Coal Company Urges Boycott of Mountaintop Removal-Unfriendly Tennessee

Coal-Mac, a subsidiary of a coal company that has tried in the past to convince people that mountaintop removal mining is “the right thing to do”, has now resorted to urging its employees to cancel vacations to Tennessee because of the state’s anti-mountaintop removal stance. Tennessee, home to the beautiful Smoky Mountains National Park, has endorsed bi-partisan federal legislation that would effectively ban mountaintop removal in a bill called the Appalachian Restoration Act.

From the NRDC Switchboard:

In a letter to local Chambers of Commerce, the company warns: “[I]f you want our industry’s business, we suggest you let your representatives know that the industry they are trying to destroy is a major source of your tourism money.”

The letter also notes that two other out-of-state Arch subsidiarues have cancelled their annual company picnics to Dollywood this year.  Apparently, a pro-MTR group called Citizens for Coal is joining in by asking all of its members to also boycott Tennessee travel.

“We’re trying to say to our employees and to other coal miners, that let’s hit them in the wallet with their tourism,” explained Coal-Mac official Richie Phillips.  “Tourism is how they make a living and coal mining is how we make a living.”

Right, because blowing up the mountains that tourists come to see in the first place will really increase revenue for the state. Mr. Phillips’ logic is so brilliant, it takes my breath away.

I’m sure that residents and lawmakers in the mountainous eastern region of Tennessee are so devastated to lose the business of a handful of jackass coal execs, and keep their beautiful views instead.

Link [NRDC Switchboard]
Photo credit: MountainAction.org

This is Why We Love Daryl Hannah

Vogue recently named Cameron Diaz “Queen of Green”, and while we’ve got nothing against the lovely Cameron, we respectfully disagree. If there’s any celebrity that deserves that title, it’s Daryl Hannah without a doubt.

Hannah is a real green warrior, living an authentically green life and putting her neck on the line for causes she feels passionate about. This isn’t your typical “look at me, I drive a Prius” wannabe green celebrity. Daryl Hannah cares, and she’s out there doing what she can to save the world.

Hannah was arrested on Monday afternoon along with about 30 other people including NASA scientist James Hansen and former Rep. Ken Hechler for blocking State Route 3 near a Massey Energy subsidiary’s coal plant in Raleigh County, West Virginia.

From Ecorazzi:

The peaceful protest on mountaintop removal coal mining, organized by local residents and the Rainforest Action Network, was met with strong opposition by a surprising crowd of Massey Energy workers and coal supporters. According to police, tensions ran high and one Massey supporter was arrested and charged with battery during a brief confrontation with protesters.

Of course, there are still tons of people out there that just don’t get it. Take this ridiculous comment, seen by Ecorazzi at the Charlotte Gazette:

“What is the value of the mountain other than what is in it? Actually it is a thing of beauty when foliated, but not all that pretty when leaves are gone. They make some people sick to drive in and always impede transportation. They present danger during snow and ice. How many people, who live in the areas affected, really give a hang about the mountains keeping their original contour?”

“Just thought I would ask an obvious question that I have not seen posed heretofore. Would the people living in the area prefer a peak on a mountain or have it flattened out for alternate use. Make a place for housing, industry, schools, recreation, etc. Actually, what is preferred if the coal profit were removed? It seems that it is OK to create jobs, but the fact that some entrepreneur makes a profit gives rise to a problem for some.”

Congratulations to Hannah and the rest of the protesters for getting this important message out into view of the public. Screw Jon and Kate, Perez Hilton’s crybaby drama and the Real Housewives of Skankville, this is the celebrity stuff that matters.

Link [Ecorazzi]
Photo credit: Rainforest Action Network

Musicians Align to Protect Appalachians from Mountaintop Removal

Sheryl Crow, Emmylou Harris, Kathy Mattea, Big Kenny Alpin and other musicians are coming together in a new campaign called Music Saves Mountains, to help protect the mountains of Appalachia by ending mountaintop removal, the world’s most destructive method of coal mining. Mountaintop removal extracts coal by literally blowing up ridgelines – and the rubble, rock and mining waste that results is dumped into streams.

From MusicSavesMountains.org:

Today, the Appalachians are being ravaged by the most destructive form of coal mining ever devised. Companies are blowing entire mountaintops to smithereens to get at the thin seams of coal below. Already nearly 500 peaks have been leveled, wide swaths of forests have been clearcut, miles of streams have been destroyed or polluted, and countless communities have been harmed by the hunger for fossil fuel.

With the future of America’s oldest mountains at stake, country singers and musicians are coming together to say “enough is enough.” They are joining together to fight for these cherished mountains, where country music was born and which so many songs celebrate.

It’s great to see celebrities put their star power behind a great cause like this – but don’t leave it up to them. You can help, too – tell Congress to stop coal companies from using Appalacian streams as waste dumps at the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) website. It’ll only take a moment – you can use the sample text or write your own message.

If you’re a Tennessee resident, you can also contact your state legislators through NRDC. It might just be the most important thing you do today.

Link [Music Saves Mountains] + [NRDC]

EPA Halts Mountaintop Removal Mining Projects

The Environmental Protection Agency has put hundreds of mountaintop removal mining projects on hold while they evaluate the impact on streams and wetlands, officials announced on Tuesday. Mountaintop removal mining is an extremely environmentally damaging process, which allows coal mining companies to dump waste from mountaintop mining into certain waterways.

From The Huffington Post:

The EPA said in a statement that it would be actively involved in the review of the long list of permits awaiting approval by the Corps, a signal that the agency under the Obama administration will exercise its oversight.

The EPA has the authority to review and veto any permit issued by the Corps under the Clean Water Act, but under the Bush administration it did that rarely.

“If the EPA didn’t step in and do something now, all those permits would go forward,” said Joe Lovett, executive director for the Appalachian Center for the Economy and the Environment. “There are permits that will bury 200 miles of streams pending before the Corps.”

The EPA action stunned the coal industry, which had been breathing easily since the mid-February ruling by the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Last month, an appeals panel in Richmond, Virginia overturned a lower court’s ruling that would have required the Army Corps of Engineers to conduct more extensive reviews, hence the coal industry’s surprise. A spokesman for the National Mining Association called the hold on the permits “troubling”.

Does this mean mountaintop removal is on its way out? We can only hope that it’s a signal of a new beginning, but it will undoubtedly take a while before the process is stopped completely, if that ever even happens. But, this is a very encouraging sign. The campaigns to draw attention to the issue seem to be working.

It’s just amazing that we’re not writing negative posts about how the EPA is screwing the environment and human health anymore!

Link [The Huffington Post]
Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons

Can the Power of Oprah Stop Mountaintop Removal Mining?

Oprah Winfrey has what some people might call a grotesque amount of influence over Americans – particularly women of a certain age. She says she likes something on her show, and hours later it’s sold out. She goes on a certain diet, and millions of people across the country do the same. So, now that actress and activist Ashley Judd let it slip that Oprah might use her crazy-gigantic star power to help stop mountaintop removal mining, we’ve got to wonder: how much good could she do for the cause?

From Ecorazzi, via The Huffington Post:

On this afternoon’s live Q & A over on the DailyKos, the actress let slip that Oprah has potentially expressed some interest in a piece on the topic. In addition, Judd is also trying to get ABC’s Diane Sawyer to do a special with her. “You can absolutely help raise visibility of this issue,” she said in the Q & A. “Diane Sawyer’s piece on the children in hollows aired to much national conversation recently. I phoned her producer about a MTRCM piece. Contact ABC and let them know you want to see her do segment with me about it! Also, there is a possibility Oprah is interested in a piece. I have also spoken with Anderson Cooper about it; if they public wants stories on it, they are more incentivized to do them.”

Here’s a video from ilovemountains.org that will give you an inkling of just how destructive mountaintop removal mining really is:

Who knows. While Oprah’s legion of followers pretty much blindly follow whatever she tells them to do, and take on her beliefs as their own, mountaintop removal isn’t exactly as exciting as, say, getting a free car or cashmere scarf. But, it would raise awareness of the issue and possibly get more people involved with organizations like the Sierra Club, and that would be a huge, much-needed boost in itself.

Link [The Huffington Post] + [Ecorazzi]
Photo credit: OVEC

Gold Mine Threatens Peruvian Community

A community in Peru is speaking out about the threat to their livelihood posed by the Canadian company, Manhattan Minerals, which is working to develop a gold mine in Tambogrande, Peru. The woman in the video below expresses her fears about the mine, which are not unfounded. Here’s an excerpt from a report Friends of the Earth did about the Yanacocha gold mine in the Peruvian Andes,

“Had they just shot me in the head, I would have felt better. Nothing could be worse than seeing my daughters suffer and hear them tell me about the tremendous pain in their eyes, their backs, their heads, day in day out. What can a father say to his sick children? How can I explain that the world’s richest gold mine sitting on that mountain does not want to help us?”
-Alfonso Charrasco, more than three years after the mercury spill that forced him and his family to flee their birth village.

Tell Obama To End Mountaintop Removal

Mountaintop removal is a relatively new type of coal mining that began in Appalachia in the 1970s as an extension of conventional strip mining techniques. The process is known to be devastating to fish, wildlife, and bird species and contributes to increased flooding and deforestation in heavily mined areas.

Not only is it bad for the environment, the effects on nearby homes and communities can be devastating. The Environmental Protection Agency says:

“Dynamite blasts needed to splinter rock strata are so strong they crack the foundations and walls of houses. Mining dries up an average of 100 wells a year and contaminates water in others. In many coalfield communities, the purity and availability of drinking water are keen concerns.”

Local, state, and regional organizations across Appalachia are working together to end mountaintop removal through their program iLoveMountains.org. They’re urging people to sign a petition to ask Obama to end mountaintop removal.

In his first 100 days as President, Mr. Obama has the power to stop most current mountaintop removal mining. Here’s how:

• Reverse the Bush Mine Waste Giveaways: In the 11th hour, the Bush administration weakened the Stream Buffer Zone, allowing companies to dump mine waste into streams and rivers, worsening an earlier Bush ruling that has accelerated the pace of mountaintop removal coal mining.
• Enforce the Law: The coal industry has routinely ignored the Clean Water Act and the Stream Buffer Zone Rule. President Obama should demand that these and other rules be enforced, and hold the EPA, the Office of Surface Mining, Reclamation, and Enforcement, and the Army Corps of Engineers accountable.
• Urge Congress to Pass the Clean Water Protection Act: The Clean Water Protection Act is necessary to both permanently protect clean drinking water for many of our nation’s cities and to protect Appalachian coalfield residents who face frequent catastrophic flooding and pollution as a result of mountaintop removal.
• Prioritize Appalachia in America’s Clean Energy Future: Some mountaintops in Appalachia have huge wind power potential and would be more beneficial in that regard than as flattened landscape. President Obama should make Environmental Impact Assessments and economic analyses mandatory as part of his New Energy for America Plan. With finite and declining coal reserves and jobs, Obama needs to ensure Appalachia receives attention and support in the Administration’s new energy plan that includes $150 billion dollars invested in green, union jobs.

Here’s the story of one mountain community struggling with coal mining praticies in Wilson Creek, KY:

China Gets a Bargain on Peru’s ‘Copper Mountain’

One of the most productive copper mines on earth – Mount Toromocho in Peru – is now in the hands of China. Chinese officials plan to exploit the mountain for all it’s worth, sending all of the copper back home to carry out the electrification of the entire country. The deal not only cheats Peruvians out of the true value of the copper mine, since it was sold to China for such a ‘great bargain’, but will displace all of the residents of the area.

From the BBC:

The Peruvian government is happy with the $3bn (£1.53bn) that Chinalco will invest in the Toromocho mines.

The Chinese will be even happier. They have got themselves a bargain.

The copper Chinalco extracts from Toromocho will cost something like US$410 (£210) per ton. Today, the price for copper on the London Metal Exchange was $8,255 (£4,220) – 20 times more.

Chinalco stands to make a 2,000% profit on its investment.

As destructive as it is, there should be a worldwide ban on mountaintop removal for mining purposes. This isn’t just about frightening amounts of power in the hands of China, taking advantage of poor countries, forcing people out of their homes and displacing wildlife. It’s a scary trend that threatens the beauty of the natural world and has the potential to create even more pollution than we’re already dealing with. China has already shown that the environment is far from its top priority, and as the BBC mentions, it has ‘vast reserves of foreign currency’ at its disposal.

Link [BBC]

Hillary Clinton Does the Waffle Dance Around Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining

The word “jobs” is a magic talisman for politicians. When they want to push a dubious policy, they promise that “jobs” will come of it, and rarely does anyone note that some jobs are not worth having.

West Virginia is having a primary soon, and Hillary Clinton, campaigning there, had the following to say about mountaintop removal mining, a kind of Extreme Coal Mining that does what it says–it removes the mountain to get at the coal. She seems to be okay with it:

I am concerned about it for all the reasons people state, but I think it’s a difficult question because of the conflict between the economic and environmental trade-off that you have here.

I’m not an expert. I don’t know enough to have an independent opinion, but I sure would like people who could be objective, understanding both the economic necessities and environmental damage, to come up with some approach that would enable us to retrieve the coal but would enable us to do it in a way that wouldn’t damage the living standards and the other important qualities associated with people living both under the mountaintop and people who are along the streams.

You know, maybe there is a way to recover those mountaintops once they have been stripped of the coal. You know, I think we’ve got to look at this from a practical perspective.

Meh. Grist does a good job taking this apart. Strip mining for coal in Appalachia was never even good enough to be called a devil’s bargain; the devil got everything, and still does. It’s comparable to burning down your house in order to get a “job” hauling the remains to a dumpster. At the end, Hillary grasps for a tedious old dodge: once the mining is done, we’ll restore the landscape. In my experience of such restoration, the only thing left is rubble and toxins, and the only thing you can grow is noxious weeds.

Link [Gristmill]