Win $5,000 in The Dirty Lie Video Contest: Coal, Lies and Video Tape

This just in from the Waterkeeper Alliance:

In celebration of The Dirty Lie’s first birthday, Waterkeeper Alliance is hosting a contest to find the best short video telling the world that clean coal is nothing but a dirty lie. Be creative, we are looking for out-of-the-box submissions that showcase coal’s dirty lies and your talents! Potential topics include mountaintop removal coal mining, coal ash, or climate change.

Finalists will be featured at thedirtylie.com, gaining exposure to a global audience. The winner will be chosen by a panel of five celebrity judges, and will walk away with a cool $5,000.00.

How to Enter:

1. Post your video to your YouTube channel no later than 12 pm EST on April 30, 2010
2. Email the link to your submission and the following information to thedirtyliecontest@gmail.com by 12 pm EST on April 30, 2010.
   • Name
   • Phone number
   • Address
   • YouTube link
   • Release form
   • How you found out about The Dirty Lie Video Contest

** The contest is open to individuals only. Staff of Waterkeeper Alliance or any of their member programs are welcome to apply, but not eligible for the $5,000 grand prize.

No comments yet » Leave your own...

New Coal Ash Damage Report

The latest report detailing damages to water supplies by toxic coal ash. The snippit below is from the Appalachian Voices’ Watauga Riverkeeper blog:

In hopes of encouraging the EPA to come out with overdue regulations on the handling of coal ash, EIP and Earth Justice with help from the Appalachian Voices Watauga Riverkeeper team released a report today illustrating the damages caused by 31 coal ash disposal sites across the country.

The report details 31 sites where major damage to surface water or groundwater has been documented. The pollution present in this waste is among the earth’s most harmful to aquatic life and humans – arsenic, lead, selenium, cadmium and other heavy metals, which cause cancer and crippling neurological damage. If these poisons can be kept out of the fish we eat, the water we drink, bathe in, and need to survive, simply through regulation, than we must take that long overdue step, not only for the sake of our public waters but for humanity’s sake as well.

Asheville Ash Pond and Nearby Homes

Coal Ash Moonscape at Belews Creek Steam Station

Read the rest of the blog post here.

No comments yet » Leave your own...

“Good Energy Stewardship” Program Kicks Off

This just in from our friends at Kilowatt Ours:

“As we practice good stewardship of our abundant natural resources, we prosper. As we prosper, the planet heals.” Jeff Barrie

I have never been more excited about my work. Today, Kilowatt Ours launches our “Good Energy Stewardship Program” with a mission to help you reduce energy usage by making simple changes in your daily habits and behaviors. This will be the central focus of our organization’s work for years to come, because stewardship is a life-long process, and there are always opportunities to learn and grow. Please help us by sharing this information with everyone you feel would benefit.

What is the Good Energy Stewardship Program?

Before you install solar panels or invest in energy efficiency retrofits there are countless steps you can take immediately that require no budgeting, hiring, or upfront cash investments. I have come to believe that the greatest untapped, potential energy savings available in our world are those that can be realized through changing our minds, actions, and relationship to the energy we use every day. This is the first step available to all people right now, regardless of geography, climate, technical expertise, or income. The “Good Energy Stewardship Program” will help you save energy, save money, and contribute to a cleaner, more prosperous world. I do believe as more and more people make a commitment to practice good energy stewardship, many of the environmental challenges we face today will vanish and be replaced by the clean, abundant energy we all know is there for us.

We will help you on your good energy stewardship journey by providing the following resources for you (all of these can be accessed at www.KilowattOurs.org):

* informational emails about this initiative

* worksheets with practical steps you can take immediately

* downloads and DVDs to watch and share

* online discussion forums to share your experiences

* community workshops to learn and grow together

When can you get started?

Right now! Take 45 seconds to download and print our free energy saving worksheet at www.KilowattOurs.org , follow the instructions, and create your Personal Stewardship Plan. The small steps you take are proven to yield big results, when you take them with diligence and a positive attitude.

How can you help?

Participate: Do the best you can to reduce the amount of kilowatts you consume, one day at a time. Share your experiences in our discussion forums.

Donate: Your financial contributions allow us to expand our work and achieve our goals. Click here.

Stay tuned and share: I will blog and email with more information, uncovering the immeasurable value we gain when we practice good energy stewardship. Tell your friends about our work!

I am eager to take this journey with you. Please be in touch!

Jeff Barrie

No comments yet » Leave your own...

Sierra Club: new leader and increased focus on mountaintop removal

Mike Brune will soon become the Executive Director of the Sierra Club. Besides being a great leader, Mike brings another important thing to the table: an understanding and dislike for the ills of the coal industry, especially mountaintop removal coal mining. We just loved this line:

Also at the top of Brune’s first-year hit list is bringing an end to the coal industry’s “mountaintop removal” mining practices.

Here are excerpts from an article written by the Sacramento Bee:

MICHAEL A. JONES / mjones@sacbee.com
Michael Brune will become the sixth executive director in the Sierra Club’s history on March 15.

Brune, 38, takes over the reins of the organization that famed conservationist John Muir started in 1892 at a time when the club, according to some observers, has lost some of the sting in the political punches it throws.

When Brune starts on March 15, he will replace veteran Executive Director Carl Pope, who will stay on in the new role of executive chairman.

But it is exactly Brune’s civil but edgy activist style – combined with his impressive string of victories against corporate environmental wrongdoing while at the Rainforest Action Network – that Sierra Club leaders said they found most appealing.

“The board was particularly impressed by Michael’s (proven) talent for bending the will of powerful adversaries without breaking the bonds of civility that keep them at the table,” board President Allison Chin said.

Brune, married with two small children, says his arrival doesn’t signal that a sea change is about to occur within the 1.4 million-member organization.

He noted that the club, along with its virtual army of Washington, D.C.-based lawyers and lobbyists, has a proud history of originating or heavily influencing most if not all of the nation’s major environmental statutes.

Author of the well-received Sierra Club 1988 book, “Coming Clean – Breaking America’s Addiction to Oil and Coal,” Brune did say he plans to redouble the Sierra Club’s efforts in the fight against global climate change. He said the club will push aggressively to get a clean-energy bill out of Congress before the end of 2010.

At the heart of that struggle, Brune says, lies America’s continued dependence on coal-fired electricity plants – plants which currently provide an estimated 45 percent of the nation’s energy but which are a major sources of greenhouse gas emissions.

Also at the top of Brune’s first-year hit list is bringing an end to the coal industry’s “mountaintop removal” mining practices.

Mountaintop removal, which occurs mostly in the Appalachian states, involves using an explosive charge to remove the top 300 or 400 feet of a mountain to expose a seam of coal for mining.

While federal regulations require mining companies to replace the top layer of dirt, the process destroys environmental habitat and releases toxins into the air that threaten the health of workers and local residents.

“We must replace dirty coal in this country,” Brune said. “We must continue this fight until we convince our political and industry leaders that there are more economic benefits to be had by transitioning to wind power and other forms of clean energy.”

You can read the entire article here.

No comments yet » Leave your own...

Study says that terrestrial Carbon impacts of mountaintop removal coal mining are significant. Duh!

A new study released by the University of Kentucky (through the American Chemical Society), says that, “Contrary to conventional wisdom, the life-cycle emissions of coal production for MCM methods were found to be quite significant when considering the potential terrestrial source.”

Her is the executive summary:

The Southern Appalachian forest region of the U.S.—a region responsible for 23% of U.S. coal production—has 24 billion metric tons of high quality coal remaining of which mountaintop coal mining (MCM) will be the primary extraction method. Here we consider greenhouse gas emissions associated with MCM terrestrial disturbance in the life-cycle of coal energy production. We estimate disturbed forest carbon, including terrestrial soil and nonsoil carbon using published U.S. Environmental Protection Agency data of the forest floor removed and U.S. Department of Agriculture?Forest Service inventory data. We estimate the amount of previously buried geogenic organic carbon brought to the soil surface during MCM using published measurements of total organic carbon and carbon isotope data for reclaimed soils, soil organic matter and coal fragments. Contrary to conventional wisdom, the life-cycle emissions of coal production for MCM methods were found to be quite significant when considering the potential terrestrial source. Including terrestrial disturbance in coal life-cycle assessment indicates that indirect emissions are at least 7 and 70% of power plant emissions for conventional and CO2 capture and sequestration power plants, respectively. To further constrain these estimates, we suggest that the fate of soil carbon and geogenic carbon at MCM sites be explored more widely.

produced by:

James F. Fox* and J. Elliott Campbell
Civil Engineering Department, University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky 40506
Environ. Sci. Technol., Article ASAP
DOI: 10.1021/es903301j
Publication Date (Web): February 8, 2010
Copyright © 2010 American Chemical Society

read the entire study here

No comments yet » Leave your own...

Protestors Occupy Marfork Coal Co.’s Office in Response to Mounting Violations

A report from Ken Ward Jr.
The press release from climate ground zero

No comments yet » Leave your own...

Put Chase On The Run: Social Media Day of Action

From the Rainforest Action Network. Please join in this Thursday, February 18th

JP Morgan Chase is the biggest U.S. financier of mountaintop removal coal mining, the practice of blowing apart mountain peaks to cheaply access coal below the surface.

Rainforest Action Network has repeatedly asked Chase to quit funding mountaintop removal. Chase has refused. In response, RAN has decided to PUT CHASE ON THE RUN with a social media day of action.

This Thursday morning at 9am EST, DirtyMoney.org will reveal a list of simple actions people can take online, letting Chase know that America is aware of the bank’s involvement in destroying the Appalachian Mountains. Participants will have a choice of actions to take on a variety of social networks, including Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and the new collaborative video platform, Citizen Global.

RAN will be joining forces with top bloggers, social media partners, and allied organizations from around the nation to ensure Chase reevaluates its funding of mountaintop removal coal mining. Online activists will use social networks to brand jam Chase and simultaneously educate communities about the connection between Chase Bank and the obliteration of America’s most biodiverse summits.

Actions will go live at 9am EST on February 18th at www.dirtymoney.org

New partners can join the action by signing up at www.ran.org/chase.

For questions regarding participation in Put Chase On The Run, email sparkin@ran.org.

More facts on MTR: http://ran.org/campaigns/global_finance/spotlight/ending_mountaintop_removal/

More facts on Chase: http://ran.org/campaigns/global_finance/spotlight/jp_morgan_chase_banking_on_dirty_energy

About Rainforest Action Network
http://ran.org/about_ran/

2 Comments » Leave your own...

New GAO report documents mountaintop removal damage

Yesterday, the Government Accountability Office released another report about mountaintop removal coal mining. Naturally Ken Ward Jr. released his own well research article 15 minutes later:

The U.S. Government Accountability Office (the GAO) has released its second major report on mountaintop removal coal mining in the last three months. (See previous post here).

Today’s report, Financial Assurances for, and Long-Term Oversight of, Mines with Valley Fills in Four Appalachian States, is similar to the previous GAO study, in that it provides not a ton of brand new information for anyone familiar with the mountaintop removal issue.

But, the 68-page report, prepared for members of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources and Environment and Public Works committees, does again repeat and confirm what should already be well known, but is often ignored by the coal industry and its politician friends. For example, the GAO study found:

– Reforestation efforts at some reclaimed surface coal mine sites needed improvement;

– Surface coal mine sites have contaminated streams and harmed aquatic organisms;

– Valley fills may affect water flow; and

– Mine operators have not always returned mine sites to their approximate original contour when required to do so under SMCRA.

READ THE REST OF THE BLOG POST ON COAL TATTOO.

3 Comments » Leave your own...

Buy Music, Save Mountains!

The following email was sent to the 40,300 supporters of iLoveMountains.org. To sign up to receive free email alerts, click here.

What could be better than listening to great music — and saving mountains at the same time?

You can do just that by ordering a copy of Ben Sollee and Daniel Martin Moore’s new album, Dear Companion:

Click here to order Dear Companion

Dear Companion is a great collaboration, made for a good cause. Celloist Ben Sollee (named by NPR as one of the “Top 10 Unknown Artists of the Year”) and Kentucky singer and songwriter Daniel Martin Moore teamed up with producer Yim Yames (from My Morning Jacket) to create an album that explores the Appalachian home they love, while drawing attention to mountaintop removal coal mining and its impact on the people and heritage of Central Appalachia.

And thanks to Ben and Daniel, 100% of the artists’ proceeds go directly to supporting iLoveMountains.org.

You can receive your copy of Dear Companion by making a $75 contribution today. Donate at the $120 level or higher and you’ll also receive a free autographed poster signed by Ben Sollee.

And if you’re in the Louisville, KY area, you can join Ben and Daniel for a concert and reception on February 26th:

Click here to order the album, posters and tickets

Thank you for supporting great music and the fight to end mountaintop removal coal mining.
 

Matt Wasson
iLoveMountains.org

No comments yet » Leave your own...

Mountaintop removal foes rally in Ky., Va.

A brief summary of two important rallies AND two imporant pieces of legislation from Ken Ward Jr.’s Coal Tattoo Blog Thanks Ken!

Hundreds of demonstrators descend on the Capitol in Frankfort, Ky. to call for an end to the practice of mountaintop removal coal mining, Thursday, Feb. 11, 2010.(AP Photo/Ed Reinke)

Hundreds of folks who oppose mountaintop removal coal mining gathered for rallies today in Frankfort, Ky., and in Richmond, Va.

My buddy Jim Bruggers of the Louisville Courier-Journal has a report on the Kentucky rally here. That event came as Kentucky lawmakers consider renewable energy legislation and a separate measure meant to push U.S. EPA not to cap greenhouse gas emissions.

In Virginia, activists were gathering as lawmakers there considered the “stream saver bill,” or legislation aimed at outlawing valley fills.

If you see more media coverage of either event, please feel free to post links…

No comments yet » Leave your own...