New subject: In Beckley paper: Money to Sierra Club prompts boos

23 Jul 2011

      I think we need to attack the short-sighted leaders who think of coal
first, and deny the reality of global warming, especially during this
year of unprecedented weather.
Manchin ran his campaign by literally shooting at the Cap-And-Trade
bill, which would have included the subsidies for Clean Coal and the
economic incentives needed for CCS. West Virginia's political leaders do
not have any plans for developing a transition to a post-coal future,
and are therefore blind to the possibilities and are locking us into
ever-increasing dependence on an industry doomed to run out, and sooner
than they imagine. Projections show a 40 % decline ion coal produciton
in WV within 5 years, yet they continue to talk as if coal is the future
of West Virginia's economic development.
I believe we need to respond soon. It will expose us to a lot of
attacks, but it will also position us as credible leaders on the issues.
I think we need a press release, or even a press conference by Monday.
Whaddya Tink?
JBK
...
...
...
Jim Sconyers 07/23/11 8:43 AM >>>
Translation: "Coal now, coal forever! And to hell with the
consequences!"
On Sat, Jul 23, 2011 at 8:29 AM, Vivian Stockman vivian@ohvec.org
wrote:
July 22, 2011
Money to Sierra Club prompts boos 
By Mannix Porterfield Register-Herald Reporter 
http://www.register-herald.com/local/x202401951/Money-to-Sierra-Club-prompts...
An industry leader joined a union chief and political luminaries in West
Virginia in a sustained chorus of boos directed Thursday at billionaire
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s hefty gift to an environmental group
bent on wiping out the coal industry.
Bloomberg disclosed he handed a $50 million donation to the Sierra Club
from his own pocket for use in the group’s quest to shut down coal
mining the two consider an environmental hazard.
His action triggered a swift and predictable response in coal-rich West
Virginia.
“The next time the lights go out, the people in New York City will all
know exactly whom to blame * their mayor, Michael Bloomberg,” Rep. Nick
Rahall, D-W.Va., said from his Capitol office.
Bloomberg said his gift would enable the Sierra Club to close as many as
one-third of America’s oldest coal-fired power plants by 2020.
Acting Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin weighed in on the latest controversy
involving the industry, calling coal “the most stable, cost-effective
means of meeting the energy demands of our country and the world.”
“With the use of our natural resources here in West Virginia, our
country becomes more energy-independent,” Tomblin said.
Tomblin helped break ground on the new Willow Island hydro-electric
project near Saint Marys.
“The fact, however, that we are looking for other sources of energy *
and developing clean coal technologies * does not mean that our country
can afford to no longer use coal,” the governor said. “Coal must be a
part of any realistic solution to meet our growing demand for energy.”
Given the size of the charitable gift that could be spent on hiring
lawyers to challenge coal production and power plants alike, Bill Raney,
president of the West Virginia Coal Association, said the industry must
view Bloomberg’s threat seriously.
“It sends a terrible message to coal miners and families that depend on
coal, not only in West Virginia but across this country,” Raney said.
“It has provided energy to make steel and power throughout the
history of this country. Now, all of a sudden, he’s made a lot of money
doing something, and he wants to put it into something that sounds
pretty shallow, pretty selfish.”
Raney noted the mercury hovered at 100 degrees in both New York and
Washington, D.C., and was 97 in Charleston, and questioned how Bloomberg
would act if the electricity suddenly stop-ped with a lack of coal.
“Let’s assume he takes all the coal generation off the grid,” he said.
“If he accomplishes quickly what he wants to do, I’m wondering what
he’s going to do?”
The industry has been in a roiling feud with the Obama administration
over its Environmental Protection Agency’s approach to mining permits,
and Raney said coal operators must brace themselves for a well-heeled
assault by the Sierra Club in a bid to stop coal plants and force others
to retreat from remodeling plans.
“They’ll just be flinging grenades, is what I think,” he said. “It’s
simply not fair to the people who have made a living trying to provide
energy in this country. It’s just like he thumbed his nose at it. It
doesn’t make a lick of sense.”
Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., found it disappointing that Bloomberg
launched an attack on coal, rather than work to achieve a balance
between production and environmental concerns.
“Coal not only built this country, but it built the skyscrapers of New
York City, and, without coal, the lights of that city would be dark and
its economy would be devastated,” the senator said.
“I have said from day one, and will say until my last breath, that there
has to be a balance in our country between the environment as well as
our economic and national security, which are threatened by this
country’s addiction to foreign oil.”
Sen. Richard Browning, D-Wyoming, pointed to a time when the lights
indeed went out in the Big Apple, in a major blackout that crippled much
of the eastern seaboard.
And with one of the worst heat waves to ever paralyze much of that
region now in sway, Browning said coal takes on an even more critical
role in supplying the energy to keep the air conditioners humming.
“Can you imagine what it would be like today without electricity right
now, as far as air conditioners go?”
If coal weren’t being burn-ed to supply energy needs, he said, those
swept up in the heat would be at nature’s mercy without benefit of
relief.
“That’s not the kind of leadership that I would want to set for the
people I represent, to advocate something that’s going to be detrimental
to their way of life,” Browning said.
Browning said he considers himself both an environmentalist and a
realist.
“In today’s life, we need to make electricity, and the only feasible way
to do that at this point is with coal,” the senator said. “There will
come a day we can do better with coal. We’re all trying to achieve that
today.”
Browning pointed to research in progress in both Pittsburgh and West
Virginia University aimed at cleaning up the use of coal.
“We all want to have cleaner coal, and we’re getting there,” he said.
“In the meantime, we can’t stop using it until we get an alternative.”
The Sierra Club says it has applied the brakes to more than 150 new
coal-fired power plants in recent years through the use of the courts
and local action.
“If we are going to get serious about reducing our carbon footprint in
the United States, we have to get serious about coal,” Bloomberg said in
making his announcement.
“Coal is a self-inflicted public health risk, polluting the air we
breathe, adding mercury to our water and the leading cause of climate
disruption.”
Republican gubernatorial nominee Bill Maloney vowed to take on
Bloomberg, the Sierra Club, President Obama “and anybody else who
attacks one of the pillars of our state’s economy.”
“I’m convinced that when you get elected to office, there must be some
magic potion they feed you that causes you to become completely detached
from reality and lose touch with regular people,” he said of Bloomberg.
“This is just another example of career politicians with half-baked
ideas that would devastate our economy.”
United Mine Workers President Cecil Roberts likewise decried Bloomberg’s
gift, saying that it would throw miners out of work and plunge them
deeper into the throes of a recession.
In some parts of Appala-chia, the union executive said, mining jobs
provide the only decent incomes that allow workers to sustain a solid,
middle-class lifestyle.
Moreover, he suggested, there is a measure of hypo-crisy to the
environmental cause trumpeted by groups such as the Sierra Club.
“I suspect that many of their members and supporters spend thousands of
dollars every year on automobiles, computers, smart phones and other
goods made in China, India and other countries, which are rapidly
building economies more robust than ours by using more and more coal as
their chief source of energy,” he said.
“I would also point out that China is swiftly becoming the world’s
leader in developing carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology, which
will meet the goal of reducing and eventually eliminating greenhouse gas
emissions when commercially applied to coal-fired power plants.”
Delegate Randy Swartz-miller, D-Hancock, suggested Bloomberg not try to
run for office in West Virginia because his vote total would be scant.
“That is, if he didn’t get run out of the state first,” Swartzmiller
said.
“Just have to wonder if someone that rich is smart enough to know what
truly powers that little switch that makes the lights come on.”
* E-mail: mannix@register-herald.com
-- 
Jim Sconyers
jimscon@gmail.com
304.698.9628

Remember, Mother Nature bats last.

Re: [EC] In Beckley paper: Money to Sierra Club prompts boos