Coal Miners Speak Out Against Mountaintop Removal

Photo by Matt Scully

Former coal miners Stanley Sturgill, Carl Shoupe, and Elmer Lloyd are proud of the Kentucky mountains they call home, and proud of their years of service in the mines. But all three have been turned into activists by their revulsion at the destruction being wrought by mountaintop-removal mining.

"This mountaintop removal is killing us here in eastern Kentucky," says Shoupe, a third-generation coal miner. "I was a deep miner, and I have relatives and friends who are miners. But in my opinion, if you can't deep-mine it, it ain't worth getting out of the mountain in the first place."

Photo by Mark Schmerling

"Mountaintop removal has destroyed so much around here," says Sturgill, a federal mine inspector for 41 years. "Everywhere I went, when I inspected a surface mine, it was the same sad-looking place."

Of even deeper concern to Sturgill is the region's water. "It's our most precious resource," he says. "If the valley fill permits now pending for this mountain are approved, we stand a good chance of losing our water. And once we lose our water, we've lost everything."

Photo by Brian Stansberry

Arkansas Chapter Gets Results from Comments, Hearing

Our Arkansas Chapter just received some good results from their organizing around the future of the Entergy 1,600-megawatt White Bluff coal-fired power plant in Redfield.

Chapter Staffer Lev Guter said the Arkansas Public Service Commission (PSC) recently announced that because of the comments that the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ)received, the PSC is "indefinitely suspending its March 2010 Hearing about the associated rate increase to fund the permit."

The chapter had packed a Nov. 17 hearing held by ADEQ about Entergy’s air permit proposal, which, had it been approved, would've charged ratepayersover one billion dollars to extend the plant's life.

"We organized and bused a group of about 25 people and a good portion of them, around 10, decided to testify," said Guter. "For some of them, it was their first time ever testifying- especially in front of so many people. I would estimate over 150 people packed a room that was meant for far fewer than that. If we hadn't been there, I'm afraid that almost no one there would have voiced our side. Though in a fortunate surprise, only a dozen or so of the other side decided to testify, so we had decent oral testimony representation."


Guter said their easy to remember thought on this White Bluff plan was, "In short, why spend $1 billion for many more years of burning pollution-causing coal?"

Glen Hooks, Regional Director of the Sierra Club Beyond Coal Campaign said the region should switch to clean energy. "We should not hit Arkansas ratepayers with a Billion dollar rate increase so that Entergy can continue polluting our air by burning dirty coal," explained Hooks. "It makes more sense to save that money and to switch to cleaner sources of energy. Dirty Coal is a bad investment for Arkansas citizens."


Guter said the public hearing provided the only forum for citizens to speak face-to-face with ADEQ officials who are reviewing Entergy's permit request and will either approve or deny it. Concerned citizens sent in their to ADEQ until its November 24th deadline.

Ann Owen, who serves as the Chair of the Second Presbyterian Church's Environmental Stewardship Task Force and is on the Steering Committee of Arkansas Interfaith Power and Light noted that, "The waste from White Bluff will continue to contaminate our groundwater, and because the air permit does nothing to reduce mercury emissions, our Natural State runs the risk of continuing to be one of the 'dirty dozen' states when it comes to mercury pollution."


Way to go, Arkansas Chapter!

Arkansas Lights a Green Tree for the Holidays

Our Little Rock, Arkansas, chapter held a fun Green Holiday Lighting Ceremony in a community garden in Little Rock, last week.

"Multi-colored LEDs were strung around a free-standing wooden tripod (used to grow vines during warmer months) and powered with a solar panel," said Lev Guter, a chapter staffer.

The event drew a crowd of more than 40 people.



Guter added that the event included remarks by a solar power business owner and a pivotal faith leader, who then switched on the lights as dusk fell on the crowd.



Then the crowd got to enjoy hot apple cider and sign over-sized Christmas cards that will be delivered to Sens. Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor's local offices with the message asking them to vote for a strong Climate Bill.

Fighting For a Clean Energy Future in Southern Utah

Before she was an environmental activist, Kai Reed operated her own fitness business, ran world-class ski events for the Park City Mountain Resort, and helped manage transportation logistics during the 2002 Salt Lake winter Olympics.

In 1998 she and her husband John moved to the rural community of Ivins in southern Utah, near the growing city of St. George, where she found her dream job of being a hiking and biking guide for a local fitness resort. She also served as chair of the St. George Sports & Events Committee, and created the Cactus Hugger 10k running race and the 3-day Cactus Hugging Cycling Festival.

These days Reed is the Administrative Director for Citizens for Dixie's Future (CDF), a grassroots coalition of citizens committed to protecting the natural resources and quality of life in Washington County, Utah. (Reed's husband is on CDF's Board of Directors.) Among the group's top priorities are smart growth, clean air, and stopping the Toquop Energy Project, a proposed coal-fired power plant.

"Toquop grabbed our attention about two years ago," Reed says. "It was originally proposed and permitted as a natural gas plant, but then Sithe Global bought the original permit from another company, changed the project to a coal-fired power plant, and had to start all over again with the permitting process."

The Toquop site lies near the Utah-Nevada border in Lincoln County, Nevada, 12 miles north of the town of Mesquite. But St. George, below, is the largest population center in the area and with the prevailing south winds lies downwind of the proposed plant.

Photo by Nick Christensen

"We were also downwind of the atomic testing at the Nevada Test Site," says Reed, "so this is an incredibly hot-button issue around here." St. George residents experienced significant spikes in cancer and leukemia rates in the aftermath of the atomic tests.

"Sithe, which is 80% owned by the Blackstone Group, claimed in a public meeting in St. George that they'd done testing and wind modeling and there would be no pollution in St. George," Reed says. "Locals were incredulous."

It turns out Sithe conducted its modeling studies within a 30-mile perimeter of the proposed plant, as required by law. St. George, which lies 33 miles away, wasn't included in the study.

CDF promptly kicked into gear with a "No Coal for Christmas" rally in St. George in December 2007. "We handed out Santa Claus hats, and brought lumps of coal and pens & paper so people could write to Nevada Governor Jim Gibbons," Reed says. "We put a lump of coal in each envelope and sent off about 100 packets." The event garnered media coverage statewide.

First-Time Organizer Helps Beat Back Utah Coal Plant

Former San Rafael, California, firefighter Jim Kennon was injured in the line of duty and had to retire on disability. "That wasn't an easy thing, to leave the profession," he says. "I was a firefighter for 20 years and I loved that job."

Kennon went back to college and taught elementary school science for several years before retiring to a piece of land his family owned in Sevier County, Utah. There, in the town of Richfield, he completed the house he lives in today.

But Kennon's little piece of paradise was threatened by a proposed coal-fired power plant in Sevier County. The 270-megawatt facility, to be operated by Nevco Energy Co. and the Sevier Power Company, would have been located in the nearby farm community of Sigurd, below. Its 462-foot-high smokestack would be the tallest structure in Utah.

"My wife has asthma," Kennon says, "and there are people in town—myself included—who are on oxygen. Coal is dirty, it pollutes our air and adds to global warming, and when we have other alternatives, I just can't see people having to put up with dirtier air here."

In response, Kennon co-founded Sevier Citizens for Clean Air and Water to galvanize local opposition to the plant. And eight years later, on December 4, 2009, the Utah Supreme Court ruled against construction of the Sigurd plant, saying its emissions permit, issued by the Utah Division of Air Quality in 2004, was "woefully inadequate."

"The court's decision was a victory for the Utah Chapter of the Sierra Club and two Sevier County retirees, Jim Kennon and Dick Cuminsky, who led the local opposition," reported the Associated Press.

MD Chapter Rallies in Baltimore for Clean Energy

The Maryland Chapter of the Sierra Club rallied December 1st at a park in downtown Baltimore to call on the state to oppose proposed transmission lines to a Virginia coal plant and instead invest in clean energy.

Maryland Chapter Conservation Coordinator Alana Wase said power plant and grid operators want to build 450 miles of high voltage transmission lines across pristine habitat in West Virginia, Virginia, Maryland and Delaware.


"The lines, if built, would enable dirty coal fired power plants to ramp up production: burning more coal, increasing greenhouse gas emissions and mountain top removal mining, and further delaying the switch to renewable energy," said Wase in an email.

On top of that - the lines cost a whopping $3 billion, all to be paid for by consumers.


And despite the cold weather, more than 140 people showed up at the Dec. 1 rally to call for clean energy instead of more dirty coal power.

Wase said that according to expert testimony, the Potomac-Appalachian Transmission Highline (PATH) power lines alone, would increase greenhouse gas emissions by 7.79 million tons per year, that would be the equivalent of adding 25% more cars in Maryland. The coalition of groups that organized the Dec. 1 rally also oppose the planned Mid-Atlantic Power Pathway transmission lines.


Speakers at the rally cheered on clean energy and pointed out the many flaws in the transmission line plans.

"These transmission lines are nothing more than extension cords connecting Maryland to more dirty energy sources," said Brad Heavner, state director of Environment Maryland.  "At a time when Maryland needs to be investing aggressively in clean energy in order to meet the pollution reduction goals we've laid out, these power lines are a giant step in the wrong direction."

Other speakers included:

• Mike Tidwell, Director and founder, Chesapeake Climate Action Network
• Lewis Evans, CEO, Solar Resources International Inc.
• Peter Van Buren, President, TerraLogos Energy Group
• Patience Wait, Community Activist
• Zoe Keller, student leader, Maryland Institute College of Art
• Zainab Boone-Kukoyi, Student Leader, Coppin State University
• Ricky Young, Community Activists, Citizens Against Kemptown Substation
• Delegate Barbara Frush

After listening to the speakers, the rally-goers marched over to the Maryland Public Service Commission building to chant against coal.

Wase called the day a big success. Fellow clean energy organizer Byron Banghart even made an excellent video of the day's events - take a look.

America the Sustainable- Clean Energy Rally.

Photos courtesy of Alana Wase.