Deborah
cc: Margaret Manousoff Please also mail to ; margaret@alaskaconservationsolutions.commailto:margaret@alaskaconservationsolutions.com
Thanks you for the time and stimulating conversation last evening. I look forward to meeting with you when you are here in West Virginia. It is certainly a small world when we can connect with mutual friends like Judge Holland. I was always very proud to have been a close friend in Ann Arbor in our undergraduate days, and ever since, and then to read as he dealt with the EXXON Valdez oil spill case.
We had a spill here in West Virginia of toxic coal sludge that was reported to be 22 times the volume of the Valdez spill. It is quite a story of how the power of coal interests have successfully diverted any real consequences to the company, and in fact led to the termination of a very senior and dedicated environmental engineer on the MSHA staff because he told the truth about the mismanagement that led to the spill.
I look forward to sharing my other experiences in trips to Alaska...both in winter and summer...Hope, Kenai Peninsula, the crab dinners on the tip of the Spit in Homer...WOW...lots of memories for me.
In particular, I appreciate your suggestion that we could combine forces to bring the real impacts of global warming in Alaska to the realities and opportunities for West Virginia. I have giving my tailored version of the Gore Presentation about 20 times since last April's training in Nashville.
I try to tailor to the audience and to add my own 40 years of experience solving air pollution problems as an engineer in my native Canada, including 30 years in Southern California. And in the last 20 years I have been involved in addressing environmental policy and regulations in California as a consultant to industry and the regulators, addressing how clean technology solutions can in fact be good economics.
We are constantly being reminded daily that coal brings 50% of all electricity in the US, 95% in West Virginia, and that to suggest any alternative form of energy is speaking against the flag, motherhood, apple pie, jobs and all mankind...well, at least West Virginia's families. The Oxymoron "Clean Coal Technology" is being pounded into the citizens everywhere, while the truth of how dirty coal really is, is off limits for public discussion. And any speaker who speaks out about the dirty truth about coal is pillared as an enemy of the good working folks of the State.
So your planned tour is quite timely and appropriate. I would have as an objective to give you as much exposure as time will allow, and achieve a reality check for the few open minds of West Virginia, and some of the skeptics, to see why we cannot continue to use coal without achieving zero emissions.
Now as to the tour itself. There is not much time to plan this. And I am concentrating on Charleston, the State Capitol, as I do not have the same number and level of contacts in the other cities But we do have many of us who have received Margaret's e-mail able to work on a schedule.
I have a few questions: 1.. Are all details in place, and/or are there local folks working on this already? 2.. Do you have specific sites , halls, venues in mind or already arranged? 3.. How many presentations would be appropriate in this time period. 4.. Would you entertain TV and radio talk show interviews? 5.. As a member of the West Virginia Public Energy Authority, I could call for a special meeting just to receive your presentation. But as we, who are labeled global warming "alarmists", do not have a majority, that request may be denied. 6.. I see that you are a member of Rotary. Have you spoken to Rotary before? I am not a member, however, one of our very successful, but now retired corporate CEO's is in Rotary, so I could explore with him and see of the Friday that you are here would work. They may already have a speaker for that date. 7.. The memo from Margaret says that the tour is sponsored. Does that include any provision for fees or rent at any venues? You are scheduled from the 10th to the 15th. That is over a weekend. What if any other plans do you have in those available days? My wife and I would certainly be interested in spending some quiet time to get to know you better. In fact, if you would like, you would be welcome ion our home while you are here in Charleston.
By the way, I have tried to e-mail Margaret, and I cannot get anything I write to go once I press the send button. One "computer guru" here suggested that it was because her e-mail address is too long.
I think that I can speak for all of us that we look forward to meeting you and doing what we can to make your tour here very successful.
Allan
Allan Tweddle
Quidvis recte factum quamvis humile praeclarum Sir Henry Royce, 1924