something that's *planned*. And it's going to happen again next year and the year after, unless we do something about it." Map: The Cross-Country Fight Against Coal Bloomberg's donation will enable Beyond Coal to double down on its second phase—moving beyond blocking new plants to seeking to close a third<http://www.mikebloomberg.com/index.cfm?objectid=4D1722F5-C29C-7CA2-FCB63853…> [25] of the roughly 580 existing ones<http://www.eia.gov/electricity/annual/pdf/table5.1.pdf> [26] (PDF) by 2020. The money, says Brune, will help expand the campaign's paid staff from 102 to 192, including 84 organizers who will be "working on nothing but figuring out how to shut down these plants and replace them with clean energy." But boots on the ground are only as effective as the battle plan they are executing. Thus, Beyond Coal will also use some of Bloomberg's millions to develop a detailed blueprint for the challenge ahead. How can communities that rely on coal move beyond it without committing economic suicide? It's not an easy task, Beyond Coal leaders concede. And few places illustrate the difficulty—and the urgency—better than a small town with the deceptively gentle name of River Rouge. Five minutes south of downtown Detroit, Interstate 75 crests a rise. Below, unfurling for miles on both sides of the highway, is a vast industrial landscape: chemical, steel, and cement factories, a tar sands refinery, a wastewater treatment facility. Webs of piping and wire glint in the sun; smokestacks wheeze skyward; trucks and railcars shuffle back and forth. There are so many factories, packed so densely together, that it's hard to see the River Rouge coal plant, which sits on the bank of the Detroit River facing the Canadian shoreline. An acrid odor invades the car. "Actually, the smell isn't so bad today," Rhonda Anderson says dryly. Anderson, who grew up in the neighborhood, is the Sierra Club's environmental justice organizer in Detroit. At 61, she's nearly the same age as the plant, which at the time of its construction in 1956 was the largest in the world. "My father used to bring me here to play when I was a little girl," she says as we pull into a parking lot at Belanger Park, adjacent to the plant. "It was the only open space we had." The park consists of a lawn, a handful of trees, a fishing pier, and a play structure. Towering over it, barely a football field's length away, are River Rouge's three smokestacks, flanked by a mountain of coal 80 feet high. Between the park and the plant is a narrow creek whose bank, incongruously, bears a sign announcing it as a wildlife preserve. It turns out that in 2007 DTE Energy, the plant's owner, ripped out a sliver of concrete<http://www.dteenergy.com/dteEnergyCompany/environment/conservation/improvin…> [27] separating the creek from the loading area and replaced it with native plants. In return, the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality gave DTE a community service award<http://www.dteenergy.com/dteEnergyCompany/environment/awards/awards.html> [28] for making the neighborhood a "cleaner and more attractive place to live and work." Each year the River Rouge plant releases enough mercury, soot, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and other toxic chemicals to cause at least 44 deaths, 72 heart attacks, and 700 asthma attacks. Never mind that each year the River Rouge plant releases enough mercury, soot, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and other toxic chemicals to cause at least 44 deaths, 72 heart attacks, and 700 asthma attacks, according to studies<http://www.catf.us/coal/problems/power_plants/existing/map.php?state=Michig…> [29] conducted for the advocacy group Clean Air Task Force. The plant also emits 3.7 million metric tons <http://carma.org/plant/detail/37557> [30] of carbon dioxide annually. The NAACP has called River Rouge the ninth-worst plant <http://www.naacp.org/pages/coal-blooded1> [31] in the nation when it comes to health effects on communities of color. Vincent Martin, whose family fled Cuba and settled in River Rouge, graduated from Southwestern High School in 1980. Of his 150-plus classmates, he says, around one-third have died, "mostly from respiratory illnesses and cancers." Many of the kids in his neighborhood carry inhalers, he says, and his father, brother, and sister all have asthma. Of course, it's difficult to prove that the River Rouge coal plant caused those illnesses, just as it's difficult to prove that any specific smoker's lung cancer was caused by cigarettes. And such connections are even harder to draw in a neighborhood crammed with so many polluters that it qualifies as Michigan's dirtiest zip code<http://www.freep.com/article/20100620/NEWS05/6200555/48217-Life-Michigan-s-…> [32]. River Rouge might seem a natural target for the Sierra Club—but so far the club has avoided calling for its closure. It comes down to economics, says Anne Woiwode, the director of the club's Michigan chapter. Instead, the club is working with unions and community groups to figure out how to replace the jobs and tax revenue River Rouge provides. "Our common interest," says Woiwode, "is ensuring that when the company walks away from the plant, they don't just leave the workers and the community behind." Meanwhile, DTE seems in no hurry to close River Rouge. John Austerberry, a spokesman for the company, says the plant's future will be determined by the economic implications of thestricter pollution rules<http://motherjones.com/blue-marble/2011/12/epa-delivers-holiday-gift-new-me…> [33] the EPA issued last December. Can the company bring the plant into compliance with those rules and still operate it profitably? "I don't anticipate we would make that deliberation soon," says Austerberry. "The rules allow three years" to decide. At 44 deaths a year, that's 132 more lives. Kevin Parker, a top executive at Deutsche Bank, has called the coal industry<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/01/AR201101010…> [34] "a dead man walking"—in part because of the increased cost imposed by the Obama EPA's new regulations. Tom Sanzillo, the former New York deputy comptroller, saw the same vulnerability when he started taking a hard look at the industry. "I knew that if the law was enforced, coal would have a very hard time," says Sanzillo. But that was in 2007, when George W. Bush was president and environmental law enforcement was comparatively lax. Back then, Sanzillo—a cheerful, Brooklyn-bred numbers whiz—headed one of the biggest institutional investors in the world, managing $650 billion in assets and serving as the sole trustee of a $156 billion pension fund. In that role, he accepted the conventional Wall Street wisdom that coal was a stable source of predictable profits. Sanzillo left the job in 2007 and, a few months later, agreed to look into the economics of coal for the Sierra Club. He found that "there were changes going on that I hadn't understood." A construction boom in China was increasing demand<http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/10/business/worldbusiness/10energy.html> [35] for steel, cement, copper, and other raw materials. Companies like Bechtel and GE were sending more of their engineers and other specialists to China, raising the cost of such talent back in the States. "It looked like price structures were going to change long term, whereas the price of coal had always been stable," he says. Adding to the uncertainty was what Sanzillo terms "regulatory havoc"—the new political pressures that stood to increase the cost of burning coal. "What does it mean that we celebrate the construction of a $100 million wind farm when at the same time a 900-megawatt coal plant was being built?" one environmentalist asks. "That's called losing." The regulatory havoc had grown out of a 2004 meeting of the Midwest's leading clean energy activists and philanthropic donors—a network calling itself Re-Amp <http://www.reamp.org/> [36]. Its members confronted a harsh truth, says Fresh Energy's Noble. They had been working the wrong problem, focusing on renewable energy instead of the broader climate picture. "What does it mean that we celebrate the construction of a $100 million wind farm in Minnesota when at the same time a 900-megawatt coal plant was being built?" asks Noble. "That's called losing. If you looked at the problem through the lens of carbon, all the work we had done was undone by a single plant—a plant that wasn't challenged by a single environmentalist." The Midwest is the most coal-dependent region in the country; its states get an average of 70 percent<https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:q991VR8vw5EJ:www.civilsocietyins…> [37] of their electricity from coal. (Nationally, it's 45 percent<http://www.eia.gov/forecasts/aeo/chapter_executive_summary.cfm> [38].) At Re-Amp meetings, Noble joined Bruce Nilles—then a Sierra Club activist in Wisconsin—in arguing that henceforth every proposed coal plant in the Midwest should be challenged. "We didn't know *how* we'd oppose them, we just knew we had to," says Nilles. At 42, Nilles has leading-man looks that belie his history of tough-nosed activism. Raised in England, he was agitating against nuclear weapons and cruelty to animals before even reaching puberty. After moving to the States during college, he helped organize the first recycling operation at the University of Wisconsin (over administrators' objections) and went on to serve as an environmental lawyer in the Clinton administration. At one Re-Amp strategy meeting, he tangled with a program officer at one of the Midwest's largest philanthropies, the Joyce Foundation, who dismissed the idea of opposing every coal plant—it made more sense, the funder argued, to mount tightly focused legal challenges to a few marquee plants. [image: Rhonda Anderson, with her niece N'Deye, grew up near the River Rouge coal plant, which the NAACP calls one of the worst polluters in communities of color.: See more photos of the River Rouge plant.]*Rhonda Anderson, with her niece N'Deye, grew up near the River Rouge coal plant, which the NAACP calls one of the worst polluters in communities of color. * See more photos <http://motherjones.com/blue-marble/2012/03/coal-photos> [10] of the River Rouge plant.In a universe where activists' organizations—and paychecks—often depend on the goodwill of foundations, "I was very impressed that Bruce was prepared to go toe-to-toe with a very powerful person and tell him he was wrong," says Rick Reed, a senior adviser to the Garfield Foundation who helped launch Re-Amp. The test of the dueling approaches came in 2005. In opposing a plant in Wisconsin, the Joyce Foundation "put all their chips on a big-bucks legal strategy, with no politics, and lost at the state Supreme Court," Reed recalls. "That taught us a lesson: You'll never be able to beat these things without an integrated strategy that includes real people who are affected by these plants, who'll reject the economic argument publicly." (The Joyce Foundation, which declined comment for this story, later embraced this idea as well.) Sanzillo says he saw the value of such an integrated approach in one of the first fights he handled for Beyond Coal. Utilities had proposed two large coal plants in eastern Iowa. Carrie La Seur, an attorney who founded the group Plains Justice, recalls getting phone calls from local people who "didn't like the idea that there would be this big belching coal plant in the midst of prime farmland, and big transmission lines as well." La Seur began submitting legal challenges to the plants. Meanwhile, Sanzillo, testifying about one of the plants<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qWiMDQ3HT7c> [39] before the Iowa Utility Board, made a straight economic argument<http://www.alliantenergy.com/wcm/groups/wcm_internet/@int/documents/documen…> [40] (PDF): The project would cost far more than the $1.8 billion the company had estimated, and those costs would be passed on to ratepayers for decades. Local activists echoed that message as they met with legislators, Gov. John Culver, and the editorial board of the *Des Moines Register*<http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080420/OPINIO…> [41]. In the end, they persuaded regulators to put a cap on the plant's cost—any costs above the cap would be absorbed by the company's shareholders, not ratepayers. Presented with this option, the utility chose to cancel the project<http://bostonherald.com/news/national/midwest/view/2009_03_05_Utility_cance…> [42]. Arming local people with economic arguments was critical, Sanzillo argues: "If the activists hadn't been there talking to the regulators and editorial boards and making the case that coal was a bad bet, the [utility board] would have gone forward, because the utilities would say, 'We can handle the costs,' and the boards are often good-old-boy boards." The campaign's argument has been straight-up economics: It's getting more and more expensive to build a coal plant, and ratepayers will get suck with the bill. This approach—hard numbers plus grassroots pressure—became the model Beyond Coal followed in state after state: Wisconsin, Ohio, Florida, even Kentucky, the heart of coal country. In South Carolina, Sanzillo says, activists "put me in touch with small-business associations, and I was able to explain how big industrial interests historically got treated better on these things than small businesses. That was smart, because it got the small businesses fighting with the big industrials, which was just the fight we wanted: a business fight rather than an environmental fight." Even the cap-and-trade battle, no matter how unsuccessful, provided economic ammunition. A utility company just might be able to manage coal's rising construction and fuel costs, Sanzillo explains. Add the prospect of new clean-air regulations from the EPA, and "you might still be able to manage it, but it's getting dark." Factor in the possibility that cap and trade might be enacted someday and, "Now, if I'm an investor, Coca-Cola is not looking too bad," Sanzillo says, starting to laugh. "They give me 10 percent, and I don't have to worry about climate legislation, the cost of steel in China, and God knows what else." None of that makes Beyond Coal's next task any easier, though: There is a big difference between fighting a proposed plant and seeking to close one that is already providing electricity, jobs, and tax revenues. "The key is, you don't do things precipitously," Sanzillo says. After a wave of deregulation transformed New York's electricity markets 10 years ago, he notes, many power companies paid less in property taxes. State officials worked with the affected communities "to phase out the loss of the tax base," sometimes using state money. Nationally, he adds, the same basic principles were applied in the 1990s to help communities cope with post-Cold War military base closures. "The federal government just funded them until the local economies could come back." Beyond Coal has helped broker a similar transition in Washington state. When environmentalists first targeted the Centralia coal plant for closure, they ran into opposition not just from its owner, the TransAlta company, but also from the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, which represents 150 employees at the plant. "There is no way I or the IBEW would have agreed to shut down that plant," says Bob Guenther, who worked as a mechanic at Centralia for 34 years before becoming the union's chief lobbyist, "if we didn't have an agreement to keep this community whole." As a cofounder of the national BlueGreen Alliance<http://www.bluegreenalliance.org/about> [43] of workers and environmentalists, the Sierra Club had experience working through disagreements with labor, so Beyond Coal made some compromises. "We wanted a 5-year timeline for closing [the TransAlta plant] and we settled for 10," Nilles says. "Not because of the company but because of IBEW." The agreement was hammered out behind closed doors during negotiations requested by Washington Gov. Christine Gregoire. "The governor wanted a deal that would satisfy all sides and avoid litigation," says Keith Phillips, a senior aide. Phillips spent two days shuttling between rooms containing representatives from TransAlta and environmental groups, but not the IBEW. That left the environmentalists to argue labor's case—which they did. They insisted that the plant's workforce be retained throughout its closure and cleanup; that workers be trained in the technologies that would replace coal, especially energy efficiency; and that the company, not the taxpayers, subsidize the transition. TransAlta agreed, pledging $55 million<http://www.governor.wa.gov/news/news-view.asp?pressRelease=1699&newsType=1> [44] that will be controlled by the affected communities, to fund economic development and clean tech. "A lot of it will pay for insulating schools and other public buildings," says Guenther. In return, environmentalists accepted a later closure date for the plant<http://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/201201/kick-coal-save-jobs.aspx> [45]: One of its two boilers will shut down in 2020; the other, in 2025. One big question facing Beyond Coal is what happens if electricity demand begins increasing again. With coal plants so difficult to get approved, utilities might look to natural gas instead, accelerating the environmental devastation caused by gas drilling and fracking. (TransAlta, for one, has announced plans to build a gas plant<http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2014412221_coalplant06m.html> [46] as it prepares to shut down the Centralia facility.) That dynamic was surely on the mind of Chesapeake Energy, one of America's largest natural gas companies, when it helped pay for the Sierra Club's Beyond Coal campaign. Between 2007 and 2010, under executive director Carl Pope, the club secretly accepted $26.1 million<http://sierraclub.typepad.com/michaelbrune/2012/02/the-sierra-club-and-natu…> [47] from the company; Brune, the current executive director, discovered and halted the practice shortly after replacing Pope in 2010. "We can't take cash from companies or industries that…we want to change," Brune told me. Nilles says he knew about the Chesapeake money "from the beginning," noting that the environmental downsides of fracking were not as evident in 2007: "My views on gas have evolved significantly in the intervening years." Between 2007 and 2010, the Sierra Club accepted more than $26 million from Chesapeake Energy, a major natural gas company that stood to benefit if coal lost momentum. But gas is not the only option for replacing coal. Howard Learner of the Environmental Law and Policy Center in Chicago says technological gains in energy efficiency and renewables are accelerating so rapidly, they may well outpace increase in demand. "Just as it's hard to imagine a world in which we're going back to landlines, we're not going to turn back the clock on energy efficiency," says Learner. "It's the best, fastest, cheapest, and most environmentally sound way of meeting our energy needs." The global consulting firm McKinsey has estimated<http://www.mckinsey.com/Client_Service/Electric_Power_and_Natural_Gas/Lates…> [48]that efficiency can reduce non-transportation energy use in the US a full 23 percent by 2020, and that such investments would cost $520 billion while creating $1.2 trillion in savings. Amory Lovins of the Rocky Mountain Institute, a sustainability expert who consults with corporations and government agencies around the world, goes even further. In his book *Reinventing Fire*, he lays out a blueprint<http://rmi.org/rfexecutivesummary> [49] for how the United States could stop burning coal for electricity by 2050 while also phasing out oil and nuclear power and still growing the economy by 158 percent. Already, Lovins points out, costs for renewables are falling<http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/jun/20/solar-panel-price-drop> [50] to the point where wind, especially<http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-03-15/wind-innovations-drive-down-costs-…> [51], is competitive with coal<http://www.eia.gov/oiaf/aeo/pdf/2016levelized_costs_aeo2011.pdf> [52] (PDF) for many purposes. Not everyone projects quite so rosy a scenario. The US Department of Energy estimates that coal's share of the country's energy mix will remain relatively steady for decades. And it's easy to see why: Energy markets (and energy policy) are dominated by corporations that have sunk a lot of investment into fossil fuels. But the energy sector is also heavily regulated<http://mitworld.mit.edu/video/428> [53]—which means that political shifts can have a fairly immediate effect. And on the political front, Mary Anne Hitt believes the Beyond Coal campaign offers "a fundamental message about how to make change in this country." The effort to pass climate legislation, for example, was centered on Capitol Hill, a battlefield where the power of money rigs the system. Then, to satisfy inside-the-Beltway definitions of what was politically realistic, mainstream environmental organizations embraced a policy—cap and trade—that was incremental in its remedy and incomprehensible in its mechanism. "We can't go out in the streets about *that*," one grassroots activist complained at the time. "Most people can't even understand it." These strategic choices made it impossible to build the kind of public pressure that could overcome the industry's political power and deep pockets. The Beyond Coal campaign, by contrast, organized people around tangible targets: their air, their water, the climate their children would live with. This enabled it to appeal to a constellation of allies (public health advocates, unions) beyond the usual environmental suspects. Finally, Beyond Coal focused on local and state governments, where popular sentiment can have a more immediate effect. With baby Hazel celebrating her second birthday, Hitt finds comfort in these results. "When you see a coal plant being stopped, that means a mountaintop removal will not go forward and a large amount of carbon will not be released into the atmosphere—you can *see* you're making a difference," she explains. "As a parent, that makes it easier for me to sleep at night." -- Orli Cotel Deputy Communications Director Sierra Club (415) 977-5627 office (646) 522-7751 cellphone - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 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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Fwd: Join us for "New EPA Carbon Pollution Standards Webinar"
by Paul Wilson 02 Apr '12

02 Apr '12

fyi, paul ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Becki Clayborn <becki.clayborn(a)sierraclub.org> Date: Sun, Apr 1, 2012 at 8:31 PM Subject: Join us for "New EPA Carbon Pollution Standards Webinar" To: COAL-CAMPAIGN-ALERTS(a)lists.sierraclub.org New EPA Carbon Pollution Standards Webinar Join us for a Webinar on April 4 <https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/261414990> *Space is limited.* Reserve your Webinar seat now at: https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/261414990 Join us Wednesday night for this exciting webinar that will explain how the Environmental Protection Agency’s new carbon pollution standards, NSPS, mark the end of an era for coal plants and will continue the momentum behind clean energy advancements! In this webinar, you will learn the basics about the new standard, why it’s so important to our work on transitioning the US from coal to a cleaner energy future, effective messaging around this standard, and how you and your friends can get involved. We will also introduce tools available to you. We expect the coal industry to fight these standards with everything they've got. So please join this webinar to learn what you can do to support and defend these new standards. *Title:* New EPA Carbon Pollution Standards Webinar *Date:* Wednesday, April 4, 2012 *Time:* 8:00 PM - 9:00 PM EDT After registering you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the Webinar. Looking forward to a great webinar! Verena Owen and Becki Clayborn *System Requirements* PC-based attendees Required: Windows® 7, Vista, XP or 2003 Server Macintosh®-based attendees Required: Mac OS® X 10.5 or newer -- Becki Clayborn Beyond Coal Campaign Internal Capacities and Communications Coordinator Chicago, IL 312-251-1680 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 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: Life and death in a coal mining town, this week on Link TV
by Paul Wilson 30 Mar '12

30 Mar '12

fyi, set your dvr's or tvo or whatever if you are occupied on the 5th. best, paul ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: David Dow <ddow420(a)comcast.net> Date: Thu, Mar 29, 2012 at 5:16 PM Subject: Fwd: Life and death in a coal mining town, this week on Link TV To: Paul Wilson <pjgrunt(a)gmail.com>, Pam Polloni <Pam394(a)aol.com> fyi Begin forwarded message: *From: *Link TV <linktvcc(a)linktv.org> *Date: *March 29, 2012 1:54:53 PM EDT * * Having trouble viewing this email? Click here <http://campaign.r20.constantcontact.com/render?llr=najsn4bab&v=001AOTdCtwnZ…> [image: LinkLetter]<http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1109644681987&s=40225&e=001PNWXxkp3lnL_VIWNaTB…> March 29, 2012 [image: explore: West Virginia – Hillbillies, Coal Miners, Treehuggers & God]<http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1109644681987&s=40225&e=001PNWXxkp3lnJ2Pupl-R0…> *explore travels to West Virginia, where coal is both a way of life and a destructive force*<http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1109644681987&s=40225&e=001PNWXxkp3lnJ2Pupl-R0…> On April 5, 2010, a massive explosion ripped through *Massey Energy's Upper Big Branch mine in West Virginia*, killing 29 coal miners and changing the local community forever. Now, two years later, the people of the once-thriving town of Whitesville, all have different beliefs about the value of coal mining and what it will take to resurrect the region. But most agree that *Marsh Fork Elementary School*, sitting below a dam holding back billions of gallons of toxic slurry, is another disaster waiting to happen. Hosted by documentarian *Charles Annenberg Weingarten*, this moving half-hour special -- *explore: West Virginia - Hillbillies, Coal Miners, Treehuggers & God<http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1109644681987&s=40225&e=001PNWXxkp3lnJ2Pupl-R0…> * -- journeys through the heart of Appalachia to meet a community torn apart by disaster fighting to protect the environment and rebuild its way of life. ------------------------------ *Premiering Thursday April 5, 2012, at 9pm ET/6pm PT & Online* *Click to Watch the Trailer and for More Airtimes and Info*<http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1109644681987&s=40225&e=001PNWXxkp3lnJ2Pupl-R0…> *Watch More explore Programming on Link TV*<http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1109644681987&s=40225&e=001PNWXxkp3lnL4TlvQTmA…> *Learn About explore.org*<http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1109644681987&s=40225&e=001PNWXxkp3lnLQugtLIwr…> More This Week on Link [image: Special: Winner-Take-All Politics - How Washington Made the Rich Richer]<http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1109644681987&s=40225&e=001PNWXxkp3lnK9hPiZcii…> *Winner-Take-All Politics: How Washington Made the Rich Richer*<http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1109644681987&s=40225&e=001PNWXxkp3lnK9hPiZcii…> Why, in a country as wealthy as America, do the "have-it-alls" have so much, while the middle and working class continue to have less and less? Is it meritocracy -- or an engineered inequality? *Watch Thursday (tonight!) 11pm ET/8pm PT* <http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1109644681987&s=40225&e=001PNWXxkp3lnJoV-b7TYv…> *Invite Bill Moyers, Richard Wolff & Michael Moore Into Your Home!*<http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1109644681987&s=40225&e=001PNWXxkp3lnJoV-b7TYv…> You can watch all the great thinkers you see on Link anytime you want when you buy the *"Link TV Speaks!" DVD collection*. This 12-disc set includes new, exclusive speeches from Michael Moore and Richard Wolff, plus classic Link TV blockbusters such as Chris Hedges and Vandana Shiva. Plus, we'll throw in the *brand new Link hoodie*. *Help us reach our $300,000 fundraising goal today!<http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1109644681987&s=40225&e=001PNWXxkp3lnJoV-b7TYv…> * [image: Special: Michael Moore - Unrigging the System]<http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1109644681987&s=40225&e=001PNWXxkp3lnJVknj9ki1…> *Don't Miss Michael Moore - Unrigging the System*<http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1109644681987&s=40225&e=001PNWXxkp3lnJVknj9ki1…> Headlining the Left Forum 2012 at Pace University, Michael Moore speaks about the importance of Occupy Wall Street and the direction of the progressive left in general, encouraging the audience to mobilize around this rare moment. *Watch Saturday 7pm ET/4pm PT* [image: Special: Howard Zinn - You Can’t Be Neutral on a Moving Train]<http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1109644681987&s=40225&e=001PNWXxkp3lnIsUvHaItR…> ***Howard Zinn on Why** You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train*<http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1109644681987&s=40225&e=001PNWXxkp3lnIsUvHaItR…> This rousing Link TV fan favorite documentary pays tribute to the late activist and teacher *Howard Zinn*, using his life to tell the pressing story of political activism in the 20th century and beyond. *Watch Tuesday 10pm PT (Click for more times)<http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1109644681987&s=40225&e=001PNWXxkp3lnIsUvHaItR…> * Link TV and www.linktv.org<http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1109644681987&s=40225&e=001PNWXxkp3lnL_VIWNaTB…>are wholly owned and operated by LINK MEDIA, INC., a tax-exempt charitable organization under 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. 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Box 2008 | San Francisco | CA | 94126 -- 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: Draft Oil and Gas Stormwater Permit
by James Kotcon 30 Mar '12

30 Mar '12

Attached is a draft "general" permit for stormwater discharges from oil and gas operations, as well as my first draft of comments on it. there is a hearing April 9, and final comments are due April 19. let me know your thoughts. JBK >>> "Chuck Wyrostok" <wyro(a)appalight.com> 3/8/2012 9:31 PM >>> FYI Chuck Wyrostok Sierra Club Outreach Organizer Toll free 877 252 0257 E: outreach(a)marcellus-wv.com www.marcellus-wv.com From: DSGJr(a)aol.com [mailto:DSGJr@aol.com] Sent: Thursday, March 08, 2012 2:17 PM To: mjanes(a)hardynet.com; wyro(a)appalight.com; blittle(a)citynet.net; wvdavid(a)wvdavid.net; clrank2(a)gmail.com; julie(a)wvcag.org; sminney(a)wvrivers.org Subject: Fwd: Draft Oil and Gas Stormwater Permit This is out for public comment. From: Scott.G.Mandirola(a)wv.gov To: DSGJr(a)aol.com Sent: 3/8/2012 1:25:12 P.M. Eastern Standard Time Subj: RE: Draft Oil and Gas Stormwater Permit Here you are Don. Scott From: DSGJr(a)aol.com [mailto:DSGJr@aol.com] Sent: Thursday, March 08, 2012 9:21 AM To: Mandirola, Scott G Subject: Draft Oil and Gas Stormwater Permit Hi, Scott -- please email me a copy of the draft permit. Thanks, Don Garvin WVEC

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Fwd: Coal drops to 38 % of electric generation in January (was: 3/28 Marcellus news digest
by James Kotcon 29 Mar '12

29 Mar '12

Wow. This must be scaring Manchin, Tomblin, et al. They keep claiming that coal generates the majority of electricity in the US. That has not been true for at least 7 years, as the percentage had slowly declined to about 42-44 % last year. This sudden drop is a harbinger of the future as the cost of solar and wind keeps coming down. Switching from coal to gas and back again can happen quickly with price swings in the cost of fuel, but once the infrastructure for renewables is built, there is no fuel cost. and the loss of market share for coal is permanent. JBK >>> "Chuck Wyrostok" wyro(a)appalight.com> 3/28/2012 7:04 PM >> ( mailto:wyro@appalight.com ) Cheap gas replaces coal at power plants By Bloomberg News Wednesday, March 28, 2012 Power plants boosted natural gas use by 19 percent in January from a year earlier as tumbling prices prompted a switch from coal, a government report showed. Gas used in electricity generation rose to 676 billion cubic feet in January from 563.8 billion a year earlier, the Energy Department said today in its Electric Power Monthly. The increase represents 3.6 billion cubic feet a day of additional gas demand during the month. Coal use fell 22 percent to 70.6 million tons in January from a year earlier. Gas gained share in every U.S. region while coal demand declined in a month when the amount of electricity generated fell because of unseasonably warm weather, the department said in a monthly update, also released today. The department said the drop in the average spot price for natural gas below the average spot price for Appalachian coal was "the biggest reason" why gas displaced coal. Gas at the Henry Hub in Louisiana, the delivery point for New York futures, averaged $2.75 per million British thermal units in January compared with $3.17 per million Btu for Central Appalachian coal, according to department data. Electricity generation across the U.S. fell 6.4 percent in January to 340.7 million megawatt-hours from a year earlier. Gas-fired plants accounted for 27 percent of the generation while coal represented 38 percent. Natural gas futures dropped 16 percent in January to $2.503 per million British thermal on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Gas today slipped 1.8 cents, or 0.8 percent, to settle at $2.208, after sliding to $2.176, the lowest intraday price since February 2002. Coal futures tumbled 15 percent in January.

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Fwd: WVEC Action Alert: DEP Announcements
by James Kotcon 27 Mar '12

27 Mar '12

Anyone want to take a look at these and prepare comments? Jim Kotcon >>> WVEC - Don Alexander <paradox(a)spectrumz.com> 3/26/2012 8:28 PM >>> West Virginia Environmental Council Action Alert March 26, 2012 WVEC Alerts Archive ( http://www.wvecouncil.org/take_action/index.html ) DEP Announcements DEP Accepting Comments on Centralized Pit Construction Standards ( #dep ) DEP Accepting Comments on Oil and Gas Stormwater General Permit ( #dep2 ) DEP Office of Oil & Gas Launches Horizontal Drilling Page on Website ( #dep3 ) DEP Accepting Comments on Centralized Pit Construction Standards The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection’s Office of Oil and Gas is taking comments on its design and construction standards for centralized pits used to store wastewater associated with horizontal drilling. The standards provide guidelines for construction, liner requirements, water quality monitoring, and engineer certifications. The document can be found at: http://www.dep.wv.gov/oil-and-gas/Pages/default.aspx Comments may be submitted in writing by email to dep.oogcomments(a)wv.gov or through the U.S. Postal Service to: John Kearney Office of Oil and Gas 601 57th Street SE, Charleston, WV 25304. Comments will be accepted until April 12, 2012 at 5 p.m. DEP Accepting Comments on Oil and Gas Stormwater General Permit The State of West Virginia, Department of Environmental Protection, Division of Water and Waste Management is proposing to issue a State General Water Pollution Control Permit to regulate the discharge of stormwater runoff associated with oil and gas related construction activities. The General Permit will authorize discharges composed entirely of stormwater associated with oil and gas field activities or operations associated with exploration, production, processing or treatment operations or transmission facilities, disturbing one acre or greater of land area, to the waters of the State. It is proposed that this General Permit be issued for a four (4) year term. The Director of the Division of Water and Waste Management retains authority to require any owner/operator to apply for and obtain an alternative Permit. This authority will be exercised when the Director determines that an alternative permit will better protect the receiving water. The Draft Permit may be inspected by appointment between 8:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m., Monday through Friday at the Department of Environmental Protection, Division of Water and Waste Management, Public Information Office, 57th Street SE, Charleston, WV 25304. Copies of the documents may be obtained from the Division at a nominal cost. A public hearing has been scheduled to take additional comments on the Draft Permit. The hearing has been scheduled for 6 p.m. on April 9, 2012, at the Coopers Rock Training Room, WV DEP Headquarters, 601 57th Street SE, Charleston, WV 25304. Any person may submit oral or written statements concerning the draft permit; however, reasonable limits may be set upon the time allowed for oral statements. Any interested persons may submit written comments on the Draft Permit. The public comment period begins March 8, 2012 and ends April 19, 2012. Comments should be addressed to: Director, Division of Water and Waste Management Department of Environmental Protection 601 57th Street, SE Charleston, WV 25304 Attention: Tonya Ombler E mail: Tonya.K.Ombler(a)wv.gov All comments received within this period will be considered prior to acting on the Draft Permit. Correspondence should include the name, address, and telephone number of the writer; and a concise statement of the nature of the issues being raised. Requests for additional information should be directed to Tonya Ombler at (304) 926-0499, extension 1132. DEP Office of Oil & Gas Launches Horizontal Drilling Page on Website The Department of Environmental Protection’s Office of Oil and Gas has launched a webpage that contains information specifically related to horizontal drilling as defined by the Horizontal Drilling Act that was passed by the state Legislature in December. As part of the Act, the Legislature required the DEP to create the page so citizens could obtain information about the location of proposed horizontal wells and give them the opportunity to comment on those permit applications. Currently, the page offers links to items that will be further developed as permit applications are received by the agency. Links to pages that allow citizens to submit or review comments about specific permit applications, as well as a link to a tool that helps them find the location of a proposed well, are included. “The page will continue to grow and change as more permit applications are submitted to the agency,” said James Martin, Chief of the Office of Oil and Gas. “Soon, after we populate the site with applications that have been received, people will be able to see a list with information such as the applicant, where the well is located, the formation it targets, whether the well has been completed and the date the permit was issued.” Under the new legislation, one of the first steps operators have to take is placing a Class II Legal notice in local newspapers at least 10 days prior to submitting an application. “As an added public notice option, people can go to this page and sign up for an email notification whenever a permit is received or issued by the Office of Oil and Gas,” Martin said. The site can be found at: http://www.dep.wv.gov/oil-and-gas/Horizontal-Permits/Pages/default.aspx Don Alexander ( mailto:paradox@spectrumz.com ) WVEC E-mail List Coordinator Subscribe or Unsubscribe Online ( http://www.wvecouncil.org/take_action/index.html )

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DEP Announcements
by Frank Young 26 Mar '12

26 Mar '12

WVEC Action AlertDEP Office of Oil & Gas Launches Horizontal Drilling Page on Website The Department of Environmental Protection's Office of Oil and Gas has launched a webpage that contains information specifically related to horizontal drilling as defined by the Horizontal Drilling Act that was passed by the state Legislature in December. As part of the Act, the Legislature required the DEP to create the page so citizens could obtain information about the location of proposed horizontal wells and give them the opportunity to comment on those permit applications. Currently, the page offers links to items that will be further developed as permit applications are received by the agency. Links to pages that allow citizens to submit or review comments about specific permit applications, as well as a link to a tool that helps them find the location of a proposed well, are included. "The page will continue to grow and change as more permit applications are submitted to the agency," said James Martin, Chief of the Office of Oil and Gas. "Soon, after we populate the site with applications that have been received, people will be able to see a list with information such as the applicant, where the well is located, the formation it targets, whether the well has been completed and the date the permit was issued." Under the new legislation, one of the first steps operators have to take is placing a Class II Legal notice in local newspapers at least 10 days prior to submitting an application. "As an added public notice option, people can go to this page and sign up for an email notification whenever a permit is received or issued by the Office of Oil and Gas," Martin said. The site can be found at: http://www.dep.wv.gov/oil-and-gas/Horizontal-Permits/Pages/default.aspx

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Fwd: Fracking grant Opportunity, Due march 30??
by James Kotcon 23 Mar '12

23 Mar '12

>>> Ann Payne <Paynestake(a)frontier.com> 3/23/2012 5:44 PM >>> I am guessing most of you already know about this money, but am sending along just in case. The deadline is very tight. Perhaps you know someone who is interested. Best, Ann Begin forwarded message: Bingham Foundation Invites Letters of Inquiry for Environmental Programs to Address Hydraulic Fracturing in New York, West Virginia, Ohio, Maryland, or Virginia A grant of up to $25,000 will be awarded to a nonprofit organization working to address the environmental impact of hydraulic fracturing in the multi-state Marcellus Shale region.... Posted on March 20, 2012 Deadline: March 30, 2012 (Letters of Inquiry) Ann Reflections: Homage to Dunkard Creek

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Fwd: WV Host Farms - new potential ally
by James Kotcon 23 Mar '12

23 Mar '12

We should reach out to these folks, perhaps plan some joint outings. JBK ----- Forwarded Message ----- From: Diane Pitcock <parrotlady(a)hughes.net> To: a_clean_wv(a)yahoo.com Sent: Wednesday, March 21, 2012 7:23 PM Subject: info about environmental initiative in WV Hello, Please visit the website below and if you find it appropriate to include info about it in your next newsletter, I would appreciate the promotion of our program. We are a group of concerned landowners being impacted by fracking on or near our lands and the WV Host Farm Program was the result of our desire to invite more environmental research to WV to help improve things here. Please forward this info to your membership via e-mail if you think that any landowners would be interested in participating in the volunteer effort if they are living in areas impacted by Marcellus drilling and fracking. Thanks www.wvhostfarms.org Diane Pitcock 304 873-1932 __._,_.___ 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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NYT ARTICLE ON "ENERGY INDEPENDENCE" -- EXTRAORDINARY, EVEN IF INACCURATE IN PARTS, AND WITHOUT REGARD TO ALLOCATION OF CREDIT/BLAME
by William V. DePaulo, Esq. 22 Mar '12

22 Mar '12

The Energy Rush U.S. Is Inching Toward Elusive Goal of Energy Independence Jim Wilson/The New York Times At an Apache Corporation oil well near Hobbs, N.M., workers moved equipment used to monitor the progress on a well being drilled horizontally. Across the country, the oil and gas industry is vastly increasing production, reversing two decades of decline. More Photos »<http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2012/03/22/us/20120322ENERGY.html> By CLIFFORD KRAUSS<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/k/clifford_kraus…>and ERIC LIPTON<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/l/eric_lipton/in…> Published: March 22, 2012 The Energy Rush *Drilling More and Using Less* Multimedia Slide Show <http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2012/03/22/us/20120322ENERGY.html?ref=ener…> Booming Again in West Texas<http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2012/03/22/us/20120322ENERGY.html?ref=ener…> MIDLAND, Tex. — The desolate stretch of West Texas desert known as the Permian Basin is still the lonely domain of scurrying roadrunners by day and howling coyotes by night. But the roar of scores of new oil<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/energy-environment/oil-petroleu…>rigs and the distinctive acrid fumes of drilling equipment are unmistakable signs that crude is gushing again. And not just here. Across the country, the oil and gas industry is vastly increasing production, reversing two decades of decline. Using new technology and spurred by rising oil prices since the mid-2000s, the industry is extracting millions of barrels more a week, from the deepest waters of the Gulf of Mexico to the prairies of North Dakota. At the same time, Americans are pumping significantly less gasoline. While that is partly a result of the recession<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/r/recession_an…>and higher gasoline prices, people are also driving fewer miles and replacing older cars with more fuel-efficient<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/f/fuel_efficie…>vehicles at a greater clip, federal data show. Taken together, the increasing production and declining consumption have unexpectedly brought the United States markedly closer to a goal that has tantalized presidents since Richard Nixon: independence from foreign energy sources, a milestone that could reconfigure American foreign policy, the economy and more. In 2011, the country imported just 45 percent of the liquid fuels it used, down from a record high of 60 percent in 2005. “There is no question that many national security policy makers will believe they have much more flexibility and will think about the world differently if the United States is importing a lot less oil,” said Michael A. Levi, an energy and environmental senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. “For decades, consumption rose, production fell and imports increased, and now every one of those trends is going the other way.” How the country made this turnabout is a story of industry-friendly policies started by President Bush and largely continued by President Obama — many over the objections of environmental advocates — as well as technological advances that have allowed the extraction of oil and gas once considered too difficult and too expensive to reach. But mainly it is a story of the complex economics of energy, which sometimes seems to operate by its own rules of supply and demand. With gasoline prices now approaching record highs and politicians mud-wrestling about the causes and solutions, the effects of the longer-term rise in production can be difficult to see. Simple economics suggests that if the nation is producing more energy, prices should be falling. But crude oil — and gasoline and diesel made from it — are global commodities whose prices are affected by factors around the world. Supply disruptions in Africa, the political standoff with Iran and rising demand from a recovering world economy all are contributing to the current spike in global oil prices, offsetting the impact of the increased domestic supply. But the domestic trends are unmistakable. Not only has the United States reduced oil imports from members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries by more than 20 percent in the last three years, it has become a net exporter of refined petroleum products like gasoline for the first time since the Truman presidency. The natural gas<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/energy-environment/natural-gas/…>industry, which less than a decade ago feared running out of domestic gas, is suddenly dealing with a glut so vast that import facilities are applying for licenses to export gas to Europe and Asia. National oil production, which declined steadily to 4.95 million barrels a day in 2008 from 9.6 million in 1970, has risen over the last four years to nearly 5.7 million barrels a day. The Energy Department projects that daily output could reach nearly seven million barrels by 2020. Some experts think it could eventually hit 10 million barrels — which would put the United States in the same league as Saudi Arabia. This surge is hardly without consequences. Some areas of intense drilling activity, including northeastern Utah and central Wyoming, have experienced air quality problems. The drilling technique called hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, which uses highly pressurized water, sand and chemical lubricants that help force more oil and gas from rock formations, has also been blamed for wastewater problems. Wildlife experts also warn that expanded drilling is threatening habitats of rare or endangered species. Greater energy independence is “a prize that has long been eyed by oil insiders and policy strategists that can bring many economic and national security benefits,” said Jay Hakes, a senior official at the Energy Department during the Clinton administration. “But we will have to work through the environmental issues, which are a definite challenge.” The increased production of fossil fuels is a far cry from the energy plans President Obama articulated as a candidate in 2008. Then, he promoted policies to help combat global warming<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/science/topics/globalwarming/index.html?…>, including vast investments in renewable energy and a cap-and-trade<http://topics.nytimes.com/topics/reference/timestopics/subjects/g/greenhous…>system for carbon emissions that would have discouraged the use of fossil fuels. More recently, with gasoline prices rising and another election looming, Mr. Obama has struck a different chord. He has opened new federal lands and waters to drilling, signaled a willingness to eventually approve the Keystone XL<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/k/keystone_pip…>oil pipeline from Canada, trumpeted increases in oil and gas production and de-emphasized the challenges of climate change. Mr. Obama’s current policy has alarmed many environmental advocates who say he has failed to adequately address the environmental threats of expanded drilling and the use of fossil fuels. He also has not silenced critics, including Republicans and oil executives, who accuse him of preventing drilling on millions of acres off the Atlantic and Pacific Coasts and on federal land, delaying the Keystone decision and diverting scarce federal resources to pie-in-the-sky alternative energy programs. Just as the production increase was largely driven by rising oil prices, the trend could reverse if the global economy were to slow. Even so, much of the industry is thrilled at the prospects. “To not be concerned with where our oil is going to come from is probably the biggest home run for the country in a hundred years,” said Scott D. Sheffield, chief executive of Pioneer Natural Resources, which is operating in West Texas. “It sort of reminds me of the industrial revolution in coal<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/c/coal/index.h…>, which allowed us to have some of the cheapest energy in the world and drove our economy in the late 1800s and 1900s.” *The Foundation Is Laid* For as long as roughnecks have worked the Permian Basin — made famous during World War II<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/w/world_war_ii…>as the fuel pump that powered the Allies — they have mostly focused on relatively shallow zones of easily accessible, oil-soaked sandstone and silt. But after 80 years of pumping, those regions were running dry. So in 2003 , Jim Henry, a West Texas oilman, tried a bold experiment. Borrowing an idea from a fellow engineer, his team at Henry Petroleum drilled deep into a hard limestone formation using a refinement of fracking. By blasting millions of gallons of water into the limestone, they created tiny fissures that allowed oil to break free, a technique that had previously been successful in extracting gas from shale. The test produced 150 barrels of oil a day, three times more than normal. “We knew we had the biggest discovery in over 50 years in the Permian Basin,” Mr. Henry recalled. There was just one problem: At $30 a barrel, the price of oil was about half of what was needed to make drilling that deep really profitable. So the renaissance of the Permian — and the domestic oil industry — would have to wait. But the drillers in Texas had important allies in Washington. President Bush grew up in Midland and spent 11 years as a West Texas oilman, albeit without much success, before entering politics. Vice President Dick Cheney had been chief executive of the oil field contractor Halliburton. The Bush administration worked from the start on finding ways to unlock the nation’s energy reserves and reverse decades of declining output, with Mr. Cheney leading a White House energy task force that met in secret with top oil executives. “Ramping up production was a high priority,” said Gale Norton, a member of the task force and the secretary of the Interior at the time. “We hated being at the mercy of other countries, and we were determined to change that.” The task force’s work helped produce the Energy Policy Act of 2005, which set rules that contributed to the current surge. It prohibited the Environmental Protection Agency from regulating fracking under the Safe Drinking Water Act, eliminating a potential impediment to wide use of the technique. The legislation also offered the industry billions of dollars in new tax breaks to help independent producers recoup some drilling costs even when a well came up dry. Separately, the Interior Department was granted the power to issue drilling permits on millions of acres of federal lands without extensive environmental impact studies for individual projects, addressing industry complaints about the glacial pace of approvals. That new power has been used at least 8,400 times, mostly in Wyoming, Utah and New Mexico, representing a quarter of all permits issued on federal land in the last six federal fiscal years. The Bush administration also opened large swaths of the Gulf of Mexico and the waters off Alaska to exploration, granting lease deals that required companies to pay only a tiny share of their profits to the government. These measures primed the pump for the burst in drilling that began once oil prices started rising sharply in 2005 and 2006. With the world economy humming — and China, India and other developing nations posting astonishing growth — demand for oil began outpacing the easily accessible supplies. By 2008, daily global oil consumption surged to 86 million barrels, up nearly 20 percent from the decade before. In July of that year, the price of oil reached its highest level since World War II, topping $145 a barrel (equivalent to more than $151 a barrel in today’s dollars). Oil reserves once too difficult and expensive to extract — including Mr. Henry’s limestone fields — had become more attractive. If money was the motivation, fracking became the favored means of extraction. While fracking itself had been around for years, natural gas drillers in the 1980s and 1990s began combining high-pressure fracking with drilling wells horizontally, not just vertically. They found it unlocked gas from layers of shale previously seen as near worthless. By 2001, fracking took off around Fort Worth and Dallas, eventually reaching under schools, airports and inner-city neighborhoods. Companies began buying drilling rights across vast shale fields in a variety of states. By 2008, the country was awash in natural gas. Fracking for oil, which is made of larger molecules than natural gas, took longer to develop. But eventually, it opened new oil fields in North Dakota, South Texas, Kansas, Wyoming, Colorado and, most recently, Ohio. Meanwhile, technological advances were making deeper oil drilling possible in the Gulf of Mexico. New imaging and seismic technology allowed engineers to predict the location and size of reservoirs once obscured by thick layers of salt. And drill bits made of superstrong alloys were developed to withstand the hot temperatures and high pressures deep under the seabed. As the industry’s confidence — and profits — grew, so did criticism. Amid concerns about global warming and gasoline prices that averaged a record $4.11 a gallon in July 2008 ($4.30 in today’s dollars), President Obama campaigned on a pledge to shift toward renewable energy and away from fossil fuels. His administration initially canceled some oil and gas leases on federal land awarded during the Bush administration and required more environmental review. But in a world where crucial oil suppliers like Venezuela and Libya were unstable and high energy prices could be a drag on a weak economy, he soon acted to promote more drilling. Despite a drilling hiatus after the 2010 explosion of the Deepwater Horizon in the Gulf of Mexico, which killed 11 rig workers and spilled millions of barrels of crude oil into the ocean, he has proposed expansion of oil production both on land and offshore. He is now moving toward approving drilling off the coast of Alaska. “Our dependence on foreign oil is down is because of policies put in place by our administration, but also our predecessor’s administration,” Mr. Obama said during a campaign appearance in March, a few weeks after opening 38 million more acres in the gulf for oil and gas exploration. “And whoever succeeds me is going to have to keep it up.” * An American Oil Boom* The last time the Permian Basin oil fields enjoyed a boom — nearly three decades ago — Rolls-Royce opened a showroom in the desert, Champagne was poured from cowboy boots, and the local airport could not accommodate all the Lear jets taking off for Las Vegas on weekends. But when crude prices fell in the mid-1980s, oil companies pulled out and the Rolls dealership was replaced by a tortilla factory. The only thriving business was done by bankruptcy lawyers and auctioneers helping to unload used Ferraris, empty homes and useless rigs. “One day we were rolling in oil,” recalled Jim Foreman, the general manager of the Midland BMW dealership, “and the next day geologists were flipping burgers at McDonald’s.” The burger-flipping days are definitely over. Today, more than 475 rigs — roughly a quarter of all rigs operating in the United States — are smashing through tight rocks across the Permian in West Texas and southeastern New Mexico. Those areas are already producing nearly a million barrels a day, or 17 percent more than two years ago. By decade’s end, that daily total could easily double, oil executives say, roughly equaling the total output of Nigeria. “We’re having a revolution,” said G. Steven Farris,chief executive of Apache Corporation, one of the basin’s most active producers. “And we’re just scratching the surface.” It is a revolution that is returning investments to the United States. Over several decades, Pioneer Natural Resources had taken roughly $1 billion earned in Texas oil fields and drilled in Africa, South America and elsewhere. But in the last five years, the company sold $2 billion of overseas assets and reinvested in Texas shale fields. “Political risk was increasing internationally,” said Mr. Sheffield, Pioneer’s chief executive, and domestically, he was encouraged to see “the shale technology progressing.” Pioneer’s rising fortunes can be seen on a 10,000-acre field known as the Giddings Estate, a forsaken stretch inhabited by straggly coyotes, rabbits, rattlesnakes and cows that forage for grass between the sagebrush. When Pioneer bought it in 2005, the field’s hundred mostly broken-down wells were producing a total of 50 barrels a day. “It was a diamond in the rough,” said Robert Hillger, who manages it for Pioneer. Mr. Hillger and his colleagues have brought an array of new tools to bear at Giddings. Computer programs simulate well designs, minimizing trial and error. Advanced fiber optics allow senior engineers and geologists at headquarters more than 300 miles away to monitor progress and remotely direct the drill bit. Subterranean microphones help identify fissures in the rock to plan subsequent drilling. Today, the Giddings field is pumping 7,000 barrels a day, and Pioneer expects to hit 25,000 barrels a day by 2017. The newfound wealth is spreading beyond the fields. In nearby towns, petroleum companies are buying so many pickup trucks that dealers are leasing parking lots the size of city blocks to stock their inventory. Housing is in such short supply that drillers are importing contractors from Houston and hotels are leased out before they are even built. Two new office buildings are going up in Midland, a city of just over 110,000 people, the first in 30 years, while the total value of downtown real estate has jumped 50 percent since 2008. With virtually no unemployment, restaurants cannot find enough servers. Local truck drivers are making six-figure salaries. “Anybody who comes in with a driver’s license and a Social Security<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/s/social_secur…>card, I’ll give him a chance,” said Rusty Allred, owner of Rusty’s Oilfield Service Company. If there is a loser in this boom, it is the environment. Water experts say aquifers in the desert area could run dry if fracking continues expanding, and oil executives concede they need to reduce water consumption. Yet environmental concerns, from polluted air to greenhouse gas emissions, have gained little traction in the Permian Basin or other outposts of the energy expansion. On the front lines in opposition is Jay Lininger, a 36-year-old ecologist who drives through the Permian in an old Toyota Tacoma with a hard hat tilted on his head and a federal land map at the ready. A former national park firefighter, he says he is now battling a wildfire of a different sort — the oil industry. Nationally, environmentalists have challenged drilling with mixed results. Efforts to stop or slow fracking have succeeded in New York State and some localities in other states, but it is spreading across the country. In the Permian, Mr. Lininger said, few people openly object to the foul-smelling air of the oil fields. Ranchers are more than happy to sell what water they have to the oil companies for fracking. Mr. Lininger and his group are trying to slow the expansion of drilling by appealing to the United States Fish and Wildlife Service to protect several animal species, including the five-inch dunes sagebrush lizard. “It’s a pathetic little lizard in an ugly desert, but life needs to be protected,” he said. “Every day we burn fossil fuel makes it harder for our planet to recover from our energy addiction.” Mr. Lininger said the oil and ranching industries had already destroyed or fragmented 40 percent of the lizard’s habitat, and 60 percent of what is left is under lease for oil and gas development. The wildlife agency proposed listing the lizard as endangered in 2010 and was expected to decide last December, but Congressional representatives from the oil patch won a delay. Oil companies are working on a voluntary program to locate new drilling so it will not disturb the lizard habitat. But for Mr. Lininger’s group, the Center for Biological Diversity, that is far from sufficient. Brendan Cummings, senior counsel of the center, said protecting the lizard was part of a broader effort to keep drilling from harming animals, including polar bears, walruses and bowhead whales in the Alaskan Arctic and dwarf sea horses and sea turtles in the Gulf of Mexico. “When you are dealing with fossil fuels, things will always go wrong,” Mr. Cummings said. “There will always be spills, there will always be pollution. Those impacts compound the fragmentation that occurs and render these habitats into sacrifice areas.” * A Turn Toward Efficiency* If the Permian Basin exemplifies the rise in production, car-obsessed San Diego is a prime example of the other big factor in the decline in the nation’s reliance on foreign oil. Just since 2007, consumption of all liquid fuels in the United States, including diesel, jet fuel and heating oil<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/h/heating_oil/…>, has dropped by about 9 percent, according to the Energy Department<http://www.eia.gov/totalenergy/data/monthly/pdf/sec3_3.pdf>. Gasoline use fell 6 to 12 percent, estimated Tom Kloza, chief oil analyst at the Oil Price Information Service. Although Southern California’s love affair with muscle cars and the open road persists, driving habits have changed in subtle but important ways. Take Tory Girten, who works as an emergency medical technician and part-time lifeguard in the San Diego area. He switched from driving a Ford minivan to a decidedly smaller and more fuel-efficient Dodge Caliber. Fed up with high gasoline prices, he also moved twice recently to be closer to the city center, cutting his daily commute considerably — a hint of the shift taking place in certain metropolitan areas as city centers become more popular while growth in far-out suburbs slows. “I would rather pay a little more monthly for rent than for just filling up my tank with gas,” he said, after pulling into a local gas station to fill up. Mr. Girten is one of millions of Americans who have downsized. S.U.V.’s accounted for 18 percent of new-car sales in 2002, but only 7 percent in 2010. The surge in gasoline prices nationwide — they are already at a record level for this time of year — has contributed to the shift toward more fuel-efficient cars. But a bigger factor is rising federal fuel economy standards. After a long freeze, the miles-per-gallon mandate has been increased several times in recent years, with the Obama administration now pushing automakers to hit 54.5 m.p.g. by 2025. As Americans replace their older cars — they have bought an average of 1.25 million new cars and light trucks a month this year — new technologies mean they usually end up with a more efficient vehicle, even if they buy a model of similar size and power. California has long pushed further and faster toward efficiency than the rest of the country. It has combated often severe air pollution by mandating cleaner-burning cars, including all-electric vehicles<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/e/electric_veh…>, and prodded Washington to increase the fuel efficiency standards. Thousands of school buses, trash trucks, tractor-trailers and street sweepers and public transit buses in the state run on natural gas, which is cheaper than gasoline and burns more cleanly. That switch cuts the consumption of foreign oil, as does the corn-based ethanol that is now mixed into gasoline as a result of federal mandates. Longer-term social and economic factors are also reducing miles driven — like the rise in Internet shopping and telecommuting and the tendency of baby boomers to drive less as they age. The recession has also contributed, as job losses have meant fewer daily commutes and falling home prices have allowed some people to afford to move closer to work. The trend of lower consumption, when combined with higher energy production, has profound implications, said Bill White, former deputy energy secretary in the Clinton administration and former mayor of Houston. “Energy independence has always been a race between depletion and technologies to produce more and use energy more efficiently,” he said. “Depletion was winning for decades, and now technology is starting to overtake its lead.” Clifford Krauss reported from Midland, Tex., and Houston and Eric Lipton reported from Washington and San Diego. John M. Broder contributed reporting from Washington. -- William V. DePaulo, Esq. 179 Summers Street, Suite 232 Charleston, WV 25301-2163 Tel 304-342-5588 Fax 304-342-5505 william.depaulo(a)gmail.com www.passeggiata.com

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Re: [EC] It is impossible to overstate the damage done by Sierra Club's $26 million sell-out to the natural gas industry 3 years ago when this argument could still have been won.
by Paul Wilson 22 Mar '12

22 Mar '12

And I continue to get emails, from other activists at the national level and in other chapters who are equally upset and have been down the same road BEth described. So why some may wish the issue will go away, it doesn't look that way to me, even if some writers think the Club handled this issue better than say the Susan B. Komen Foundation. fyi, paul On Thu, Mar 22, 2012 at 10:04 AM, Elizabeth Little <blittle(a)citynet.net>wrote: > Ditto to what Bill said. Plus, it did have an impact on the WV Chapter. > It caused untold pain and anguish, and it took many hours of work to try > and make national understand the realities of the situation. It pitted > members against each other, and I came extremely close to cancelling my > membership. Not that that would be a big loss to the Club, but others may > have felt the same, and some may even have acted on it. > > > > > The issue emphatically is NOT what program the money was spent on.....the > > issue is the fact that it bought silence, at a time when silence was > > deadly. There can be no rationalization, implicit or otherwise, based > on > > the use made of the money. > > > > On Wed, Mar 21, 2012 at 2:49 PM, Jim Sconyers <jimscon(a)gmail.com> wrote: > > > >> Paul's comment below illustrates another aspect of this whole brouhaha - > >> not only did most of our own board not know of the $, but even now we're > >> guessing what it was used for. As I've said before, I deeply respect > >> what > >> Carl Pope did for the Club and the world - but he made one FUBAR on > >> this. > >> > >> > >> On Wed, Mar 21, 2012 at 1:14 PM, Paul Wilson <pjgrunt(a)gmail.com> wrote: > >> > >>> It all went to the Beyond Coal Campaign, but we on the Campaign Team - > >>> at > >>> least the 2 volunteers - did not know about it, so it is hard to say > >>> what > >>> it was/is spent on. best, paul > >>> > >>> On Wed, Mar 21, 2012 at 12:18 PM, Yarnell, Karen < > >>> Karen.Grubb(a)fairmontstate.edu> wrote: > >>> > >>>> Did any of that money go to the coal campaign, which may have been > >>>> used > >>>> for litigation in WV?**** > >>>> > >>>> ** ** > >>>> > >>>> *From:* ec-bounces(a)osenergy.org [mailto:ec-bounces@osenergy.org] *On > >>>> Behalf Of *William V. DePaulo, Esq. > >>>> *Sent:* Wednesday, March 21, 2012 9:44 AM > >>>> *To:* Jim Sconyers > >>>> *Cc:* Energy Committee > >>>> *Subject:* Re: [EC] It is impossible to overstate the damage done by > >>>> Sierra Club's $26 million sell-out to the natural gas industry 3 years > >>>> ago > >>>> when this argument could still have been won.**** > >>>> > >>>> ** ** > >>>> > >>>> I AGREE RE IMPACT ON WV CHAPTER....AND FOR THAT MATTER OTHERS.....I > >>>> REMEMBER CLEARLY THE NEW YORK REP AT THE ANNUAL MEETING THREE YEARS > >>>> AGO > >>>> DEMANDING TO KNOW IF SIERRA'S DIRECTORS HAD ACCEPTED MONEY FROM THE > >>>> NATURAL > >>>> GAS INDUSTRY, AND RECEIVING NOTHING BUT BLANK STARES IN > >>>> RESPONSE.....*** > >>>> * > >>>> > >>>> On Wed, Mar 21, 2012 at 9:30 AM, Jim Sconyers <jimscon(a)gmail.com> > >>>> wrote: > >>>> **** > >>>> > >>>> The ultimate irony is that the grassroots were (and are) working > >>>> furiously to tame the runaway gas monster while national took the $ > >>>> from > >>>> Chesapeake. I might add that the $ had no effect whatsoever - none - > >>>> on the > >>>> West Virginia Chapter, its finances, or our intense Marcellus/Shale > >>>> Gas > >>>> Campaign.**** > >>>> > >>>> On Wed, Mar 21, 2012 at 8:52 AM, William V. DePaulo, Esq. < > >>>> william.depaulo(a)gmail.com> wrote:**** > >>>> > >>>> *Error! Filename not specified.***** > >>>> Gas it is**** > >>>> Renewables take back seat **** > >>>> > >>>> Bill Opalka <http://www.renewablesbiz.com/author/bill-opalka> | Mar > >>>> 20, > >>>> 2012 **** > >>>> > >>>> *Error! Filename not > >>>> specified.*< > http://www.addtoany.com/share_save#url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.renewablesbiz.com%2… > > > >>>> *Error! Filename not > >>>> specified.*< > http://www.renewablesbiz.com/article/12/03/gas-it&utm_medium=eNL&utm_campai… > > > >>>> **** > >>>> > >>>> *Error! Filename not specified.***** > >>>> > >>>> The shine is off renewable energy and shale gas is the new disruptive > >>>> technology in power generation. > >>>> > >>>> Harnessing Disruption is the theme of this year’s EnergyBiz Leadership > >>>> Forum <http://www.energybizforum.com/> in Washington, D.C. this week, > >>>> and that means gas-fired generation from unconventional sources is > >>>> jumpin’. > >>>> > >>>> Recession, rising energy costs and competing interests that could > >>>> hamstring the power sector all play a role. And renewables are > >>>> sometimes > >>>> seen as a stress point as utilities seek to meet state mandates for > >>>> their > >>>> renewable portfolio standards. The dim prospects for any carbon > >>>> legislation > >>>> for the foreseeable future are responsible, combined with downward > >>>> price > >>>> pressures from the gas glut. > >>>> > >>>> “Low gas pricing is really giving us some breathing room,” said > >>>> Anthony > >>>> F. Earley Jr., chairman and CEO of PG&E > >>>> Corporation<http://www.pge.com/>(NYSE: PG&E). > >>>> > >>>> Renewable energy is competing for attention, and even as its costs > >>>> decline, natural gas dominates the discussion. > >>>> > >>>> Earley, the new executive at the San Francisco utility, is a different > >>>> circumstance than many of his colleagues. With California’s 33% > >>>> renewable > >>>> portfolio standard by 2020, he said that’s effectively 50% as most > >>>> hydropower doesn’t count under the standard. > >>>> > >>>> But there was little talk about state renewable portfolio standards > >>>> this > >>>> year. > >>>> > >>>> Consider some of the headline speakers of the first three forums to > >>>> get > >>>> a sense of how the landscape has shifted. Three years ago Boone > >>>> Pickens was > >>>> touting massive wind farms in the Great Plains. In 2010, > >>>> Representative Ed > >>>> Markey (D-Mass.) was shepherding cap-and-trade legislation through the > >>>> U.S. > >>>> House of Representatives. A year ago, Google caused a stir with plans > >>>> for a > >>>> backbone transmission plan for offshore wind, with the Atlantic Wind > >>>> Connection <http://atlanticwindconnection.com/> outlining its $5 > >>>> billion project. > >>>> > >>>> But now the issue is managing expectations as costs rise and much of > >>>> the > >>>> public is still ill-informed, and sensitive to price shocks as > >>>> gasoline > >>>> tops $4 a gallon. > >>>> > >>>> “A certain part of the public thinks we can get off Mideast oil by > >>>> building windmills, but we only get 1% of power from oil,” said Thomas > >>>> F. > >>>> Farrell II, president and CEO of Dominion <http://www.dom.com/> > (NYSE: > >>>> D). > >>>> > >>>> “The industry has $2 trillion in refurbishment of the grid, as we try > >>>> to > >>>> optimize how we handle our investments of what to build over the next > >>>> two > >>>> decades,” said Nick Akins, president and CEO of > >>>> AEP<http://www.aep.com/>(NYSE: AEP). > >>>> > >>>> Even as recent as a year ago, the choice seemed to be renewables or > >>>> nuclear, with much talk of natural gas as the bridge fuel. Now, gas is > >>>> the > >>>> fuel of choice due to its low cost and quick turnaround in building > >>>> plants. > >>>> > >>>> A slow decline in attention paid by government support may not change, > >>>> as wind and solar are under threat of collapse if tax credits expire, > >>>> particularly for wind, at the end of 2012. > >>>> Regardless of the resource base or the preferred resource of any CEO, > >>>> the detrimental lack of a national energy policy is something on which > >>>> all > >>>> can agree, regardless of the year.**** > >>>> > >>>> The editorial staff at RenewablesBiz.com is passionate about > >>>> exchanging > >>>> ideas and dedicated to promoting ongoing conversation about renewable > >>>> and > >>>> sustainable energy issues. We invite you to join and contribute to our > >>>> online community. If you have an idea for an article or editorial > >>>> contribution, please contact me via email, bopalka(a)energycentral.com, > >>>> or phone, 860.633.0090.**** > >>>> > >>>> > >>>> > >>>> -- > >>>> William V. DePaulo, Esq. > >>>> 179 Summers Street, Suite 232 > >>>> Charleston, WV 25301-2163 > >>>> Tel 304-342-5588 > >>>> Fax 304-342-5505 > >>>> william.depaulo(a)gmail.com > >>>> www.passeggiata.com**** > >>>> > >>>> ** ** > >>>> > >>>> _______________________________________________ > >>>> EC mailing list > >>>> EC(a)osenergy.org > >>>> http://osenergy.org/mailman/listinfo/ec**** > >>>> > >>>> > >>>> > >>>> > >>>> -- > >>>> Jim Sconyers > >>>> jimscon(a)gmail.com > >>>> 304.698.9628 > >>>> > >>>> Remember, Mother Nature bats last.**** > >>>> > >>>> > >>>> > >>>> > >>>> -- > >>>> William V. DePaulo, Esq. > >>>> 179 Summers Street, Suite 232 > >>>> Charleston, WV 25301-2163 > >>>> Tel 304-342-5588 > >>>> Fax 304-342-5505 > >>>> william.depaulo(a)gmail.com > >>>> www.passeggiata.com**** > >>>> > >>>> ** ** > >>>> > >>>> _______________________________________________ > >>>> 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 > >>> > >>> > >>> _______________________________________________ > >>> EC mailing list > >>> EC(a)osenergy.org > >>> http://osenergy.org/mailman/listinfo/ec > >>> > >> > >> > >> > >> -- > >> Jim Sconyers > >> jimscon(a)gmail.com > >> 304.698.9628 > >> > >> Remember, Mother Nature bats last. > >> > > > > > > > > -- > > William V. DePaulo, Esq. > > 179 Summers Street, Suite 232 > > Charleston, WV 25301-2163 > > Tel 304-342-5588 > > Fax 304-342-5505 > > william.depaulo(a)gmail.com > > www.passeggiata.com > > _______________________________________________ > > 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 > -- 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] It is impossible to overstate the damage done by Sierra Club's $26 million sell-out to the natural gas industry 3 years ago when this argument could still have been won.
by William V. DePaulo, Esq. 21 Mar '12

21 Mar '12

The issue emphatically is NOT what program the money was spent on.....the issue is the fact that it bought silence, at a time when silence was deadly. There can be no rationalization, implicit or otherwise, based on the use made of the money. On Wed, Mar 21, 2012 at 2:49 PM, Jim Sconyers <jimscon(a)gmail.com> wrote: > Paul's comment below illustrates another aspect of this whole brouhaha - > not only did most of our own board not know of the $, but even now we're > guessing what it was used for. As I've said before, I deeply respect what > Carl Pope did for the Club and the world - but he made one FUBAR on this. > > > On Wed, Mar 21, 2012 at 1:14 PM, Paul Wilson <pjgrunt(a)gmail.com> wrote: > >> It all went to the Beyond Coal Campaign, but we on the Campaign Team - at >> least the 2 volunteers - did not know about it, so it is hard to say what >> it was/is spent on. best, paul >> >> On Wed, Mar 21, 2012 at 12:18 PM, Yarnell, Karen < >> Karen.Grubb(a)fairmontstate.edu> wrote: >> >>> Did any of that money go to the coal campaign, which may have been used >>> for litigation in WV?**** >>> >>> ** ** >>> >>> *From:* ec-bounces(a)osenergy.org [mailto:ec-bounces@osenergy.org] *On >>> Behalf Of *William V. DePaulo, Esq. >>> *Sent:* Wednesday, March 21, 2012 9:44 AM >>> *To:* Jim Sconyers >>> *Cc:* Energy Committee >>> *Subject:* Re: [EC] It is impossible to overstate the damage done by >>> Sierra Club's $26 million sell-out to the natural gas industry 3 years ago >>> when this argument could still have been won.**** >>> >>> ** ** >>> >>> I AGREE RE IMPACT ON WV CHAPTER....AND FOR THAT MATTER OTHERS.....I >>> REMEMBER CLEARLY THE NEW YORK REP AT THE ANNUAL MEETING THREE YEARS AGO >>> DEMANDING TO KNOW IF SIERRA'S DIRECTORS HAD ACCEPTED MONEY FROM THE NATURAL >>> GAS INDUSTRY, AND RECEIVING NOTHING BUT BLANK STARES IN RESPONSE.....*** >>> * >>> >>> On Wed, Mar 21, 2012 at 9:30 AM, Jim Sconyers <jimscon(a)gmail.com> wrote: >>> **** >>> >>> The ultimate irony is that the grassroots were (and are) working >>> furiously to tame the runaway gas monster while national took the $ from >>> Chesapeake. I might add that the $ had no effect whatsoever - none - on the >>> West Virginia Chapter, its finances, or our intense Marcellus/Shale Gas >>> Campaign.**** >>> >>> On Wed, Mar 21, 2012 at 8:52 AM, William V. DePaulo, Esq. < >>> william.depaulo(a)gmail.com> wrote:**** >>> >>> *Error! Filename not specified.***** >>> Gas it is**** >>> Renewables take back seat **** >>> >>> Bill Opalka <http://www.renewablesbiz.com/author/bill-opalka> | Mar 20, >>> 2012 **** >>> >>> *Error! Filename not specified.*<http://www.addtoany.com/share_save#url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.renewablesbiz.com%2…> >>> *Error! Filename not specified.*<http://www.renewablesbiz.com/article/12/03/gas-it&utm_medium=eNL&utm_campai…> >>> **** >>> >>> *Error! Filename not specified.***** >>> >>> The shine is off renewable energy and shale gas is the new disruptive >>> technology in power generation. >>> >>> Harnessing Disruption is the theme of this year’s EnergyBiz Leadership >>> Forum <http://www.energybizforum.com/> in Washington, D.C. this week, >>> and that means gas-fired generation from unconventional sources is jumpin’. >>> >>> Recession, rising energy costs and competing interests that could >>> hamstring the power sector all play a role. And renewables are sometimes >>> seen as a stress point as utilities seek to meet state mandates for their >>> renewable portfolio standards. The dim prospects for any carbon legislation >>> for the foreseeable future are responsible, combined with downward price >>> pressures from the gas glut. >>> >>> “Low gas pricing is really giving us some breathing room,” said Anthony >>> F. Earley Jr., chairman and CEO of PG&E Corporation<http://www.pge.com/>(NYSE: PG&E). >>> >>> Renewable energy is competing for attention, and even as its costs >>> decline, natural gas dominates the discussion. >>> >>> Earley, the new executive at the San Francisco utility, is a different >>> circumstance than many of his colleagues. With California’s 33% renewable >>> portfolio standard by 2020, he said that’s effectively 50% as most >>> hydropower doesn’t count under the standard. >>> >>> But there was little talk about state renewable portfolio standards this >>> year. >>> >>> Consider some of the headline speakers of the first three forums to get >>> a sense of how the landscape has shifted. Three years ago Boone Pickens was >>> touting massive wind farms in the Great Plains. In 2010, Representative Ed >>> Markey (D-Mass.) was shepherding cap-and-trade legislation through the U.S. >>> House of Representatives. A year ago, Google caused a stir with plans for a >>> backbone transmission plan for offshore wind, with the Atlantic Wind >>> Connection <http://atlanticwindconnection.com/> outlining its $5 >>> billion project. >>> >>> But now the issue is managing expectations as costs rise and much of the >>> public is still ill-informed, and sensitive to price shocks as gasoline >>> tops $4 a gallon. >>> >>> “A certain part of the public thinks we can get off Mideast oil by >>> building windmills, but we only get 1% of power from oil,” said Thomas F. >>> Farrell II, president and CEO of Dominion <http://www.dom.com/> (NYSE: >>> D). >>> >>> “The industry has $2 trillion in refurbishment of the grid, as we try to >>> optimize how we handle our investments of what to build over the next two >>> decades,” said Nick Akins, president and CEO of AEP<http://www.aep.com/>(NYSE: AEP). >>> >>> Even as recent as a year ago, the choice seemed to be renewables or >>> nuclear, with much talk of natural gas as the bridge fuel. Now, gas is the >>> fuel of choice due to its low cost and quick turnaround in building plants. >>> >>> A slow decline in attention paid by government support may not change, >>> as wind and solar are under threat of collapse if tax credits expire, >>> particularly for wind, at the end of 2012. >>> Regardless of the resource base or the preferred resource of any CEO, >>> the detrimental lack of a national energy policy is something on which all >>> can agree, regardless of the year.**** >>> >>> The editorial staff at RenewablesBiz.com is passionate about exchanging >>> ideas and dedicated to promoting ongoing conversation about renewable and >>> sustainable energy issues. We invite you to join and contribute to our >>> online community. If you have an idea for an article or editorial >>> contribution, please contact me via email, bopalka(a)energycentral.com, >>> or phone, 860.633.0090.**** >>> >>> >>> >>> -- >>> William V. DePaulo, Esq. >>> 179 Summers Street, Suite 232 >>> Charleston, WV 25301-2163 >>> Tel 304-342-5588 >>> Fax 304-342-5505 >>> william.depaulo(a)gmail.com >>> www.passeggiata.com**** >>> >>> ** ** >>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> EC mailing list >>> EC(a)osenergy.org >>> http://osenergy.org/mailman/listinfo/ec**** >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> -- >>> Jim Sconyers >>> jimscon(a)gmail.com >>> 304.698.9628 >>> >>> Remember, Mother Nature bats last.**** >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> -- >>> William V. DePaulo, Esq. >>> 179 Summers Street, Suite 232 >>> Charleston, WV 25301-2163 >>> Tel 304-342-5588 >>> Fax 304-342-5505 >>> william.depaulo(a)gmail.com >>> www.passeggiata.com**** >>> >>> ** ** >>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> 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 >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> EC mailing list >> EC(a)osenergy.org >> http://osenergy.org/mailman/listinfo/ec >> > > > > -- > Jim Sconyers > jimscon(a)gmail.com > 304.698.9628 > > Remember, Mother Nature bats last. > -- William V. DePaulo, Esq. 179 Summers Street, Suite 232 Charleston, WV 25301-2163 Tel 304-342-5588 Fax 304-342-5505 william.depaulo(a)gmail.com www.passeggiata.com

1 0

It is impossible to overstate the damage done by Sierra Club's $26 million sell-out to the natural gas industry 3 years ago when this argument could still have been won.
by William V. DePaulo, Esq. 21 Mar '12

21 Mar '12

[image: Inline image 1] Gas it is Renewables take back seat Bill Opalka <http://www.renewablesbiz.com/author/bill-opalka> | Mar 20, 2012 [image: Share/Save]<http://www.addtoany.com/share_save#url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.renewablesbiz.com%2…> <http://www.renewablesbiz.com/article/12/03/gas-it&utm_medium=eNL&utm_campai…> The shine is off renewable energy and shale gas is the new disruptive technology in power generation. Harnessing Disruption is the theme of this year’s EnergyBiz Leadership Forum<http://www.energybizforum.com/>in Washington, D.C. this week, and that means gas-fired generation from unconventional sources is jumpin’. Recession, rising energy costs and competing interests that could hamstring the power sector all play a role. And renewables are sometimes seen as a stress point as utilities seek to meet state mandates for their renewable portfolio standards. The dim prospects for any carbon legislation for the foreseeable future are responsible, combined with downward price pressures from the gas glut. “Low gas pricing is really giving us some breathing room,” said Anthony F. Earley Jr., chairman and CEO of PG&E Corporation <http://www.pge.com/>(NYSE: PG&E). Renewable energy is competing for attention, and even as its costs decline, natural gas dominates the discussion. Earley, the new executive at the San Francisco utility, is a different circumstance than many of his colleagues. With California’s 33% renewable portfolio standard by 2020, he said that’s effectively 50% as most hydropower doesn’t count under the standard. But there was little talk about state renewable portfolio standards this year. Consider some of the headline speakers of the first three forums to get a sense of how the landscape has shifted. Three years ago Boone Pickens was touting massive wind farms in the Great Plains. In 2010, Representative Ed Markey (D-Mass.) was shepherding cap-and-trade legislation through the U.S. House of Representatives. A year ago, Google caused a stir with plans for a backbone transmission plan for offshore wind, with the Atlantic Wind Connection <http://atlanticwindconnection.com/> outlining its $5 billion project. But now the issue is managing expectations as costs rise and much of the public is still ill-informed, and sensitive to price shocks as gasoline tops $4 a gallon. “A certain part of the public thinks we can get off Mideast oil by building windmills, but we only get 1% of power from oil,” said Thomas F. Farrell II, president and CEO of Dominion <http://www.dom.com/> (NYSE: D). “The industry has $2 trillion in refurbishment of the grid, as we try to optimize how we handle our investments of what to build over the next two decades,” said Nick Akins, president and CEO of AEP <http://www.aep.com/>(NYSE: AEP). Even as recent as a year ago, the choice seemed to be renewables or nuclear, with much talk of natural gas as the bridge fuel. Now, gas is the fuel of choice due to its low cost and quick turnaround in building plants. A slow decline in attention paid by government support may not change, as wind and solar are under threat of collapse if tax credits expire, particularly for wind, at the end of 2012. Regardless of the resource base or the preferred resource of any CEO, the detrimental lack of a national energy policy is something on which all can agree, regardless of the year. The editorial staff at RenewablesBiz.com is passionate about exchanging ideas and dedicated to promoting ongoing conversation about renewable and sustainable energy issues. We invite you to join and contribute to our online community. If you have an idea for an article or editorial contribution, please contact me via email, bopalka(a)energycentral.com, or phone, 860.633.0090. -- William V. DePaulo, Esq. 179 Summers Street, Suite 232 Charleston, WV 25301-2163 Tel 304-342-5588 Fax 304-342-5505 william.depaulo(a)gmail.com www.passeggiata.com

4 4

Fwd: "Beneficial" Reuse of Ash in FL: A rural road-paving project becomes an environmental disaster for JEA
by Jim Sconyers 21 Mar '12

21 Mar '12

Awful coal ash story devastating an ordinary homeowner. ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Lisa Evans <levans(a)earthjustice.org> Date: Wed, Mar 21, 2012 at 10:19 AM Subject: "Beneficial" Reuse of Ash in FL: A rural road-paving project becomes an environmental disaster for JEA To: COAL-COMBUSTION-WASTE(a)lists.sierraclub.org http://www.folioweekly.com/folio0320wkl008.php Road Trip A rural road-paving project becomes an environmental disaster for JEA – with a potentially hefty price tag Folio Weekly, Jacksonville, Florida Written by Susan Cooper Eastman Published March 20, 2012 When Steven Johnson accepted 16 tons of free coal ash from JEA’s coal-powered Northside Generating Station more than two years ago, the agency assured him it was as “safe as sand.” So Johnson spread the pebbly white material liberally over the dirt roads of his 30-acre Black Water Farm in Middleburg. He paved a road through wetlands, a boat ramp into Black Creek, an area near his drinking water well and roads on his neighbor’s property. He says one JEA representative was so impressed with how he applied the material, which JEA markets as EZBase, that he brought prospective clients out to Black Water Ranch to show them how Johnson was using it. But even as Johnson was spreading the stuff around his home, the federal government was considering whether to classify coal ash as a hazardous waste. Although the state of Florida has approved EZBase for a number of road-paving uses, that approval was based on strict compacting standards and application guidelines that are, in practice, not always followed. Loosely applied, the stuff leaches many of the same pollutants that make coal ash toxic, and that have prompted the state to require it be disposed of in a lined landfill. Folio Weekly previously reported about Johnson in the April 13, 2010 story “Road to Hell,” after he and a neighbor were cited by the state Department of Environmental Protection for applying the material in violation of state restrictions. The citation said the EZBase wasn’t properly compacted, meaning it could wash away and contaminate the surrounding area, and was improperly used near wetlands and in residential areas. Johnson insists that the JEA employee who offered him the EZBase rode all over his land with him and didn’t tell him anything about the restrictions. Still, DEP cited Johnson for the violation, and said the material needed to be excavated and removed. (At the time, Johnson wouldn’t talk to the media because he was working out a settlement with DEP and JEA.) Two years later, Johnson’s property is still covered with EZBase. JEA already removed the material from Johnson’s neighbor’s property, but the agency has not yet agreed to remove the material from Johnson’s property or responded to his request that JEA compensate him for the loss of value to his property and attorney fees. A 2010 report that Johnson commissioned from Moran Environmental Recovery that he provided last week to Folio Weekly estimated the cost of removing the 12 tons of EZBase and another four tons of contaminated soil at $653,640. Replacing the soil with clean fill would bring the total cost close to $1 million. Beyond fixed costs, there are intangible ones. A 2010 real estate appraisal from Broom, Moody, Johnson and Grainger Inc. estimated that Johnson’s property was worth $470,000 before he covered it with EZBase, but that it will drop $70,000 in value — even after the EZBase is removed — because of the stigma of contamination. In its current state, the company valued the property as a liability — at a negative –$486,300. “I’m a little guy,” he says. “I ain’t no millionaire like JEA.” Johnson now feels like JEA used his farm as a toxic dump. He worries about allowing his 3-year-old daughter Kelsey to play outside. He fears she’ll ingest poisons, breathe in the EZBase dust or absorb it through her skin. Preliminary tests he had done of the property in 2010 show reason for concern. The arsenic levels in the soil samples were four times the level the state considers safe and the levels of vanadium were 75 times the state standard. “JEA is the ones with the knowledge and the science about how to use this stuff,” he said. “I put it out here thinking I was going to improve my property. After I did my homework on it, I began to see that it’s not good, it’s not good at all.” JEA first began selling EZBase as a paving material in 2005, for $50 a truckload. Like other coal-powered electric generating stations, JEA facilities produce a sludge waste that’s a combination of fly ash and bottom ash from their silos. The ash contains heavy metals like lead, mercury, vanadium and boron, which in high concentrations can cause birth defects, lung disease, cancers, nerve disorders and other illnesses. But when the sludge hardens, it becomes like concrete. If properly compacted, JEA testing shows, the toxins are contained in the hardened material. JEA has promoted EZBase as a means of recycling, and has the strong support of the state DEP, which considers the paving material a beneficial reuse of an otherwise hazardous waste. DEP issued permits for each EZBase application. The federal Environmental Protection Agency also supports reuse, but admitted late last year that there hasn’t been enough testing done to determine the safety of coal ash byproducts. Some utilities recycle their ash into drywall or roofing shingles, bowling balls and even cosmetics. Prompted in part by the catastrophic collapse of a coal pond in Tennessee in 2008, which sent a billion gallons of coal ash sludge into Emory River, EPA has been considering for the past two years whether to classify coal ash as a hazardous waste and require that concentrations of heavy metals in it be reduced before it is dumped. (In January, the legal nonprofit Earthjustice announced it would sue EPA for delaying its decision.) For JEA, the questions surrounding the safety of EZBase have proved costly. DEP has required the utility to remove it or cover it with a top coat at a number of locations in Northeast Florida. JEA spokesperson Gerry Boyce said there is no estimate yet of what it will cost to clear out Johnson’s EZBase, but the agency began removing the four tons of EZBase that Steven Johnson spread on neighbor James Evans’ property in December 2011. The removal cost about $20,000, and raised additional contamination concerns. Neighbors complained that the resulting dust covered everything and that trucks were leaving the property uncovered. “There were probably 20 dump trucks in and out of here every day,” says neighbor Bonnie Smith, who lives down the street from Evans and says she had two attacks of bronchitis during the process. “A white dust covered everything. There was a film on my swimming pool, every day.” If EPA does designate coal ash a hazardous waste, utilities say the increased costs of transporting and handling the material would make recycling cost-prohibitive. They’ve lobbied heavily for states to retain regulatory control over its disposal and reuse. In October, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill that gives the states’ control over permitting and regulating products like EZBase and prevents the federal government from regulating disposal. The companion bill is in committee in the Senate. But even if EPA takes control of coal ash regulation, it will be too late to make much difference at Johnson’s Black Water Ranch. “I have an absolutely beautiful place here,” Johnson tells Folio Weekly. “It’s like a piece of heaven. It’s not some dump where it’s OK for JEA to bring their EZBase in here and poison it up.” Susan Cooper Eastman sceastman(a)folioweekly.com 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 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/ -- Jim Sconyers jimscon(a)gmail.com 304.698.9628 Remember, Mother Nature bats last.

1 0

Fwd: WV Watershed Assessment Pilot Project Stakeholer Workshop
by James Kotcon 20 Mar '12

20 Mar '12

Anyone else see this? I have teaching conflicts, so if someone is interested in representing us, let me know. Jim Kotcon 304-293-8822 (office) 304-594-3322 (home) >>> Ruth Thornton <rthornton(a)TNC.ORG> 3/20/2012 11:51 AM >>> You are invited to participate in a Stakeholder/Partner Workshop for The Nature Conservancy’s West Virginia Watershed Association Pilot Project. This is the final of three workshops to design the methodology and final products of our watershed assessment project. The purpose of this workshop is to present the results of the first two Watershed Assessments, introduce our proposed end-user products, and request feedback on the structure and methodology of the products, which will include both a report on each watershed and an interactive web mapping application. Two workshops will be held, your participation is requested for one of these: - Tuesday, April 3rd, 2012, 3pm – 5pm. Focus: Monongahela River watershed. Location: Lakeview Resort, 1 Lakeview Drive, Morgantown, WV. Directions: Located off Exit 10 of Interstate 68, 10 miles east of Interstate 79 on scenic Cheat Lake in Morgantown. http://www.lakeviewresort.com/ - Thursday, April 5th, 2012, 3 pm – 5pm. Focus: Elk River watershed. Location: Steptoe & Johnson Office, 707 Virginia St. E., Suite 715, Charleston, WV. Directions are included in the pdf file attached to this email. Some background about this project: The Nature Conservancy, in cooperation with the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection, is working on a Watershed Assessment Pilot Project in WV, funded by the US EPA. This is a two- year project conducted in five watersheds. During the first year we are working on the Elk and Monongahela watersheds, and during the second year we will work on the Gauley, Little Kanawha, and Upper Guyandotte. The goals of the project are to: 1) Design and test a process that assesses the condition of aquatic resources and the impacts to those resources within a watershed, including an assessment of cumulative impacts and integration of information with multiple sources within and outside of government agencies. 2) Provide relevant data, strategies/actions, and a decision support tool to assist partners, stakeholders and regulatory staff with decisions affecting aquatic resources. 3) Establish priorities for protection and restoration of aquatic resources, with the goal of a net increase in functional wetland acres and riparian areas in the watershed. 4) Develop common and consistent strategies for various government agencies and non-governmental organizations to partner and utilize various protection and restoration tools to achieve goals established for the watershed. I sincerely hope that you or somebody from your organization will agree to participate. Your guidance and input will help make the objectives of the Watershed Assessment Pilot Project achievable outcomes. For those willing to participate, but unable to attend the workshop, we can make arrangements to talk with you one on one or you can submit written comments. If somebody else from your organization would be more appropriate to attend, please let me know and I will extend the invitation to them. Please let me know by Tuesday, March 27th, if you will be able to attend either of the two workshops. You can contact me by email or phone (listed below) if you have any questions. Thank you, Ruth Please consider the environment before printing this email Ruth Thornton Conservation Information Manager rthornton(a)tnc.org (304) 637-0160 Ext. 102 (Phone) (304) 637-0584 (Fax) nature.org The Nature Conservancy West Virginia Field Office P.O. Box 250 21 Third Street Elkins, WV 26241

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Fossil Fools Day
by Jim Sconyers 19 Mar '12

19 Mar '12

We have declared Sunday, April 1, 2012 as: *Fossil Fools Day!* Plan an event! Have some fun! Go wacky or serious, it's your call! [?][?] Let us know if you want help, what's up, who can come, etc. -- Jim Sconyers jimscon(a)gmail.com 304.698.9628 Remember, Mother Nature bats last.

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Fwd: WVEC Board Meeting 3/24
by James Kotcon 17 Mar '12

17 Mar '12

The WVEC Board meeting is next Saturday, but I am supposed to speak at Mountain Justice Spring Break on Marcellus and Fracking. Is anyone else able to represent the WV Chapter at the WVEC meeting? Jim Kotcon 304-293-8822 (office) 304-594-3322 (home) >>> Denise Poole <deniseap(a)earthlink.net> 3/17/2012 8:30 AM >>> Reminder: The next meeting of the WVEC Board of Directors: Saturday, March 24th - 11 AM - 4 PM Where? The 79er Restaurant, Burnsville, WV Located off I 79, exit 79 (12 miles north of Flatwoods). An agenda will be sent out soon. If you have an agenda item to add, please send to Kevin Smith at a_clean_wv(a)yahoo.com by Tuesday March 20th. We will meet in the Conference / Meeting Room. Lunch can be purchased from the regular menu. Please reply with regrets only. The minutes from our November board meeting are attached. Thanks everyone, Denise Denise Poole, WVEC Coordinator Board member representing Sustainable Living for WV deniseap(a)earthlink.net (304) 617-7073 __._,_.___ 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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Paul Krugman's NY Times Op-ed today: Natural Born Drillers
by Paul Wilson 16 Mar '12

16 Mar '12

March 15, 2012 March 15, 2012 Natural Born DrillersBy PAUL KRUGMAN<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/opinion/editorialsandoped/oped/columnists/pau…> To be a modern Republican in good standing, you have to believe — or pretend to believe — in two miracle cures for whatever ails the economy: more tax cuts for the rich and more drilling for oil<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/energy-environment/oil-petroleu…>. And with prices at the pump on the rise, so is the chant of “Drill, baby, drill.” More and more, Republicans are telling us that gasoline would be cheap and jobs plentiful if only we would stop protecting the environment and let energy companies do whatever they want. Thus Mitt Romney claims that gasoline prices are high not because of saber-rattling over Iran, but because President Obama won’t allow unrestricted drilling in the Gulf of Mexico and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Meanwhile, Stephen Moore of The Wall Street Journal tells readers that America as a whole could have a jobs boom, just like North Dakota, if only the environmentalists would get out of the way. The irony here is that these claims come just as events are confirming what everyone who did the math already knew, namely, that U.S. energy policy has very little effect either on oil prices or on overall U.S. employment. For the truth is that we’re already having a hydrocarbon boom, with U.S. oil and gas production rising and U.S. fuel imports dropping. If there were any truth to drill-here-drill-now, this boom should have yielded substantially lower gasoline prices and lots of new jobs. Predictably, however, it has done neither. Why the hydrocarbon boom? It’s all about the fracking. The combination of horizontal drilling with hydraulic fracturing of shale and other low-permeability rocks has opened up large reserves of oil and natural gas<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/energy-environment/natural-gas/…> to production. As a result, U.S. oil production has risen significantly over the past three years, reversing a decline over decades, while natural gas production has exploded. Given this expansion, it’s hard to claim that excessive regulation has crippled energy production. Indeed, reporting in The Times makes it clear that U.S. policy has been seriously negligent — that the environmental costs of fracking have been underplayed and ignored. But, in a way, that’s the point. The reality is that far from being hobbled by eco-freaks, the energy industry has been given a largely free hand to expand domestic oil and gas production, never mind the environment. Strange to say, however, while natural gas prices have dropped, rising oil production and a sharp fall in import dependence haven’t stopped gasoline prices from rising toward $4 a gallon. Nor has the oil and gas boom given a noticeable boost to an economic recovery that, despite better news lately, has been very disappointing on the jobs front. As I said, this was totally predictable. First up, oil prices. Unlike natural gas, which is expensive to ship across oceans, oil is traded on a world market — and the big developments moving prices in that market usually have little to do with events in the United States. Oil prices are up because of rising demand from China and other emerging economies, and more recently because of war scares in the Middle East; these forces easily outweigh any downward pressure on prices from rising U.S. production. And the same thing would happen if Republicans got their way and oil companies were set free to drill freely in the Gulf of Mexico and punch holes in the tundra: the effect on prices at the pump would be negligible. Meanwhile, what about jobs? I have to admit that I started laughing when I saw The Wall Street Journal offering North Dakota as a role model. Yes, the oil boom there has pushed unemployment down to 3.2 percent, but that’s only possible because the whole state has fewer residents than metropolitan Albany — so few residents that adding a few thousand jobs in the state’s extractive sector is a really big deal. The comparable-sized fracking boom in Pennsylvania has had hardly any effect on the state’s overall employment picture, because, in the end, not that many jobs are involved. And this tells us that giving the oil companies carte blanche isn’t a serious jobs program. Put it this way: Employment in oil and gas extraction has risen more than 50 percent since the middle of the last decade, but that amounts to only 70,000 jobs, around one-twentieth of 1 percent of total U.S. employment. So the idea that drill, baby, drill can cure our jobs deficit is basically a joke. Why, then, are Republicans pretending otherwise? Part of the answer is that the party is rewarding its benefactors: the oil and gas industry doesn’t create many jobs, but it does spend a lot of money on lobbying and campaign contributions. The rest of the answer is simply the fact that conservatives have no other job-creation ideas to offer. And intellectual bankruptcy, I’m sorry to say, is a problem that no amount of drilling and fracking can solve. -- 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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No Nukes Summit — May 4-6
by Paul Wilson 15 Mar '12

15 Mar '12

If anyone is interested in attending this, you can camp out at my digs in Charles Town, and then we can carpool from Charles Town to the Takoma Park area. Maybe take the train in on Friday May 4th. Let me know..... No Nukes Summit — May 4-6<http://action.sierraclub.org/site/R?i=KcJzx8b6R1TAHC0iOkpsCQ>The Club’s No Nukes Team<http://action.sierraclub.org/site/R?i=-rPumWRJ1R6nWZ6zYr3Tww> invites Club members who want to help develop a national anti-nuclear campaign to gather at the Western Theological Union<http://action.sierraclub.org/site/R?i=P2p_-Ys8AIoCz8emDejHPQ> in Washington, D.C., May 4-6, 2012<http://action.sierraclub.org/site/R?i=mUmnsmFE4Ktsa9TmKkaQ2A> . <http://action.sierraclub.org/site/R?i=Q57LJc84H4Q18FsW99q9Rw> The Summit will feature presentations from national nuclear experts Kevin Kamps from Beyond Nuclear and Arjun Makhijani, author of *Carbon Free Nuclear Free.*There will also be sessions on the True Cost of Nukes, Nuclear Waste, Replacing Nuclear with Renewables and Efficiency, and How to Harness Online Tools and Social Media to Communicate, Collaborate, and Organize. To register, and find out more about lodging and transportation, go here<http://action.sierraclub.org/site/R?i=qgpCKxWZhUeOSsKALf6K8w>. There are a limited number of scholarships available for conference volunteers. Contact Leslie March <lesliemarch(a)hotmail.com> to find out more. -- 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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Today's good laugh
by Jonathan Rosenbaum 14 Mar '12

14 Mar '12

http://wvgazette.com/News/201203130215 Republican gubernatorial candidate Bill Maloney's remark Tuesday that West Virginia politicians "just pull our pants down to get a cracker" has sparked criticism from state Democrats.

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Fwd: Weekly Swamp Stomp 72 - What is in fracturing fluid
by Paul Wilson 13 Mar '12

13 Mar '12

fyi, paul ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: David Dow <ddow420(a)comcast.net> Date: Tue, Mar 13, 2012 at 12:12 PM Subject: Fwd: Weekly Swamp Stomp 72 - What is in fracturing fluid fyi Begin forwarded message: *From: *Marc Seelinger <info(a)swampschool.org> *Date: *March 13, 2012 10:24:38 AM EDT * * Having trouble viewing this email? Click here<https://swampschool.infusionsoft.com/app/hostedEmail/1590580/09a19cfb798d5f…> [image: Swamp Schol Swamp Stomp] What are the fracturing fluids and where do they go? By The Swamp School There has been a controversy about fracking in recent days. Amongst many issues is the question of what exactly is in fracturing fluids and what happens to them. There are a number of answers to this that speak to proprietary recipes of the fracturing fluids. However, the folks at the American Petroleum Institute have identified a number of key ingredients. The largest ingredient is water. Over 90% of the fracturing fluids is made up of plain old water. Each well is estimated to need about 3 million gallons of water. So it is a lot of water. Where this water comes from is also an issue in and of itself. The second major ingredient is sand. The sand is used to provide void spaces in the shale once the the pressure from the fracking has been released. Approximately 9.5% of the fracturing fluids is comprised of sand. This needs to be mined and trucked in. Many fracking sites are miles from reliable sand borrow pits. The third ingredient are chemical additives. This is mainly to help float the sand and aid in the fracking process. This makes up about 0.5% of the fracturing fluids. These are some of the main ingredients. There are others, but it is sort of like the secret recipe for Coca Cola. It is a very closely guarded. Typical Chemical Additives Used in Frac Water Compound Purpose Common Application Acids Helps dissolve minerals and initiate fissure in rock (pre-fracture) Swimming pool cleaner Sodium Chloride Allows a delayed breakdown of the gel polymer chains Table Salt Polyacrylamide Minimizes the friction between fluid and pipe Water treatment, soil conditioner Ethylene Glycol Prevents scale deposits in the pipe Automotive anti-freeze, deicing agent, household cleaners Borate Salts Maintains fluid viscosity as temperature increases Laundry detergent, hand soap, cosmetics Sodium/Potassium Carbonate Maintains effectiveness of other components, such as crosslinkers Washing soda, detergent, soap, water softener, glass, ceramics Glutaraldehyde Eliminates bacteria in the water Disinfectant, sterilization of medical and dental equipment Guar Gum Thickens the water to suspend the sand Thickener in cosmetics, baked goods, ice cream, toothpaste, sauces Citric Acid Prevents precipitation of metal oxides Food additive; food and beverages; lemon juice Isopropanol Used to increase the viscosity of the fracture fluid Glass cleaner, antiperspirant, hair coloring What happens after the fracking is done? How much of the fracturing fluids are recovered? There are several ways oil and natural gas companies manage the use of fracturing fluids, depending on what specifically is in them, the presence of usable groundwater or surface waters, geography, and local, state, and federal regulations. Spent or used fracturing fluids are normally recovered at the initial stage of well production and recycled in a closed system for future use or disposed of under regulation, either by surface discharge where authorized under the Clean Water Act or by injection into Class II wells as authorized under the Safe Drinking Water Act. Regulation may also allow recovered fracturing fluids to be disposed of at appropriate commercial facilities. Not all fracturing fluid returns to the surface. Over the life of the well, some is left behind and confined by thousands of feet of rock layers. It is estimated that about 70% of the fracturing fluids are left in the ground. I hope that this helps. Cheers! - Marc Please note that this information does not constitute legal advice and is meant as informational only. It is strongly recommended that you seek the services of a competent environmental attorney for the interpretation of any legal or regulatory matter presented herein. New York Accreditation NEW for Engineers and Surveyors The Swamp School is now accredited by the New York State Education Department as an Approved Sponsor of Continuing Education for Engineers and Land Surveyors. Share: <https://swampschool.infusionsoft.com/app/socialShare/1590580/09a19cfb798d5f…> <https://swampschool.infusionsoft.com/app/socialShare/1590580/09a19cfb798d5f…> <https://swampschool.infusionsoft.com/app/socialShare/1590580/09a19cfb798d5f…> Follow: <http://www.facebook.com/marc.seelinger> <http://twitter.com/SwampSchool> <http://swampschool.org/> March 13, 2012 V12, Issue 11 Subscribe to the Swamp Stomp Would you like your own copy of the Swamp Stomp delivered to your mail box each week? If so, please click HERE<https://swampschool.infusionsoft.com/app/linkClick/6146/db4d52e0e7edece1/15…>to subscribe. Call Us Toll Free 1- 877- 479 - 2673 [image: CCMIT Logo]<https://swampschool.infusionsoft.com/app/linkClick/6148/13c7d643947dbf16/15…> New Class - Baltimore, MD March 27, 2012 2012 Wetland Regional Supplements Updates Join us for this one-day seminar and get up to speed on all of the latest changes and updates to the US Army Corps of Engineers Wetland Delineation methods. This class is perfect for wetland professionals who have been struggling with the new Regional Supplements. This is a great opportunity to go beyond the figuring it out on your own. You will be able to ask questions and clarify assumptions. More Information Here<https://swampschool.infusionsoft.com/app/linkClick/6150/eb9b31b48e4c4cd3/15…> [image: Wetland Plants] New Class - Wetland Plant Identification The 100 Plants You Need to Know! Northeast Wetland Plant Identification June 13-14, 2012 Northeastern Pennsylvania More ==>HERE<https://swampschool.infusionsoft.com/app/linkClick/6152/a3922b6efc3390c1/15…> [image: EMP]<https://swampschool.infusionsoft.com/app/linkClick/6154/b41db486eb64b4d7/15…> 2012 Wetland Delineation Regional Supplement Training Class Schedule Check out our winter/spring lineup March - North Carolina<https://swampschool.infusionsoft.com/app/linkClick/6160/8458ce365cca2663/15…> April - Pennsylvania<https://swampschool.infusionsoft.com/app/linkClick/6162/7a1cf381baa9c4d5/15…> Online ==> HERE<https://swampschool.infusionsoft.com/app/linkClick/6156/f4a65fce41e6b2a6/15…> Classroom ==> HERE<https://swampschool.infusionsoft.com/app/linkClick/6158/718280619493e20c/15…> [image: Interesting Image] Wetland Webinars Live Online Workshops March 14, 2012 Making Jurisdictional Determinations<https://swampschool.infusionsoft.com/app/linkClick/6164/213882a3b0f90815/15…> Re-Broadcast 2012 Wetland Status & Trends<https://swampschool.infusionsoft.com/app/linkClick/6166/7d49cba9ed8aebe0/15…> Are you looking for a job? [image: Jobs]<https://swampschool.infusionsoft.com/app/linkClick/6168/22e9c32b318165be/15…> Check out our newest online class<https://swampschool.infusionsoft.com/app/linkClick/6170/a4ad51bcd400f203/15…> If you no longer wish to receive our emails, click the link below: Unsubscribe<https://swampschool.infusionsoft.com/app/optOut/0/c262bda13a6563ee/1590580/…> The Swamp School, LLC 702 Oberlin Road Suite 400 Raleigh, North Carolina 27605 United States 1 (877) 479-2673 <https://crm.infusionsoft.com/go/infs/3114367/html> -- 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: Re: Water bill
by James Kotcon 12 Mar '12

12 Mar '12

I am not sure if anyone else saw this, but SB 615, and the comparable SB 562 are on a fast track and are on the calendar for final passage today. These bills could easily reverse our victory before the EQB on the New Hill West permit in Morgantown. Jim Kotcon THE STATE JOURNAL: Bill aims to narrow scope of DEP water pollution permits Posted: Mar 08, 2012 5:57 PM EST Updated: Mar 08, 2012 8:52 PM EST By Pam Kasey The coal industry is backing a bill that would remove a provision in state water pollution discharge permits that requires compliance with all water quality standards. It's a provision the industry says applies, unfairly, only to coal. Although DEP representatives were unavailable to confirm or correct this at the time of this story, a quick review finds it in other water pollution discharge permits as well. Senate Bill 615, amending the state's Water Pollution Control Act, was introduced by Sens. Art Kirkendoll, D-Logan; Mike Hall, R-Putnam; Erik Wells, D-Kanawha; and Ron Stollings, D-Boone. The bill would insert new language into the Water Pollution Control Act stating, essentially, that compliance with effluent limits is compliance with the law. That sounds obvious, but West Virginia Coal Association Vice President Jason Bostic explained the meaning. The way it stands now, a coal mine operator's water pollution permit contains limitations for a number of pollutants. In addition, it includes language stating that, even if the permittee meets the pollution limitations specified in the permit, it also can't violate any other water quality standard. The industry wants that to stop, Bostic said. "That sets us up to get sued for things that aren't a parameter in our permit," he said. "Since they aren't in our permit, we aren't monitoring for them — so how would we know we're violating them?" "We've had notices of intent to sue for high conductivity," Bostic said — a water quality measure for which neither the state nor the federal government has set a water quality standard. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has, however, set a controversial benchmark for conductivity as a proxy for the tricky-to-implement biologic component of West Virginia's narrative water quality standard. "In concert with what EPA alleges, these anti-mining folks allege that high conductivity is violating the narrative water quality standards," he said. So a statement in a coal mine operator's water pollution discharge permit requiring the operator to meet not only its specific effluent limitations but also all of the state's other water quality standards is opening the operator to lawsuits. The requirement to meet all water quality standards does appear in other, non-coal water pollution discharge permits. The general permit for sewage systems treating less than 50,000 gallons per day, for example, reads, "The effluent or effluents covered by this permit are to be of such quality so as not to cause violation of applicable water quality standards adopted by the state Environmental Quality Board" — a function taken over by the DEP. A general stormwater construction permit reads, differently but relevantly, "This permit may be re-opened and modified, suspended, revoked and reissued or revoked at any time if information becomes available and demonstrates that the established controls do not attain and maintain the narrative water quality standards …" Bostic expressed further frustration over the fact that the Clean Water Act allows these suits to bypass state permitting and legal authority and go straight to federal court. "We're taking responsibility for the program away from the people of West Virginia and the Legislature and Department of Environmental Protection and putting it in the federal government's hands where it doesn't belong," he said. "It's certainly not supposed to be in front of a federal judge." The goal of the bill, he said, is to bring the coal program into conformity with the federal program and, in his mind, also with the non-coal industrial sector in West Virginia. "We want to get away from what has become a very hazardous situation where you have different rules that apply only to coal mining," he said. The bill will get its second reading on March 9 and will come to vote after its third reading on March 10.

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OOG has been busy today - comments open for pits
by Jonathan Rosenbaum 12 Mar '12

12 Mar '12

As it turns out, today, the OOG did set-up the functionality at http://www.dep.wv.gov/oil-and-gas/Horizontal-Permits/Pages/default.aspx as established in §22-6A-21 of H.B. 401 missing the deadline only short of 1 day. Make sure to explore, and join the OOG mailing list. Today they posted in the Public Notices Archive: The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection's Office of Oil and Gas is taking comments on its design and construction standards for centralized pits used to store wastewater associated with horizontal drilling. The standards provide guidelines for construction, liner requirements, water quality monitoring and engineer certifications. The document can be found at: http://www.dep.wv.gov/oil-and-gas/Documents/Centralized%20Pits--Design%20an… Comments may be submitted in writing by email to dep.oogcomments(a)wv.gov or through the U.S. Postal Service to John Kearney, Office of Oil and Gas, 601 57th Street SE, Charleston, WV 25304. Comments will be accepted until April 12, 2012 at 5 p.m. -Jonathan

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Fwd: Hold Sen. Manchin accountable for his Keystone XL vote
by Paul Wilson 11 Mar '12

11 Mar '12

fyi, pls fwd to friends or post to other lists. thx, paul ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Elijah Zarlin, CREDO Action <act(a)credoaction.com> Date: Sat, Mar 10, 2012 at 9:07 AM Subject: Hold Sen. Manchin accountable for his Keystone XL vote To: Paul Wilson <pjgrunt(a)gmail.com> ** * "Keystone XL would make billions for Big Oil and endanger the American people and our economy. I will not forget your vote to put Big Oil ahead of the American people by forcing approval of Keystone XL, whatever the cost. I strongly urge you to reconsider your support for this dangerous and misguided project." <http://act.credoaction.com/r/?r=5540426&id=36387-3414728-JZEPAUx&t=1> * [image: Take action now!]<http://act.credoaction.com/r/?r=5540426&id=36387-3414728-JZEPAUx&t=2> [image: CREDO Action | more than a network, a movement.] *Hold Sen. Manchin accountable for voting to force approval of Keystone XL.<http://act.credoaction.com/r/?r=5540426&id=36387-3414728-JZEPAUx&t=3> * Dear Paul, Big Oil thought they had it in the bag.1 And it sure was close. But on Thursday, after CREDO members made more than 6,000 calls to key senators in just over 24 hours, the Republicans' amendment to force approval of the Keystone XL pipeline failed by a vote of 56 — 42, short of the 60 votes required to pass.2 *No thanks to Sen. Manchin — who chose big oil over the safety of the American people, and voted to strip the State Department and President Obama of their authority to evaluate this project.* * Tell Sen. Manchin: I won't forget your vote to force approval of the dangerous Keystone XL pipeline.<http://act.credoaction.com/r/?r=5540426&id=36387-3414728-JZEPAUx&t=4> * Eleven Democrats were either too oil-soaked or too seriously misinformed to stand up to Big Oil: Sens. Baucus (MT), Begich (AK), Casey (PA) Conrad (ND), Hagan (NC), Landrieu (LA), Manchin (WV), McCaskill (MO), Pryor (AR), Tester (MT), and Webb (VA) all voted to force approval of Keystone XL. *And indeed, The 56 senators who voted for the Hoeven amendment to force approval of Keystone XL have received 500% more money from oil interests in the current Congress than the senators who voted no.*3 Clearly, some senators are more afraid of being on the other side of that oil money than they are by the prospects of toxic oil spills in the Ogallala aquifer, or "game over" for the climate. Even though they lost the vote, thanks to the support of Sen. Manchin, oil companies and Republicans can now claim a bipartisan majority in favor of building Keystone XL, regardless of the cost. Which means Keystone XL will almost surely be back in Congress, and our activism will continue to be essential to stop it. * Please take this opportunity to let Sen. Manchin know you are disappointed in his vote, and urge him to reconsider his dangerous support for Keystone XL: * *http://act.credoaction.com/r/?r=5540427&id=36387-3414728-JZEPAUx&t=5 * As long as oil companies have money and the world wants to burn oil, there will be no end in the fight to stop Keystone XL and keep tar sands bitumen in the ground. * But defeating Keystone XL on Thursday in its first straight vote in the Senate is another strong affirmation of the power of our activism against it * — and the importance of continuing to pressure our leaders. Thanks for all you do. Elijah Zarlin, Campaign Manager CREDO Action from Working Assets <http://act.credoaction.com/r/?r=11&id=36387-3414728-JZEPAUx&t=6> 1. "Big Oil Messes Up and Announces Keystone XL Victory Before Realizing They Lost<http://act.credoaction.com/r/?r=5539688&id=36387-3414728-JZEPAUx&t=7>," 350, 3/8/12 2. Senate Roll On the Hoeven Amdt. No. 1537<http://act.credoaction.com/r/?r=5539633&id=36387-3414728-JZEPAUx&t=8>, 3/8/12 3. "Keystone Stopped (again), but Not For Want of Trying<http://act.credoaction.com/r/?r=5539689&id=36387-3414728-JZEPAUx&t=9>," Oil Change International, 3/8/12 © 2012 CREDO. All rights reserved. To remove yourself (Paul Wilson) from this list, please visit our subscription management page at: http://act.credoaction.com/s?i=36387-3414728-JZEPAUx To change your email address or update your contact info, please visit: http://act.credoaction.com/subscrip/coa.html?id=36387-3414728-JZEPAUx -- 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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Public notification of drilling permits not set-up
by Jonathan Rosenbaum 10 Mar '12

10 Mar '12

The DEP hasn't set-up electronic notification for new drilling permits, yet. Isn't it now nearly 90 days? (bill passed December 14, 2011). In the Regulations: §22-6A-21. Establishment of public website information and electronic notification registry regarding horizontal well permit applications. (a) No later than ninety days after the effective date of this article, the secretary shall establish resources on the department's public website which will list searchable information related to all horizontal well applications filed in this state, including information sufficient to identify the county and approximate location of each horizontal well for which a permit application is filed, the referenced well application number, date of application, name of the applicant, and any written comments submitted by the public. (b) The secretary shall also establish a registration and e-notification process by which individuals, corporations and agencies may register to receive electronic notice of horizontal well applications filings and notices, by county of interest. Once established, individuals, agencies and corporations interested who are properly registered to receive e-notices of filings and actions on horizontal well permits shall receive electronic notifications of applications and notices of permits issued for horizontal drilling in their designated county or counties of interest. -Jonathan

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Chesapeake faces criminal Clean Water Act probe
by Frank Young 02 Mar '12

02 Mar '12

BlankWest Virginia media outlets are focusing in this morning on a report out of Oklahoma about Chesapeake Energy facing a criminal investigation of Clean Water Act violations at some of its operations here in West Virginia. http://blogs.wvgazette.com/watchdog/2012/03/02/chesapeake-faces-criminal-cl… Also: "Much of what (Aubrey) McClendon says is misleading – wind power is as cheap as gas in some places and falling fast, and cutting back on gas doesn’t have to mean burning more coal.", says Jeff Goodell, writing in rolling Stone. This is the same Aubrey McClendon who threw a hissy fit and cancelled plans for a regional Chesapeake Energy headquarters near Charleston because a Roane County jury returned a multi-million dollar verdict against Chesapeake after it swindled West Virginia mineral owners out of tens of million$ in royalty payments. Frank Young

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Complete Streets Webinar Today!
by Jonathan Rosenbaum 01 Mar '12

01 Mar '12

I have been looking for some people to attend this webinar, http://action.sierraclub.org/CompleteStreets , because alas, I have a Bicycle Board meeting at the exact same time, 7:00 p.m. Some of you probably know that there is (was) a really great Complete Streets bill in the Legislature. It was introduced by Delegate Nancy Guthrie, http://youtu.be/rp01FZdANPM. Later a Senate bill was introduced which was essentially a red herring. I have been told by someone who is in contact with AARP that both bills will not be up for vote because they are stuck in committee. The DOH is not happy with the bills, and has worked hard to weaken them. Another expert told me that, "The DOH has ultimate leverage on every public official in the state. The only way to pass something like this is through a statewide citizens' coalition. It will probably take some horrible accident to get it passed -- which is what happened in Illinois. We have to keep working to support the concept nevertheless." It sounds like we are going to need a focused campaign. In the seminar there will be people from Minnesota and Rhode Island Chapters speaking. In Minnesota, legislation has been successfully passed, and I hope you are as intrigued as me in finding out how that was accomplished. I know transportation issues do not always show up on everybody's radar screens, but as I am learning, more and more, with Complete Streets, besides the obvious gains, there will be a gain in Social Capital which will in turn improve WV's environment. Please attend if you can, and send back feedback. Thanks. -Jonathan

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Fwd: Dominion Career Opportunity - Environmental Specialist II - Please share this opportunity with others!!
by James Kotcon 29 Feb '12

29 Feb '12

FYI. Job Opportunity for people with air pollution experience in Clarksburg. Jim Kotcon >>> Nicole G Leggett <nicole.g.leggett(a)dom.com> 2/29/2012 4:37 PM >>> Hello! Dominion currently has an Environmental Specialist II position posted. Please share this opportunity with members of your organization/association and encourage those who might be interested to apply. I have included information about this job below. All applicants must apply at www.dom.com/careers. Thank you, About Us Dominion is one of the nation's largest producers and transporters of energy, with a portfolio of approximately 28,200 megawatts of generation, 11,000 miles of natural gas transmission, gathering and storage pipeline and 6,300 miles of electric transmission lines. Dominion operates the nation's largest natural gas storage system with 947 billion cubic feet of storage capacity and serves retail energy customers in 15 states. Posting Title Environmental Specialist II Job # 13712BR Location WV - Clarksburg Job Summary The successful candidate will have experience in the application for and compliance with air permits for the natural gas industry. Responsibilities to include: 1. Provide support to company management to incorporate regulatory air requirements in the development and completion of construction projects. Provide preparation and/or technical review of applications, studies, and reports, and lead negotiations to ensure timely issuance with favorable conditions. Provide support to field construction management to comply with regulatory requirements. 2. Provide regulatory analyses of NSPS, NESHAP, NSR and PSD for new and existing assets. 3. Preparation of air permit applications for natural gas compressor stations, processing facilities, dehydration units, turbines, and auxiliary generators. 4. Conduct permit condition review and tracking for operational compliance with permit conditions, Clean Air Act regulations, FERC requirements, and local requirements. 5. Coordinate resolution of potentially non-compliant situation representing Dominion to federal and state agencies. 6. Participate in agency meetings and inspections. 7. Maintain environmental compliance system related to air regulations, and complete annual, semi-annual reporting as required by Federal and State regulatory agencies. Knowledge, Skills & Abilities - Minimum of 5 years direct experience of air regulatory programs in natural gas industry - Knowledgeable or expert level understanding of air regulations to natural gas industry. - Proven ability to independently develop, implement; administer complex plans and processes for company Operations and Engineering. - Excellent communication skills to translate interpretations of and implementation plans for environmental regulation and regulatory compliance into understandable impacts to Operations, Engineering and Dominion Environmental Services. - Ability to diplomatically handle challenging situations with regulatory agencies, the public, or company personnel. - Knowledge of natural gas industry operations. - Apply writing skills to prepare and/or review compliance and regulatory documents. Excellent writing skills required. - Ability to work in a functionally diverse Team environment Education Preferred: Bachelors in Engineering or applied science Working Conditions 76% - 100% - Office Work Environment; Outdoors; Other Conditions: May be required to work in a field environment and exposed to extreme temperature and weather - 25 - 50% Additional Information We offer excellent plans and programs for employees. Employees are rewarded with a competitive salary and comprehensive benefits package which may include: health benefits with coverage for families and domestic partners, vacation, retirement plans, paid holidays, tuition reimbursement, and much more. Dominion is an equal opportunity employer and is committed to a diverse workforce. You can experience the excitement of our company—it’s the difference between taking a job and starting a career. Nicole Leggett Dominion HR Staffing Advanced Six Sigma Blue Belt One James River Plaza - Richmond, VA CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: This electronic message contains information which may be legally confidential and/or privileged and does not in any case represent a firm ENERGY COMMODITY bid or offer relating thereto which binds the sender without an additional express written confirmation to that effect. The information is intended solely for the individual or entity named above and access by anyone else is unauthorized. If you are not the intended recipient, any disclosure, copying, distribution, or use of the contents of this information is prohibited and may be unlawful. If you have received this electronic transmission in error, please reply immediately to the sender that you have received the message in error, and delete it. Thank you.

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End Mountaintop Removal - Week in Washington
by Jim Sconyers 29 Feb '12

29 Feb '12

*End Mountaintop Removal - Week in Washington (WIW) This is an exciting opportunity to join with hundreds of folks like you who want to end mountaintop removal. Lobby Congresspersons and Senators, share with other WIW participants, and more. Stay for the optional Day of Action! * Registration officially opens tomorrow, March 1 for The Alliance for Appalachia’s <http://www.theallianceforappalachia.org/> 2012 End Mountaintop Removal Week in Washington, happening June 2-6. To register early, click here<https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dHJHN3NpemtzYWV2TE1uX0…> . If you are seeking a scholarship, the deadline is Friday, April 6. Full and partial scholarships are available on a needs-basis. If you do not need funding support, the deadline is Sunday, April 15. If you can’t come but want to help, donate here<https://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/1741/t/6886/shop/custom.jsp?donate_pa…>to support the 6th Annual End Mountaintop Removal Week in Washington or to sponsor an attendee scholarship. Last year's Week in Washington was a tremendous success. More than 150 people from over 20 states came to Washington, holding over 200 meetings with Congressional offices, the EPA and the Obama administration. This year, participants will not only meet with their Congresspeople and agency officials, but also stand up and take action to stop mountaintop removal coal mining. *Yes, this year we will have a Day of Action to End Mountaintop Removal! * The 2012 elections mark a critical moment to make the issue of mountaintop removal coal mining a top priority issue in Washington. At Week in Washington, we’ll not only focus on how to work to end mountaintop removal in D.C., but how to fight this injustice in your local community. Can you join us this year in Washington? Click here<https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dHJHN3NpemtzYWV2TE1uX0…>to apply. We hope to see you in Washington! -- Jim Sconyers jimscon(a)gmail.com 304.698.9628 Remember, Mother Nature bats last.

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Fwd: Steel Interstate Campaign
by Jim Sconyers 27 Feb '12

27 Feb '12

Folks - Please take a look at this material about a campaign to upgrade expanded and faster rail transportation If you are interested in being the contact on this , please let me know. ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Roger Diedrich <rdiedrich(a)cox.net> Date: Sat, Feb 25, 2012 at 6:01 PM Subject: Steel Interstate Campaign To: jimscon(a)gmail.com, gnuser(a)gmail.com Jim, Jonathan, For several years, the Virginia Chapter has had concerns about attempts to expand I-81 for trucks, although we have generally followed the lead of a separate organization, RAIL SOLUTION. While the proposal has been blunted, it is not dead, and we want to offer a positive alternative, hence the name of our partner organization, and the Steel Interstate concept. They would like to elevate the effort to a broader scale, and asked if the Sierra Club would take on such a role. This makes sense to us, as a general proposition. Such a campaign could be a part of the Club's Green Transportation Campaign. National staff tells us they are not positioned (funded) to take this on, but they are interested. The case can be made that moving freight to rail is an important GHG reduction strategy. So why are we approaching the WV Chapter? The corridor we are focused on runs from Memphis TN to Harrisonburg. PA, and only comes close to West Virginia. Somewhere I read that it might serve Martinsburg. Regardless, we are trying to enlist some level of support for the concept, so that the national folks can begin to see this as more of a regional, maybe even national effort. So you might be considered "in the I-81 Corridor". We would like to have you adopt a supporting resolution and designate a point of contact on an evolving campaign. It will be quite low key for now. Two resolutions are attached: one for general endorsement of the Steel Interstate concept and a second one for general endorsement of the concept and endorsement of the prototype demonstration. The second one can also be used as a model for any other regional initiative. The Virginia Chapter has adopted the regional version, although this looks to be a somewhat cleaner version. The SI concept is defined on this site: http://www.railsolution.org/projects/steel-interstate-demonstration.html Also, check out our Sierra Club Steel Interstate Team at: http://connect.sierraclub.org/Team/Steel_Interstate Maybe someone from your leadership would be willing to sign up as a member. Let me know your thinking on this, but perhaps I will give one of you a call in a few days. Roger Diedrich Smart Growth and Transportation Chair Sierra Club, VA Chapter 703-352-2410 -- Jim Sconyers jimscon(a)gmail.com 304.698.9628 Remember, Mother Nature bats last.

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Report: Increase Grassroot funding
by Jonathan Rosenbaum 27 Feb '12

27 Feb '12

This attached new report from the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy comes to the conclusion that in order to instill real environmental change, we need to be funneling a lot more funding into grassroot organizing, than we have been in the past. This makes good sense. Also, on page 16 is a photo of National BOD Lane Boldman (from KY who some of you may know) showing her protesting at the Keystone, XL protest in Washington, D.C. :) -Jonathan

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WVU Develops Marcellus Shale Air Monitoring System
by Jonathan Rosenbaum 23 Feb '12

23 Feb '12

This is refreshing to observe: http://www.wboy.com/story/16976388/wvu-develops-marcellus-shale-air-monitor… -Jonathan

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Give us your ideas for the gas campaign
by Jonathan Rosenbaum 22 Feb '12

22 Feb '12

Hello, We're looking for your best ideas on what the Club could do on the Natural Gas issue. To this end, we've launched a Web site for submitting these ideas. It's quite simple to use: 1. Go to http://sierraclub1.uservoice.com/forums/150010-what-should-the-club-do-on-n… 2. Enter your idea, or have a look around at existing ideas. 3. Once you enter an idea, you'll be asked to sign in - you can do this with either an email address or using your Facebook or Google (Sierra Club addresses work) credentials as a single-sign-on solution. Your ideas won't appear on these social networks - the buttons are only there to make login easier. 4. As a signed-in user, you can comment on existing ideas, or vote on them if you agree. This gives everyone a better idea of what the community feels is important. 5. You can have 10 votes or comments per month. This restriction will hopefully constrain ideas so that the best are elicited. 6. Note: This forum is 'open'. This is the only way we can accommodate the entire community. Please email webmaster(a)sierraclub.org with concerns. Thanks P.S. Please feel free to forward this to other Sierra Club members and activists.

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Fwd: Webinar Invitation: Register for Intro to Efficiency & Rate Making Webinar 3/8
by Jim Sconyers 22 Feb '12

22 Feb '12

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Jennifer Miller <jen.miller(a)sierraclub.org> Date: Wed, Feb 22, 2012 at 1:22 PM Subject: Webinar Invitation: Register for Intro to Efficiency & Rate Making Webinar 3/8 To: COAL-CAMPAIGN-ALERTS(a)lists.sierraclub.org Intro to Efficiency & Rate Making Webinar Join us on March 8, 2012 Afternoon Session: 3- 4PM EST -*OR-* Evening Session: 8- 9PM EST Free for all Sierra Club staff and volunteers! <https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/429251414> * * In traditional utility rate making, a utility makes more money when it sells more power. As coal fighters and efficiency advocates, we need to promote a new utility business model, which prioritizes investments in energy efficiency and helps us retire coal and other dirty forms of energy. This introductory, one-hour webinar is for Sierra Club staff and volunteers only and will be taught by a champion for the environment and consumers, Janine Migden Ostrander of the Regulatory Assistance Project. Building upon our recent Energy Efficiency 101 webinar, Janine will teach us the basics about energy efficiency and rate making. We will learn about different incentive mechanisms, decoupling, and much more. *Space is limited. * *Please choose the afternoon OR the evening session:* * * MAKE A RESERVATION FOR THE AFTERNOON SESSION AT 3:00 PM EST, BY CLICKING: https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/42925141<https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/429251414> OR MAKE A RESERVATION FOR THE EVENING SESSION AT 8:00 PM EST BY CLICKING: https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/623690126 ** After registering you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the Webinar. *System Requirements* PC-based attendees Required: Windows® 7, Vista, XP or 2003 Server Macintosh®-based attendees Required: Mac OS® X 10.5 or newer -- Jen Miller (614)563-9543 Senior Campaign Representative for Energy Efficiency Sierra Club National Beyond Coal Campaign pst....My work is now national, but I'm still based in Columbus( the Eastern Time Zone)! -- Jen Miller (614)563-9543 Senior Campaign Representative for Energy Efficiency Sierra Club National Beyond Coal Campaign pst....My work is now national, but I'm still based in Columbus( the Eastern Time Zone)! - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 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 -- Jim Sconyers jimscon(a)gmail.com 304.698.9628 Remember, Mother Nature bats last.

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WV Solar Bill of Rights
by Jim Sconyers 22 Feb '12

22 Feb '12

Hi Folks - Have you signed the WV Solar Bill of Rights petition? It's more important than ever, as we push to get the bills through. If you haven't, please go to the link below to sign - and thank you! http://signon.org/sign/west-virginia-solar-bill.fb1?source=c.fb&r_by=2669423 -- Jim Sconyers jimscon(a)gmail.com 304.698.9628 Remember, Mother Nature bats last.

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WV Solar Bill of Rights
by Jim Sconyers 20 Feb '12

20 Feb '12

I just signed a petition to The West Virginia State House: Support the Solar Bill of Rights - HB 2740 and 2741 - which would encourage home residential solar power. This reduces the need for new utility power plants and puts citizens in charge of their own electric power. You can sign it too at: http://signon.org/sign/west-virginia-solar-bill.fb1?source=c.fb&r_by=2669423 -- Jim Sconyers jimscon(a)gmail.com 304.698.9628 Remember, Mother Nature bats last. -- Jim Sconyers jimscon(a)gmail.com 304.698.9628 Remember, Mother Nature bats last.

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Re: [EC] Ken Ward in DAILY UPDATE 14 February 2012.
by Oliver Bernstein 19 Feb '12

19 Feb '12

The Tweeter in question has already been spoken to. Thanks Jim. Mary Anne Hitt is monitoring Ken's writings closely on this. On Feb 19, 2012, at 7:29 PM, James Kotcon <jkotcon(a)wvu.edu> wrote: Sorry, I just ran across this. ken ward is one of the best environmental reporters in the state, and his blog is a must-read for anyone following the coal industry. I highlighted a key sentence in red. Thanks to Don Strimbeck for his daily round-up of the news. Jim Kotcon >>> "Donald C. Strimbeck" dcsoinks(a)comcast.net> 2/14/2012 4:05 AM >> Charleston Gazette Tuesday 14 February 2012: *Hoppy Kercheval continues pro-coal ‘puffery’* February 13, 2012 by Ken Ward Jr. It’s really no wonder that so many West Virginia political leaders won’t confront the coming crisis in our state’s coalfields.<http://blogs.wvgazette.com/coaltattoo/2012/02/10/states-energy-spin-ignores…>That’s especially so if you just look at the media coverage these issues generally get from most of the state’s newspapers, television stations and radio outlets. There have been some noticeable improvements of late<http://blogs.wvgazette.com/coaltattoo/2011/10/13/wake-up-call-more-media-st…>, but my buddy Hoppy Kercheval’s latest West Virginia MetroNews commentary shows how far our media have to go in doing their job of forcing powerful interests to confront what is — and perhaps isn’t — in the public interest. Hoppy’s headline is “Environmental puffery<http://www.wvmetronews.com/hoppy.cfm?func=displayfullstory&storyid=50873>,” and it focuses on the Sierra Club reaction to last week’s announcement of power plant closings by FirstEnergy<http://wvgazette.com/News/MiningtheMountains/201202080125>. Hoppy writes: *The closings are a tough blow for those communities; jobs are lost and tax revenue from the utilities will dry up.* *“This is going to take a pretty big chunk out of the operating budget of the town,” said Rivesville Mayor Jim Hershman, who worked at the power plant for 25 years.* *The Sierra Club is positively euphoric. The environmental organization’s “Beyond Coal” campaign is geared toward shutting down all coal-fired power plants.* *“The retirements represent a major improvement in the lives of local residents, who have been exposed to pollution from these plants for decades,” read a statement from the Sierra Club.* *I suspect the Sierra Club might have trouble getting laid off workers or the leaders of a community that will have trouble paying the bills for street lights to join them in the victory dance.* Now, there’s no question that some people within the Sierra Club are pretty darned tone-deaf when it comes to how their campaigns are viewed in communities that still rely so heavily on the coal industry … for example, one of the group’s bloggers and magazine writers posted on Twitter<https://twitter.com/#!/paulrauber>after the First Energy announcement: *Boom boom boom, another one bites the dust…* But Hoppy’s commentary didn’t mention that the Sierra Club also hosted a meeting in Albright<http://www.statejournal.com/story/16534879/with-planning-power-plant-closur…>, one of the communities where FirstEnergy is closing a plant, to try to get the conversation going about how the closure might impact local residents and what alternatives might be once that closure happened. The effort was modeled after a successful collaboration in Washington state, where a coal plant closure was phased in and the company put together a $50 million fund to help ease the impacts and move toward cleaner energy. In West Virginia, Sierra Club officials tried to get FirstEnergy involved in such an effort in Preston County — but the company couldn’t be bothered to show up for a town meeting. Hoppy also took the Morgantown City Council to task for approving a resolution in support of EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson’s efforts to reduce greenhouse gas pollution to deal with the climate crisis: *So Jackson, who has done more than any one individual in recent history to undermine fossil fuel production in this country, now has the town fathers in the middle of coal and gas country on her side. And the City of Morgantown is doing its best United Nations imitation.* And he wraps it all up by arguing that coal isn’t going away anytime soon, citing recent statements from new AEP CEO Nick Akins: *The inevitable energy transition that’s taking place in this country is going to be a long, drawn out affair. American Electric Power President and CEO Nick Atkins said earlier this week “We’ll still need coal” for the foreseeable future. “If someone is trying to eliminate that, it’s just not going to happen.”* *Maybe the adversaries of fossil fuels actually know that, which is why they are reduced to relishing their small victories and embellishing their meaningless symbolism.* As did other media who quotes Akins without reservation, Hoppy ignores that, while coal overall is expected to remain a major part of the energy picture <http://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.cfm?id=4950>, production from Appalachian — especially Central Appalachia — is expected to decline significantly over the next 25 years<http://blogs.wvgazette.com/coaltattoo/2010/01/19/must-read-report-the-decli…>. No honest forecast ignores this trend — but Hoppy, much of the media, and West Virginia political leaders insist on pretending this crisis isn’t waiting out there for us. I tuned into my local MetroNews station this morning, to see if perhaps Hoppy was going to be talking about what state officials should be doing to plan for the coming coal collapse … but all I heard was a Friends of Coal ad. This entry was posted on Monday, February 13, 2012 at 10:47 am <DUNKARD CREEK-14FebY2K12.doc>

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Fw: Ken Ward in DAILY UPDATE 14 February 2012.
by James Kotcon 19 Feb '12

19 Feb '12

Sorry, I just ran across this. ken ward is one of the best environmental reporters in the state, and his blog is a must-read for anyone following the coal industry. I highlighted a key sentence in red. Thanks to Don Strimbeck for his daily round-up of the news. Jim Kotcon >>> "Donald C. Strimbeck" dcsoinks(a)comcast.net> 2/14/2012 4:05 AM >> ( mailto:dcsoinks@comcast.net ) Charleston Gazette Tuesday 14 February 2012: Hoppy Kercheval continues pro-coal ‘puffery’ February 13, 2012 by Ken Ward Jr. It’s really no wonder that so many West Virginia political leaders won’t confront the coming crisis in our state’s coalfields. ( http://blogs.wvgazette.com/coaltattoo/2012/02/10/states-energy-spin-ignores… ) That’s especially so if you just look at the media coverage these issues generally get from most of the state’s newspapers, television stations and radio outlets. There have been some noticeable improvements of late ( http://blogs.wvgazette.com/coaltattoo/2011/10/13/wake-up-call-more-media-st… ), but my buddy Hoppy Kercheval’s latest West Virginia MetroNews commentary shows how far our media have to go in doing their job of forcing powerful interests to confront what is — and perhaps isn’t — in the public interest. Hoppy’s headline is “Environmental puffery ( http://www.wvmetronews.com/hoppy.cfm?func=displayfullstory&storyid=50873 ),” and it focuses on the Sierra Club reaction to last week’s announcement of power plant closings by FirstEnergy ( http://wvgazette.com/News/MiningtheMountains/201202080125 ). Hoppy writes: The closings are a tough blow for those communities; jobs are lost and tax revenue from the utilities will dry up. “This is going to take a pretty big chunk out of the operating budget of the town,” said Rivesville Mayor Jim Hershman, who worked at the power plant for 25 years. The Sierra Club is positively euphoric. The environmental organization’s “Beyond Coal” campaign is geared toward shutting down all coal-fired power plants. “The retirements represent a major improvement in the lives of local residents, who have been exposed to pollution from these plants for decades,” read a statement from the Sierra Club. I suspect the Sierra Club might have trouble getting laid off workers or the leaders of a community that will have trouble paying the bills for street lights to join them in the victory dance. Now, there’s no question that some people within the Sierra Club are pretty darned tone-deaf when it comes to how their campaigns are viewed in communities that still rely so heavily on the coal industry … for example, one of the group’s bloggers and magazine writers posted on Twitter ( https://twitter.com/#!/paulrauber ) after the First Energy announcement: Boom boom boom, another one bites the dust… But Hoppy’s commentary didn’t mention that the Sierra Club also hosted a meeting in Albright ( http://www.statejournal.com/story/16534879/with-planning-power-plant-closur… ), one of the communities where FirstEnergy is closing a plant, to try to get the conversation going about how the closure might impact local residents and what alternatives might be once that closure happened. The effort was modeled after a successful collaboration in Washington state, where a coal plant closure was phased in and the company put together a $50 million fund to help ease the impacts and move toward cleaner energy. In West Virginia, Sierra Club officials tried to get FirstEnergy involved in such an effort in Preston County — but the company couldn’t be bothered to show up for a town meeting. Hoppy also took the Morgantown City Council to task for approving a resolution in support of EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson’s efforts to reduce greenhouse gas pollution to deal with the climate crisis: So Jackson, who has done more than any one individual in recent history to undermine fossil fuel production in this country, now has the town fathers in the middle of coal and gas country on her side. And the City of Morgantown is doing its best United Nations imitation. And he wraps it all up by arguing that coal isn’t going away anytime soon, citing recent statements from new AEP CEO Nick Akins: The inevitable energy transition that’s taking place in this country is going to be a long, drawn out affair. American Electric Power President and CEO Nick Atkins said earlier this week “We’ll still need coal” for the foreseeable future. “If someone is trying to eliminate that, it’s just not going to happen.” Maybe the adversaries of fossil fuels actually know that, which is why they are reduced to relishing their small victories and embellishing their meaningless symbolism. As did other media who quotes Akins without reservation, Hoppy ignores that, while coal overall is expected to remain a major part of the energy picture ( http://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.cfm?id=4950 ), production from Appalachian — especially Central Appalachia — is expected to decline significantly over the next 25 years ( http://blogs.wvgazette.com/coaltattoo/2010/01/19/must-read-report-the-decli… ). No honest forecast ignores this trend — but Hoppy, much of the media, and West Virginia political leaders insist on pretending this crisis isn’t waiting out there for us. I tuned into my local MetroNews station this morning, to see if perhaps Hoppy was going to be talking about what state officials should be doing to plan for the coming coal collapse … but all I heard was a Friends of Coal ad. This entry was posted on Monday, February 13, 2012 at 10:47 am

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Fwd: AAAS Science Meeting Coverage on Fracking
by Paul Wilson 19 Feb '12

19 Feb '12

fyi, paul ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: David Dow <DDOW420(a)comcast.net> Date: Fri, Feb 17, 2012 at 11:38 AM Subject: AAAS Science Meeting Coverage on Fracking [image: Sciencenow Logo][image: Up to the minutes news from science][image: Main Image]<http://app.aaas-science.org/e/er?s=1906&lid=12192&elq=f9bed8ca410a4a6382e9e…>Mixed Verdict on Fracking<http://app.aaas-science.org/e/er?s=1906&lid=12192&elq=f9bed8ca410a4a6382e9e…> No evidence that hydraulic fracturing for gas contaminates groundwater, report finds, but problems exist at the surface. -- 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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Energy Efficient West Virginia Alert!
by Jim Sconyers 17 Feb '12

17 Feb '12

Important - We need to help two very important energy bills - now! ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Molly McLaughlin <molly.eewv(a)gmail.com> Date: Mon, Feb 13, 2012 at 9:25 PM Subject: [eewv] Energy Efficient West Virginia: February 13 Weekly Update To: eewv(a)lists.riseup.net Be sure to visit and share EEWV's website - www.eewv.org - so you can stay up to date on Energy Efficiency during the legislative session. Here is this week's update! * * *Take Action! Email Senator Palumbo!* * * *Support Least Cost Planning Legislation by emailing Senator Palumbo *at corey.palumbo(a)wvsenate.gov. Appalachian Power, Mon Power and Potomac Edison are working hard to stop this bill, but we can't let them. Email Senator Palumbo and let him know you want him to support lower utility rates. Here is a sample of what to say in your email: *Hi Senator Palumbo, > > Please put a strong version of SB162, the Integrated Resource Planning > bill, in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee for a vote. We need a > bill that requires power companies to identify the resources that will > serve customers at the "lowest system cost" so that the PSC can effectively > manage electric rates. > > Least cost planning will save us money. Putting a strong version of this > bill on the agenda will show you’re against rate increases. Please pass > Senate Bill 162 without amendments.* > *Email Senator Palumbo today. <corey.palumbo(a)wvsenate.gov>* Once you've emailed him, send this email to your friends and family so that they can support S.B. 162 and lower utility rates, too. * * *Legislative Update* - The Least Cost Planning Bill, S.B. 162, has not been put on the agenda for the Senate Judiciary Committee yet, despite the support of the majority of committee members, because of opposition from the power companies. These companies know that West Virginians are upset about the drastic electricity rate increases, but don't want to stop. *Now, more than ever, it is important that you call Senator Palumbo and insist he run a strong S.B. 162. * See the action alert above for how you can email Senator Palumbo in support of this bill. Here is a link to the bill<http://www.legis.state.wv.us/bill_status/bills_text.cfm?billdoc=sb162%20int…> . - The Energy Efficiency Resource Standard Bill has not been introduced yet.* We need you to email Delegate Miley and the other members of the House Judiciary Committee and pressure them to put this bill on the agenda. *Here's how <http://www.eewv.org/contacting-your-legislators>. We'll let you know as soon as the bill is introduced. *Energy Efficiency "Call your Legislators" Lunch!* * * *Who: *YOU! *What:* Energy Efficiency "Call your Legislators" Lunch *When: *February 16, 11AM - 1PM *Where:* Downstream Strategies 295 High Street Morgantown, WV Lunch will be provided. Link to the Facebook Event<https://www.facebook.com/events/364150090261978/> . Join Energy Efficient West Virginia (EEWV) on February 16 from 11AM - 1PM to learn about two energy efficiency related bills the WV State Legislature is considering this year and to call your legislators and let them know West Virginians NEED Energy Efficiency. Over t*he past three years, the average West Virginian’s utility bill has increased by 30-60%. Many families in West Virginia spend one-fourth of their incomes on utilities and rates are still increasing. Something needs to change. Energy efficiency in West Virginia will lower utility bills, create jobs and make our state healthier and happier to live in.* * * *Join EEWV as we learn about these bills and the potential of energy efficiency in West Virginia and then call our legislators and let them know West Virginians NEED energy efficiency.* Because lunch will be provided, please RSVP to molly.eewv(a)gmail.com if you plan to attend. *Questions?* Email Molly at molly.eewv(a)gmail.com or visit our website at www.eewv.org. -- Molly McLaughlin Energy Efficient West Virginia www.eewv.org -- Jim Sconyers jimscon(a)gmail.com 304.698.9628 Remember, Mother Nature bats last.

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Fwd: Intro to Efficiency and Utility Rate Making
by Jim Sconyers 14 Feb '12

14 Feb '12

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Becki Clayborn <becki.clayborn(a)sierraclub.org> Date: Tue, Feb 14, 2012 at 12:19 PM Subject: Intro to Efficiency and Utility Rate Making To: COAL-CAMPAIGN-ALERTS(a)lists.sierraclub.org To: Coal-Campaign-Alerts(a)lists.sierraclub.org From: Jen Miller via Becki Clayborn Save the Date! Intro to Efficiency and Utility Rate Making March 8, 2012 @ 3PM EST and 8PM EST In traditional utility rate making, a utility makes more money when it sells more power. As coal fighters and efficiency advocates, we need to advocate for a new utility business model which prioritizes investments in energy efficiency and helps us retire coal and other dirty forms of energy. This introductory webinar is for Sierrans only and will be taught by a champion for the environment and consumers, Janine Migden Ostrander of the Regulatory Assistance Project. Building upon our recent Energy Efficiency 101 webinar, Janine will teach us the basics about energy efficiency and ratemaking. We will learn about different incentive mechanisms, decoupling, and much more. Watch for a future email with registration information! thanks jen -- Jen Miller (614)563-9543 Senior Campaign Representative for Energy Efficiency Sierra Club National Beyond Coal Campaign pst....My work is now national, but I'm still based in Columbus( the Eastern Time Zone)! -- Becki Clayborn Beyond Coal Campaign Internal Capacities and Communications Coordinator Chicago, IL 312-251-1680 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 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/ -- Jim Sconyers jimscon(a)gmail.com 304.698.9628 Remember, Mother Nature bats last.

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Fw: PATH Disappears from AEP Investor Call
by Frank Young 11 Feb '12

11 Feb '12

WordPress.com ----- Original Message ----- From: The Power Line To: fyoung(a)mountain.net Sent: Saturday, February 11, 2012 7:56 PM Subject: [New post] PATH Disappears from AEP Investor Call New post on The Power Line PATH Disappears from AEP Investor Call by Bill Some of us read the quarterly investor call transcripts, so you don't have to. Here is the latest from AEP. You can also find the accompanying slide show at this link. One thing you won't find in Nick Akins' presentation or in his slide show is any mention of PATH. Look at slides 14 and 39 where Akins touts AEP's transmission joint ventures. See PATH there? Didn't think so. It looks like AEP has moved on. As Mr. Akins says, we helped AEP "refocus" their transmission strategy away from big projects: Unlike previous presentations where we were dealing with long-term-type projects, it was very difficult to project out the earnings potential of transmission. Everyone wondered, "Well, okay, when, it's great to talk about the project, but when are the earnings going to happen?" And our transmission organization has been refocused on developing those short-term projects and real projects through the Transco development and specific joint ventures associated with smaller, less-lead-time, more -- less-risky projects, going forward. And We fully expect transmission to continue to increase at this, at a pretty rapid rate, but we want to make sure that we only show you the projects we actually know of. And then there's other joint-venture projects that are in discussions, as you might suspect, because AEP is a great partner, people recognize AEP is a great partner. "[P]rojects we actually know of?" So you don't "know of" PATH, or you have forgotten about it? And how did you like that "great partner" stuff? Akins also states that AEP will be trying to get their AEP Transco recognized as a utility in WV. One more item from the conference call that should interest WV rate payers. AEP is selling all of Ohio Power's share in the John Amos power plant and the Mitchell plant near Moundsville to Appalachian Power. That means that APCo's capital rate base will increase, which will surely lead to another big APCo base rate increase on top of the big increases of the last five years. Akins says this increase will be offset by increased capacity payments that will be captured by APCo, but that remains to be seen. Bill | February 11, 2012 at 7:56 pm | Tags: Power Companies & PATH | Categories: Uncategorized | URL: http://wp.me/piwFb-1ud Comment See all comments Unsubscribe or change your email settings at Manage Subscriptions. Trouble clicking? Copy and paste this URL into your browser: http://calhounpowerline.com/2012/02/11/path-disappears-from-aep-investor-ca… Thanks for flying with WordPress.com

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Marcellus Zoning Meeting
by Jonathan Rosenbaum 10 Feb '12

10 Feb '12

This is the next strategy Morgantown is looking at in regards to the Shale Gas industry. This is a public meeting., everyone is invited. Below sent by Heather Digman: The City of Morgantown will hold a workshop to discuss proposed zoning regulations regarding Extractive Industries on Monday February 20th at 6pm in City Council Chambers. As a key stakeholder in this industry we would like to invite you to please attend this workshop. Thank you, and please contact me with any questions, comments, or ideas. Heather Extractive Industries Planning and Zoning Workshop Planning Commission President Peter DeMasters has, in accordance with the Planning Commission's Bylaws, duly called a workshop. The purpose of the workshop will be to study the issue of extractive industries under the Planning and Zoning Code. Workshops are not considered regular or special meetings and may not include the formal conduct of business, the rendering of decisions, or taking action for which the Commission is charged. Workshops are open to the public and are intended to serve as training, study, public education, etc. Heather Whitmore Dingman, AICP Principal Planner City of Morgantown, WV 304.284.7431 <tel:304.284.7431>

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WV Press on plant closings
by James Kotcon 09 Feb '12

09 Feb '12

Thanks to Don Strimbeck for collecting these. We might want to consider how to capitalize on the quote below from First Energy. They want to blame the closure on EPA rules, but the reality is they can't even justify further maintenance, let alone needed pollution controls. But they do get to mislead politicians like our Governor who are looking for excuses to curry favor with the coal industry. How might we on the front lines use media to highlight this disconnect? (I share Jim Sconyer's concern that this has to be about local people, the Bloomberg contribution is being used to attack us here). "FirstEnergy spokesman Mark Durbin said his company chose the closer closure date because it couldn't justify additional capital expenditures for maintenance and other projects at the West Virginia plants if they were going to close in a few years anyway." Jim Kotcon P.S. I wonder if that quote is an acknowledgment that they knew they were going to lose on the coal ash lawsuit? Charleston Gazette: February 8, 2012 3 W.Va. plants latest to close under utility restructuring By Ken Ward Jr. ( http://www.wvgazette.com/News/contact/xjneq+jitnmrggr+pbz+return=/News/2012… ) The Charleston Gazette CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Three FirstEnergy power plants in West Virginia will close in September in the latest move by a utility to shutter decades-old units that can't meet new federal air quality standards that limit mercury and other toxic pollutants. Akron, Ohio-based FirstEnergy said it would shut down the Albright Power Station in Preston County, the Rivesville Power Station in Marion County and the Willow Island Power Station in Pleasants County. Together, seven boilers at the three plants have electric generating capacity of about 660 megawatts, about the equivalent of a medium-sized modern coal plant. All three facilities date back to the 1940s and 1950s. They were not equipped with the latest pollution control devices, and FirstEnergy used all three in recent years on a very limited basis to provide power in times of peak demand. James R. Haney, president of West Virginia operations for FirstEnergy, cited high costs to implement the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Mercury and Air Toxics Standards as the reason for his company's action. FirstEnergy said 105 employees at the plants are affected, but that some will be considered for openings within the company or may accept special retirement packages. The EPA air toxics rule has become a new focus for industry officials, coalfield business groups and regional political leaders who complain the Obama administration is waging a "war on coal" aimed at shutting down all mining. "This is another example of how the EPA is costing us good jobs in West Virginia and throughout Appalachia," Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin said in a prepared statement. EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson says the rule was needed to cut emissions of mercury and toxic air pollutants like arsenic and cyanide. EPA estimates the new standards will prevent up to 96 premature deaths in West Virginia, while creating up to $790 million in health benefits in 2016. Also, EPA officials note that proven pollution controls are already available -- and in use at more than half of the nation's power plants -- to meet the new limits. FirstEnergy, for example, has announced no plans to close three of its much larger plants in West Virginia, Fort Martin Power Station in Monongalia County, Harrison Power Station north of Clarksburg, and Pleasants Power Station, located adjacent to Willow Island. Each of those facilities has nearly twice the generating capacity of the three plants targeted for closure combined. Each has been outfitted with expensive scrubbers that, while designed to cut sulfur dioxide emissions, help reduce air toxics as well. "When the older coal-fired plants are retired and removed from FirstEnergy's competitive and regulated generating fleet, nearly 100 percent of the power provided will come from resources that are non- or low-emitting, including nuclear, hydro, pumped-storage hydro, natural gas and scrubbed coal units," FirstEnergy said in a prepared statement. Last month, the West Virginia Sierra Club sponsored a meeting in Preston County, to try to begin a discussion among local citizens and FirstEnergy about the Albright plant's future, the impact of a potential closure, and other economic opportunities for the area. FirstEnergy officials did not attend, because the company had not yet announced a final decision on the facility. "Our goal was to engage FirstEnergy in a discussion about beginning a transition to cleaner energy sources," said the Sierra Club's Jim Kotcon. "There is a lot of concern there. FirstEnergy is a major taxpayer in the county." Kotcon said the meeting was modeled in part after work the Sierra Club did that led to a deal last year with TransAlta to phase out Washington State's only coal-fired power plant and create a $60 million fund to help the community there transition away from economic reliance on the facility. "We think something like that has to happen in a lot of areas," Kotcon said. "We see a continued decision to reduce use of coal-fired electricity as the health impacts become more obvious. Kotcon noted that FirstEnergy's closure date for the three West Virginia plants, as well as six other plants in Maryland, Ohio and Pennsylvania, was Sept. 1, 2012, two years before the first compliance dates in EPA's new air toxics rule. FirstEnergy spokesman Mark Durbin said his company chose the closer closure date because it couldn't justify additional capital expenditures for maintenance and other projects at the West Virginia plants if they were going to close in a few years anyway. But when American Electric Power announced similar plant closures in West Virginia, it set the deadline as Dec. 31, 2014, when the EPA rules were expected to kick in. Kotcon said public officials and companies in the coalfields need to give workers and communities more time to ease such transitions as coal production drops and more plants move away from coal. "It's important to being the path toward transition so we don't end up with more communities where a company just announces they are closing a plant," Kotcon said. Reach Ken Ward Jr. at kw...(a)wvgazette.com ( http://www.wvgazette.com/News/contact/xjneq+jitnmrggr+pbz+return=/News/2012… ) or 304-348-1702. "When the older coal-fired plants are retired and removed from FirstEnergy's competitive and regulated generating fleet, nearly 100 percent of the power provided will come from resources that are non- or low-emitting, including nuclear, hydro, pumped-storage hydro, natural gas and scrubbed coal units," FirstEnergy said in a prepared statement. Last month, the West Virginia Sierra Club sponsored a meeting in Preston County, to try to begin a discussion among local citizens and FirstEnergy about the Albright plant's future, the impact of a potential closure, and other economic opportunities for the area. FirstEnergy officials did not attend, because the company had not yet announced a final decision on the facility. "Our goal was to engage FirstEnergy in a discussion about beginning a transition to cleaner energy sources," said the Sierra Club's Jim Kotcon. "There is a lot of concern there. FirstEnergy is a major taxpayer in the county." Kotcon said the meeting was modeled in part after work the Sierra Club did that led to a deal last year with TransAlta to phase out Washington State's only coal-fired power plant and create a $60 million fund to help the community there transition away from economic reliance on the facility. "We think something like that has to happen in a lot of areas," Kotcon said. "We see a continued decision to reduce use of coal-fired electricity as the health impacts become more obvious. Kotcon noted that FirstEnergy's closure date for the three West Virginia plants, as well as six other plants in Maryland, Ohio and Pennsylvania, was Sept. 1, 2012, two years before the first compliance dates in EPA's new air toxics rule. FirstEnergy spokesman Mark Durbin said his company chose the closer closure date because it couldn't justify additional capital expenditures for maintenance and other projects at the West Virginia plants if they were going to close in a few years anyway. But when American Electric Power announced similar plant closures in West Virginia, it set the deadline as Dec. 31, 2014, when the EPA rules were expected to kick in. Kotcon said public officials and companies in the coalfields need to give workers and communities more time to ease such transitions as coal production drops and more plants move away from coal. "It's important to being the path toward transition so we don't end up with more communities where a company just announces they are closing a plant," Kotcon said. Reach Ken Ward Jr. at kw...(a)wvgazette.com ( http://www.wvgazette.com/News/contact/xjneq+jitnmrggr+pbz+return=/News/2012… ) or 304-348-1702. THE STATE JOURNAL: FirstEnergy to snuff Albright, Rivesville, Willow Island plants Posted: Feb 08, 2012 10:20 AM EST Updated: Feb 08, 2012 1:21 PM EST By Pam Kasey FirstEnergy announced Feb. 8 that 105 employees will be affected when its Monongahela Power Co. subsidiary retires its three oldest, least efficient and most polluting power plants in the state later this year. Albright Power Station in Preston County, Willow Island Power Station in Pleasants County and Rivesville Power Station in Marion County are to be closed by Sept. 1, the company said in a media release. The company cited environmental regulations as its reason for closing the plants. All are more than 50 years old and all are without advanced environmental controls and their closure has been widely expected. Some of the 105 affected employees will be considered for open positions at other FirstEnergy locations, the media release said. Severance benefits will apply to those eligible, and an additional unspecified benefit is being offered to those who are eligible for retirement, the company said. The three plants total 660 megawatts of generating capacity, about 3 percent of FirstEnergy's generation portfolio. Because they are expensive to run, though, they serve mostly as peaking plants and generate on average less than 1 percent of electricity produced by the company over the past three years. Among West Virginia-based power plants, the three facilities represented about two-tenths of a percent of generation and about 1 percent of coal burned for power in 2010. FirstEnergy announced last month that it would retire six older coal-fired power plants in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Maryland by Sept. 1. Those plants total 2,700 megawatts' capacity and their closures affect 529 employees. The company said that, since the Clean Air Act became law in 1970, FirstEnergy and its predecessor companies have invested more than $10 billion in environmental protection. Since 1990, it has reduced emissions of nitrogen oxides by more than 76 percent, sulfur dioxide by more than 86 percent and mercury by about 56 percent. After Sept. 1, when these nine plants have been retired, nearly 100 percent of FirstEnergy's power will come from resources that are non- or low-emitting, including nuclear, hydro, pumped-storage hydro, natural gas and scrubbed coal units. Gov. Early Ray Tomblin issued a statement following the announcement urging the EPA to reconsider the effect of environmental regulations. "This is another example of how the EPA is costing us good jobs in West Virginia and throughout Appalachia," Tomblin said. "When the EPA adopts regulations they continue to fail to take into account the real-life effects these rules have on hard working Americans like those who have dedicated themselves to First Energy at the West Virginia locations. I urge the EPA to respectfully and accurately review the entire impact of their decisions-from environmental to economical- because individuals, families and communities are forever changed by their short-sighted decisions." DOMINION POST Thursday 9 February 2011: Albright Power Station to close Sept. 1 Its 61 employees can apply for other FirstEnergy jobs BY MICHELLE WOLFORD The Dominion Post KINGWOOD — FirstEnergy announced Wednesday it will close its Albright Power Station on Sept. 1. Also to be closed are the Willow Island and Rivesville facilities. Willow Island is 22 miles from Parkersburg on the Ohio River. The Rivesville plant is on the Monongahela River in Marion County. Ray Evans, executive director of FirstEnergy’s Environmental division, said the employees — 61 at Albright, nine at Rivesville and 35 at Willow Island — can bid on other positions with the company, accept an enhanced retirement package or accept a severance package. The announcement came just two weeks after the company announced it would close six coal-fired plants in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Maryland. Those closings will impact more than 500 employees. New Environmental Protection Agency Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS) set to take effect in 2015 are the reason for the plant shutdowns. “We looked at the MATS and we didn’t see a way forward for [the Albright] plant,” Evans said. “The high cost to implement MATS and other environmental rules is the reason these Mon Power plants are being retired,” James R. Haney, regional president of Mon Power and president of West Virginia operations for FirstEnergy, said in a statement. After Sept. 1, the company will secure the plant from unauthorized access, remove the chemicals and make sure all ongoing environmental obligations are met, Evans said. “In the next four to five years, we’ll be coming up with strategies for reuse of the plant. We have no firm plans now for this site.” Economic impact Robbie Baylor, executive director of the Preston County Economic Development Authority, said the agency is saddened to learn of plans to retire the Albright facility. “The Albright Station has been a stable contributor to the economy of Preston County for over 50 years,” Baylor said. “It will be difficult to replace the jobs and the revenue the station and the people working at the station bring to the Preston County community. We plan to work with Mon Power and the County Commission to make this closure as unproblematic as possible for all concerned. We have already offered to provide any assistance needed to help workers at the plant find alternate employment if they choose not to stay with Mon Power after the Albright facility closes.” Preston County Commissioners called the announcement “a blow” to the community. “Our first concern is with the families of those who will lose their jobs,” said Commission President Craig Jennings. Also impacted will be the “trickle down” industries — those who do business directly with the plant including trucking companies and tire shops, stores whose customers come from those businesses. “It’s a blow to us as elected officials and the fiscal agents of the county. It’s a blow to those who are losing their jobs, some of them the second generation working there. We’ve got a lot to do. This is the third major loss to the county [Mathews Bronze cut its workforce and Whitetail Mine shut down in 2009] and its hard to replace those.” “It’s a hard hit for the community and those employees,” Commissioner Dave Price said. Jennings said commissioners plan to meet with FirstEnergy “to ask them to at least fulfill their obligation to the schools for the bond. If they don’t help with that, it will fall back to the taxpayers.” The economic impact of the plant’s closing isn’t clear, Baylor said, though she said FirstEnergy did tell her it paid $2.7 million in taxes to West Virginia for the Albright plant alone. The taxes to be paid to the state in 2013 as the result of plant retirement is estimated at $48,000, Baylor said the company told her. She said it was unknown how much would be returned to Preston County. Preston County Assessor Terri Funk said she asked the State Tax Department for “its best estimate of what we would lose annually if we would lose the power plant.” The estimate is $849,196, including about $19,400 to the city of Kingwood. Each of the county’s municipalities also receives utility taxes from that money, as does the board of education. Marion County Assessor Jim Priester said that county saw “a $12 million loss in property value last year,” but couldn’t provide a dollar amount lost. ‘It makes me sad’ Charlie Wilson, of Kingwood, worked at both the Rivesville and Albright plants, and was at Albright in 1952 when the power station went online. He retired in 1982. “I started at Rivesville in August of 1951 when I got out of the service,” he said. “It was an old plant then. It was 1919 when it first went online.” The Albright Power Station “operated pedal to the metal for many, many years,” he said, but “it has gotten old and not nearly as efficient as some of the newer units. As new stations came on, Albright carried less and less of a load.” When he learned the plant is slated to be retired in September, Wilson said, “It makes me sad for the people that are going to be disrupted by it.” The plant “was a good part of my life,” the 84-yearold said. “It provided a good, steady job and decent wages, and an opportunity to provide for myself and my family. I’ll say this about that plant: I was never on strike and never missed a day’s work that was the company’s fault, and I never missed a payday.” “I hate to see the plant close, but the biggest factor has to be the environmental considerations. It just wouldn’t be cost-efficient to put scrubbers on it,” Wilson said. A $50 million grant to the Sierra Club, which the nonprofit boasted would be used to shut down coal-fired plants, probably didn’t help the plant’s chance of survival, he said. Lawmakers react “This is another example of how the EPA is costing us good jobs in West Virginia and throughout Appalachia,” Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin said in a release. “When the EPA adopts regulations they continue to fail to take into account the real-life effects these rules have on hard working Americans like those who have dedicated themselves to FirstEnergy at the West Virginia locations. I urge the EPA to respectfully and accurately review the entire impact of their decisions — from environmental to economical — because individuals, families and communities are forever changed by their short-sighted decisions.” Delegate Larry Williams, D-Preston, said FirstEnergy told him it would take $300 million to upgrade the Albright plant to new EPA standards. Converting to natural gas is also not cost-effective for the company, he said. Williams said he also asked about demolition, if that’s in the works, and water impoundment. “These are questions that need to be part of the planning and analysis of what’s going to happen at that site,” he said. Williams said he met with Tomblin’s office about the plant closing. The governor’s office will offer economic development personnel to work with Preston County’s Economic Development Authority to see what jobs and businesses can be brought to the county. REPORTER DAVID BEARD contributed to this article. Sierra Club: Closings a victory for clean air BY MICHELLE WOLFORD The Dominion Post KINGWOOD — The closing of three power plants in West Virginia is “a victory for clean air and local residents’ health,” a Sierra Club release said. The three plants — Albright, Rivesville and Willow Island, near Parkersburg — are slated for retirement Sept. 1 as a result of new Environmental Protection Agency regulations, according to FirstEnergy, which owns the power stations. “In total, these closures will bring 660 megawatts of dirty, dangerous pollution to an end,” Sierra Club said. “The retirements represent a major improvement in the lives of local residents, who have been exposed to the pollution from these plants for decades. “Pollution from coal-fired power plants contributes to respiratory illnesses and asthma attacks, heart disease and cancer. Closure of these three plants will prevent approximately 40 premature deaths, 64 heart attacks and 620 asthma attacks, according to the Clean Air Task Force,” the release said. “This is good news for West Virginia, because those plants will no longer be polluting our air and water like they have been for 60 years,” said Jim Sconyers, chairman of the West Virginia Chapter of the Sierra Club. “We want to ensure that the company has made a commitment to their workforce’s welfare once these plants close.” “Closing these old dirty plants is only the beginning of the responsibility that FirstEnergy owes to the surrounding communities. Instead of using public health safeguards as an excuse for the closure of three old and unnecessary plants, they need to increase investments in energy efficiency and create new jobs to assist the workers and community with a smooth transition to a clean energy future,” said Sierra Club Environmental Justice Organizing Representative Bill Price. The Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal campaign works in partnership with Bloomberg Philanthropies and a nationwide coalition to retire onethird of the nation’s aging coal plants by 2020, replacing them with clean energy such as wind and solar by 2030, according to the release. The environmental group, along with West Virginia Highlands Conservancy and the West Virginia Rivers Coalition, has sued FirstEnergy over “the illegal construction of Albright’s coal ash dumps.” In January, it hosted a forum in Albright to discuss the future of the plant. FirstEnergy did not send a representative, but Preston County Commissioners and local members of the state legislature attended. “These three plants bring the tally of coal plant retirements to 95 since the Sierra Club began its Beyond Coal campaign in 2002,” according to the release. Charles Wilson, of Kingwood, worked at both Rivesville and Albright for 30 years before his retirement in 1982. He said the Sierra Club bragged when it got the Bloomberg grant that “they could use it to close these coal-fired plants.” “Renewable power sources such as wind, solar and hydro can’t sustain the electrical grid as we know it, and demand that it be without the steady, versatile and reliable generation furnished by fossil fuel plants and nuclear. These furnish 50-60 percent of the nation’s base load,” Wilson said. “I think people want to do away with reliable generation before there is something to replace it. It was probably a factor in the closing of the Albright plant.”

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ALBRIGHT and two more FE plants to be retired
by Frank Young 08 Feb '12

08 Feb '12

"The high cost to implement MATS and other environmental rules is the reason these Mon Power plants are being retired," said James R. Haney, regional president of Mon Power and president of West Virginia Operations for FirstEnergy. ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Shanda Minney <sminney(a)wvrivers.org> Date: Wed, Feb 8, 2012 at 9:27 AM Subject: Re: Notices Out today To: Mike Becher <mbecher(a)appalachian-center.org> Cc: Jim Sconyers <jim_scon(a)yahoo.com>, Jim Kotcon <jkotcon(a)wvu.edu>, Cindy Rank <clrank2(a)gmail.com>, Josh Stebbins <Josh.Stebbins(a)sierraclub.org>, Zachary Fabish <Zachary.Fabish(a)sierraclub.org> Dear All, I wanted to make sure you all had seen this announcement. Shanda http://www.marketwatch.com/story/firstenergy-citing-impact-of-environmental… FirstEnergy, Citing Impact of Environmental Regulations, Will Retire Three Coal-Fired Power Plants in West Virginia AKRON, Ohio, Feb. 8, 2012 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- FirstEnergy Corp. /quotes/zigman/201722/quotes/nls/fe FE -0.30% announced today that its Monongahela Power Company (Mon Power) subsidiary will be retiring three older coal-fired power plants located in West Virginia by September 1, 2012. The decision to close the plants is based on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS), which were recently finalized, and other environmental regulations. The following plants will be retired: Albright Power Station, Willow Island Power Station, and Rivesville Power Station. In total, 105 employees will be directly affected. The total capacity of these regulated plants is 660 megawatts (MW), about 3 percent of FirstEnergy's total regulated and competitive generation portfolio. Recently, these plants served mostly as peaking facilities, generating, on average, less than 1 percent of the electricity produced by FirstEnergy over the past three years. Mon Power recently completed a yearlong study of its older, unscrubbed regulated coal-fired units to determine the potential impact of significant changes in environmental regulations. It was determined that additional investments to implement MATS and other environmental rules would make these plants even less likely to be dispatched. As a result, the decision was made to retire these West Virginia plants rather than continue operations. This follows FirstEnergy's announcement last month that its competitive generation subsidiaries would retire six older, coal-fired power plants located in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Maryland by September 1, 2012. "The high cost to implement MATS and other environmental rules is the reason these Mon Power plants are being retired," said James R. Haney, regional president of Mon Power and president of West Virginia Operations for FirstEnergy. The number of affected employees could be less than 105 as some will be considered for open positions at other FirstEnergy facilities and work locations. In addition, existing severance benefits will apply to eligible affected employees and certain employees may take advantage of an additional benefit being offered to those who are eligible for retirement. All of the recently announced plant retirements are subject to review for reliability impacts, if any, by PJM Interconnection, the regional transmission organization that controls the area where they are located. Since the Clean Air Act became law in 1970, FirstEnergy and its predecessor companies have invested more than $10 billion in environmental protection efforts. Since 1990, FirstEnergy has reduced emissions of nitrogen oxides by more than 76 percent, sulfur dioxide by more than 86 percent and mercury by about 56 percent. When the older coal-fired plants are retired and removed from FirstEnergy's competitive and regulated generating fleet, nearly 100 percent of the power provided will come from resources that are non- or low-emitting, including nuclear, hydro, pumped-storage hydro, natural gas and scrubbed coal units. FirstEnergy is a diversified energy company dedicated to safety, reliability and operational excellence. Its 10 electric distribution companies comprise the nation's largest investor-owned electric system. Its diverse generating fleet features non-emitting nuclear, scrubbed coal, natural gas, and pumped-storage hydro and other renewables, and has a total generating capacity of nearly 23,000 megawatts. ........ SOURCE FirstEnergy Corp. Copyright (C) 2012 PR Newswire. All rights reserved .... 'forward looking' statements at the link above....

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SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN ARTICLE: AIR SAMPLES FROM NATURAL GAS FIELD REVEAL HIGH METHANE EMISSIONS
by William V. DePaulo, Esq. 08 Feb '12

08 Feb '12

[image: Scientific American] <http://www.scientificamerican.com/> Permanent Address: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=air-sampling-reveals-high-… Air Sampling Reveals High Methane Emissions from Natural Gas Field<http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=air-sampling-reveals-high-…> Methane leaks during production may offset climate benefits of natural gas | Tuesday, February 7, 2012 | 2<http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=air-sampling-reveals-high-…> Advertisement By Jeff Tollefson of *Nature* <http://www.nature.com/news> magazine When US government scientists began sampling the air from a tower north of Denver, Colorado, they expected urban smog--but not strong whiffs of what looked like natural gas. They eventually linked the mysterious pollution to a nearby natural-gas field, and their investigation has now produced the first hard evidence that the cleanest-burning fossil fuel might not be much better than coal when it comes to climate change. Led by researchers at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the University of Colorado, Boulder, the study estimates that natural-gas producers in an area known as the Denver-Julesburg Basin are losing about 4% of their gas to the atmosphere--not including additional losses in the pipeline and distribution system. This is more than double the official inventory, but roughly in line with estimates made in 2011 that have been challenged by industry. And because methane is some 25 times more efficient than carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the atmosphere, releases of that magnitude could effectively offset the environmental edge that natural gas is said to enjoy over other fossil fuels. "If we want natural gas to be the cleanest fossil fuel source, methane emissions have to be reduced," says Gabrielle Pétron, an atmospheric scientist at NOAA and at the University of Colorado in Boulder, and first author on the study, currently in press at the *Journal of Geophysical Research*. Emissions will vary depending on the site, but Pétron sees no reason to think that this particular basin is unique. "I think we seriously need to look at natural-gas operations on the national scale." The results come as a natural-gas boom hits the United States, driven by a technology known as hydraulic fracturing, or `fracking', that can crack open hard shale formations and release the natural gas trapped inside. Environmentalists are worried about effects such as water pollution, but the US government is enthusiastic about fracking. In his State of the Union address last week, US President Barack Obama touted natural gas as the key to boosting domestic energy production. *Lack of data* Natural gas emits about half as much carbon dioxide as coal per unit of energy when burned, but separate teams at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, and at the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) concluded last year that methane emissions from shale gas are much larger than previously thought. The industry and some academics branded those findings as exaggerated, but the debate has been marked by a scarcity of hard data. "It's great to get some actual numbers from the field," says Robert Howarth, a Cornell researcher whose team raised concerns about methane emissions from shale-gas drilling in a pair of papers, one published in April last year and another last month (R. W. Howarth et al. Clim. Change Lett. 106, 679-690; 2011 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10584-011-0061-5>; R. W. Howarth *et al. Clim. Change* in the press). "I'm not looking for vindication here, but [the NOAA] numbers are coming in very close to ours, maybe a little higher," he says. Natural gas might still have an advantage over coal when burned to create electricity, because gas-fired power plants tend to be newer and far more efficient than older facilities that provide the bulk of the country's coal-fired generation. But only 30% of US gas is used to produce electricity, Howarth says, with much of the rest being used for heating, for which there is no such advantage. *On the scent* The first clues appeared in 2007, when NOAA researchers noticed occasional plumes of pollutants including methane, butane and propane in air samples taken from a 300-metre-high atmospheric monitoring tower north of Denver. The NOAA researchers worked out the general direction that the pollution was coming from by monitoring winds, and in 2008, the team took advantage of new equipment and drove around the region, sampling the air in real time. Their readings led them to the Denver-Julesburg Basin, where more than 20,000 oil and gas wells have been drilled during the past four decades. Most of the wells in the basin are drilled into `tight sand' formations that require the same fracking technology being used in shale formations. This process involves injecting a slurry of water, chemicals and sand into wells at high pressure to fracture the rock and create veins that can carry trapped gas to the well. Afterwards, companies need to pump out the fracking fluids, releasing bubbles of dissolved gas as well as burps of early gas production. Companies typically vent these early gases into the atmosphere for up to a month or more until the well hits its full stride, at which point it is hooked up to a pipeline. The team analysed the ratios of various pollutants in the air samples and then tied that chemical fingerprint back to emissions from gas-storage tanks built to hold liquid petroleum gases before shipment. In doing so, they were able to work out the local emissions that would be necessary to explain the concentrations that they were seeing in the atmosphere (see `A losing battle<http://www.nature.com/news/air-sampling-reveals-high-emissions-from-gas-fie…>'). Some of the emissions come from the storage tanks, says Pétron, "but a big part of it is just raw gas that is leaking from the infrastructure". Their range of 2.3-7.7% loss, with a best guess of 4%, is slightly higher than Cornell's estimate of 2.2-3.8% for shale-gas drilling and production. It is also higher than calculations by the EPA, which revised its methodology last year and roughly doubled the official US inventory of emissions from the natural-gas industry over the past decade. Howarth says the EPA methodology translates to a 2.8% loss. The Cornell group had estimated that 1.9% of the gas produced over the lifetime of a typical shale-gas well escapes through fracking and well completion alone. NOAA's study doesn't differentiate between gas from fracking and leaks from any other point in the production process, but Pétron says that fracking clearly contributes to some of the gas her team measured. Capturing and storing gases that are being vented during the fracking process is feasible, but industry says that these measures are too costly to adopt. An EPA rule that is due out as early as April would promote such changes by regulating emissions from the gas fields. Officials with America's Natural Gas Alliance, based in Washington DC, say that the study is difficult to evaluate based on a preliminary review, but in a statement to *Nature* they add that "the findings raise questions and warrant a closer examination by the scientific community". Environmental groups are pushing the EPA to strengthen pollution controls in the pending rule, but industry is pushing to relax many of the requirements. Many companies are already improving their practices and reducing emissions throughout the country, either voluntarily or by regulation, the alliance says. Not all studies support the higher methane numbers. Sergey Paltsev, assistant director for economic research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Energy Initiative in Cambridge, and his colleagues are gathering information about industry practices for a study on shale-gas emissions. He says that their figures are likely to come in well below even the lower EPA estimate. He calls the NOAA results "surprising" and questions how representative the site is. Pétron says that more studies are needed using industry inventories and measurements of atmospheric concentrations. "We will never get the same numbers," she says, "but if we can get close enough that our ranges overlap in a meaningful way, then we can say we understand the process." *This article is reproduced with permission from the magazine *Nature*. It was **first published*<http://www.nature.com/news/air-sampling-reveals-high-emissions-from-gas-fie…> * on February 7, 2012*. Scientific American is a trademark of Scientific American, Inc., used with permission © 2012 Scientific American, a Division of Nature America, Inc. All Rights Reserved. -- William V. DePaulo, Esq. 179 Summers Street, Suite 232 Charleston, WV 25301-2163 Tel 304-342-5588 Fax 304-342-5505 william.depaulo(a)gmail.com www.passeggiata.com

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from ScienceDaily e-newsletter: More environmental rules needed for shale gas, says geophysicist
by Paul Wilson 07 Feb '12

07 Feb '12

More environmental rules needed for shale gas, says geophysicist<http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_environment/~3/-5E…> Posted: 06 Feb 2012 11:41 AM PST In his State of the Union address, President Barack Obama praised the potential of the country's tremendous supply of natural gas buried in shale. But the "Halliburton exclusion" passed by Congress says gas companies don't have to disclose the chemicals used in fracturing fluids. That was a real mistake because it makes the public needlessly paranoid, says a geophysicist. -- 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: Sierra Club and fracking money article
by Paul Wilson 06 Feb '12

06 Feb '12

See the article at the link below. WV SC Leaders Jim Sconyers and Beth Little were told by Michael Brune that SC did NOT receive donations from Chesapeake Energy. fyi, paul w ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: David Dow <ddow420(a)comcast.net> fyi- an alternative perspective on the Club's fracking gate controversy Begin forwarded message: *From: *Patricia Matejcek <patachek3(a)gmail.com> *Date: *February 3, 2012 9:58:27 PM EST *To: *CONS-WPST-COASTOCEAN-FORUM(a)LISTS.SIERRACLUB.ORG *Subject: **Sierra Club and fracking money article* * * since I sent out M. Brune's post, I thought you should have this one, too ~ http://www.counterpunch.org/**2012/02/03/the-sierra-club-** took-millions-from-fracking-**industry/<http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/02/03/the-sierra-club-took-millions-from-f…> - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - To unsubscribe from the CONS-WPST-COASTOCEAN-FORUM list, send any message to: CONS-WPST-COASTOCEAN-FORUM-signoff-request(a)LISTS.SIERRACLUB.ORG Check out our Listserv Lists support site for more information: http://www.sierraclub.org/lists/faq.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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FW: [wvec-board] E-Day Flyer
by Yarnell, Karen 04 Feb '12

04 Feb '12

I see that WVSC is listed as a participant. That's great! Even though WVCAG has promoted this day as a joining of all progressive groups, E Day is separate and occupies the top floor. My understanding is that other progressive groups who had chosen the same day will be located on the lower level. Jim, can you please send out the flyer to the SC membership? ________________________________ From: wvec-board(a)yahoogroups.com [wvec-board(a)yahoogroups.com] on behalf of Denise Poole [deniseap(a)earthlink.net] Sent: Friday, February 03, 2012 7:15 PM To: wvec-board(a)yahoogroups.com Subject: [wvec-board] E-Day Flyer Attached: One file, 2 pages. 1st page: E-Day at the Capitol. 2nd page: E-Day Benefit & Award Dinner. Print, use, send out as you feel appropriate ... Write up and agenda is also in this weeks legislative update, going out to e-list any moment now. See many of you Wednesday. Denise Denise Poole, WVEC deniseap(a)earthlink.net<mailto:deniseap%40earthlink.net> (304) 617-7073

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Hearing on EPA research about Pavillion
by Jonathan Rosenbaum 04 Feb '12

04 Feb '12

This is what Josh Fox tried to film. You can watch the Inquisition "hearing" for Pavillion athttp://science.edgeboss.net/wmedia/science/sst2012/020112.wvx <http://science.edgeboss.net/wmedia/science/sst2012/020112.wvx> Additional information is at http://science.house.gov/hearing/energy-and-environment-subcommittee-epa-hy… -Jonathan

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Electric energy bill - We need your help!
by Jim Sconyers 02 Feb '12

02 Feb '12

In the PATH fight, we had legislative wins every year for the last three years. Now that PATH is on hold, some of us have been working with Energy Efficient West Virginia and the WV Environmental Council to go on the offensive in some broader issues connected to the WV electrical system.**** ** ** This year, we are working to pass Senate Bill 162 which would establish a least cost planning process (also known as Integrated Resource Planning, or IRP) in WV. 27 other states have created these processes. In an IRP system, power companies are required to provide the state PSC with the *full * range of options, along with a cost/benefit analysis of each option, for meeting the state electrical needs, both in terms of demand and reliability. **** ** ** John Christensen from the WV E-Council and Cathy Kunkel from EEWV are working hard to move SB162 through the Legislature in the current session. We have a really good chance of getting it through, because there is strong support from legislators to hold down electric rates. The Senate leadership, primarily Senate Majority Leader John Unger, has been very helpful. Because the bill was introduced directly into the Senate Judiciary Committee by Sen. Dan Foster (D, Kanawha), once the bill passes that committee, it will go directly to the Senate floor for a vote.**** ** ** Currently, the WV PSC has no mechanism for influencing or directing how power companies make the investment or spending decisions that have driven up our electric rates over 40% in the last 5 years. Least cost planning has the potential to hold down future rate increases by allowing the PSC, CAD and intervenors in rate cases to use the plan to argue against certain choices that power companies make that lead to higher rates. A WV least cost planning process would:**** ** ** **1. **Give ratepayers an opportunity to comment on power company plans during the creation of the plan, instead of being forced to challenge individual decisions in rate cases, after those decisions have already been made by power companies,**** **2. **Give citizens, the Consumer Advocate and PSC staff a tool to push the power companies toward increasing efficiency programs and demand management, instead of simply building more plants and buying more electricity,**** **3. **Open real discussion at the PSC about the real costs and benefits of existing generation technologies in comparison with home/business based renewable power generation.**** ** ** We have thought, for the past week, that Sen. Corey Palumbo, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee was ready to put SB162 on the committee agenda for passage. Power company lobbyists have swooped in and are trying to gut the bill. AEP subsidiary Appalachian Power CEO Charles Patton made a special trip to the Capitol yesterday to talk with Chairman Palumbo and sponsor Sen. Foster. That is how worried the power companies are about having their decisions reviewed openly in public.**** ** ** So we need your help to keep power company changes from diluting SB162. Right now, we need you to contact by email or phone the following members of the Senate Judiciary Committee listed below. Our message is simple: Please (always say please) keep SB162 in its introduced form, without changes or amendments. That is all we need at this point.**** ** ** *We need you to make these contacts today Feb. 2 or tomorrow Feb. 3, to be effective*. If you cannot make these contacts now, do it on Monday. If you only want to contact a few people, Sen. Palumbo and Sen. Foster are the most important, because they are the only people actively involved in any revisions to the bill before it goes to the full committee for a vote. Please contact all committee members if you can.**** ** ** Here is some more detailed background, which you do not have to mention in your message to senators. AEP subsidiary CEO Patton wants the language in the original bill changed to the language in the current, very weak, VA IRP statute. Here is a link to the original SB162<http://www.legis.state.wv.us/Bill_Status/bills_text.cfm?billdoc=sb162%20int…>written by Cathy Kunkel, as introduced by Sen. Foster. Compare our strong bill with the weak language in the VA statute here<http://leg1.state.va.us/cgi-bin/legp504.exe?000+cod+56-599> .**** ** ** The VA statute contains only very vague language about public participation being *heard* and limits consideration to only a few factors in power company investment. Our bill is much stronger. Patton also wants us to use the words *Integrated Resource Planning* instead of the words *least cost planning* in our bill, because he does not want the focus on cutting power company costs, leaving them more wiggle room with the PSC. We believe that we can compromise here, as long as the goal of IRP is identified as finding the lowest cost resources in the definition of IRP at the end of the bill.**** ** ** If we can get an acceptable bill out of Senate Judiciary, which appears likely, and if enough of us contact committee members to help them resist the power companies, we may only need to ask you for another round of contacts when SB162 gets to House Judiciary, in about 2 weeks.**** ** ** Please take a moment and copy the pre-formatted email address list below into your email address field and change the field from *to* to *bcc*. Type in the following: Please pass SB162 without changes; or something like that in the subject field and type an email saying simply that you would like the committee to pass SB162 as introduced by Sen. Foster without any changes or amendments. You may also want to remind them that this is the best way to minimize future electric rate increases.**** ** ** Thanks for your help on this. We will keep you updated as the bill moves along.**** ** ** Here is the current contact list for Senate Judiciary Committee members:**** ** ** Cut and paste email addresses:**** ** ** corey.palumbo(a)wvsenate.gov, mark.wills(a)wvsenate.gov, bob.beach(a)wvsenate.gov, richard.browning(a)wvsenate.gov, john.fanning(a)wvsenate.gov, daniel.foster(a)camc.org, evan.jenkins(a)wvsenate.gov, art.kirkendoll(a)wvsenate.gov, orphy.klempa(a)wvsenate.gov, joe.minard(a)wvsenate.gov, herb.snyder(a)wvsenate.gov, greg.tucker(a)wvsenate.gov, john.unger(a)wvsenate.gov, bob.williams(a)wvsenate.gov, clark.barnes(a)wvsenate.gov, karen.facemyer(a)wvsenate.gov, dcnohe(a)suddenlink.net**** ** ** Here are phone numbers:**** ** ** Sen. Palumbo, chair (304) 357-7880**** Sen. Wills, vice chair (304) 357-7843**** Sen. Beach (304) 357-7919**** Sen Browning (304) 357-7807**** Sen. Fanning (304) 357-7867**** Sen. Foster, sponsor of SB 162 (304) 357-7866**** Sen. Jenkins (304) 357-7956**** Sen. Kirkendoll (304) 357-7857**** Sen. Klempa (304) 357-7918**** Sen. Minard (304) 357-7904**** Sen. Snyder (304) 357-7957**** Sen. Tucker (304) 357-7906**** Sen. Unger (304) 357-7933**** Sen. Williams (304) 357-7995**** Sen. Barnes (304) 357-7973**** Sen. Facemyer (304) 357-7855**** Sen. Nohe (304) 357-7970 You have received this e-mail because you opted to do so. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list please click here<http://www.fatcow.com/utils/UnSubscribeMe.bml?Name=moo.forreliablepowercom&…> -- Jim Sconyers jimscon(a)gmail.com 304.698.9628 Remember, Mother Nature bats last.

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Fwd: Re: FYI
by James Kotcon 01 Feb '12

01 Feb '12

To the Energy Committee: As we start to look at power plant closures, the issue of "reliability" of the electric power supply is likely to be raised as an excuse to keep these plants open. I fear that, instead of closing old inefficient plants, the utilities will push for dramatic rate increases to install scrubbers, and that our "Friends of Coal" legislators will do whatever it takes to support that goal. You will certainly here stories of the California energy crisis of 1999-2000 when blackouts and brownouts were threatened. You will almost certainly NOT hear that this "crisis" was almost entirely manufactured by ENRON and that the "crisis" was averted almost exclusively through the use of efficiency mandates. By switching to a "time of use" metering, consumers were charged extra for using electricity during peak periods, and responded almost overnight by shifting much of their electricity use to off-peak hours. As new air rules are implemented, we need to be ready to respond quickly. The attached new report, and the press release below, identify an over-looked linkage between air regulatory and electric rate regulatory agencies. Certainly, West Virginia DEP does not consider efficiency as a viable alternative to pollution controls or look at it as an alternative to new power plants. The report documents that energy efficiency programs can both lower electric rates and reduce air pollution much more cheaply than new capacity. Please read it carefully. I suggest that this report is a vehicle to begin that debate with both WV-DEP and the Public Service Commission. Whaddya Tink? Jim Kotcon >>> Bill Price <bill.price(a)sierraclub.org> 1/31/2012 7:33 PM >>> For those who want the actual report, see the PDF file attached. On Tue, Jan 31, 2012 at 7:18 PM, Jim Sconyers <jimscon(a)gmail.com> wrote: If you get a copy of the report please forward it. To get it requires more personal info than I wanted to give. On Tue, Jan 31, 2012 at 1:10 PM, Bill Price <bill.price(a)sierraclub.org> wrote: Energy Efficiency Is the Right Track for Clean Air Energy Efficiency Should Be a Compliance Strategy for States and Utilities to Cost Effectively Achieve the Goals of Federal Air Regulations Washington, D.C. (January 31, 2012): A new report by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) reveals how energy efficiency can be used by states, policymakers, and utilities developing compliance strategies to meet the goals of federal air regulations. As mandated under the Clean Air Act, a suite of upcoming air regulations will impose limits on the emissions of multiple air pollutants. The report, entitled Energy Efficiency: The Slip Switch to a New Track Toward Compliance with Federal Air Regulations (http://aceee.org/research-report/e122 ( http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?llr=4rt7cun6&et=1109185591504&s=1510&e=001X0jmecb… )), maps opportunities in these new regulations where energy efficiency can be used as a compliance tool. "Although energy efficiency is our cheapest, cleanest, and quickest energy resource, it has often been ignored as a strategy for compliance with air regulations. But now the political, economic, and regulatory environments have aligned. We are on the threshold of a unique opportunity, a tipping point for energy efficiency," said Sara Hayes, ACEEE Senior Policy Analyst and lead author of the report. "We selected major opportunities where energy efficiency can have a big impact. We unearthed a collection of good stories about what has already been tried and we found that there are some very promising opportunities. Energy efficiency can play a major role in regulations like the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule (CSAPR), the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS), and multiple federal permitting rules," said Rachel Young, Research Analyst ACEEE and coauthor of the report. This report is the second in the "Path to Compliance" series by ACEEE that outlines a track for the U.S. to transition to a cleaner, more reliable energy future. The first paper in this series, Avoiding a Train Wreck: Replacing Old Coal Plants with Energy Efficiency (http://www.aceee.org/white-paper/avoiding-a-train-wreck ( http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?llr=4rt7cun6&et=1109185591504&s=1510&e=001X0jmecb… )), explains that energy efficiency is a low-cost approach to reducing air pollution. The analysis shows that energy efficiency can be deployed much more quickly than a new power plant can be constructed and explains how energy efficiency is America's greatest untapped energy resource with massive potential. "In our current economic climate, states and utilities need a cost-effective solution to reducing pollution, complying with EPA regulations, and maintaining reliable electricity for customers. The recommendations in this report will help to reduce emissions at the lowest cost," said Steven Nadel, Executive Director of ACEEE. -- Bill Price, Organizing Representative Sierra Club Environmental Justice Program Beyond Coal to Clean Energy Campaign Phone: 304-389-8822 ( tel:304-389-8822 ) (Cell) Email: bill.price(a)sierraclub.org -- Jim Sconyers jimscon(a)gmail.com 304.698.9628 ( tel:304.698.9628 ) Remember, Mother Nature bats last. -- Bill Price, Organizing Representative Sierra Club Environmental Justice Program Beyond Coal to Clean Energy Campaign Phone: 304-389-8822 (Cell) Email: bill.price(a)sierraclub.org

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Fwd: Outrageous! Power Companies Offer $30M Bribe to the National Park Service in New Jersey Power Line Case
by Paul Wilson 29 Jan '12

29 Jan '12

please fwd this to others. thx, paul ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Keryn Newman <Keryn(a)stoppathwv.com> Date: Sat, Jan 28, 2012 at 3:33 PM Subject: Outrageous! Power Companies Offer $30M Bribe to the National Park Service in New Jersey Power Line Case To: pjgrunt(a)gmail.com Recently, the PATH Companies have requested that the National Park Service continue to hold their application to cross the Appalachian Trail, Harpers Ferry National Park and the C&O Canal in continued abeyance indefinitely. We are watching this development and will let you know when it is time to take action on the PATH EIS application. ** ** In a separate but related matter, we are asking you to please take two minutes out of your busy day to let the National Park Service know what you think about the outrageous $30M *mitigation package* offered by Public Service Gas & Electric (NJ) and PPL Electric Utilities (PA) in exchange for the Park Service issuing them a permit to cross the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area and the Appalachian Trail with their Susquehanna-Roseland 500kV transmission project. This matters to us because it is part of the ongoing attempt by utility companies to find ways to assert corporate influence over citizen interests, inflate project costs to ratepayers, and sets a dangerous precedent for other EIS evaluations. Just as PATH was an unneeded, profiteering boondoggle, so is Susquehanna-Roseland. ** ** Back in November, the Park Service recommended *No Action* as the environmentally preferred alternative response to the Susquehanna-Roseland application. This would result in a denial of the application. In reply, the power companies offered to purchase at least $30M of inferior land adjacent to the current park and donate it to the Park Service or other environmental/conservation groups. They contend that this will somehow * mitigate* the new 200 – 380 ft. wide right-of-way and 195 ft. tall towers plowing through some of the most scenic vistas in the existing park. ** ** A deal is rumored to have been worked out between corporate lobbyists and Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar and Park Service Director Jon Jarvis. The Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) said, *The Secretary and the Director have unofficially committed to the companies that the NPS will select Alternative 2, the alternative preferred by the companies but which is the most damaging to the resources and scenery of the parks.* ** ** In addition, the cost of the $30M *mitigation package* will be added to the cost of the transmission project that will be recovered from all electric consumers in the PJM Region in their monthly electric bills for the next 50 years. The power companies will also earn a 12.93 percent profit every year on the cost of their $30M inducement. The effect of this is that you will pay for *mitigation* of damage caused to your park by corporations who will see profit on the cost of the *mitigation *paid for by you. Private, for-profit corporations are using YOUR money to bribe a federal agency to squander YOUR national parks! ** ** We ask that you let the National Park Service know what you think about the proposition of the power companies by submitting your comments on the Environmental Impact Statement (instructions below). Comments will close on *January 31,* so your immediate action is needed! We also encourage you to forward and share this with all your friends via email, facebook or other social networking. To read more details about the situation, visit http://www.stoppathwv.com/stoppath-wv-blog.html or http://calhounpowerline.com/ ** ** To comment, visit the Susquehanna-Roseland Park Service Comment Form, http://www.parkplanning.nps.gov/commentForm.cfm?parkID=220&projectID=25147&… quickly and easily submit your comments to the Park Service online. Below is suggested text to be copied and pasted into the comments field, but as always, we encourage you to edit and personalize your message. ** ** Suggested text: As a citizen stakeholder of our national parks and an electric consumer in the PJM Interconnection region responsible for the cost of the Susquehanna Roseland transmission line project, I wholeheartedly support the *No Action* environmentally preferred Alternative 1 recommended in the draft EIS.**** ** ** It is unconscionable that the National Park Service would even consider the mitigation package offered by the applicants in return for approving their application to spoil several of our national parks. The transmission line will severely and permanently alter the park. We can never recover a natural resource that is thoughtlessly squandered in pursuit of corporate profit.**** ** ** In addition, I strongly object to the National Park Service accepting a $30M inducement from for-profit corporations in exchange for permission to lay waste to a public asset, held in trust by the NPS for the benefit of all citizens. The cost of mitigation will become the financial responsibility of myself and the 61 million other electric consumers in the PJM Interconnection region via cost allocation of the transmission rate for this project, which was approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. The $30M price of mitigation offered to the Park Service will be added to the cost of the transmission project, which will be reimbursed by ratepayers to the applicants over the next 50 years. In addition, the corporate investment in the transmission line will earn them a 12.93% return on the depreciating value of the mitigation package, and other assets, for each and every one of those 50 years. This proposed use of money out of my pocket to mitigate damage to my park caused by corporations, who earn a profit on this damage, is ludicrous.**** ** ** I encourage the NPS to select Alternative 1 in the final EIS. Our precious, dwindling natural resources should never be *for sale* to the highest corporate bidder.**** ** ** ** ** ** ** You have received this e-mail because you opted to do so. If you wish to unsubscribe from this mailing list please click here<http://www.fatcow.com/utils/UnSubscribeMe.bml?Name=moo.keryn&List=biglist1&…> -- 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: Major Victory for Clean Air: First Energy to Retire Six Coal Plants in OH, PA, and MD!
by Paul Wilson 27 Jan '12

27 Jan '12

fyi, incase you did not hear about this..... ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Verena Owen <verena_owen(a)prodigy.net> Date: Thu, Jan 26, 2012 at 2:24 PM Subject: Major Victory for Clean Air: First Energy to Retire Six Coal Plants in OH, PA, and MD! To: COAL-CAMPAIGN-ALERTS(a)lists.sierraclub.org Congratulations to the Sierra Club's teams and our allies who worked hard to get this huge win! Verena Friend<http://action.sierraclub.org/site/TellAFriend?page=http%3A%2F%2Faction.sier…> View as web page<http://action.sierraclub.org/site/R?i=Ps67cfKgaYBsnol64jZcEQ>Sent to verena_owen(a)prodigy.net. Not you? Sign up here<http://action.sierraclub.org/site/R?i=0jhmfCiy6VzQYXmIeA8elQ> . [image: Sierra Club Press Release] ------------------------------ [image: Share this page on Facebook]<http://action.sierraclub.org/site/R?i=z_OjMQMBT4pXb5hgvT468A>[image: Share this page on Twitter]<http://action.sierraclub.org/site/R?i=80dXhSVF441wo2x1t_mt-Q>[image: Share this page with other services]<http://action.sierraclub.org/site/R?i=-1qUdaQ07d2abeL1k1dLdg> *FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE* *January 26, 2012* *Contact:* Claire Orphan, Sierra Club 312.251.1680 x146 or claire.orphan(a)sierraclub.org *Major Victory for Clean Air: First Energy to Retire Six Coal Plants* *Utility to retire six coal-fired power plants, following national trend of coal losing ground to clean energy* *Cleveland, OH* – In a huge win for clean air and public health, First Energy announced this morning that the company will retire six of its dirtiest coal-fired power plants. These plants, located in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Maryland, will stop burning coal by September 1, 2012. First Energy announced that the following plants will be retired: Bay Shore Plant, Units 2-4, Oregon, Ohio; Eastlake Plant, Eastlake, Ohio; Ashtabula Plant, Ashtabula, Ohio; Lake Shore Plant, Cleveland, Ohio; Armstrong Power Station, Adrian, Pa.; and R. Paul Smith Power Station, Williamsport, Md. In total, these retirements will bring 2,689 megawatts of dirty and dangerous coal pollution to an end. “Above all, this is a win for public health and for families who have been breathing polluted air from these outdated plants,” said Bruce Nilles, Senior Director of Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal campaign. “Today’s news is part of a national trend of clean energy replacing coal. The writing is on the wall for the coal industry. With the cost of coal rising and clean energy prices plummeting, coal’s market share is shrinking fast.” Closure of the six plants will prevent more than 174 premature deaths, 282 heart attacks, 2,677 asthma attacks, and 136 asthma emergency room visits, according to data from the Clean Air Task Force. Over the past few years, Sierra Club has been working with local citizens and groups including Environmental Integrity Project, Earthjustice, Environment Maryland, and Chesapeake Climate Action Network, in Maryland and Pennsylvania. In Ohio, the Sierra Club worked closely with Ohio Citizen Action, the Western Lake Erie Waterkeepers, and the Ohio Environmental Council to persuade First Energy to phase out its coal plants and to invest instead in clean energy sources like energy efficiency, wind and solar. The Natural Resources Defense Council led Ohio groups in legal strategy to force these plants to clean up dangerous mercury pollution. "I am proud that since 2008, the Sierra Club and our partner organizations have been actively organizing and challenging these coal plants, and working with other organizations to highlight the hazardous nature of coal-fired power plants," said Rashay Layman, Associate Organizing Representative with the Beyond Coal Campaign in Ohio. A report released this week by the U.S. Energy Information Administration highlighted a predicted drop in coal’s market share, from 44 to 39 percent, between 2010 and 2035. The EIA reports traditionally underestimate coal's decline, and the First Energy decision seems to suggest an even steeper drop for coal power in the United States. The EIA report also predicted that no new coal plants would be constructed in this period, aside from those already under construction. http://sc.org/w9SrLV<http://action.sierraclub.org/site/R?i=1m3qe9MqquPI_Q8WGVCxWg> . Ohio is already seeing the clean energy industry take hold. Earlier this week, the stateapproved plans<http://action.sierraclub.org/site/R?i=w8Vt5FfL_E_65IiCg6V1RA> for a 91-turbine wind farm that will bring up to $61 million dollars into the region. “We want to encourage First Energy to make use of the abundant clean energy potential throughout its territory. The company can create good clean energy jobs that won’t harm public health,” said Sierra Club Ohio volunteer Dave Simons. “This victory is the first of many to come in our fight to move beyond coal and fossil fuels and into a clean energy future. The next step for First Energy is to retire their dirty West Virginia plants, Albright and Willow Island.” The Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal campaign works in partnership with Bloomberg Philanthropies and a nationwide coalition of allies to retire one-third of the nation's aging coal plants by 2020, replacing them with clean energy like wind and solar by 2030. "This is a great development for the Beyond Coal Campaign," said Mayor Michael Bloomberg. “We are clearly witnessing the end of our dependency on coal and the move toward a cleaner energy future. As importantly, we are helping to provide cleaner water and cleaner air to communities and our citizens across the nation." Coal plants are the largest sources of climate disruption and toxic air pollution like mercury, soot and carbon pollution. These six plants bring the tally of coal plant retirements to 93 since the Sierra Club began its Beyond Coal campaign in 2002. ### *[image: Sierra Club]Sierra Club *85 2nd St. San Francisco, CA 94105 sierra.news(a)sierraclub.org www.sierraclub.org/pressroom<http://action.sierraclub.org/site/R?i=jGlbKE1xSaO1PVBAYS4KBA> Update My Profile<http://action.sierraclub.org/site/R?i=P151fjR_lgl_1MmZbqc6Tw> | Unsubscribe<http://action.sierraclub.org/site/R?i=kTxYekmafh4NZlvS9T7pBg> | Manage My Email Preferences<http://action.sierraclub.org/site/CO?i=0VpOsI8gS-7c5b6Nd_R5RLObiZ0OeYrT&cid…> *Connect with the Sierra Club:* Like us on Facebook<http://action.sierraclub.org/site/R?i=EJcJKTsPs9tw8WqZQUjFhw>Follow us on Twitter <http://action.sierraclub.org/site/R?i=o5nlBHxkhNZ0LVEcBRHwTQ>Sign up for the Insider<http://action.sierraclub.org/site/R?i=DCzVX8fbYfIpgvcWyuADLw>Join Our Activist Network<http://action.sierraclub.org/site/R?i=2dM2gcw7d7av2ibCtgyHsA> - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 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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Energy Guerrilla Theater
by Jim Sconyers 26 Jan '12

26 Jan '12

Energy Guerrilla Theater - anyone want to try it? Here's an idea for referees. We do some guerrilla theater. 3 people in ref shirts w whistles and red penalty flags. Show up at McKinley's (or Rahall's or Capito's) local office. Meet outside w media if any come - we have data on their contributions from dirty energy. Then enter the office - then a little theater. "We're here to call a foul on McKinley - is he here?" "No.' Lot of whistle blowing, throwing red penalty flags,.... Then each ref announces a penalty like "Foul! For not promoting clean energy for America!!" with a placard with the charge printed for camera and to leave for McK. Finish, give office person the charges, exit w more whistles and hoopla. Key - get the whole thing on video and immediately get it onto YouTube and on to FB, other websites. Huge fun, and good targeting.... I have 3 ref shirts, a few red flags (any piece of red fabric is OK), left over from DC yesterday. What do you think? We need 2 more vols for refs, and 1 or 2 capable video folks to capture it. Timing could be the Friday before the Super Bowl. This will be good fun - and all legal!Can you be part of it? Be a ref for the environment! Let me know....! -- Jim Sconyers jimscon(a)gmail.com 304.698.9628 Remember, Mother Nature bats last.

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Fwd: Morgantown Clean Air Cities resolution
by James Kotcon 23 Jan '12

23 Jan '12

Is this an issue that Morgantown folks would like to get involved with? It is now almost 5 years since Morgantown adopted the Cool cities resolution, so it might be time for the next steps. Whaddya tink? Jim Kotcon >>> "Chris Haddox" <Chris.Haddox(a)mail.wvu.edu> 1/23/2012 3:26 PM >>> Hi MMGT folks, I just got word from the Clean Air Cities person that contacted me saying that Council is going to discuss the attached resolution at it's Feb 7 meeting. Thoughts? Chris J. Chris Haddox, LEED AP, Visiting Assistant Professor, Sustainable Design Division of Design & Merchandising West Virginia University 704M Allen Hall Box 6124 Morgantown, WV 26505 E-Mail: chris.haddox(a)mail.wvu.edu Phone: (304) 293-3657 Program Website: http://www.design.wvu.edu >>> "Sarah Sawtelle" <ssawtelle(a)endangeredearth.org> 1/18/2012 5:44 PM >>> Dear Mr. Haddox, I am writing to you with hopes that the Morgantown Green Team will encourage the city of Morgantown to join the Center for Biological Diversitys Clean Air Cities campaign by passing a resolution in support of the Clean Air Act. Could you please pass this message on to the rest of the Green Team, and consider proposing this resolution to your city council? As you know, if we want clean air and a healthy climate, we have to cut greenhouse gas pollution. The Clean Air Act is our current best hope of reaching this goal, but the Act and the Environmental Protection Agency are under significant attack from the fossil fuel industry and its allies in Congress. Cities and counties across the country can be a powerful voice for fighting back against polluters and prompting much-needed action in Washington. That's why the Center for Biological Diversitys Climate Law Institute has launched Clean Air Cities, a nationwide campaign urging cities and counties around the United States to pass a resolution that calls on the Obama administration and the EPA to use the Clean Air Act to make significant reductions in greenhouse gas pollution. Boone, NC, Pittsburgh, PA and Seattle, WA are among the cities that have already signed on. Morgantown's commitment to sustainability suggests it would be a great candidate to be to be the first city in West Virginia to be a Clean Air city. I have attached a sample city resolution that you can look over and edit as needed. Please let me know if you are interested in bringing this resolution to your council, or if you have any questions about the campaign. Our webpage, CleanAirCities.org, also provides important background information. Please respond to Rose Braz, the Centers Climate Campaign director, who is coordinating this effort and can be reached by email, rbraz(a)biologicaldiversity.org, or phone: (415) 436-9682 x 319. Thank you so much for your time and concern for our climate! Sincerely, Sarah Sawtelle The Center for Biological Diversity -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MorgantownGreenTeam" group. To post to this group, send email to morgantowngreenteam(a)googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to morgantowngreenteam+unsubscribe(a)googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/morgantowngreenteam?hl=en.

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Fwd: question about wind
by Paul Wilson 21 Jan '12

21 Jan '12

seems to me I once saw some data on winds in the appalachians, but I am having CRS at the moment. If you can help Clayton, please email him directly. thx, paul ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Clayton Daughenbaugh <claytonhd(a)xmission.com> Date: Fri, Jan 20, 2012 at 10:02 AM Subject: question about wind To: CONS-AWL-RESILIENT-HABITATS(a)lists.sierraclub.org Anyone out there know of any research about whether there has been an increase in wind across the country in recent years and, if so, possible causes.**** ** ** The ex of one of my wife’s friends is a cross-country truck driver. Apparently in his circles there is a belief that wind speeds have increased in recent years and there is a dialogue going on speculating as to whether it is caused by all the new “wind-mills” or climate change. I’ve been asked if I know anything about this and I don’t.**** ** ** I would say anecdotally, and as a person who travels the highways a lot that I tend to agree recent years have been a bit windier.**** ** ** --clayton**** - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - To unsubscribe from the CONS-AWL-RESILIENT-HABITATS list, send any message to: CONS-AWL-RESILIENT-HABITATS-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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