West Virginia’s senior senator took a strong stand against the misguided Murkowski amendment that would have gutted the EPA’s power to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. The other senator from West Virginia John D. Rockefeller IV supported Murkowski with the backing of Governor Joe Manchin. Senator Byrd is urging his constituents to build their future on [...]
Posts Tagged as ‘coal’
March 17, 2010
Toxic Coal Poisons America’s Children
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has released an assessment of EPA’s strategy to protect the health of our children from environmental health risks. The biggest health threat to children comes in the air we breathe: In 2007, for example, 66 percent of children lived in counties where air exceeded one or more of the six [...]
December 4, 2009
Our Neighbor to the West
It’s time for West Virginians to have a frank discussion about the future of their economy. Mining and burning toxic coal hasn’t been all that great for the poverty-stricken state and the future doesn’t look much better. Senator Byrd has called the question: Change has been a constant throughout the history of our coal industry. [...]
November 10, 2009
Time to Focus on Coal
The UK Guardian newspaper reports that whistleblowers at the International Energy Agency have challenged that agency’s “cover-up” of “peak oil.” (Peak oil is the simple idea that annual oil production will be lower in the future because we have used up the easy-to-produce reserves.) “The IEA in 2005 was predicting oil supplies could rise as [...]
July 22, 2009
PJM’s CEO Tainted by TVA Coal Ash Scandal?
An independent consultant’s report has slammed TVA’s management of the coal ash from its 11 coal-fired power plants. The consultants reported that “TVA did not have any standard procedures regarding operation and maintenance of wet-ash ponds” and didn’t put a priority on preventing spills or accidents. PJM Interconnection controls the interstate transmission system serving 51 [...]
July 20, 2009
Offshore Wind versus Coal by Wire — Maryland’s Choice
Last Friday, EESI sponsored a briefing on the potential of offshore wind to generate electricity for the mid-Atlantic states. A video is now available. Here’s a quick look at the presentations. George Hagerman (Virginia Coastal Energy Research Consortium) explained the economic boost for maritime communities as well as the benefits of offshore wind’s security and cost [...]
May 11, 2009
What is the status of Project Mountaineer?
You remember Project Mountaineer — the dream of expanding coal-fired electrical generation in the Ohio Valley and shipping it to the East Coast via massive new transmission lines. Project Mountaineer was the first child of the October 1, 2004, marriage of AEP and PJM. They don’t call it that anymore, but the basic “coal-by-wire” [...]
