Monday, November 24th, 2008

President-Elect Obama:

“We must do more to put people back to work, and get our economy moving again,” the president-elect said.

He said his economic priority would be a two-year, nationwide effort to”jumpstart job-creation in America and lay the foundation for a strong and growing economy”.

Aging public infrastructure would be rebuilt, Mr Obama said, adding that his administration would look quickly at developing and building sources of renewable energy, such as wind farms, designed to “free” the US from its “dependency” foreign oil.

…

In the great state of Kentucky, with its beautiful rolling hills, storied history, and monolithic coal industry, environmentalists count their victories as few and far between. Case in point, the current Democratic Governor of Kentucky, Steve Beshear, once said that mountaintop removal mining, which blasts apart entire mountains and buries streams, can be done “environmentally.” Well, it looks like I’m going to have to put this news in my hell-has-frozen-over pile, but perhaps the biggest surprise of this week is the fact that Beshear sent a letter to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) asking them to reject the Bush Administrations attempted deregulation of mountaintop removal mining. (.pdf)

During this time of historic change it seems that even coal-friendly politicians like Beshear are seeing the need to put a check on the coal industry’s reckless and destructive drive to pillage the Appalachian Mountains. As the Bush Administration attempts to shove through 11th-hour repeals to critical mountaintop removal mining regulations such as the stream buffer zone, coal state governors and members of Congress from across the country are stepping up and protecting the interests of the people rather than the interests of the coal industry.

Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen also wrote a letter to EPA, saying in part (.pdf):

The final EIS makes clear what a poor job OSM has done of protecting streams from the impacts of coal mining and related activities. It states that, in the ten years from 1992 to 2002, more than 1200 miles of streams in central Appalachia have been directly impacted by coal mining, either by being mined through or by being buried under spoil disposal piles. That is approximately 2 percent of the streams in the Kentucky, Virginia, and West Virginia coal fields.

From Bush, to Chenry, to Dingell, to Boucher, to Robert Byrd, the dinosaurs of the pollution industries are stepping aside – or being removed via ballot – and being replaced by champions on energy and the environment.

In the very first act of the 111th Congress, the Democratic Caucus took the incredibly bold step of booting foot-dragging Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Dingell. In his place they put Henry Waxman, who authored the strongest global warming legislation in the House in the 110th Congress, introduced legislation to ban the construction of any new coal-fired power plants, and is a co-sponsor of HR 2169 – the Clean Water Protection Act – which would ban most mountaintop removal mining.

Here’s what the mining industry has to say about Waxman (via “MineWeb“)

…as Rep. Henry Waxman, D-California, takes the helm after victoriously ousting Dingell from the chairmanship, it will feel like the difference between George Bush and Barack Obama, an environmental lawyer recently told Bloomberg.

The National Mining Association’s Luke Popovich warned Waxman would likely be “a very slower learner on the importance of coal for affordable energy. …It would have been problematic in the best of times to have Mr. Waxman’s views prevail.”

Bwwahahaha! If anybody in Congress knows the true cost of coal its Henry Waxman. It is plain laughable that with the cost of Appalachian coal more than tripling this year, utilities raising rates due to the cost of coal, and the economic devastation in coalfield communities that NMA staff are actually trying to say that coal is cheap and economically beneficial.

They may not be able to recognize it yet, but the reality-based among us can see – the transition is here. Coal production is declining and American interest and investment in renewable sources of energy (including conservation and efficiency) is increasing.

But, as Lavar Burton would say – don’t take my word for it. In a show of good will and a preview towards an era of more open government, President-Elect Obama’s Transition Team has released the following video showing his energy and environment transition team, highlighting some of the key players who will help him choose his key appointments and who have helped him set his key policies (left). For the first time in my lifetime, we will see leadership from the White House on climate change, renewable energy, and in ending mountaintop removal mining. (right)

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