- EC - lists.bikelover.org

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

1 0

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

1 0

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!

2 1

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 . __,_._,___

1 0

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!

1 0

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

1 0

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!

1 0

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

1 0

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

1 0

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

1 0

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

1 0

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 - ** - - - -

1 0

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.

1 0

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

1 0

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-…

1 0

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

1 0

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

1 0

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

1 0

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

1 0

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/

1 0

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

1 0

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.

1 0

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. __,_._,___

1 0

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

1 0

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

1 0

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

1 0

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

2 2

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)

1 1

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.

1 0

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 ) -----

2 3

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

1 0

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

1 0

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.

1 0

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

1 0

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

1 0

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)

1 0

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

2 1

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

1 0

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

2 1

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

1 0

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.

1 0

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.

1 0

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

1 0

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

1 0

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

1 0

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. Link Media's mission is to engage, inform and motivate individuals to take part in constructive dialogue and civic action through the presentation of global perspectives, diverse cultures and in-depth, challenging content not available elsewhere. Now celebrating its 12th year on the air, Link Media has provided thousands of hours of groundbreaking television to audiences in North America and innovative multimedia content worldwide through its website, www.linktv.org<http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1109644681987&s=40225&e=001PNWXxkp3lnL_VIWNaTB…>. [image: Facebook]<http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1109644681987&s=40225&e=001PNWXxkp3lnJrrMy9sNS…> [image: Give Now]<http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1109644681987&s=40225&e=001PNWXxkp3lnKicPLkaoR…> [image: Twitter]<http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?et=1109644681987&s=40225&e=001PNWXxkp3lnIk2S-vQmW…> *Forward email<http://ui.constantcontact.com/sa/fwtf.jsp?llr=najsn4bab&m=1101639787533&ea=…> * **<http://visitor.constantcontact.com/do?p=un&mse=001ZaS58ajNOw0un1GK2J58igG3H…> ****** ** This email was sent to ddow420(a)comcast.net by linktvcc(a)linktv.org | Update Profile/Email Address<http://visitor.constantcontact.com/do?p=oo&mse=001ZaS58ajNOw0un1GK2J58igG3H…> | Instant removal with SafeUnsubscribe<http://visitor.constantcontact.com/do?p=un&mse=001ZaS58ajNOw0un1GK2J58igG3H…>™ | Privacy Policy <http://ui.constantcontact.com/roving/CCPrivacyPolicy.jsp>. ** Link Media, Inc. | P.O. 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

1 0

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

1 0

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.

1 0

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 )

1 0

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

1 0

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

1 0

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. __,_._,___

1 0

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

1 0

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

1 0

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

1 0

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.

1 0

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. __,_._,___

1 0

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

1 0

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

1 0

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.

1 0

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

1 0

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.

2 2

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

1 0

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

1 0

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

1 0

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

1 0

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

1 0

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.

1 0

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.

1 0

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.

1 0

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

1 0

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

2 1

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.

1 0

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.

1 0

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.

1 0

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.

1 0

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>

1 0

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

1 0

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

1 0

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.

2 1

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.

2 1

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

1 0

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>

1 0

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.”

1 0

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....

1 0

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

1 0

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

1 0

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

3 3

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

1 0

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

1 0

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.

1 0

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

1 0

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

1 0

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

2 1

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.

1 0

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.

1 0

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

3 2

Fwd: Groups Secure Another Key Victory in Fight to Stop Pollution from Coal Mines
by Paul Wilson 19 Jan '12

19 Jan '12

fyi, paul ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Verena Owen <verena_owen(a)prodigy.net> Date: Thu, Jan 19, 2012 at 3:09 PM Subject: Groups Secure Another Key Victory in Fight to Stop Pollution from Coal Mines To: COAL-CAMPAIGN-ALERTS(a)lists.sierraclub.org *For Immediate Release **January 18, 2012*** *Contact: *Sean Sarah, Sierra Club, 202-548-4589 sean.sarah(a)sierraclub.org Jim Sconyers, Sierra Club, 304-698-9628, jimscon(a)gmail.com Cindy Rank, West Virginia Highlands Conservancy, 304-924-5802, clrank2(a)gmail.com Dianne Bady, OVEC, 304-360-2072, dbady.ovec(a)gmail.com Joe Lovett, Appalachian Mountain Advocates, 304-645-9006, jlovett(a)appalmad.org Derek Teaney, Appalachian Mountain Advocates, 304-793-9007, dteaney(a)appalmad.org *Groups Secure Another Key Victory in Fight to Stop Pollution from Coal Mines **Settlement Requires Patriot Coal to Install Treatment Facilities and Pay Penalties* * * *Charleston**, **WV** – *Today, a coalition of conservation and environmental groups completed a legal settlement with Patriot Coal Corporation over high levels of selenium output at several of the company’s West Virginia coal mines. The settlement requires that the coal mining company and its subsidiaries treat selenium pollution at 43 outlets, including outlets previously thought to be untreatable. In a 2010 order resolving a separate action brought by the groups against Patriot, a federal judge ordered the company to treat selenium at four outlets. The company has estimated the cost of treatment at just those four outlets to be nearly $100 million. The suit resolved by today’s settlement was brought by the Sierra Club, West Virginia Highlands Conservancy, and the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition. “Several years ago, the coal industry said that there was no way to treat selenium pollution from their mines,” said Jim Sconyers, Chair of the West Virginia Chapter of the Sierra Club. “But now they’re agreeing to treat that pollution. This settlement, and other recent actions against Arch Coal and Alpha Natural Resources, shows that mining companies can do far more than they admit to clean up their pollution. Water is life. Keep it clean.” The settlement requires Patriot to install treatment technology on a set schedule to bring selenium discharges within acceptable levels. In addition, the company will pay penalties of $7.5 million, with the vast majority of those funds directed to the West Virginia Land Trust. Patriot will be subject to significant additional penalties for any violations that occur after the compliance date for each source of pollution. The company has also agreed to abandon its permits for the 8.5 million ton Callisto Surface Mine in Boone County. “West Virginia coal mines are finally starting to address their legacy of selenium pollution,” said Dianne Bady with the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition. “Mine operators and regulators in Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia need to follow suit.” “Although treatment may be sufficient to address these existing selenium problems, ultimately the industry and regulators need to recognize that it’s not appropriate to mine coal where disturbing selenium laden rock strata will release harmful amounts of pollution,” said Cindy Rank with the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy.** Selenium, a toxic element that causes reproductive failure and deformities in fish and other forms of aquatic life, is discharged from many surface coal-mining operations across Appalachia. At very high levels, selenium can pose a threat to human health, causing hair and fingernail loss, kidney and liver damage, and damage to the nervous and circulatory systems. The settlement was lodged with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia. The U.S. government will have an opportunity to review the settlement before its terms take effect. *The coalition was represented by Joe Lovett and Derek Teaney with the Appalachian Mountain Advocates. For more information on selenium visit * www.sierraclub.org/seleniumfacts**** *###* - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 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

1 0

SLATE.COM ARTICLE ON MARCELLUS
by William V. DePaulo, Esq. 19 Jan '12

19 Jan '12

What the Frack? Is there really 100 years’ worth of natural gas beneath the United States? By Chris Nelder <http://www.slate.com/authors.chris_nelder.html>|Posted Thursday, Dec. 29, 2011, at 6:37 AM ET [image: Shale gas.] A shale-gas drilling rig Christopher Furlong/Getty Images. The recent press about the potential of shale gas would have you believe that America is now sitting on a 100-year supply of natural gas. It's a " game-changer<http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303491304575187880596301668.h…>." A "golden age of gas<http://www.iea.org/weo/docs/weo2011/WEO2011_GoldenAgeofGasReport.pdf>" awaits, one in which the United States will be energy independent, even exporting gas to the rest of the world, upending our current energy-importing situation. The data, however, tell a very different story. Between the demonstrable gas reserves, and the potential resources blared in the headlines, lies an enormous gulf of uncertainty. The claim of a 100-year supply originated with a report released in April 2011 by the Potential Gas Committee, an organization of petroleum engineers and geoscientists. President and Chairman Larry Gring works with Third Day Energy LLC, a company based in Austin, Texas, that is engaged in acquiring and exploiting oil and gas properties along the Texas Gulf Coast.*<http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/future_tense/2011/12/is_th…>Chairman of the Board Darrell Pierce is a vice president of DCP Midstream LLC, a natural-gas production, processing, and marketing company based in Denver. The report's contributors are from the industry-supported Colorado School of Mines. In short, the Potential Gas Committee report is not an impartial assessment of resources. Advertisement Its website <http://www.potentialgas.org/>consists of a single press release announcing the April report, with a link to a brief summary slide deck. A more detailed slide deck<http://www.narucmeetings.org/Presentations/PGC%20NARUC%20Committee%20on%20G…>issued by the committee presents some optimistic estimates of potential resources, including a "future gas supply" estimate of 2,170 trillion cubic feet (tcf). At the 2010 rate of American consumption—about 24 tcf per year—that would be a 95-year supply of gas, which apparently has been rounded up to 100 years. But what is that estimate based upon? Those details haven’t been made freely available to the public, but their summary breaks it down as follows here and in the graph below: 273 tcf are "proved reserves," meaning that it is believed to exist, and to be commercially producible at a 10 percent discount rate. That conforms with the data of the U.S. Energy Information Administration <http://www.eia.gov/dnav/ng/ng_enr_dry_a_EPG0_r11_bcf_a.htm>. An additional 536.6 tcf are classified as "probable" from existing fields, meaning that they have some expectation that the gas exists in known formations, but it has not been proven to exist and is not certain to be technically recoverable. An additional 687.7 tcf is "possible" from new fields, meaning that the gas might exist in new fields that have not yet been discovered. A further 518.3 tcf are "speculative," which means exactly that. A final 176 tcf are claimed for coalbed gas, which is gas trapped in coal formations. (Note: The PGC reports the total for probable, possible, and speculative coalbed gas as 158.6 tcf, but adding up their numbers for each category, we find the correct total is 157.7 tcf. We haven't been able to reach the PGC to discuss the discrepancy. Adding the 18.6 tcf of proved coalbed gas reserves reported by the EIA in 2009—the most recent data it offers—to the 157.7 gives a total of 176.3 tcf for all categories of coalbed gas. [image: 111221_FUTURE_futureGasSupply] By the same logic, you can claim to be a multibillionaire, including all your "probable, possible, and speculative resources." Assuming that the United States continues to use about 24 tcf per annum, then, only an 11-year supply of natural gas is certain. The other 89 years' worth has not yet been shown to exist or to be recoverable. Even that comparably modest estimate of 11 years’ supply may be optimistic. Those 273 tcf are located in reserves that are undrilled, but are adjacent to drilled tracts where gas has been produced. Due to large lateral differences in the geology of shale plays, production can vary considerably from adjacent wells. The EIA uses a different methodology to arrive at its resource calculations, offering a range of estimates. In the most optimistic, "high shale resource case," it estimates there are 1,230 tcf in the “estimated unproved technically recoverable resource base.” It also offers several production forecasts through 2035, ranging from 827 tcf in their Reference case, to 423 tcf in their Low case—one-fourth the headline number. In the Low case, which certainly could be correct, the EIA says the United States could once again become a net natural-gas *importer* by 2035. [image: 111227_FUTURE_howLongWillItLast2] One complicating factor here is recoverability, because we are never able to extract all of an oil or gas resource. For oil, a 35 percent recovery factor is considered excellent. But recovery factors for shale gas are highly variable, due to the varied geology of the source rocks. Even if we assume a very optimistic 50 percent recovery factor for the 550 tcf of probable gas (536.6 tcf from shale gas plus 13.4 tcf from coalbed gas), that would still only amount to 225 tcf, or a 10-year supply. That plus the 11-year supply of proved reserves would last the United States just 21 years, at current rates of consumption. Natural-gas proponents aren't advocating current rates of consumption, however. They would like to see more than 2 million 18-wheelers converted to natural gas, in order to reduce our dependence on oil imports from unfriendly countries. They also advocate switching a substantial part of our power generation from coal to gas, in order to reduce carbon emissions. Were we to do those things, that 21-year supply could quickly shrink to a 10-year supply, yet those same advocates never adjust their years of supply estimates accordingly. The truly devilish details of supply forecasts, however, rest in the production models of shale-gas operators. Arthur Berman <http://petroleumtruthreport.blogspot.com/>, a Houston-based petroleum geologist and energy sector consultant, along with petroleum engineer Lynn Pittinger, has long been skeptical of the claims about shale gas. Their detailed, independent work on the economics of shale-gas production <http://www.theoildrum.com/node/8212> suggests that not only are the reserves claims overstated, but that the productivity of the wells is, too. The problems begin with the historical production data, which is limited. The Barnett Shale in Texas is the only shale formation, or "play," with a significant history. The first vertical well was drilled in 1982, but it wasn't until the advent of horizontal drilling in 2003 that production really took off. By horizontally drilling and then "fracking" the rock with a pressurized slurry of water, chemicals, and "proppants" (particulates that hold open the fractures), operators kicked off the shale-gas revolution. Drilling exploded in the Barnett from about 3,000 wells in 2003 to more than 9,000 today. Thus we have a reasonably good data set for the Barnett. Data from the Fayetteville Shale in Arkansas are also reasonably substantial, dating back to 2004 and including roughly 4,000 wells. The data on the Haynesville Shale in Louisiana are minimal, dating to late 2007 and including fewer than 2,000 wells. The historical data for the rest of the major shale-gas plays—the Marcellus, Eagle Ford, Bakken, and Woodford—along with a handful of other smaller plays, are too recent and sparse to permit accurate modeling of their production profiles. After mathematically modeling the actual production of thousands of wells in the Barnett, Fayetteville, and Haynesville Shales, Berman found that operators had significantly exaggerated their claims. Reserves appear to be overstated by more than 100 percent Typically, the core 10 to 15 percent of a shale formation’s gas is commercially viable. The rest may or may not be—we don’t know at this point. Yet the industry has calculated the potentially recoverable gas as if 100 percent of the plays were equally productive. The claimed lifetime productivity, or estimated ultimate recovery, of individual wells was also overstated, Berman found. The production decline curves modeled by well operators predict that production will fall steeply at first, followed by a long, flattened tail of production. Berman's analysis found a better fit with a model in which production falls steeply for the first 10 to 15 months, followed by an more weakly hyperbolic decline. Shale-gas wells typically pay out over one-half their total lifetime production in the first year. So operators must keep drilling continuously to maintain a flat rate of overall production. [image: 111221_FUTURE_bermanLogic] Berman concludes that the average lifetime of a Barnett well might be as little as 12 years, instead of the 50 years claimed by operators, and the estimated ultimate recovery from individual wells might be one-half what is claimed. We will only know which models are correct after another five to 10 years for the Barnett, and more than a decade for the newer plays. Other issues Berman identified include artificially inflating the average well productivity numbers by dropping played-out wells from their calculations; improperly including production data from restimulated wells as if it owed to the initial well completions; and intermixing data from older and newer wells without aligning the data by vintage, giving the impression of significantly higher-than-actual production overall. Multiplying the error, operators seem to have applied their overly optimistic models of these older shale plays to newer plays, which may have radically different geological characteristics and might not be nearly as productive. For example, the lifetime output of Barnett wells may never be matched by wells in the Marcellus. The EIA makes reference to all of these issues in its assessment of the prospects for shale gas<http://www.eia.gov/forecasts/aeo/IF_all.cfm#prospectshale>, noting that “there is a high degree of uncertainty around the projection, starting with the estimated size of the technically recoverable shale gas resource,” and that “the estimates embody many assumptions that might prove to be untrue in the long term.” Yet none of these issues are properly accounted for in the official financial statements of the operators. [image: 111222_FUTURE_recoveryMap] An example of how inflated initial resource claims can be, and how they can be sharply cut, presented itself in August with a new assessment of the Marcellus shale<http://www.usgs.gov/newsroom/article.asp?ID=2893&from=rss_home>by the U.S. Geological Survey. It offered a range of estimates, from 43 tcf at 95 percent probability, to 84 tcf at 50 percent probability, to 114 tcf at 5 percent probability. (Not surprisingly, the 95 percent probable estimates have proven historically to be closest to the mark.) Only five months earlier, the EIA speculated in its *Annual Energy Outlook 2011<http://www.eia.gov/forecasts/aeo/pdf/0383%282011%29.pdf> * that the Marcellus might have an "estimated technically recoverable resource base of about 400 trillion cubic feet." The USGS reassessment had slashed the estimate for the Marcellus by 80 percent. Similar adjustments may be ahead for other shale plays. In addition to the uncertainty about shale gas resources and productivity, there are other lingering questions. For one thing, on an averaged annual basis, shale gas has been unprofitable since 2008. Wildcatters—those who explore and sink the first wells in a new location—have been taking on a great deal of debt and risk to discover the plays and produce them at a loss, in hopes that larger, well-funded players will buy them out later. It’s not clear that this gamble will ever pay off. The other major concern, of course, is about environmental contamination from fracking operations. It seems to me that the vast majority of shale-gas operations are as environmentally benign as the rest of the oil and gas industry's operations, although some bad actors have, through negligence or outright irresponsibility, caused actual contamination. For now, though, the jury is out on the overall safety of shale gas production. I am not anti-gas; neither is Berman. What concerns him, and me, are the overblown claims about the potential for shale gas and the poor quality of both technical and financial information about its production. We don't yet know how much of the estimated gas resources will be economically recoverable or whether the projected production rates for some wells might be off by a factor of 10. We might have a 100-year supply of gas, or we might have an 11-year supply. We might realize economic and environmental benefits by transitioning trucking and coal-fired power generation to natural gas, or we might do so only to find ourselves out on a limb far more economically dangerous than the current peak and impending decline of world oil supply. We simply don't know, and we may not know for years to come. *This article arises from Future Tense, a collaboration among Arizona State University, the New America Foundation, and Slate. Future Tense explores the ways emerging technologies affect society, policy, and culture. To read more, visit the Future Tense blog<http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense.html>and the Future Tense home page <http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense.html>. You can also follow us on Twitter <http://www.twitter.com/FutureTenseNow>.* *Correction, Jan. 3, 2012: This article originally misstated the name of Larry Gring’s energy company. It is Third Day Energy LLC, not Third Way Energy LLC. (Return<http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/future_tense/2011/12/is_th…>to the corrected sentence.) * -- 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

What traits make the best environmental citizens?
by James Kotcon 13 Jan '12

13 Jan '12

This just came from my Michigan State University Alumni newsletter. JBK What traits make the best environmental citizens? EAST LANSING, Mich. — Patient, persistent and confident people are among those who make the best environmental citizens, according to two Michigan State University researchers who have pinpointed character traits of good problem solvers and deliberators. “In situations where people are talking about very tough issues, such as climate change and sustainability, there are certain virtues people have that help those deliberations go better,” said Kyle Whyte, assistant professor of philosophy. “The public will have to increasingly deal with such issues so it’s important the educational system is preparing people to participate well with those who have different views.” But that’s not a focus of most environmental education programs, found Whyte and co-researcher Matt Ferkany, visiting assistant professor of teacher education. Their study was published in the journal Philosophy of Education. While the researchers said their list of traits isn’t complete, the most successful deliberators possess virtues that make people feel included and engaged, while producing results. The top 14 traits: wit, friendliness, empathy, courage, temperance, sincerity, humility, self-confidence, persistence, attentiveness, dependability, fairness, generosity and patience. “These virtues are based on the nature of the problems we face – problems that are collaborative in nature and for which there is widespread disagreement about solutions,” Ferkany said. Take self-confidence. In many conversations, people don’t value their own contributions and worry others won’t respect their ideas, Ferkany said. But a good deliberator believes, without arrogance, that his or her contributions can advance the discussion. Or take friendliness. Congenial people are open to differing opinions. And temperate people can shut down an argument gone wrong without losing their cool. Teachers and schools can provide opportunities for exercising such virtues, Ferkany said. For example, if a school touts the importance of sustainability, it could include students in the planning of organic menus. To promote self-confidence, schools should make all students feel important by offering activities appealing to many interests. Another way: experiential education, in which students gain experience through actual dialog. This fall, Whyte participated in a Sustainable Michigan Endowed Project grant led by Dale Rozeboom, professor of animal science. The project brought together students from animal science and MSU’s Student Organic Farm to discuss “ethical farming and food practices.” At the end of the semester, after all students visited both the MSU swine farm and the organic farm, they met to discuss sustainable pork production. They came from different worlds – those training to run conventional agriculture businesses and those training to become organic farmers – but concluded that everyone wanted to produce a good product and earn a living, while protecting the health of the pig and the environment. “Because the problems are so complex,” Whyte said, “citizens need deliberative and collaborative skills to deal with environmental and agriculture matters.” Published: Jan. 10, 2012 Kyle Powys Whyte, assistant professor of philosophy. Photo by G.L. Kohuth Matt Ferkany, visiting assistant professor of teacher education. Photo by G.L. Kohuth Students from MSU's Student Organic Farm deliberate with Kyle Powys Whyte about pig welfare after visiting the swine farm. ###

1 0

Dominion Post on Albright meeting
by James Kotcon 13 Jan '12

13 Jan '12

DOMINION POST page 9A Friday 13 January 2012: Meeting set to discuss power plant’s fate Albright facility has three years to meet new EPA regulations BY MICHELLE WOLFORD The Dominion Post KINGWOOD — The West Virginia Sierra Club will sponsor a forum on the future of the Albright Power Plant at 1 p.m. Saturday at the Albright Fire Hall. First Energy, which owns the plant, will not attend. The forum is to discuss what changes may occur at the plant under new Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations, and their possible impact on plant employees and the community. Mark Durbin, a First Energy spokesman, said the company hasn’t made any decisions about the plant. “Once we have an announcement, we’ll make an announcement,” he said. Employees will get the information first. Durbin said changes in EPA regulations would require expensive changes at coal-fired power plants, such as the Albright plant. The company will have to decide the fate of about 20 such plants, he said — whether they’ll be retrofitted with the necessary emission controls, retired or repowered for natural gas generation. Companies will have at least three years to make the changes, which are being implemented “to reduce mercury and other toxic air pollution from coal and oil-fired power plants,” according to the EPA. Delegates Larry Williams and Stan Shaver, both D-Preston, plan to attend, Williams said. County Commissioners Craig Jennings, Vicki Cole and Dave Price will be on hand. Roberta Baylor, executive director of the Preston County Economic Development Authority, confirmed Thursday that she plans to attend. Jim Sconyers, of the Sierra Club, said First Energy, which owns the power plant, “will not be sending a representative.” “Everyone in Albright knows that the Albright Station power plant is old,” the Sierra Club said in forum information. “Built in 1952, it lacks modern pollution control equipment. Change is in the air for the Albright plant. But no one knows what those changes will be, how soon, or how they will affect the community. And no one seems to be planning for those changes. Other communities facing these changes have won new investment and new jobs, but this requires planning and everyone working together.”

1 0

research, bat deaths at turbines
by Frank Young 13 Jan '12

13 Jan '12

http://www.edie.net/news/news_story.asp?id=21648 Researchers have developed what they claim is a new way to reduce the amount of bats killed by flying into wind turbines. According to a team from the USDA Forest Service's Pacific Southwest Research Station (PSW) in the United States deaths of migratory bats at wind energy plants have become a 'frequent occurrence'. Bat migration patterns are poorly understood and the relationship between deaths at wind energy sites and migratory behaviour are still being studied, says PSW ecologist Ted Weller. Mr Weller argues that previous research has already shown adjusting the operations of turbines can reduce the number of bats killed by wind turbines but, this strategy has not yet been widely implemented. The online tool takes into account bat activity at different times of the year and a number of environmental conditions, such as wind direction and speed, air temperature, and moon phase. Mr Weller and his research team used devices which detected the bats' echolocation calls, then linked the presence of bats to the weather conditions measured on-site on a given night. Researchers found echolocation detectors placed at 22 meters and 52 meters above ground were more effective at characterizing migratory bat activity then those located closer to the ground. Moreover, multiple echolocation detectors were required to accurately characterize bat activity at the facility. They then built models to predict the presence of bats based on date and weather variables. Mr Weller said: "Increasing the wind speed at which turbines begin to spin and produce energy to the grid has proven to be an effective way to reduce bat fatalities. "However, bat activity levels depend on more than just wind speed, our work demonstrates the use of a decision-making tool that could protect bats when fatality risk is highest while maximizing energy production on nights with a low chance of fatalities."

1 0

Please Reply: Energy Efficiency in WV
by James Kotcon 12 Jan '12

12 Jan '12

We have been playing around with Energy Efficiency legislation in WV for the last couple years, but hope to launch a pretty concerted campaign this legislative session, and perhaps add other campaign elements. I propose that the Energy Committee establish the "Efficiency Subcommittee" for those who want to focus more effort on that. If you want to join the EE Subcommittee, let me know. There is likely to be some involvement/assistance from national staff, so this needs some volunteers locally. Let me know ASAP. Jim Kotcon

2 1

Fwd: position for Ex. Dir. Appalachian Stewardship Foundation
by Paul Wilson 11 Jan '12

11 Jan '12

fyi, paul It may be a conflict of interest for an SC leader to take this job. Bill D. may be able to clarify that. ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Pam Parziale <pamoren(a)frontiernet.net> Date: Sat, Jan 7, 2012 at 6:03 PM Subject: position for Ex. Dir. Appalachian Stewardship Foundation To: Paul Wilson <pjgrunt(a)gmail.com> ** Hello Paul, Knowing your commitment to conservation and the environment, I wanted you to know of a new opportunity that has become available. A****s past president of the WV Sierra Club, **you may be interested **on behalf of other environmentalists whom you know.** **** A position for a part-time executive director for the Appalachian Stewardship Foundation has been posted, Jan. 6, 2012. Because of your commitment in support of environmental issues, please look at the website: www.appalachianstewards.org .**** **The job description is found on the website, in several locations, including under the heading News & Media.** **Would you pass this information on to your colleagues at the Sierra Club? If you are interested or someone you know may be interested, applicants must submit a cover letter, resume and two writing samples by email to:** ** *K*athy(a)AppalachianStewards.org** **The deadline is February 10, 2012.** Thank you, Pam Parziale 5210 Paynes Ford Road Kearneysville WV 25430 USA 304-725-4251 email: pamoren(a)frontiernet.net -- 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

1 0

State Energy Focus, Surprise, Surprise.
by James Kotcon 06 Jan '12

06 Jan '12

Governor’s office: State energy focus on gas and coal THE STATE JOURNAL: Posted: Jan 05, 2012 5:20 PM EST Updated: Jan 05, 2012 5:25 PM EST By Taylor Kuykendall, Reporter Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin's office, a staff member told reporters, is largely focusing on natural gas and coal, not expanding renewable or other energy sources through state initiatives. Chief of Staff Rob Alsop, speaking at the AP Legislative Lookahead on Thursday, said the state wants to be a leader in manufacturing and coal. Asked about expanding the energy portfolio to other sources, Alsop indicated the state executive's focus is elsewhere. "Our real focus has been on protecting coal and making sure it's production goes forward and then responsibly protecting the environment and working on natural gas," Alsop said. "So, that's been our main focus." Alsop said the governor believes there's much potential in shale gas, particularly for the downstream products that can be obtained from the gas. "We think this will reinvigorate manufacturing in the Appalachian basin," he said. Also said the success of wind production will most likely hinge more on federal tax programs, not state-level incentives. "If they stay, we have wind farms. If they don't then we won't," Alsop said. He pointed to challenges with wind and similar sources overcoming gas- and coal-fired electricity, such as price. He added that the state's Division of Energy was looking into a study that was conducted regarding the state's potential as a geothermal energy source but didn't immediately know the details of its progress. Alsop said the number one economic priority is attracting an ethane cracker to the state. An ethane cracker converts ethane, which is produced along with natural gas from Marcellus shale formations, into chemicals that can be used in various manufacturing processes. The resulting jobs and spin off jobs from chemical companies that use the products, have been much sought after by West Virginia officials. Announcements regarding one or more crackers are anticipated early this year. Alsop said the governor's office is confident West Virginia had a good chance of landing a cracker. "We believe we have some advantages that other states don't have," Alsop said. "We have a realistic shot at multiple crackers coming to the state."

1 0

Fwd: Renewable Energy Growth in 2011
by James Kotcon 05 Jan '12

05 Jan '12

New data from US-DOE's Energy Information Agency for the first three quarters of 2011. Here is the part I like: Looking at just the electricity sector, compared to the same nine-month period in 2010: coal Down 4.2% nuclear Down 2.8%. natural gas Up 1.6%. renewable energy sources (i.e., biomass, geothermal, solar, water, wind) Up 24.73%. Renewables provided 12.73% of net U.S. electrical generation. Jim Kotcon >>> Ken Bossong <sun-day-campaign(a)hotmail.com> 1/4/2012 9:08 PM >>> SUN DAY CAMPAIG 6930 Carroll Avenue, Suite #340; Takoma Park, MD 20912 301-270-6477 x.11 sun-day-campaign(a)hotmail.com News Advisory RENEWABLE SOURCES CONTINUE EXPLOSIVE GROWTH: NOW PROVIDE 12% OF DOMESTIC ENERGY PRODUCTION - 14% MORE THAN 2010 RENEWABLE ELECTRICAL OUTPUT INCREASES 25%; CONTRIBUTES 13% OF U.S. POWER For Immediate Release: Wednesday - January 4, 2012 Contact: Ken Bossong, 301-270-6477 x.11 Washington DC – According to the most recent issue of the "Monthly Energy Review" by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), with data through September 30, 2011, renewable energy sources continue to expand rapidly while substantially outpacing the growth rates of fossil fuels and nuclear power. For the first nine months of 2011, renewable energy sources (i.e., biomass/biofuels, geothermal, solar, water, wind) provided 11.95% of domestic U.S. energy production. That compares to 10.85% for the same period in 2010 and 10.33% in 2009. By comparison, nuclear power provided just 10.62% of the nation's energy production in the first three quarters of 2011 -- i.e., 11.10% less than renewables. Looking at all energy sectors (e.g., electricity, transportation, thermal), renewable energy output, including hydropower, grew by 14.44% in 2011 compared to 2010. Among the renewable energy sources, conventional hydropower provided 4.35% of domestic energy production during the first nine months of 2011, followed by biomass (3.15%), biofuels (2.57%), wind (1.45%), geothermal (0.29%), and solar (0.15%). (On the consumption side, which includes oil and other energy imports, renewable sources accounted for 9.35% of total U.S. energy use during the first nine months of 2011.) Looking at just the electricity sector, according to the latest issue of EIA’s "Electric Power Monthly," with data through September 30, 2011, renewable energy sources (i.e., biomass, geothermal, solar, water wind) provided 12.73% of net U.S. electrical generation. This represents an increase of 24.73% compared to the same nine-month period in 2010. By comparison, electrical generation from coal dropped by 4.2% while nuclear output declined by 2.8%. Natural gas electrical generation rose by 1.6%. Conventional hydropower accounted for 8.21% of net electrical generation during the first nine months of 2011 - an increase of 29.6% compared to 2010. Non-hydro renewables accounted for 4.52% of net electrical generation (wind - 2.73%, biomass - 1.34%, geothermal - 0.40%, solar - 0.05%). Compared to the first three quarters of 2010, solar-generated electricity expanded in 2011 by 46.5%; wind by 27.1%, geothermal by 9.4%, and biomass by 1.3%. “Notwithstanding the recession of the past three years, renewable energy sources have experienced explosive rates of growth that other industries can only envy,” said Ken Bossong, Executive Director of the SUN DAY Campaign. “The investments in sustainable energy made by the federal government as well as state and private funders have paid off handsomely underscoring the short-sightedness of emerging proposals to cut back on or discontinue such support.” # # # # # # # # The U.S. Energy Information Administration released its most recent "Monthly Energy Review" on December 23, 2011. It can be found at: http://www.eia.gov/totalenergy/data/monthly/index.cfm. The relevant charts from which the data above are extrapolated are Tables 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, and 10.1. EIA released its most recent "Electric Power Monthly" on December 16, 2011; see: http://www.eia.gov/electricity/monthly/pdf/epm.pdf. The relevant charts are Tables 1.1, ES1.A, ES1.B, and 1.1.A. ======================= The SUN DAY Campaign is a non-profit research and educational organization founded in 1993 to promote sustainable energy technologies as cost-effective alternatives to nuclear power and fossil fuels.

1 0

Fwd: [eewv] EEWV Lobbying January 10th!
by James Kotcon 04 Jan '12

04 Jan '12

To the Energy Committee: There will be a significant push for energy efficiency legislation this session, so if anyone wants to help get a head start, the "Lobby Day" next Tuesday would be an excellent opportunity to be come the expert in your region. EVERY possible scenario for addressing global warming that includes a significant Energy Efficiency component, and West Virginia has a long way to go to catch up to what other states are doing. This is the Year, Now is the Time! Jim Kotcon >>> Molly McLaughlin <molly.eewv(a)gmail.com> 1/4/2012 12:45 PM >>> We wanted to remind you about the first Energy Efficient West Virginia lobby day at the capitol next Tuesday, January 10th. This is the day before the start of the session, so it will be an excellent opportunity to let your legislators know what energy efficiency bills are coming and to encourage them to co-sponsor legislation. We will meet at 11am in the rotunda of the capitol building (the main dome) - on the lower level next to the Information Desk. If you can't find us, call us at our cell phone numbers listed below. We will give you a brief orientation and answer any questions that you have about talking to your legislators or the bills, as well as handing out fact sheets that you can provide to your legislators if you wish. If you wish to set up meeting times with your senators and representatives in advance, you can find their contact information on the legislature's website: http://www.legis.state.wv.us/ (see "Who's my legislator?" in the lower right corner). If you want to lobby on the 10th but can't make it at 11am (or if you have already arranged a meeting with your legislators at an earlier time), please email me and we can arrange to meet with you separately. This lobby day will coincide with an educational event organized by our friends at West Virginia Greenworks on energy efficiency in the House Chamber from 1-4pm. This event will include presentations and panel discussions on major pieces of energy efficiency legislation that will come up this year: improving building codes for energy efficiency, an energy expansion fund, the energy efficiency resource standard, and least-cost planning. We hope you can stick around for what promises to be an exciting discussion! Feel free to email us with any questions. Molly (404-729-9312) Cathy (304-237-3802 ( tel:%28304-237-3802 ))

1 0

Fwd: Join us for "Energy Efficiency 101: Using efficiency to retire coal"
by Paul Wilson 03 Jan '12

03 Jan '12

fyi, in case you are not on the Coal Campaign listserve. paul ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Becki Clayborn <becki.clayborn(a)sierraclub.org> Date: Tue, Jan 3, 2012 at 3:07 PM Subject: Join us for "Energy Efficiency 101: Using efficiency to retire coal" To: COAL-CAMPAIGN-ALERTS(a)lists.sierraclub.org Dear friends - HAPPY NEW YEAR! Please see the full invitation below for the repeat of the Efficiency 101 webinar. This version will be in the evening in order to accommodate more volunteers. FYI - as I stated before, the Beyond Coal Campaign goal is to have monthly webinars (offered both in the day and evening) pertinent to your work on the Beyond Coal Campaign. Until we have fine tuned the listserves serving our staff and lead volunteers working on the Beyond Coal Campaign,* I encourage you to forward these invitations to your appropriate lists.* If you have any questions or concerns, please contact me at becki.clayborn(a)sierraclub.org. I hope you can join us for this webinar! Thanks! Becki Clayborn Internal Capacities and Communications Coordinator Beyond Coal Campaign Energy Efficiency 101: Using efficiency to retire coal Join us for a Webinar on January 17 <https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/368799454> *Space is limited.* Reserve your Webinar seat now at: https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/368799454 Visualize energy efficiency retiring coal fired power plants!!! In this webinar, you will learn why energy efficiency is the cleanest, cheapest and fastest way to fulfill a significant portion of our energy demands. You will also learn some of the first steps that some states and cities are taking to increase energy efficiency, and how to determine how well your state is doing. This webinar is an introductory overview of energy efficiency - future webinars will dig in more on specifics of energy efficiency policies and programs. So, if you want to be able to talk with stakeholders about how energy efficiency can help stop climate change, then this is the perfect webinar for you. If you are already an energy efficiency expert - this webinar will be a general refresher. This webinar is for 100 people - first come first serve! *Title:* Energy Efficiency 101: Using efficiency to retire coal *Date:* Tuesday, January 17, 2012 *Time:* 8:00 PM - 9:00 PM EST 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 -- Becki Clayborn Beyond Coal Campaign Internal Capacities and Communications Coordinator Chicago, IL 312-251-1680 -- 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/ -- 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

1 0

Fwd: Every dollar donation matched to help CMD fight fracking
by Paul Wilson 31 Dec '11

31 Dec '11

something on Fracking for CMD. fyi, paul ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Lisa Graves <editor(a)prwatch.org> Date: Sat, Dec 31, 2011 at 1:57 PM Subject: Every dollar donation matched to help CMD fight fracking To: pjgrunt(a)gmail.com ** <http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=dCOcoeMODl5pdsLxCs%2…> Help Us Expose the Fracking Truth and Every Donation Will Go Twice as Far December 27, 2011 *Dear Friend of the Center for Media and Democracy:* *Over the past two years, CMD has been exposing the gas industry's PR campaign to gloss over the real costs of the boom in hydraulic fracturing (fracking) for "natural" gas across the U.S.* We've been at the forefront of debunking swift-boat smear funder T. Boone Pickens and other gasbags that new drilling operations in people's backyards are all about "national security" when in reality the gas industry is exporting more of America's gas to other countries than ever before, while spoiling more and more wells and waterways with the toxic waste of their largely unregulated drilling and distribution operations. *Click here to support our investigations of the gas industry.<http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=mTPX1reU7nBcCOcDJEiG…> * *CMD has received a special challenge grant in which every donation, up to $50,000, will be matched dollar for dollar to help expose the facts about fracking.* We need your help to dig even deeper into fracking game. To help tell that story, we've created dossiers on the biggest fracking companies and the money they've been spreading around to politicians to limit regulation of fracking. We've been tracking corporate-funded groups, like "Energy in Depth," which has attacked those who object, as well as the astroturf activities of so-called "Energy Citizens," corporate employees dressed up to look like a grassroots movement demanding that we basically "drill, baby, drill" with even fewer protections for health and safety. *Click here to have your donation to investigate energy front groups doubled through this matching grant.<http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=vYrYGGnUWmGZk2TgeBni…> * *We've also been analyzing the Koch connection with their massive pipeline business and history of pipeline leaks.* CMD's historical analysis of the billionaire Koch Brothers has been featured in *The Nation* magazine, on Democracy Now!, and in the work of Brave New Films and other outlets. Our breakthrough coverage of the Wisconsin protests and the corporate players, like David Koch's greed-is-good group, "Americans for Prosperity," helped open people's eyes across the nation. We need your support to document more about the role of the Koch brothers in the industry, in energy speculation, and in influencing politicians. *Click here to help us expand our efforts to expose the Kochs and their buddies in the global gas and oil industry.<http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=lD%2B%2F4qiGMGVQ0AD2…> * *As you know, in 2011, we also launched the unprecedented effort to expose the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC)* by analyzing and making available nearly 1,000 "model" bills secretly voted on by global corporations and politicians behind closed doors. The way we approached this investigation has inspired hundreds of news stories illuminating this secret distortion of our democracy. We have new reporting coming in January about the focus of ALEC corporations and politicians on fracking. Major funders of ALEC's recent conferences that have a stake in this big business include BP, ExxonMobil, Chevron, Shell, ConocoPhillips, Chesapeake Energy, EnCana Corporation, and CN (Canadian National Railroad). *Click here to have your support matched $1 to $1 for our future investigations of the fracking corporations.<http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=Zh59dq6MCv1zdWBjFprk…> * *We're also examining how ALEC politicians in Wisconsin and elsewhere are pushing to mine fracking sand akin to mountain-top removal in which whole hills are destroyed.* ALEC by the way, has promoted the "blueprint" to pre-empt local democratic efforts to regulate companies, in addition to its efforts to strip the EPA of key regulatory powers. And, now in Pennsylvania, we even have seen an effort to pre-empt the Pittsburgh city council's ban on fracking based on its in-depth examination of the impact of the drilling. * * *Will you help us expose the facts about fracking by donating today?<http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=qPXXjd7R1phX8xUHuYUI…> * Every dollar you contribute will be doubled, up to $50,000. Sincerely, *Lisa* Lisa Graves Executive Director of the Center for Media and Democracy *P.S. Citizens across the country, in New York and elsewhere, are waking up to the devastating consequences of gas leases they signed filled with fine print that leaves them, and us, with spoiled water and spoiled land. In some states, like Pennsylvania, the government has even used "homeland security" powers and dollars that were supposed to protect against foreign terrorists instead to investigate law-abiding citizens who dare to speak up. Some in the gas industry have even launched PR counter-offensives to use "counter-insurgency" strategies against concerned Americans, treating them like enemies in warzones. That's why investigative journalism on these issues is even more crucial than ever. Please click here to make a donation in any amount.<http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=c17EkLBz%2B%2FWq3h%2…> * [image: Donate Now!] Fight Corruption! [image: Donate today!]We need your help to expose the corporate and CEO money corrupting our democracy. Donate today to fund independent investigations!<http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=lhAa8A2hwOiuFI%2FYFN…> Our Projects [image: PR Watch]<http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=S3KhQiBQd7C%2B5%2Fgd…> [image: SourceWatch]<http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=9zO14NaoJddF2dT51CMs…> [image: BanksterUSA]<http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=McdcQ3lujBZo7a1f%2Bm…> [image: ALEC Exposed]<http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=9ik2RIcMfdVt2lKTrHd8…> Facebook [image: Become a Facebook fan!]Click here to "Like" us on Facebook!<http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=NIpQ7PSJO%2FG%2BaxLN…> Twitter [image: Follow us on Twitter!]Follow us on Twitter for breaking news!<http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=F8kFJ1BBjzVLFVCyzfbz…> Your donation can help expose corporate influences that harm our health and environment, erode economic opportunities, and reduce our basic rights. Click here to donate today! <http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=ZcBYjDzMgxgAl0UWOG6i…> [image: Donate Now!] About the Center for Media and Democracy [image: About the Center for Media and Democracy]PR Watch<http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=KdtzrIkMWxnRoODjtOkU…>, SourceWatch<http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=PfW6xBvkk3BzX8cKZ7yb…>, BanksterUSA<http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=91pcOpNvGeOfubjUg6xP…>and ALECexposed<http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=AVjxUzsszNiumNhIsl4w…>are projects of the Center for Media and Democracy<http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=xTtVQ2uJQmKRGMwK17V7…>, a non-profit investigative reporting group. CMD does not accept donations from for-profit corporations or government agencies, but relies on concerned citizens like you. Please donate today<http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=TER%2F%2BUhkOnL8B7Vg…>to support our coming investigations! CMD is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization, and contributions are tax-deductible. Please send any questions to editor(a)prwatch.org. Center for Media and Democracy 520 University Avenue, Suite 260 Madison, Wisconsin 53703-4929 Phone: 608-260-9713 | Fax: 608-260-9714 Email: editor(a)prwatch.org Privacy Policy<http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=AHCZXic46Up%2BKvjggN…>| Unsubscribe<http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=18Jyslc3gJoDfnmmKtLv…> [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

1 0

renewable energy trade war
by Frank Young 30 Dec '11

30 Dec '11

BlankWe know that renewable energy is coming of age when trade wars breaks out among the various international players in the industry. ------------------------------------- "U.S. manufacturers of wind turbine towers jumped into a growing renewable energy trade war Thursday, asking the U.S. Department of Commerce and the International Trade Commission to investigate and slap tariffs on Chinese and Vietnamese manufacturers for dumping towers in the U.S. market below cost." http://www.oregonlive.com/business/index.ssf/2011/12/us_wind_tower_makers_s…

1 0

Fwd: GA Chapt Victory! -- Longleaf Defeat Marks End to Nation's Longest Running Fight Against Coal Plant
by James Kotcon 27 Dec '11

27 Dec '11

The Georgia Chapter invited me down in 2006 to talk about air pollution from this plant. Congrats on their victory. Jim Kotcon From: FRED [mailto:CONS-FRED@LISTS.SIERRACLUB.ORG] On Behalf Of Paula Carrell Sent: Monday, December 12, 2011 11:13 AM To: CONS-FRED(a)LISTS.SIERRACLUB.ORG Subject: GA Chapt Victory! -- Longleaf Defeat Marks End to Nation’s Longest Running Fight Against Coal Plant allies too, of course when I first met GA Chapt Director, Colleen Kiernan, this coal plant fight was on her plate as a national organizing staffer in GA . . . so it's been a while to Triumph "hang in there" is a big part of the message here pc For Immediate Release: December 12, 2011 Contact: Bobby McLendon, Friends of the Chattahoochee, (229) 308-6782 ( tel:%28229%29%20308-6782 ) Justine Thompson, GreenLaw, (404) 659-3122 ( tel:%28404%29%20659-3122 ) Colleen Kiernan, Sierra Club, (404) 607-1262 x 224 ( tel:%28404%29%20607-1262%20x%20224 ) Longleaf Defeat Marks End to Nation’s Longest Running Fight Against Coal Plant Agreement Marks Milestone of 160 Coal Plants Canceled Atlanta, GA - The country’s longest-running campaign against construction of a new coal plant ended today as LS Power, a New Jersey-based power company, announced that it will cancel plans to build the Longleaf Energy Station in Blakely, GA. Sierra Club, Friends of the Chattahoochee and GreenLaw have been organizing against the Longleaf coal plant since it was first proposed in 2001. This victory comes as part of a legal agreement between LS Power and Sierra Club. This victory marks the 160th proposed coal plant canceled since Sierra Club launched its Beyond Coal campaign in 2005. This victory is particularly noteworthy because the struggle lasted for a decade and involved numerous hearings and appeals, and sustained local opposition by hundreds of Georgia residents. Longleaf was one of the very first plants proposed when, in 2001, the coal industry attempted to block clean energy development by building more than 150 new coal plants across the US, a move which would have effectively locked the nation into dependence on coal-fired electricity for the foreseeable future. Longleaf was one of the last remaining new coal projects proposed anywhere in the United States, counting 160 proposals that have now been defeated or abandoned in the past decade. Several times over the past decade it looked like LS Power would move forward with its proposed coal plant, but local residents continued their opposition through multiple tactics, including holding a call-in day this past June when more than 250 Georgians called LS Power asking the CEO to cancel the proposal. “This is not just a victory for the individuals and organizations fighting this plant, but also for all Georgians, who are now safe from a major new source of toxic air pollution,” said Colleen Kiernan, Director of the Georgia Chapter of the Sierra Club. “This victory represents our best work: combining the power of the courts, the power of the people and the power of the press.” Sierra Club and Friends of the Chattahoochee were represented by GreenLaw, an Atlanta-based nonprofit law firm, in a series of legal challenges to the permits issued for the plant. The legal battle over the Longleaf coal plant made national and international news when Fulton County Superior Court Judge Thelma Wyatt Cummings Moore issued a ruling that the plant’s air quality permit was illegal because it failed to provide any limits on emissions of CO2. While Judge Moore’s decision was later overturned, the United States Environmental Protection Agency adopted much of the legal reasoning of the decision in promulgating rules to limit CO2 emissions from larger industrial facilities. “Longleaf’s cancelation is one of dozens that have swept the nation, which raises the question – when will state officials finally learn that Georgia’s citizens deserve better than coal?” said GreenLaw’s Executive Director, Justine Thompson. “Georgia has a promising future – but to be a serious player in the global economy while also ensuring that we have clean air and water, Georgia needs to embrace energy efficiency and more renewable sources of energy.” The announcement comes as part of a nationwide agreement with Sierra Club that also requires LS Power to abandon its proposed Plum Point 2 coal plant in Arkansas and imposes strict new limits on air pollution from the new Sandy Creek coal plant in Texas. The agreement requires the company to withdraw all requests for permits in Georgia and Arkansas, and that any issued permits be rescinded or revoked. Local residents, who would have been most significantly affected by the plant’s construction, were active in opposing the plant. “When we found out the truth about what this plant would do to our lives, we had no choice but to oppose it. We were just regular people who want our grandchildren to breathe clean air,” said Bobby McLendon, President of Friends of the Chattahoochee. “Helping to stop this plant is probably the most important thing I have ever done for my family, my community and the Earth.” If built, Plant Longleaf would have contributed 88 pounds of toxic mercury per year, 1938 pounds of lead per year, and more than 8000 tons of soot and smog per year, to Georgia’s atmosphere and water system. Mercury pollution can cause neurological disorders and birth defects in babies, and soot and smog contribute to respiratory illness and trigger asthma attacks. Sierra Club, GreenLaw, and several other environmental and public health organizations continue to fight the two remaining coal plant proposals in Georgia proposed by POWER4Georgians in Central and Southeast Georgia. These groups’ work to transition Georgia off of imported coal and onto homegrown clean energy like wind and solar is part of a national effort involving unprecedented collaboration by more than a hundred organizations nationwide. Over the past decade this national campaign has stopped 160 proposed coal plants and secured record investments in clean energy. Since November 2008 only one coal plant has broken ground anywhere in the United States, a highly-subsidized project in Mississippi. A timeline, avoided emissions, and other documents related to Longleaf can be found at: www.greenlaw.org/Longleaf. ### Friends of the Chattahoochee seek to protect the Chattahoochee River and the environment. A multi-state, non-profit organization that opposes any new industry that will adversely impact the Chattahoochee River watershed, it monitors existing industry to ensure that all environmental regulations and safeguards are being adhered to. www.friendsofthechattahoochee.org GreenLaw is dedicated to preventing air and water pollution that endangers human health and degrades Georgia’s natural resources. GreenLaw achieves these goals by providing free high quality legal and technical assistance to environmental organizations and community groups throughout Georgia. www.greenlaw.org The Sierra Club works to protect our communities and the planet. Inspired by nature to contribute and participate, our members and supporters number more than 1.3 million friends and neighbors. The Sierra Club is America's largest grassroots environmental organization. www.sierraclub.org and www.georgia.sierraclub.org - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - To unsubscribe from the CONS-FRED list, send any message to: CONS-FRED-signoff-request(a)LISTS.SIERRACLUB.ORG Check out our Listserv Lists support site for more information: http://www.sierraclub.org/lists/faq.asp To view the Sierra Club List Terms & Conditions, see: http://www.sierraclub.org/lists/terms.asp - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - To unsubscribe from the CONS-FRED list, send any message to: CONS-FRED-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

1 0

Fwd: Mary Anne Hitt column: Today's AEP/SWPEPCO victory
by James Kotcon 27 Dec '11

27 Dec '11

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Heather Moyer <heather.moyer(a)sierraclub.org> Date: Thu, Dec 22, 2011 at 12:56 PM Subject: Mary Anne Hitt column: Today's AEP/SWPEPCO victory To: COAL-CAMPAIGN-ALERTS(a)lists.sierraclub.org Hi folks- Mary Anne's got a second column this week, it's all about today's victory in the south. Please share it via Twitter, Facebook, etc... And please comments on / recommend it on these sites: Compass: http://sierraclub.typepad.com/compass/2011/12/a-clean-air-christmas-another… Grist: http://www.grist.org/article/2011-12-22-a-clean-air-christmas-another-beyon… Daily Kos: www.dailykos.com/story/2011/12/22/1047940/-A-Clean-Air-Christmas:-Another-B…! Alternet: http://blogs.alternet.org/maryannehitt/2011/12/22/a-clean-air-christmas-ano… Huffington Post (up within 24 hours): http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mary-anne-hitt FULL TEXT: A Clean Air Christmas: Another Beyond Coal Victory to Close the Year! Well, we certainly are closing out this year with lots of good news to report. Today, the Sierra Club and Audubon are announcing a legal settlement with American Electric Power/Southwestern Electric Power Company (AEP/SWEPCO) that will retire a dirty coal plant and bring us lots of new clean energy. If all you wanted for Christmas this year was clean air, then you are in luck! The deal will retire Welsh 2, a dirty coal plant upwind of Arkansas in northeastern Texas. It requires AEP to install 400 MW of clean energy – the equivalent of a medium-sized coal plant. It includes $2 million to support increased energy efficiency programs in Arkansas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Texas, which will help lower electric bills for families at a time when every penny counts. It prevents siting of transmission lines in sensitive natural areas. And it sets aside $8 million for land and habitat conservation in the region, which will go to the Nature Conservancy. The settlement will also allow AEP to finish construction on the nearly-complete Turk power plant in Arkansas, which the Sierra Club and allies have been fighting for four years. As Glen Hooks, our Sierra Club campaign representative in Arkansas, put it, "While we'd prefer that the Turk plant not be built, today's settlement brings some very good news for Arkansas, which would not have been possible without years of citizen opposition to dirty coal plants." For details about the settlement, you can read our press release ( http://action.sierraclub.org/site/MessageViewer?em_id=223281.0 ). This settlement continues a trend that is underway nationwide – old, dirty coal plants are on their way out, and clean energy is on the rise. In 2011, we saw the largest-ever solar investments, and the second-largest investments ever in wind. Since January 2010, over 10% of the nation's coal plants have been slated for retirement. And since we launched our Beyond Coal campaign in 2002, we have defeated 161 new coal plants, leaving the door open for the clean energy revolution that is now taking center stage. This holiday, I'm thankful for all the allies and activists that helped make this happen, including amazing legal work by the Environmental Integrity Project. This AEP settlement is one more landmark victory along the way towards a clean energy future. Have a happy holiday season – here’s to making 2012 a banner year for clean air, clean water, and clean energy! -- Mary Anne Hitt, Director of the Sierra Club Beyond Coal Campaig ( http://beyondcoal.org/ ) --- Heather Moyer Senior Media Writer 202-675-6276 ( tel:202-675-6276 ) Sierra Club 50 F Street, 8th Floor Washington, DC 20001 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 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/

1 0

Fwd: Link to mining article from Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (http://www.pnas.org)
by James Kotcon 24 Dec '11

24 Dec '11

Take the time to read this one. Or at least look at all the pretty pictures! This shows the very strong correlations among mining, TDS, selenium, and impacts to aquatic communities. JBK >>> <jkotcon(a)wvu.edu> 12/24/2011 10:28 AM >>> James Kotcon (jkotcon(a)wvu.edu) has sent this article to you from Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Cumulative impacts of mountaintop mining on an Appalachian watershed http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2011/12/05/1112381108.full.pdf+html -------------------------------------------------------------------- I thought you might be interested in the article I found in the publication: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences -------------------------------------------------------------------- This is sent to you as an email-a-colleague feature from Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences at http://www.pnas.org

4 4

Re: [EC] Cumulative impact of mountaintop mining documented
by Paul Wilson 24 Dec '11

24 Dec '11

This was in the Science Daily e-newsletter.follow the link... fyi, paul Cumulative impact of mountaintop mining documented<http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_environment/~3/TFI…> Posted: 12 Dec 2011 12:31 PM PST Increased salinity and concentrations of trace elements in one West Virginia watershed have been tied directly to multiple surface coal mines upstream by a detailed new survey of stream chemistry. Researchers who conducted the study said it provides new evidence of the cumulative effects multiple mountaintop mining permits can have in a river network. -- 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

2 1

Fwd:Longview Power Plant up and running
by James Kotcon 22 Dec '11

22 Dec '11

More news. JBK >>> "Donald C. Strimbeck" dcsoinks(a)comcast.net> 12/22/2011 4:10 AM >> ( mailto:dcsoinks@comcast.net ) DOMINION POST Thursday 22 December 2011: UPDATE Longview Power Plant up and running $2B facility producing 700 megawatts a day BY ALEX LANG The Dominion Post Longview Power Plant, is now just that — a power plant. General Manager Charlie Huguenard said the plant, north of Morgantown, reached substantial competition last week, meaning most of the work is done. Crews will continue to do minor work, testing and repairs as needed, Huguenard said. But, the Longview power staff has taken control of the coal-to-electricity facility. The facility cost about $2 billion to build. The plant is generating electricity 24 hours a day, Huguenard said. Each day, 700 megawatts — enough to power 7 million 100-watt bulbs — go into the electrical grid. The plant sells its energy to PJM Interconnection. There was a delay in reaching substantial competition as the contractor had to fix a few issues, such as problems with the boiler, Huguenard said. As part of the commissioning process, the plant performed emissions tests, which Huguenard said went smoothly. To get a permit, the state’s Department of Environmental Protection gave it the lowest permitted air emissions rating to date. The plant is the lowest airemissions plant in the state, if not one of the lowest in the country, Huguenard said. Not everybody was pleased with the plant, however. Chairman of the state’s Sierra Club Executive Committee, Jim Sconyers, said the group battled the plant, but lost. Despite the company’s environmental claims, Sconyers said people should be concerned about the emissions from a coal facility. “You can only be so clean, if you’re burning coal to make electricity,” Sconyers said. There is a bit of a bright side, he added. As part of the settlement with the Sierra Club, the Longview Power Plant will begin to donate $500,000 to nonprofit organizations to cover the costs of helping to reduce carbon-dioxide emissions and to take care of local waterways. The plant has 96 full-time workers who are based in Morgantown, Huguenard said. The company estimates the plant will increase state and local revenues by roughly $7.9 million a year and boost annual labor income in local counties by $43 million. Now that the plant has reached substantial completion, Huguenard said he plans to remain with the project to oversee the transition from construction to operations. Longview Power acquires plant 12/22/2011 3:32 AM Longview Power has accepted ownership of the 695-megawatt, coal-fired plant it constructed in Monongalia County, W.Va., just south of the Greene County border. The company accepted ownership from the plant's main contractors after it was the determined the plant had achieved "substantial completion," said a news release issued by the company. The main contractors on the $2 billion project were Kvaerner North American Construction Inc. and Siemens Energy Inc. The plant had begun producing electricity in May and since that time has been going through numerous tests in preparation for commercial operations. "During the development, construction and commissioning of this complex facility, we have successfully met highly rigorous standards and requirements for operational performance, environmental compliance and safety," said Charlie Huguenard, Longview general manager. "We look forward to productive and sustained commercial operation of the facility for decades to come," he said. The plant was first proposed in late 2002, and after all permits were received, a process that included lengthy legal challenges to its air-quality permit, groundbreaking was held in May 2007. The plant will operate under the lowest permitted air emission limits imposed by West Virginia for a coal-fired plant, the company said. At full load, the plant will burn about 6,600 tons of coal a day, most of it mined in Greene County at mines owned by Mepco LLC, a parent company of Dana Mining Co. The coal is conveyed to the plant by means of a 4.5-mile coal conveyor belt constructed from Dana's 4 West Mine near Bobtown to the power plant. The plant also will use water for cooling drawn from the Monongahela River and treated at a plant the company constructed near Poland Mines. The Longview plant is the largest privately funded project in West Virginia history. It is staffed by 96 full-time employees and generates an additional 500 indirect jobs in the region, the company said. Copyright Observer Publishing Co. EPA acts to make air cleaner New rules force oil-, coal-fired power plants to lower pollutants periling health Thursday, December 22, 2011 By Don Hopey, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette In one of its most significant initiatives in 20 years, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced final health-based rules Wednesday for controlling mercury, acid gases and other air toxics from oil- and coal-burning power plants. The Mercury and Air Toxics Standards will save 11,000 lives and prevent 4,700 heart attacks and 130,000 childhood asthma attacks a year by 2016, according to the EPA, while reducing respiratory ailments, birth defects and cancers. And, according to the Electric Power Generation Association of Pennsylvania, while the new standards may contribute to the retirement of eight to 10 small, old, coal-fired power plants in the state, it likely will not cause any power blackouts and should open the way for development of more natural gas-fueled power plants. The first national emissions controls on utilities will reduce emissions of mercury -- a potent neurotoxin -- arsenic, chromium, lead, nickel and acid gases from power plants by 91 percent. Every dollar spent to reduce power plant pollution, the EPA said, will result in up to $9 in public health benefits, and the total health and economic benefits resulting from the long-awaited standards could be as much as $90 billion annually. "By cutting emissions that are linked to developmental disorders and respiratory illnesses like asthma, these standards represent a major victory for clean air and public health -- and especially for the health of our children," EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson said in Washington, D.C. "With these standards that were two decades in the making, EPA is rounding out a year of incredible progress on clean air in America with another action that will benefit the American people for years to come." Ms. Jackson said the toxics pollution controls could increase utility bills by $3 to $4 a month for consumers. The rules might also cause utilities to close some of the nation's oldest and biggest polluting power plants. The new standards were not welcomed by many in the utility and coal industries. Scott Segal, director of the Electric Reliability Coordinating Council, a coalition of utilities that lobbies on electric power issues in Washington, D.C., and Steve Miller, president and chief executive officer of the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity, said the EPA's rules will increase the cost of power, cause job losses, and have few health benefits. The rules, however, were praised by environmental, health, science, sportsmen's, investment, sustainable business and religious organizations, and even some electric utilities. Some called the rules "long overdo" and "monumental" and "historic" in their positive impacts on public health, the environment and the economy. "As a result of the new standards, we will begin to see some relief from the power plant pollution that harms our health," said Deborah Brown, president and CEO of the American Lung Association of Pennsylvania. "This action is a significant victory in the fight for healthy air." Bill McLin, president and CEO of the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America, a not-for-profit health organization advocating for asthma sufferers, said the 20 million Americans with asthma, including 6.7 million children, will breathe easier because of the EPA's decision to control power plant emissions. Coal-fired power plants are the largest sources of mercury, arsenic and other hazardous air pollutants. After intense industry lobbying, coal- and oil-fired electric power generators were exempted from 1990 Clean Air Act regulations governing toxic air emissions from other industrial operations. Today, about 44 percent of the nation's more than 440 coal-fired power plants continue to operate without any pollution controls and are responsible for 99 percent of mercury emissions from the electric power industry. The new Mercury and Air Toxics Standards, or MATS, contain two rules. The first establishes numerical limitations for mercury, airborne particles or soot, hydrochloric acid and metals. The second rule tightens limits that new coal-fired power plants must meet for airborne particle, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides emissions. The new rules, based on more than 130 peer-reviewed scientific and health studies, give power plants that don't use controls three years to install the equipment, with a possible additional one-year extension. In addition, the rules provide for case-by-case extensions where necessary to ensure that electricity supply reliability is maintained. According to the EPA, the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards and the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule, which was issued earlier this year, are the most significant steps to clean up pollution from power plant smokestacks since the Acid Rain Program of the 1990s. Combined, the rules annually could prevent up to 46,000 premature deaths, 540,000 asthma attacks among children and 24,500 emergency room visits and hospital admissions. Power plant mercury controls already exist in 17 states, but not in Pennsylvania, where a mercury rule was declared unconstitutional by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in 2009. A Natural Resources Defense Council report in July listed Pennsylvania as having the second-worst toxic air emissions in the nation, behind Ohio, and Pennsylvania's mercury emissions are second to Texas. Mark Baird, a spokesman for GenOn, owner of 18 power plants in Pennsylvania, said the company wouldn't comment on the rules until it has an opportunity to examine them in detail. FirstEnergy, which owns four coal-fired power plants in Pennsylvania, including Hatfield's Ferry power plant in Greene County and Bruce Mansfield power plant in Shippingport, Beaver County, also said it is reviewing the rules. When the rules were proposed earlier this year, FirstEnergy estimated compliance costs at $2 billion to $3 billion. "Over the next few months we'll evaluate things and look at our individual units to determine what they need to do to meet the regulations," said Ray Evans, environment executive director for FirstEnergy. "We have scrubbers on most all of the units but some might need retrofits." Mr. Segal, of the Electric Reliability Coordinating Council, and Mr. Miller, of the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity, said the EPA's rules will also make electricity less reliable. And just two months ago, Gov. Tom Corbett joined 10 other Republican governors in signing a letter to President Barack Obama asking him to withdraw the rules because of power supply reliability concerns. But most national studies don't support that blackout warning, and Doug Biden, president of the Electric Power Generation Association in Pennsylvania, a Harrisburg association representing power producers statewide, said such an occurrence is very unlikely in Pennsylvania. Mr. Biden said he does expect eight to 10 coal-fired power plants to close in the next few years, reducing Pennsylvania's power output by 3,000 to 4,000 megawatts, from its current total output of about 50,000 megawatts. He said he doesn't know which individual plants might close. "I do expect significant retirements of coal power plants, but I'm not blaming the EPA's air toxics rules ...," Mr. Biden said. "When you look at everything together, the new rules, historically low natural gas prices and stubbornly high coal prices due to overseas demand, all of that makes it very difficult for companies to justify operation of small, older power plants." Don Hopey: dhopey(a)post-gazette.com or 412-263-1983. First published on December 22, 2011 at 12:00 am Charleston Gazette Thursday 22 December 2011: December 21, 2011 Engineers hired to develop Kanawha cracker plant By Paul J. Nyden ( http://www.wvgazette.com/News/contact/cwalqra+jitnmrggr+pbz+return=/News/20… ) CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Richard Neely, a Charleston lawyer and former state Supreme Court justice, announced Wednesday that two experienced engineers are working with him on his plans to design and build a cracker plant near Montgomery to process natural gas. Neely recently incorporated Invictus LLC, whose cracking plant will produce a variety of products, including diesel fuel, gasoline, naphtha and ethylene -- a major product used by the plastics industry. The two engineers are: * Rob Proffitt, who lives in Winfield, was project manager for Union Carbide when it built a $1.3 billion ethane cracker plant in Alberta, Canada, between 1996 and 2001. The Alberta plant was a joint venture between Carbide and Nova Chemicals. * Cyril B. Tellis, who has a doctorate in chemical engineering from Northwestern University, was a research and development manager for Carbide's facilities that produced and refined ethylene and propylene, as well as a number of chemical derivatives. Neely said Tellis, who now lives in Charleston, worked for a variety of projects, including a major cracking plant in Saudi Arabia that supplies ethylene for plastics throughout Europe and coal-to-gas Sasol plants in South Africa. Sasol Ltd. is a South African company involved in mining, energy, chemicals and synfuels. During the apartheid era, when many countries boycotted trade with South Africa, Sasol produced petroleum and diesel products from coal and natural gas. Neely estimates it would cost $1.5 billion to build a cracking plant that produces high-quality products for the chemical industry and $3 billion for a plant that produces gasoline and diesel fuel from natural gas. The proposed plant could possibly get wet natural gas reserves pipelined to Kanawha County from both Marcellus Shale reserves in northern West Virginia and Utica Shale reserves in Athens County and surrounding areas in eastern Ohio. "People are going after oil in Utica Shale reserves. They are not looking for gas," Neely said. "And Ohio will not let you flare natural gas [to eliminate it] after 30 days from the time you open a well." CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Richard Neely, a Charleston lawyer and former state Supreme Court justice, announced Wednesday that two experienced engineers are working with him on his plans to design and build a cracker plant near Montgomery to process natural gas. Neely recently incorporated Invictus LLC, whose cracking plant will produce a variety of products, including diesel fuel, gasoline, naphtha and ethylene -- a major product used by the plastics industry. The two engineers are: * Rob Proffitt, who lives in Winfield, was project manager for Union Carbide when it built a $1.3 billion ethane cracker plant in Alberta, Canada, between 1996 and 2001. The Alberta plant was a joint venture between Carbide and Nova Chemicals. * Cyril B. Tellis, who has a doctorate in chemical engineering from Northwestern University, was a research and development manager for Carbide's facilities that produced and refined ethylene and propylene, as well as a number of chemical derivatives. Neely said Tellis, who now lives in Charleston, worked for a variety of projects, including a major cracking plant in Saudi Arabia that supplies ethylene for plastics throughout Europe and coal-to-gas Sasol plants in South Africa. Sasol Ltd. is a South African company involved in mining, energy, chemicals and synfuels. During the apartheid era, when many countries boycotted trade with South Africa, Sasol produced petroleum and diesel products from coal and natural gas. Neely estimates it would cost $1.5 billion to build a cracking plant that produces high-quality products for the chemical industry and $3 billion for a plant that produces gasoline and diesel fuel from natural gas. The proposed plant could possibly get wet natural gas reserves pipelined to Kanawha County from both Marcellus Shale reserves in northern West Virginia and Utica Shale reserves in Athens County and surrounding areas in eastern Ohio. "People are going after oil in Utica Shale reserves. They are not looking for gas," Neely said. "And Ohio will not let you flare natural gas [to eliminate it] after 30 days from the time you open a well." "We will be willing to take that gas, wet gas, which has to go to some kind of a plant," Neely said. "People might come and beg us to get rid of their gas." Invictus has already acquired the rights to 1,456 acres of land to build its cracking plant and related facilities near Coalburg, between Montgomery and Cabin Creek. Most of the facilities will be built on land that was previously a mountaintop removal coal mine. The Kanawha Valley, Neely said, is a good place to develop the cracking plant, especially with its long chemical-industry history. "We have everyone from smart blue-collar guys to chemical engineers with PhDs. We will also provide union-wage jobs. "Here, there is a far greater reserve of people who know about the chemical industry than farther north, where they have steel and aluminum plants and other heavy industry." Neely said the CSX railroad, which has tracks between the Kanawha River and the proposed location of the new Invictus plant, will make it easy to ship the plant's products to Newport News, Va., for export. "CSX also connects to places throughout the industrial Midwestern heartland to cities like Cincinnati, Indianapolis and Gary." The cracking plant will also have access to a river dock that can handle eight barges. Reach Paul J. Nyden at pjny...(a)wvgazette.com ( http://www.wvgazette.com/News/contact/cwalqra+jitnmrggr+pbz+return=/News/20… ) or 304-348-5164. "We will be willing to take that gas, wet gas, which has to go to some kind of a plant," Neely said. "People might come and beg us to get rid of their gas." Invictus has already acquired the rights to 1,456 acres of land to build its cracking plant and related facilities near Coalburg, between Montgomery and Cabin Creek. Most of the facilities will be built on land that was previously a mountaintop removal coal mine. The Kanawha Valley, Neely said, is a good place to develop the cracking plant, especially with its long chemical-industry history. "We have everyone from smart blue-collar guys to chemical engineers with PhDs. We will also provide union-wage jobs. "Here, there is a far greater reserve of people who know about the chemical industry than farther north, where they have steel and aluminum plants and other heavy industry." Neely said the CSX railroad, which has tracks between the Kanawha River and the proposed location of the new Invictus plant, will make it easy to ship the plant's products to Newport News, Va., for export. "CSX also connects to places throughout the industrial Midwestern heartland to cities like Cincinnati, Indianapolis and Gary." The cracking plant will also have access to a river dock that can handle eight barges. Reach Paul J. Nyden at pjny...(a)wvgazette.com ( http://www.wvgazette.com/News/contact/cwalqra+jitnmrggr+pbz+return=/News/20… ) or 304-348-5164. THE STATE JOURNAL: EPA announces new clean air standards for coal and oil power plants Posted: Dec 21, 2011 11:26 AM EST Updated: Dec 21, 2011 5:18 PM EST By Pam Kasey New limits on power plant emissions of mercury and other air toxics and a three-year compliance timeline remain essentially as proposed in March in a long-expected U.S. Environmental Protection Agency rule issued Dec. 21. "With these standards that were two decades in the making, EPA is rounding out a year of incredible progress on clean air in America with another action that will benefit the American people for years to come," said EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson. "The Mercury and Air Toxics Standards will protect millions of families and children from harmful and costly air pollution and provide the American people with health benefits that far outweigh the costs of compliance." The MATS rule — also known as the Hazardous Air Pollutants rule for utilities and the Utility Maximum Available Control Technology rule — establishes the first national standards to limit toxic air emissions from power plants. The rule is expected to cut mercury emissions by 90 percent and also to cut emissions of arsenic, chromium, nickel, and acid gases including hydrochloric and hydrofluoric acid. The technology that controls those emissions also will reduce fine particulate matter. Mercury is a neurotoxin to which fetuses and children are particularly susceptible, while other targeted emissions cause cancer, chronic and acute respiratory disorders, and other illnesses. The compliance deadline is Jan. 1, 2015. Changes in the Final Rule The rule was issued several days after it was expected on Friday, Dec. 16, leading to speculation that it was being weakened in the final hours. Changes, however, were minor and kept the emissions limits and the three-year timeline essentially as proposed. Most notably, estimated costs and benefits dropped — from costs of about $11 billion per year in the proposed rule and benefits of up to $140 billion, to $9.7 and up to $90 billion in the final rule — but that's not the result of weakening, according to Jackson. Costs dropped due to efficiencies suggested by some of the 900,000 commenters on the proposal, she said. Benefits were reduced because analysis showed that some of the benefits will be realized through the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule issued earlier this year. MATS benefits occur primarily through as many as 11,000 premature deaths avoided per year but also through the avoidance of 4,700 non-fatal heart attacks, 130,000 cases of respiratory illness including aggravated asthma and acute and chronic bronchitis, and 540,000 days of missed work, according to the EPA. In addition, the EPA's jobs analysis finds a net gain of 46,000 short-term jobs as pollution control technologies are installed and 8,000 long-term jobs to operate and maintain those technologies. Plant Closures Expected Based on the draft rule and other environmental rules expected or already out, utilities have said they would close some plants that are too small and old to merit expensive retrofits. More than 30 plants in a dozen states likely will be retired and another 34 may retire, according to an Associated Press survey based on the draft rule and reported on Dec. 19. In West Virginia, AEP has said it expects this rule, with other EPA regulations, to lead to the closure of its Philip Sporn plant in Mason County, Kanawha River plant in Kanawha County and Kammer plant in Marshall County. Those three plants amount to 2,200 megawatts of older coal-fired generating capacity — 12 percent of the state's generating capacity but only about one-tenth of 1 percent of generation in 2010. FirstEnergy has not yet announced its plans. "We would need some time to evaluate what the final rules are and how they might impact our operations," said FirstEnergy spokesman Mark Durbin. "At this time, no final decisions have been made on the future of our fossil generating plants." A state regulator has suggested that FirstEnergy's small, old Albright, Rivesville and Willow Island plants may be retired. Those total about 600 megawatts of capacity and represented much less than one-tenth of one percent of generation in 2010. Utilities, regulators and electric trade organizations raised concerns that the combined capacity of plant retirements expected from the proposed rule and the tight timeline could lead to reliability problems. The AP concluded after its survey that the concern likely was overblown; however, the EPA provided in its final rule for a fourth compliance year for technology installations and further flexibility for localized reliability problems. Reactions The National Mining Association belittled the flexibility as inadequate. "The modest adjustment to the compliance timeline in the MACT standard merely papers over a deeply flawed rule," said NMA President and CEO Hal Quinn in a media release. But PJM Interconnection, which manages the grid in a 13-state region that includes West Virginia, supported the flexibility measures. "We at PJM are pleased that the EPA administrator has included the key elements of our proposed process to preserve reliability into documents accompanying the final rule," the organization wrote in a media release. The Sierra Club applauded the rule as a "milestone." And the sustainability advocacy group CERES said the rule would "unleash investment" in infrastructure and create jobs up and down the supply chain. Soon after the EPA made its announcement, Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W.Va., issued a statement in which he said he had "serious concerns" about the new rules. "In fact, I have voted in Congress to prevent their implementation in the near term. The rules are likely to drive up energy prices for American consumers and result in the loss of jobs for coal miners while doing nothing to address the growth in global emissions," he said. "It certainly makes more sense to me to be investing in American-made technologies to help American utilities upgrade to more efficient, cleaner ways of using domestic coal, rather than putting the rulemaking hammer to American plants and forcing our coal to be shipped overseas where emissions will be even greater. From the standpoint sufficiency of our energy supply and protection of our global atmosphere, we ought to be looking creatively at coal power, rather than instituting policies that force coal out of our energy sector." Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., also was critical of the rules. "Today's announcement of yet another onerous rule by the EPA completely ignores the devastating impact these regulations will have on jobs and our economy, not only in West Virginia but across this nation," he said. "The Utility MACT Rule, combined with the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule that was finalized earlier this year, are two of the most expensive regulations ever to be imposed, and every American should be concerned about their effect on energy prices, the reliability of our power supply, our coal mining industry and most importantly our families," Senator Manchin said. "I believe we can find a responsible and reasonable balance when it comes to the environment and our energy needs as a nation. My desire to achieve this balance is why my Republican colleague Dan Coats of Indiana and I introduced the Fair Compliance Act – a commonsense, bipartisan piece of legislation that would create a fair timeframe to comply with new rules. I hope that Congress will address these regulations, and take up the Fair Compliance Act as soon as possible, to prevent the potential loss of a million jobs, increased utility rates, and more damage to our economy." W.Va. developing incentive plan to attract ethane cracker Posted: Dec 21, 2011 11:38 AM EST Updated: Dec 21, 2011 11:47 AM EST By Jim Ross West Virginia could be about to up its bet in the game to win a $2 billion ethane cracker plant. Keith Burdette, West Virginia secretary of commerce and head of the West Virginia Development Office, says he may ask the Legislature to consider an incentive plan that would nearly eliminate personal property taxes on crackers and related developments that involve an investment of $2 billion or more. Existing law allows the state to reduce the personal property tax rate to 5 percent for a maximum of 10 years. Burdette says he may ask the Legislature to extend that cut to 25 years. Incentives come into play because West Virginia is trying to land one or perhaps two ethane crackers to take advantage of development of Marcellus shale gas fields. At least three companies — Shell Chemicals, Dow Chemical Co. and Brazil-based Braskem SA — have been named in news reports as having interest in building new cracker plants in the United States. Shell has said it wants to announce its preferred site for a cracker in the Appalachian region by the end of January. Shell has also said its January announcement will not be the final decision on where it wants to build its cracker. Burdette said a second company that's looking at West Virginia will not announce its preferred site until it is further along in its due diligence. Bayer is offering property it owns in Kanawha and Marshall counties as sites for one or two crackers. Ohio is offering a $1.4 billion incentive package to land a cracker. "We think we can create a package that's competitive with any place," Burdette said this week. A cracker takes ethane, a byproduct of drilling for gas, breaks it down and reassembles the elements into products that are used in plastics industries. A cracker could mean thousands of construction jobs and hundreds of permanent jobs. According to Greenwire, a national energy and environmental news service, ethane is harder to move around than natural gas itself, also known as methane. Thus, ethane is usually cracked close to the wells that produce it. Burdette said he could not provide an estimate on how much his proposed incentive package would save an ethane producer, as personal property tax rates vary from county to county. But he did say he thinks incentives are only one part of the state's attractiveness to Shell and other companies. "It's not all about incentives. It's about sites. It's about infrastructure. It's about work force. It's about the expandability of the site itself. The incentive piece is the icing on the cake" he said. Planned Pipeline Would Fuel Power Stations From ShaleDecember 22, 2011 By CASEY JUNKINS Staff Writer , The Intelligencer / Wheeling News-Register CLARINGTON - Natural gas from the Utica and Marcellus shale formations may fire some American Electric Power plants across eastern Ohio, via a new pipeline network. "One of the areas of fastest growing demand is natural gas-fired power generation, as facilities either switch to cleaner-burning natural gas or are built to run on it," said Wendy K. Olson, spokeswoman for Spectra Energy Corp., the Houston, Texas-based pipeline developer. Spectra announced its intention to build the new pipeline - capable of transporting 1 billion cubic feet of natural gas each day - Wednesday. At the same time, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency released its report that will likely lead to the closure of many coal-fired power plants across the county, including AEP's Kammer Plant in Marshall County. AEP serves much of the Upper Ohio Valley, except Hancock, Brooke, Wetzel and Tyler counties. Natural gas "is 45 percent cleaner than coal and 30 percent cleaner than fuel oil. It's efficient and reliable. And now with the abundance of supply being brought online thanks to developing shale plays, it's now more affordable than ever," added Olson. Olson said the proposed pipeline would originate in Carroll County, Ohio, which lies to the north of Cadiz in Harrison County and west of East Liverpool in Columbiana County. This north-south running line would wind through Harrison and Belmont counties, before intersecting with the east-west running Texas Eastern pipeline near Clarington. The pipeline will only be built if Spectra receives additional supply commitments, but Olson said the line's projected in-service date is November 2014. "As environmental demands increase for cleaner power generation, natural gas is a fuel of choice to meet these needs - and it's a domestically abundant resource that helps increase our energy independence and bring jobs and revenue to our local communities," she added. AEP spokeswoman Melissa McHenry said her company committed to use about 10 percent of the pipeline's supply capacity, which would equal roughly 100 million cubic feet of gas per day. She said the gas would travel to the company's power plants that already run on natural gas. These AEP plants include: McHenry emphasized the planned pipeline is still in its very early stages, but said AEP is optimistic about the possibilities. Bill Yardley, group vice president of Spectra Energy Transmission, Northeast, is upbeat about the project. "At a time when there is growing environmental need for cleaner power generation, this new infrastructure will deliver clean, affordable and much-needed energy to Ohio, the Midwest and South," he said. Chesapeake Energy, which holds about 1.5 million net acres in the Utica play, is pursuing capacity on the Spectra pipeline as well. "Chesapeake has made a preliminary agreement to negotiate for the transportation of a yet-to-be-determined volume of natural gas through the pipeline, but will not make a capital investment in the project," said Chesapeake spokesman Pete Kenworthy. "Having access to multiple markets is beneficial for the development of the Utica." EPA Tells Power Plants To Clean Up Their ActsNew rules on mercury will force many shutdownsDecember 22, 2011 By DINA CAPPIELLO Associated Press Writer , The Intelligencer / Wheeling News-Register WASHINGTON - Clean up or shut down. That's the decision facing hundreds of the nation's oldest and dirtiest power plants under an Environmental Protection Agency rule announced Wednesday that will force plants to control mercury and other toxic pollutants for the first time. The long overdue national standards rein in the largest remaining source of uncontrolled toxic pollution in the U.S. - the emissions from the nation's coal- and oil-fired power plants, which have been allowed to run for decades without addressing their full environmental and public health costs. The impact of the ruling will be greatest in the Midwest and in the coal belt - Kentucky, West Virginia and Virginia - where dozens of units likely will be mothballed, according to an Associated Press survey. The majority of facilities will continue to run, and find ways to reduce pollution. About half of the 1,200 coal- and oil-fired units nationwide still lack modern pollution controls, despite the EPA in 1990 getting the authority from Congress to control toxic air pollution from power plant smokestacks. A decade later, in 2000, the agency concluded it was necessary to clamp down on the emissions to protect public health. At a press conference Wednesday at Children's National Medical Center in Washington, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson said the regulation was the Obama administration's "biggest clean air action yet", trumping an agreement to double fuel economy standards for vehicles and another rule that will reduce emissions from power plants that foul the air in states downwind. The administration was under court order to issue a new rule, after a court threw out an attempt by the Bush administration to exempt power plants from toxic air pollution controls. "Before this rule, there were no national standards limiting the amount of mercury, arsenic, chromium, nickel and acid gases that power plants across the country could release into the air that we breathe," said Jackson, listing the contaminants linked to cancer, IQ loss, heart disease and lung disease that are covered by the rule, and that also pollute lakes, streams and fish. In a video released Wednesday afternoon, President Barack Obama said the decades of delays caused by special interest groups that resulted in standards never being put into place for power plants "was wrong." "Today, my administration is saying, 'Enough,'" he said. When fully implemented in 2016, the standards will slash mercury pollution from burning coal by 90 percent, lung-damaging acid gases by 88 percent and soot-producing sulfur dioxide by 41 percent. Power plant operators will have to choose between installing pollution control equipment, switching to cleaner-burning natural gas, or shutting down the plant. None of those choices come cheap - the EPA estimates the rule will cost $9.6 billion annually, making it one of the most expensive the agency has ever issued. Some power producers intensely lobbied the Obama administration to weaken the rule and to delay it, and Republicans in Congress passed legislation to do so, saying it would threaten jobs and the reliability of the power grid, and raise electricity prices. To ease those concerns, the administration will encourage states to make "broadly available" an additional fourth year to comply with the rule, as allowed by the law. Case-by-case extensions could also be granted to address local reliability issues, according to a presidential memorandum sent Wednesday to Jackson. In the memorandum, Obama directs the EPA to ensure that implementation of the rule "proceed in a cost-effective manner that ensures electric reliability." Environmentalists said Wednesday that the added flexibility did not jeopardize the public health benefits of the regulation. "After more than two decades of delay, dirty coal-fired power plants are going to be cleaned up in short order," said Frank O'Donnell, president of Clean Air Watch, who said the EPA "bent over backwards" to accommodate concerns about reliability. For those in the industry, and some in Congress, the concessions didn't go far enough. Oklahoma Sen. James Inhofe, the top Republican on the Senate's environment committee, said he would file a joint resolution, a rarely used Congressional tactic, to get the rule overturned. Some in the industry pushed for an automatic delay, or "safety valve," to make sure that plants that have to run to ensure reliability aren't found in violation of the rule and too many plants don't close down at once. Park Drilling ClearedBrooke Hills Board Signs With ChesapeakeDecember 21, 2011 By WARREN SCOTT , The Intelligencer / Wheeling News-Register The Brooke Hills Park board, at its regular meeting on Tuesday, entered into an agreement allowing for the park to receive royalties for natural gas drawn from nearly 100 acres there. Bill Watson, the board's legal counsel, noted the board, formally known as the Brooke County Park and Recreation Commission, had entered into a lease agreement with Chesapeake Appalachia allowing the company to drill for natural gas under park grounds. But park officials said later they learned mineral rights for much of the property belonged to descendants of the Gist family, who donated the land to the county more than 40 years ago. That resulted in the park being poised to receive royalties for 22 acres only, though the park commission received a $750,000 signing fee for the lease. Watson didn't go into detail at Tuesday's meeting but said the situation has changed, and the park can receive royalties on gas drawn from nearly 100 acres as projected originally. At a Brooke County Commission meeting in September, park officials hinted that mineral rights for the Gists' descendants could expire this year. Watson couldn't be reached for comment following the meeting. Walter Ferguson, the board's newly elected president - who was called for comment - said specific details about the agreement should be directed to Watson. But he confirmed crews with Chesapeake have drilled a vertical well at the park and hope to begin a horizontal one soon. Since September crews have been working in a wooded area at the rear of the park near Pierce Run Road. They had hoped to access the site from Pierce Run Road. But that would require them to cross the creek, so they have built a road to the park's main road instead, scheduling their hauling around such fall events as the Brooke County Fair and Brooke Hills Spooktacular. Natural gas drilling involves a controversial process known as hydraulic fracturing. It entails blasting the underground Marcellus shale with water, sand and chemicals, some of them toxic, to release the natural gas. Gas industry officials say the drilling occurs thousands of feet below water tables and wells are heavily sealed with concrete and steel to prevent the fluid from leaking into the ground. Opponents point to incidents in which wastewater from the process was spilled outside the wells or methane from abandoned coal mines was released, resulting in fires. Park board members said in January officials with Chesapeake have assured them the park won't be harmed. They noted the lease will be a major source of revenue for the park, which has struggled financially in recent years. Asked how the board will use the signing fee or royalties paid for the gas tapped there, Ferguson said the board has made plans to hire an architect to aid it in developing a plan for improvements. He noted replacing the park's aging swimming pool with a water park and adding an ice skating rink are ideas that have been suggested. Chesapeake also has approached the park commission for an easement allowing it to build an underground transmission line to transport the gas from the site. Ferguson said the board is still negotiating for the easement and construction of the transmission line is still a few years away. Pittsburgh Tribune Review: $500 million to expand natural gas shipping By Bloomberg News Thursday, December 22, 2011 Spectra Energy Corp. plans to spend about $500 million in Ohio to expand shipping capacity on its Texas Eastern pipeline system to handle rising natural-gas production from the Utica and Marcellus shale formations. American Electric Power Co. and Chesapeake Energy Corp., the largest holder of Utica Shale leases, signed an agreement to develop 70 miles of new lines, Houston-based Spectra said on Wednesday in a statement. The addition in Ohio will raise shipping capacity by 1 billion cubic feet a day, or about 18 percent, Wendy Olson, a Spectra spokeswoman, said in an e-mail today. Production from U.S. shale deposits, where water and chemicals are pumped underground at high pressure to break apart dense rock and release gas, more than doubled from 2007 to 2009, according to Energy Department data. American Electric, the largest U.S. coal burner, is pursuing pipeline capacity for gas-fired power plants, Spectra said. The utility owner, based in Columbus, Ohio, has estimated that tighter U.S. air-pollution restrictions may force it to close some coal-burning plants. "We do anticipate more than one plant will attach" to the new gas lines, Olson said. Chesapeake is pursuing additional shipping capacity for its production, Spectra said. The Oklahoma City-based company is the largest oil and gas leaseholder in the Utica shale with 1.4 million net acres. Spectra rose 1.6 percent to close at $30.50 in New York, the highest since it was spun off by Duke Energy Corp. in January 2007. American Electric shares rose 2.3 percent to $40.85, its highest since July 9, 2008. Chesapeake shares rose to $22.99. The project is slated to begin operating in November 2014, according to the statement. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Beth Little" <blittle(a)citynet.net> To: <blittle(a)citynet.net> Sent: Wednesday, December 21, 2011 4:03 PM Subject: FW: [MarcellusGasInfo] Fracking Is ZERO Tolerance (an unpublished P&S Guest Viewpoint) Here's a provocative idea from NY. Substitute Tomblin for governor and think about it. -----Original Message----- From: marcellusgasinfo(a)googlegroups.com [mailto:marcellusgasinfo@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Rich Kellman Sent: Tuesday, December 20, 2011 1:45 PM To: Subject: [MarcellusGasInfo] Fracking Is ZERO Tolerance (an unpublished P&S Guest Viewpoint) This is a paraphrased, modified version of a Guest Viewpoint I sent in but has not gotten published- I'm not holding my breath.The ideas are the same: Many,or all, supporters of fracking contend that it can be, and will be, done safely. Do these folks have a portal to the future which we frack-opponents have somehow been unfortunate enough to have missed? If Governor Cuomo and his subordinates at the DEC, as well as other governmental bodies which have a stake in drilling do, in fact, have these sure fire- precautions nailed down, then why haven't other states where drilling has been underway been beating down the DEC doors to get this information? Then they could put an end to at least some of the worst very well documented disastrous results that the environment, habitat, and humans have been forced to suffer for much too long. Fracking has no room whatsoever for error. Hopefully Mr. Cuomo will also learn this lesson. If we can imagine the following scenario which might "illuminate" some of the pressing fracking realities and consequences for him: Mr. Cuomo, as the State leader, should exhibit more leadership by example. The land, homes and properties surrounding the Governor's mansion and his private residence(s) would be taken by eminent domain. A 5 acre, or so ,drill pad would then be constructed by bulldozing ,trenching, and digging up everything that is in the way of this "technology". Mr.Cuomo would live in the mansion/residence(s), other than his work time, while all stages of the drilling process are carried out. He'll be asked to only use the same health/safety/living precautions that most of the other residents of New York are able to afford. At the end of this "experiment", the Governor will then be publicly asked "What do you think now?"District gets $628K for drilling lease 12/22/2011 3:33 AM SAXONBURG (AP) - A Pittsburgh-area school district has finalized a lease agreement with a gas drilling company and received $628,000 up front. The Valley News Dispatch reported Wednesday that Phillips Exploration's lease with South Butler School District also carries an 18 percent royalty from any gas that is produced and sold from the acreage. Phillips Exploration is owned by Texas-based XTO Energy, which is owned by ExxonMobil. The newspaper reported that the lease requires district officials to approve the site of any well before Phillips drills, and any well or pipeline must be at least 500 feet from a district structure. The school board approved the five-year lease with a 6-2 vote in September. It covers about 165 acres the district owns. Copyright Observer Publishing Co. Corner Cupboard receives $16K donation from Consol 12/22/2011 3:33 AM By Jon Stevens, Staff writer jstevens(a)observer-reporter.com WAYNESBURG - Corner Cupboard Food Bank on Rolling Meadows Road received an early Christmas present Wednesday when Consol Energy presented the organization with an additional $16,000 raised through the employee sale of Pittsburgh Penguin T-shirts. The employee donation brings Consol Energy's gift to Corner Cupboard to more than $49,175 this holiday season. To kick off the companywide effort before Thanksgiving, Consol sponsored the fourth annual Corner Cupboard Holiday Food Drive at the Greene County Courthouse Nov. 15. Consol employees and food bank volunteers collected nonperishable food and monetary donations from those who attended as well as from area businesses. "In addition to the $20,000 we invested in-kind to the food drive event," the $8,175 collected at the event and Consol's $5,000 cash donation, "I am pleased to present an additional $16,000 from Consol's employees," said Laurel Ziemba, director of community relations for Consol. "Consol's annual contributions allow the Corner Cupboard Food Bank to double our funding to help the community's most vulnerable," said Jan Caldwell, executive director of the food bank. "We are especially grateful during the winter holidays when there is a substantial jump in the number in need of food assistance." Last year, Consol presented Caldwell with a large envelope containing checks totaling $35,680 from the T-shirt sales, prompting Caldwell to remark, "You guys are just awesome. I am speechless. This is just over the top." Consol began its holiday food drive in 2008, a year the food bank had to include chicken breasts as a substitute for a turkey in many of its Thanksgiving baskets. Those who would still like to donate money or food or are interested in volunteering with the food bank may call the food bank at 724-627-9784. Those who would like to send donations may direct them to Corner Cupboard Food Bank, 511 Rolling Meadows Road, Waynesburg, PA 15370. Copyright Observer Publishing Co. Don Strimbeck, Sec/Treas Upper Mon River Assoc UpperMon.org MonRiverSummit.org WVU t-shirts & prints - FindHarri.com 109 Broad Street, P. O. Box 519 Granville WV 26534-0519 304-599-7585 (fax 4131) dcsoinks(a)comcast.net

1 0

Re: [EC] DRassessment12 16 11.doc
by Allan Tweddle 21 Dec '11

21 Dec '11

Jeff There are several changes that I would recommend. First, thanks to WVU and several other independent medical research organizations, there is more than ample scientific evidence that the financial and social impact on health care, including premature death, loss of productivity and inability to work due to diseases like heart disease, cancers, and asthma caused by pollution from coal fired power plants are significant. But this report does not appear take into consideration these "legacy" costs when evaluating the economic comparatives of coal to renewable energy. As one who has a fiduciary responsibility to they State and Legislature for all our positions as a member of the PEA, I must go on record demanding that the true cost be identified in any economic analysis. As you know from my often offered, and to some, an irritating report, the Province of Ontario has in their annual Provincial Budget BOTH the generation/distribution of electric power from several generating methods, and the Province wide universal health care plan known as OHIP. The Provincial Government completed several years ago a detailed study to determine the true cost of coal fired power and included the cost of health care directly attributed to pollution from their coal fired power plants. Their 2 year study led them to conclude that renewable energy is less costly when the total cost is honestly added up, so they are on track to shut down ALL of their coal fired power plants by 2012. While the economics of BOTH power generation/distribution and health care are undoubtedly different between Ontario and West Virginia, we must, in all honest to the State Legislature, report the true cost of coal as it is understood today...and not by living in the past. Secondly, I note the Coal Association is asked for input data, but what about asking renewable energy industry sources, like WV Wind Working Group, environmental organizations like, but not limited to, the WV Chapter and National Sierra Club, OPEC, WV Environmental Council, and health care professionals who deal with these health impacts on a daily basis. Solar Energy, both photovoltaic and concentrated solar power technologies in particular, have been coming down in total costs significantly, some industry literature reporting 50% drop in the last year for some systems. Qualified industry sources should be consulted and asked to supply the current economics of these rapidly growing energy technologies. Third, the fact that the power industry has stated that they do not need to construct any renewable energy systems to me illustrates the illusion of this Alternative Energy Standard. No other jurisdiction that I am aware of has such a phony approach...we need a clean renewable energy standard period...20% by 2020. And the reason for that is that since the original standard was written, climatology scientists around the world have observed the impacts of climate change, and have determined that their original models for predicting the rise of temperature and impacts of climate change were too conservative. They clearly are warning that we are moving much more rapidly to a crisis level of GHG emissions. As the Durban South Africa meeting has just concluded and illustrates, the world IS coming together to address climate change, and we must too. But the opportunities for job creation are the plus side of solving this crisis, hence our State Energy Plan must be more aggressive in cutting GHG emissions that will create jobs in doing so. There are numerous studies supporting this statement, and we are foolish to ignore the global trends...as we do so at our economic peril. Finally, there should be a far more aggressive incentive program for net metering and distributed power. Respectfully Allan Tweddle From: Herholdt, Jeff F Sent: Monday, December 19, 2011 8:57 AM To: Randy.C.Huffman(a)wv.gov ; David Warner ; spettit(a)waco-trio.com ; Mike Ross ; allantweddle(a)msn.com Cc: Butler, Marie ; ahaden(a)psc.state.wv.us Subject: FW: DRassessment12 16 11.doc Gentlemen Last Monday (12/12) you were advised of the Public Service Commission and Division of Energy/ Public Energy Authority role in preparing a report on West Virginia's Alternative and Renewable Portfolio. In that email I shared with you information we provided to the PSC for use in preparation of the preliminary report. The preliminary report is to be submitted by the PSC by January 1 while the final report is due July 1, 2012. Attached is the draft preliminary report. Would appreciate your review and comments if any on this by Wednesday, December 21. Please feel free to contact me with questions. Jeff From: Haden, Amy [mailto:AHaden@psc.state.wv.us] Sent: Friday, December 16, 2011 4:04 PM To: Herholdt, Jeff F; Hitt, Richard Subject: DRassessment12 16 11.doc Jeff, Attached is a draft of the assessment. Note that parts of the text are highlighted with notes for your review and editing. At 8-9, the section of the economic impact of the Act on coal and coal mining was simplified. The discussion of the displacement analysis did not appear to be responsive to the Q. about the impact on coal and coal mining and it was a little difficult to follow. After looking at it, Rick and I thought it might be better to leave it out with some language added about following up with more information in future Assessments. The copy will be revised for the table of contents pages, etc. after we finish the draft stage. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact me. Thanks, Amy

1 0

Fwd: E&E: White House greenlights EPA power plant rules
by Jim Sconyers 20 Dec '11

20 Dec '11

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Fred Heutte <phred(a)sunlightdata.com> Date: Tue, Dec 20, 2011 at 2:17 PM Subject: E&E: White House greenlights EPA power plant rules To: COAL-CAMPAIGN-ALERTS(a)lists.sierraclub.org White House greenlights EPA power plant rules Gabriel Nelson, E&E reporter Published: Tuesday, December 20, 2011 U.S. EPA's new rules for toxic emissions from coal- and oil- burning power plants have been cleared for release by the White House Office of Management and Budget. Friday was the deadline for EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson to sign the final standards, which would set the first federal limits on chemicals such as mercury, acid gases and dioxins. After a two-month review that included about 20 meetings at the White House, the agency has permission to release them, according to a change made today to a White House rulemaking database. That step usually signals the imminent release of a rule, and several sources briefed on the standards said they expect EPA to come out with them soon. Yet the agency has kept mum. "We will make details available when we are ready to make an announcement," an EPA spokeswoman wrote in an email. "As we have made clear, any standard will maximize flexibilities, while providing extensive public health protections from dangerous pollutants." The White House finished reviewing two rules Friday. One is the "appropriate and necessary finding," which says toxic emissions from coal- and oil-fired plants have measurable health effects that justify subjecting all plants to an emissions standard. After reaching that conclusion, which EPA first did in 2000, the agency must set emissions limits based on maximum achievable control technology (MACT) already in use. The White House also gave the agency permission to release the MACT standards, which have gotten push-back from some coal- burning utilities because they would drive hundreds of plants to undergo major renovations or shut down over the next several years. House Republicans passed a bill this fall that would delay the rules, loosen their requirements and give power companies more time to add pollution controls. Sen. James Inhofe, the Oklahoma Republican who leads his party on the Environment and Public Works Committee, says he, too, will introduce a resolution to nullify the rules after their release. Paul Billings, vice president for national policy and advocacy at the American Lung Association, said he expects EPA to release the rules soon. Under the settlement, the agency has five business days from this past Friday to submit the finalized rule for publication in the Federal Register. EPA says curbing toxic emissions would have a wide range of health benefits, including stopping thousands of people from dying each year by cleaning up soot from power plants. "The rule should be released so the public can see the benefits," Billings said. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - To unsubscribe from the COAL-CAMPAIGN-ALERTS list, send any message to: COAL-CAMPAIGN-ALERTS-signoff-request(a)LISTS.SIERRACLUB.ORG Check out our Listserv Lists support site for more information: http://www.sierraclub.org/lists/faq.asp -- Jim Sconyers jimscon(a)gmail.com 304.698.9628 Remember, Mother Nature bats last.

1 0

Targeting First Energy Power Plants - Strategy Session
by Jim Sconyers 18 Dec '11

18 Dec '11

Folks - We are embarking on an exciting campaign, with a huge potential payoff. - First Energy's (Mon Power, Potomac Edison parent) Albright, Rivesville, and Willow Island coal-burning power plants are our target. - Retiring these plants is our goal. - Creating public awareness and support are essential. Some developments coming along mean that the time is now for us to get moving. We want to set a major public event for mid-January - which is a lot sooner than it sounds. You are invited - very warmly! - to a planning session. This is a new venture, and we *need* your ideas and energy to make this a success. Planning session: Sunday, December 18, 1:00 - 3:00 (+/-) PM Jim Kotcon's/Candice Elliott's home in Morgantown (414 Tyrone Avery Road). <directions below> This link is a google map just to show where these three First Energy plants are. http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msa=0&msid=216452375754882078896.0004a28d682… *Directions to Jim and Candice’s home* >From I-68, Exit 7, take Rt 857 North 1.0 mile. Turn right onto Tyrone Avery Road. Go 1.0 mile (watch for a sharp right followed by a sharp left at 0.7 miles, be sure to take that left). Look for 4 mailboxes and a utility pole on the right, just before our driveway. Come up the gravel drive to the second house on the right. If you need directions help day of the meeting keep this phone number handy: Jim Kotcon/Candice Elliot 304.594.3322 -- Jim Sconyers jimscon(a)gmail.com 304.698.9628 Remember, Mother Nature bats last.

8 11

Fwd: Rep. Capito voted for Keystone XL
by Paul Wilson 15 Dec '11

15 Dec '11

fyi, paul ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Elijah Zarlin, CREDO Action <act(a)credoaction.com> Date: Wed, Dec 14, 2011 at 11:07 AM Subject: Rep. Capito voted for Keystone XL To: Paul Wilson <pjgrunt(a)gmail.com> ** [image: CREDO Action] *Hold Rep. Capito accountable for voting for the Keystone XL end run.<http://act.credoaction.com/call?tg=FHWV_02&cp_id=182&id=32098-3414728-CygGT…> * [image: Take action!]<http://act.credoaction.com/call?tg=FHWV_02&cp_id=182&id=32098-3414728-CygGT…> * Rep. Capito needs to hear an earful for voting yesterday to force approval of the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline. Call her now. Click here for an easy script and number to call. <http://act.credoaction.com/call?tg=FHWV_02&cp_id=182&id=32098-3414728-CygGT…> * [image: Take action now!]<http://act.credoaction.com/call?tg=FHWV_02&cp_id=182&id=32098-3414728-CygGT…> Dear Paul, Yesterday, House Republicans, including Rep. Capito, voted to force approval of the Keystone XL Pipeline — at the expense of working families and the unemployed. * With the clock ticking on the year-end deadline to extend the payroll tax cut and unemployment benefits, Republicans are using this urgency to try to force approval of Keystone XL, and additionally to gut Clean Air Act protections against mercury and other toxic air pollution.* Even with everything we've seen from this congress, Rep. Capito's vote yesterday was a stunning declaration of her allegiance to the fossil fuel industry — and we need to hold her accountable. * Call Rep. Capito and hold her accountable for putting the dirty Keystone XL pipeline ahead of American families. Click here for an easy script and number to call.<http://act.credoaction.com/call?tg=FHWV_02&cp_id=182&id=32098-3414728-CygGT…> * The Republicans' are once again playing chicken with much needed benefits on the eve of their expiration by forcing these "poison pills" into the payroll-tax and unemployment benefits extension bill. To his credit, President Obama sent a strong message when he threatened to veto the bill before the vote, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid also drew a line in the sand, telling Republicans that he would halt negotiations on another important year end-spending bill unless Republicans dropped their giveaways to Big Oil and King Coal. Even the State Department, which has restarted their evaluation of Keystone XL, condemned the Republicans' efforts, saying that the 60 days to issue a decision as mandated by Republicans would allow insufficient time to conduct their restarted evaluation of the project. * Still, Republicans are rabid to approve Keystone XL, no matter the cost — to our health, or to the economic stability of millions of Americas.* As negotiations move to the Senate, we need a massive show of opposition to hold Rep. Capito accountable for this irresponsible vote. Call her now: * http://act.credoaction.com/call?tg=FHWV_02&cp_id=182&id=32098-3414728-CygGT… * Thank you for fighting Keystone XL. Elijah Zarlin, Campaign Manager CREDO Action from Working Assets <http://act.credoaction.com/r/?r=11&id=32098-3414728-CygGTIx&t=7> [image: Take action now!]<http://act.credoaction.com/call?tg=FHWV_02&cp_id=182&id=32098-3414728-CygGT…> To remove yourself (Paul Wilson) from this list, please visit our subscription management page at: http://act.credoaction.com/s?i=32098-3414728-CygGTIx To change your email address or update your contact info, please visit: http://act.credoaction.com/subscrip/coa.html?id=32098-3414728-CygGTIx This is a message from CREDO / Working Assets. © 2011 CREDO. All rights reserved. Questions? Send us an email <info(a)credoaction.com> or write us at: 101 Market Street, Suite 700, San Francisco, CA 94105. -- 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

1 0

Fwd: From Greenwire -- OIL AND GAS: Protecting oil from water -- the history of state regulation
by James Kotcon 14 Dec '11

14 Dec '11

>>> <paula.carrell(a)sierraclub.org> 12/14/2011 1:35 PM >>> E-mail this story, sponsored by American Energy Innovation Council ************** OIL AND GAS: Protecting oil from water -- the history of state regulation (Wednesday, December 14, 2011) TOWANDA, Pa. -- A thin smile crept across Tony Tripp's face when reporters started asking him about the rules for gas drilling in Pennsylvania and West Virginia. "A lot of things aren't required in West Virginia," Tripp, foreman of the 92-foot drill rig rumbling a few feet away, told journalists on an industry-sponsored tour of drill sites here. "I kinda like working there." Randy Huffman, no doubt, would like to disagree. As secretary of the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection, he is the top environmental official in the state and an ardent defender of states' ability to regulate drilling. But even he has to admit West Virginia's laws are hopelessly out of date. SPECIAL REPORT A new wave of drilling, fueled by the practice some call "fracking," is promising prosperity and energy security for the country. E&E investigates whether anyone is ensuring it's done right. Click here to read the report. Standing in his shirt-sleeves in an elementary school cafeteria last June before a crowd of drilling opponents in Morgantown, W.Va., Huffman explained that the state's regulatory structure is 80 years old. It was designed with small, shallow gas wells in mind, not 5-acre industrial sites with hundreds of trucks hauling millions of gallons of water for hydraulic fracturing. "Quite frankly, our regulatory structure is not prepared to deal with it," Huffman said as the sun set on a pleasant mountain evening. "All of a sudden we have, basically, a brand new industry that shows up on the scene. We see a lot of things, that quite frankly, the state was not prepared for." It's not prepared, even though companies have been drilling the state's Marcellus Shale for six years now. Lawmakers failed to reach agreement on an update last spring. This week, they will try again in a special session. West Virginia is one of the starker examples of a state regulatory system developed before World War II trying to keep up, or catch up, with the drilling boom taking place across the United States. Eighty years ago, state officials were worried that water would pollute oil, not the other way around. Today, they are under increasing pressure to keep drinking water clean even as they promote the oil and gas production that delivers jobs and tax revenues amid a steady flow of economic woes. Today's drilling revival stretches from upstate New York to Southern California, bringing oil and gas production to new areas and more intense drilling to areas where it had been on the decline. The revival is being propelled by advances in the technology of hydraulic fracturing that enables operators to squeeze gas and oil from solid rock. Drill bits can burrow a mile below ground, then turn and tunnel sideways for another mile or more. Crews blast millions of gallons of chemical-laced water through the pipes to "fracture" the rock and release gas from the pores of the shale formation. In the last decade, there has been a twelvefold increase in shale gas production, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Still, plays like the Marcellus Shale in Pennsylvania and West Virginia are in their infancy. Regulatory roots in 1930s oil boom Attempts by state oil and gas agencies to deal with the pace of this production have varied dramatically. Pennsylvania has repeatedly added new rules, often to address new problems that caused an uproar. New York, where opposition is the strongest, sought to avoid playing catch-up by putting a hold on development while it prepared for the industry. West Virginia headed off some of the problems that Pennsylvania had with disposal of the salty, sometimes toxic, wastewater created by the fracturing process. But it still lacks basic protections, such as requirements to line wastewater pits at well sites. In Texas, where drilling is marching toward suburbs and cities, a state legislative panel recommended a "fundamental restructuring" of the oil and gas agency. But the Legislature declined to act. In Colorado, a wave of drilling early in the last decade led to an overhaul of the state's oil and gas agency that reduced industry influence and spawned new rules. To understand the current state of oil and gas regulation, it is helpful to look back to the 1930s, when state and federal governments and some oil companies had a now-forgotten worry -- too much domestic production of oil. Drillers would often mob new oil finds. They would sink wells as fast as they could to prevent rivals from siphoning off the oil from a lease next door. When the oil stopped flowing fast, they would abandon the wells and leave the harder-to-get oil in the ground. That caused tremendous peaks and valleys in prices as new fields were discovered and depleted. After years of wrangling, state and federal government imposed a system of "conservation." At the time, that word wasn't the synonym for "environmentalism" it has become. Instead, it meant preventing "waste" of petroleum by getting it all out of the ground. States created "oil conservation commissions" to regulate production and prop up prices. Texas' panel, oddly enough named the Railroad Commission, would later become the model for the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. Regulators didn't worry about oil polluting the groundwater. "The focus was on protection of the petroleum resource from the effects of water incursion, and not on protection of water resources themselves," according to a history of oil and gas rules by the Ground Water Protection Council (GWPC), an organization of state regulators that works closely with industry. "The protection of groundwater from pollution was carried as a secondary consideration in most regulations." The regulators didn't worry much about the people who owned the land over the oil, either. "Most oil producers of the early period [before 1935] believed that royalty payments to the landowner for the privilege of extracting oil or gas from beneath their land adequately compensated the landowner for any surface and water resource damages caused to the property," the GWPC report says. "Pollution of ground water ... was not a concept widely understood by the oil industry, landowners or state regulatory agencies." 'They are not environmental agencies' After World War II and through the 1960s, the report says, environmental protection efforts developed "sporadically." As the 1970s began, the environmental movement spurred state and federal governments to take a second look at the harm inflicted by industries, including oil and gas. That is when U.S. EPA was created, major federal environmental laws were passed and many states created their own "environmental protection" or "environmental quality" departments. But the '70s also marked the decline in domestic oil production, as oil majors headed offshore and overseas to find new supplies. In the years since, the oil and gas industry won exemptions from portions of several landmark federal environmental laws, arguing that states had the expertise to adjust for local conditions. At the state level, oil and gas agencies took responsibility for enforcing many of the environmental and health laws, both federal and state, as they applied to petroleum production. "The industry argued, 'We already have an agency that understands well spacing, and other technical aspects,' so they ought to take care of this as well," said Jacqueline Lang Weaver, a law professor at the University of Houston and co-author of a treatise on Texas oil and gas law. "They are not environmental agencies. That's not what they're set up for." Today, many of those agencies that were in charge of controlling production are now responsible for protecting people and the environment from the industrial hazards of the industry. In the 1990s, some updated their rules on waste pits and well construction. Oklahoma and others formalized their penalty systems to address repeat offenders. And many states set up programs to cap abandoned wells. The GWPC report, released in 2009, asserts that state regulators had environmental oversight of oil and gas in hand. "Although current state oil and gas regulatory programs for water and environmental resource protection vary in scope and specificity," the report says, "they invariably have the common elements necessary to ensure the development of oil and natural gas resources is accomplished in a manner designed to protect water resources." But two years later, states such as West Virginia have not developed ways to protect their roads or their air or to assess the full range of effects that come with large-scale drilling. "Our program has not really evolved, not many in the country have evolved to a point of considering the total impact of all the activity that's going on in a given area," West Virginia environment chief Huffman told the crowd in Morgantown. "That would be a pretty significant shift in our way of thinking, but I think it's the place that we're headed." In Texas, a review by a state legislative panel found the Railroad Commission took enforcement action on less than 1 percent of water-protection violations and said the agency had a history of lax enforcement against drillers. In Pennsylvania, the heart of the boom, state officials raised fees, more than doubled the number of well inspectors and created new rules to control where drillers got water for fracturing and how they disposed of it. But state geologists have testified they spend as little as 35 minutes on each well permit and are not familiar with requirements to look at how the operation might affect nearby streams. And Pennsylvania moved to prevent radiation-laced wastewater from getting into streams only after a New York Times story prompted EPA to start asking questions (Greenwire, March 8). Review program languishes Despite the boom in drilling, one of the most widely touted methods for states to improve their regulatory program is suffering from disuse. A program called STRONGER, for "State Review of Oil and Natural Gas Environmental Regulations," is designed to serve as a sort of peer-review process for state regulators. It also includes representatives of industry and environmental groups. But STRONGER hasn't conducted a full review of a state regulatory program since 2007. Reviews are voluntary, and the organization's leaders say states have been unwilling to put themselves under the microscope. Instead, it has concentrated on narrower reviews of a few states' rules on the hydraulic fracturing process. West Virginia has not been reviewed since 2003. Pennsylvania had its fracturing rules evaluated in 2010. But its full oil and gas program hasn't been looked at since 2004, before the first Marcellus well was drilled. "There's been a real reluctance to be reviewed," said Wilma Subra, an environmental scientist from Louisiana who sits on the STRONGER board. Industry itself is reducing its use of controversial "wastewater pits." Landowners don't like them, and in the less-than-arid climate of the Northeast, they tend to fill up with rainwater. And at some sites, with wellbores extending for miles, there is just too much stuff to bury it all. It is not states requiring well operators to use such methods as the "closed-loop" system on Tripp's rig, which stores drilling fluids in steel tanks instead of open pits. "They figure it's coming," explained Tripp, who has been drilling oil and gas wells for decades. In West Virginia, Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin (D) imposed new "emergency" rules on drilling a few weeks after Huffman spoke in Morgantown. The rules required public disclosure of fracturing chemicals and ordered public notice to be given when companies propose wells in incorporated cities and towns. That responded to some of the complaints Huffman was confronted with in June. The school was just uphill from a new Marcellus Shale well that was going up within the city limits of Morgantown, surprising many city leaders concerned about the purity of their water supply. But the emergency rules did not offer public notice for wells in unincorporated areas. And they did not address what happens when property owners have conflicts with drilling companies. This week, they will try to move from emergency rules to permanent laws. Tomblin called a special session of the Legislature to pass a bill initiated by a special subcommittee. The governor's bill would increase permit fees and require wells (but not well pads) to be 650 feet from homes, instead of 200 feet. If it gets through, the measure will be the first major revision in the state's oil and gas law since the Marcellus boom began. In an interview, Huffman said that when the process is viewed in a historical context, the state is moving relatively rapidly to deal with its new industry. "This is as responsive as you've ever seen to a new technology," Huffman said. "We mined coal for 70 years before we regulated it. We're ahead of the game."

1 0

Fwd: Alpha agrees to $50 million for selenium treatment
by Paul Wilson 14 Dec '11

14 Dec '11

kudos to JIm S for a great quote. fyi, paul ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Verena Owen <verena_owen(a)prodigy.net> Date: Tue, Dec 13, 2011 at 5:44 PM Subject: Alpha agrees to $50 million for selenium treatment To: COAL-CAMPAIGN-ALERTS(a)lists.sierraclub.org Alpha agrees to $50 million for selenium treatmentDecember 12, 2011 by Ken Ward Jr. <http://blogs.wvgazette.com/coaltattoo/files/2011/06/ALPHA627.jpg> This just in from the Sierra Club: *Today, a coalition of conservation and environmental groups completed a legal settlement with Alpha Natural Resources over high levels of selenium output at several of the company’s West Virginia coal mines. The settlement requires that the coal mining company – formerly Massey Energy — begin construction of selenium treatment facilities with an estimated construction cost of over $50 million, and to pay penalties of $4.5 million. The suit was brought by the West Virginia Chapter of the Sierra Club, West Virginia Highlands Conservancy, Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition, and Coal River Mountain Watch.* *“This settlement will require Alpha to pay their due and start addressing the damage done to West Virginia waterways,” said Jim Sconyers, Chair of the West Virginia Chapter of the Sierra Club. “This settlement reflects another step in our fight to ensure that coal companies act responsibly in regards to the health of surrounding communities and West Virginia’s wild lands.”* *The settlement requires Alpha to immediately begin installing treatment technology to bring selenium discharges within acceptable levels. The proposed date of final compliance for the settlement is July 1, 2014 for all mines affected to ensure Alpha has time to install treatment facilities and make any necessary adjustments. Alpha will be subject to significant penalties for any violations that occur after the compliance date for each source of pollution. The vast majority of the penalties will go to the West Virginia Land Trust.* *“This settlement, which follows recent agreements with Arch Coal<http://blogs.wvgazette.com/coaltattoo/2011/10/03/details-of-arch-coal-selen…> and Patriot Coal,<http://blogs.wvgazette.com/coaltattoo/2010/08/31/judge-chambers-orders-patr…> proves that coal mines in West Virginia have the ability to treat their selenium problems,” said Dianne Bady with the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition. “Now it’s time for all coal companies to take similar actions.”* *“Although treatment may be sufficient to address these existing selenium problems, ultimately the industry and regulators need to recognize that it’s not appropriate to mine coal seams that are high in selenium,” said Cindy Rank with the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy.* *Selenium, a toxic element that causes reproductive failure and deformities in fish and other forms of aquatic life, is discharged from many surface coal-mining operations across Appalachia. At very high levels, selenium can pose a risk to human health, causing hair and fingernail loss, kidney and liver damage, and damage to the nervous and circulatory systems.* *“The West Virginia DEP should be ashamed that citizen groups are doing what the agency should have done years ago,” said Vernon Haltom, executive director of Coal River Mountain Watch. “Instead, it’s left to citizen groups to take action to protect West Virginia’s streams and communities.”* *The settlement was lodged with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia<http://wvgazette.com/static/coal%20tattoo/AlphaSeleniumConsentDecree.pdf>. The U.S. government will have an opportunity to review the settlement before its terms take effect.* * * <http://addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&username=xa-4d2b47597ad291fb> - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 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

1 0

re; 10 Greediest Americans in 2011 and guess who rolls in on the Number 2 spot?
by Paul Wilson 13 Dec '11

13 Dec '11

http://www.otherwords.org/articles/the_10_greediest_americans_of_2011 -- 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

1 0

FW: NYT #1 (Uhlmann - For 29 Dead Miners, No Justice)
by James Kotcon 12 Dec '11

12 Dec '11

>From my father-in-law. This is not quite the "spin" I have been hearing from West Virginia news sources. Over 80 % of Massey's "penalties" will be tax deductible? JBK >>> "Bob Elliott" <rdelliott(a)socal.rr.com> 12/12/2011 1:21 AM >>> Subject: NYT #1 (Uhlmann - For 29 Dead Miners, No Justice) <http://www.nytimes.com/> <http://www.nytimes.com/> The New York Times <http://www.nytimes.com/> _____ December 9, 2011 For 29 Dead Miners, No Justice By DAVID M. UHLMANN Ann Arbor, Mich. EARLY on April 5, 2010, in the heart of West Virginia <http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/c/coal/index.h…> coal country, a huge explosion killed 29 workers at <http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/companies/massey-energy-company…> Massey Energy’s Upper Big Branch Mine. Later that day, President Obama directed Labor Secretary Hilda L. Solis to conduct “the most thorough and comprehensive investigation possible” and to work with the Justice Department to investigate any criminal violations. On Tuesday, the Labor Department issued a 972-page report on the calamity — the nation’s worst mining disaster in 40 years. It concluded that Massey’s “unlawful policies and practices” were the “root cause of this tragedy.” It identified over 300 violations of the Mine Safety and Health Act, including nine flagrant violations that contributed to the explosion. The scathing findings probably came as no surprise in West Virginia, where Massey had a well-earned reputation for putting miners at risk, breaking unions and polluting the environment. However, what jumped off the pages for me, as a former federal prosecutor, was the revelation that Massey had kept two sets of books at the mine: one for internal use, which recorded hazards, and a second for Mine Safety and Health Administration inspectors, which did not. In addition, Massey routinely gave its facilities advance notice of inspections, which is a crime under federal law, and intimidated its workers so that they would not report safety and health violations. Based on the Labor Department’s investigation, the Justice Department could have criminally prosecuted Massey under the Mine Safety and Health Act for the violations that caused the explosion. Prosecutors also could have charged the company with conspiracy and obstruction of justice for the ways it thwarted regulation. Instead, on the same day the devastating report was released, the Justice Department announced that it would not criminally prosecute Massey. The news release issued by the United States attorney misleadingly described its nonprosecution agreement with Massey’s new owners as “the largest ever criminal resolution in a mining investigation.” Let’s be clear: this is not a criminal resolution. Massey will not be charged with any crimes and will not plead guilty before a federal judge. Nor will there be a sentencing hearing where Massey apologizes to the families of the victims and is punished for its crimes. The deal with Massey continues a disturbing trend whereby corporations can avoid criminal prosecution by entering deferred prosecution or nonprosecution agreements. Often the terms of these agreements are no better than what could have been achieved in a criminal case; worse, they create the appearance that justice can be bought. Moreover, there is less to this settlement than meets the eye. The $209 million settlement requires payment of $35 million in previously assessed administrative penalties, but that sum includes just $10.8 million for the Upper Big Branch Mine tragedy. The remaining $174 million is likely to be tax deductible, including $80 million for investments in safety and infrastructure at Massey mines and an additional $48 million to establish a mine health and safety trust fund. Even the most laudable aspect of the deal — the agreement to pay $46.5 million in restitution to the families of the victims — is illusory. Massey already had agreed to pay $16.5 million to settle lawsuits brought by the families. The remaining $30 million will be paid into a fund for future settlements, which effectively caps the amount the families can recover. And, to add insult to injury, the Justice Department agreed that Massey would admit no wrongdoing. So why did the Justice Department respond so timidly? Perhaps it felt hamstrung by the weakness of the criminal provisions of the Mine Safety and Health Act, which are misdemeanors and cover only willful violations of health and safety standards. It is long past time for Congress to update our mine safety laws so that violations can be prosecuted as felonies, particularly in cases where miners are killed. Maybe the Justice Department wanted to reward the new owners, who appear to have made a greater commitment to safety. It may also have felt it would be enough to criminally prosecute Massey officials, which it can and should do if there is sufficient evidence. We should not underestimate, however, the difficulty of prosecuting high-ranking officials in large corporations. This case may be an exception, but senior corporate officers rarely have sufficient personal involvement to be charged with crimes. To reach the boardroom, where policies are formed that can lead to tragedy, we must be willing to hold corporations criminally responsible. During my 17 years at the Justice Department, we prosecuted corporations criminally in hundreds of cases that, while serious, did not involve the tragic loss of life at the Upper Big Branch Mine. The Justice Department did not live up to its name in agreeing not to prosecute Massey for its crimes. We can only hope that when it comes to the other unfathomable disaster that took place in April 2010, the BP <http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/o/oil_spills/g…> oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, justice will be better served. <http://web.law.umich.edu/_facultybiopage/facultybiopagenew.asp?ID=385> David M. Uhlmann, a law professor at the University of Michigan, was chief of the environmental crimes section at the Justice Department from 2000 to 2007.

1 0

Fwd: Location for Mountain Justice Spring Break Camp; March 2012
by Jim Sconyers 08 Dec '11

08 Dec '11

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Dave Cooper <davecooper928(a)yahoo.com> Date: Thu, Dec 8, 2011 at 2:13 PM Subject: Location for Mountain Justice Spring Break Camp; March 2012 To: Vivian Stockman <vivian(a)ohvec.org>, Carol Warren <cwarren1(a)citlink.net>, Cindy Rank <clrank2(a)gmail.com>, Bob Hamburg <anomalous(a)citilink.net>, Bob Henry Baber <wvapoet(a)richwoodwv.com>, Denise Poole <deniseap(a)earthlink.net>, Julian Martin <martinjul(a)aol.com>, Kathryn Stone <XKatwalkx(a)aol.com>, Janet Keating <janet.ovec(a)gmail.com>, katey lauer < katey.lauer(a)theallianceforappalachia.org>, Winter Ross <wintersweb(a)gmail.com>, Frank Young <fyoung(a)mountain.net>, John McFerrin <johnmcferrin(a)aol.com>, Chuck Wyrostock <wyro(a)appalight.com>, Jim Sconyers <jimscon(a)gmail.com>, Wally Eve Mastropaolo <wemast5(a)juno.com>, Bev Braverman <mwa(a)mtwatershed.com>, Mimi Filippelli <mimi(a)coalfieldjustice.org> Hi all, We are looking for a location to hold the Mountain Justice Spring Break (MJSB) camp in northern WV in mid-March 2012. This year's camp will focus on the mt top removal AND fracking issues and we hope to bring together activists from PA and the northeast states working on fracking issues together with the MTR activists in WV, KY VA etc. MJSB will be mostly college students, mostly from out of state. Last year MJSB was in Alabama. We have not yet found a location for the camp. We want to be close to MTR, fracking and/ or strip mining sites. Here is what we are looking for: * Space that can hold about 100 people for 1 week. * We need a big main lodge room (preferably) that is heated for speakers and workshops * Need a pretty big kitchen and dining room. * Place for people to sleep. Some can sleep in tents, some can sleep on the floor. We cant afford to rent anything very nice - about $1000-2000 will be our budget for lodging/facility rental for the whole week. * We want to cook our own food; we cant afford to pay any camp staff to cook (and their food is usually not very good anyways). * They have to be willing to host us - some of the church camps etc. are a little nervous about Mountain Justice because we are such very scary people In other words, something like the Folklife Center (Pipestem) would be ideal; it just needs to be in the northern part of the state. If anyone has any ideas for a location, please email me back. We hope to work with OVEC and WVHC and CRMW and other groups on this camp (speakers needed!) but we are still in the early planning stages. Boy Scout/Girl Scout/Church Camp/Band Camp/4-H Camp would all probably work OK. Even a church building would probably work OK, if they would let us sleep there. Ive put in an inquiry to Camp Mountaineer (Boy Scouts) already. If anyone can tell me about Camp Pioneer 4-H camp that would be appreciated also. The Mountain Institute is a possibility - Ive talked to them in the past - but seems like a long shot. Wheeling or Morgantown or heck, maybe even Parkersburg? Ideally we would be closer to Pittsburgh. Thanks everyone. Dave Cooper The Mountaintop Removal Road Show www.mountainroadshow.com -- Jim Sconyers jimscon(a)gmail.com 304.698.9628 Remember, Mother Nature bats last.

1 0

EXXON NAT GAS PREDICTION
by William V. DePaulo, Esq. 08 Dec '11

08 Dec '11

- BUSINESS<http://online.wsj.com/public/search?article-doc-type=%7BBusiness%7D&HEADER_…> - DECEMBER 8, 2011 Exxon Declares Gas King Abundant Fuel Expected to Dethrone Coal as Top U.S. Power Generator by 2025 By TOM FOWLER<http://online.wsj.com/search/term.html?KEYWORDS=TOM+FOWLER&bylinesearch=true> Natural gas will replace coal as the leading fuel for generating electricity in the U.S. by 2025, when it will also become the world's No. 2 overall fuel source thanks to its abundance and a drive for cleaner-burning energy, according to the latest long-term outlook from Exxon Mobil<http://online.wsj.com/public/quotes/main.html?type=djn&symbol=XOM>Corp. Bloomberg News An XTO natural-gas facility in 2006. Exxon expects gas to be the No. 2 global fuel source by the next decade. The closely watched study, set to be released Thursday, forecasts that global energy demand will grow about 30% by 2040 as the world population climbs to nine billion from seven billion. Natural gas will overtake coal as the second-largest fuel source overall, ranking behind oil and powering everything from electrical plants to home-heating systems. But Exxon said coal use will continue to grow through 2025 around the world, primarily in developing nations such as China and India and the African continent, because economic growth will be fastest in emerging nations. But thereafter coal use will start to drop, for the first time in history, according to the study, which Exxon uses to help its long-range planning. Key drivers in that expected drop in coal use will be growing demand for fuels that produce fewer greenhouse gases and a decline in China's population expected after 2030. Exxon in recent years has moved to expand its natural-gas business, including the $25 billion purchase of U.S. shale-gas producer XTO Energy in 2010. [image: [EXXON]] But the report isn't a public-relations exercise, said Bill Colton, Exxon's vice president of corporate strategic planning, who oversees the report. "It's not about the future Exxon might like to see, but what we think will happen," Mr. Colton said. "The last thing we want to do is delude ourselves about the future." Exxon has created a world-energy outlook for decades to help guide its many business units in long-term planning, but it wasn't until 2004 that the oil major, based in Irving, Texas, decided to publish it. The report doesn't predict energy production or forecast prices. The report is bullish on overall global economic growth and accompanying energy-demand growth through 2040, Mr. Colton said, in spite of the economic problems in the U.S. and Europe. Energy-demand growth in developed nations is expected to be modest in coming years and actually fall 2% overall from 2010 to 2040, thanks largely to efficiency improvements, Exxon predicts. But developing nations will see energy demand grow 57% through 2040, with demand for electricity expected to grow by 80% as the standard of living improves, the report projected. The report also predicts that between 2030 and 2040 hybrid vehicles—cars that use a combination of gasoline engines and electric motors—will move from the margins of the market to the mainstream, from about 1% of the current fleet to more than 40% in 2040. Overall vehicle-fuel efficiency will grow from 27 miles per gallon in 2010 to 48 mpg in 2040, according to Exxon. This will lead to a flattening of fuel demand for passenger cars despite a doubling of the fleet to 1.6 billion vehicles by 2040. Demand for fuel by large trucks, airplanes, ships and trains will rise by 70% from 2010 to 2040, however, driven by world economic growth and the need to move more global cargo. Global demand for diesel is expected to rise by 85% through 2040, while gasoline demand will be down 10% by 2040. -- 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

from ScienceDaily e-newsletter: Solar Power Much Cheaper to Produce Than Most Analysts Realize, Study Finds
by Paul Wilson 08 Dec '11

08 Dec '11

Science News Save<http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/12/111207132916.htm?utm_source=fe…> Email<http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/12/111207132916.htm?utm_source=fe…> Print<http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/12/111207132916.htm?utm_source=fe…> Share<http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/12/111207132916.htm?utm_source=fe…> Solar Power Much Cheaper to Produce Than Most Analysts Realize, Study Finds ScienceDaily (Dec. 7, 2011) — The public is being kept in the dark about the viability of solar photovoltaic energy, according to a study conducted at Queen's University. ------------------------------ ** "Many analysts project a higher cost for solar photovoltaic energy because they don't consider recent technological advancements and price reductions," says Joshua Pearce, Adjunct Professor, Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering. "Older models for determining solar photovoltaic energy costs are too conservative." Dr. Pearce believes solar photovoltaic systems are near the "tipping point" where they can produce energy for about the same price other traditional sources of energy. Analysts look at many variables to determine the cost of solar photovoltaic systems for consumers, including installation and maintenance costs, finance charges, the system's life expectancy, and the amount of electricity it generates. Dr. Pearce says some studies don't consider the 70 per cent reduction in the cost of solar panels since 2009 . Furthermore, he says research now shows the productivity of top-of-the-line solar panels only drops between 0.1 and 0.2 percent annually, which is much less than the one per cent used in many cost analyses. Equipment costs are determined based on dollars per watt of electricity produced. One 2010 study estimated the this cost at $7.61, while a 2003 study set the amount at $4.16. According to Dr. Pearce, the real cost in 2011 is under $1 per watt for solar panels purchased in bulk on the global market, though he says system and installation costs vary widely. Dr. Pearce has created a calculator program available for download online that can be used to determine the true costs of solar energy. The Queen's study was co-authored by grad students Kadra Branker and Michael Pathak and published in the December edition of *Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews.* -- 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

1 0

Fwd: Beyond Coal stickers
by Jim Sconyers 07 Dec '11

07 Dec '11

Folks - Wanted to share these great stickers with you. Can print out on Avery labels. Wouldn't it be cool to start seeing them .....? ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Orli Cotel <orli.cotel(a)sierraclub.org> Date: Tue, Dec 6, 2011 at 9:25 PM Subject: Beyond Coal stickers To: COAL-CAMPAIGN-ALERTS(a)lists.sierraclub.org Hi Coal-fighters, We've created some new stickers that can be used for the campaign if these are helpful to you - see attached. The image of the boy with the inhaler is a child named Peter from Chicago who lives near the coal plant there and has asthma - his mother gave us permission to use his image for these stickers. I hope these help bring inspiration for the hard work ahead - when we fight to replace coal plants with clean energy we are helping to protect kids like Peter everywhere. I'm attaching a file - these can be printed out on Avery labels in an office printer or at Kinkos. The exact size of the labels for each version is found at the bottom of each PDF page. Thanks for all that you're doing to help us move beyond coal! Best, Orli -- 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 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.

1 0

Fwd: a little good news
by James Kotcon 02 Dec '11

02 Dec '11

WOW!!!! Global investment in new electric generation facilities from renewables exceeded fossil fuels for the first time in 2010: $187 billion for wind, sun, waves and biomass versus $157 billion for natural gas, oil and coal. (Bloomberg New Energy Finance). Investment in renewables in developing nations will exceed that in developed countries (Europe, US and China) by 2020. Electricity from solar power will be cheaper than natural gas by 2015, and cheaper than coal by 2020 (MIT). Does this mean that the coal industry in WV will collapse within 10 years? JBK >>> Vickie Wolfe <ibtreehugger(a)gmail.com> 12/1/2011 9:18 PM >>> In case you haven't seen this: http://thinkprogress.org/romm/2011/11/26/376250/clean-energy-renewable-powe… -- ```````````````````````````````````````````````````` Vickie L. Wolfe PHONE: (304) 744-8777 E-MAIL: IBTreehugger(a)gmail.com ```````````````````````````````````````````````````` "It is horrifying that we have to fight our own government to save our environment." -Ansel Adams Read *Hot, Flat and Crowded* by Tom Friedman.

1 0

Fwd: Learning Too Late of Perils in Gas Well Leases
by Paul Wilson 02 Dec '11

02 Dec '11

fyi, paul ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Fran Hunt <fran.hunt(a)sierraclub.org> Date: Fri, Dec 2, 2011 at 11:04 AM Subject: Learning Too Late of Perils in Gas Well Leases To: CONS-AWL-RESILIENT-HABITATS(a)lists.sierraclub.org [image: image.png] Jared Ely near gas wells leased on his family's land near Dimock, Pa. His father, Scott, says the leases should have been clearer. DRILLING DOWN Learning Too Late of Perils in Gas Well Leases Ruth Fremson/The New York Times By IAN URBINA<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/u/ian_urbina/ind…> and JO CRAVEN McGINTY<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/m/jo_craven_mcgi…> Published: December 1, 2011 After Scott Ely and his father talked with salesmen from an energy company about signing the lease allowing gas drilling on their land in northeastern Pennsylvania, he said he felt certain it required the company to leave the property as good as new. So Mr. Ely said he was surprised several years later when the drilling company, Cabot Oil and Gas, informed them that rather than draining and hauling away the toxic drilling sludge stored in large waste ponds<http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/12/02/us/oil-and-gas-leases.html#br…> on the property, it would leave the waste, cover it with dirt and seed the area with grass. He knew that waste pond liners can leak, seeping contaminated waste. “I guess our terms should have been clearer” about requiring the company to remove the waste pits after drilling, said Mr. Ely, of Dimock, Pa., who sued Cabot after his drinking water from a separate property was contaminated. “We learned that the hard way.” Americans have signed millions of leases allowing companies to drill for oil and natural gas on their land in recent years. But some of these landowners — often in rural areas, and eager for quick payouts — are finding out too late what is, and what is not, in the fine print. Energy company officials say that standard leases include language that protects landowners. But a review of more than 111,000 leases, addenda and related documents by The New York Times<http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/12/02/us/oil-and-gas-leases.html> suggests otherwise: ¶ Fewer than half the leases require companies to compensate landowners for water contamination after drilling begins. And only about half the documents have language that lawyers suggest should be included to require payment for damages to livestock or crops<http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/12/02/us/oil-and-gas-leases.html#br…> . ¶ Most leases grant gas companies broad rights to decide where they can cut down trees, store chemicals, build roads and drill. Companies are also permitted to operate generators and spotlights through the night near homes during drilling. ¶ In the leases, drilling companies rarely describe to landowners the potential environmental and other risks that federal laws require them to disclose in filings to investors. ¶ Most leases are for three or five years, but at least two-thirds of those reviewed by The Times allow extensions<http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/12/02/us/oil-and-gas-leases.html#br…> without additional approval from landowners. If landowners have second thoughts about drilling on their land or want to negotiate for more money, they may be out of luck. The leases — obtained through open records requests — are mostly from gas-rich areas inTexas<http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/12/02/us/oil-and-gas-leases.html#br…>, but also in Maryland<http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/12/02/us/oil-and-gas-leases.html#br…> , New York<http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/12/02/us/oil-and-gas-leases.html#br…> , Ohio<http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/12/02/us/oil-and-gas-leases.html#br…> , Pennsylvania<http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/12/02/us/oil-and-gas-leases.html#br…> and West Virginia<http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/12/02/us/oil-and-gas-leases.html#br…> . In Pennsylvania, Colorado and West Virginia, some landowners have had to spend hundreds of dollars a month to buy bottled water or maintain large tanks, known as water buffaloes, for drinking water in their front yards. They said they learned only after the fact that the leases did not require gas companies to pay for replacement drinking water if their wells were contaminated, and despite state regulations, not all costs were covered. Thousands of landowners in Virginia, Pennsylvania and Texas have joined class action lawsuits claiming that they were paid less than they expected because gas companies deducted costs<http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/12/02/us/oil-and-gas-leases.html#br…> like hauling chemicals to the well site or transporting the gas to market. Some industry officials say the criticism of their business practices is misguided. Asked about the waste pits on Mr. Ely’s land in Pennsylvania, for example, George Stark, a Cabot spokesman, said the company’s cleanup measures met or exceeded state requirements. And the door-to-door salesmen, commonly known as landmen, who pitch the leases on behalf of the drilling companies also dismiss similar complaints from landowners, and say they do not mislead anyone. *The Sales Pitch* “There are bad leases out there, and, as with any industry, there have also been some unscrupulous opportunists,” said Mike Knapp, president of Knapp Acquisitions and Production, a company in western Pennsylvania that brokers deals between landowners and drilling companies. “But everyone I know who does this work is on the up and up, and most of the bad actors that there may have been before are no longer in business.” He said that his company’s leases ensure that landowners will get replacement water. The company also encourages landowners to visit an existing drilling site before signing a lease to get an idea of the potential noise and truck traffic. Some of the complaints about leases, he said, are just sour grapes from landowners who are envious about the amount of money they believe their neighbors are earning in bonuses and royalties. To be sure, many landowners have earned small fortunes from drilling leases. Last year, natural gas companies paid more than $1.6 billion in lease and bonus payments to Pennsylvania landowners, according to a report commissioned by the Marcellus Shale Coalition, an industry trade group. Chesapeake Energy, one of the largest natural gas companies, has paid more than $183.8 million in royalties in Texas this year, according to its Web site <http://www.chk.com/Pages/default.aspx>. Much of the money has gone to residents in rural areas where jobs are scarce and farmers and ranchers have struggled to stay afloat. Mr. Ely once worked for a company owned by Cabot on drilling sites in his area, until he was fired shortly after publicly complaining about Cabot’s drilling practices. But many landowners and lawyers say that gas companies are intentionally vague in their contracts and use high-pressure sales tactics on landowners. If you’ve never seen a good lease, or any lease, how are you supposed to know what terms to try to get in yours?” said Ron Stamets, a drilling proponent and a Web site developer in Lakewood, Pa., who started a consumer protection Web site, PAGasLease.com <http://pagaslease.com/>, in 2008 so that he could swap advice with his neighbors as he prepared to sign a gas lease. Others have also taken steps to better inform landowners about the details in leases. In the past several years, the attorneys general in New York, Ohio and Pennsylvania have published advisories about the pitfalls of leasing land for drilling. State regulations also provide protections to landowners above and beyond what is in their leases. At least eight states specifically require companies to compensate landowners for damage to their properties or to negotiate with them about where wells will be drilled, even if the lease does not provide those protections. Asked about the leases, officials from Exxon Mobil, the largest natural gas producer in the United States, declined to comment. *Protecting Landowners* Jim Gipson, a spokesman for Chesapeake Energy, said any claims of damage can be investigated by the state and federal authorities and, he added, noise or other disturbances that may come with drilling tend to be brief. “The most frequently asked question we receive from our mineral owners is, ‘When are you going to drill my well?’ ” he said. Mr. Gipson said that most leased properties do not end up having a well placed on them, so those leases do not need added protections. But some consumer advocates and lawyers say that protections are needed for all leased properties, even those without wells, because drilling may occur underneath them. These advocates also say that landowners’ eagerness to start earning royalties has made them vulnerable to deceptive tactics by landmen. “We’re in town until tomorrow,” the landmen typically say, according to interviews with more than two dozen landowners in Ohio, Texas and Pennsylvania. “We have already signed up all your neighbors.” The landmen then claim that if you do not sign right away you will miss out on easy income because other drillers will simply pull the gas from under your property using a well nearby. Some landmen show up in poorer areas shortly before the holidays, offering cash on the spot for signing a lease. They might offer thousands of dollars per acre as a bonus to be paid shortly after the lease is signed. Royalties, which usually run between 12.5 percent and 20 percent of what the companies make for selling the gas, can mean tens of thousands of dollars per year for landowners. Jack Richards, president of the American Association of Professional Landmen <http://www.landman.org/wcm/aapl/>, said his members follow a strict code of ethics. His organization also encourages landowners to ask questions before they sign leases, he said. “We promote open and honest communication between the landman and landowner before signing the lease,” he said, adding that the standard lease forms are written with some protections for landowners. Some leases, however, also include language that comes back to haunt landowners. “I thought I knew what the sentence meant,” said Dave Beinlich, describing a section that said that “preparation” to drill was enough to allow Chief Oil and Gas to extend the duration of his lease. In 2005, Mr. Beinlich and his wife, Karen, signed a lease for $2 an acre per year for five years on 117 acres in Sullivan County in north-central Pennsylvania. They soon realized they had gotten far less money than their neighbors, so they planned on negotiating a new lease when theirs expired in 2010. A day before their lease term ended, no well had been drilled on their land, but the gas company parked a bulldozer nearby and started to survey an access road. A company official informed them that by moving equipment to the site, Chief Oil and Gas was preparing to drill and was therefore allowed to extend the lease indefinitely. The Beinlichs have sued. Kristi Gittins, a vice president at Chief Oil and Gas, says that the company does not comment on pending litigation, but that its goal is to produce gas and it makes an honest attempt to develop the land it leases. Lease contracts work both ways,” she added. “Chief honors the terms of its lease contracts, and we expect the landowners who have signed the lease contract to honor the terms of the contract as well.” But lawyers say that drilling leases are not like other contracts. “You’re not buying a refrigerator or signing a car note,” said David McMahon, a lease lawyer in Charleston, W.Va., and co-founder of the West Virginia Surface Owners’ Rights Organization <http://www.wvsoro.org/>, adding that once a well is drilled, it can produce gas for decades, locking landowners into the lease terms. “With a gas lease, you’re permitting industrial activity in your backyard, and you’re starting a relationship that will affect the quality of living for you and your grandchildren for decades,” he said. Mr. McMahon and other lease lawyers say that unlike many contracts, oil and gas leases are covered by few consumer protection laws, in part because drilling has been most common in states with less regulation. *Clauses With Consequences* “When it comes to negotiation skills and understanding of lease terms, there is a gaping inequality between the average landman and the average citizen sitting across the table,” said Chris Csikszentmihalyi<http://www.media.mit.edu/people/csik>, a researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who created a Web site last year called the Landman Report Card<http://www.landmanreportcard.com/> that allows landowners to review landmen’s professionalism and tactics. Some lawyers also say that there are major differences between what drilling companies tell landowners and what they must disclose to investors. Under federal law, oil and gas companies must offer investors and federal regulators detailed descriptions of the most serious environmental and other risks related to drilling. But leases typically lack any mention of such risks. In New York, the duration of leases has been an especially contentious issue. As leases near expiration, some gas companies try to extend them, often by invoking “force majeure,” a legal term referring to an unforeseen event that prevents the two sides from fulfilling an agreement. In these instances, gas companies say the unforeseen event is the state’s repeated delays in releasing environmental regulations and issuing drilling permits. Force majeure clauses<http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/12/02/us/oil-and-gas-leases.html#br…> appear in as many as half the roughly 3,200 New York leases reviewed by The Times. Another important lease term is the Pugh Clause<http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/12/02/us/oil-and-gas-leases.html#br…>, said Lance Astrella, a lease lawyer in Denver. It is named after Lawrence Pugh, a Louisiana lawyer who started adding it to leases in 1947 to ensure that they would not be extended indefinitely without wells being drilled. Fewer than 20 percent of the more than 100,000 Texas leasing documents reviewed by The Times include such a clause, and very few of the leases from Maryland, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia include the language. While the leases collected by The Times represent a small fraction of the more than 8 million oil and gas leases in the United States, experts said they illustrated issues that landowners need to understand. Mr. Astrella said that leases also typically lacked a clause requiring drillers to pay for a test of the property’s well water<http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/12/02/us/oil-and-gas-leases.html#br…> before drilling started, and landowners often do not think to do the tests themselves. If drilling leads to problems with drinking wells, landowners have few options if they want to prove that their water was fine before drilling started. For some landowners, it can be a costly mistake. “It’s been one expense after another since our water went bad, and the company only has to cover part of it,” said Ronald Carter, 72, of Montrose, Pa. Mr. Carter and his wife, Jean, said they signed a lease in 2006 for a one-time fee of $25 per acre on their 75 acres andannual royalty payments<http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/12/02/us/oil-and-gas-leases.html#br…> of 12.5 percent. The Carters live on $3,500 a month, including the $1,500 per month they average in gas royalties. But they had to spend $7,000 to install a water purifier when their drinking supply became contaminated in 2009 after drilling near their property. The Carters joined a lawsuit with about a dozen neighbors, including Mr. Ely, accusing Cabot Oil and Gas of contaminating their drinking water. Mr. Stark, the Cabot spokesman, said that his company was not responsible for any water contamination in the area and that Cabot’s studies showed that the gas seepage into the drinking water was occurring naturally. “All the testing we have been able to conduct show the water meets federal safe drinking water standards,” Mr. Stark said. In 2009, Pennsylvania ordered Cabot to provide the affected residents with water. For the Carters, the company has paid for bottled water and for the installation of a water buffalo next to their trailer. Mr. Stark added that his company had offered to pay for treatment systems to remove gas if it leaked into their drinking water. Mr. Carter said that even though Cabot had paid to provide him with bottled water and a water buffalo, he can barely afford his electricity bill, which doubled because he has to heat the water buffalo to make sure it does not freeze. Those expenses may soon go up. On Wednesday, Cabot stopped delivering water to the Carters, the Elys and others in Dimock after state regulators said the company had satisfied requirements of a settlement agreement with the state. “It’s a little late now,” Mr. Carter said. “But there are a lot things I’d like to have done different with that lease.” Jeremy Ashkenas and Kitty Bennett contributed research. -- *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 -- 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

1 0

Fwd: Key vote cancelled for Delaware River watershed gas drilling
by Paul Wilson 01 Dec '11

01 Dec '11

fyi, paul ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Fran Hunt <fran.hunt(a)sierraclub.org> Date: Mon, Nov 21, 2011 at 3:55 PM Subject: Key vote cancelled for Delaware River watershed gas drilling To: CONS-AWL-RESILIENT-HABITATS(a)lists.sierraclub.org The New Jersey Sierra Club reported that there are 10,000 leases on hold in the basin that could move forward if the regulations are adopted. The National Park Service estimates 35,000 wells eventually could be constructed.... Anti-drilling forces claim victory in delay of Commission vote TRENTON, N.J. (AP) - A multistate agency that has spent years developing regulations for natural gas drilling in the Delaware River watershed abruptly canceled a key vote scheduled for Monday after two members announced their opposition. The Delaware River Basin Commission said Friday it was postponing a vote on hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, to give the agency's five commissioners more time to review the draft regulations. Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett said he was disappointed by the latest delay, which he said happened because commission members disagreed on the regulation package. The DRBC said no new date had been set. "Pennsylvania is ready to move forward now," Corbett said in a statement released Friday. "We have demonstrated a willingness to compromise and to address issues brought forth by other members of the commission. We have worked with our commission partners in good faith, and it is disappointing to not have these efforts reciprocated." But New York's Attorney General, Eric Schneiderman, said an environmental risk-assessment is needed to win public confidence and ensure that the commission's actions are based on science. "This delay further demonstrates that the proposed regulations for fracking in the Delaware River Basin are not ready to see the light of day," Schneiderman said in a statement Friday. "Without a full, fair and open review of the potential risks of fracking in the basin, the public will continue to question the federal government's ability to protect public health and environment." The federal Environmental Protection Agency<http://www.stargazette.com/article/20111118/NEWS11/111180321/Key-gas-drilli…> is studying the effects of fracking, with a draft report due next year. The postponement of a vote came hours after Delaware Gov. Jack Markell told fellow commissioners he would not support the regulations because of concerns over drinking water protections. Earlier, New York announced it would vote no. New Jersey and Pennsylvania had not announced how they would vote, but it was believed both would vote yes. With two Democrats prepared to reject the rules and two Republicans signaling their support, passage would have been left to the fifth member, the Army Corps of Engineers. It's not known how the federal agency was planning to vote. The rules need three votes to pass, though the commission had hoped for unanimous, bipartisan support. Environmentalists saw victory in the delay, claiming an erosion of support by the commission. However, Marcellus Shale Coalition President Kathryn Klaber said she remained hopeful that the commission would adopt "common-sense regulations aimed at responsibly developing clean-burning, job-creating American natural gas in the region." Fracking involves injecting water, sand and chemicals into a gas well to crack surrounding shale thousands of feet underground so trapped natural gas can flow into the well. Environmentalists fear it could result in contamination of drinking water supplies. Because of that fear, New York regulators are proposing to ban fracking in the New York City and Syracuse watersheds. New York state has had a moratorium on fracking since regulators started an extensive environmental review in 2008. The state is now holding hearings on proposed regulations, which, if approved, could allow drilling next year. "We hope to work with DRBC to develop a regulatory program that reflects New York's 3½ years of study," said Emily DeSantis, spokeswoman for New York state's Department of EnvironmentalConservation<http://www.stargazette.com/article/20111118/NEWS11/111180321/Key-gas-drilli…> . New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie rejected legislation permanently banning fracking. The Democratic-controlled Legislature has not taken action on his recommendation for a one-year moratorium, though they may try to override the governor before recessing in mid-December. New Jersey has no Marcellus shale, so its interest in the issue revolves around water quality<http://www.stargazette.com/article/20111118/NEWS11/111180321/Key-gas-drilli…> . Christie's office declined to comment Friday. The commission manages water use for the Delaware River Basin, and environmentalists say the drilling would threaten drinking water for 15 million people. The proposed rules would allow 300 natural gas wells in the Delaware River Basin, followed by a commission review before more are phased in. The eventual total could reach many thousands of wells. The New Jersey Sierra Club reported that there are 10,000 leases on hold in the basin that could move forward if the regulations are adopted. The National Park Service estimates 35,000 wells eventually could be constructed. Pennsylvania already allows drilling outside the watershed area. Environmental groups have gathered more than 73,000 signatures on a petition opposing drilling in the watershed. -- *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

1 0

WV Gas regs and WVEC lobby team input/efforts...
by Frank Young 16 Nov '11

16 Nov '11

Important reading for Sierra Club, WVEC and others who support the laudable efforts of WVEC lobby team --- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ http://blogs.wvgazette.com/watchdog/ W.Va. leaders ignored previous audits that warned of the state’s need for more gas drilling inspectors November 16, 2011 by Ken Ward Jr. UPDATED: The legislative committee on Marcellus Shale has approved the bill and asked for a special session to consider the measure. Long-time West Virginia political leaders like Sen. Joe Manchin (above) were making much earlier this week (see here and here) about how the state needs time to get a handle on the Marcellus Shale issue and put a proper regulatory system into place, making it clear they want federal officials to pretty much mind their own business. But on at least one crucial issue — whether the state Department of Environmental Protection has enough inspectors and other staff to do the job — West Virginia has had nearly 20 years to remedy the problem, and so far as done next to nothing. That’s the bottom line in a story we posted online last night. Headlined, State ignored previous warnings about drilling inspector shortage, the story explains: Long before most West Virginians had ever heard the words “Marcellus Shale,” outside auditors were warning that the state’s oil and gas regulatory agency was greatly underfunded and severely understaffed. In December 1993, a review by the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission warned that lack of funding and a shortage of inspectors were among the chronic problems facing the state Department of Environmental Protection’s Office of Oil and Gas. “The OOG does not have enough inspectors or funding to fully meet its statutory mandate,” said the 98-page review report, written by a team of regulators from other states, industry officials and environmental group representatives. A decade later, another outside examination found that little had changed. The state oil and gas office still “does not have enough inspectors or funding to fully meet its statutory mandate,” said a 110-page report issued in January 2003. Don Garvin, lead lobbyist for the West Virginia Environmental Council, commented at Sen. Manchin’s Senate committee field hearing, held in Charleston on Monday: The best written rule is no good if you don’t have enforcement, if you don’t have inspectors in the field overseeing the operations. You can read the 1993 review of West Virginia’s oil and gas regulatory program here and the follow-up review done in 2003 here. __._,_.___ Reply to sender | Reply to group | Reply via web post | Start a New Topic Messages in this topic (1) Recent Activity: Visit Your Group Working since 1967 for the conservation and wise management of West Virginia's natural resources MARKETPLACE Stay on top of your group activity without leaving the page you're on - Get the Yahoo! Toolbar now. Switch to: Text-Only, Daily Digest • Unsubscribe • Terms of Use. __,_._,___

1 0

Fwd: U.S. Government Confirms Link Between Earthquakes And Shale Gas Extr...
by Paul Wilson 15 Nov '11

15 Nov '11

Subject: U.S. Government Confirms Link Between Earthquakes And Shale Gas Extr.. If you think the only problems with fracking are water and air pollution, take a look at this article. you may want to pass this on to the > Subject: U.S. Government Confirms Link Between Earthquakes And Shale Gas Extraction | Commodities | Minyanville.com INTERESTING--Mike > > http://www.minyanville.com/businessmarkets/articles/earthquake-natural-gas-… = -- 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

1 0

Fwd: ScienceDaily: Top Environment News
by Paul Wilson 14 Nov '11

14 Nov '11

fyi, paul ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: ScienceDaily: Top Environment News <newsletters(a)sciencedaily.com> Date: Mon, Nov 14, 2011 at 5:21 AM Subject: ScienceDaily: Top Environment News To: pjgrunt(a)gmail.com ** ScienceDaily: Top Environment News<http://www.sciencedaily.com/news/top_news/top_environment/> <http://fusion.google.com/add?source=atgs&feedurl=http://feeds.feedburner.co…> ------------------------------ - Climate policies can help resolve energy security and air pollution challenges <#133a1980156321db_1> - Rising air pollution worsens drought, flooding, new study finds<#133a1980156321db_2> - Climate policies can help resolve energy security and air pollution challenges<http://feedproxy.google.com/%7Er/sciencedaily/top_news/top_environment/%7E3…> Posted: 13 Nov 2011 11:27 AM PST Policies to protect the global climate and limit global temperature rise offer the most effective entry point for achieving energy sustainability, reducing air pollution, and improving energy security, according to a new article. By adopting an integrated perspective on energy and climate policy, one that simultaneously addresses three of the key objectives for energy sustainability, major synergies and cost co-benefits can be realized. Rising air pollution worsens drought, flooding, new study finds<http://feedproxy.google.com/%7Er/sciencedaily/top_news/top_environment/%7E3…> Posted: 13 Nov 2011 11:13 AM PST Increases in air pollution and other particulate matter in the atmosphere can strongly affect cloud development in ways that reduce precipitation in dry regions or seasons, while increasing rain, snowfall and the intensity of severe storms in wet regions or seasons, says a new study. The research provides the first clear evidence of how aerosols can affect weather and climate, with important economic and water resource implications. You are subscribed to email updates from ScienceDaily: Top Environment News <http://www.sciencedaily.com/news/top_news/top_environment/> To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now<http://feedburner.google.com/fb/a/mailunsubscribe?k=FnE73EUgOOJXsfXjfcr0UhL…> . Email delivery powered by Google Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 -- 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

2 1

Fwd: [ECOLOG-L] ESA Issues in Ecology: Using Air Pollution Thresholds to Protect and Restore U.S. Ecosystems
by Paul Wilson 13 Nov '11

13 Nov '11

Use the link below to get to this 22 page report. fyi, paul ---------- Forwarded message ---------- *From: *Nadine Lymn <Nadine(a)ESA.ORG> *Date: *November 10, 2011 4:47:22 PM EST *To: *ECOLOG-L(a)LISTSERV.UMD.EDU > The Ecological Society of America has just published another edition of its Issues in Ecology series. Air pollution is changing our environment and undermining many benefits we rely on from wild lands, threatening water purity, food production, and climate stability, according to a team of scientists writing in the 14th edition of the Ecological Society of America's Issues in Ecology. In "Setting Limits: Using Air Pollution Thresholds to Protect and Restore U.S. Ecosystems," lead author Mark Fenn (USDA Forest Service) and nine colleagues review current pollution evaluation criteria. The authors propose science-based strategies to set new limits and put the brakes on acid rain, algal blooms, and accumulation of toxic mercury in plants and animals. Issues in Ecology #14 is available for free as a pdf on ESA's website: http://esa.org/science_resources/issues/FileEnglish/issuesinecology14.pdf Nadine Lymn Director of Public Affairs Ecological Society of America 1990 M Street, NW Suite 700 Washington DC 20036 202.833.8773 ext. 205 202.833.8775 Fax ---------------------------------------------- www.facebook.com/esa.org: "Like" the new ESA Facebook page, ask friends/colleagues to do the same. http://twitter.com/#!/esa_org: "Follow" ESA on Twitter. ESA eStore: Now available: "An Ecologist's Guidebook to Policy Engagement." -- 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 -- 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

1 0

Fwd: NYT on Fracking in Pennsylvania gamelands
by Paul Wilson 13 Nov '11

13 Nov '11

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Fran Hunt <fran.hunt(a)sierraclub.org> Date: Sat, Nov 12, 2011 at 2:34 PM Subject: NYT on Fracking in Pennsylvania gamelands To: CONS-AWL-RESILIENT-HABITATS(a)lists.sierraclub.org [image: image.png] Gas Drillers Invade Hunters’ Pennsylvania Paradise [image: image.png] · Ruth Fremson/The New York Times By KATHARINE Q. SEELYE<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/s/katharine_q_se…> Published: November 11, 2011 STATE GAME LAND 59, Pa. — For those who have ever stalked deer, turkey and bear here in “God’s Country” in north central Pennsylvania, this hunting season is like no other. For one thing, it is louder. The soundtrack of birds chirping, thorns scraping against a hunter’s brush pants and twigs crunching underfoot is now accompanied by the dull roar of compressor stations and the chugging of big trucks up these hills. Some of this state’s most prized game lands lie atop the Marcellus Shale, a vast reserve of natural gas. And now more and more drills are piercing the hunting grounds. Nine wells have cropped up on this one game land of roughly 7,000 wooded acres in Potter County, and permits have been issued for 19 more. An old dirt road that meanders up a ridge here has been widened and fortified. Acres of aspen, maple and cherry trees have been cut. In their place is an industrial encampment of rigs, pipes and water-storage ponds, all to support the extraction of natural gas through hydraulic fracturing, a process known as fracking. “Who wants to go into their deer stand in the predawn darkness and listen to a compressor station?” lamented Bob Volkmar, 63, an environmental scientist who went grouse hunting the other day through these noisy autumnal woods. “It kind of ruins the experience.” Like many hunters, Mr. Volkmar is upset that the State Game Commission<http://www.pgc.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt/community/pgc/9106> is giving over more public land to the gas companies, which does not exactly fulfill the agency’s mission to enhance the hunting experience. The game lands, as he points out, were bought with the proceeds from licenses and fees paid by hunters and trappers. Carl Roe, the Game Commission’s executive director, acknowledges that drilling “does look ugly” but said that on most well sites, the agency had no control over drilling-related activities. Although the agency owns 1.4 million acres of game lands, it does not always own the mineral rights beneath them, so private owners can lease them out to the gas companies, as is the case with Game Land 59 here. Where the agency owns the mineral rights, it can and does restrict drilling and construction on certain days during hunting season. Mr. Roe also said the agency offsets the losses, which are temporary, by using money from the gas leases to purchase more game lands; it just bought a major tract of more than 9,000 acres. “In the long run,” he said, “this will be a net gain for hunters, not a net loss.” Still, the commission had to warn hunters in September to scout their favorite spots in part because a “dramatic increase in drilling” because of interest in the Marcellus Shale had disrupted traditional hunting and trapping areas. In 2008, the Game Commission received $556,000 in lease payments for Marcellus wells on game lands; by the end of this year, it expects to have received more than $18 million. About 50 Marcellus wells have been drilled on game lands across the state, with permits issued for 148 more. All this activity has put hunters and drillers in potential conflict. The Pennsylvania Independent Oil and Gas Association<http://www.pioga.org/events/pioga-conference-and-trade-show/>, representing the industry, and the Unified Sportsmen of Pennsylvania<http://www.unifiedsportsmenpa.org/>, which supports the drilling, plan to issue their own advisory. “We don’t want hunters to use our tanks for target practice or to sit on top of them,” said Louis D’Amico, president and executive director of the gas association, which issued a similar statement last year. “We want them to be especially careful during bear and deer season, because of the long reach of their rifles.” Sportsmen are just as divided as others over fracking; they are also divided over whether it should be allowed on game lands. Tony Winters, 59, a former conservation officer who had joined Mr. Volkmar on the grouse hunt, shrugged off the drilling here, saying that these lands had been cleared before by lumber companies and that clearing them now for wells will improve the hunting. Mr. Winters pointed out that clear-cutting of trees leads to forest regeneration. It also creates more “edge,” the open borders around the woods. Generally more edge attracts more animals like deer. As a compressor station hummed in the background, Mr. Winters said that he was not bothered by the noise and that animals would not perceive it as a threat. He said there was enough land to accommodate both hunters and drillers. Margaret Brittingham, a professor of wildlife resources at Penn State, said that the full effects of the wells on the flora and fauna were not yet clear and that she was beginning to study them. Dr. Brittingham expects that some wildlife populations, like deer, are expected to increase after the drillers leave, but that songbirds, salamanders and frogs and other amphibians that help maintain a forest’s ecological balance are likely to decline. “You can see these changes on a really local level now,” she said. “But it will take time to see changes in the larger populations.” She said she was skeptical that this new “edge” would be helpful, saying, “it’s more like a parking lot.” But she said such problems could be minimized if the lands were properly reseeded and reclaimed. Still, she said, “all the truck traffic is bad for wildlife.” Human traffic can be a problem, too. During hunting season, the commission has banned seismic surveying (a labor-intensive process that uses waves to find the right place to drill). “They have several crews going in several different directions, so a hunter can’t get out of the way,” said Michael DiMatteo, chief of environmental planning and habitat protection for the commission. Mr. Volkmar and Mr. Winters are also fishermen and members of Trout Unlimited, which started a coalition last year of a dozen outdoor recreation and wildlife groups called theSportsmen Alliance for Marcellus Conservation <http://sportsmenalliance.org/>. It is not opposed to drilling but seeks better regulations, including erosion-control measures and setback requirements. They take samples regularly from local streams to monitor water quality. They both say that fracking<http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/02/us/02gas.html?_r=1&n=Top%2fReference%2fTi…>, which involves injecting millions of gallons of water, sand and treated chemicals deep into the gas bed, could lead to water pollution and fish kills. So far, no one has found water problems in this immediate area. But others have detected contamination, including fish kills, elsewhere in the state. The industry says that fracking itself is safe and that any problems have been caused by spills or leaks. The Environmental Protection Agency<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/e/environ…> is set to begin a federal investigation<http://water.epa.gov/type/groundwater/uic/class2/hydraulicfracturing/upload…> into whether fracking is spoiling the drinking water in various drilling states, including Pennsylvania. As for spoiling the land, Bill Ragosta, a wildlife conservation officer for the Game Commission on Game Land 59, said that the amount of surface disturbance here was not typical. “Fortunately most of our game lands are not being bombarded like this,” Mr. Ragosta said. But even here, he promised, the drilling would soon end, and reseeding with alfalfa, chicory and clover would bring more deer. “It seems counterintuitive, especially to people who are opposed to drilling,” he said. “I don’t know if it’s better or worse for wildlife in the long run, but it’s not fair to say it’s all black or all white.” A version of this article appeared in print on November 12, 2011, on page A12 of the New York edition with the headline: Gas Drillers Invade Hunters’ Pennsylvania Paradise. -- *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

1 0

Tar Sands Action
by Jim Sconyers 08 Nov '11

08 Nov '11

<I can't do it on Nov. 28, but probably can on Nov. 29. Can you help?> I just signed up to be a part of a visit to an Obama 2012 office on November 28th, when people in all 50 states will be visiting campaign offices to ask President Obama to reject Keystone XL. Keystone XL is an environmental disaster waiting to happen: it will carry 800,000 barrels a day of the world's dirtiest oil 1500 miles across the Ogallala aquifer and countless other irreplaceable natural resources. Not only that, it's the fuse to the largest carbon bomb in North America, the Alberta tar sands, which if developed could mean 'game over' for the climate according to NASA scientist James Hansen. President Obama alone has the authority to block the pipeline - Congress plays no role. We're asking him to stop this disaster before it happens, and help us "be the generation that finally frees America from the tyranny of oil," as he declared when he began his run for president way back in 2008. By taking one day to visit offices in all 50 states, we'll show the President that there is a huge amount of support for him to stand up for his campaign promises and reject this pipeline. Click here to sign up: http://www.tarsandsaction.org/sign-up Hoping you can be there with us - we don't have much time to convince the President to reject the pipeline, and this day will be crucial to do it. Hope to see you there. -- Jim Sconyers jimscon(a)gmail.com 304.698.9628 Remember, Mother Nature bats last.

1 0

Fwd: Fw: Earth Policy Release -- U.S. Carbon Emissions Down 7 Percent in Four Years
by Paul Wilson 06 Nov '11

06 Nov '11

Have not seen this on any Club emails as yet. fyi, paul ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Wed, Nov 2, 2011 at 1:11 PM Subject: Fw: Earth Policy Release -- U.S. Carbon Emissions Down 7 Percent in Four Years To: ** [image: Earth Policy Institute] <http://www.earth-policy.org> [image: Bookmark and Share]<http://www.addthis.com/bookmark.php?v=250&pubid=ra-4d6d74824d18a36a&url=htt…> * U.S. CARBON EMISSIONS DOWN 7 PERCENT IN FOUR YEARS: Even Bigger Drops Coming * Lester R. Brown www.earth-policy.org/plan_b_updates/2011/update101 Earth Policy Release Plan B Update November 2 , 2011 EMBARGO 12 NOON EDT Between 2007 and 2011, carbon emissions from coal use in the United States dropped 10 percent. During the same period, emissions from oil use dropped 11 percent. In contrast, carbon emissions from natural gas use increased by 6 percent. The net effect of these trends was that U.S. carbon emissions dropped 7 percent in four years. And this is only the beginning. [image: Graph on U.S. Energy-Related Carbon Dioxide Emissions, 1950-2010, with Projection for 2011] The initial fall in coal and oil use was triggered by the economic downturn, but now powerful new forces are reducing the use of both. For coal, the dominant force is the Beyond Coal campaign, an impressive national effort coordinated by the Sierra Club involving hundreds of local groups that oppose coal because of its effects on human health. In the first phase, the campaign actively opposed the building of new coal-fired power plants. This hugely successful initiative, which led to a near de facto moratorium on new coal plants, was powered by Americans’ dislike of coal. An Opinion Research Corporation poll found only 3 percent preferred coal as their electricity source -- which is no surprise. Coal plant emissions are a leading cause of respiratory illnesses (such as asthma in children) and mercury contamination. Coal burning causes 13,200 American deaths each year, a loss of life that exceeds U.S. combat losses in 10 years of war in Afghanistan and Iraq. The campaign’s second phase is dedicated to closing existing coal plants. Of the U.S. total of 492 coal-fired power plants, 68 are already slated to close. With current and forthcoming U.S. Environmental Protection Agency air quality regulations on emissions of mercury, sulfur, and ozone precursors requiring costly retrofits, many more of the older, dirtier plants will be closed. In August, the *American Economic Review* -- the country’s most prestigious economics journal -- published<http://pubs.aeaweb.org/doi/pdfplus/10.1257/aer.101.5.1649>an article that can only be described as an epitaph for the coal industry. The authors conclude that the economic damage caused by air pollutants from coal burning exceeds the value of the electricity produced by coal-fired power plants. Coal fails the cost-benefit analysis even before the costs of climate change are tallied. In July 2011, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced<http://www.mikebloomberg.com/index.cfm?objectid=4D1722F5-C29C-7CA2-FCB63853…>a grant of $50 million to the Beyond Coal campaign. It is one thing when Michael Brune, head of the Sierra Club, says that coal has to go, but quite another when Michael Bloomberg, one of the most successful businessmen of his generation, says so. The move to close coal plants comes at a time when electricity use for lighting will be falling fast as old-fashioned incandescent light bulbs are phased out. In compliance with the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, by January 2012 there will be no 100-watt incandescent light bulbs on store shelves. By January 2014, the 75-watt, 60-watt, and 40-watt incandescents will also disappear from shelves. As inefficient incandescents are replaced by compact fluorescents and LEDs, electricity use for lighting can drop by 80 percent. And much of the switch will occur within a few years. The U.S. Department of Energy projects that residential electricity use per person will drop by 5 percent during this decade as light bulbs are replaced and as more-efficient refrigerators, water heaters, television sets, and other household appliances come to market. Even as coal plants are closing, the use of wind, solar, and geothermally generated electricity is growing fast. Over the last four years, more than 400 wind farms -- with a total generating capacity of 27,000 megawatts -- have come online, enough to supply 8 million homes with electricity. (See data at www.earth-policy.org.) Nearly 300,000 megawatts of proposed wind projects are in the pipeline awaiting access to the grid. [image: Graph on Cumulative Installed Wind Power Capacity in the United States, 1980-2011*] Texas, long the leading oil-producing state, is now the leading generator of electricity from wind. When the transmission lines linking the rich wind resources of west Texas and the Texas panhandle to the large cities in central and eastern Texas are completed, wind electric generation in the state will jump dramatically. In installed wind-generating capacity, Texas is followed by Iowa, California, Minnesota, and Illinois. In the share of electricity generation in the state coming from wind, Iowa leads at 20 percent. With electricity generated by solar panels, the United States has some 22,000 megawatts of utility-scale projects in the pipeline. And this does not include residential installations. Closing coal plants also cuts oil use. With coal use falling, the near 40 percent of freight rail diesel fuel that is used to move coal from mines to power plants will also drop. In fact, oil use has fallen fast in the United States over the last four years, thus reversing another long-term trend of rising consumption. The reasons for this include a shrinkage in the size of the national fleet, the rising fuel efficiency of new cars, and a reduction in the miles driven per vehicle. Fleet size peaked at 250 million cars in 2008 just as the number of cars being scrapped eclipsed sales of new cars. Aside from economic conditions, car sales are down because many young people today are much less automobile-oriented than their parents. In addition, the fuel efficiency of new cars, already rising, will soon increase sharply. The most recent efficiency standards mandate that new cars sold in 2025 use only half as much fuel as those sold in 2010. Thus with each passing year, the U.S. car fleet becomes more fuel-efficient, using less gasoline. Miles driven per car are declining because of higher gasoline prices, the continuing recession, and the shift to public transit and bicycles. Bicycles are replacing cars as cities create cycling infrastructure by building bike paths, creating dedicated bike lanes, and installing sidewalk parking racks. Many U.S. cities, including Washington, D.C., Chicago, and New York, are introducing bike-sharing programs. Furthermore, when people retire and no longer commute, miles driven drop by a third to a half. With so many baby boomers now retiring, this too will lower gasoline use. As plug-in hybrid and all-electric cars come to market, electricity will replace gasoline. An analysis<http://harvardmagazine.com/2011/07/time-to-electrify>by Professor Michael McElroy of Harvard indicates that running a car on wind-generated electricity could cost the equivalent of 80-cent-a-gallon gasoline. With emissions from coal burning heading for a free fall as plants are closed, and those from oil use also falling fast -- both are falling faster than emissions from natural gas are ramping up -- U.S. carbon emissions are falling. We are now looking at a situation where the 7 percent decline in carbon emissions since the 2007 peak could expand to 20 percent by 2020, and possibly even to 30 percent. If so, the United States could become a world leader in cutting carbon emissions and stabilizing climate. # # # Data and additional resources available at www.earth-policy.org. Lester R. Brown is president of the Earth Policy Institute and author of *World on the Edge <http://www.earth-policy.org/books/wote>*. *Feel free to pass this information along to friends, family members, and colleagues!* *Follow us on:* [image: EPI Fan Page] <http://www.facebook.com/EarthPolicyInstitute> [image: EPI on Twitter] <http://www.twitter.com/EarthPolicy> [image: EPI RSS]<http://earth-policy.org/press_room/C87> [image: EPI Youtube Channel] <http://www.youtube.com/earthpolicy> *Media Contact: *Reah Janise Kauffman (202) 496-9290 ext. 12 rjk(a)earthpolicy.org *Research Contact: *Matt Roney (202) 496-9290 ext. 17 jmroney(a)earthpolicy.org *Earth Policy Institute* 1350 Connecticut Avenue NW, Suite 403 Washington, DC 20036 --- You are currently subscribed to public as: newviv(a)roadrunner.com To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-public-6031842Q(a)lists.earth-policy.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

3 2

Fwd: Arctic Refuge FW: It's up-- Vote away
by Paul Wilson 03 Nov '11

03 Nov '11

fyi, renewables are winning 55% to whatever oil is getting! vote away, paul ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Dan Ritzman <dan.ritzman(a)sierraclub.org> Date: Thu, Nov 3, 2011 at 4:47 PM Subject: Arctic Refuge FW: It's up-- Vote away To: #arctic(a)sierraclub.org, #Conservation-Habitats(a)sierraclub.org I have no idea where usnews got that picture at the top of the article but it certainly isn’t the Refuge. Alas, still worth voting!**** ** ** *From:* Virginia Cramer [mailto:virginia.cramer@sierraclub.org] *Sent:* Thursday, November 03, 2011 1:13 PM *To:* #Land; Dan Ritzman *Subject:* It's up-- Vote away**** ** ** The US News & World Report "debate" is on-- Please go vote for Dan's response and spread this around. **** http://www.usnews.com/debate-club/is-it-time-to-drill-in-the-arctic-refuge** ** ** ** - ginny**** ** ** Is It Time to Drill in the Arctic Refuge?**** The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, commonly known as ANWR, is a 19-million acre national wildlife preserve in northeast Alaska. The United States Geological Survey estimates that there could be anywhere between 7.7 and 11.8 billion gallons of technically recoverable oil underneath the surface of the refuge.**** The drilling controversy in ANWR centers on a specific, 1.5 million acre area on the northern coastal plain known as the 10-02 area. While this area comprises a relatively small part of the whole refuge, it contains an important calving ground for Porcupine caribou, which have been a significant part of the lives of native Alaskans in the area for thousands of years.**** In 1977, the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System was completed, and conservationists began a campaign to keep oil prospecting out of ANWR. Three years later, President Jimmy Carter signed the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, which designated 104 million acres in Alaska as national parks and wildlife refuge. The act allowed for drilling in ANWR, but not without Congress’s approval first. The Exxon-Valdez spill temporarily derailed potential drilling in ANWR in 1989, but seven years later the Republican-majority House and Senate voted to allow drilling in the refuge. President Clinton vetoed the bill, but the battle over ANWR raged on in Congress throughout the next decade with President George W. Bush pushing to perform exploratory drilling in the area.**** Rapidly rising energy costs and a weak economy have caused Congress to again investigate the possibility of drilling in ANWR. Is it time to starting drilling in the Arctic Refuge? Here is the Debate Club’s take:**** ** ** -- 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

1 0

appalachian coal future
by William V. DePaulo, Esq. 03 Nov '11

03 Nov '11

Coal's Woes Run Deeper than EPA Regs Competitive, Labor Issues Hurt Production Ken Silverstein <http://www.energybiz.com/author/ken-silverstein> | Sep 28, 2011 [image: Share/Save]<http://www.addtoany.com/share_save#url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.energybiz.com%2Fart…> <http://www.energybiz.com/article/11/09/coals-woes-run-deeper-epa-regs&utm_m…> In Central Appalachia, coal’s potential troubles are running much deeper than the proposed environmental regulations. Both public and private reviews note a reduction in production, citing not just pending federal rules but also increased competition and the depletion of the most recoverable deposits. The coal companies concur, saying that development could migrate to regions with more accessible reserves and a lower cost of production. And while the easy target is the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that wants to cut toxic emissions, all are acknowledging that the process is more labor intensive and therefore less profitable. That’s because the coal there is much harder dig out, leaving surface mining as the only other possibility -- an even more controversial technique. “Based on historical trend, most of the supply reduction is likely to be permanent,” says Arch Coal<http://www.faqs.org/sec-filings/100222/ARCH-COAL-INC_8-K/c56417exv99w1.htm>in a quarterly assessment. “The 2008-2010 drop is shaping up to be the largest fall-off in production yet,” in reference to Central Appalachia. That production is shifting westward, it says, citing statistics that Central Appalachia annual coal development could fall from around 200 million tons today to 99 million tons by 2035; a decade ago it was 300 million tons. The U.S. Energy Information Administration <http://www.eia.gov/forecasts/aeo/MT_coal.cfm>agrees, saying that Central Appalachian coal has “higher cost reserves” that have already been “extensively mined.” That will result in more production from western states, and potentially 1 percent more a year between 2015-2035. In this country, most of the coal comes from Wyoming, West Virginia and Kentucky. Wyoming provides about 41 percent of U.S. coal production, which is an increase from 18 percent two decades earlier. Today, the roughly 443 million tons of coal mined from the Wyoming Powder<http://205.254.135.24/energy_in_brief/role_coal_us.cfm>River Basin is shipped to 34 states, including those in the east. With an expanding rail transportation network, coal emanating from that area could flourish. It’s also easier to mine. Underground mining is one issue. Surface mining, or mountaintop mining, is another that comes with regulatory impediments. Specifically, proposed EPA rules would restrict the ability of mining companies to toss aside debris by setting tougher water quality standards. It would require buffer zones around the streams while requesting mining enterprises to move in phases so that they can better monitor their environmental footprints. Economic Diversification What to do? U.S. senators from coal-producing states are trying to stop the EPA in its tracks, saying that the livelihoods of the affected citizens would be harmed. But perhaps the longer range view would be the diversification of the economies t<http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/ap-enterprise-drastic-declines-ahead…>here, and for them to become net exporters of other fuels. In fact, the Marcellus Region <http://www.marcellusfacts.com/pdf/homegrownenergy.pdgoo>that stretches down the east coast is estimated to hold as much as 500 trillion cubic feet of shale gas. Penn State University says that such assets would create 200,000 jobs and the American Chemical Council says that 12,000 chemical-related jobs would be formed in West Virginia alone. By comparison, the coal mining industry in all of Appalachia employs 31,000 people, says the National Mining Association <http://www.nma.org/>. As production falls there and as EPA regs kick in, that number will decline. “The increased competition from other sources of coal and energy has negatively impacted production in Central Appalachia, illustrating that the existence of coal reserves does not guarantee that the coal will be economical to produce or competitive with other regions,” says a report by Downstream Strategies<http://www.downstreamstrategies.com/documents/reports_publication/Downstrea…>. “The declining competitiveness is due in large part to the increased cost of producing coal in Central Appalachia, for both surface and underground mining.” The Morgantown, WV-based consulting firm goes on to say that if West Virginia and other Central Appalachian states are to cope with a perpetual decline in coal production, policy makers will need to ensure that new jobs and fresh sources of tax revenue become available. It is cautioning against an over-reliance on shale gas, noting the associated water quality issues surrounding it as well as a history of volatile natural gas prices. The firm is therefore concluding that the region needs to promote renewable energy. It is suggesting a renewable portfolio standard whereby utilities would have to supply a quarter of their power from green sources by 2025. Blaming coal’s woes on the proposed environmental regulations tells only a fraction of the story. The rest can be explained by competition from other coal states as well as from cheaper and cleaner fuels. That makes the labor-intensive pursuit for coal in Central Appalachia a tougher sell and the need for fuel diversity there more essential than ever. EnergyBiz Insider has been been nominated in 2010 and 2011 for Best Online Column by Media Industry News, MIN. Ken Silverstein has also been named one of the Top Economics Journalists by Wall Street Economists. Follow Ken on www.twitter.com/ken_silverstein energybizinsider(a)energycentral.com -- 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

coal ash dump collapse in WI
by Frank Young 01 Nov '11

01 Nov '11

And Congress doesn't want the EPA to regulate this stuff. On Tue, Nov 1, 2011 at 10:35 AM, Bill Price <bill.price(a)sierraclub.org> wrote: http://www.jsonline.com/multimedia/photos/132962423.html#id_58603378 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 -- Vernon Haltom Executive Director, Coal River Mountain Watch 304-854-2182 www.crmw.net

1 0

Fwd: Solar Power 2011 - Solar PV Breaks Records in 2010
by Jim Sconyers 30 Oct '11

30 Oct '11

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Edward Mainland <emainland(a)comcast.net> Date: Sun, Oct 30, 2011 at 6:28 PM Subject: Solar Power 2011 - Solar PV Breaks Records in 2010 To: CONS-SPST-GLOBALWARM-CHAIRS(a)lists.sierraclub.org * Solar Power 2011 - Solar PV Breaks Records in 2010 * J. Matthew Roney *www.earth-policy.org/indicators/C47/solar_power_2011*<http://www.earth-policy.org/indicators/C47/solar_power_2011> Earth Policy Release Eco-Economy Indicator October 27, 2011 Solar photovoltaic (PV) companies manufactured a record 24,000 megawatts of PV cells worldwide in 2010, more than doubling their 2009 output. Annual PV production has grown nearly 100-fold since 2000, when just 277 megawatts of cells were made. Newly installed PV also set a record in 2010, as 16,600 megawatts were installed in more than 100 countries. This brought the total worldwide capacity of solar PV to nearly 40,000 megawatts—enough to power 14 million European homes. Made of semiconductor materials, PV cells convert solar radiation directly into electricity. Rectangular panels consisting of numerous PV cells can be linked into arrays of various sizes and power output capabilities—from rooftop systems measured in kilowatts to ground-mounted arrays of hundreds or even thousands of megawatts. (One megawatt equals 1,000 kilowatts.) There are two main types of PV—traditional crystalline silicon and newer thin-film PV. In 2010, crystalline silicon production was more than double the output of 2009, accounting for over 80 percent of all PV produced. While thin-film production did not keep pace, it still grew by more than 60 percent. First Solar, a U.S. firm, maintained its leadership role in thin-film production, accounting for over 40 percent of world output, most of it produced in Malaysia. Data provided to Earth Policy Institute by GTM Research show that Chinese manufacturers again dominated the global industry in 2010, with close to 11,000 megawatts of PV cell production. (See data at *www.earth-policy.org*<http://www.earth-policy.org/>.) This was the seventh consecutive year in which China at least doubled its PV output. Taiwan was a distant second with 3,600 megawatts produced, followed by Japan with 2,200 megawatts, Germany with 2,000 megawatts, and the United States with 1,100. The top five countries thus accounted for 82 percent of total world PV production. While Germany ranks fourth in solar cell manufacturing, it towers above all other countries in terms of actual electricity generation from solar panels. Germany has widened its lead in this category each year since overtaking Japan in 2004 and, after adding 7,400 megawatts in 2010, now boasts 17,200 megawatts of installed PV. This is more than 40 percent of global capacity and over four times the 3,800 megawatts in Spain, the number two country. PV in Germany now generates enough electricity to meet the power demand of some 3.4 million German homes. Japan installed close to 1,000 megawatts of new PV capacity in 2010. It is the third-ranked country in installed PV, with a total of 3,600 megawatts. As solar adoption accelerates in Japan, its national target of 28,000 megawatts by 2020 may be easily surpassed, especially as the country weighs energy alternatives following the March 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster. By nearly doubling its total PV power capacity in 2010, Italy vaulted past the United States to claim the fourth position in the world solar rankings, with 3,500 megawatts. With an expected 8,000 megawatts of new PV in 2011, likely overtaking Germany in new installations, Italy will have already exceeded its official 2020 goal of 8,000 megawatts. Enel, Italy's leading utility, sees the country reaching 30,000 megawatts by 2020—enough to satisfy half of its current residential electricity needs. PV capacity in the United States also saw strong growth in 2010, increasing by more than 50 percent to reach 2,500 total megawatts. California, which now has more than 1,000 megawatts connected to the grid, again led all states in new PV installations. But a number of other states, including New Jersey, Nevada, and Arizona, are ramping up their solar capacity as well, driven by programs and incentives at the state and federal levels. Until very recently, China's status as PV manufacturing powerhouse had not translated into much solar generation at home, as panels were seen as too expensive in the domestic market. While the vast majority of Chinese-made PV is sent abroad, a growing government commitment to increasing solar power as part of the energy mix is now catalyzing substantial PV capacity gains. Total installed PV in China grew 140 percent to nearly 900 megawatts in 2010. This was the first full year for the national Golden Sun program, which covers half the investment and grid connection costs of a solar project. It is expected to result in at least 1,000 megawatts of new installations each year after 2012. Furthermore, in August 2011 China's main economic planning agency announced it was implementing a national PV feed-in tariff. This policy tool, now used by more than 60 countries, is behind most of the PV already installed worldwide. A feed-in tariff typically guarantees generators of renewable electricity a long-term purchase price for each kilowatt-hour they produce and "feed into" the grid, providing a powerful incentive for installing such systems. Together the Golden Sun program and the new feed-in tariff are likely to push China's PV capacity to at least double again in 2011—and may help explain why the country's solar power targets for 2015 and 2020 have reportedly risen to 10,000 and 50,000 megawatts, respectively. Although the cost of PV has fallen substantially over the decades, solar-generated electricity is not yet widely price-competitive with electricity generated by heavily subsidized fossil fuels. If the full cost of burning fossil fuels, including health effects and the costs of climate change, were incorporated into the price of electricity, PV would quickly be revealed as one of the least expensive sources of power. As system costs continue to drop, the PV landscape is evolving to include not only traditional small-scale PV installations but also utility-scale parks of tens, hundreds, or even thousands of megawatts. An 80-megawatt PV park completed in Canada in 2010 was the world's largest until September 2011, when a newly-expanded PV complex of close to 150 megawatts in northeastern Germany claimed the title. As of late 2011, the United States had 48 PV projects of 100 megawatts or more in the pipeline, including a 5,000-megawatt park to be sited on degraded farmland in California's San Joaquin Valley. At peak generation, this solar facility's electricity output would rival that of five large nuclear power plants. Multi-megawatt projects are also under development in India as part of the National Solar Mission that was announced in late 2009. Though the country had just 100 megawatts of installed PV capacity at the end of 2010, the goal is for some 22,000 megawatts of solar power—half PV and half concentrating solar power—to be installed by 2022. The western state of Gujarat alone plans to have 3,000 megawatts installed by 2015. Part of the National Solar Mission's PV expansion is destined for rural areas where millions lack access to electricity. As is the case in many other developing countries, there is vast potential in India for PV to provide power in places without an electric grid. Installing small solar systems on homes is often much less expensive than building a central power plant, with the added benefit of greatly reducing indoor air pollution from kerosene lamps. Industry analysts forecast that some 21,000 megawatts of PV will be installed globally in 2011. This would be a marked slowdown from the doubling of the market in 2010, but the pool of countries with rising demand for PV still continues to grow. New markets such as Slovakia and the United Kingdom are among the 20 countries expected to add 100 megawatts or more in 2011, up from 13 countries in 2010. As PV costs drop, as concerns about climate change grow, and as countries look to replace finite fossil fuels with energy sources that can never run out, the growth in solar power should continue. The potential is practically without limit: a *2011 article published in **Energy Policy*<http://www.stanford.edu/group/efmh/jacobson/Articles/I/JDEnPolicyPt1.pdf>shows that solar PV deployed in suitable locations could generate 30 times the electricity currently produced worldwide. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - To unsubscribe from the CONS-SPST-GLOBALWARM-CHAIRS list, send any message to: CONS-SPST-GLOBALWARM-CHAIRS-signoff-request(a)LISTS.SIERRACLUB.ORG Check out our Listserv Lists support site for more information: http://www.sierraclub.org/lists/faq.asp -- Jim Sconyers jimscon(a)gmail.com 304.698.9628 Remember, Mother Nature bats last.

1 0

Fwd: Economists estimate comprehensive cost of greenhouse gas emissions
by Paul Wilson 30 Oct '11

30 Oct '11

Below is a link to the PDF report (30 pages) on the cost of carbon. Looks useful...... ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Tim Guilfoile <tim.guilfoile(a)sierraclub.org> Date: Sun, Oct 30, 2011 at 12:54 PM Subject: Economists estimate comprehensive cost of greenhouse gas emissions To: COAL-CAMPAIGN-ALERTS(a)lists.sierraclub.org [image: image.png] http://www.e3network.org/papers/Climate_Risks_and_Carbon_Prices_executive_s… -- Tim Guilfoile Deputy Director Sierra Club Water Sentinels 3078 Elmwood Dr. Edgewood, KY 41017 (859) 426-1978 tim.guilfoile(a)sierraclub.org ><(((*>~~><(((*> - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 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

1 0

Watch live symposium webcast
by Jonathan Rosenbaum 28 Oct '11

28 Oct '11

If you can't get to the symposium in person, you can watch it via webcast: http://energy.law.wvu.edu/events/drilling_down/webcast -Jonathan

1 0

Wheeling Intelligencer supports Senate Ash Bill
by James Kotcon 27 Oct '11

27 Oct '11

EDITORIAL: Push Hard on Coal Ash Bill in Senate October 27, 2011 By The Intelligencer , The Intelligencer / Wheeling News-Register Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid probably will view a newly introduced bill as one more opportunity to stymie conservatives. Reid, D-Nev., probably hopes the Democrat Party discipline on which he usually is able to count will stop the bill. But the measure - the Senate version of a bill passed overwhelmingly by the House of Representatives - is too important to be viewed as a matter of Democrats vs. Republicans. Sens. Joe Manchin and Jay Rockefeller, both D-W.Va., view it that way. They understand the bill, introduced in the House by Rep. David McKinley, R-W.Va., is necessary to prevent the Environmental Protection Agency from killing more jobs and driving up electricity prices even more. McKinley's bill calls for reasonable regulations on coal ash created at many power plants. The EPA wants much harsher new rules. Three other Democrat senators joined Manchin and Rockefeller in sponsoring the Senate version of the bill. Both Mountain State lawmakers view it as a bipartisan effort. Still, they will have to work hard to overcome opposition almost certain to come from Reid and liberals in the Senate. We urge them to make the bill a top priority so it passes with a majority strong enough to overcome the veto President Barack Obama has threatened.

2 1

Fwd: Got Kids? Grandkids? Listen up!
by James Kotcon 26 Oct '11

26 Oct '11

Perhaps this could be used for letters to McKinley, Manchin, etc. on the coal ash bill. Go through a half dozen EPA rules like the ash rule, the power plant mercury rule, etc., and come up with the employment estimates in the Federal Register notices. Then do an op/ed on "Jobs McKinley is trying to Kill" Whaddya Tink? JBK >>> Betty Wiley <betty.w304(a)gmail.com> 10/23/2011 9:17 PM >>> ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Robert Donnan <redchief7(a)verizon.net> Date: Sat, Oct 22, 2011 at 7:56 AM Subject: Got Kids? Grandkids? Listen up! To: Robert Donnan <redchief7(a)verizon.net> ** These critical issues probably affect our Pittsburgh region more than any other area in the United States. It's hard to believe that anyone would consider unraveling all the progress we have made over the past 40 years. Bob latimes.com Op-Ed 'Too dirty to fail'? House Republicans' assault on our environmental laws must be stopped. By Lisa P. Jackson Administrator of the U.S. EPA October 21, 2011 Americans must once again stand up for their right to clean air and clean water. Since the beginning of this year, Republicans in the House have averaged roughly a vote every day the chamber has been in session to undermine the Environmental Protection Agency and our nation's environmental laws. They have picked up the pace recently — just last week they voted to stop the EPA's efforts to limit mercury and other hazardous pollutants from cement plants, boilers and incinerators — and it appears their campaign will continue for the foreseeable future. Using the economy as cover, and repeating unfounded claims that "regulations kill jobs," they have pushed through an unprecedented rollback of the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act and our nation's waste-disposal laws, all of which have successfully protected our families for decades. We all remember "too big to fail"; this pseudo jobs plan to protect polluters might well be called "too dirty to fail." The House has voted on provisions that, if they became law, would give big polluters a pass in complying with the standards that more than half of the power plants across the country already meet. The measures would indefinitely delay sensible upgrades to reduce air pollution from industrial boilers located in highly populated areas. And they would remove vital federal water protections, exposing treasured resources such as the Gulf of Mexico, Lake Erie, the Chesapeake Bay and the Los Angeles River to pollution. How we respond to this assault on our environmental and public health protections will mean the difference between sickness and health — in some cases, life and death — for hundreds of thousands of citizens. This is not hyperbole. The link between health issues and pollution is irrefutable. Mercury is a neurotoxin that affects brain development in unborn children and young people. Lead has similar effects in our bodies. Soot, composed of particles smaller across than a human hair, is formed when fuels are burned and is a direct cause of premature death. Nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds contribute to the ozone alert days when seniors, asthmatics and others with respiratory problems are at serious risk if they do nothing more dangerous than step outside and breathe the air. "Too dirty to fail" tries to convince Americans that they must choose between their health and the economy, a choice that's been proved wrong for the four decades that the EPA has been in existence. No credible economist links our current economic crisis — or any economic crisis — to tough clean-air and clean-water standards. A better approach is the president's call for federal agencies to ensure that regulations don't overburden American businesses. The EPA has already put that into effect by repealing or revising several unnecessary rules, while ensuring that essential health protections remain intact. We can put Americans to work retrofitting outdated, dirty plants with updated pollution control technology. There are about 1,100 coal-fired units at about 500 power plants in this country. About half of these units are more than 40 years old, and about three-quarters of them are more than 30 years old. Of these 1,100 units, 44% do not use pollution controls such as scrubbers or catalysts to limit emissions, and they pour unlimited amounts of mercury, lead, arsenic and acid gases into our air. Despite requirements in the bipartisan 1990 Clean Air Act amendments, these facilities have largely refused to control their emissions — creating an uneven playing field for companies who play by the rules and gaming the system at the expense of our health. If these plants continue to operate without pollution limits, as a legislative wish list from House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) would allow, there will be more cases of asthma, respiratory illness and premature deaths — with no clear path to new jobs. By contrast, the nation's first-ever standards for mercury and other air toxic pollutants which the EPA will finalize this fall — and which the Republican leadership aims to block — are estimated to create 31,000 short-term construction jobs and 9,000 long-term jobs in the utility sector through modernizing power plants. And the savings in health benefits are estimated to be up to $140 billion per year by 2016. Contrary to industry lobbying, this overhaul can be accomplished without affecting the reliability of our power grid. Our country has a long tradition of treating environmental and public health protections as nonpartisan matters. It was the case when President Nixon created the EPA and signed into law the historic Clean Air Act, when President Ford signed into law the Safe Drinking Water Act and when President George H.W. Bush oversaw important improvements to the Clean Air Act and enacted the trading program that dramatically reduced acid rain pollution. Our environment affects red states and blue states alike. It is time for House Republicans to stop politicizing our air and water. Let's end "too dirty to fail." *Lisa P. Jackson is the administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. *

2 1

WVU Faculty Senate viewpoint meeting
by Jonathan Rosenbaum 25 Oct '11

25 Oct '11

Heh all, Right before the exciting City Council COW meeting this Tuesday at 7:00 p.m. where the future of the ban will be discussed informally, http://morgantown.com/agendas/2011/10-25-11-COW.pdf (Note: Bill Bryne will be in another country :) .. Forum on Marcellus Shale Drilling Tuesday,*October 25, 2011*, at 5:30 p.m., 126 Ming Hsieh Hall,WVUDowntown Campus A Discussion of Important Issues From Various Viewpoints. Presented by Pi Sigma Sigma Public Policy Honorary andWVUPolitical Science Department. Seeflyer <http://facultysenate.wvu.edu/r/download/110848>for more information. Note the interesting line-up: John King - WVDEP Environmental Advocate (Remember Pam Nixon at the SierraFest?) Don Spencer - Ex-City Council, the biggest supporter for strong legislation .. resolutions, ban, etc. WV4MOM - No idea who will be talking, I suspect that it may be Professor Tauger from political science Dr. Carr - Interim director of WVU's marcellus initiative, self-describe industry advocate, and the worst choice imaginable by WVU's president. A new page to watch, http://facultysenate.wvu.edu/marcellus. You may be able to catch both events concurrently. -Jonathan

3 2

Fwd: E&E: Ash bill attracts Senate Democrats
by Jim Sconyers 21 Oct '11

21 Oct '11

This is the Senate duplicate of Congressman McKinley's horrible ash bill. Joe Manchin continues to be an embarrassment and to show utter disregard for the health and safety of our citizens. ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Alex Taurel <Alex_Taurel(a)lcv.org> Date: Fri, Oct 21, 2011 at 9:06 AM Subject: E&E: Ash bill attracts Senate Democrats To: COAL-COMBUSTION-WASTE(a)lists.sierraclub.org ** ** Ash bill attracts Senate Democrats **** Manuel Quinones, E&E reporter**** Published: Friday, October 21, 2011 **** Senate Democrats Kent Conrad of North Dakota, Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Ben Nelson of Nebraska are hoping to convince their chamber's leadership to support legislation to block U.S. EPA from regulating coal ash as a hazardous substance.**** Yesterday they joined Republicans John Hoeven of North Dakota, Mike Enzi of Wyoming, Rob Portman of Ohio and John Boozman of Arkansas in introducing the Senate companion to H.R. 2273<http://eenews.net/bills/112/House/191011114254.pdf>, which passed in the House last week. The measures take a "states-first" approach, meaning they give states broad regulatory authority over the disposal of power plant combustion waste.**** "It ensures good environmental stewardship, while helping to preserve jobs and ensure that a beneficial product is made available for worthy uses," Hoeven said in a statement. "Just as importantly, it ensures that Congress and the states hold the reins of environmental policy."**** Bill supporters say a hazardous designation would have a damaging effect to coal ash recycling efforts. They say the prospect of one is already stigmatizing the material, often used in roads and other construction. During a speech on the Senate floor, Hoeven touted major projects back home that included coal ash.**** The legislation is a top industry priority, faced with tougher EPA oversight. Lawmakers carrying the torch in the Senate hail from major coal producing or consuming states. Hoeven and Conrad, the main sponsors, come from a state where nearly all the electricity is produced by coal-fired power plants, according to the Energy Information Administration.**** "Years of research have shown that coal ash should not be regulated as a hazardous waste," Conrad said in a statement. "Doing so would only force unworkable requirements on our state's utilities, resulting in serious economic consequences and the loss of good-paying jobs."**** Environmental advocates and Senate liberals have been trying to turn the jobs argument on its head, saying strong regulation is an economic booster. They are vowing to fight the bill saying it lacks enough strength to prevent water contamination and potential disaster, like an ash dump break in eastern Tennessee in 2008. The White House has also expressed opposition to the bill but fell short of issuing a veto threat.**** State regulators generally support keeping oversight of coal ash and are pressing for passage of legislation to effectively set aside EPA rulemaking. Environmentalists, however, have released reports saying states like North Dakota have been lax in regulating coal ash, leading to numerous cases of contamination (*E&ENews PM<http://www.eenews.net/eenewspm/2011/08/17/archive/4> *, Aug. 17).**** Earthjustice attorney Lisa Evans, who has been fighting the legislation, pointed out newly released inspection data from EPA showing that three North Dakota coal ash ponds garnered poor ratings. EPA has been conducting integrity tests at sites across the country.**** "It is beyond irresponsible for the senators to offer a bill that fails to cure the safety problems facing their own state," Evans said in a statement. "And it is with great disregard of their civic responsibility that they support a bill that places the citizens of other states at great peril."**** Senators who introduced the legislation say it will give industry regulatory certainty and states clarity in the regulatory process through minimum federal benchmarks.**** "This bill paves the way for states to manage coal ash in a safe, effective manner," Enzi said in a statement. "It is a serious legislative effort that takes a unique approach to fixing a problem that industry and the states want to address."**** Click here <http://www.eenews.net/assets/2011/10/21/document_daily_01.pdf>to read the new Senate bill.**** http://www.eenews.net/EEDaily/print/2011/10/21/7**** ** ** ** ** Alex Taurel**** Legislative Representative**** League of Conservation Voters**** (o) 202-454-4606**** (c) 202-669-1199**** *alex_taurel(a)lcv.org* *twitter.com/LCVPolicy* ** ** - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 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 -- Jim Sconyers jimscon(a)gmail.com 304.698.9628 Remember, Mother Nature bats last.

1 0

Fwd: FW: BIPARTISAN GROUP OF SENATORS INTRODUCE COAL ASH RECYCLING LEGISLATION
by Jim Sconyers 20 Oct '11

20 Oct '11

For shame. ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Scott Stapf <sstapf(a)hastingsgroup.com> Date: Thu, Oct 20, 2011 at 3:46 PM Subject: FW: BIPARTISAN GROUP OF SENATORS INTRODUCE COAL ASH RECYCLING LEGISLATION To: COAL-COMBUSTION-WASTE(a)lists.sierraclub.org **** ** ** **** *For Immediate Release: *October 20, 2011**** **** *Contacts:***** Don Canton (Hoeven) (202) 224-8469**** Sean Neary (Conrad) (202) 224-2043**** Ron Eckstein (Nelson) (202) 224-5326**** Jeff Sadosky (Portman) (202) 224-5190**** Emily Bittner (Manchin) (202) 224-3954**** Sara Lasure (Boozman) (202) 224-4843**** Daniel Head (Enzi) (202) 224-3424**** **** *BIPARTISAN GROUP OF SENATORS INTRODUCE COAL ASH RECYCLING LEGISLATION***** Measure Will Save Jobs, Hold Down Energy Costs, Protect Local Oversight**** **** WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Senators John Hoeven (R-N.D.), Kent Conrad (D-N.D.), Ben Nelson (D-Neb.), Michael Enzi (R-Wyo.), Rob Portman (R-Ohio), Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), and John Boozman (R-Ark.) introduced the Coal Residuals Reuse and Management Act of 2011, legislation that will ensure the safe and effective disposal of coal combustion residuals, a byproduct of coal-fired electricity generation that is also recycled as a valuable building material. **** **** This effort was prompted by the EPA’s proposal to regulate coal ash as hazardous waste. Coal ash is a byproduct that has been safely used for buildings, roads, bridges and other infrastructure for years under state regulations. The agency’s new rule would add additional costs to recycling companies and power plants, thereby increasing the cost of electricity to consumers.**** **** Under this legislation, states could set up their own permitting program for the management and disposal of coal ash that is based on existing EPA regulations to protect human health and the environment. States will know where they stand under this bill, since the benchmarks for what constitutes a successful state program will be set in statute. This is a states-first approach that provides regulatory certainty.**** **** The bill would set up a state permitting program for coal ash under a section of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act that would ensure sites have the adequate groundwater monitoring, protective lining, and properly engineered structures needed to protect communities. **** **** Hoeven outlined the new legislation on the floor of the U.S. Senate today, illustrating his comments with photos of Bismarck State University’s National Center of Energy Excellence and a rendering of the new North Dakota Heritage Center expansion, both of which incorporate recycled coal residuals in their construction.**** **** “North Dakota is a good example of how states can manage the disposal of coal residuals with good environmental stewardship, and at the same time, allow for beneficial uses like building roads, bridges and buildings that are stronger and less expensive,” *Senator John Hoeven* said. “Just as importantly, this legislation helps to preserve valuable jobs at a time when the nation so very much needs them.”**** **** “Years of research have shown that coal ash should not be regulated as a hazardous waste. Doing so would only force unworkable requirements on our state's utilities, resulting in serious economic consequences and the loss of good-paying jobs,” *Senator Kent Conrad* said. “While coal ash must be handled properly, there are less burdensome regulatory options that still protect public health and the environment and can be administered by state programs.” **** **** Senator Ben Nelson of Nebraska pointed out that his state has 100 percent public power, meaning every utility customer in Nebraska purchases electricity from a public power, rural electric or municipal utility. **** **** “This legislation will help control rates for every Nebraskan who pays for electricity,” *Senator Ben Nelson* said. “It will prevent the implementation of new repetitive, burdensome, and potentially expensive EPA regulations, keeping the regulation of coal ash at the state level. Local control helps Nebraska’s publicly-owned utilities and municipalities manage their coal ash byproducts in a way that is cost-effective while ensuring the continued protection of human health and the environment.” **** **** “This bipartisan legislation will prevent serious government overreach that would negatively impact utility consumers, workers and our economy,” said *Senator Rob Portman* of Ohio. “It’s just another example of an out of control regulatory regime that has created uncertainty and threatened job growth in everything from farming to manufacturing and mining. By some estimates, the regulations EPA are proposing for coal combustion byproducts would eliminate 316,000 jobs over the next 20 years and cost hundreds of billions of dollars. Ohio’s economy, which is already struggling, would be heavily burdened by these regulations. This legislation, supported by a broad coalition of job creators, will provide a common sense framework that balances our economic, environmental, public health and energy security needs.”**** **** “This bill paves the way for states to manage coal ash in a safe, effective manner,” said *Senator Michael Enzi* of Wyoming. “It is a serious legislative effort that takes a unique approach to fixing a problem that industry and the states want to address.”**** **** “The bipartisan support for this commonsense legislation is so strong, and has been building for a long time because overregulation of coal ash by the EPA would threaten vital industries, as well as needlessly cost West Virginia and the nation more jobs - neither of which we can afford," *Senator Joe Manchin* of West Virginia said. “This legislation gives us a commonsense fix: let each state use existing EPA health and environment regulations to set up their own permitting program that allows them to recycle and reuse coal ash. This approach will protect jobs and our economy, and give families and businesses the certainty they need to help restore confidence.”**** **** “This is a commonsense approach to protecting jobs for hardworking Americans by empowering states to both protect our environment and keep electricity affordable,” said *Senator John Boozman* of Arkansas.**** **** The legislation was prompted by the EPA’s proposal to regulate coal ash as hazardous waste. Coal ash is a byproduct that has been safely used for buildings, roads, bridges and other infrastructure for years under state regulations. The agency’s new rule would add additional costs to recycling companies and power plants, thereby increasing the cost of electricity to consumers.**** **** The bill will set up a state permitting program for coal ash under a section of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act that would ensure sites have the adequate groundwater monitoring, protective lining, and properly engineered structures needed to protect communities. **** **** “This legislation represents a reasonable new approach to environmental law – a states-first approach,” Hoeven said. “It ensures good environmental stewardship, while helping to preserve jobs and ensure that a beneficial product is made available for worthy uses. Just as importantly, it ensures that Congress and the states hold the reins of environmental policy.”**** **** *-###-***** **** **** **** ** ** - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 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 1

Fwd: WVU 2 day Oct 27th and 28th Marcellus info from WVU news (clarified)
by Jim Sconyers 20 Oct '11

20 Oct '11

You can skip the gag-me speech by Joe Manchin Thursday, and go to all the sessions Friday free (sans meals) if you follow the registration contact for nonprofits. ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: <WVABooks(a)aol.com> Date: Wed, Oct 19, 2011 at 4:04 PM Subject: WVU 2 day Oct 27th and 28th Marcellus info from WVU news (clarified) To: jimscon(a)gmail.com ** WVU College of Law to present two-day exploration of Marcellus Shale issues (Clarifies registration fees for the event)**** WVU's College of Law leaders have rounded up an array of experts from the public and private sector for an information-based two-day exploration of economic and regulatory issues surrounding one of the most significant energy developments in the history of Appalachia – Marcellus Shale natural gas recovery.**** Marcellus Shale drilling – its economic potential and the regulatory conundrums faced by state lawmakers in protecting the economy and the environment – is the subject of Drilling Down on Regulatory Challenges: Balancing Preservation and Profitability in the Development of Shale Gas Resources set for Oct. 27 and 28 on the WVU campus.**** There will be a reception and banquet featuring keynote speaker Sen. Joe Manchin at 6 p.m. Thursday, Oct, 27 at the WVU Erickson Alumni Center. Speakers and panel discussions will be held at the Marlyn E. Lugar Courtroom (room 165) at the Law Center from 8:15 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday, Oct. 28. The panel discussions on the 28th are free and open to the public. There is a fee of $150 for those registering to attend the reception and the banquet on the 27th; included in the that fee is a continental breakfast and lunch on the 28th. There is a fee of $25 for those wishing to register for the continental breakfast and lunch on the 28th only.**** More online: http://wvutoday.wvu.edu/n/2011/10/12/wvu-college-of-law-to-present-two-day-… **** -- Jim Sconyers jimscon(a)gmail.com 304.698.9628 Remember, Mother Nature bats last.

2 1

Coresco hearing format editorial
by James Kotcon 19 Oct '11

19 Oct '11

Today's Dominion Post editorial. More local news attached. Jim Kotcon >>>>> DOMINION POST Wednesday 19 October 2011: EDITORIAL Public comment was not a wrap State DEP needs to put this experiment in its tape recorder and listen to it The public paid a call on the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) on Monday. The DEP’s representative said the session was just an experiment — an informal conference, not a public hearing. So, who were the 25 audience members to argue? They were the public, that’s who. And judging from their reaction, the DEP might want to think long and hard about experimenting on the public in Monongalia County again. Whether or not the meeting was an informal conference or a public hearing was really never in dispute. It was just the protocol the DEP used for conducting this meeting. Instead of letting members of the crowd address their peers and the DEP’s experts on a permit to renew and expand a coal ash refuse facility, they were ushered to an isolated table to address a recorder while videotaped. Though the DEP’s Division of Mining Reclamation permitting supervisor was on the other side of the table, the public was effectively prevented from hearing the “public” comments. For the more intrepid members of the crowd, who wished to address the crowd and the DEP, their remarks went unheard by all except the recorder and the lone official. The DEP said the meeting’s format was experimental. The idea was to not let members of the public address each other and to provide an outlet for shy members of the crowd. Instead, members of the crowd just raised its voice. For now, we’ll just call it a failed experiment. Perhaps this format has merit in taking testimony in judicial matters. But as it applies to any kind of public comment, it’s contrary to the notion of transparency that’s the cornerstone of our government. We realize that public forums are often marked by one or more speakers who may try to dominate the proceedings. And occasionally some comments are mere rants rather than reasoned pros and cons. But that’s open government — democracy. It’s more often than not messy ... and noisy. The issues before this “informal conference” were environmentally sensitive and could potentially have a major impact on residents, nearby property owners and others. We are not going to take sides on this permit — for now — to double the size of this refuse dump near tributaries of the Monongahela River. However, the DEP has another thing coming if it thinks it can mute public opinion or quietly channel it into its recorders at a public session. Though a measure of decorum and control to allow everyone to say their piece is vital at such meetings, public sessions cannot be reduced to virtual voice mail. The state DEP is a public agency, and it still answers directly to the public. UPDATE

2 1

DP on ash hearing
by Jim Sconyers 18 Oct '11

18 Oct '11

All in all a pretty good article. "Smackdown" indeed! -- Jim Sconyers jimscon(a)gmail.com 304.698.9628 Remember, Mother Nature bats last.

2 1

Fwd: FW: THREAT OF LAWSUIT LOOMS OVER TOXIC COAL WASTE IN WEST VIRGINIA
by James Kotcon 17 Oct '11

17 Oct '11

>>> "Avi Kramer" <akramer(a)publicjustice.net> 10/17/2011 6:28 PM >>> Here's the final release that went out just before 6 p.m. It's also on our website: http://www.publicjustice.net/Newsroom/News/Report-Cites-Coal-Ash-Polluti on-in-WVa.aspx Thanks again, all. From: Deborah Mathis Sent: Monday, October 17, 2011 5:56 PM To: Major Media (dmathis(a)publicjustice.net) Subject: THREAT OF LAWSUIT LOOMS OVER TOXIC COAL WASTE IN WEST VIRGINIA Importance: High NEWS RELEASE FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE October 17, 2011 Contacts: Deborah Mathis, Public Justice - (202) 797-8600 or dmathis(a)publicjustice.net Mike Becher, Appa. Mtn. Advocates - (304) 382-4798 or mbecher(a)appalmad.org Jim Kotcon, Sierra Club W.Va. Chapter - (304) 293-8822 or jkotcon(a)wvu.edu Sean Sarah, Sierra Club - (202) 548-4589 or sean.sarah(a)sierraclub.org Cindy Rank, WV Highlands Conserv. - (304) 924-5802 or clrank2(a)gmail.com REPORT CITES DANGEROUS COAL WASTE POLLUTION OF W.VA. STREAM; NOTICE GIVEN OF POSSIBLE LAWSUIT According to a just-released report <http://www.publicjustice.net/Repository/Files/CORESCO_10_13_2011_FINAL. PDF> from Monongalia County, W.Va., coal combustion waste (CCW) and acid mine drainage (AMD) have seriously harmed aquatic life and ecosystems in a local stream, Crafts Run, which spans multiple miles and discharges into the Monongahela River. The report's data-gathered at specific monitor sites along Crafts Run and detailed in this map <http://www.publicjustice.net/Repository/Files/Coresco_MapwSample&Monito rSites.pdf> -shows elevated levels of dissolved solids, aluminum, iron and manganese in water samples collected from the stream. High amounts of boron and selenium indicated CCW pollution specifically, and in certain places, the concentration of iron violated state surface water quality standards. Self-monitoring data by Coresco LLC-the company that owns and runs the disposal sites adjacent to Crafts Run-showed that violations of state criteria have occured in the past for dissolved aluminum, iron and pH, all indicators of AMD pollution. Coresco's existing disposal sites were permitted and defined by the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection to accept CCW (commonly called "coal ash"), but Coresco is now asking the WVDEP to allow it to expand its disposal operations within the Crafts Run watershed. Local environmental groups, the Sierra Club, and the national public interest law firm Public Justice are opposing the expansion. The 46-page report states that "Coresco intends to drastically increase the amount of CCW disposed of through proposed revisions" to its existing permits with the WVDEP. As a result of those revisions, Coresco could potentially place 2.8 million tons of CCW and refuse waste within the watershed each year. "The report data shows unequivocally that coal ash dumping is destroying these streams," said Richard Webster, an attorney at Public Justice, which commissioned the report. "We're concerned that the WVDEP will allow Coresco to actually expand its dumping operations-when that is the last thing that biologically degraded Crafts Run needs." Webster and Public Justice, along with Mike Becher of the Appalachian Mountain Advocates, are representing the Sierra Club, West Virginia Highlands Conservancy, and Fort Martin Community Association against Coresco. "The Coresco operations are turning the Crafts Run watershed into one large dumping ground for coal waste," Becher said. "This is being done without stringent pollution controls or adequate monitoring, as demonstrated by the report's data." Said Jim Kotcon, Energy Chair for the West Virginia Chapter of Sierra Club, "Coresco is trying to make the claim that dumping of coal ash is somehow a beneficial use. We want Coresco to clean up its pollution and operate the site without contaminating the water. Coal ash has to be handled responsibly and in compliance with the law-or else it endangers public health." A notice letter sent today <http://www.publicjustice.net/Repository/Files/Coresco_Final_Notice_Lett er_17Oct2011.pdf> details the groups' position that Coresco must come into compliance with water quality standards. The letter was written to coincide with a WVDEP hearing tonight concerning Area No. 4-the area into which Coresco is hoping to expand-and states that Public Justice and Appalachian Mountain Advocates plan to file a lawsuit if the stream is not cleaned up within sixty days. "After years of undemonstrated assumptions that dumping coal ash is a good thing, this report finally shows that there are indeed harmful impacts to waters downstream from mine and refuse sites," said Cindy Rank, Mining Committee Chair of the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy. "Expanding Coresco's current coal ash disposal practices will not only further pollute Crafts Run but will also add additional stress to the Monongahela River, a valuable resource for tens of thousands of people all the way to Pittsburgh, Pa." The potential lawsuit would allege multiple violations of the Clean Water Act by both Coresco LLC and Mepco LLC. (All of the waste disposal areas in the Crafts Run watershed are operated by Coresco on Mepco property. Both companies are subsidiaries of a common corporate parent, Mepco Intermediary Holdings.) The lawsuit would also claim violations of the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act (SMCRA) by Coresco solely, and would seek both civil penalties and injunctions compelling Coresco and Mepco to come into compliance with the Clean Water Act, and Coresco with the SMCRA. ### Public Justice is a national public interest law firm that fights injustice and holds corporate and government wrongdoers accountable. See www.publicjustice.net. Deborah Mathis Communications Director Public Justice Foundation 1825 K Street NW Suite 200 Washington, DC 20006 Ph: (202) 797-8600 Ext. 246 Email: dmathis(a)publicjustice.net Web: www.publicjustice.net

1 0

Scientific American: Top EPA scientist and Dunkard Creek
by Jonathan Rosenbaum 16 Oct '11

16 Oct '11

This is an interesting article: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=epa-scientist-points-at-fr… -Jonathan

3 2

Fwd: coal ash meeting in Granville
by Jim Sconyers 16 Oct '11

16 Oct '11

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Petra&John Wood <pbjmwood(a)gmail.com> Date: Sat, Oct 15, 2011 at 9:23 PM Subject: Re: coal ash meeting in Granville To: Betsy Breiding <betsy.breiding(a)gmail.com>, Elizabeth Jaeger < bjaegerart(a)gmail.com>, Laura Blackburn <lmblackburn(a)gmail.com>, michael blackburn <blackb23(a)gmail.com>, Martin Christ <mchrist(a)labs.net>, Dan Wheeler <WheelerD(a)monhealthsys.org>, Dee/Deb <dfvet(a)aol.com>, Eric Hopkins < ehopkins06(a)gmail.com>, Eva Thomas <Eva.Thomas(a)mail.wvu.edu>, Mike Furbee < pmfurbee(a)hsc.wvu.edu>, Gwen Jones <gwenjones23(a)yahoo.com>, Nicole Good < nicolegood.wv(a)gmail.com>, Jean Preckel <jpreckel(a)yahoo.com>, Rae Jean Sielen <rsielen(a)populore.com>, Paul Kinkus <pkinkus(a)comcast.net>, kfurbee(a)yahoo.com, "Kenneth St. Louis" <kstlouis(a)wvu.edu>, George Racin <gracin(a)comcast.net>, adavidroth(a)gmail.com, DaveS(a)labyrinth.net, mulkeenf(a)comcast.net, naoko0607(a)gmail.com, Tom Pue <tpue(a)frontier.com>, Mike Breiding < mike(a)epicroadtrips.us>, Ned Strauser <nestrauser(a)yahoo.com>, James Kotcon < jkotcon(a)wvu.edu>, Jim Sconyers <jimscon(a)gmail.com>, Anne_Hereford < ahereford(a)downstreamstrategies.com>, Evan Hansen < ehansen(a)downstreamstrategies.com>, Pam Kasey <pkasey(a)statejournal.com>, Linda Hagerty <linda.hagerty(a)comcast.net>, Kevin Leyden <kleyden(a)wvu.edu>, "j.or.n" <lynch59(a)frontier.com>, cash <cashvan(a)aol.com>, Betty Wiley < betty.w304(a)gmail.com>, andrew sandy liebhold <aliebhold(a)gmail.com>, leepetsonk(a)gmail.com, Michael Blumenthal <mcblume(a)attglobal.net>, John Souther <possumdee(a)gmail.com>, abyssfish(a)labs.net, "Duane330(a)aol.com" < duane330(a)aol.com>, theresa7700(a)hotmail.com, clock23(a)frontier.com, Cindy Rank <clrank2(a)gmail.com>, Michael Mackert <micmackert(a)frontier.com>, Susan Braidi <susan.braidi(a)mail.wvu.edu>, Peggy Pings <peggy.pings(a)mail.wvu.edu>, Ann Payne <paynestake(a)frontier.com>, chuck coole <chuckcoole(a)gmail.com>, Greg Morgan <cnci(a)mountain.net> just a reminder about the DEP fly ash public meeting on monday, Oct 17 at 6pm. hope to see you there. For information about the 2 sites, the extensive use of ash, and why dumping coal ash is a concern, see : http://www.westvirginia.sierraclub.org/announcements/flyash-northernWV.pdf http://www.environmentalintegrity.org/news_reports/documents/CoalAshMythFac… http://democrats.naturalresources.house.gov/content/files/2011-09-26_LTR_OS… On Tue, Oct 4, 2011 at 10:33 PM, Petra&John Wood <pbjmwood(a)gmail.com> wrote: > WVDEP has scheduled a public meeting to hear comments and answer > questions about 2 Coresco coal ash dump permits near Maidsville across the > river from Morgantown. It will be Monday, October 17 at 6:00 pm at the > Granville Volunteer Fire Department's event hall. The fire dept is on Rt > 100 and the event hall is located across the street and behind some new > construction. > > One permit is a renewal of an existing site of ~140 acres where there is > already some evidence that water contamination is occurring. The second is > a new permit for ~338 acres. > > We hope to get a large turn-out so that we can impress upon WVDEP that many > people oppose dumping toxic fly ash into our environment. We expect the > mining and power company interests will try to pack the room with their > employees. > > -- Jim Sconyers jimscon(a)gmail.com 304.698.9628 Remember, Mother Nature bats last.

1 0

House Passes McKinley's on Coal Ash Biull - Will Cost Lives, Jobs
by Jim Sconyers 14 Oct '11

14 Oct '11

A shameful day for the nation, and especially for us in West Virginia for two reasons: Our own Congressman McKinley, tool of industry, is the author of the bill; and we will bear the brunt of the consequences as northern West Virginia accelerates its status as the nation's coal ash epicenter. ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Jared Saylor <jsaylor(a)earthjustice.org> Date: Fri, Oct 14, 2011 at 2:18 PM Subject: FW: NEWS: House Vote on Coal Ash Will Cost Lives, Jobs To: COAL-COMBUSTION-WASTE(a)lists.sierraclub.org This press statement from Earthjustice on the coal ash vote just went out to about 300 reporters nationwide. _____________________________________________ *From:* Jared Saylor *Sent:* Friday, October 14, 2011 2:16 PM *To:* Jared Saylor *Subject:* NEWS: House Vote on Coal Ash Will Cost Lives, Jobs FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE October 14, 2011 Contact: Lisa Evans, Earthjustice (978) 548-8645 Jared Saylor, Earthjustice (202) 667-4500, ext. 5213 House Vote on Coal Ash Will Cost Lives, Jobs *Neutering EPA’s ability to regulate toxic coal ash serves only corporate polluters* Washington, D.C. – The U.S. House of Representatives voted *267-144* today to pass H.R. 2273, a misguided attempt to neuter the Environmental Protection Agency’s attempt to set the first ever federal regulations on coal ash. Despite evidence showing groundwater contamination from arsenic, lead and other toxic metals at hundreds of sites and a recent study showing that federal coal ash regulations would *create 28,000 new jobs*<http://sei-us.org/publications/id/410>every year, the House voted to put the interests of corporate polluters ahead of the American public. The following statement is from Trip Van Noppen, president of Earthjustice: “Nearly three years after the tragic spill of more than 1 billion gallons of toxic coal ash in Kingston, Tennessee, it’s obvious that federally enforceable safeguards for the disposal of this toxic waste are long overdue. In fact, 267 members of the House of Representatives have taken the disturbing step of moving us even further away from this important public safety goal. “This Congress is turning their backs on what hundreds of communities living near coal ash ponds and landfills really need. Instead, these elected officials are paying attention only to the needs of corporate polluters intent on preserving their old, dangerous way of doing business. Coal ash is a toxic menace. We cannot afford another spill like the one in Tennessee, and the cold truth is that there are dozens of sites that could become another tragedy any day. Moreover, at hundreds of other coal ash sites, drinking water is contaminated with toxic heavy metals that can cause cancer and other disease. “A recent study by *Tufts University*<http://sei-us.org/publications/id/410>found that federal regulations for coal ash could provide 28,000 new jobs every year. At a time when our economy is struggling and so many Americans are out of work and trying to make ends meet, it’s shameful that 267 members of the House are turning their backs on real jobs. Rather than acting to protect America’s health and environment, it’s obvious that some members of Congress are only acting to protect polluter profits.” ####### - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 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: Congress should vote to protect renewable coal ash - The Hill's Congress Blog
by Jim Sconyers 14 Oct '11

14 Oct '11

Breathtaking lies from my/our Congressman. ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Scott Stapf <sstapf(a)hastingsgroup.com> Date: Fri, Oct 14, 2011 at 11:07 AM Subject: Congress should vote to protect renewable coal ash - The Hill's Congress Blog To: COAL-COMBUSTION-WASTE(a)lists.sierraclub.org http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/energy-a-environment/187573-congress- should-vote-to-protect-renewable-coal-ash "Renewable" coal ash!? - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 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: COAL ASH VOTE IN HOUSE TOMORROW (FRIDAY): Still time to make a call!
by Jim Sconyers 13 Oct '11

13 Oct '11

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Lisa Evans <levans(a)earthjustice.org> Date: Thu, Oct 13, 2011 at 8:42 PM Subject: COAL ASH VOTE IN HOUSE TOMORROW (FRIDAY): Still time to make a call! To: COAL-COMBUSTION-WASTE(a)lists.sierraclub.org Dear Friends-- Please remind your Representative to vote to protect health and the environment and OPPOSE H.R. 2273! There is still time to call or email. Urge your congressperson to vote NO on H.R. 2273-- the coal ash bill introduced by Rep. McKinley (R-WV), which threatens the health of thousands of Americans nationwide by allowing states to continue operating leaking and dangerous coal ash dumps without requiring basic safeguards. Please call and email your Representative as early as possible now or on Friday morning. A list of all house offices and environmental staffers is attached to this email. Simply ask your Congressman to stand for pubic health and a safe environment and oppose H.R. 2273. You may wish to tell your Representative that passage of H.R. 2273 will endanger Americans nationwide: -- By allowing the indefinite operation of dangerous coal ash ponds like the one that collapsed in Tennessee in 2008; -- By allowing the continued poisoning of drinking water and fouling of air with ash containing arsenic,hexavalent chromium, lead, mercury and other hazardous metals, and -- By preventing EPA from enforcing safety standards at coal ash dumps and preventing the Agency from ever regulating coal ash disposal in the future. And you may wish to tell your Representative that H.R. 2273 will not increase recycling (because it encourages wet disposal) and will not create jobs. A study released this week by a Tufts University economist concluded that a strong subtitle C coal ash rule would net as many as 28,000 jobs each year. Thank you in advance for making this important call and sending an email to your Representative. Please send this alert to your own lists for maximum impact. Sincerely, Lisa Evans Lisa Evans Senior Administrative Counsel Earthjustice 21 Ocean Ave. Marblehead, MA 01945 T: (781) 631-4119 www.earthjustice.org - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - To unsubscribe from the COAL-COMBUSTION-WASTE list, send any message to: COAL-COMBUSTION-WASTE-signoff-request(a)LISTS.SIERRACLUB.ORG Check out our Listserv Lists support site for more information: http://www.sierraclub.org/lists/faq.asp 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.

1 0

Fwd: Ad Campaign for Marcellus Gas
by James Kotcon 11 Oct '11

11 Oct '11

Please excuse cross postings, I am not sure who is on the Energy Committee list, and I will be using gmail for this action. I have been working with Darla Gage of Growth Media Services on the ad campaign for Marcellus. They are the folks that did the PATH campaign, and Frank is correct, they are a pleasure to work with, and have done a lot on a very short timeframe. (The Marcellus-WV webpage has been a major resource). Below is a discussion of some advertising options. To summarize, newspaper advertising is a blackhole, don't waste your money. TV is good for visuals, but it is hard to motivate action from people once they sit down. A combination of billboards, radio, and internet advertising makes a cost-effective package that can be on-line is a short timeframe. In particular, an internet ad on a newspaper site would allow viewers to click on our link, which could take them to our web page that might direct them to more action. I propose a conference call Monday evening at 7 PM to brainstorm options and get consensus on what to do next. Darla is talking about having a film crew out as early as Tuesday so that material can be up by Sept. 5. Whaddya Tink? Jim Kotcon ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: <darla(a)growthmediaservices.com> Date: Fri, Aug 26, 2011 at 6:52 PM Subject: Ad Campaign for Marcellus Gas To: jkotcon(a)gmail.com Hi there, Ok, I've checked out the website to familiarize myself more with the issues, and I have a few questions/thoughts for you. 1. You mention that you want the campaign to run Sept 5-12. Are you wanting it to run just that week, or are you looking for a more long term campaign? 2. Per our conversation, I understand that this is a public awareness campaign, similar to what we did for StopPATHWV. No politicizing, just making the public aware of the health, ecological and cost issues. The success of the StopPATH campaign relied on the fact that we conveyed the issues without appearing alarmist or radical, just calmly spreading the facts and making the communities aware of the issues. While the power company tried to stop the campaign, they couldn't because the basis of the information was 100% factual. They could not complain that we were crying "Fire" in a crowded theatre. We need to do the same thing here. We need to bring the reality of the situation home, explain the real world impact on their lives...this isn't something taking place halfway around the world, but something that could have an impact on the streams they fish, the water they drink, etc. Lots of different ways this can be done. One thing we would definitely want to show is the impact to the land. If there are any experts we could speak with regarding it, that would be a good option as well. I'll work this weekend on script ideas and avenues to pursue to have the most impact. 3. Given the quick turnaround time, your best bet to reach the most people is probably going to be online. Running a campaign on the Charleston Gazette site is probably a very good idea. (StopPATH got more responses from their video on the local paper's site than from the substantially more expensive local television networks.) The turnaround time for online advertising is also much more in line with the timeline we are looking at. 4. Google is a great fit for this. Placing the ads so that when someone does a search for Marcellus Gas, for fracking, and other critical keywords, they find your ad is a powerful tool. (Irritated Allegheny Power to no end that every time someone searched for Electric Company or Allegheny Power,they got an ad running against them!) Also, these are cost effective. Instead of paying for impression, you pay per response. With traditional media outlets (print, radio, television) you pay every time the ad runs. Through Google, you only pay when people click through to your website for more information. Definitely helps stretch the budget, and can reach ad locations that you couldn't reach on your own. (Google's network partners with major media outlets and thousands of websites to target the ads to the exact market...for example, a client who ran ads for a home show found their ads on HGTV's website. Perfect fit for their market.) 5. Direct mail is ridiculously expensive. Not really an option on this kind of thing. Billboards might be a good option. Affordable and broad reaching. And when done in a way to get their attention and make them think about it, can work well. 6. Radio may also be a good fit. If you do internet ads on the Gazette website, Google video ads and display ads, billboards and a radio campaign, you will have a great coverage area demographically. I need to double check some rates, but we should be able to do anywhere from a 30 day to 90 day campaign on all of these outlets for the budget you allocated. Let me know your thoughts. I know this is a lot of info and may seem like gibberish, so feel free to ask questions. If all of this looks good, I'll put together the official proposal and send it over...and with your go-ahead we'll start on some scripting this weekend. That way we'll be able to present you with an ad campaign on Monday. If it looks good, we'll need to get started first thing next week, in order to have the ads filmed, graphics designed, audio recorded, and everything edited approved and sent to the media outlets by the 5th. Best regards, Darla PS: One more question...need the verbage for the ad disclosure (This ad was paid for by a grant from....etc). To make sure we have all the legal avenues covered. Confidentiality Notice: The information in this e-mail and any attachments may be legally privileged and confidential. It is intended solely for the addressee. If you are not the intended recipient, any disclosure, copying, distribution or any action taken or omitted to be taken in reliance on it, is prohibited and may be unlawful. If you have received this e-mail in error, please notify the sender and permanently delete the e-mail and any attachments immediately. You should not retain, copy or use this e-mail or any attachment for any purpose, nor disclose all or any part of the contents to any other person.

6 7

Re: [EC] U.S. House Passes ALEC-Inspired TRAIN Act
by Paul Wilson 10 Oct '11

10 Oct '11

U.S. House Passes ALEC-Inspired TRAIN Act by Rebekah Wilce On September 23, the House of Representatives passed the American Legislative Exchange Council-inspired "Transparency in Regulatory Analysis of Impacts on the Nation (TRAIN) Act" and forwarded it to the Senate. Read this article on PR Watch at http://www.prwatch.org/node/11039 Please note the attached report came out and February and may have already been passed around. but the ALEC inspired legislation ignores that argument. enjoy, 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

1 0

Bad news - Manchin is happy
by Jonathan Rosenbaum 06 Oct '11

06 Oct '11

Did you see this? http://manchin.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?ID=302a2dba-6628-… and this isn't good either. http://earthjustice.org/news/press/2011/house-votes-to-increase-mercury-pol… -Jonathan

1 0

Fwd: coal ash meeting in Granville
by James Kotcon 05 Oct '11

05 Oct '11

Please review the attached. We want a big turnout. \ Sally, could you forward this to the Mon Group list? Jim Kotcon >>> "Petra&John Wood" <pbjmwood(a)gmail.com> 10/4/2011 10:33 PM >>> WVDEP has scheduled a public meeting to hear comments and answer questions about 2 Coresco coal ash dump permits near Maidsville across the river from Morgantown. It will be Monday, October 17 at 6:00 pm at the Granville Volunteer Fire Department's event hall. The fire dept is on Rt 100 and the event hall is located across the street and behind some new construction. One permit is a renewal of an existing site of ~140 acres where there is already some evidence that water contamination is occurring. The second is a new permit for ~338 acres. For information about these 2 sites, the extensive use of ash, and why dumping coal ash is a concern, see the 3 attachments: -- flyash-northernWV.pdf -- CoalAshMythFactSheetMay10-2010.pdf -- 2011-09-26_MarkeyLtrToOSM.pdf We hope to get a large turn-out so that we can impress upon WVDEP that many people oppose dumping toxic fly ash into our environment. We expect the mining and power company interests will try to pack the room with their employees.

1 0

Fwd: [Mountaintop Removal] Upcoming events to help stop mountaintop removal mining
by Jim Sconyers 04 Oct '11

04 Oct '11

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Dave Cooper <davecooper928(a)yahoo.com> Date: Tue, Oct 4, 2011 at 3:49 PM Subject: [Mountaintop Removal] Upcoming events to help stop mountaintop removal mining To: Mountaintop Removal Road Show list < mountaintopremovalroadshow(a)lists.riseup.net> Friends of the Appalachian Mountains, Here are some big upcoming events and conferences to help stop mountaintop removal coal mining in Appalachia and combat the impacts of climate change - our movement continues to grow and spread and we are now working with allies all across the country. If you want to be a part of the most vibrant, fastest-growing environmental campaign in the country, please join us - and attend one (or more) of these events. The people in this campaign are very friendly and we hope to see you there! All of the information below is also compiled on the Mountain Justice calendar - so if you have trouble with any of these links, try going to: http://www.mountainjustice.org/calendar/index.php and click on the event for more info. ------------------------------ This weekend - Oct 7-9 The Heartwood Reunion, Paoli IN. Workshops, speakers and entertainment in a lovely wooded setting in southern Indiana, about one hour from Louisville. Great food - wonderful place - highly recommended. Camping and low-cost cabins are available. To register or for more info, click here <http://www.heartwood.org/reunion/registration> ------------------------------ Also this weekend - Oct 7-9 The Changing of the Leaves Festival atop Larry Gibson's famous Kayford Mountain near Charleston West Virginia. This is a free event - See mountaintop removal at Ground Zero and hear good old mountain music. Potluck dinner and camping. For more information click here <http://mountainkeeper.blogspot.com/p/outreach.html> - for driving directions, go to google and search for "directions to Kayford Mountain." This is the best place to see mountaintop removal and you can meet the famous "Mountain Keeper" Larry Gibson. ------------------------------ There is also a work party this weekend (Oct 7-9) in Rock Creek, WV to prepare for the upcoming Mountain Justice Fall Summit. Volunteers and tools are needed - If you can help, please email David: mthegorilla(a)gmail.com ------------------------------ Oct 14-16 Mountain Justice monthly meeting in the mountains of eastern Kentucky. We will explore a historic local mining community and go up on the highest mountain in Kentucky. For more info, please email me back davecooper928(a)yahoo.com ------------------------------ Oct 15 - Kentucky Heartwood Benefit Dance, Millville KY (near Versailles and Frankfort) - old time contra and square dancing with live music. More info <http://www.kyheartwood.org/> ------------------------------ Oct 14-15 Kentucky Waterways Alliance Annual Retreat at beautiful Cumberland Falls State Park. More info<http://www.kwalliance.org/AnnualRetreat> ------------------------------ Oct 17-18 - Funeral for the Mountains, Richmond VA. Sponsored by Virginia Sierra Club. Info: glen.besa(a)sierraclub.org ------------------------------ Oct 20-21 - "Rooted in the Mountains" Symposium at Western Carolina University, Cullowee NC will examine the impacts of mountain destruction on communities. More info <http://www.wcu.edu/27734.asp> ------------------------------ Oct 21 - "Women of Appalachia" Conference - Ohio University-Zanesville, OH more info <http://www.zanesville.ohiou.edu/womenofappalachia> ------------------------------ Oct 20-23 - The Appalachian Public Interest Environmental Law Conference (APIEL) Knoxville TN at the UT Law School. This is gonna be big, with well-known speakers and an impressive lineup of noted environmental experts and field trips to learn about the life cycle of coal in Tennessee. Highly recommended. Click here <http://www.apiel.org> for more info and to register. Don't miss this! ------------------------------ Oct 28-30 - The Mountain Justice Fall Summit: Mountain Justice, Coal River Mountain Watch, and RAMPS Campaign are teaming up to present the 2011 Mountain Justice Fall Summit in Rock Creek Hollow, near Whitesville in southern WV. Learn organizing and direct action skills in the heart of the southern West Virginia mountains. See mountaintop removal and meet local West Virginia residents and activists fighting to save their mountains. For more information and to register click here<http://www.mountainjustice.org/> [image: Fall Summit 2011 flier]<http://rampscampaign.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/FALL-SUMMIT-FLYER-001.j…> ------------------------------ Nov 4-6 - The Southeast Student Renewable Energy Conference (SSREC) at UNC-Asheville in North Carolina. Student-run and youth-led. This is always a great conference and a lot of fun. Click here<http://www.climateaction.net/ssrec>for more info. ------------------------------ Nov 11-13 Mountain Justice Annual Meeting. Plans are still in the works, but it will be in Eggleston VA near Blacksburg. Check the Mountain Justice website in a few weeks - we will have more details posted. ------------------------------ Nov 11-13 Kentucky Sierra Club Annual Meeting, Kentucky Dam Village State Park. Great speakers and entertainment again this year. More info<http://kentucky.sierraclub.org/TheCumberland.pdf> ------------------------------ Nov 19-26 - The Caravan in Support of Indigenous Communities On The Front Lines Of Resistance at Big Mountain, Black Mesa, Arizona. We are supporting our friends and allies in the indigenous communities who are opposing the deadly impacts of coal mining. For more information, click here.<http://blackmesais.org/take_action/caravan-of-support-to-big-mountain/> This is a large gathering and an annual event. ------------------------------ Thanks and hope to see you in the mountains! Dave Cooper The Mountaintop Removal Road Show www.mountainroadshow.com This is an informational monthly email about mountaintop removal. To unsubscribe, send a blank email to: mountaintopremovalroadshow-unsubscribe(a)lists.riseup.net Thanks! -- Jim Sconyers jimscon(a)gmail.com 304.698.9628 Remember, Mother Nature bats last.

1 0

Fwd: Scientists: Drilling threat to water
by Paul Wilson 27 Sep '11

27 Sep '11

Please fwd or post to the Fracking Activists. thx, paul ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Fran Hunt <Fran.Hunt(a)sierraclub.org> Date: Tue, Sep 27, 2011 at 7:21 PM Subject: Scientists: Drilling threat to water To: CONS-AWL-RESILIENT-HABITATS(a)lists.sierraclub.org Scientists: Drilling threat to water Municipal systems can't filter chemicals used in hydrofracking process By BRIAN NEARING Staff writer Published 12:00 a.m., Friday, September 16, 2011 ALBANY -- Dozens of scientists, including four from the prestigious National Academy of Sciences, warned Gov. Andrew Cuomo that it will be practically impossible for municipal drinking water systems to protect against chemicals used in natural gas hydraulic fracturing, also called hydrofracking. Their letter to the governor, released Thursday, was signed by 59 experts from 18 states and seven foreign countries, included scientists from Cornell University, the State University College of Environmental Science and Forestry, and the State University at Stony Brook. "We urge the state to reconsider its position that existing water filtration systems provide adequate protection against the risk of hydraulic fracturing, should materials from flow-back fluids migrate to lakes, reservoirs, or groundwater used for municipal water supplies," the letter states. Hydrofracking relies on a high-pressure blend of chemicals, sand and water, injected deep underground to break up gas-bearing shale rock formations. Trucks bring in million of gallons of water as well as heavy equipment to each well. Used drilling water, which can contain benzene and other volatile aromatic hydrocarbons, surfactants and organic biocides, barium and other toxic metals, and radioactive compounds, is later trucked to a disposal site. The state Department of Environmental Conservation, which is considering rules to permit hydrofracking, has vowed that treated wastewater from drilling could be discharged into rivers only after hazardous substances have been removed, spokeswoman Emily Desantis said. The governor's office did not respond to a request for comment. "The state plan will not allow anything to happen in this state that will damage the drinking water supply," said John Holko, secretary and board member of the Independent Oil & Gas Association of New York, an industry lobbying group. One of the letter's signers, Cornell ecology professor Robert Howarth, said the letter was prompted by the state's decision to ban hydrofracking in watersheds that supply drinking water for New York City and Syracuse. Neither system is filtered. "Municipal filtration systems were not designed with such hazards in mind, and the ability of the filtration systems to remove such hazardous substances has received little, if any, study. ... The best available science suggests that some of these substances would pass through the typical municipal filtration system," the letter warned. "If the risk from shale gas is too high for the watersheds of New York City, then it is too high for any of the watersheds in the state," Howarth said. It would be "extremely expensive" to add additional filters that capture hydrofracking chemicals, and Howarth could not point to a single municipal drinking water system in other states where hydrofracking is used that has done so. Reach Nearing at 454-5094 or bnearing(a)timesunion.com. Letter to governor A copy of the letter can be found at the Green Blog: http://blog.timesunion.com/green/ 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 -- 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

1 0

Fwd: An Invitation to Join the Tar Sands Action in DC
by Jim Sconyers 27 Sep '11

27 Sep '11

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Bill McKibben <info(a)tarsandsaction.org> Date: Mon, Sep 26, 2011 at 2:10 PM Subject: An Invitation to Join the Tar Sands Action in DC To: jimscon(a)gmail.com [image: Tar Sands Action]<http://salsa3.salsalabs.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=%2BLJjRzhjTtBBtbmtr6MmCBwgZ…> Dear friends— Once again, we’re sending you another long letter to ask for your help. It’s been several weeks since the last people got out of jail in Washington DC, at the end of two weeks of civil disobedience that led to 1253 brave people ending up in handcuffs to stop the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline. It was the largest such action in decades, and because of their leadership lots has begun to happen. *# *The Dalai Lama and Archbishop Tutu along with seven other Nobel Peace Prize winners wrote a letter to the president asking that he block the pipeline. They acknowledged the actions of those of us in DC, saying: “These brave individuals have spoken movingly about experiencing the power of nonviolence in that time. They represent millions of people whose lives and livelihoods will be affected by construction and operation of the pipeline.” *#* At President Obama’s first public speech since the sit-ins ended, a hardy bunch of University of Richmond students unfurled a huge banner demanding that the president veto the pipeline – followed by similar actions in Columbus, Ohio, Raleigh North Carolina, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Wilmington, Delaware and many many others. *# *Meeting on the Rosebud Sioux reservation last week, Native tribal leaders from both sides of the border and private land owners from South Dakota and Nebraska signed a ‘Mother Earth Accord’ opposing Keystone XL and the tar sands. These are the people who started this fight; and they’re being joined by everyone right down to Nebraska Cornhusker football fans who booed lustily when a Keystone ad showed up on the Jumbotron at a recent game. The next day the university ended their sponsorship deal with Trans-Canada Pipeline *#* Even as we issue this letter, Canadian activists by the hundreds are risking arrest on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, and brave protesters are trying to block shipments of heavy equipment to Alberta from Idaho and Montana–these are remarkable signs of continent-wide protest. *#* And on the not-so-good-side: huge wildfires driven by the worst drought in Texas history have destroyed towns and killed good people; the biggest rainfalls ever recorded have done similar damage in New Jersey, New York, and Vermont. So—there’s real momentum for action, and real need. We have less than 90 days to convince the President not to approve the pipeline. So here’s the thing: we need your help again. We need you to keep using your creativity and bodies as a part of this struggle—to fight this fight even though there’s no guarantee of victory. Here’s the plan, in three stages 1) Most important of all: *On Sunday November 6 we will return to Washington. Exactly one year before the election, we want to encircle the whole White House in an act of solemn protest*. We need to remind President Obama of the power of the movement that he rode to the White House in 2008. This issue is much bigger than any individual person, President or not, and that we will carry on, with or without him. We’re not certain this is the right plan. We don’t know if there are the thousands of people that it will take to encircle the White House—we’ve never tried something this ambitious before. And we worry that it’s too earnest and idealistic—that maybe we should be going back to jail. But unlike last time, this time we’re working from a position of strength, and we can firmly but peacefully remind the president that we were the real power behind his campaign. We’re not expecting any arrests at this action, but we are expecting to send an unmistakable, unavoidable message. *To join the action on the 6th, click here to sign up: ** http://www.tarsandsaction.org/sign-up*<http://salsa3.salsalabs.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=Uctj6LyJlICjqVT0jBc6NhwgZCX…> 2) But we have to start building momentum now with action in our communities. Between now and October 7, the State Department is holding a series of hearings on its flimsy report on Keystone XL. Our colleagues in the environmental movement are doing a good job of organizing for those meetings, including the final one in DC—and we’ll be supporting a rally at the final hearing. *But starting on October 8, we’ll begin a rolling series of actions at key Obama campaign offices around the country.* We want these to be a bit bigger and more serious than what’s come before, so we’ll be doing training and providing materials to folks in those communities. We need to make sure that the message gets through to headquarters that people remember the promises from the 2008 campaign and want them kept. 3) *We need to keep showing up at the president’s public appearances* – just like what’s already been happening on campus after campus, town after town. (We especially like the chant that goes: “Yes We Can…Stop the Pipeline.”). Our organizing team is tracking the president’s every appearance to look for opportunities to act. If the President is coming to your neighborhood, we need you to get his attention. (We’ll help you do that). We’ve already shown we have the courage and the fortitude for civil disobedience.Now we need to mix it up and show a different side of the campaign. Many of us were sincerely moved by Barack Obama’s campaign for president. We’re not yet ready to concede that his promises were simply the empty talk of politicians. We’re not going to be cynics until we absolutely have no choice. It will be a beautiful and brave sight, the White House enclosed by the kind of people that put President Obama there. Since he’s said he’ll make up his mind by the end of the year, now’s the time. We know it’s hard to get to Washington, but if you can: this is the moment. Thank you. A lot. Tim DeChristopher, inmate, Federal Correctional Institution, Herlong California Tom Goldtooth, Indigenous Environmental Network Courtney Hight and Maura Cowley, Energy Action Coalition Jane Kleeb, Bold Nebraska Bill McKibben, tarsandsaction.org Gus Speth, former chair, president’s Council on Environmental Quality Becky Tarbotton, Rainforest Action Network Lennox Yearwood, Hip Hop Caucus Click here to unsubscribe<http://salsa3.salsalabs.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=gC40HvjoKTfWgARMnNJVLBwgZCX…> [image: empowered by Salsa] <http://www.salsalabs.com/?email> ** -- Jim Sconyers jimscon(a)gmail.com 304.698.9628 Remember, Mother Nature bats last.

1 0

3rd Circuit approves Allegheny Forest drilling
by Jonathan Rosenbaum 26 Sep '11

26 Sep '11

The U.S. Forest Service overstepped its authority when it imposed a ban on oil and gas drilling in the Allegheny National Forest, according to a federal appeals court ruling issued last week. http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11269/1177018-499-0.stm?cmpid=newspanel4 -Jonathan

1 0

Fwd: Re: Fw: DEP Public Notice - Informal conference scheduled for Article 3 Permit No. O200709 and
by James Kotcon 23 Sep '11

23 Sep '11

FYI. We need to do some planning on this one. JBK >>> "Petra&John Wood" <pbjmwood(a)gmail.com> 9/23/2011 2:59 PM >>> The new "mining permit (actually for coal ash disposal) is for 337.62 acres for a Coal Refuse Disposal Area under Permit O200709 and is the one we mentioned often in the DC fly in. They are planning to use it as a flyash dump for 35 yrs and permitting it under smcra even though they explicitly stated in their application that no mining will occur (go figure!). We're going to need to get the word out for a lot of people to attend and give comments at the meeting. I'm sure the "other side" will be out in full force. - petra > ----- Original Message ----- From: <dep.online(a)wv.gov> > To: <curt1968(a)comcast.net> > Sent: Friday, September 23, 2011 12:03 PM > Subject: DEP Public Notice - Informal conference scheduled for Article 3 > Permit No. O200709 and Article 3 Permit No. O101593. > >> >> The following was sent to you because you are a >> Member of the DEP Public Notice mailing list. >> ==============================**============================= >> Friday, September 23, 2011 @ 12:03 PM >> ==============================**============================= >> >> The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection, Division of >> Mining >> and Reclamation, 105 S. Railroad Street, Suite 301, Philippi, WV 26416, >> will >> hold an informal conference at 6:00 p.m. on Monday, October 17, 2011, in >> the >> Granville Volunteer Fire Department Social Hall, located on Route 100, in >> Granville, WV. The purpose of the hearing is to allow comments from those >> people having an interest which is or may be adversely affected by the >> Surface >> Mine Application by Coresco, LLC to permit 337.62 acres for a Coal Refuse >> Disposal Area under Permit O200709, located 2.0 miles northwest of >> Maidsville, >> WV in Cass District of Monongalia County and for the Renewal of Article 3 >> Permit Number O101593 to conduct surface mining, coal preparation, coal >> ash and >> coal refuse disposal, located 1.2 miles Northeast of Maidsville, WV in >> Cass >> District of Monongalia County. This meeting is being held in accordance >> with >> Chapter 22, Article 3, Section 20 of the Code of West Virginia. For >> further >> information, contact Permit Supervisor, WVDEP, at (304) 457-3219. >> Reference >> Article 3 Permit No. O200709 and Article 3 Permit No. O101593. >> >> ==============================**============================= >> To view past notices of open public comment periods or to unsubscribe >> from this Mailing List, login at: >> http://apps.dep.wv.gov//**MLists2/ <http://apps.dep.wv.gov//MLists2/> >> >> >> >> >

1 0

FW: Seminar Oct 4th - The Environmental Impacts of Marcellus Shale Gas Extraction
by Grubb, Karen 23 Sep '11

23 Sep '11

Seminar at Fairmont State Biology Program. From: Flood, Mark Sent: Thursday, September 22, 2011 8:48 AM To: Huggins, Pamela; Roof, Steven; Gilberti, Anthony; Yeager, Phillip; Morris, Tony; Grubb, Karen; Trisel, Donald; Magro, Albert Cc: Hemler, Debra; McKeen, Angela; Harvey, Erica; Scanlon, Matthew; Baur, Andreas; Weekley, James; Baxter, Harry Subject: Seminar Oct 4th - The Environmental Impacts of Marcellus Shale Gas Extraction Everyone, Below is the information on the seminar (and the speaker) coming up on Tuesday October 4th at 12:30pm in 305ET. Please pass this along to any interested students. Thanks, Mark The Environmental Impacts of Marcellus Shale Gas Extraction The Marcellus Shale represents one of the largest reservoirs of unconventional natural gas in the world. It holds the potential to provide a source of energy and jobs. It's extraction, however, requires significant land area, millions of gallons of water, toxic chemicals, pipelines, compressor stations and processing plants. The full development of an unconventional gas play can result in habitat fragmentation, ecological damage, and the degradation of water and air quality. The produced water especially, presents a major challenge as it may contain upwards of 350,000 mg/l of total dissolved solids and naturally occurring radioactive materials (NORM). The use of open impoundments for recycling has provided a unique incubator for the enrichment of salt tolerant microbial species. The talk will provide an overview of the processes involved in shale gas extract and their environmental impacts. John Stolz is a Professor of Environmental Microbiology in the Department of Biological Sciences and Director for the Center for Environmental Research and Education at Duquesne University. He studies the microbial metabolism of metals including arsenic, selenium, and chromium. He is currently investigating the environmental impacts of shale gas extraction with emphasis on water issues. He has published 63 journal articles, 30 book chapters, and edited two books. Dr. Stolz has a BS in Biology from Fordham University and a PhD in Microbial Ecology and Evolution from Boston University and was an NRC Fellow at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Cal Tech, and an NSF Plant Biology Fellow at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

2 2

Fwd: Fracking Webinar for Landowners 9/27: Register Today
by James Kotcon 23 Sep '11

23 Sep '11

FYI. From my certifier. Jim Kotcon >>> "Ohio Ecological Food & Farm Association" <oeffa(a)oeffa.org> 9/23/2011 9:58 AM >>> FRACKING AND FARMLAND: WHAT FARMERS AND LANDOWNERS NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE RISKS TO AIR, WATER, AND LAND High-volume hydraulic fracturing (HVHF), also known as fracking, and the impact to farmers and landowners will be the subject of a webinar on Tuesday, September 27 at 6 p.m. This educational session, organized by the Ohio Ecological Food and Farm Association (OEFFA) and featuring analysis by the Ohio Environmental Council (OEC), will provide information to Ohio farmers and landowners about the fracking process and potential environmental impacts. "It's important that farmers understand the risks to their farming livelihood when approached to sign a lease with an energy company," said OEFFA Program Director Renee Hunt. "It is our goal to give farmers the information they need to make informed decisions." "Shale Gas formations underlying farmland are being rapidly explored, as we attempt to satisfy our appetite for energy. Extracting this resource is an energy and resource- intensive process. We will discuss the process and potential risks to the air, land, and water, upon which we all rely," said OEC Agricultural Programs Director Joe Logan. For organic farmers, contaminated soil or water can jeopardize a farm's organic certification status. "OEFFA certifies farms across Ohio and the Midwest," said Hunt. "Before farmers sign on the dotted line, they need to understand the potential risks to their land and their livelihood." This free, web-based seminar will deliver the session through the internet directly to participants' computers. They will be able to view the presentation through their internet browser and listen to the audio portion through a call in phone number or through their computer's speakers. The session will be interactive and allow participants to ask questions and communicate with the presenter. The webinar will be recorded and available online in October. To register for the webinar, go to <https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/608082446> https://www3.gotomeeting.com/register/608082446 For more information, contact Renee Hunt at (614) 421-2022 Ext. 205 or renee(a)oeffa.org. ### The Ohio Ecological Food & Farm Association (OEFFA) is a non-profit organization founded in 1979 by farmers, gardeners, and conscientious eaters who committed to work together to create and promote a sustainable and healthful food and farming system. For more information, go to <http://www.oeffa.org/> www.oeffa.org. The mission of the Ohio Environmental Council (OEC) is to secure healthy air, land, and water for all who call Ohio home. The OEC has a widely respected 40-year history of innovation, pragmatism, and success. For more information, go to <http://www.theoec.org> www.theoec.org.

1 0

Fw: WV News Service- Next Week
by Frank Young 21 Sep '11

21 Sep '11

----- Original Message ----- From: "West Virginia News Service" <wvns(a)newsservice.org> To: "West Virginia News Service" <wvns(a)newsservice.org> Sent: Wednesday, September 21, 2011 4:46 PM Subject: Next Week Hi folks, At the moment next week is all open. Anyone got a story they want to tell? drh

1 0

wind / gas industry alliance?
by Frank Young 19 Sep '11

19 Sep '11

BlankThis could be an interesting potential alliance, politically. Maybe the wind industry could push the gas industry to accept some environmental toilet training, including reasonable regulations. The wind industry is realizing that to be credible in the marketplace of "green energy" it will need to address some of the most deleterious problems identified with wind energy- i.e. bat mortality, intermittency of wind, etc. . http://journalrecord.com/2011/09/16/roth-bode-reaching-out-to-industry-opin… "Last week in a speech to the Natural Gas Roundtable, Bode said opportunities abound for wind and gas to partner. While both are central parts of most utility generation planning, Bode said, they should rely on each other to continue their success."

1 0

Fwd: report on the Facemire protest
by James Kotcon 19 Sep '11

19 Sep '11

See attached report from Denise Binion. Perhaps we need another action, the Marcellus Committee still is not done, and they now think it iwll be November before a special session is called. How about we shift the focus to Tomblin. He is running for Governor this month, and, notwithstanding his Executive Order, he doesn't seem to think this is an "Emergency". JBK

5 5

Fwd: What, Me Worry?
by James Kotcon 19 Sep '11

19 Sep '11

This sentence is starting to hit home with me. JBK "Dozens of scientists, including four from the prestigious National Academy of Sciences, warned NY Gov. Cuomo that it will be practically impossible for municipal drinking water systems to protect against chemicals used in natural gas hydraulic fracturing,...." >>> Betty Wiley <betty.w304(a)gmail.com> 9/18/2011 12:34 AM >>> ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Robert Donnan <redchief7(a)verizon.net> Date: Sat, Sep 17, 2011 at 6:21 AM Subject: What, Me Worry? To: Robert Donnan <redchief7(a)verizon.net> ** *SCIENTISTS: DRILLING THREAT TO WATER* September 16, 2011 - Dozens of scientists, including four from the prestigious National Academy of Sciences, warned NY Gov. Cuomo that it will be practically impossible for municipal drinking water systems to protect against chemicals used in natural gas hydraulic fracturing, also called hydrofracking.**** Their letter to the governor, released Thursday, was signed by 59 experts from 18 states and seven foreign countries, included scientists from **** Cornell** **University**, the State University College of Environmental Science and Forestry, and the ****State** **University**** at Stony Brook.** ** http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/Scientists-Drilling-threat-to-water… **** ** ** ** ** *SCIENCE LAGS AS HEALTH PROBLEMS EMERGE NEAR GAS FIELDS* ** September 16, 2011 – Hydraulic fracturing, along with other processes used to drill wells, generates emissions and millions of gallons of hazardous waste that are dumped into open-air pits. The pits have been shown to leak into groundwater and also give off chemical emissions as the fluids evaporate. Residents' most common complaints are respiratory infections, headaches, neurological impairment, nausea and skin rashes. More rarely, they have reported more serious effects, from miscarriages and tumors to benzene poisoning and cancer. **** ProPublica examined government environmental reports and private lawsuits, and interviewed scores of residents, physicians and toxicologists in four states -- **Colorado**, **Texas**, **Wyoming** and ****Pennsylvania**** -- that are drilling hot spots. Our review showed that cases like Wallace-Babb's go back a decade in parts of **Colorado** and ****Wyoming****, where drilling has taken place for years. They are just beginning to emerge in ****Pennsylvania****, where the Marcellus Shale drilling boom began in earnest in 2008. **** http://www.propublica.org/article/science-lags-as-health-problems-emerge-ne… ****

1 0

Will more turbine blades, but at lower RPMs kill fewer bats & other wildlife?
by Frank Young 16 Sep '11

16 Sep '11

BlankCurrent available information suggests that bats, for example, are more subject to deleterious or deadly interactions with wind turbines on evenings when wind speeds are lowest. On the other hand, a rotor speed of only 3.3 RPMs instead of current rotor speeds of 17-23 RPMs might (or might not) result in a lessening of deadly effects on bats and other wildlife.- Frank ------------------------------------- "A novel turbine design uses two rotors of equal diameter, one each at opposite ends of a nacelle, to capture wind at greater capacity factors than conventional designs can do, say developer Airgenesis LLC (airgenesiswind.com). The developer says the rotors, offset from each other by 60°, will be turning at low speeds of 2.5 to 3.3 rpm, and are capable of producing 51 kW in wind speeds of about 5 mph. With a maximum of 3.3 rpm, it minimizes the possibility of harming wildlife. The low speeds also minimize the danger of ice throws. “All the high rpm speeds are inside the turbine,” explains company spokesman Clayton Troxell. At a wind speed of 15 mph, the design will be producing over 1 MW with a maximum possible output of 10.7 MW at 32 mph." More here: http://www.windpowerengineering.com/design/mechanical/new-thinking-in-turbi…

1 0

Fwd: Coal association says image campaign working in W.Va
by James Kotcon 16 Sep '11

16 Sep '11

I don't have direct data to compare with the polling discussed below, but my gut feeling is that it is probably a pretty accurate description of the 10-year trend here in WV. Jim Kotcon http://www.register-herald.com/todaysfrontpage/x803555653/Coal-association-… The Register-Herald, Beckley, West Virginia September 15, 2011 Coal association says image campaign working in W.Va. By Bill Archer For The Register-Herald BRUSHFORK — The coal industry in West Virginia is doing a better job of telling its story to the public, and Gary White, chairman of the board of the West Virginia Coal Association, has the data to back it up. White, 61, of Logan, who served as the Media Appreciation Breakfast speaker at the Greater Bluefield Chamber of Commerce’s biennial Bluefield Coal Show, was appointed president of International Resources LLC in April. He said that in 2000, the coal industry was “faced with a negative image” and “after much conversation” the coal association decided to move forward to change that image. According to White, the association assessed a “per ton fee” to its membership and hired the Charleston-based public relations firm of Charles Ryan & Associates. After that, White said the association had serious discussions on the topic of making a concentrated effort “to move the needle” on the gauge of public opinion. In 2001, White said Ryan & Associates conducted a baseline poll to determine the public’s perception of the coal industry and found that only 45 percent of the 600 residents polled had a favorable opinion of the coal industry. >From 2001 until 2008, the coal industry’s “level of support” had climbed to 61 percent, with an additional question concerning level of trust that also received a 61 percent favorable response. White said the coal association decided to undertake another study this year to determine its 10-year position. R.L. Repass & Associates Inc. recently conducted the study and determined that the state’s favorable opinion of the coal industry has grown to 74 percent. In addition to the favorable ranking, White told the audience that the coal industry received an 82 percent favorable level of trust response. He added that 82 percent of the residents surveyed believe the coal industry is doing a better job in terms of its commitment to the environment and said that 92 percent of the people surveyed believe there can be a balance between coal mining and environmental regulations. When the coal association started examining its strengths, White said that Warren Hylton said the association had an army to help us. “Warren came up with the idea for the Friends of Coal,” White said. He noted that the Friends of Coal Bowl between West Virginia and Marshall universities continues to serve as a centerpiece of that organization. White added that the Kentucky Coal Association is doing something similar with their University of Kentucky versus Louisville in-state rivalry game. In addition to the Friends of Coal Bowl, White said the highly successful Friends of Coal Auto Show in Beckley that draws 30,000 people annually is also an outgrowth of Hylton’s idea, and added that West Virginia now has 1,000 Friends of Coal license plates. “We got a later start than our friends in Kentucky on the license plates,” White said. “They already have 43,000 Friends of Coal license plates in Kentucky. When people see that, it makes a difference.” Along with Friends of Coal, White said that Arch Coal’s CEDAR (Coal Education Development And Resource) program, as well as FACES (Federation for American Coal Energy and Security) of Coal, makes its presence known at public hearings. He also said organizations like Coal Mining Our Future in Kentucky, and other initiatives including meeting with local clergy, are making a difference. He characterized the Environmental Protection Agency as “the most egregious agency in the (Obama) administration” and urged the people attending the coal show to keep working to promote better understanding of the coal industry. “We can’t just rest on the successes we’ve had in West Virginia,” White said as he toured the 237 exhibitors participating in the coal show. “I think we’ve helped the average person connect the dots. We’ve helped people understand where their energy comes from.” He said that all of the initiatives are making a difference. “We are moving the needle of public opinion in favor of the coal industry,” he said. Following the breakfast, the scene shifted to the National Guard Armory/Civic Center for the formal ribbon-cutting ceremony for the coal show. “We’re doing some positive things in the coal industry,” Bill Reid said as White cut the ribbon to open the three-day event.

3 2

Gubernatorial Candidate Involved in Car Accident with Semi-truck
by Frank Young 15 Sep '11

15 Sep '11

Some of you may have already read or heard that Bob Henry Baber was involved in a traffic accident earlier today. I just spoke with Bob Henry's daughter via cell phone. She says that they are mostly OK, but that the hospital wants to keep Bob overnight for observation. She said that he got a "pretty good" bump on the head, but that the word so far is that the biggest concern appears to be about some possible whiplash. So Bob may be running a little slower in the 3 weeks remaining of this election campaign. Frank Young ---------- Original Message ----- Date: Thu, Sep 15, 2011 at 12:38 PM Subject: re: Gubernatorial Candidate Involved in Car Accident with Semi-truck IMPORTANT UPDATE: While driving on I-79 to Pittsburgh, PA to catch a flight, Dr. Robert “Bob Henry” Baber and his two youngest children, Cody and Jackie, were involved in a traffic accident. A PAVCO semi-trailer truck illegally entered their lane and struck their vehicle with enough force to pin them to the guard rail. The driver of the truck did not stop. He was later apprehended by law enforcement on I-68. Candidate Baber and his children received some injuries (to my knowledge, none are life-threatening) and have been transported to Reuben Memorial Hospital in Morgantown, WV.

1 0

coal euphemism
by Jim Sconyers 08 Sep '11

08 Sep '11

I notice in the NMA blast against the Sierra Club that they have softened "coal-fired" power plants to "coal based." See how much nicer that sounds? -- Jim Sconyers jimscon(a)gmail.com 304.698.9628 Remember, Mother Nature bats last.

1 0

OAG Expo in Morgantown
by Jonathan Rosenbaum 03 Sep '11

03 Sep '11

http://www.wvoilandgasexpo.com/why_morgantown.php As the statewide debate on Marcellus Shale drilling and fracing unfolds, the city of Morgantown has become a central topic of discussion. On June 21, the Morgantown City Council enacted an ordinance banning hydraulic fracturing of natural gas wells drilled horizontally within a mile outside city limits, starting a chain reaction that has spurred discussion statewide, from small towns to the state capital. The West Virginia Oil and Gas Expo will be held at Mylan Park in Morgantown on October 5. While hosting the Expo in the very city that seeks to ban oil and gas operations within city limits may seem counter-productive, there are several reasons why the area is perfectly suited for this event. This could be a great opportunity. Mon General is one of the sponsors. I can fill people in with details if they are interested.

2 1

DEP Public Notice - County - Monongalia - Applicant - Longview Power, LLC - Application No. WV0116238
by Jonathan Rosenbaum 31 Aug '11

31 Aug '11

Am I correct to assume that this permit is well construed? -Jonathan =========================================================== Friday, August 26, 2011 @ 4:04 PM =========================================================== STATE OF WEST VIRGINIA DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION DIVISION OF WATER AND WASTE MANAGEMENT PUBLIC NOTICE WEST VIRGINIA DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION'S, PUBLIC INFORMATION OFFICE, 601 57TH STREET, CHARLESTON SE, WEST VIRGINIA 25304-2345 TELEPHONE: (304) 926-0440. APPLICATION FOR A WEST VIRGINIA NATIONAL POLLUTANT DISCHARGE ELIMINATION SYSTEM WATER POLLUTION CONTROL PERMIT Public Notice No.: L-103-11 Public Notice Date: August 31, 2011 Paper: Dominion Post The following has applied for a WV NPDES Water Pollution Control Permit for this facility or activity: Appl. No.: WV0116238 Applicant: LONGVIEW POWER LLC 306 DENTS RUN RD MORGANTOWN, WV 26501 Location: MORGANTOWN, MONONGALIA COUNTY Latitude: 39:42:39 Longitude: 79:57:25 Receiving Stream: Monongahela River Activity: To operate and maintain a 695 megawatt coal fired power plant in the Morgantown area. Also to operate and maintain a 4,000 gallons per day activated sludge tertiary treatment package plant. The permittee shall operate and maintain a closed system and best management practices from which there will be no discharge of any process or non-process wastewaters (including storm water) to waters of the State of West Virginia. Business conducted: 695 megawatt coal fired power plant. Implementation: N/A On the basis of review of the application, the "Water Pollution Control Act (Chapter 22, Article 11-8(a))," and the "West Virginia Legislative Rules," the State of West Virginia will act on the above application. Any interested person may submit written comments on the draft permit and may request a public hearing by addressing such to the Director of the Division of Water and Waste Management within 30 days of the date of the public notice. Such comments or requests should be addressed to: Director, Division of Water and Waste Management, DEP ATTN: Lori Derrick, Permitting Section 601 57th Street SE Charleston, WV 25304-2345 The public comment period begins August 31, 2011 and ends September 30, 2011. Comments received within this period will be considered prior to acting on the permit application. Correspondence should include the name, address and the telephone number of the writer and a concise statement of the nature of the issues raised. The Director shall hold a public hearing whenever a finding is made, on the basis of requests, that there is a significant degree of public interest on issues relevant to the Draft Permit(s). Interested persons may contact the public information office to obtain further information. The application, draft permit and any required fact sheet may be inspected, by appointment, at the Division of Water and Waste Management Public Information Office, at 601 57th Street SE, Charleston, WV 25304-2345, between 8:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. on business days. Copies of the documents may be obtained from the Division at a nominal cost. Calls must be made 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. =========================================================== To view past notices of open public comment periods or to unsubscribe from this Mailing List, login at: http://apps.dep.wv.gov//MLists2/

1 0

Re: [EC] Facemire protest Sunday
by Chuck Wyrostok 30 Aug '11

30 Aug '11

So excellent you all did this (thank you, DeniseB for the heads-up). And, Jim, thanks for the good rundown of talks. I very much agree with Leslee (below) that at these events we also have people inside as just "everyday people" concerned about Marcellus. I think this is important, as Facemire was quoted as saying "those people out there ought to be ashamed of themselves" on the day of the WV4MoM protest at the capitol....c Chuck Wyrostok Sierra Club Outreach Organizer Toll free 877 252 0257 E: outreach(a)marcellus-wv.com www.marcellus-wv.com -----Original Message----- From: Leslee McCarty [mailto:lesleemac1@frontier.com] Sent: Monday, August 29, 2011 9:59 AM To: James Kotcon; ec(a)osenergy.org Cc: DSGJr(a)aol.com; Chuck Wyrostok; Denise Poole; Denise Binion; peacelovemom(a)gmail.com; garyz(a)wvcag.org; julie(a)wvcag.org; sminney(a)wvrivers.org; jkotcon(a)wvu.edu Subject: Re: Facemire protest Sunday Good for you guys!!!He is quite a talker, though, isn't he? For next time, I would recommend some folks going in civilian clothes with no signs and just circulating among the crowd. Then when you talk to them, you are a noncombatant. Some signs, some civilians? ----- Original Message ----- From: "James Kotcon" <jkotcon(a)wvu.edu> To: "Leslee McCarty" <lesleemac1(a)frontier.com>; <ec(a)osenergy.org> Cc: <DSGJr(a)aol.com>; "Chuck Wyrostok" <wyro(a)appalight.com>; "Denise Poole" <deniseap(a)earthlink.net>; "Denise Binion" <dbinion(a)gmail.com>; <peacelovemom(a)gmail.com>; <garyz(a)wvcag.org>; <julie(a)wvcag.org>; <sminney(a)wvrivers.org>; <jkotcon(a)wvu.edu> Sent: Monday, August 29, 2011 9:40 AM Subject: Facemire protest Sunday As you may recall, Senator Facemire held a picnic in Braxton County Sunday and Gov. Tomblin attended. About ten of us staged a small protest with picket signs, etc., calling for clean air & water, asking the Select Committee to meet, urging Facemire to do his job, etc. Four were from Morgantown, several from the Clarksburg area (Includes Facemire's district, Yeah Denise!!!), a couple from other areas, so a broad representation. (At least 6 of the ten had attended our Marcellus Training Academy in June). No press were in attendance, but it looked like about 100 locals. Our group was not allowed beyond the parking lot, but it still gave us access to a site that everyone had to pass. About half way through the event, Natalie Tennant walked down to talk with us. She indicated she would likely be signing the Emergency rules today, although she stated that they should have been stronger and she was looking to see if there was something she could do (although I think it is unlikely that the Secretary of State can do much other than approve or reject Emergency rules.) We also talked briefly to (or at least talked at) Senator Minard, and a couple other local politicians. As the event broke up, Senator Facemire came down to talk. (Some of us think he was just running interference and creating a distraction to allow Tomblin to escape). He ended up talking for two hours. He certainly wanted us to go away thinking he is our friend, but he really did not promise anything, and never really got out of "campaign" mode. He always had an answer for our points, or else he changed the subject, and he did so repeatedly. He raised a couple of issues worth discussing. 1) The Oil & Gas Inspectors Examining Board was discussed repeatedly. He said the main thing DEP wanted was to be able to move inspectors from mining or water or waste to gas, and vice versa, and Facemire wanted to keep dedicated gas inspectors. I do not think it is a problem to move an inspector from a little used position to one where there is rapid growth. Otherwise, once hired, the inspector will never do anything else, and if the industry slows down, they are sitting around not doing anything. While there should be training requirements, it should not require five years of industry experience to become a gas inspector. 2) Set-backs form houses, etc. Facemire said he did not object to 500 feet, but that the property owner should have the option of allowing it closer in cases where it might lessen the impact. While this seems reasonable, it gives the gas industry a powerful incentive to bully landowners into allowing drilling within the buffer zone. Thus, that provision has the potential to gut the set-back requirement by making it "optional". 3) public notice and comment. Facemire said he had no objection to public notice, but did not think a hearing was needed. I do not think he understood the issue as he said he did not want a comment and hearing process, and preferred to keep permitting the same as for the coal industry. I should have said something like, "If that's your position, we have a deal, because that is all we want too." 4) Facemire repeatedly made the point that the real boost in jobs comes from a cracker plant, and WV has to be producing enough gas to justify that. 5) I asked if there were specific issues in the amendments that the gas industry objected too, and Facemire never really answered that. I said that the gas industry repeatedly said at the Clarksburg hearing that they supported responsible regulations, so what exactly was the objection. Facemire changed the subject. Facemire also repeated the mantra that there has never been a case of fracking chemicals contaminating ground water. He cited the Duke study which identified methane in ground water wells, but did not find fracking chemicals. Conclusions. We agreed to disagree. Facemire stated that he did not think the Committee would meet before interims and that a lot of detailed information needed to be considered, and he would rather have a good bill than a quick one. I stated that I agreed, but that we should stop issuing permits that we know are defective, so if the Legislature established a moratorium, the Select Committee could take all the time they needed to write a good bill. He replied that the staff attorneys had told them that a moratorium would be unconstitutional, and would be thrown out as quickly as the Morgantown ban. Finally, while no minds were changed, Facemire definitely knows we exist, and we will come to his home turf to hold him accountable. I don't think that has happened before. Jim Kotcon

1 0

Re: [EC] Good news!
by James Kotcon 30 Aug '11

30 Aug '11

Note: Most county officials who have experienced Marcellus say those effects were negative. This is not the impression left by the industry or most legislators when they talk about Marcellus. Jim Kotcon >>> Candace Jordan <44ace(a)live.com> 8/29/2011 9:49 PM >>> This is a great new development. Maybe we can work with this committee. http://wboy.com/story.cfm?func=viewstory&storyid=106467#.Tlw50ZRo75g.facebo…

1 0

Re: [EC] Fwd: Ad Campaign for Marcellus Gas
by Frank Young 29 Aug '11

29 Aug '11

So is there a call on this tonight? If so, we need a call in phone number, and code. Frank ----- Original Message ----- From: Frank Young To: Beth Little ; 'James Kotcon' ; ec(a)osenergy.org ; 'Nicole Good' ; 'gwen jones' ; glnelson1(a)frontier.com ; jkotcon(a)wvu.edu Sent: Sunday, August 28, 2011 6:42 PM Subject: Re: [EC] Fwd: Ad Campaign for Marcellus Gas I could do a call Monday at 7:00 PM. Frank ----- Original Message ----- From: Beth Little To: 'James Kotcon' ; ec(a)osenergy.org ; 'Nicole Good' ; 'gwen jones' ; glnelson1(a)frontier.com ; fyoung(a)mountain.net ; jkotcon(a)wvu.edu Sent: Sunday, August 28, 2011 6:32 PM Subject: RE: [EC] Fwd: Ad Campaign for Marcellus Gas This sounds great. I was just musing recently that billboards would be good. The internet ads idea is the reason why we employ an ad agency. They know what to do. I never would have thought of internet ads, but I LOVE the idea of an ad of ours popping up whenever someone googles Marcellus. I can be on a call Monday after 6:00. From: ec-bounces(a)osenergy.org [mailto:ec-bounces@osenergy.org] On Behalf Of James Kotcon Sent: Friday, August 26, 2011 7:30 PM To: ec(a)osenergy.org; Nicole Good; gwen jones; glnelson1(a)frontier.com; fyoung(a)mountain.net; jkotcon(a)wvu.edu Subject: [EC] Fwd: Ad Campaign for Marcellus Gas Please excuse cross postings, I am not sure who is on the Energy Committee list, and I will be using gmail for this action. I have been working with Darla Gage of Growth Media Services on the ad campaign for Marcellus. They are the folks that did the PATH campaign, and Frank is correct, they are a pleasure to work with, and have done a lot on a very short timeframe. (The Marcellus-WV webpage has been a major resource). Below is a discussion of some advertising options. To summarize, newspaper advertising is a blackhole, don't waste your money. TV is good for visuals, but it is hard to motivate action from people once they sit down. A combination of billboards, radio, and internet advertising makes a cost-effective package that can be on-line is a short timeframe. In particular, an internet ad on a newspaper site would allow viewers to click on our link, which could take them to our web page that might direct them to more action. I propose a conference call Monday evening at 7 PM to brainstorm options and get consensus on what to do next. Darla is talking about having a film crew out as early as Tuesday so that material can be up by Sept. 5. Whaddya Tink? Jim Kotcon ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: <darla(a)growthmediaservices.com> Date: Fri, Aug 26, 2011 at 6:52 PM Subject: Ad Campaign for Marcellus Gas To: jkotcon(a)gmail.com Hi there, Ok, I've checked out the website to familiarize myself more with the issues, and I have a few questions/thoughts for you. 1. You mention that you want the campaign to run Sept 5-12. Are you wanting it to run just that week, or are you looking for a more long term campaign? 2. Per our conversation, I understand that this is a public awareness campaign, similar to what we did for StopPATHWV. No politicizing, just making the public aware of the health, ecological and cost issues. The success of the StopPATH campaign relied on the fact that we conveyed the issues without appearing alarmist or radical, just calmly spreading the facts and making the communities aware of the issues. While the power company tried to stop the campaign, they couldn't because the basis of the information was 100% factual. They could not complain that we were crying "Fire" in a crowded theatre. We need to do the same thing here. We need to bring the reality of the situation home, explain the real world impact on their lives...this isn't something taking place halfway around the world, but something that could have an impact on the streams they fish, the water they drink, etc. Lots of different ways this can be done. One thing we would definitely want to show is the impact to the land. If there are any experts we could speak with regarding it, that would be a good option as well. I'll work this weekend on script ideas and avenues to pursue to have the most impact. 3. Given the quick turnaround time, your best bet to reach the most people is probably going to be online. Running a campaign on the Charleston Gazette site is probably a very good idea. (StopPATH got more responses from their video on the local paper's site than from the substantially more expensive local television networks.) The turnaround time for online advertising is also much more in line with the timeline we are looking at. 4. Google is a great fit for this. Placing the ads so that when someone does a search for Marcellus Gas, for fracking, and other critical keywords, they find your ad is a powerful tool. (Irritated Allegheny Power to no end that every time someone searched for Electric Company or Allegheny Power,they got an ad running against them!) Also, these are cost effective. Instead of paying for impression, you pay per response. With traditional media outlets (print, radio, television) you pay every time the ad runs. Through Google, you only pay when people click through to your website for more information. Definitely helps stretch the budget, and can reach ad locations that you couldn't reach on your own. (Google's network partners with major media outlets and thousands of websites to target the ads to the exact market...for example, a client who ran ads for a home show found their ads on HGTV's website. Perfect fit for their market.) 5. Direct mail is ridiculously expensive. Not really an option on this kind of thing. Billboards might be a good option. Affordable and broad reaching. And when done in a way to get their attention and make them think about it, can work well. 6. Radio may also be a good fit. If you do internet ads on the Gazette website, Google video ads and display ads, billboards and a radio campaign, you will have a great coverage area demographically. I need to double check some rates, but we should be able to do anywhere from a 30 day to 90 day campaign on all of these outlets for the budget you allocated. Let me know your thoughts. I know this is a lot of info and may seem like gibberish, so feel free to ask questions. If all of this looks good, I'll put together the official proposal and send it over...and with your go-ahead we'll start on some scripting this weekend. That way we'll be able to present you with an ad campaign on Monday. If it looks good, we'll need to get started first thing next week, in order to have the ads filmed, graphics designed, audio recorded, and everything edited approved and sent to the media outlets by the 5th. Best regards, Darla PS: One more question...need the verbage for the ad disclosure (This ad was paid for by a grant from....etc). To make sure we have all the legal avenues covered. Confidentiality Notice: The information in this e-mail and any attachments may be legally privileged and confidential. It is intended solely for the addressee. If you are not the intended recipient, any disclosure, copying, distribution or any action taken or omitted to be taken in reliance on it, is prohibited and may be unlawful. If you have received this e-mail in error, please notify the sender and permanently delete the e-mail and any attachments immediately. You should not retain, copy or use this e-mail or any attachment for any purpose, nor disclose all or any part of the contents to any other person.

1 0

Facemire protest Sunday
by James Kotcon 29 Aug '11

29 Aug '11

As you may recall, Senator Facemire held a picnic in Braxton County Sunday and Gov. Tomblin attended. About ten of us staged a small protest with picket signs, etc., calling for clean air & water, asking the Select Committee to meet, urging Facemire to do his job, etc. Four were from Morgantown, several from the Clarksburg area (Includes Facemire's district, Yeah Denise!!!), a couple from other areas, so a broad representation. (At least 6 of the ten had attended our Marcellus Training Academy in June). No press were in attendance, but it looked like about 100 locals. Our group was not allowed beyond the parking lot, but it still gave us access to a site that everyone had to pass. About half way through the event, Natalie Tennant walked down to talk with us. She indicated she would likely be signing the Emergency rules today, although she stated that they should have been stronger and she was looking to see if there was something she could do (although I think it is unlikely that the Secretary of State can do much other than approve or reject Emergency rules.) We also talked briefly to (or at least talked at) Senator Minard, and a couple other local politicians. As the event broke up, Senator Facemire came down to talk. (Some of us think he was just running interference and creating a distraction to allow Tomblin to escape). He ended up talking for two hours. He certainly wanted us to go away thinking he is our friend, but he really did not promise anything, and never really got out of "campaign" mode. He always had an answer for our points, or else he changed the subject, and he did so repeatedly. He raised a couple of issues worth discussing. 1) The Oil & Gas Inspectors Examining Board was discussed repeatedly. He said the main thing DEP wanted was to be able to move inspectors from mining or water or waste to gas, and vice versa, and Facemire wanted to keep dedicated gas inspectors. I do not think it is a problem to move an inspector from a little used position to one where there is rapid growth. Otherwise, once hired, the inspector will never do anything else, and if the industry slows down, they are sitting around not doing anything. While there should be training requirements, it should not require five years of industry experience to become a gas inspector. 2) Set-backs form houses, etc. Facemire said he did not object to 500 feet, but that the property owner should have the option of allowing it closer in cases where it might lessen the impact. While this seems reasonable, it gives the gas industry a powerful incentive to bully landowners into allowing drilling within the buffer zone. Thus, that provision has the potential to gut the set-back requirement by making it "optional". 3) public notice and comment. Facemire said he had no objection to public notice, but did not think a hearing was needed. I do not think he understood the issue as he said he did not want a comment and hearing process, and preferred to keep permitting the same as for the coal industry. I should have said something like, "If that's your position, we have a deal, because that is all we want too." 4) Facemire repeatedly made the point that the real boost in jobs comes from a cracker plant, and WV has to be producing enough gas to justify that. 5) I asked if there were specific issues in the amendments that the gas industry objected too, and Facemire never really answered that. I said that the gas industry repeatedly said at the Clarksburg hearing that they supported responsible regulations, so what exactly was the objection. Facemire changed the subject. Facemire also repeated the mantra that there has never been a case of fracking chemicals contaminating ground water. He cited the Duke study which identified methane in ground water wells, but did not find fracking chemicals. Conclusions. We agreed to disagree. Facemire stated that he did not think the Committee would meet before interims and that a lot of detailed information needed to be considered, and he would rather have a good bill than a quick one. I stated that I agreed, but that we should stop issuing permits that we know are defective, so if the Legislature established a moratorium, the Select Committee could take all the time they needed to write a good bill. He replied that the staff attorneys had told them that a moratorium would be unconstitutional, and would be thrown out as quickly as the Morgantown ban. Finally, while no minds were changed, Facemire definitely knows we exist, and we will come to his home turf to hold him accountable. I don't think that has happened before. Jim Kotcon

2 1

letter to McKinley
by Jim Sconyers 28 Aug '11

28 Aug '11

"As discussed, we are currently working to get folks to give permission to include their name and address on our letter to Congressman McKinley requesting an in-person meeting with him BEFORE his bad coal ash bill goes to the floor of the House for a vote." We are planning to ask Congressman McKinley to come to a town hall meeting about his position on coal ash and the disastrous bill he is pushing. We are looking for folks in his district (WV Congressional District 1) who can sign on to the letter asking him for this meeting. Can I add your name? If so, please send me your name and address (verifies to him that you are a constituent) asap = and thanks! -- Jim Sconyers jimscon(a)gmail.com 304.698.9628 Remember, Mother Nature bats last.

1 0

McKinley dirty donations
by Jim Sconyers 27 Aug '11

27 Aug '11

Browsing McKinley's donations. Personal donations of $4800 from Don Blankenship (formerly) of Massey, $4500 from Charlie Hugenard of Longview Power. Not even counting their corporate donations. -- Jim Sconyers jimscon(a)gmail.com 304.698.9628 Remember, Mother Nature bats last.

1 0

Fwd: Tanker accident sends fracking chemical into White Day Creek
by James Kotcon 26 Aug '11

26 Aug '11

I finally checked the link. I especially love the quote from DEP that "the rain assisted in the clean-up" of the spilled oil. Do they wonder why nobody takes them seriously. Nine barrels is something approaching 500 gallons. JBK >>> "Chuck Wyrostok" <wyro(a)appalight.com> 8/25/2011 10:22 AM >>> Chuck Wyrostok Sierra Club Outreach Organizer Toll free 877 252 0257 E: outreach(a)marcellus-wv.com www.marcellus-wv.com _____ From: Jane Birdsong [mailto:birdjra@yahoo.com] Sent: Thursday, August 25, 2011 7:48 AM To: Chuck Wyrostock Subject: Fw: [New post] Tanker accident sends fracking chemical into White Day Creek click on "full story with video on channel 5 news" if you haven't already read/seen it. pretty timely. Hope media keeps covering this story & watches what happens to plant life & aquatic life in the next month. I'll send to legislators. Did I ask you to send me more brochures? can't remember if I did, but I need more. Jane Birdsong Rt. 3 Box 114 Elkins, WV 26241 --- On Thu, 8/25/11, Gas wells on the Monongahela <no-reply(a)wordpress.com> wrote: From: Gas wells on the Monongahela <no-reply(a)wordpress.com> Subject: [New post] Tanker accident sends fracking chemical into White Day Creek To: birdjra(a)yahoo.com Date: Thursday, August 25, 2011, 12:17 AM <http://monongahelagas.wordpress.com/author/prickettsfort/> <http://monongahelagas.wordpress.com/2011/08/25/tanker-accident-sends-fracki ng-chemical-into-white-day-creek/> Tanker accident sends fracking chemical into White Day Creek <http://monongahelagas.wordpress.com/author/prickettsfort/> bj omanson | August 25, 2011 at 4:17 am | Categories: <http://monongahelagas.wordpress.com/?cat=3999036> tanker accident, <http://monongahelagas.wordpress.com/?cat=1151200> White Day Creek | URL: <http://wp.me/p1BiHw-3O> http://wp.me/p1BiHw-3O <http://monongahelagas.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/whitedaycreek.jpg?w=295&h =300#038;h=300> White Day Creek in Marion County A tanker accident in Marion County, WV, in the Monongahela watershed, resulted in a spill of nine barrels of a chemical used in fracking. The chemical spilled onto a road and into a stream which feeds White Day Creek. Residents were warned to keep their animals away from the stream. For more details, see <http://www.wdtv.com/index.php/home/local-news/8488-first-on-5-news-exclusiv e-tanker-truck-spills-chemicals-in-marion-county-stream> the full story with video on Channel 5 News. <http://monongahelagas.wordpress.com/2011/08/25/tanker-accident-sends-fracki ng-chemical-into-white-day-creek/#respond> Add a comment to this post <http://stats.wordpress.com/b.gif?host=monongahelagas.wordpress.com&blog=236 66362&post=236&subd=monongahelagas&ref=&email=1> WordPress <http://s.wordpress.org/about/images/logo-grey/grey-m.png> <http://wordpress.com> WordPress.com | Thanks for flying with WordPress! <http://subscribe.wordpress.com/?key=bf79cf2f7be1987c9e08f67eba28f373&email= birdjra%40yahoo.com> Manage Subscriptions | <http://subscribe.wordpress.com/?key=bf79cf2f7be1987c9e08f67eba28f373&email= birdjra%40yahoo.com&b=Lu31CbgLxvQgH%3DH14Bfe%26L0ac53q%25RvT-ETZVsSgFT.7u%5B zWMl> Unsubscribe | Publish text, photos, music, and videos by email using our <http://support.wordpress.com/post-by-email/> Post by Email feature. Trouble clicking? Copy and paste this URL into your browser: <http://subscribe.wordpress.com> http://subscribe.wordpress.com

1 0

Fwd: Do we have you in our hydrofracking activist database?
by Paul Wilson 26 Aug '11

26 Aug '11

have other folks received this request from the Hydrofracking Team? p ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Sierra Club Activist Network <community.manager(a)sierraclub.org> Date: Thu, Aug 25, 2011 at 7:22 AM Subject: Do we have you in our hydrofracking activist database? To: pjgrunt(a)gmail.com Paul, you have a group bulletin from *Hydrofracking Team<http://connect.sierraclub.org/Team/Hydrofracking_Team> *. *Visit Hydrofracking Team.<http://connect.sierraclub.org/Team/Hydrofracking_Team> * Message:So everyone can find and see hydrofracking activists around the country we have a database so we can keep track of individuals who are working on gas drilling and hydrofracking issues throughout the country. So if you have not done so would you please email Sheryl she7wolf(a)YAHOO.COMto add yourself to the sheet. this way if you are or someone else is looking for someone in a particular state or who is dealing with an issue similar to you, or just looking for other activists in your state you can find them quickly here. So Please contact Cheryl so we can add your name and keep you in the loop Thanks, Dave Meiser ------------------------------ *Visit Hydrofracking Team.<http://connect.sierraclub.org/Team/Hydrofracking_Team> * ------------------------------ Reply? Or other thoughts? If you have questions about the bulletin CONTENT, please visit the group's page and leave a comment<http://connect.sierraclub.org/Team/Hydrofracking_Team>, or contact the group owner. *Technical Issues?* Please reply to this message (or email community.manager(a)sierraclub.org) if you have questions or problems with the bulletin itself. If you want to stop getting email, you can either leave (unjoin) or set your email preferences<http://connect.sierraclub.org/editor/app/group/managegroupmembership.aspx?O…> . -- Paul Wilson Sierra Club 504 Jefferson Ave Charles Town, WV 25414-1130 Phone: 304-725-4360 Cell: 304-279-1361 "There is no forward until you have gone back" ~Buddha "In all things of nature there is something of the marvelous" ~ Aristotle

1 0

Fwd: DEP News - DEP seeking input on Oil and Gas Standards
by Jonathan Rosenbaum 26 Aug '11

26 Aug '11

-------- Original Message -------- Subject: DEP News - DEP seeking input on Oil and Gas Standards Date: Thu, 25 Aug 2011 17:24:03 -0400 From: <dep.online(a)wv.gov> To: <freesource(a)cheat.org> The following was sent to you because you are a Member of the DEP News List mailing list. ============================================================ Thursday, August 25, 2011 @ 5:23 PM ============================================================ The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection is seeking public input on its Well Site Safety Plan Standards and Casing and Cementing Standards that are referenced in the DEP’s Emergency Rule for horizontal drilling, filed Aug. 22 with the Secretary of State’s Office. As part of the rule, all applications for well work permits involving well sites that will disturb three acres or more of surface must include a well site safety plan to spell out what steps will be taken to protect persons on site, as well as the general public and the environment. The plan is to be developed in accordance with standards developed by the DEP’s Office of Oil and Gas (OOG). The Emergency Rule also includes operational rules intended to protect water quantity and quality and instructs operators to construct wells and conduct casing and cementing activities of all horizontal wells in accordance with OOG standards. Public input on the OOG standards will be accepted until Sept. 30, 2011, and can be mailed to the Office of Oil and Gas, 601 57th St., S.E., Charleston, WV., 25304 or emailed to DEP.comments(a)wv.gov. Copies of the OOG standards can be viewed by clicking on the Office of Oil and Gas section on the DEP homepage at: www.dep.wv.gov. As directed by Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin on July 12 in Executive Order No. 4-11, the DEP filed its Emergency Rule to increase regulatory oversight of horizontal well development in the state. ============================================================ To Unsubscribe from this Mailing List, login at: http://apps.dep.wv.gov/MLists/

1 0

FW: We need your input
by Grubb, Karen 25 Aug '11

25 Aug '11

Which of our WV legislators do you consider to be progressive? From: Steven Biel, MoveOn.org Civic Action [mailto:moveon-help@list.moveon.org] Sent: Thursday, August 25, 2011 12:18 PM To: Grubb, Karen Subject: We need your input Dear West Virginia MoveOn member, MoveOn is in the process of ramping up our work on state-level issues, and we'd like your help identifying progressive champions in your state's legislature-the kinds of people we should look to as leaders on key pieces of legislation in the West Virginia state legislature. Click this link to share your input: http://www.moveon.org/r?r=262748&id=30241-17586165-x7Jz_Nx&t=1 Thanks for your help. -Steven, Anna, Michael, Adam Q., and the rest of the team ________________________________ Subscription Management: This is a message from MoveOn.org Civic Action. To change your email address or update your contact info, please visit: http://moveon.org/subscrip/coa.html?id=30241-17586165-x7Jz_Nx To remove yourself (Karen Grubb) from this list, please visit our subscription management page at: http://moveon.org/s?i=30241-17586165-x7Jz_Nx

1 0

Re: [EC] Fwd: Report on Shale Gas
by James Kotcon 22 Aug '11

22 Aug '11

This is from the DOE Shale gas panel that has been criticized as "dominated by industry". While I am not sure that this is entirely valid in all cases, the complaint from the Environmental Integrity Project is that 6 of 7 members have industry ties. When we went to their hearing in Washington, PA in June, they had tipped the industry folks, who got to speak early. They also clearly indicated that their mission was to determine "how" to produce gas safely, not "if" it could be done at all. Josh Fox stated at the hearing that this clearly indicated that the Commission had already made up their minds that drilling was OK, before they even gathered any evidence. We certainly want to support those recommendations such as the need for "green completions", but I think we need to go further and indicate that there should be a moratorium, no drilling permits should be issued until these are written into the rules and there is adequate enforcement to assure that the drilling is done right. JBK >>> Gwen Jones <gwenjones23(a)yahoo.com> 8/21/2011 3:33 PM >>> Okay, the source is : The SEAB Shale Gas Production Subcommittee Ninety-Day Report – August 11, 2011 Executive Summary The Shale Gas Subcommittee of the Secretary of Energy Advisory Board >>> Gwen <gwenjones23(a)yahoo.com> 8/20/2011 7:15 AM >>> Have you seen this? I think we should use some of this in the convio Rodger and I are putting together as well as our letter. Sent from my iPhone Begin forwarded message: > From: "Ted McMahon" <Ted.McMahon(a)NETL.DOE.GOV> > Date: August 19, 2011 1:38:08 PM EDT > To: "Gwen Jones" <gjones2(a)fairmontstate.edu>, "Gwendolyn Jones" <gwenjones23(a)yahoo.com> > Subject: Report on Shale Gas > > A report on recommendations regarding shale gas.

1 0

Fw: Marcellus Shale gas cleaner than coal, CMU study says
by James Kotcon 22 Aug '11

22 Aug '11

Marcellus Shale gas cleaner than coal, CMU study says Saturday, August 20, 2011 By Don Hopey, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Burning Marcellus Shale gas instead of coal to generate electricity could reduce emissions of climate change-producing greenhouse gases by 20 to 50 percent, a recent Carnegie Mellon University study concluded. The study, published Aug. 5 in the peer-reviewed "Environmental Research Letters," also found that Marcellus Shale gas has only a marginally larger greenhouse gas footprint when compared with conventional natural gas production. This was said to be largely due to emissions related to the transportation and treatment of millions of gallons of water used to hydraulically fracture the rock and release the gas. "Shale gas is better than coal when it comes to electricity generation," said Paulina Jaramillo, an assistant research professor in CMU's Engineering and Public Policy Department and one of six authors of the study. "We looked at the life cycle of gas and coal emissions, and even though methane emissions from gas are higher than from coal, the combustion emissions from coal really overwhelm them." The study's findings estimating the life cycle greenhouse gas emissions of the two fossil fuels is different than a Cornell University study in April that said shale gas methane emissions are as harmful or more harmful than carbon dioxide emissions from coal combustion. But the Cornell study uses different assumptions for drilling, fugitive gas emissions and power plant combustion efficiencies. It's also based on a 20-year global warming potential for greenhouse gas emissions instead of the CMU study's 100-year time frame. Ms. Jaramillo said the shorter time frame of the Cornell study gives more weight to methane emissions, reducing the environmental advantage of gas as a fuel. Carbon dioxide emissions can stay in the atmosphere 10 times as long as methane, but methane can have more of an effect in the short term. The CMU study's wide range of emissions reductions from Marcellus -- between 20 and 50 percent -- was necessary, Ms. Jaramillo said, because of the uncertainty of how much gas each Marcellus well will produce during its lifetime. If per-well gas production is lower, that means higher amounts of emissions per unit of gas produced. Methane emissions from Marcellus well development could be significantly reduced, the study said, if drilling companies captured the gas from completed wells instead of flaring or venting it. And flaring is better than venting, because it reduces the amount of methane released directly into the atmosphere, Ms. Jaramillo said. The natural gas drilling industry touted the CMU study, claiming it refuted the Cornell study findings. Lou D'Amico, president and executive director of the Pennsylvania independent Oil and Gas Association, said in an email that the CMU study "documents the significant environmental advantage of Marcellus Shale gas over coal," adding that the Cornell study was "rife with inaccuracies." But Deborah Nardone, Natural Gas Reform Campaign director for the Sierra Club, which provided partial funding for the CMU study, said the key points of the two studies compliment one another. "The CMU study says we need to control fugitive emissions and that methane from natural gas production is a potent greenhouse gas that needs to be controlled," Ms. Nardone said. "Natural gas is not the panacea the industry claims it is. It has a role as we transition into renewable energy sources, but it still has problems." The Sierra Club's national energy policy goal is to develop and use as little natural gas as possible, and it notes that while natural gas is cleaner than other fossil fuels, it isn't clean. According to the CMU study, development and completion of a typical Marcellus Shale well results in methane emissions the equivalent of 5,500 tons of carbon dioxide. Ms. Jaramillo said the comparisons of the Cornell and CMU findings are distracting from more important questions about water supply and quality, wastewater disposal and pipeline infrastructure construction. "Those discussions are going to be more critical to Marcellus development," she said. "The study found Marcellus gas development is not as bad as coal and is not much different than conventional natural gas. So let's not base development decisions on greenhouse gas emissions." Don Hopey: dhopey(a)post-gazette.com or 412-263-1983. First published on August 20, 2011 at 12:00 am

1 1

Re: [EC] CRS analysis of EPA regs on coal powerplants
by Paul Wilson 21 Aug '11

21 Aug '11

Greetings: there is an article on the Washington Post website about the Congressional Research Service's analysis on new EPA regs on coal-fired powerplants, of which some Congressional representatives are voicing some unhappiness(!). I have also attached the CRS report. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/post/getting-ready-for-a-wav… best regards, 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

1 0

Fwd: 401 State Certification for Coresco LLC coal ash landfill
by James Kotcon 20 Aug '11

20 Aug '11

By way of background, Coresco currently operates a coal ash dump on a mine next to the Longview power plant. They had proposed a significant expansion of that landfill in 2009, which they call "Disposal Area # 4". This 401 certification appears to be for that expansion (see attached May 12, 2011 comments on the 401 certification). But that permit appears to be stalled, so Coresco is also asking for a 1-year extension under their existing mining permit for Area #3 (see attached comments on Renewal of Permit # O101593, June 22, 2011). I received a nearly verbatim copy of a similar letter from DEP as the attached letter to John and Petra Wood (see pdf). DEP issued the 401 certification for the Coresco ash dump permit on August 10. Would this require a mining permit appeal, to the Surface Mine Board, or a water permit appeal to EQB, or do we wait for the 404 permit from the Army Corps? The critical paragraph from WV-DEP says: "Coresco, LLC provided a no practical alternative demonstration and compensatory mitigation plan that were reviewed and accepted by DEP personnel. Pending NPDES modification number 26 on NPDES WV1992619 will address compliance with any potential pollutants associated with the proposed activity. Groundwater monitoring sites are proposed in Coresco's pending article 3 application (O200709) to ensure compliance with groundwater monitoring requirements. Rates of coal ash application will be reviewed within the pending article 3 application." I think what they are saying is that they have decided to approve this 401 certification for Area #4 and won't really consider our issues until they get around to approving the Area # 4 permit (referred to as the Modification # 26 permit). Our comments on the application for Mod # 26 were submitted almost two years ago, and there does not seem to be any timetable for issuing that permit. In the mean time, Coresco continues to dump ash under their existing permit, and the DEP is looking the other way. This is particularly critical timing because the permit for the existing Area # 3 expires soon, and if that extension is delayed, it might affect operations of several nearby coal-fired power plants as they may not have a place to dump ash. We have until Sept. 1 to appeal. What should we do? Jim Kotcon 304-293-8822 (office) 304-594-3322 (home) >>> "Petra&John Wood" <pbjmwood(a)gmail.com> 8/18/2011 11:07 PM >>> We just got the attached 15 day notice today. I assume you got the same thing, Jim. The letter implies that Coresco's Coal Refuse Area #4 SMCRA permit (O200709) will be issued very soon. This is probably a stretch, but I wondered if the federal court consent decree requiring DEP to treat water at AML sites ( http://wvgazette.com/static/coal%20tattoo/specialrecsettlementsoutherndistr…) might have any influence on either the 401 certification or the SMCRA permit? Of the AML sites listed at the end of the decree, I believe that site 34-81 (S003481) is closely associated with the Maidsville Complex (see http://apps.dep.wv.gov/WebApp/_dep/search/Permits/OMR/Permit_details.cfm?pe…). If the 401 permit gives Coresco a green light to cover this AML site with coal ash, would DEP still be responsible for treating the AMD coming from S003481? We have a similar situation next to us at the New Hill West permit (S200909) with AML site S101189. The S200909 permit, which was issued last September but has been on hold thanks to the WV1017535 NPDES Mod #9 appeal, would allow Patriot Mining Company to cover the S101189 AML site with additional overburden and fly ash (via expansion of a sidehill fill). Any chance that the federal court consent decree could overrule the S200909 mining sequence plan? John On Fri, Jun 10, 2011 at 10:52 AM, Petra&John Wood <pbjmwood(a)gmail.com>wrote: > Hopefully these documents may help answer your question: "Does the General > Permit have any provisions stating that it cannot be used where the stream > is already overloaded with pollution?" > > > http://www.dep.wv.gov/WWE/Programs/nonptsource/streamdisturbance/Documents/… > > > > http://www.dep.wv.gov/dmr/dmr%20forms/Documents/MR4C-Incidental%20Coal%20Re… (The > application form: Page 13 refers to water quality and the "Probable > Hydrologic Consequences" of the operation) > > There's also this, but it specifically says it's for "Non Coal Related > Facilities". > > > http://www.lrp.usace.army.mil/or/or-f/Individual%20Water%20Quality%20State%… > > > FYI, I've sent you these files before... > > Pages 8-20 of Permit Application (0003).pdf includes the Coresco's > Probable Hydrologic Consequences statement from the O-1015-93 permit > application. > > Attachment J-6.doc is Coresco's Probable Hydrologic Consequences > statement from the O-2007-09 permit application. > > > On Fri, Jun 10, 2011 at 9:31 AM, James Kotcon <jkotcon(a)wvu.edu> wrote: > > >> This appears to be the same one that I got with a comment deadline last >> month (May 14). Attached are the comments I submitted then, along with the >> location map. >> >> I have a copy of the application as of that date. If it has been modified >> since then, let me know and I can prepare follow-up comments accordingly. >> If it was not modified, could someone explain why they are re-advertising >> this? >> >> JBK >> >> P.S. When I called in response to the last legal ad, DEP staff in >> Phillipi were unaware of the ad and implied that there had been no new >> activity for some time. But I eventually got a copy of the application and >> the ad was included. >> >> >>> "Evan Hansen" <ehansen(a)downstreamstrategies.com> 6/9/2011 2:16 PM >>> >> >> Is this the same site? >> >> Evan Hansen, President >> Downstream Strategies >> 219 Wall Street >> Morgantown, WV 26505 >> 304.292.2450 >> www.downstreamstrategies.com >> >> >> -----Original Message----- >> From: dep.online(a)wv.gov [mailto:dep.online@wv.gov] >> Sent: Thursday, June 09, 2011 1:38 PM >> To: ehansen(a)downstreamstrategies.com >> Subject: DEP Public Notice - County - Monongalia - 401 State Certification >> - Coresco LLC >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> The following was sent to you because you are a >> Member of the DEP Public Notice mailing list. >> =========================================================== >> Thursday, June 9, 2011 @ 1:38 PM >> =========================================================== >> >> 401 STATE CERTIFICATION ADVERTISEMENT >> (EACH BLANK MUST BE FILLED IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE 401 APPLICATION >> INSTRUCTIONS) >> ADVERTISEMENT >> Notice is hereby given that CORESCO LLC 308 DENTS RUN RD, MORGANTOWN, WV >> 26501 >> has submitted an application for State Certification as required by >> Section 401 >> of the Clean Water Act to the Department of Environmental Protection, 105 >> S >> Railroad St, Philippi WV 26416-1150. The activity is authorized by the >> U.S. >> Army Corps of Engineers General Permit No: 2008-2386 which covers SURFACE >> COAL >> MINING OPERATIONS Discharges of dredged or fill material into waters of >> the >> United States. Discharges of dredged or fill material into waters of the >> United >> States impact acres of palustrine wetlands of the Crafts Run Watershed and >> is >> located 2 miles northwest of Maidsville, in Cass of District of Monongalia >> County, Longitude 79 o 58 ' 07 " and Latitude 39 o 42 ' 25 " (Coordinates >> from >> USGS Topographic Map). >> Pursuant to Section 401 of the Federal Clean Water Act, the State may, >> either >> certify, certify with conditions, deny or waive certification that the >> proposed >> activity will comply with Sections 301, 302, 303, 306 and 307 of the >> Federal >> Clean Water Act and other appropriate requirements of State Law. When >> issuing >> certification, the \/INDEP may considered the proposed activity's impact >> on >> water resources, fish and wildlife, recreation, critical habitats, >> wetlands and >> other natural resources under its jurisdiction . >> Legislative rules governing the scope of the Department's certification, >> public >> comment, hearing and appeals are in Title 47, Series 5A. Comments on the >> proposed certification or requests for a public hearing shall be in >> writing and >> if a public hearing is requested shall state the nature of the issues >> proposed >> to be raised in the hearing. Such written comments or requests should be >> sent >> to the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) at the address above, >> and >> must also reference the Article 111 \/INNPDES permit number shown above. >> Comments received by or thirty (30) days from date of publication, will >> be >> considered. >> DEP Telephone No. 304-457-3219 Article 111NPDES Permit No. WV1002619 >> LOCATION MAP >> Each ad must include a clear and accurate location map of a scale and >> detail >> found in the West Virginia General Highway Map. The map size must be at a >> minimum four (4) inches by four (4) inches with thefollowing shown on the >> map: >> 1. Clearly define the approximate limits of the proposed permit area. >> 2. Longitude and latitude lines must cross at or near the center of the >> proposed permit area. >> 3. A north arrow must be shown. >> 4. A map to scale. >> 5. District{s). >> 6. County(ies). >> https://apps. >> >> >> >> =========================================================== >> To view past notices of open public comment periods or to unsubscribe >> from this Mailing List, login at: >> http://apps.dep.wv.gov//MLists2/ >> >> >> >> >> > >

1 0

WVDEP report
by Jim Sconyers 15 Aug '11

15 Aug '11

I assume that Randy Huffman's report released today is designed to do one or both of the following: 1- Boost Tomblin's campaign (not that he needs it). 2- Weaken arguments for needed regulation. And of course to hear him say we have all the framework we need to protect the environment - laugh till you cry. -- Jim Sconyers jimscon(a)gmail.com 304.698.9628 Remember, Mother Nature bats last.

1 0

Channel 3 TV poll about MTR
by Frank Young 14 Aug '11

14 Aug '11

Please vote. We need a boost. Thanks. Frank Young ----- Original Message ----- From: Nanette Nelson To: fom Sent: Sunday, August 14, 2011 10:47 AM Subject: [fom] http://www.wsaz.com/pollsPoll WSAZ is running a poll about MTR. Please go and vote! http://www.wsaz.com/polls

1 1

Fwd: Our Economy may be Vulnerable to Coal and Oil Trends
by Paul Wilson 12 Aug '11

12 Aug '11

fyi, paul ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: <frankzas(a)aol.com> Date: Fri, Jul 8, 2011 at 12:25 PM Subject: Our Economy may be Vulnerable to Coal and Oil Trends To: pjgrunt(a)gmail.com Hi Paul, Some new facts on coal. I'm a Sierra Club volunteer in Michigan. frank If these trends continue, the *economy of many states and the entire US may be at risk because of our over-reliance on coal to generate electricity*. The following are details I researched. Feel free to use them. *Disturbing Coal Facts and Trends, June 2011* *1. The Delivered Price of Coal Increased Three Times Faster Than Inflation in Past 5 Years * * * *2. Cost of Transporting PRB Coal is Three Times Greater than Its Mining Costs * * * *3. Oil Has Twice the Impact of Mining on the Cost of Delivered PRB Coal * * * *4. States Dependent on Coal Had the Highest Electricity Price Increases in Past 5 Years* * * *5.* *US** Coal Mining Productivity Peaked in 2000 and Declined 20% Since* * * *6. Other Cost Pressures on Coal * * * *1. The Delivered Price of Coal Increased Three Times Faster Than Inflation in Past 5 Years * · A common measure of the price of coal delivered to US utilities in dollars per million Btu (MMBtu) to account for the different coal Btu values. · Over the past *5 years*, the average delivered price of coal to US utilities increased 54% from $1.53 in 2005 to $2.35 in March 2011. US inflation increased just 15% during the same period. http://www.eia.gov/cneaf/electricity/epm/epm_sum.html Table 4.2 http://www.usinflationcalculator.com/ · In the past *10 years*, the delivered price of coal increased 96% from $1.20 in 2000 to $2.35 in March 2011. The US inflation increased was 30% during this time · The March year-to-date 2011 price of delivered coal rose 3% from the same period last year in MMBtu ($2.35 from $2.27) and in dollars per ton ($46.51 from $45.09). http://www.eia.gov/cneaf/electricity/epm/epm_sum.html#one Table 4.2 · Some Midwestern states had much higher increases 1st Q 2011 vs. 1 st Q 2010: Michigan +18%, Indiana +14%, Wisconsin +20%. http://www.eia.gov/cneaf/electricity/epm/epm_sum.html#one Table 4.10 A and B (It is assumed all cost increases will be passed on to electric ratepayers.) *2. Cost of Transporting PRB Coal is Three Times Greater than Its Mining Costs * · The price of Powder River Basin (PRB) coal from Wyoming has fluctuated from roughly $7 a ton to $20 a ton in the past 10 years. · In June 2011, the mine mouth price of PRB coal price was stable at $12.40 - $13.00/ton. · The rail rate for shipping PRB coal in 2010 is estimated to be 2.1 cents per ton per mile. http://www.jacksonkelly.com/jk/pdf/USCoalMarketsHeller.pdf Slide 26 · Assuming PRB coal is shipped (rail and boat) 1,600 miles to Midwestern utilities; the cost of transportation alone is $36 (a 2011 estimate). · Add the $12 PRB price to $36 transportation charges results in a delivered price of approximately $48.00 per ton. $36 divided by $48 = *75%*. · The cost of PRB coal mine mouth is only 25% of the price of * delivered* coal. This estimated transportation charge could be well underestimated. It does not reflect new 2011 contacts, recent diesel price increases and Burlington Northern’s attempt to recoup Warren Buffett’s overpayment for the purchase of all BN stock in 2010. Only two rail lines ship PRB coal out of Wyoming, Burlington Northern and Union Pacific. They share the “Joint Line” which runs parallel to the Powder River Basin (almost a monopoly?). This is the busiest 100 miles of track in the world, carrying 130 trains per day. *3. Oil Has Twice the Impact of Mining on the Cost of Delivered PRB Coal * · It is estimated that the price of diesel fuel accounts for half of the price of coal transportation · The estimated $18 cost of oil (half of the $36 transportation charge per ton) is 50% greater than the cost of PRB coal cost of $12 per ton. · Plus, oil can be 17%+ of the cost of coal mining. http://biz.yahoo.com/e/110225/cld10-k.html · The EIA conservatively forecasts the price of oil will increase roughly 3% a year faster than inflation (Inflation +2% a year, oil an additional +3%, equals +5% a year increase in the price of oil). Essentially, the price of delivered coal may increase at a rate much faster that of inflation http://www.eia.gov/oiaf/aeo/tablebrowser/#release=AEO2011&subject=0-AEO2011… http://www.eia.gov/forecasts/aeo/source_oil.cfm *4. States Dependent on Coal Had the Highest Electricity Price Increases in Past 5 Years* · The retail price of electricity in the US increased 22% over the past five years ( from 8.1¢ in 2005 to 9.9¢ in 2010) · However, two regions very dependent on coal (and located further from PRB), saw their electric bills increase the most since 2005. East South Central (TN KY MS AL) saw their rates increase 34% (from 6.14¢ to 8.21¢) and East North Central (MI OH IN IL WI) had a 32% increase (from 6.87¢ to 9.09¢) · Regions less dependent on coal experienced smaller than average electric price increases. For example, Pacific coast +17% and West South Central (TX AR LA OK) +3%. http://www.eia.gov/emeu/steo/pub/cf_query/index.cfm http://www.eei.org/ourissues/ElectricityGeneration/FuelDiversity/Documents/… *5.* *US** Coal Mining Productivity Peaked in 2000 and Declined 20% Since* · According to the Energy Information Administration (EIA), improved mining technology and the shift toward more surface-mined coal promoted dramatic improvement in productivity from the Nation's mines from 1978 through 2000 when an average 7.0 tons of coal was produced per employee per hour. · Since 2000, productivity has declined in most years to an average of 5.6 tons per person in 2009. http://www.eia.gov/totalenergy/data/annual/pdf/perspectives_2009.pdf Figure 40. · This 20% productivity decline happened in spite of improved technology, cost cutting efforts and more strip mining. · The biggest productivity decline, a 5.9% drop, occurred from 2008 to 2009 (the last year reported) · 2009 coal mining productivity dropped in all parts of the US especially for Western coal which dropped 9%. Of note: PRB surface mining productivity declined 7.5%, and Montana surface mining dropped 10.4%. http://www.eia.gov/cneaf/coal/page/acr/table21.html · Most of the PRB coal mining productivity decline probably can be attributed to increasing overburden (the amount of dirt and rock above the coal seam). It appears the typical PRB overburden is about 200 feet thick and doubling to about 400 feet thick in 8 years – a productivity killer. http://www.blm.gov/pgdata/content/wy/en/info/NEPA/documents/cfo.html *6. Other Cost Pressures on Coal * In addition to declining productivity and escalating delivery costs, there are other reasons the price of coal could continue to rise at a fast past: · US coal exports are increasing and putting upward pressure on coal prices. Exports of steam and metallurgical coal increased 38% in 2010. The largest export increase was to Asia (+176%) and particularly China (+400%) http://www.eia.gov/cneaf/coal/quarterly/html/t7p01p1.pdf · China and India are buying US coal mines and a new *coal-export port facility on the US West Coast*** · As Appalachian coal fields are depleted, Eastern and Midwestern utilities are increasing their purchase of PRB coal. The increased demand will put upward pressure on the price of PRB coal and will also further increase rail congestion and costs for coal shipments. · The total cost of coal generation must include the damage caused by coal mining, burning and ash. These externalities include damaged health, premature death, lost productivity and damage to our environment. A Harvard study estimated these costs are an additional 17.84¢/kWh. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1749-6632.2010.05890.x/full · There is pressure to fund coal to liquid programs. Recently proposed GOP legislation includes a requirement that the Defense Department construct and operate a coal-to-liquids plant. http://thehill.com/blogs/e2-wire/677-e2-wire/164609-navy-on-coal-to-liquids… · Utilities planning to burn *petroleum coke* need to consider that the price of delivered petroleum coke has increased 38% from 2009 to 2010 and increased 56% in the first quarter 2011 compared with the same period last year. At $3.09 per MMBtu, pet coke is even less of a value than March 2011 coal at $2.35 per MMBtu. http://www.eia.gov/cneaf/electricity/epm/epm_sum.html Table 4.12.B Helping to somewhat reduce demand for coal and cost pressures are: · Some utilities may close coal plants to avoid increasing SO2, NOx, mercury and other pollutant compliance costs · Environmentally progressive companies like Johnson Controls, Haworth, Steel Case and Wal-Mart have set high goals to reduce their carbon footprint. This will require their electric suppliers to produce less electricity using fossil fuels and more from renewable sources. If these trends continue, the economies of many states (and the US) will be at a disadvantage because of our over-reliance on coal to generate electricity. This argues for more energy efficiency, renewable energy and natural gas generation to diversify their fuel supplies. We have too many eggs in one basket. Frank A. Zaski 30310 Cheviot Hills Dr. Franklin, Mi. 48025 248 855 5018 frankzas(a)aol.com Concerned citizen, former member of the 21st Century Energy Plan Energy Efficiency Work Group, Michigan Climate Action Committee RCI TWG and the Midwest Governor's Association Renewable Energy Advisory Group. -- 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

1 0

Fwd: EPA article
by Jim Sconyers 11 Aug '11

11 Aug '11

So it's not the fracking, it's the drilling and casing and cementing - which are what's done so the fracking can happen. All part of the same process. ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Amanda Pitzer <amanda(a)cheat.org> Date: Thu, Aug 11, 2011 at 9:58 AM Subject: EPA article To: Deb Fulton <dfvet(a)aol.com>, Duane Nichols <Duane330(a)aol.com>, "Donald C. Strimbeck" <dcsoinks(a)comcast.net>, Constance Miller <calm9654(a)gmail.com>, Jim Sconyers <jimscon(a)gmail.com> ** Inside EPA - 08/12/2011 DOE Panel Doubts Fracking's Groundwater Risks, Deflating EPA Rule Push Posted: August 10, 2011 An Energy Department (DOE) advisory panel is slated to release recommendations for mitigating environmental and safety risks associated with hydraulic fracturing in a report expected to raise doubts that the practice's injection process poses significant risks to groundwater, deflating calls for EPA regulation under the drinking water law. But the panel's report is expected to recommend expanded disclosure practices for both chemical constituents of fracking fluid and drilling wastewater as well as pre- and post-drilling monitoring of groundwater at well sites, according to sources familiar with the recommendations. The report is also expected to recommend formation of a federal interagency effort to better analyze the greenhouse gas life cycle of shale gas operations in comparison to coal and other fuels. That approach that could address uncertainty of shale gas' carbon footprint in the wake of a recent study that suggested that methane releases from fracking operations may create a larger carbon footprint than coal. The recommendations are contained in a draft report from the Secretary of Energy Advisory Board (SEAB) panel, which is slated Aug. 11 to release the report detailing immediate measures for mitigating safety and environmental risks associated with hydraulic fracturing. The full SEAB is expected to review the panel's draft report on Aug. 15. A second report is due out in three months on best practices for mitigating risks. While the panel's report is expected to detail potential risks to groundwater from drilling, casing and cementing the wells, one source familiar with the report says that a "key takeaway" from the recommendations is that the panel found that groundwater contamination risks associated with fracking are "remote." "Contrary to the conventional wisdom, it's the drilling, and the cementing and the encasing process" that follows the fracking itself which poses the groundwater risk, the source says. "We think the target is mis-aimed." The panel's finding is likely to inflame environmentalists seeking strict EPA regulation of the injection practice under the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA). A coalition of groups sent an Aug. 8 letter to President Obama urging him to use "any legal means" to block fracking operations. And the Environmental Working Group Aug. 3 released a report detailing one case, documented in a 1987 EPA report to Congress, that showed groundwater contamination from fracking injection (*Inside EPA*, Aug. 5). The panel's conclusions on risks from the fracking process could be significant for EPA as well as the agency is in the midst of a massive two-year study into the drinking water risks posed by fracking operations and is also working to craft a host of policies to address, and in some cases, to permit fracking operations. Fracking refers to the process of injecting water, sand and chemicals into horizontal wells to free trapped reserves of natural gas and oil found in deep underground shale formations. Increased use of the practice has brought huge new supplies of natural gas to power-generation markets as a cleaner-burning alternative to coal. The injection process itself, which industry argues has been practiced safely for more than 60 years, has become a flashpoint in the debate over shale gas regulation, in large part because Congress largely exempted the practice from EPA's SDWA regulation. But environmentalists are seeking to restore EPA's authority, arguing that the technological advances that have allowed the tapping of previously unattainable supplies also require unprecedented quantities of harmful injection fluid and the horizontal drilling techniques endanger groundwater. Environmentalists and many Democrats have increasingly called for Congress to restore EPA's regulatory authority by removing language contained in the 2005 energy law which prohibits EPA from regulating fracking injections under SDWA's underground injection control program. Earlier this year, Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA) introduced legislation that would remove the exemption and allow EPA to regulate it. But the legislation is unlikely to move and EPA is developing a host of water, waste and other policies under existing authorities to address the issue. *The sources familiar with the DOE advisory report say that while it does not specifically* address regulations that DOE, EPA and other agencies should adopt, the first source notes that a number of the suggestions are clearly "relevant" to regulators. A second source familiar with the recommendations say they should help to get "past rhetoric and on to problem solving." For instance, the report is expected to suggest a broader mandate that companies publicly disclose all chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing fluid, which goes beyond requirements for FracFocus, the voluntary online registry launched by the Ground Water Protection Council and Interstate Oil & Gas Conservation Commission. Environmentalists have criticized FracFocus for only requiring disclosure of chemicals that are mandated under Occupational Safety & Health Administration workplace safety laws. The second source says the report includes a much "broader call for disclosure" and it goes "well beyond" FracFocus. The panel is also recommending that broad measures be taken to ensure better information is disclosed to the public in core areas of natural gas operations, including the volume and chemical content of wastewater generated during the well injection, which can contain high levels of naturally occurring radioactive materials as well as chemical additives used in fracking. The issue of wastewater contamination from fracking has emerged as a particularly hot topic in Pennsylvania, where EPA and the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection have struggled to stop the practice of municipal wastewater authorities treating shale gas wastewater. The first source says the recommendations will include measures aimed at better tracking what happens to wastewater after it is generated from the well site, so that regulators can determine whether it is being delivered to waste treatment facilities ill-equipped to treat it. The recommendations on tracking measures, similar to hazardous waste manifests under Resource Conservation & Recovery Act, likely stem from concerns that some Pennsylvania drillers are continuing to ship wastewater to publicly owned treatment works or to neighboring states that have limited ability to dispose of it. The draft report also carves out a greater role for the State Review of Oil and Natural Gas Environmental Regulations (STRONGER), a multi-stakeholder group created by EPA to ensure that states are doing an adequate job of regulating oil and natural gas regulations following the agency's 1988 RCRA hazardous waste exemption for the industry sector, the source says. "STRONGER should be bigger," to encompass a broader look at different aspects of environmental regulations, including the extraction process and air emissions, and is currently underfunded, the first source says. The source says the draft report deals with four main issues: collection and dissemination of information, steps operators and regulators can take to minimize impacts on water, air and land use, establishment of a broad-based but industry led group to facilitate best practices and research and development. *Meanwhile, a host of environmental groups have asked President Obama *to issue a moratorium on the fracking process "through any legal means," saying in an Aug. 8 letter that "Despite its obvious hazards, regulation necessary to ensure that fracking does not endanger our nation's water supply has not kept pace with its rapid and increasing use by the oil industry." The letter, signed by a slew of environmentalist and public health organizations including Citizens' Environmental Coalition, Center for Biological Diversity, Food & Water Watch and Delaware River Keeper, points to "more than 1,000" instances of groundwater contamination associated with leaking of fracking fluids and methane into groundwater, refuting industry and EPA statements that a proven link between fracking and groundwater contamination has never been substantiated. Prior to release of the report, a group of environmental health and science researchers from various universities reiterated calls for panel chair John Deutch to step down from the subcommittee, saying in an Aug. 10 letter to Energy Secretary Steven Chu that six of the seven panel members have financial ties to the natural gas and oil industry. "The committee appears to be performing advocacy-based science and seems to have already concluded that hydraulic fracturing is safe," says the letter. -- *Bobby McMahon & Bridget DiCosmo* -- Jim Sconyers jimscon(a)gmail.com 304.698.9628 Remember, Mother Nature bats last.

1 0

Fwd: Fw: *Partner Up with 350 and Moving Planet*
by Jim Sconyers 11 Aug '11

11 Aug '11

Great opportunity to do something important and fun - any ideas? ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Sally Wilts <sallywilts(a)yahoo.com> Date: Wed, Aug 10, 2011 at 8:37 AM Subject: Fw: *Partner Up with 350 and Moving Planet* To: Jim Sconyers <jimscon(a)gmail.com> Did you get this? ----- Forwarded Message ----- *From:* John Wallis <johnwallis(a)350.org> *To:* shahla.werner(a)sierraclub.org *Sent:* Tuesday, August 9, 2011 1:50 PM *Subject:* *Partner Up with 350 and Moving Planet* Dear Sierra Club, I’m writing to invite your organization to partner with 350.org's next global mobilization on September 24, 2011 called Moving Planet: A day to move beyond fossil fuels. <http://moving-planet.org/> Moving Planet is a worldwide rally on September 24, 2011 to call for solutions to the climate crisis—a single day to move away from fossil fuels. In cities and towns across the world, people will take to the streets on bicycles, skateboards, foot, and more, coming together as a global community dedicated to moving our planet in a new direction. This will be the cumulative effort of hundreds of organizations and thousands of volunteer organizers across the planet, but spearheading the effort is international climate campaign, 350.org(backed by a network of over 500,000 supporters and over 1,000 partner organizations around the world). 350.org has a successful track record of spearheading massive global days action (CNN called our International Day of Climate Action in 2009 “the most widespread day of political action in the planet’s history”), and we have plenty of support and materials to offer to you in exchange for your participation. Big, exciting, and beautiful global days of action are a great way to get the attention of the public, media, and decision makers. Imagine hundreds of thousands of people out on their bicycles in the U.S. and abroad on a single day—we want your organization to be part of that story, not only because it brings people from different campaigns together for a common purpose, but because this opportunity will highlight the work that you're doing through a national and international lens. I have attached a Moving Planet partnerships document that outlines the different ways that your organization can get involved in Moving Planet, from helping with outreach (for example, an e-mail to your supporters or a shout-out on Twitter / Facebook) to sponsoring, hosting or participating in an event in a location of your choice. Please contact me at your earliest convenience so that I can connect you with our U.S. Campaigns Coordinator. She's available to discuss a potential partnership between your organization and Moving Planet on September 24. Kind Regards, John Wallis -- Jim Sconyers jimscon(a)gmail.com 304.698.9628 Remember, Mother Nature bats last.

1 0

2025

2024

2023

2022

2021

2020

2019

2018

2017

2016

2015

2014

2013

2012

2011

2010

2009

2008

2007

EC