BLAIR, WV — “Federal officials are considering whether to veto mountaintop [...]]]>

Jimmy Weekley, 70, has been fighting the Spruce 1 coal project for a dozen years. The proposed mine would blast off the tops of peaks and fill in several stream beds above his home in Pigeonroost Hollow. (Todd Heisler/New York Times)

BLAIR, WV — “Federal officials are considering whether to veto mountaintop mining above a little Appalachian valley called Pigeonroost Hollow, a step that could be a turning point for one of the country’s most contentious environmental disputes.

The Army Corps of Engineers approved a permit in 2007 to blast 400 feet off the hilltops here to expose the rich coal seams, disposing of the debris in the upper reaches of six valleys, including Pigeonroost Hollow.

But the Environmental Protection Agency under the Obama administration, in a break with President George W. Bush’s more coal-friendly approach, has threatened to halt or sharply scale back the project known as Spruce 1. The agency asserts that the project would irrevocably damage streams and wildlife and violate the Clean Water Act.”

— Erik Eckholm, New York Times

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NEW YORK, NY — “As much as higher education and corporate America would like to be engaged, college presidents are struggling to reconcile the demands and values of academia with shareholder skepticism about their boardroom commitments…

Opposition from critics, both on campus and off, may drive university officials from corporate boards. E. [...]]]>

OSU president Gordon Gee

NEW YORK, NY — “As much as higher education and corporate America would like to be engaged, college presidents are struggling to reconcile the demands and values of academia with shareholder skepticism about their boardroom commitments…

Opposition from critics, both on campus and off, may drive university officials from corporate boards. E. Gordon Gee, president of Ohio State University, left Massey Energy Co., a coal-mining company based in Richmond, Virginia, in July 2009, after nine years on the board, amid criticism he was abetting a polluter. The following April, an explosion at the company’s Upper Big Branch mine in West Virginia killed 29 people.

Before the resignation, a Cleveland-based nonprofit group called Ohio Citizen Action had collected signatures and letters from more than 6,800 Ohio residents, including students, faculty and alumni of Ohio State, urging Gee to leave Massey, said Kate Russell, an organizer of the protest.

The group opposes what Russell said is Massey’s practice of mountaintop-removal mining that adds waste to waterways. Gee’s service at Massey was hypocritical because he was promoting alternatives to fossil fuel while receiving fees from the coal company, Russell said in an interview.”

— Janet Lorin, Bloomberg

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CHARLESTON, WV — “The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers today announced that it was eliminating the streamlined permitting process for surface coal-mining operations in Appalachia.

Corps officials had previously proposed this move as part of the Obama administration’s  ‘unprecedented steps’ to reduce the environmental impacts of mountaintop removal mining.

Today’s Corps press [...]]]>

CHARLESTON, WV — “The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers today announced that it was eliminating the streamlined permitting process for surface coal-mining operations in Appalachia.

Corps officials had previously proposed this move as part of the Obama administration’s  ‘unprecedented steps’ to reduce the environmental impacts of mountaintop removal mining.

Today’s Corps press release is available here, and I’m told top agency officials will have a media briefing on the issue later today.”

— Ken Ward Jr., Coal Tattoo, Charleston Gazette

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COLUMBUS — Ohioans have sent messages, letters and children illustrations to U.S. Senate candidates Rob Portman and Lee Fisher to pledge now to co-sponsor an effective ban on mountaintop removal coal mining.  S. 696, the Appalachia Restoration Act, an effective ban mountaintop removal coal mining, [...]]]>

U.S. Senate candidates Rob Portman and Lee Fisher

COLUMBUS — Ohioans have sent messages, letters and children illustrations to U.S. Senate candidates Rob Portman and Lee Fisher to pledge now to co-sponsor an effective ban on mountaintop removal coal mining.  S. 696, the Appalachia Restoration Act, an effective ban mountaintop removal coal mining, currently has 11 co-sponsors in the U.S. Senate, including Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown.  Candidate Portman has received 1,058 letters and candidate Fisher has received 1,040 letters.  Neither candidate has taken a public stance on the issue.

— Kate Russell, Organizer, Ohio Citizen Action

A coalition of citizen groups is organizing the event, called [...]]]> CHARLESTON, WV — “Mountaintop removal opponents are planning what they hope will be a major protest in Washington in late September to urge a halt to the mining practice, a switch to cleaner forms of energy, and a revitalization of the Appalachian economy.

A coalition of citizen groups is organizing the event, called Appalachia Rising, for Sept. 27. They are calling for a ban not only on mountaintop removal, but on all forms of surface coal mining.

‘We have worked long and hard to raise America’s awareness of this injustice, this insane crime that continues to eliminate our mountains, our communities, and our people,’ said Raleigh County resident Bo Webb, whose home at Naoma sits in the shadow of a mountaintop removal operation. ‘Now is the time for Congress to hear the voices of the victims of mountaintop removal.’”

— Ken Ward, Jr., West Virginia Gazette

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CHARLOTTE, NC – “Duke Energy made an unusual request of its coal suppliers last month: Quote the price of coal mined without blasting Appalachian mountaintops. With that, the nation’s third-largest utility in power sales hinted that it might cut ties to the environmentally destructive and politically explosive practice…

‘I definitely [...]]]>

Dr. Matthew Wasson

CHARLOTTE, NC – “Duke Energy made an unusual request of its coal suppliers last month: Quote the price of coal mined without blasting Appalachian mountaintops. With that, the nation’s third-largest utility in power sales hinted that it might cut ties to the environmentally destructive and politically explosive practice…

‘I definitely smell a rat,’ said Matt Wasson, program director at Appalachian Voices in Boone. ‘I have very strong suspicions that this is not about a sincere effort to protect mountaintops from coal mining.’ Wasson said he expects Duke to claim that non-[mountaintop removal] coal is too costly to rely on solely…

Another of the nation’s biggest utilities, Ohio-based American Electric Power, is already talking to regulators about its ability to consider more than price when buying coal, including whether it came from mountaintop-removal mines.”

— Bruce Henderson, Charlotte Observer

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WASHINGTON, DC — On June 9, 2010 artist and activist Ashley Judd spoke at the National Press Club.

1. On April 5, Massey Energy’s Upper Big Branch mine in West Virginia [...]]]> COLUMBUS – It has only been 56 days since April 1, when the Obama Administration lowered the boom on future permits for mountaintop removal coal mining. Since then, three events have shown that there is no going back to the way it was.

1. On April 5, Massey Energy’s Upper Big Branch mine in West Virginia exploded, killing 29 miners. The credibility of the coal companies collapsed in the explosion, and Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship became a national symbol of reckless disregard for human life. Blankenship had been the chief spokesman for mountaintop removal coal mining.

2. On May 5, U.S. Senate President pro tempore Robert Byrd of West Virginia issued a new statement, going well beyond his startling December remarks. This time Byrd said outright that mountaintop removal coal mining “should be halted.” Here is the excerpt in context:

If the process of mining destroys nearby wells and foundations, if blasting and digging and relocating streams unearths harmful elements and releases them into the environment causing illness and death, that process should be halted and the resulting hazards to the community abated.

Byrd’s new position is stronger than that of the Obama Administration, which only intends stop the vast majority of future mountaintop removal permits. Byrd defines the effects of mountaintop removal and then says it should be halted. This would include current mountaintop removal projects as well.

3. On May 18, the U.S. EPA held a public hearing on its proposal to veto the Spruce Mine permit, the largest mountaintop removal permit in West Virginia history. The hearing was held at the 1,000-seat Charleston Civic Center, anticipating a stand-room-only crowd assembled by Faces of Coal, the coal company lobby group. Half the seats were empty.

— Paul Ryder, Organizing Director, Ohio Citizen Action