Jim etal
Very interesting article on front page of Sundays Gazette Mail, Section 5, "Should coal be king in West Virginia politics?"
One might stretch its content a bit and conclude Speaker Miley and Senate President Kessler are open to our thinking...planning beyond coal, retraining miners and incentivizing renewables .
Allan
From: Allan Tweddle Sent: Wednesday, September 10, 2014 2:34 PM To: James Kotcon Cc: cclwv@googlegroups.com ; Gary Zuckett CAG ; WVEC Email List ; Don GARVIN ; Vivian Stockman ; Janet Keating ; Sierra Club Environmental Comm. ; John Barry Subject: Re: Op-Ed in today's Gazette
Jim.
I plan to be there, at least on the 18th if that is when climate change will be on the agenda.
Allan
Sent from my iPhone
On Sep 10, 2014, at 12:12 PM, James Kotcon jkotcon@wvu.edu wrote:
Allan, et al.
We are planning a forum on this topic at the WVEC Fall Convention (Oct. 17-19 at Cedar Lakes in Ripley). This will likely be on Saturday, Oct. 18. The meeting is joint with the WV Highlands Conservancy Fall review, and legislative strategies are the primary topic. I also hope to emphasize some state agency actions, as WV-DEP will need to propose a state implementation Plan to EPA under the proposed greenhouse gas standards for power plants in the Clean Power Plan. EPA is urging states to "think beyond the fence" to include energy efficiency, renewables, and fuel switching , something that DEP may not be inclined to do. I think that will mean a significant effort to get DEP (which regulates "inside the fence" pollution controls) to work with the WV-PSC (which would over see energy efficiency and other "outside the fence" activities).
A key step may be to amend the horrible HB 4346 which limits DEP's authority to implement greenhouse gas standards.
There may be other, more holistic approaches, but a lot of that may depend on whether the Democrats keep control of the WV House of Delegates, and whether we can defeat some of the most extreme climate deniers.
Who will be joining us?
Jim Kotcon
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From: Allan Tweddle allantweddle@msn.com Sent: Wednesday, September 10, 2014 10:22 AM To: cclwv@googlegroups.com Cc: cclwv@googlegroups.com; Gary Zuckett CAG; WVEC Email List; Don GARVIN; Vivian Stockman; Janet Keating; Sierra Club Environmental Comm.; John Barry; James Kotcon Subject: Re: Op-Ed in today's Gazette
Colleagues
First, thank you Paul and Regan for your kind words. I'm better, but not 100% yet.
I believe part of my condition is caused by the air quality of the area. As and engineer who is dealt with air quality issues for 50 years, including air sampling for pollution conditions around manufacturing operations all the way through to design and clean rooms, I am very familiar with the process and the technical details of air-quality.
But I do not have the instruments or the support staff to evaluate air-quality here as I used to have and my career days in California and Ontario.
I do know however that I have often driven near the railway tracks that charge through Charleston and seen, in the proper sunlight conditions, the fine particulate dust blowing off the railcars as they passed through town. I've inquired, but that's never been analyzed, never been measured and is an unknown.
But one doesn't need sophisticated instruments to see that that dust is being dispersed all on the communities through which these trains, sometimes it very high speeds, traverse.
That brings me to a point I want to make. Air-quality is definitely a local issue. The EPA can establish national standards, and the local agencies can then implement a plan to measure against those standards. But in my opinion the evaluation of very close proximity conditions in West Virginia are never taken into account unless the public rises up and demands them.
That also applies to climate change. There is yet another article in the Charleston Gazette today describing how carbon dioxide levels in the upper atmosphere Have already passed 350 ppm last year and are approaching the 400 ppm. Scientists consider the 400 parts, if achieved on a consistent basis to be very seriously detrimental to life as we know it all over the planet including in West Virginia.
Addressing the issue and pressing for action requires a strong voice here in West Virginia. And I personally believe the economic opportunities that exist for addressing climate change are out there and need to be described to our policy makers repeatedly.
While CCL is working diligently at the national level to seek logical and incremental steps towards controlling climate change, given the political barriers, we must be doing more at the state level in my opinion.
That is why I have proposed to WVEC, CAG, OVEC, and others that we come together and join forces to mount a single voice to address climate change in West Virginia.
It is an issue that is complex and crosses all of the constituencies of the entire environmental movement in West Virginia. To be successful, the legislatures got to know that there is a large constituency, a coming together of all of the organizations, to force them to pay attention to not just the dangers of doing nothing, but of the economic opportunities that are out there for addressing climate change.
if we can come together somewhere in sometime in October, and begin to develop a comprehensive plan, then we will be ready to present our thoughts to the legislature in January.
But I must look to each of the leadership of the various organizations to talk to one another and decide where they would like to do this.
However, I need to hear from the leadership of each of the organizations. Is there interest in coming together in the manner I am suggesting? Or is there an alternative concepts?
I'd like to hear from the leadership to know if this is making sense, and if so let's plan a specific time and meet, probably here in Charleston, To begin thinking about how to plan and implement a new voice of reason for addressing climate change here in West Virginia.
I can offer a venue for such a meeting that is easy and convenient to reach. I must ask for permission from Temple Israel for such a meeting, but I believe Rabbi would approve such a gathering as long as it's not on the Sabbath.
Please, let me hear from you
Allan
Sent from my iPhone
On Sep 9, 2014, at 11:14 AM, Regan E Quinn reganequinn@frontier.com wrote:
bravo
On Sep 9, 2014, at 7:38 AM, Paul Epstein wrote:
Good work both of you! Hope you're feeling much better, Allan.
www.awarewv.org
Paul Epstein 304.343.5074 www.paulepstein.net
On Tue, Sep 9, 2014 at 7:29 AM, Jim Probst probstfurnituremakers@gmail.com wrote:
It's been a good couple of days for Charleston CCL with Alan's excellent op-ed on Sunday and I got one published in today's paper. http://www.wvgazette.com/article/20140909/ARTICLE/140909344/1134
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