Coal

After all the bad news about mountaintop removal how about a little success?

Yesterday Bank of America, a lead financier of coal, announced that they will be phasing out financing for companies that practice mountaintop removal coal mining, a highly destructive and controversial method of coal extraction. Bank of America’s decision is a giant leap forward in the fight against mountaintop removal, which has devastated Appalachian communities and the mountains and streams on which they depend.

The following is an account written by James Hansen, climate scientist, of what happened at a protest in Wise County, Virginia, at the construction site of Dominion Power's new coal plant. It's called:

Obstruction of Justice

by James Hansen

“You’re Hannah, right?” Hannah Morgan, a 20-year old from Appalachia, Virginia, was one of 11 protesters in handcuffs early Monday morning September 15 at the construction site for a coal-fired power plant being built in Wise County Virginia by Dominion Power. The handcuffs were applied by the police, but the questioner, it turns out, was from Dominion Power.

"Mumble, mumble, mumble”, the discussion between police and the Dominion man were too far away to be heard by the young people. But it almost seemed that the police were working for Dominion. Maybe that’s the way it works in a company town. Or should we say company state? Virginia has got one of the most green-washed coal-blackened governors in the nation (http://www.columbia.edu/~jeh1/mailings/20080529_DearGovernorGreenwash.pd...).

It seems Hannah had been pegged by Dominion as a “ringleader”. She had participated for two years in public meetings and demonstrations against the plan for mountaintop removal, strip mining and coal burning, and she had rejected their attempts to either intimidate or bargain.

Here’s a pleasant surprise: Xcel Energy is retiring two coal-fired plants in Colorado and adding 850 megawatts of wind power and a 200-megawatt solar concentrating power plant -- one of the world's largest -- instead.

It’s the company’s first stab at utility-scale solar. Even better: It’s the first time a utility in America has volunteered to shut down a coal plant (let alone two) to slash greenhouse gas emissions.

And therein lies the point. The announcement suggests a serious intention from one of America’s largest coal burners to turn the tide of fossil fuels at a time of economic and energy danger for the nation.

While you’re reading about the US economy’s tumble into recession, think about this: The US coal industry -- which powers half of America and is currently riding a sizable export boom -- has been hemorrhaging home-grown jobs for decades.

From a new report by the Worldwatch Institute:

In the United States, coal output rose by almost one third during the past two decades, yet employment has been cut in half.

The US coal industry employs about 80,000 individuals -- and dropping.

Meanwhile, renewable energy, which provides just six percent of US electricity needs, employed 200,000 people directly in ’06, and another 246,000 indirectly. And that's just a sliver of the sector’s potential.

The US Senate Republicans are trashing hopes for a booming home-grown solar energy sector. Oh, but that’s not news.

And neither is the fact that nearly all Americans – across all parties – believe that a solar energy industry is vital to the United States. Ninety-eight percent of Independents. Ninety-seven percent of Democrats. And ninety-one percent of Republicans.

The survey findings were released by the SCHOTT Solar BarometerTM yesterday and were conducted by the independent polling firm, Kelton Research.

When asked which energy source they would support if they were president, 41 percent picked solar. Three percent chose coal. Together, solar and wind together were favored nearly 20 times more than America’s dirtiest fuel.

Best nugget of all?

Want to start a farm at a high school and become a groundwork coordinator? There may be a job waiting for you in Massachusetts. Look at this notice that ended up in my "in" box today, Earth Day:

Chapel Hill-Chauncy Hall School, an independent high school located in Waltham, MA, seeks a Groundwork Coordinator. The vision of Groundwork is to create a farm to serve as an experiential education facility for the school.....It is the responsibility of this individual to design and oversee the creation of the farm and crop plans and assist in the integration of the Groundwork program into the curriculum.

Sounds like a great job, and lots more of those jobs are going to be available in the future, for sure.

But surf on over to a web site called Coal Miners for Hire and the job hunting turns awfully grim.

Attorney General Andrew Cuomo of New York is using the long arm of the law to slow down the coal train. Using broad powers granted by the Martin Act of 1921, he's making sure energy companies are not misleading investors about the big risks of parking their money in new coal plants.

Battle lines are being drawn at the Great Pee Dee river in South Carolina. That's where Santee Cooper intends to build a $1 billion pulverized coal power plant. The utility thinks importing coal into the state is the way to keep energy prices down, but as a member of the Governor's climate change task force points out, betting on coal is a recipe for higher electricity rates.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid called for a halt to the building of new coal-fired power plants anywhere in the world.

"There's not a coal-fired plant in America that's clean. They're all dirty," Reid said.

Take that Obama, and the rest of Dems ready to cut dirty deals.