Posted by Rob Perks in Solving Global Warming
This just in: Don Blankenship, CEO of Massey Energy, has accepted the challenge to debate environmental champion Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., senior counsel for NRDC, on energy issues. I was with Bobby last weekend in Nashville at NRDC's Music Saves Mountains campaign event, but at that time Blankenship...continued→
Posted by Rob Perks in Solving Global Warming
Dirty energy special interests are desperate to defeat efforts in Congress to pass legislation that would put our country on the road to a clean energy economy. So desperate, in fact, that the oil and coal industries together spent a record $115 million last year on...continued→
Posted by Rob Perks in Health and the Environment , Saving Wildlife and Wild Places , Solving Global Warming
I have blogged countless times about mountaintop removal, the world's most destructive coal mining. My posts explore the various ecological, economic and cultural harm caused by this reckless strip mining. I've also highlighted specific people and places most affected by the...continued→
Posted by Rob Perks in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places , Solving Global Warming
Rising above a picturesque valley in southern West Virginia, like an oasis in the midst of coal country, Coal River Mountain represents the last, best hope for a community resisting the legacy of dirty energy in this part of Appalachia. ...continued→
Posted by Rob Perks in Curbing Pollution , Health and the Environment , Solving Global Warming
Without a doubt coal is dirty and dangerous. Consider that the nation's power plants spew out 130 million tons of coal combustion waste every year. Much of this so-called coal ash, which is what's left at the bottom of the smokestacks after coal gets burned...continued→
Posted by Rob Perks in Curbing Pollution , Health and the Environment , Saving Wildlife and Wild Places , Solving Global Warming
Since many of our elected leaders seem to be worried about costs, they should consider this: fossil fuels cost the United States about $120 billion a year, according to a study by the National Academy of Sciences. This cost is measured primarily by thousands...continued→
Posted by Rob Perks in Curbing Pollution , Health and the Environment , Solving Global Warming
Are you drinking water contaminated by coal pollution? Apparently, that's what folks living in the shadows of the South Carolina Electric & Gas coal plant fear. A chilling story published in the Charleston Post & Courier tells how local residents "have wondered for years about...continued→
Posted by Rob Perks in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places , Solving Global Warming
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, following through on EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson's pledge to restore science to environmental regulation, has ruled that all 79 pending applications for mountaintop removal coal mining would violate the Clean Water Act. The agency's review of each permit deemed that...continued→
Posted by Rob Perks in Health and the Environment , Saving Wildlife and Wild Places , Solving Global Warming
The coalfields of eastern Kentucky are ground zero for mountaintop removal coal mining. Explosives rock the peaks and echo through the hollows. Twenty-story draglines scrape out enough dirt to fill several dump trucks with every scoop. Earth-movers literally move the...continued→
Posted by Rob Perks in Solving Global Warming
"Turn on more lights, burn more coal." -- Don Blankenship Don Blankenship is the CEO of Massey Energy, the largest coal producer in Appalachia and the most notorious perpetrator of mountaintop removal mining. Mr. Blankenship, known as "the scariest polluter in America", makes millions of dollars...continued→
