Two weeks ago, thousands took to the streets of Washington D.C. to blockade and shut down the Capitol Power Plant in the largest direct action against the coal sector in U.S. history. On April 20, another peaceful direct action has been called to stop the construction of an 800 mega-watt coal-fired powerplant in NC. People from around North Carolina and the nation will converge at Duke Energy's headquarters in Charlotte, NC to demand an end to dirty coal by putting their bodies on the line in acts of civil disobedience.
We need you to join us. RSVP By Clicking Here Now.
The new 800 MW coal-fired facility that would emit over 6 million tons of carbon dioxide annually. This facility will live at least 50 years, which means 312 million tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere throughout its life. This is the equivalent of adding one million cars to the road each year! Furthermore, North Carolina and Duke Energy are some of the biggest consumers of mountaintop removal mined coal. Over 500 mountains have been destroyed to feed these dirty plants.
The fight against mountaintop removal and coal-fired powerplants has escalated and it's time for dramatic action.
We need you to join us. RSVP By Clicking Here Now.
This video couldn't do a better job nailing home the message: substituting one fossil fuel for another is unacceptable. If you haven't heard about the effects of natural gas extraction, it's time to educate yourself, and each other.
Posted by Chelsea Ritter-Soronen on March 15th, 2009
On the same day that dozens of Californians marched to demand renewables in their state, students from all across the country joined Appalachians in Tennessee to march on the TVA headquarters. Organizer Chelsea Ritter-Soronen offers her account of the action...
On Saturday March 14, over one hundred activists gathered in downtown Knoxville, Tennessee to protest dirty coal, to speak out against the Harriman ash spill disaster, and to demand renewable energy from the nation's largest purchaser and distributor of coal, the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). The majority of the crowd was composed of students that had attended the annual Mountain Justice Spring Break the previous week, and the action was a result of their collective planning process throughout camp. Others in the crowd included many Tennesseans, including members of United Mountain Defense, college students, and residents of nearby counties affected by the ash spill. Judging from the diverse crowd, one message prevailed: dirty coal affects everyone, and it is time for TVA to clean up their act with renewable energies!
The weather was certainly not in our favor, as it had been pouring for three days beforehand and was not willing to compromise. However, a little rain was the least of our worries. The rally kicked off with people speaking from the crowd to TVA with big statements through a big megaphone, while bystanders were fliered about the event and media mingled through the masses. We then started our march around the two TVA towers, which occupy an entire city block, and are the most prevailant buildings of the Knoxville skyline. The Knoxville Police Department had the entire perimeter on watch with vehicles and, in some spots, shoulder-to-shoulder police (this was a public event that had been openly advertised, and they were ready for us). Thankfully, the TVA police never made a public appearance; their unusual behavior and recent harassments were unwelcome at our event. Yes, it's true, because the TVA is a government-owned facility, they have their own police division, which seemingly has precedent over the local police, no matter what. It's actually quite terrifying.
Anyways, the march continued with music and chants that could be heard throughout the area. As we turned one corner, a banner was dropped from the top of a parking garage along the parade route that read TVA, Windmills not toxic spills, for which there was more cheering and excitement. As we reconvened at our starting point in front of the TVA entrance steps, 14 individuals stepped up together in front of the police line that separated public property from TVA, and dramatically participated in a “die-in”, to represent all of the land and lives that have been lost to coal, coughing and wheezing as they gracefully collapsed to the wet concrete. Each of these 14 people wore a dust mask to represent that humanity is choking on coal ash, and many depend on these masks and respirators for daily living. With the TVA headquarters there, it is no wonder that Knoxville has the highest asthma rates of any other city in the United States. After everyone had laid down, two activists strategically appeared behind the police line with a large banner that read TVA, Clean it up, don't cover it up, resulting in yet another great image from the day's events!
Police escorted the group lying on the sidewalk away, with the protesting crowd supporting them close behind, and they were ticketed for a mere loitering citation. Apparently, a couple of police officers had relatives with chronic respiratory diseases, and were empathetic to the cause. Again, the message is obvious that coal affects everyone, and not just those who live next to an ash spill or work in the mines. Everyone at the die-in was very cooperative and treated respectfully, and nobody went to jail.
Later that night, we held a candlelight vigil at the TVA entrance as we paid our respects to those harmed by dirty energy. It was very beautiful and motivating, as we recognized that this is indeed a movement, and that together, we have the power and potential to stop the coal-inflicted abuse of land and people. We look forward not only to the remaining days of Power Past Coal, but to every day after!
The first promise I made to myself when I agreed to have an online column in the illustrious Blargus, was that I would write my own articles and not respond to other columnists, no matter how much they angered me. Admittedly, I thought I would have to resist responding to Mytheos, but that was before I read Jonah Blumstein’s latest response article. Aside from referring to my “reflexive liberalism” (I promise you, I am not a liberal), Jonah’s article amazed me in its ability to make absurd assertions and miss the point of my article entirely.
Jonah’s thesis, as much as one was detectable, was that clean coal exists. Blumstein’s clean coal is different from the clean coal that the coal industry talks about. He does not refer to the process that cleans some chemicals out of coal emissions, which also creates toxic coal sludge. Jonah’s clean coal is western coal, which contains less sulfur. He believes that a conspiracy between the United Mine Workers Union and Senator Robert Byrd has forced coal power plants to buy and burn high sulfur coal from Appalachia. Whether or not this conspiracy exists is utterly irrelevant. Low-sulfur coal is not clean, it just has less sulfur. Jonah failed to address the three major points of my column: coal mining is extremely and inherently destructive, any coal burning will release huge amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, and we do not have time to waste waiting for fantasy technologies to fix these two major problems. Jonah’s low-sulfur coal is not lower in mercury or lead and, obviously, is not lower in carbon. Just to make sure no one believes Jonah’s western coal is a sensible alternative, let us explore one of the largest western coal mines in Black Mesa, Arizona.
Since 1968, Peabody Coal has been exploiting Hopi and Navajo land in northern Arizona. The Black Mesa coal mine is one of the largest strip mines in the United States and has been the subject of indigenous anger and resistance since its inception. Due to Peabody’s mining more than 12,000 Navajo have been removed from their land, the largest removal of native people since the 1880s. Additionally, Peabody coal has been responsible for draining more than half of the Navajo Aquifer in the extremely dry region. In an average year of the mine’s operation Peabody was responsible for more than half of the water taken from the aquifer.
Mining at Black Mesa stopped in 2005 because the Mohave Generating Station in Nevada, which bought all of the Black Mesa coal, shut down because it violated the Clean Air Act. The plant emitted 40,000 tons of sulfur dioxide per year from Jonah’s low-sulfur western coal. However, last December the Office of Surface Mining (OSM) allowed Peabody to restart mining, and continue destroying Navajo and Hopi communities until 2026 or the water runs out, whichever comes first. (Side note: The OSM is an absurd bureaucracy that gives out awards for the best strip mine reclamation. Reclamation is a euphemism for planting grass after destroying an ecosystem to mine coal.) All this oppression for Jonah’s low-sulfur coal!
Regardless of its sulfur content, or the fantasies of Jonah Blumstein, coal will never be a clean energy source. Coal mining, like all fossil fuel exploitation, destroys local environments, oppresses local (often indigenous) people, and contributes to climate change. Our fossil-fuel economy is based on the exploitation of land and people from Appalachia, Arizona, Alberta, Ecuador, and many more. Exploiting new sources of coal in the West would simply expand the destruction of Appalachia to the rest of the country. It clearly would do nothing to slow climate change or stop environmental destruction.
The only way to stop the exploitation of these communities and to stop the worse effects of climate change is to leave fossil fuels in the ground.
9 days of training, service and action for environmental justice in the coal fields 9 more nails in the coffin of dirty coal!
In less than five weeks, you'll have a chance to get totally plugged into the growing movement to end mountaintop removal and bring justice to the coal fields. Come to Eastern Tennessee, March 7-15 for Mountain Justice Spring Break, where we will share the skills and knowledge needed to fight back against dirty coal. This will be an amazing opportunity to meet and join the good people who make up Mountain Justice, gain grassroots organizing skills, and learn the dirty truth about coal, with your own eyes. Stand up and take action at the site of the TVA coal ash disaster and stand in solidarity with the impacted communities.
You can visit mjsb.org right now and register for what is bound to be a life-changing experience.
Building upon the success of Mountain Justice Spring Break (MJSB) 2008, this year's camp will be full of workshops, speakers, community service, direct action, hiking, music, great food, camp fires, fun times and more. Not only will you leave with a refined understanding of mountaintop removal and the dirty coal cycle, you will learn to organize in solidarity with coal-impacted communities to maintain their land and culture and end our dependence on dirty energy.
MJSB 2009 is will be held at a beautiful camp (with cabins) near the Cumberland Plateau, allowing us to explore and appreciate the land we are working to protect. The camp is only miles away from the recent TVA ash disaster, the single worst environmental catastrophe in U.S. History. We will have the unique opportunity to meet with and act in solidarity with the local people, who's lives have been turned upside-down by the colossal one billion gallon spill of toxic coal ash. (And TVA Headquarters will only be a few miles away, in Knoxville... )
At spring break, Mountain Justice will also be recruiting volunteers to join the struggles in coal-impacted communities of Tennessee, Kentucky, West Virginia and Virginia. Internships for college credit can be set up for a wide range of areas of study. You can come work for Mountain Justice and get college credit for it!
This event is being planned largely by college students and full-time volunteers, so if you're interested in joining in on the final stages, please email Marty to get involved!
If you have break between March 7th and 15th (or even if you don't...), please consider coming to Eastern Tennessee and joining in on the fun and educational experience that will be Mountain Justice Spring Break. We're looking forward to making lots of new friends and pushing the movement that much closer towards critical mass. The time for Mountain Justice is at hand, and you can be part of it!
Please visit mjsb.org for more information, and register by February 18th!
Can't make it to MJSB 2009? Then maybe you can come to DC for the 4th Annual End Mountaintop Removal Week in DC, March 14-18th. Check out this event and many more at powerpastcoal.org
This rough week for coal continued yesterday, as Rising Tide Boston (RTB) acted in solidarity with those who took a stand at Coal River Mountain, earlier that day. Steve Leer, CEO of Arch Coal, the second largest coal supplier in the U.S., attempted to deliver a public lecture on "clean coal technology" at Harvard University last night. Not only was the crowd less than receptive to the coal baron's sad defense of coal, the final word was delivered by members of RT Boston.
The Arch Coal rep was a guest speaker in a special series of lectures entitled "The Future of Energy." As if its some sort of cosmic joke, the lecture series is funded by none other than Bank of America, the largest financial sponsor of coal extraction, and a predominant investor in Arch Coal. Not surprisingly, the lecture contained very little discourse on the feasibility of carbon capture, and served mainly as a defense for maintaining the status quo of centralized and dirty energy production (including nuclear!!!).
After a hour-long excretion of predictable arguments for keeping us addicted to dirty coal, the evening was ended with an enlightening Q&A session. Every single person in line at the mic made a critical comment as part of their question, the first being delivered by a young woman from the coal-fields of Kentucky, who brought attention to the conveniently overlooked issue of coal extraction in Appalachia.
You could almost see the CEO shrink in his cocoon of avoidance and denial, his voice dropping to near inaudible as he delivered each sidestepping non-answer. After getting nailed one question after another, a member of Rising Tide Boston got to ask the last "question," which ended, "...what gives us the right to gamble the future of civilization on a magic technology that doesn't exist?". Oh snap.
As he tried to control the damage, and fashion some sort of response, two other members of RTB walked to the front of the lecture hall and unfurled a banner which read, "The coal bubble is bursting - Clean Coal is a Dirty Lie," before proclaiming a list of statements on Arch Coal's investments in "every dirty energy practice in the country." (Note that the banner included both the Arch Coal logo, as well as Bank of America's.)
That was the end of the evening's failed attempt at disinformation. Don't quit your day job, Steve. No wait, quit your day job.
The whole debacle served as yet another blow to King Coal, a one-two punch after the morning's inspiring action at Coal River Mountain. And with the capital action and others across the country on the horizon, things are only heating up for Steve and friends. Rising Tide Boston isn't letting up on Bank of America either, and will continue to stick it to them come Valentine's day.
The press release, from the laptop of Rising Tide Boston:
Rising Tide Boston crashes talk by Arch Coal CEO
February 3, 2009
Boston, MA - Seven activists from Rising Tide Boston disrupted a lecture at Harvard University being delivered by Arch Coal CEO Steve Leer, who was speaking on the future of "clean coal" technology. The activists attempted to enlighten the coal baron and the lecture attendees on the true cost of coal extraction.
"Arch coal is participating in the destructive practice of mountaintop removal," says Tyler Kinser, a member of Rising Tide Boston. "How can coal ever be clean when entire communities are being poisoned and displaced by coal extraction?"
"This Harvard lecture series is funded by Bank of America, the single largest financial sponsor of mountaintop removal," said Kinser, "so it's no surprise that Harvard is hosting this lecture of disinformation on coal. We decided to balance out the lies." Bank of America has invested billions of dollars in Arch Coal, according to the website dirtymoney.org.
EPA & UMD Conference Call
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May 13, 2009
Today United Mountain Defense had a conference call with the Environmental
Protection Agency about the agreement they recently entered with TV...
On the same day that dozens of Californians marched to demand renewables in their state, students from all across the country joined Appalachians in Tennessee to march on the TVA headquarters. Organizer Chelsea Ritter-Soronen offers her account of the action...
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