DK GreenRoots

Welcome to a review of King Coal in the news during the week of May 17 - May 23, 2010. Come on in and sit a spell. Take a look at the Good, Bad, and Ugly when it comes to the dirtiest of dirty energy. Stop by the Activist Corner for how to lend your voice to the demise of King Coal.

The blame game related to Upper Big Branch Mine disaster dominated the news, with the most memorable quote coming from Assistant Secretary of Labor Joe Main in reference to Massey Energy during testimony before the Senate Appropriations Committee.

Welcome to a review of King Coal in the news during the week of May 17 - May 23, 2010. Come on in and sit a spell. Take a look at the Good, Bad, and Ugly when it comes to the dirtiest of dirty energy. Stop by the Activist Corner for how to lend your voice to the demise of King Coal.

The blame game related to Upper Big Branch Mine disaster dominated the news, with the most memorable quote coming from Assistant Secretary of Labor Joe Main in reference to Massey Energy during testimony before the Senate Appropriations Committee.

Even if we prevent coal companies from leveling, deforesting, and polluting much of Appalachia by stopping mountaintop removal mining, coal will still not be clean. Even if we stop the release of greenhouse gas emissions from coal-fired power plants, coal will still not be clean. Coal-fired power plants produce mountains of combustion waste which have the potential to contaminate ground and surface water with toxic heavy metals like arsenic.

The New York Times had a nice description of the problem:

One week after the publication of a report in Science documenting the negative environmental impacts of mountaintop removal mining, the Government Accounting Office (GAO) issued a report in response to inquiries from two Senate committees. The GAO report examined oversight for Appalachian mountaintop removal sites, including 2343 sites permitted for valley fills from 2000 to 2008.

After Hurricane Katrina, tens of thousands of families from Louisiana and Mississippi, displaced by the storm that destroyed their homes, were placed in trailers provided by the federal government. Almost immediately calls began to come in to FEMA complaining about breathing problems and other maladies as a result of staying in the trailers.

It turns out the building materials in the trailers, primarily the carpeting and, even more so, the wood paneling, were emitting formaldehyde at up to 400 times the legal limits. As usual, there was a government cover-up to downplay the negative health impacts of formaldehyde, a known cancer suspect agent and highly toxic gas.

But that's not what this diary is about.

It's about efforts by the Obama administration (through the EPA) and a Democratic Senator, Amy Klobuchar, to make sure this NEVER happens again and to ensure the safety of ALL Americans when it comes to formaldehyde in their homes.

In what the hometown paper labels Lisa vs. Lisa, Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) is clashing with the Environmental Protection Agency. Last month, she made headlines with a significant amendment to a boring bill, that of appropriations for the Interior Department (HR 2996). Although the amendment failed, she's continuing to demand that the EPA back off its planned regulation of greenhouse gases...speculation below the fold.