- EC - lists.frackcheckwv.net

Re: [EC] Important development in Mingo TransGas
by James Kotcon 20 Mar '09

20 Mar '09

--- On Wed, 3/18/09, James Kotcon <jkotcon(a)wvu.edu> wrote: From: James Kotcon <jkotcon(a)wvu.edu> Subject: Re: Important development in Mingo TransGas To: Andrea.Issod(a)sierraclub.org, bill.price(a)sierraclub.org, glen.hooks(a)sierraclub.org, tim.guilfoile(a)sierraclub.org, jkotcon(a)wvu.edu, jim_scon(a)yahoo.com Cc: emily.ulmer(a)sierraclub.org, Pat.Gallagher(a)sierraclub.org Date: Wednesday, March 18, 2009, 4:07 PM Please note that HB 3081 was introduced in the WV … [View More]Legislature on March 11. It would exempt the first "Coal-To-Liquid" facility in the state that produces at least 30,000 barrels per day from corporate net income tax for four years, exempts severance taxes on the coal mined for such a plant, and guarantees that the State would purchase all of the gasoline or diesel fuel from such a plant for four years "at the price of $2.25 per gallon or at a competitive rate as deemed by the state". Sponsors are Delegates McGeehan, Kominar, Moore, Boggs, Armstead, Shott, and Shook. The good news is that none of these guys are high up in the leadership, so we have a chance to kill it. Start pouring in those letters and phone calls. Jim Kotcon >>> Sent by <Andrea.Issod(a)sierraclub.org> 3/18/2009 3:49 PM >>> Emily just learned from WV DAQ engineer Joe Kessler that TransGas is trying to get its Mingo plant permitted as a minor source. A minor source is not subject to Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD) requirements to use Best Available Control Technology (BACT) to set emission limits, and it does not have to perform any air quality analysis. Thats right, they are saying they are not requiring any modeling from this monster. The reason we're given is because it's using a new process called Methanol To Gas (MTG) instead of the more common Fischer-Trope process. Where Fischer-Trope generates a lot of excess tailgas that must be disposed of through flaring (burning it up), they say the MTG process is more efficient because the off-gas from the process is continually re-circulated and emissions are thus much reduced. We have retained an engineer to look at the application to advise us the best arguments to submit to DAQ on why this should be treated as a major source. Hopefully we will have those comments into DAQ in the next few weeks before any further permitting activity -- and you all can do some organizing and press about these. You all might want to contact the DAQ about this issue and express that all similar sources are treated as major sources, demand more information, etc. Definitely let us know what you find Joe Kessler, PE Engineer West Virginia Division of Air Quality Phone: (304) 926-0499 x1219 Joseph.r.kessler(a)wv.gov Also, last month we requested certain information that TransGas marked as confidential in the application and the company has finally responded that it will release some of this information. We'll send out when we get it. Best, Andrea Issod Staff Attorney Sierra Club Environmental Law Program 85 Second Street, 2d Floor San Francisco, CA 94105-3441 Phone: (415) 977-5544 Fax: (415) 977-5793 CONFIDENTIAL LEGAL COMMUNICATION/WORK PRODUCT This e-mail may contain privileged and confidential attorney-client communications and/or attorney work product. If you receive this e-mail inadvertently, please reply to the sender and delete all versions on your system. Thank you. [View Less]

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[Fwd: Re: [fom] Big hearing on MTR on Monday]
by Regina Hendrix 19 Mar '09

19 Mar '09

Could this be the beginning of the end?

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Fwd: FYI: Electric Transmission Line Sign on letter
by Paul Wilson 18 Mar '09

18 Mar '09

fyi, paul ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Glen Besa <glen.besa(a)sierraclub.org> Date: Tue, Mar 17, 2009 at 11:23 PM Subject: FYI: Electric Transmission Line Sign on letter To: Elena.Saxonhouse(a)sierraclub.org, Paul Wilson <pjgrunt(a)gmail.com>, dave o'leary <daveol(a)earthlink.net>, ghookssc(a)earthlink.net, glenbesasc(a)earthlink.net, jkotcon(a)wvu.edu, rmarmet(a)pecva.org, sbruckner(a)cox.net, Robin Mann <robinmann(a)earthlink.net> See attached … [View More]

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Fw: Summary of the latest science on the climate catastrophe
by Jim Sconyers 14 Mar '09

14 Mar '09

Jim Sconyers jim_scon(a)yahoo.com 304.698.9628 Remember: Mother Nature bats last. --- On Sat, 3/14/09, Jim Stewart <Jim(a)EARTHDAYLA.ORG> wrote: From: Jim Stewart <Jim(a)EARTHDAYLA.ORG> Subject: Summary of the latest science on the climate catastrophe To: CONS-SPST-GLOBALWARM-CHAIRS(a)LISTS.SIERRACLUB.ORG Date: Saturday, March 14, 2009, 3:48 PM Summary of the latest science on the climate catastropheDear Team, Attached are important articles (plus a link at bottom of this … [View More]email to a 3-minute audio tape) summarizing the results of the emergency gathering of 2500 climate scientists from around the world March 10-12, 2009, in Copenhagen. Key points and links are provided below. Carbon Output Must Near Zero To Avert Danger, New Studies Say By Juliet Eilperin, Washington Post Staff Writer, Monday, March 10, 2008; A01 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/09/AR200803090… Key Messages from the Climate Congress 12 March 2009 http://climatecongress.ku.dk/newsroom/congress_key_messages/ - As a result of the acceleration of outlet glaciers over large regions, the ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica are already contributing more and faster to sea level rise than anticipated. - Recent observations confirm that, given high rates of observed emissions, the worst-case IPCC scenario trajectories (or even worse) are being realised. - Rapid, sustained, and effective mitigation based on coordinated global and regional action is required to avoid "dangerous climate change" regardless of how it is defined. Weaker targets for 2020 increase the risk of crossing tipping points and make the task of meeting 2050 targets more difficult. Delay in initiating effective mitigation actions increases significantly the long-term social and economic costs of both adaptation and mitigation. - A common but differentiated mitigation strategy is needed to protect the poor and most vulnerable. - There is no excuse for inaction. Fighting global warming offers growth and development opportunities -Leading economist proposes "Climate Marshall Plan" 12 March 2009. http://climatecongress.ku.dk/newsroom/mitigation_growth_development/ "There is some evidence that harder greenhouse gas targets and regulation may actually increase benefits through improved innovation and distribution of low carbon technologies, and increased revenues from taxes or permits. These revenues can be spent to further support new technology and to lower other indirect taxes, ensuring the fiscal neutrality of these measures", says Terry Barker, Director of Cambridge Centre for Climate Change Mitigation Research. Stern attacks politicians over climate 'devastation' * David Adam in Copenhagen, The Guardian, Friday 13 March 2009 http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/mar/13/stern-attacks-politicians… Politicians have failed to take on board the severe consequences of failing to cut world carbon emissions, according to Nicholas Stern, the economist commissioned by Gordon Brown to analyse the impact of climate change. His stark warning about the potentially "devastating" consequences of global warming came as scientists issued a desperate plea last night for world leaders to curb greenhouse gas emissions or face an ecological and social disaster. Time to call it "Climate Breakdown" What's clear from Copenhagen is that policymakers have fallen behind the scientists: global warming is already catastrophic by George Monbiot, Thursday 12 March 2009 http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/mar/12/climate-change-copenhag… The more we know, the grimmer it gets. Amazon could shrink by 85% due to climate change, scientists say - Scientists say 4C rise would kill 85% of the Amazon rainforest. - Even modest temperature rise would see 20-40% loss within 100 years. * David Adam in Copenhagen, Wednesday 11 March 2009 14.34 GMT http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/mar/11/amazon-global-warming-tre… Severe global warming will render half of world's inhabited areas unlivable, expert warns Parts of China, India and the eastern US could all become too warm (and humid) in summer for people to lose heat by sweating, expert warns. * David Adam in Copenhagen, Thursday 12 March 2009 http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/mar/12/global-warming-temp-rise-… Climate change warning: 'We're sick of having our messages lost in political noise' David Adam reports scientists' exasperation at the climate change conference, Audio (2min 45sec), 13 Mar 2009. http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/audio/2009/mar/13/climate-change-cope… More articles at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/copenhagen -- Jim Stewart, PhD, Co-chair Sierra Club California Climate-Energy Committee 213-487-9340 Fax: 310-362-8400 Cell: 213-820-4345 1216 S. Westlake Ave. Los Angeles, CA 90006-4118 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - To unsubscribe from the CONS-SPST-GLOBALWARM-CHAIRS list, send any message to: CONS-SPST-GLOBALWARM-CHAIRS-signoff-request(a)LISTS.SIERRACLUB.ORG Check out our Listserv Lists support site for more information: http://www.sierraclub.org/lists/faq.asp [View Less]

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new phone number
by Jim Sconyers 14 Mar '09

14 Mar '09

Hi folks - As of Monday 3/16/2009 I will have a new phone number. This will be my only number. 304-698-9628 Jim Sconyers jim_scon(a)yahoo.com 304.698.9628 Remember: Mother Nature bats last.

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TRAILCO - PSC CASE NO 07-0508-E-CN -- CORRECTED SIERRA CLUB PETITION FOR SUSPENSION
by William V. DePaulo, Esq. 14 Mar '09

14 Mar '09

I have attached to this email a copy of the Sierra Club's Petition for Suspension and Review which corrects six instances in which the date 2011 was incorrectly typed as 2001. Because it is impossible to mis-spell a date, spell check cannot catch this kind of mistake. Because the date is important for the merits of the petition I have corrected it. Corrected hard copies will be filed at the Supreme Court, served on adverse parties, and filed with the Commission. I apologize for any … [View More]

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TRAILCO - CASE NO 07-0508-E-CN
by William DePaulo via YouSendIt 13 Mar '09

13 Mar '09

You have a priority delivery from YouSendIt I ATTACH THE SIERRA CLUB'S PETITION FOR SUSPENSION AND REVIEW OF THE AUG 1 08 AND FEB 13 09 ORDERS,<wbr /> AND RELATED DOCUMENTS, FILED TODAY WITH THE PSC AND THE SUPREME COURT OF APPEALS.<br /> <br<wbr /> /> WILLIAM V. DEPAULO Click here to download file: https://rcpt.yousendit.com/663636387/479a28cc198194016eef22cfa3d0fea7 Sent by: william.depaulo(a)gmail.com File to pick up: 2009 Mar 13 12:33 upload File will … [View More]

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Fw: drafts for two new Activist Network Teams: comments and core team nominations welcome
by Jim Sconyers 13 Mar '09

13 Mar '09

Jim Sconyers jim_scon(a)yahoo.com 304.906.6628 Remember: Mother Nature bats last. --- On Fri, 3/13/09, Fred Heutte <phred(a)SUNLIGHTDATA.COM> wrote: From: Fred Heutte <phred(a)SUNLIGHTDATA.COM> Subject: drafts for two new Activist Network Teams: comments and core team nominations welcome To: CONS-SPST-GLOBALWARM-CHAIRS(a)LISTS.SIERRACLUB.ORG Date: Friday, March 13, 2009, 4:29 AM Dear all, We're now ready to move forward in setting up teams in the Activist Network to cover … [View More]the broad issues of global warming and energy. After our conference call last month (thanks for all the great discussion) and a lot of consultation we are proposing not one but two new Activist Network teams: * Clean Technology Team The Clean Tech Team will primarily focus on technical assessment and presentation on important issues of interest to the Club and especially chapters, national campaigns and other teams. * Energy Chairs Team The Energy Chairs Team will help coordinate work at the chapter level and provide links and a voice to energy chairs and other volunteers at the national level. These are not mutually exclusive and will be able to coordinate their work. See below for further details. Each Team will have a core of 6 to 10 members who are responsible for team planning and oversight. Please nominate yourself or others if interested in being part of a core team -- we'll accept nominations received by next Monday, March 16 to phred(a)sunlightdata.com, with a short note indicating your interest and background and the team you are interested in. Further core team appointments may come later. We thank the CNRCC for their nominations which have already been received. Final recommendations will be made to the Activist Network Support Team when we submit the team charges next week. If you have questions or comments, please send them asap. regards, Fred on behalf of Global Warming & Energy Committee and members of the former Smart Energy Solutions CIC ================================================== Proposals for Clean Tech Team and Energy Chairs Team Drafts below as of: March 12, 2009 Will be finalized: March 16, 2009 Core team members (about 6 to 10) will be responsible for team planning and management. You do not need to be a member of the core team to participate in the team. Broad participation is strongly encouraged. Please send additional core team nominations to phred(a)sunlightdata.com by Monday, March 16 ================================================== DRAFT A: Clean Technology Team 1. What is your team's goal? The goal of the Clean Technology Team is: To broaden understanding of key technology opportunities and issues to create a sustainable, equitable and clean energy system and reduce the risks of climate change. 2. What is your team's purpose? * To inform Club activists, members, entities and the public with accurate and accessible information about important energy technology opportunities and issues. * To draw on the experience and knowledge of Club volunteers and staff alike to develop a full understanding of key energy technology issues. 3. What is the scope of your team's work? Regional? National? The scope of the team’s work is national and, in fact, international in that energy technology development, opportunities and problems occur globally, but the emphasis will be on technologies and issues directly affecting the US. The team can respond to requests for assessments from the National Board as well as setting out its own research agenda, and will coordinate with the national campaigns and other Club entities, including the Energy Chairs Team. 4. What have you accomplished in 2008 and in the past few years? The immediate predecessor of this team was the Global Warming & Energy Committee. In addition to developing the Energy Resources Policy in 2006, which covered a complete spectrum of energy technologies, GWE also developed or participated in the Wind Resource Guidance, the national policy on Carbon Markets, CFL Guidelines, Biomass Guidance, the forthcoming Landfill-Gas-to-Energy policy, and consultations on numerous other issues involving technical and policy assessments. 5. What are you going to be working on in 2009? The first task will be setting a research agenda by identifying technologies and issues of interest, and selecting an initial set for study and reporting based on immediacy, impact and the availability of interest and expertise. 6. How can volunteers get involved? Tasks/opportunities for new volunteers: Provide questions on energy technologies that arise from work at the chapter or other level and would help advance that work. Identify local experts to assist with team assessment efforts. Distribute assessment results locally to inform Club members, the public and decision-makers about key energy opportunities and issues. Tasks/opportunities for experienced volunteers: Provide access to the team for new volunteers and general members. Help shape the research agenda and priorities. Provide own technical knowledge and experience. Distribute results widely through all available Club communication methods and entities. Tasks/opportunities for leaders: Organize and manage the team. Insure access and accountability to chapter and other volunteers, other Club entities, the Activist Network Support Team and the National Board. Set a research agenda, assign subteams and tasks, and shape reports and other outcomes. Establish a budget and seek funding. Seek assistance from outside scientists and other professionals, and links to outside technical groups and organizations. 7. What resources does your team want to share and/or develop? Driven by needs expressed by other Club entities, particularly chapters, campaigns and the National Board. 8. Who is on your core team? Core team members are: Paul Craig, CA David Reister, TN Dick Ball, VA Dick Fiddler, WA [others TBA, please send nominations to phred(a)sunlightdata.com by Monday, March 16] 9. Notes and Questions ================================================== DRAFT B: Energy Chairs Team 1. What is your team's goal? The goal of the Energy Chairs Team is: To strengthen chapter energy and global warming research, education, activism and organizing and contribute to the Sierra Club’s overall effort to create a sustainable, equitable and clean energy system and reduce the risks of climate change. 2. What is your team's purpose? * To assist chapter Energy Chairs by providing information, access to expertise, a sounding board and a communications path to coordinate efforts across chapters. * To give Energy Chairs an arena to discuss issues and communicate views and concerns to other Club entities including the National Board, chapters, national campaigns and other Activist Network teams. * To provide a venue for other Club volunteers and staff to interact with and provide assistance to Energy Chairs. 3. What is the scope of your team's work? Regional? National? The scope of the team’s work is national but organized to focus on chapter level activities. 4. What have you accomplished in 2008 and in the past few years? The predecessors of this team were the Global Warming & Energy Committee (GWE) and Smart Energy Solutions Conservation Initiative Committee (SESCIC). Those national committees provided information, funded specific projects and in other ways assisted chapter energy and global warming efforts. GWE launched the Energy Chairs Task Force to gain advice on these issues, and established the Energy Chairs listserv which continues to function. SESCIC provided funding and technical assistance for many chapter energy and global warming related projects in 2005-2008. 5. What are you going to be working on in 2009? To be determined. Initial efforts will focus on organizing the team and setting an initial agenda of topics to consider that would assist chapter energy and global warming efforts. Some work can be coordinated with the Energy Technology Team. 6. How can volunteers get involved? Tasks/opportunities for new volunteers: Provide questions on energy issues that arise from work at the chapter level and would help advance that work. Learn about key energy and global warming issues, policies and technologies. Identify local experts to assist with team efforts. Assist Energy Chairs in working with chapters to disseminate information and resources. Team involvement can be a ladder of engagement for new volunteers to become Energy Chairs in their chapters. Tasks/opportunities for experienced volunteers: Many experienced volunteers will be Energy Chairs or serve similar chapter functions. Provide access to the team for new volunteers and general members. Help shape the team agenda and priorities. Provide own technical knowledge and experience. Distribute results widely through all available Club communication methods and entities. Help develop and shape chapter energy and global warming efforts. Tasks/opportunities for leaders: Organize and manage the team. Insure access and accountability to chapter and other volunteers, other Club entities, the Activist Network Support Team and the National Board. Set an agenda, assign subteams and tasks, and shape reports and other outcomes. Establish a budget and seek funding. Seek assistance from other Club entities, including the Energy Technology Team. Coordinate with other areas of the Club working on forest, lands, transportation, environmental justice, fair trade, public involvement and governance issues. 7. What resources does your team want to share and/or develop? Driven by needs expressed by Energy Chairs and by other Club entities, particularly chapters. 8. Who is on your core team? Core team members are: Joan Saxe, ME Wallace McMullen, KY [others TBA, please send nominations to phred(a)sunlightdata.com by Monday, March 16] 9. Notes and Questions - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - To unsubscribe from the CONS-SPST-GLOBALWARM-CHAIRS list, send any message to: CONS-SPST-GLOBALWARM-CHAIRS-signoff-request(a)LISTS.SIERRACLUB.ORG Check out our Listserv Lists support site for more information: http://www.sierraclub.org/lists/faq.asp Sign up to receive Sierra Club Insider, the flagship e-newsletter. Sent out twice a month, it features the Club's latest news and activities. Subscribe and view recent editions at http://www.sierraclub.org/insider/ [View Less]

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[Fwd: FW: Full story and slideshow onColumbus Dispatch]
by Regina Hendrix 10 Mar '09

10 Mar '09

FYI. A part of this story ran on the front page of the Gazette this A.M. Regina

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Fwd: Welcome to new WVNS Producer!
by Paul Wilson 10 Mar '09

10 Mar '09

fyi, paul ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Public NewsService Web Site <wvns(a)publicnewsservice.org> Date: Mon, Mar 9, 2009 at 7:31 PM Subject: Welcome to new WVNS Producer! To: pjgrunt(a)gmail.com Hello, Friends! Please join us in welcoming Charleston-based Dan Heyman, as in "Hey, man..." to the WVNS team. You may not know that we've had to pry West Virginia out of Deb and Eric's hands becuase they really love working with you all! Dan is eager to get to know you all … [View More]

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FW: STOP PATH rally program March 11/Charleston
by Grubb, Karen 06 Mar '09

06 Mar '09

Does anyone need a ride to E-Day and the PATH meeting in Charleston? -------------------------------------------------------------------- STOP PATH Event in Charleston March 11th In connection with the WV Environmental Council's annual E-day! events on March 11th, WV E-Council, WV Citizens Against PATH (CAP) and other organizations and interested individuals will be sponsoring a late afternoon rally and informational meeting in opposition to the proposed PATH electricity transmission … [View More]line. PATH is an acronym for Potomac-Allegheny Transmission Highline. PATH is a proposed joint venture between American Electric Power Company (AEP) of Columbus, Ohio and Allegheny Energy Company of Greensburg, PA. PATH, if approved by regulatory agencies and constructed, would be a giant 765 Kilovolt electrical power transmission line that would run 290 miles from AEP's John Amos power plant substation near St. Albans, W.Va., to a new substation near Frederick, MD. PATH would include a right-of-way swath 200 feet wide through farms and forests and other public and private properties, across up to a dozen or more WV counties, and through the state's eastern panhandle into Virginia and Maryland. The apparent purpose of PATH is to transfer coal fueled electricity from the Ohio Valley to eastern cities near the Atlantic coast. Strong local citizen opposition to PATH has developed over several months, with STOP PATH rallies and informational meetings held or soon to be held in almost every county through which PATH would pass. The STOP PATH rally in Charleston on E-day! will be held at the same location as the WVEC E-day! dinner and awards ceremony- at the Charleston Women's Club at the corner of Elizabeth Street and Virginia Street East, less than two blocks from the state capital building. The E-day! Charleston STOP PATH rally will be held from 3:30 PM until 5:00 or 5:15 PM. So if you would like to learn how to effectively work to STOP PATH, get a STOP PATH yard sign, or just learn more about PATH, then attend the STOP PATH rally at 3:30 Wednesday. We will talk about things like petitions against PATH, writing letters to the WV Public Service Commission (PSC) about PATH, and about how individuals and / or organizations can become an actual legally opposing party, called an intervener, once the PATH application is actually filed at the PSC. WV Citizens Against PATH will have a STOP PATH informational table in the capital building rotunda on E-day, with maps, signature petitions against PATH and other information. For further information or to offer to help with the Charleston STOP PATH rally, contact Frank Young, e-mail fyoung(a)mountain.net, or by telephone 304-372-3945. [View Less]

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Fw: [CCL] 2 draft policies open for comment on Clubhouse
by Jim Sconyers 04 Mar '09

04 Mar '09

FYI Jim Sconyers jim_scon(a)yahoo.com 304.906.6628 Remember: Mother Nature bats last. --- On Wed, 3/4/09, Tina Schulstad <tinas715(a)yahoo.com> wrote: From: Tina Schulstad <tinas715(a)yahoo.com> Subject: [CCL] 2 draft policies open for comment on Clubhouse To: CCL-DELEGATES(a)LISTS.SIERRACLUB.ORG Date: Wednesday, March 4, 2009, 11:50 AM On the Clubhouse website, 2 draft policies have now been posted that are requesting comments from Sierra Club members. Please see … [View More]

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FW: [wvec-board] Capitol Power Plant -- Judy, Elisa, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.- with thousands of others
by Grubb, Karen 03 Mar '09

03 Mar '09

From: wvec-board(a)yahoogroups.com [mailto:wvec-board@yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of cindyrank Sent: Tuesday, March 03, 2009 7:43 AM To: fom(a)lists.riseup.net Cc: wvec-board(a)yahoogroups.com; WVHCBOARD(a)yahoogroups.com Subject: [wvec-board] Capitol Power Plant -- Judy, Elisa, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.- with thousands of others WATERKEEPERS FORWARDED THIS LAST NIGHT --- ________________________________ The Huffington Post Posted March 2, 2009 | 11:05 AM (EST) Dirty Coal Has Left the … [View More]Building: Live Blog from DC <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeff-biggers/dirty-coal-has-left-the-b_b_ 171060.html> by Jeff Biggers (Updates will appear all day from the Capitol Climate Action in Washington, DC.) UPDATE 5:15 EST The Capitol Power Plant's days of coal are over. It's been the waiting game here: Since 2pm, over 2,000 activists have blockaded the three main gates to the Capitol Power Plant. The rather larger police turnout is impressive; clad in their best stocking caps, they dot the chain fence like lamp-posts, taking in the gregarious march with a bit of interest and fascination. No attempt at any arrest has been made. The crowd is controlled and peaceful; there is a festive atmosphere, young and old, all bundled up and dancing to keep warm on this crystal clear but chilly afternoon. The only clouds now, in this blue sky, are the coal-fired ones billowing from the Capitol plant. At 5pm, the Capitol Climate Action hailed the historic action a victory and dispersed. No arrests were made. It has been a fascinating and powerful day. Communities from across the country have come together in an amazing arm-to-arm support on the picket line. On stage in front of the main gate, tribal members from Michigan, New Mexico and Arizona have testified to the disastrous impact of coal mining in their communities, and coal-fired waste and mercury emissions in their water. Robert Kennedy, Jr., with his son and daughter at his side, made an impassioned case against the criminal elements of mountaintop removal policies and poorly enforced environmental abuse by willing coal companies. Kennedy recalled his own father's campaign to help end strip mining in the 1960s, citing the ultimate effect of mining on destroying local economies and the union movement. Kennedy called on Capitol Hill to recognize the "true costs of coal." Kennedy was hopeful, though, saying a "sea-change" had occurred with the new Obama administration. Kennedy, like all protesters, readied themselves for arrest. The End of Nature author Bill McKibben declared he had been waiting 20 years for this moment, dating back to his groundbreaking book on climate change. A series of chants of 350--the silver bullet number of parts per million of CO2--erupted. Kathy Mattea, the Grammy-award singer, beautiful weaved an old Jean Ritchie song, Blackwater, with other Appalachian ballads on coal. Judy Bonds, whose Coal River Mountain in West Virginia is literally being detonated daily by explosives, told the crowd: "I don't mind being poor, I don't mind being made fun of, but I do mind being blasted and poisoned." Dr. James Hansen called on the Obama administration and the nation's legislators to look at the root cause of climate destabilization, and reminded the crowd of the urgency of the moment. Hansen sounded the alarm on CO2 emissions over 25 years ago. Only steps away from actress Daryl Hannah, the legendary Larry Gibson, who has spent 25 years on a journey to stop mountaintop removal along his home of Kayford Mountain in West Virginia, has been standing on the line of arrest for hours. Like McKibben, this historic moment has been long in waiting. When Gibson began his crusade to end mountaintop removal two decades ago, he recalled barely being able to draw a crowd of two. While the coal industry may have invested over $40 million dollars in fictitious "clean coal" ads, the stunning array of banners and placards---Clean Coal is Like Dry Water, Coal is the Mother's Liver, Topless Mountains Are Obscene, Coal is Dirty, Power Past Coal--drove home the dirty reality of coal and coal-fired plants today. Dirty coal has indeed left the Capitol Power Plant. See you at Cliffside in Charlotte, North Carolina on April 20th for the next coal-fired plant to retire. UPDATE 1pm EST 12:55 pm EST Spirit of Justice Park Contingents of marchers are gathering in the park just to the south of the Capitol, a few blocks from the Capitol Power Plant. A long line of hundreds of younger marchers have just entered from the Powershift rally at the Capitol building. Dividing into four banner areas, Red (Power), Blue (Change), Green (Justice), and Yellow, the activists are chanting "Clean Coal is a Dirty Lie," among other chants. It's an energetic crowd, on a very windy and cold day, though the sun keeps attempting to break through the clouds. Ahjani Yepa-Sprague, from the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians, in Michigan, is handing out a statement that declares: "Mercury from coal-fired power plants, like this one, are of special concern to children and women of childbearing age like myself...Tribal lifeways have had to be altered because of the existing mercury in lakes and streams in Michigan....Tribal communities in Michigan and around the world are threatened by the pollution and harms caused by coal plants." Cassie Robinson, a young activist from eastern Kentucky with Mountain Justice, told me she has traveled to Washington to draw attention to climate change, the destruction of her communities from mountaintop removal, and an increasing concern about the problems of natural gas development in Appalachia, an issue often overlooked. Carl "Pete" Ramey, a great-grandfather from Wise County, Virginia, and VFW chaplain, who spent 37 years laboring in an underground mine, has just read an opening prayer: "Is faith asleep? Let it wake. Today is ours. Let's take it." Addressing the largely young crowd, Ramey recalled his increasing activism with the environmental movement after witnessing the impact of mountaintop removal in his region. "I'm inspired by these children." Author Bill McKibben held down the corner of the park with plenty of media cameras. He declared simply: "Coal is killing the planet. Green energy is going to drive us out of this recession." Kentucky farmer-poet Wendell Berry has arrived, stocking cap afixed, bracing in the cold wind as a crowd of young admirers swelled around him. The Capitol Power Plant action is set to begin in the next 30 minutes or so. 11am EST The great snow storm has passed. The clouds are parting. The sun is breaking through. Those tiny ripples of hope, that Robert Kennedy once invoked, are beginning to gather near Capitol Hill. The Capitol Power Plant: It was built at the same time the first Ford Model T cars rolled onto the streets. A century later, the Capitol plant will finally end its use of coal in the age of the iPhone and Blackberry. There's a new era in Washington, DC--a clean energy era. And with an Obama administration that wants to double our renewable energy production in three years, and has called for cap 'n trade legislation to limit carbon emissions, thousands of clean energy and coalfield activists are converging on the snow-swept streets of Washington, DC today to remind Capitol Hill that a growing and incredibly organized movement is ready to make this new clean energy era a reality. The Capitol Climate Action today is more than a historic protest against coal, coal-fired plants and their role in climate change. It's a celebration of a road map to end our dependence on our nation's dirtiest fossil fuel. For up-to-date information, see: capitolclimateaction.org The denials of coal's dirty past are over: Thousands of citizens are prepared to engage in civil disobedience at the Capitol Power Plant today to make clear the sense of urgency in dealing with climate change legislation and policy in an effective and timely manner. In anticipation of this first mass act of civil disobedience in our nation's history around climate change, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid have asked the Acting Architect of the Capitol to end the use of coal at the Capitol plant as "an important demonstration of Congress' willingness to deal with the enormous challenges of global warming, energy independence and our inefficient use of finite fossil fuels." That's one small step for Congress; one giant leap for the nation, if we continue to retire the oldest and dirtiest coal-fired plants at a similar pace. In the meantime, at the other 635 coal-fired plants, over 40 percent of our nation's carbon dioxide emissions continue to erupt from electricity plant silos like as silent volcanoes of death. The urgency of this movement rings with a new message: We all live in the coalfields now. At the historic Powershift09 conference this weekend in Washington, DC, where over 12,000 students and clean energy activists gathered for a whirlwind of panels, workshops and speeches, scores of experts and community organizers in coal mining and coal-fired plant areas provided some dramatic backstory to the growing movement against climate destabilization. Elisa Young, a farm resident from Meigs County, spoke about the spike in cancer and asthma in an area beset with five coal-fired plants in southern Ohio. According to one recent study, men in Meigs County have the lowest life expectancy rate in the state. Judy Bonds, from the Coal River Mountain Watch in West Virginia, showed how near 500 mountains in central Appalachia have been toppled into the valleys, as part of mountaintop removal mining, wiping out 1,200 miles of streams, depopulating and ruining historic mountain hamlets and economies, and contaminating watersheds. The human costs of mountaintop removal have emerged as the most egregious violation of human rights in the region in our lifetimes. Chris Martin, a student from Tennessee, reminded the audience that the TVA coal ash leakages in his area last December brought out the fact that more than half of our nation's population and their water sources rest within a half hour drive of an unregulated coal ash pond and potential catastrophe. According to the American Lung Association, 24,000 Americans die prematurely from coal-fired plant pollution each year. Another 550,000 asthma attacks, 38,000 heart attacks and 12,000 hospital admissions are also attributed to coal-fired plants. In 1895, newspapers ran ads for smoke-free "clean coal" in Chicago, as the boom in coal-fired plant electricity was about to launch a new era. Over a century later, those same "clean coal" ads are still running, and the dirty coal denials are taking place. The convergence on the Capitol Power Plant in Washington, DC, marks a new era in confronting these denials. While applauding President Barack Obama's commitment renewable energy, coalfield activists and clean energy advocates are directly addressing a president still beholden to the chimera of "clean coal," it's devastating extraction counterparts and dirty coal's underlining role in the silent tsunami of climate destabilization. For those suffering the consequence of dirty coal's legacy, the time has arrived to put an end to the "clean coal" scams of the coal lobby, which not only jeopardize any efforts to pass effective climate legislation before the world climate change conference in Copenhagen in December, but continue the devastation of coal mining in Appalachia, the Midwest and the West. "What we do in the next two to three years will determine our future," Rajendra Pachauri, Chairman of the UN's International Panel on Climate Change, has declared. It's time for dirty coal to leave the building. Jeff Biggers is the author of The United States of Appalachia, and the forthcoming book, Reckoning at Eagle Creek: The Secret Legacy of Coal in the Heartland (The Nation/Basic Books). [View Less]

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Fwd: Fw: Realtors Survey shows strong public support for Transit
by James Kotcon 02 Mar '09

02 Mar '09

Perhaps our political leaders need to get the message. JBK >>> Paula Carrell <Paula.Carrell(a)sierraclub.org> 3/2/2009 3:10 PM >>> --------------------------- cc:Mail Users----------------------------- ** Remember to DELETE the 'Sender: ...' lines above before REPLYing ** ---------------------------------------------------------------------- The National Association of Realtors just released the results of a survey of 1,005 Americans that shows very strong support for … [View More]

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Fw: Please write DOE re: lamp standards
by Jim Sconyers 01 Mar '09

01 Mar '09

A simple but huge advance in energy savings... Jim Sconyers jim_scon(a)yahoo.com 304.906.6628 Remember: Mother Nature bats last. --- On Sun, 3/1/09, Ned Ford <Ned.Ford(a)FUSE.NET> wrote: From: Ned Ford <Ned.Ford(a)FUSE.NET> Subject: Please write DOE re: lamp standards To: CONS-SPST-GLOBALWARM-CHAIRS(a)LISTS.SIERRACLUB.ORG Date: Sunday, March 1, 2009, 2:22 AM This is so heavily forwarded I can't tell where it started, but it seems appropriate, and for once we have time … [View More]to actually write the letters. - Ned In June of this year, the Department of Energy (DOE) will make a decision on efficiency standards for light bulbs, a major decision which could save 50 billion kilowatt hours of electricity per year by 2020, and save consumers $70 billion over 30 years. In addition, it could eliminate more than 800 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions, the equivalent annual emissions of 172 coal-fired power plants. Unfortunately, the rule proposed by the previous administration falls far short and leaves significant energy and cost savings on the table. Your opportunity to reduce global warming emissions and save consumers billions of dollars is NOW. Please write a letter to the DOE asking them to demonstrate that they are serious about climate change. Urge them to adopt the more stringent standards for the fluorescent tube and incandescent reflector lamp rulemaking to gain the maximum benefits for consumers. President Obama has committed to making the US the most energy efficient country in the world and has appointed a scientist and energy efficiency advocate to lead the Department of Energy. If ever there were a time for consumers to voice their opinions and have them heard, that time is now. Please edit the attached letter to reflect your concerns and send to the Department of Energy. Thank you. ..... Charlie SAMPLE LETTER: February xx, 2009 Honorable Steven Chu Secretary U.S. Department of Energy 1000 Independence Ave, SW Washington, DC 20585-0121 Re: Fluorescent Tube and Incandescent Lamps Rulemaking Docket #: EE-2006-STD- 0131 Dear Secretary Chu, I am writing to urge you to strengthen the lighting efficiency standards proposed by the previous administration. These new standards, due to be completed in June, will cover fluorescent tube lamps, including the four foot long light bulbs found in millions of office light fixtures, and incandescent reflector lamps, the very common cone-shaped light bulbs used in “recessed can” light fixtures and track lighting. With more than 500 million fluorescent tube lamps and 265 million incandescent reflector lamps sold annually in the U.S., new standards for these products have the potential to deliver more energy and cost savings than any other ever established by the Department of Energy. Based on the Department of Energy’s analysis, strong standards for these lamps could save about 50 billion kilowatt hours per year by 2020, enough to meet the annual electricity needs of 4.4 million typical American homes. Over thirty years, strong standards could net consumers and businesses nearly $70 billion in savings and fight global warming by eliminating 800 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions. However, the previous administration’s proposal sacrifices as much as half of these savings. Even more savings are lost because the reflector lamp proposal includes a huge loophole which leaves out about 40% of all sales. During the presidential campaign last year, President Obama promised to work to “make America the most energy efficient country in the world.” As president, he has committed to meet or beat all deadlines for new appliance and lighting standards, citing their importance for saving consumers money, spurring innovation and saving energy. By making these new lighting standards as strong as possible and closing the loophole in the reflector lamp standard, you can take a huge first step to meeting the president’s commitments. Sincerely, __,_._,___ - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - To unsubscribe from the CONS-SPST-GLOBALWARM-CHAIRS list, send any message to: CONS-SPST-GLOBALWARM-CHAIRS-signoff-request(a)LISTS.SIERRACLUB.ORG Check out our Listserv Lists support site for more information: http://www.sierraclub.org/lists/faq.asp To view the Sierra Club List Terms & Conditions, see: http://www.sierraclub.org/lists/terms.asp [View Less]

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Stimulus Summary
by Jim Sconyers 01 Mar '09

01 Mar '09

Nice summary of the stimulus package energy provisions from Kevin Fooce. --- On Fri, 2/27/09, kevin fooce <fmoose39(a)hotmail.com> wrote: From: kevin fooce <fmoose39(a)hotmail.com> Subject: Stimulus To: "Jim Sconer" <jim_scon(a)yahoo.com> Date: Friday, February 27, 2009, 7:51 PM #yiv1060597427 #yiv454175209 .ExternalClass #EC_yiv542139351 .EC_hmmessage P {padding:0px;} #yiv1060597427 #yiv454175209 .ExternalClass #EC_yiv542139351 {font-size:10pt;font-family:Verdana;} … [View More]How does the money make it to the people. Weatherization help is provided to people who fall below a certain income based upon the number of dependents, income, and when the home was last modernized. The home owner will have to apply to a community action agency that serves the area the home owner lives in. Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant go to local governments. They need to be applied for through U.S. Dept. of Energy. Note: state is eligible but only the 10 largest counties or city are eligible. What this money is for is improving the energy efficiency of government buildings. The projects have to be ready to go very soon. One example I have for this one is Huntington has gave out 2, one for a duplex and one for a fourplex the renovated cost is about $400k. State Energy program. This is what I was talking about enacting codes to get the money to locals. R&D don't know about it. This one is a lot harder to find. Advanced Battery already gone. Energy efficient appliance is a tax credit we can all take will be mainly energy star appliances and will dependent on what is bought. Great program if used in conjunction with WV program can save residents a lot of money and some energy. Good for furnace, heat pumps, etc. RE tax credit put solar in get 30% tax credit not capped now. Also for wind, hydro, geothermal etc. We also have some RE grants available to business must have matching money. Mainly for utility scale energy projects. Available through U.S. Dept. of Energy. USDA has several programs for cities and business. Great programs but don't fall under stimulus money. Electrification is smart grid. If utilized in appropriate manner could be a good item. Smart grid technologies utilize many different products. It can be anything from a higher voltage line which can result in running 1 set of line instead of 2 or three as with Trail. If Trail was to have upgraded the present line from a 365kv to a 1.2mv they would have tripled it's capacity. "What I understand about the present line is it is a 365kv line of coarse this is just what I was told I could not confirm it in writing" Another item of interest is they have some giant batteries that can store megawatts of electricity. This is one of the items that is needed with RE. When the wind does not blow or the sun does not shine these batteries take up the slack. It is also part of a new billing idea the government has. This will show when and where the power goes and what the true loses are with it. Big field a lot to look at! Transportation big companies and government get the benefit not for WV. $500 million for retraining. Believe this would be a good time for a trade school or community college to build a RE program. Hope this helps. Kevin Fooce fooce(a)hotmail.com 304-593-2875 Access your email online and on the go with Windows Live Hotmail. Sign up today. Windows Live™ Groups: Create an online spot for your favorite groups to meet. Check it out. [View Less]

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more on lamp standards
by Jim Sconyers 01 Mar '09

01 Mar '09

More info from Kevin Fooce. Jim Sconyers jim_scon(a)yahoo.com 304.906.6628 Remember: Mother Nature bats last. --- On Sun, 3/1/09, kevin fooce <fmoose39(a)hotmail.com> wrote: From: kevin fooce <fmoose39(a)hotmail.com> Subject: RE: Please write DOE re: lamp standards To: "Jim Sconer" <jim_scon(a)yahoo.com>, ec(a)osenergy.org, allantweddle(a)msn.com, barbara.howe(a)mail.wvu.edu, blittle(a)citynet.net, brbr_fallon(a)yahoo.com, daves(a)labyrinth.net, duane330(a)aol.com, ed.… [View More]milam(a)occ.treas.gov, edon1985(a)comcast.net, freesource(a)cheat.org, "Mike Price" <greyhawkwv(a)verizon.net>, "Jim Kotcon" <jkotcon(a)wvu.edu>, marvaevon(a)aol.com, nhisbobness(a)aol.com, pamalasue922(a)verizon.net, "Paul Wilson" <pjgrunt(a)gmail.com>, regina1936(a)verizon.net, "Sally Wiltz" <sallywilts(a)yahoo.com>, "Bill DePaulo" <william.depaulo(a)gmail.com> Date: Sunday, March 1, 2009, 1:41 PM #yiv1673472838 .hmmessage P { margin:0px;padding:0px;} #yiv1673472838 { font-size:10pt;font-family:Verdana;} Jim, I have not read the standards yet but it has been in the works for several years now. The last I have seen on this was a complete phase out of the older T-12 type fluorescent lamps and to start phasing out the T-8 type fluorescent lamps and move all new installations to the T-5 type. For some info. on the different types a standard 4' long T-12 uses 40 watts a T-8 uses 32 and a T-5 uses 25 and they will produce about the same light output. As the new types come into play they also have 2 more benefits one is each group progressively has a longer lifespan the second is a progressive decrease use of mercury. The next part of the standard is to do away with the old type incandescent bulbs. Should not have to explain this one. They also have one more part but we do not know how this is to work out yet. They are talking about LED's. The reason we do not know about this yet is we no have several types of lighting that are more efficient than the LED's. If they get industrial acceptance the LED's may not be much of a factor. The IBEW and NECA have been watching and following this and are actively watching this standard. Once I have anymore info. on how this will effect our environment I will get it to you. The electrical industry want to see this change. It is actually cheaper for us to install the most efficient products. Kevin Fooce fooce(a)hotmail.com 304-593-2875 Date: Sun, 1 Mar 2009 09:52:59 -0800 From: jim_scon(a)yahoo.com Subject: Fw: Please write DOE re: lamp standards To: ec(a)osenergy.org; allantweddle(a)msn.com; barbara.howe(a)mail.wvu.edu; blittle(a)citynet.net; brbr_fallon(a)yahoo.com; daves(a)labyrinth.net; duane330(a)aol.com; Ed.Milam(a)occ.treas.gov; edon1985(a)comcast.net; fmoose39(a)hotmail.com; freesource(a)cheat.org; greyhawkwv(a)Verizon.net; jkotcon(a)wvu.edu; marvaevon(a)aol.com; nhisbobness(a)aol.com; pamalasue922(a)verizon.net; pjgrunt(a)gmail.com; regina1936(a)verizon.net; sallywilts(a)yahoo.com; william.depaulo(a)gmail.com A simple but huge advance in energy savings... Jim Sconyers jim_scon(a)yahoo.com 304.906.6628 Remember: Mother Nature bats last. --- On Sun, 3/1/09, Ned Ford <Ned.Ford(a)FUSE.NET> wrote: From: Ned Ford <Ned.Ford(a)FUSE.NET> Subject: Please write DOE re: lamp standards To: CONS-SPST-GLOBALWARM-CHAIRS(a)LISTS.SIERRACLUB.ORG Date: Sunday, March 1, 2009, 2:22 AM This is so heavily forwarded I can't tell where it started, but it seems appropriate, and for once we have time to actually write the letters. - Ned In June of this year, the Department of Energy (DOE) will make a decision on efficiency standards for light bulbs, a major decision which could save 50 billion kilowatt hours of electricity per year by 2020, and save consumers $70 billion over 30 years. In addition, it could eliminate more than 800 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions, the equivalent annual emissions of 172 coal-fired power plants. Unfortunately, the rule proposed by the previous administration falls far short and leaves significant energy and cost savings on the table. Your opportunity to reduce global warming emissions and save consumers billions of dollars is NOW. Please write a letter to the DOE asking them to demonstrate that they are serious about climate change. Urge them to adopt the more stringent standards for the fluorescent tube and incandescent reflector lamp rulemaking to gain the maximum benefits for consumers. President Obama has committed to making the US the most energy efficient country in the world and has appointed a scientist and energy efficiency advocate to lead the Department of Energy. If ever there were a time for consumers to voice their opinions and have them heard, that time is now. Please edit the attached letter to reflect your concerns and send to the Department of Energy. Thank you. ..... Charlie SAMPLE LETTER: February xx, 2009 Honorable Steven Chu Secretary U.S. Department of Energy 1000 Independence Ave, SW Washington, DC 20585-0121 Re: Fluorescent Tube and Incandescent Lamps Rulemaking Docket #: EE-2006-STD- 0131 Dear Secretary Chu, I am writing to urge you to strengthen the lighting efficiency standards proposed by the previous administration. These new standards, due to be completed in June, will cover fluorescent tube lamps, including the four foot long light bulbs found in millions of office light fixtures, and incandescent reflector lamps, the very common cone-shaped light bulbs used in “recessed can” light fixtures and track lighting. With more than 500 million fluorescent tube lamps and 265 million incandescent reflector lamps sold annually in the U.S., new standards for these products have the potential to deliver more energy and cost savings than any other ever established by the Department of Energy. Based on the Department of Energy’s analysis, strong standards for these lamps could save about 50 billion kilowatt hours per year by 2020, enough to meet the annual electricity needs of 4.4 million typical American homes. Over thirty years, strong standards could net consumers and businesses nearly $70 billion in savings and fight global warming by eliminating 800 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions. However, the previous administration’s proposal sacrifices as much as half of these savings. Even more savings are lost because the reflector lamp proposal includes a huge loophole which leaves out about 40% of all sales. During the presidential campaign last year, President Obama promised to work to “make America the most energy efficient country in the world.” As president, he has committed to meet or beat all deadlines for new appliance and lighting standards, citing their importance for saving consumers money, spurring innovation and saving energy. By making these new lighting standards as strong as possible and closing the loophole in the reflector lamp standard, you can take a huge first step to meeting the president’s commitments. 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CONS-SPST-GLOBALWARM-CHAIRS-signoff-request(a)LISTS.SIERRACLUB.ORG Check out our Listserv Lists support site for more information: http://www.sierraclub.org/lists/faq.asp To view the Sierra Club List Terms & Conditions, see: http://www.sierraclub.org/lists/terms.asp Windows Live™: Life without walls. Check it out. [View Less]

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Fwd: Carbon Capture and Sequestration Video Link - FYI
by James Kotcon 28 Feb '09

28 Feb '09

This is a nice visual, but it is obviously glossing over some of the risks. While much of the description is accurate, I don't think any responsible geologist would conclude that there is no risk to groundwater. The concluding sentence is "The technology is available NOW." The key word is "Available". If that is the case, industry should put their money where their mouth is, and we should insist on it as BACT. JBK >>> Carl DuPoldt <cdupoldt(a)yahoo.com> 2/28/2009 9:05 AM &… [View More]

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WV Stimulus Projects
by Jim Sconyers 27 Feb '09

27 Feb '09

Looking at the Gov's website for stimulus information: So far not a cent listed for efficiency, conservation, weatherization, public transportation, etc. One can only hope those are yet to come... Jim Sconyers jim_scon(a)yahoo.com 304.906.6628 Remember: Mother Nature bats last. --- On Wed, 2/25/09, WV Democratic Party <wvparty(a)wvdemocrats.com> wrote: From: WV Democratic Party <wvparty(a)wvdemocrats.com> Subject: Obama's Speech/WV Stimulus Projects To: jim_scon(a)yahoo.… [View More]

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Fw: Ohio DP&L settlement - Summary of Case
by Jim Sconyers 27 Feb '09

27 Feb '09

Jim Sconyers jim_scon(a)yahoo.com 304.906.6628 Remember: Mother Nature bats last. --- On Fri, 2/27/09, Ned Ford <Ned.Ford(a)FUSE.NET> wrote: From: Ned Ford <Ned.Ford(a)FUSE.NET> Subject: Ohio DP&L settlement - Summary of Case To: CONS-SPST-GLOBALWARM-CHAIRS(a)LISTS.SIERRACLUB.ORG Date: Friday, February 27, 2009, 11:19 AM On Monday, February 23rd Sierra Club settled an Electric Security Plan case with Dayton Power and Light (DP&L), along with industrial, commercial, … [View More]residential, low income and local government representatives and the Ohio Environmental Council. This case resulted from passage of Senate Bill 221 in May of 2008. The Sierra Club's primary goal was to ensure fulfillment of the energy efficiency and renewable energy requirements of SB 221. The case involved important rate reforms and other issues, some of which affect our basic strategy to improve the financial rewards for DP&L to meet and/or exceed the energy saving provisions of the new law and to maximize renewable resource use. DP&L sells about $1 billion worth of electricity each year, about 9% of Ohio's $11 billion electric spending. SB 221 requires DP&L (and the other regulated electric companies) to use energy efficiency programs to reduce their gross sales one third of one percent in 2009. The reduction goal increases each year until 2019 when new annual savings should increase 2% each year thereafter. The settlement does not change the company's requirement under SB221, but provides strong assurances that the savings will occur as stated. (About 12% of Ohio's electricity is sold by municipally owned public power companies or co-ops, which are not affected by SB 221 or State regulation). DP&L has agreed to a customer advisory group which will provide ongoing recommendations to improve program performance and cost-effectiveness. The impact will not be determined until after the year's end, but this settlement should cause DP&L to spend about $5 million on efficiency programs in 2009, which can be expected to cause about $15 million in customer cost savings, spread over some future years. Some of the savings will be retained by the company or shared with the company, depending on your perspective, to compensate for the loss of expected sales. Program costs are generally paired with avoidable costs for electricity generation, and are therefore not a direct cost to the utility, but rather replace customer costs for fuel and operation and maintenance with the cost of the efficiency programs. SB 221 also requires each Ohio regulated electric company to provide 0.25% of it's generation from renewable energy in 2009 (rising to 12.5% in 2025), but since no commercial wind exists in Ohio in 2009, the first year requirements will be met with purchases of renewable electricity from nearby states. DP&L is the smallest of the four companies directly affected by SB 221, and was the last to file a new plan. Duke settled it's ESP case last October along similar lines, although the Duke settlement includes an incentive payment for overcompliance, which we strongly support as a good economic deal for Duke customers and the environment. DP&L proposed cost recovery for efficiency programs in a different manner and was not interested in defining a plan for overcompliance, but agreed to some changes we proposed to keep that possibility open in the future. DP&L is one of the two major Ohio utilities which have some good wind resources in their service area, and apparently plans to develop some of those resources in the next few years. DP&L's plan includes provisions for net metering of customer-generated renewable power, and grid modifications to facilitate renewable energy. Terms for those elements of the plan were improved in the settlement. This case was advanced through a very effective alliance of consumer and environmental organizations which developed last year when rules to implement SB 221 were developed. This alliance has allowed sharing of analytical resources, and has probably added considerable speed to the high pressure negotiations. The alliance, led by Ohio Consumers' Counsel Janine Migden-Ostrander, a Sierra Club member, one time Ohio Chapter Vice Chair, and the Club's attorney for approximately 26 utility interventions in the 1990's, has substantially enhanced Ohio's move toward a sustainable and affordable energy future. Electric utility efficiency programs are well known in parts of the U.S. but are slow in coming to the lower Midwest coal producing states. In the last year Illinois, Ohio, Michigan and Pennsylvania have embarked along similar paths. Illinois and Ohio have the strongest laws, which will take them to the level of efficiency activity that the strongest states presently have. Saving this much electricity will be enough to eliminate all new growth of greenhouse gases from electricity generation in these states, and perhaps much more, depending on the economy and how well the public and the regulators come to understand the economic benefits of these programs. For more information contact: Ned Ford Energy Advisor Sierra Club, Ohio Chapter 513/600-4200 Ned.Ford(a)fuse.net - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - To unsubscribe from the CONS-SPST-GLOBALWARM-CHAIRS list, send any message to: CONS-SPST-GLOBALWARM-CHAIRS-signoff-request(a)LISTS.SIERRACLUB.ORG Check out our Listserv Lists support site for more information: http://www.sierraclub.org/lists/faq.asp [View Less]

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Fwd: FW: The Coen brothers' newest release
by Paul Wilson 26 Feb '09

26 Feb '09

New clean coal dig on YouTube. enjoy, paul ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Cathy Zoi, The We Campaign <info(a)wecansolveit.org> Date: Thu, Feb 26, 2009 at 4:47 PM Subject: FW: The Coen brothers' newest release To: Paul Wilson <pjgrunt(a)gmail.com> We're very excited about the Reality Coalition's latest ad, which was directed by Academy Award-winning filmmakers Joel and Ethan Coen. Please check it out <http://www.wecansolveit.org/page/m2/396e8997/6ffe8e5f/9cec5d9/… [View More]

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New Home
by Regina Hendrix 25 Feb '09

25 Feb '09

I apologize for being so unavailable lately. I've been in Maryland with my sister off and on for the past three months. She is undergoing chemo and has just finished her course of treatment. She's still having lots of effects and residual problems. In the meantime, during my trips to Howard County, Md., I've been looking at real estate in Jefferson County, WV. I have located a home that I'm planning to settle on sometime at the end of March. I had hoped to put a link on here for you … [View More]

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[Fwd: Earth Day at the Clay Center]
by Regina Hendrix 25 Feb '09

25 Feb '09

FYI. Bill Price and I had a Sierra Club Earth Day table last year at the Clay Center. As I remember, SC was the only environmental group there. The good old DEP was there and the state energy folks were there. I would be interested again this year but the timing is very close to my move to Charles Town. This would be a good opportunity for the Coal River Wind Project. Regina Hendrix

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Fw: New interactive map brings source of CO2 levels into your living room
by Jim Sconyers 24 Feb '09

24 Feb '09

Jim Sconyers jim_scon(a)yahoo.com 304.906.6628 Remember: Mother Nature bats last. --- On Mon, 2/23/09, Eric Uram <Eric.Uram(a)HEADWATER.US> wrote: From: Eric Uram <Eric.Uram(a)HEADWATER.US> Subject: New interactive map brings source of CO2 levels into your living room To: CONS-SPST-GLOBALWARM-CHAIRS(a)LISTS.SIERRACLUB.ORG Date: Monday, February 23, 2009, 10:28 PM New interactive map brings source of CO2 levels into your living room Posted on … [View More]

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Fw: the "hookup"
by James Kotcon 24 Feb '09

24 Feb '09

Well-written article that highlights the contrast between what Allegheny wants and what they say we "need". I especially liked that line "But the blackout argument is bogus, Overland contends. “A review of recent blackouts…shows that they occurred during off-peak times when utilities were overloading the lines.” In other words, they were selling more electricity to distant buyers than the system could transmit." I would like to get the data showing when blackouts actually occur, relative to … [View More]peak load periods. JBK >>> "Vickie Wolfe" <wolfev(a)verizon.net> 2/24/2009 1:53 AM >>> ----- Original Message ----- From: Sam Stetson To: Charles Pique ; haught(a)wvgazette.com ; IBtreehugger(a)gmail.com Sent: Monday, February 23, 2009 7:45 PM Subject: the "hookup" Another View From the Bridge: What Does Needing Mean Posted Mon, 02/23/2009 - 08:59 by carol white http://discuss.epluribusmedia.net/node/3724 Mark Dewey has kindly let me post his latest editorial in the Blue Ridge Leader -- a Follup to his Last Post on the Alleghany Power's Plans to Connect West Virginia coal-powered generators to Maryland and New Jersey.This time he discusses how the federal "regulatory" process has worked as a result of the hookup between big coal and the Bush Crowd.. The View From the Ridge By Mark Dewey February 20, 2009 What Does Needing Mean? Henry David Thoreau, America’s first conservationist, believed that much of what we say we need is not merely unnecessary but actually harmful. That may be the case with new electricity transmission projects like PATH. Carol Overland, a lawyer specializing in utility regulation, believes that before building any more high voltage towers, we should determine not only how much electricity we need, but also what the word ‘need’ means in this context. That the word means one thing to the people who want to build the towers and something else to us is cause for concern, since we’ll have to pay for the towers, look at the towers, and live with the lifestyle the towers will impose. To most of us, need means local load service to light our houses, heat our water, and freeze our food—maybe also to run our wastewater treatment facility and the dryers at the Laundromat. And years ago, that’s what need meant to power companies, too, because regulation let them provide electricity only to people in their service area. But those controls were abolished, freeing power companies to sell electricity the same way Chrysler sells cars: on the open market. “North American Electric Reliability Corporation… admits that the transmission system is sufficient to meet local load-serving needs,” Carol Overland writes on the website Gristmill, “but the transmission grid is not sufficient for market purposes.” So Allegheny Energy needs to expand its transmission system. Paul Evanson, Chairman, President, and CEO of Allegheny Energy, said as much on February 11, at a meeting with investment bankers from Citigroup, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, and other financial institutions. “Our transmission projects are key to Allegheny’s growth,” Evanson said, “so it’s very important that we maintain our construction schedule for TrAIL’s in-service date of June 11 and make the state regulatory filings for PATH in the coming months.” Evanson also said that Allegheny had secured “incentive rate treatment from FERC which included a 14.3 per cent return” on whatever they spend to build PATH—a return paid by us. “2009 will be a very challenging time,” Evanson said, “[but] I’m confident we can weather the economic downturn and keep our multiple long-term growth catalysts substantially intact.” How does Allegheny do that? The first step is to get a Certificate of Need from the State Corporation Commission, which approves only new construction that’s “reasonable and prudent,” Overland says. “Opportunity to play the market is not reasonable and prudent…[so] transmission projects for market trading are couched in terms of local load-serving need.” The need to expand local service is usually justified by the threat of blackouts. For example, to win approval for TrAIL, Allegheny argued that the mid-Atlantic region would be vulnerable to blackouts during hours of peak demand by the year 2013. Building to satisfy peak demand means spending billions on infrastructure to continuously satisfy needs that may exist for only a few hours every year. The rest of the time that extra capacity is used to make Allegheny Energy more attractive to investors at Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank. But the blackout argument is bogus, Overland contends. “A review of recent blackouts…shows that they occurred during off-peak times when utilities were overloading the lines.” In other words, they were selling more electricity to distant buyers than the system could transmit. And projections of increased local demand may also be dubious. “Despite their propensity to overstate need,” Overland says, “several utility CEOs recently admitted that use has decreased between 3 and 9 percent.” “We also need renewable generation,” Overland points out, “and we have an equally compelling need to reduce CO2 emissions, and the toxic waste of electrical generation, needs not readily recognized in energy planning.” And we need to cultivate a conservative attitude to reduce waste. After all, wasting something is the opposite of needing it. If we put compact fluorescent bulbs in all our lights, we’d save enough energy to forestall any argument about blackouts caused by growing local need. In fact, Overland suggests, conservation could reduce today’s so-called need by 10 percent. But if we allow Allegheny Energy to define the term need, we’ll soon be paying $1.5 billion for more 160-foot iron towers to make the company look good to Citigroup. And once those towers are in place, the direction of energy planning and policy will be set in iron and stone. “We remain dedicated to enhancing shareholder value in years ahead,” President Evanson assured the moneymen. That’s what “need” means to him. Let’s tell him what it means to us. [View Less]

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Fwd: E&E Daily: EPA requires CO2 consideration for Michigan coal plant
by James Kotcon 23 Feb '09

23 Feb '09

Sierra Club wins another one, this time in Michigan. I think it is time to put WV-DEP on notice that we will insist on this as part of any CTL permits. JBK >>> Fred Heutte <phred(a)SUNLIGHTDATA.COM> 2/20/2009 5:59 PM >>> http://www.eenews.net/eenewspm/2009/02/20/1/ COAL: Citing GHG emissions, EPA board remands Mich. permits (02/20/2009) Robin Bravender, E&E reporter U.S. EPA's Environmental Appeals Board has ordered Michigan regulators to reconsider air … [View More]pollution permits issued to a proposed coal-fired power plant in the Upper Peninsula for failing to consider emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. The Michigan Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) issued federal air permits to Northern Michigan University, authorizing construction of a new boiler to burn coal, wood and natural gas at the Ripley Heating Plant in Marquette, Mich. EPA's appeals board earlier this week sided with the Sierra Club, which argued MDEQ had failed to conduct proper reviews for CO2 and nitrous oxide emissions from the boiler. "It underscores the days of ignoring CO2 are over, and we're thankfully in a new era when science is back in vogue," said Bruce Nilles, director of Sierra Club's Move Beyond Coal campaign. The board based its ruling on its decision last year on permits for a planned expansion by the Deseret Power Electric Cooperative in Bonanza, Utah. In that case, the board said EPA has discretion to regulate CO2 from coal-fired power plants and ordered the Region 8 office in Denver to reconsider its decision against requiring CO2 controls on the planned expansion of the Bonanza plant. The Michigan decision came the day after EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson announced the agency would reconsider a memorandum issued during the Bush administration that described why the government should not regulate CO2 from new coal-fired plants. Industry groups had welcomed the Bush EPA's memo, arguing that the appeals board's decision in the Deseret case had opened up the possibility for a host of new Clean Air Act regulations on small pollution sources like schools and hospitals. But environmentalists said the memo violated the appeals board's decision. By rejecting MDEQ's permits and not referencing the Bush administration memo, "the appeals board is following Lisa Jackson's lead," Nilles said. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - To unsubscribe from the COAL-CAMPAIGN-ALERTS list, send any message to: COAL-CAMPAIGN-ALERTS-signoff-request(a)LISTS.SIERRACLUB.ORG Check out our Listserv Lists support site for more information: http://www.sierraclub.org/lists/faq.asp Sign up to receive Sierra Club Insider, the flagship e-newsletter. Sent out twice a month, it features the Club's latest news and activities. Subscribe and view recent editions at http://www.sierraclub.org/insider/ [View Less]

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FW: accomodations/Transmission Line Training & Strategy Meeting
by Grubb, Karen 20 Feb '09

20 Feb '09

Is anyone interested in getting a 4-room, 8 person cabin for one or two nights at Cacapon? The cost is $102.00 per night. Individual lodge rooms are $64-69 per night. From: Jim Sconyers [mailto:jim_scon@yahoo.com] Sent: Thursday, February 19, 2009 10:28 AM To: Judy Rodd; Beth Little; Rory McIlmoil; Gary Zuckett; Don Garvin; Grubb, Karen; ec(a)osenergy.org; Bob Bastress Subject: {Fraud?} Transmission Line Training & Strategy Meeting SAVE THE DATE and please pass this on to any … [View More]person or group that might be interested - thanks! Transmission Line Training & Strategy Meeting Thursday, March 19, 2009 8:30 am - 6:00 pm Cacapon Resort State Park Berkeley Springs, West Virginia The Sierra Club is sponsoring a one-day meeting to educate activists, attorneys, public officials, and others on transmission line issues in the east. The goal of the meeting is to bring together individuals and organizations concerned about new transmission lines that are intended to expand coal-fired power generation, with an eye towards the upcoming Potomac-Appalachian Transmission Highline (PATH) in particular. Topics we plan to cover include, among others: the PJM planning process, how to support transmission for renewables without supporting coal, alternatives to new transmission, the legal framework for transmission line siting, and lessons from the TrAILCo line. In mid-afternoon, those who are interested will break into litigation and organizing strategy groups, which will focus on concrete next steps to push for greener and more economical alternatives to coal-by-wire. Detailed agenda and schedule to follow. RSVP to Violet Lehrer at MailScanner has detected a possible fraud attempt from "us.mc587.mail.yahoo.com" claiming to be violet.lehrer(a)sierraclub.com <http://us.mc587.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=violet.lehrer@sierraclub.c om> or 415-977-5766 at your earliest convenience and no later than March 6. Please indicate in your reply whether you plan to attend one of the strategy sessions (litigation or organizing/lobbying). Please see www.cacaponresort.com <http://www.cacaponresort.com/> for lodging and travel information, or call 1-800-CALL-WVA or 304-258-1022 to make a reservation. Lodging is also available in nearby Berkeley Springs. **Please forward widely to fellow advocates for clean, affordable power.** Elena Saxonhouse Environmental Law Fellow Sierra Club Environmental Law Program 85 Second St., 2nd Floor San Francisco, CA 94105 (415) 977-5765 (415) 977-5793 (fax) [View Less]

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New Version of Country Roads
by Regina Hendrix 20 Feb '09

20 Feb '09

Click on the link below to hear my friend Tonya Adkins' new version of "Country Roads." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_oG3iK_SQzY Regina

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Fwd: [wvec-board] Bob Kincaid parody- Almost Level West Virginia YouTube Video
by James Kotcon 20 Feb '09

20 Feb '09

I don't usually forward this stuff, but this YouTube video is worth a couple minutes of time. See attachment for the link. Jim Kotcon >>> "Frank Young" <fyoung(a)mountain.net> 2/20/2009 10:28 AM >>> ----- Original Message ----- From: Martinjul(a)aol.com To: wvhcboard(a)yahoogroups.com Sent: Friday, February 20, 2009 8:05 AM Subject: [WVHCBOARD] Almost Level West Virginia YouTube Video Most excellent, terrible, awful but you must see. The singer is Tonya Adkins, … [View More]

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Fwd: [MVCAC] News from Virginia & Pennsylvania
by Jonathan Rosenbaum 20 Feb '09

20 Feb '09

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Fwd: Fw: PEC Wins Appeal on Federal Transmission Siting!
by James Kotcon 19 Feb '09

19 Feb '09

This is hugely important good news, and it gives us more hope for PATH. JBK >>> <Elena.Saxonhouse(a)sierraclub.org> 2/19/2009 1:55 PM >>> ----- Forwarded by Elena Saxonhouse/Sierraclub on 02/19/2009 10:41 AM "Bri West, PEC" <pecnews(a)pecva.org> Sent by: pecnews(a)pecva.org 02/19/2009 10:27 AM PEC Wins Fourth Circuit Appeal -- Ruling helps fix part of the problem with NIETC. I apologize for all of the acronyms, but bear with me, this is good news. We've … [View More]just won a case in front of the US Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals that strikes a blow to the federal government's fast-tracking, environment-be-damned approach to transmission line siting under the NIETC process. The ruling makes it possible for a state utility commission to deny a transmission line project, without giving the utility a second bite at the apple at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). Ruling in PEC's favor, the court overturned FERC's "expansive interpretation" of its own siting authority, and found that FERC violated Council on Environmental Quality regulations related to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). The decision restores a semblance of federal-state balance in the overall transmission line siting process. Although it is unlikely to influence the Dominion/TrAILCo transmission line case, the decision could impact all future transmission line cases. View the Court Ruling Court Rules: State Can Deny a Project The Fourth Circuit ruling makes it possible (once again) for a state utility commission to consider a transmission line project, weigh the pros and cons, and then make a decision to deny a permit, without fear of federal reprisal. Under FERC's prior interpretation, a utility was virtually guaranteed two shots at getting their project approved. If the state wouldn't say 'yes', the utility could try again at the federal level. Read the 4th Circuit Decision View PEC's Press Release 9th Circuit Case Still Pending This lawsuit was the first of two filed by PEC relating to the Department of Energy's National Interest Electric Transmission Corridors. The second, which seeks to overturn the DOE’s designation of multi-state corridors for transmission line siting, is pending before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. This 4th Circuit ruling validates many of the arguments we've made over the past few years. Thanks for your support and continued donations to our Energy and Transmission campaign. We're working on energy efficiency and renewable bills down in Richmond, moving forward with our Virginia Supreme Court appeal, and playing an active role in the state and national discussion on transmission. Very best, Bri West Piedmont Environmental Council pecnews(a)pecva.org Received this from a friend? Sign up to receive alerts and news from PEC. This message was sent to elena.saxonhouse(a)sierraclub.org. Visit your subscription management page to modify your email communication preferences or update your personal profile. To stop ALL email from The Piedmont Environmental Council, click to remove yourself from our lists (or reply via email with "remove or unsubscribe" in the subject line). pecva.org | Donate | Change E-Mail Address | Request Password Copyright © 2008 | Piedmont Environmental Council 45 Horner Street, Warrenton, Virginia 20188 Questions or Comments? Call us at (540) 347-2334 or email us at pec(a)pecva.org [View Less]

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WV Action Re: EPA and the Johnson Memo
by James Kotcon 19 Feb '09

19 Feb '09

The reversal of the Johnson memo, includes the explicit statement that states with their own SIP should not rely on it as a basis for permitting. (See attached copy of the actual letter from EPA to Sierra Club). It seems like this would also apply to CTL plants such as is proposed in Mingo County, WV. I can not think of any reason why it would not. I am thinking about filing a letter with or WV DEP asking them to require emissions limits and BACT controls for CO2 for this plant. This would … [View More]be a pretty big step, so I am looking for advice, but if we are going to do it, I would like to do it promptly (perhaps by Monday), perhaps with media work to go with it. If done right, this might help kill, or at least significantly delay that project. Whaddya Tink? Jim Kotcon 304-293-8822 (office) >>> Virginia Cramer <virginia.cramer(a)SIERRACLUB.ORG> 2/19/2009 10:26 AM >>> Hi all, As you know we won a great victory on Tuesday when the EPA took the first steps toward regulating global warming pollution from new coal-fired power plants. We know many of you still have questions about what exactly happened and just what it means for your local fights. David Bookbinder has put together a good summary to help answer those questions which we've posted on Clubhouse. We've also posted a copy of the letter from the EPA so you can read it in its entirety. For those of you interested in using this opportunity to do some media outreach also posted are talking points, sample LTEs and a sample op/ed. Thanks to Heather Moyer for pulling these materials together. Here is the link to the materials: http://clubhouse.sierraclub.org/conservation/energy/coal/coal-messaging.aspx If the link doesn't work you can get to the Clubhouse page by following these steps. 1. Go to the Clubhouse webpage http://clubhouse.sierraclub.org/ 2. Click on the "Conservation" tab at the top 3. Click on "Coal" on the left hand side 4. Click on "Messaging Headquarters" Thanks, ginny --------------------- Virginia Cramer Associate Press Secretary Sierra Club tel: 804-225-9113 x 102 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - To unsubscribe from the COAL-CAMPAIGN-ALERTS list, send any message to: COAL-CAMPAIGN-ALERTS-signoff-request(a)LISTS.SIERRACLUB.ORG Check out our Listserv Lists support site for more information: http://www.sierraclub.org/lists/faq.asp To view the Sierra Club List Terms & Conditions, see: http://www.sierraclub.org/lists/terms.asp [View Less]

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Transmission Line Training & Strategy Meeting
by Jim Sconyers 19 Feb '09

19 Feb '09

SAVE THE DATE and please pass this on to any person or group that might be interested - thanks! Transmission Line Training & Strategy Meeting Thursday, March 19, 2009 8:30 am - 6:00 pm Cacapon Resort State Park Berkeley Springs, West Virginia The Sierra Club is sponsoring a one-day meeting to educate activists, attorneys, public officials, and others on transmission line issues in the east. The goal of the meeting is to bring together individuals and organizations … [View More]

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Fwd: Transmission Training & Strategy Meeting - March 19
by James Kotcon 18 Feb '09

18 Feb '09

Please forward to anyone you think should come. JBK >>> <Elena.Saxonhouse(a)sierraclub.org> 2/17/2009 1:57 PM >>> SAVE THE DATE Transmission Line Training & Strategy Meeting Thursday, March 19, 2009 8:30 am - 6:00 pm Cacapon Resort State Park Berkeley Springs, West Virginia The Sierra Club is sponsoring a one-day meeting to educate activists, attorneys, public officials, and others on transmission line issues in the east. The goal of the meeting is to bring … [View More]

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Fwd: SB 240 (Repealing Nuke Ban) Update
by James Kotcon 18 Feb '09

18 Feb '09

To Energy Committee: Senate Bill 240 would repeal the ban on nuclear power plants in WV. It is interesting that AEP is pushing this, as this could be used to imply that AEP wants the PATH line to transport nuclear power. I think some letters to the editor in home town newspapers would be in order. Just a paragraph or two, calling on the sponsors to reconsider, and urging other Senators to vote this toxic bill down. JBK >>> <dsgjr(a)aol.com> 2/18/2009 3:51 PM >>> … [View More]

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Transgas coal to gas video
by Jim Sconyers 18 Feb '09

18 Feb '09

This is pretty interesting - except PAINFULLY SLOW! Jim Sconyers jim_scon(a)yahoo.com 304.906.6628 Remember: Mother Nature bats last. --- On Mon, 2/16/09, Emily.Ulmer(a)sierraclub.org <Emily.Ulmer(a)sierraclub.org> wrote: From: Emily.Ulmer(a)sierraclub.org <Emily.Ulmer(a)sierraclub.org> Subject: Coal to gas video To: bruce.nilles(a)sierraclub.org, pat.gallagher(a)sierraclub.org, andrea.issod(a)sierraclub.org, jim_scon(a)yahoo.com Date: Monday, February 16, 2009, 5:51 PM … [View More]

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william.depaulo@gmail.com has shared: ${socialTitleEscape}
by william.depaulo＠gmail.com 17 Feb '09

17 Feb '09

william.depaulo(a)gmail.com wanted to share this with you: Detailed description of carbon sequestration project in Illinois ${socialTitleEscape} http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/02/carbonstorage.html ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Powered by ShareThis http://sharethis.com

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Fwd: Fw: Neill's report on hearing on GA HB 276: mountaintop removal coal billDiary for Feb 13-16, d
by James Kotcon 17 Feb '09

17 Feb '09

You might find the following description interesting, or even useful. If bills like this one from Georgia start passing elsewhere, we may actually see an end to MTR. It will be a long battle, but I am seeing an end game now. And there may be some useful lobbying ideas in here for our hearings. I like the light bulb trick, let's use it. JBK I am sure that the Sierra Club lobbyist in Georgia is an objective, calm, factual, "Nothing But The Truth" kind of guy and the language used below is … [View More]an accurate representation of the hearing. :-) >>> <Paula.Carrell(a)sierraclub.org> 2/17/2009 1:25 PM >>> Subject: Neill's report on hearing on GA HB 276: mountaintop removal coal bill Feb. 16, Monday, back to the State Capitol. The Energy Subcommittee of the Rollover for GA Power Committee had a hearing on MMO’s bill to place a 5 year moratorium on new coal plants and a phase out of mountaintop removal coal from GA boilers. The Power Co witness was a droning testimony reader named Burleson, who took about 20 minutes to find all sorts of things wrong with the bill without ever dealing with any specific facts, only generalities, and the sort of half-truths Power Co planners use as their lingua franca. Basically, pass this, or anything resembling it, and everyone will move to Alabama or some other paradise where they can burn any goddamned coals they wish and we will be ruint. This is only a variation on the same shit they said 30 years ago, when they said if they couldn’t raise rates that “grass would grow in GA’s streets.” The pro-bill testimony was refreshingly good, and reached the committee in ways that GA Power and that pathetic liar ex-Rep. Dean Alford (D-Conflict of Interest) who was there to spin nothing buy fiction about his proposed Washington Co. coal plant. He even talked about how the pine trees were going to eat the carbon from it. I think it is about time to start circulating the Dean stories from 1991, where he had to quit the legislature because he got caught lobbying for himself. Johnny Noels was very good, with a handout that the Chair, Jeff May referred to twice with respectful admiration, at the amount of cheap power available from efficiency, and Noels was clever enough to point out the EXIT sign in the back of the room, said, “It may have a low wattage fluorescent bulb in it, running 24-7, but if they put one of these,” whipping out an Edison base LED, “They can cut the use to 2% of the incandescent wattage and get the same service, and no maintenance again.” The Appalachian Voices guys were great, and have a very impressive slide show, that enabled them to totally embarrass the Power co, which said they didn’t pay too much attention to the mining technique that produced their coal; these guys said, “We do,” and proceeded to show amazing maps that they could zoom in on, and showed what a mtn top removal site looks like after they are done (17,000 acres of wasteland) and what one looks like at startup. They also had wonderful stats about costs and production totals, the fact that this is a declining resource with rising costs built in. Damning stuff. And it got the committee’s attention despite themselves. [View Less]

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Fwd: Service Learning Project/ West Virginia University
by Rodger Dotson 17 Feb '09

17 Feb '09

Does anyone have an idea and be willing to get Traci started on a project? thanks, Rodger ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Alex Rock <upallnightwithalex(a)yahoo.com> Date: Thu, Feb 12, 2009 at 1:00 AM Subject: Service Learning Project/ West Virginia University To: Rodger Dotson <bhaddaka(a)gmail.com> Dear Roger, I am a graduate student at WVu and I am interested in working with the Sierra Club for a Service Learning project as part of a minor field for my PhD. Does … [View More]the local chapter of the Sierra Club take on students as volunteers? I am interested in a variety of environmental areas, including the Decker's Creek clean up project and mountaintop removal. Please let me know if you would be interested in taking on a student volunteer. Your time would be minimal as there are very few forms to fill out. I would be responsible for the projectand volunteer hours. I have been a Sierra Club member for some time now, and I look forward to committing my time and effort to the local chapter here in Morgantown. Cheers Traci Scully --- On *Fri, 2/6/09, Rodger Dotson <bhaddaka(a)gmail.com>* wrote: From: Rodger Dotson <bhaddaka(a)gmail.com> Subject: February Program Meeting for the Mon Group Sierra Club To: bhaddaka(a)gmail.com Date: Friday, February 6, 2009, 7:08 AM Greetings! This month we will be co-hosting a meeting with the Friends of Deckers Creek. The topic will be the drilling for natural gas in the Marcellus shale. The meeting will be at 6:30 on Thursday, February 19, at the WVU Agricultural Sciences Building. The Marcellus shale, which lies beneath most of West Virginia, has the potential to be the largest natural gas source in history. While burning natural gas has lower greenhouse gas emissions than other fossil fuels, this drilling has other environmental impacts that may negatively affect our environment. To date, most of the drilling in the Marcellus shale has occurred in Pennsylvania and has resulted in increased solids in the Monongahela River. Another surface water concern is the use of proprietary chemicals used while drilling a gas well. Unfortunately, WV does not have the regulatory measures in place to adequately protect our environment from the predicted increase in drilling. Please see the attached flier for more details thanks, Rodger -- Most people think the mountains belong to the government, but actually the mountains belong to those who love them. - Dogen (1200-1253) -- Most people think the mountains belong to the government, but actually the mountains belong to those who love them. - Dogen (1200-1253) [View Less]

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NYTimes.com: Is America Ready to Quit Coal?
by william.depaulo＠gmail.com 15 Feb '09

15 Feb '09

This page was sent to you by: william.depaulo(a)gmail.com. BUSINESS | February 14, 2009 Is America Ready to Quit Coal? By MELANIE WARNER With regulations to address climate change looming, coal power looks increasingly expensive. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/15/business/15coal.html?emc=eta1 ---------------------------------------------------------- ABOUT THIS E-MAIL This e-mail was sent to you by a friend through NYTimes.com's E-mail This Article service. For general information about … [View More]

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Fwd: NYTimes.com: Is America Ready to Quit Coal?
by Paul Wilson 15 Feb '09

15 Feb '09

I have attached a Word version of the same article for those who have trouble with the link below. regards,paul ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: <pjgrunt(a)frontiernet.net> Date: Sun, Feb 15, 2009 at 11:10 AM Subject: NYTimes.com: Is America Ready to Quit Coal? To: pjgrunt(a)gmail.com [image: The New York Times] <http://www.nytimes.com/> [image: E-mail This] <http://www.nytimes.com/adx/bin/adx_click.html?type=goto&page=www.nytimes.co…> *This page … [View More]

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Importing Pollution
by James Kotcon 14 Feb '09

14 Feb '09

A relatively new report form the Union of Concerned Scientists outlines the potential for new coal fired power plants, and expanded production from existing plants, to overwhelm greenhouse gas reduction plans in the Northeast. It is 44 pages, but makes relatively easy reading. It does a good job of explaining transmission pricing, as well as the role of proposed new transmission lines. Lots of discussion of TrAIL, PATH, and they highlight Longview! Right here in our back yard!!! Look in … [View More]

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Climate change even worse than predicted
by James Kotcon 14 Feb '09

14 Feb '09

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090214/sc_afp/usclimatewarming_20090214150716 Climate change even worse than predicted: expert Sat Feb 14, 10:04 am ET CHICAGO (AFP) – It seems the dire warnings about the oncoming devastation wrought by global warming were not dire enough, a top climate scientist warned Saturday. It has been just over a year since the Nobel-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) published a landmark report warning of rising sea levels, expanding deserts, more … [View More]intense storms and the extinction of up to 30 percent of plant and animal species. But recent climate studies suggest that report significantly underestimates the potential severity of global warming over the next 100 years, a senior member of the panel warned. "We now have data showing that from 2000 to 2007, greenhouse gas emissions increased far more rapidly than we expected," said Chris Field, who was a coordinating lead author of the report. This is "primarily because developing countries like China and India saw a huge upsurge in electric power generation, almost all of it based on coal," Field said in a statement ahead of a presentation to the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Without decisive action to slow global warming, higher temperatures could ignite tropical forests and thaw the Arctic tundra, potentially releasing billions of tons of carbon dioxide that has been stored for thousands of years. That could raise temperatures even more and create "a vicious cycle that could spiral out of control by the end of the century." "We don't want to cross a critical threshold where this massive release of carbon starts to run on autopilot," said Field, a professor of biology and of environmental Earth system science at Stanford University. The amount of carbon that could be released is staggering. Since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution and estimated 350 billions tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) has been released through the burning of fossil fuels. The new estimate of the amount of carbon stored in the Arctic's permafrost soils is around 1,000 billion tons. And the Arctic is warming faster than any other part of the globe. Several recent climate models have estimated that the loss of tropical rainforests to wildfires, deforestation and other causes could increase the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere from 10 to 100 parts per million by the end of the century. The current level is about 380 parts per million. "Tropical forests are essentially inflammable," Field said. "You couldn't get a fire to burn there if you tried. But if they dry out just a little bit, the result can be very large and destructive wildfires." Recent studies have also shown that global warming is reducing the ocean's ability to store carbon by altering wind patterns in the Southern Ocean. "As the Earth warms, it generates faster winds over the oceans surrounding Antarctica," Field explained. "These winds essentially blow the surface water out of the way, allowing water with higher concentrations of CO2 to rise to the surface. This higher-CO2 water is closer to CO2-saturated, so it takes up less carbon dioxide from the atmosphere." Field is co-chair of the group charged with assessing the impacts of climate change on social, economic and natural systems for the IPCC's fifth assessment due in 2014. The 2007 fourth assessment presented at a "very conservative range of climate outcomes" but the next report will "include futures with a lot more warming," Field said. "We now know that, without effective action, climate change is going to be larger and more difficult to deal with than we thought." [View Less]

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Fwd: [PSC Docket] Activity on PSC Case 07-0508-E-CN(Trans-Allegheny Interstate Line Company)
by William V. DePaulo, Esq. 14 Feb '09

14 Feb '09

The link at the bottom of this email leads you to yesterday's PSC final order reaffirming without signiificant change -- except as requested by TrAILCo -- the August 1, 2008 order approving construction of the TrAILCo transmission line. It is aptly summarized in the "Activity Description" section prepared by the Commission and italicized below. *Commission Final Order * *- that the Sierra Club Petition for Reconsideration is denied; * *- that Mr. Hildebrand's Petition for Reconsideration … [View More]

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FW: March 2 coal protest in DC
by Grubb, Karen 13 Feb '09

13 Feb '09

From: Rory McIlmoil [mailto:rorygep@gmail.com] Sent: Friday, February 13, 2009 6:26 PM Subject: March 2 coal protest in DC Please pass this along.... I'm writing today to ask you to consider going to Washington, DC, to join thousands of others at a protest on March 2 at the coal-fired power plant that provides electricity to the U.S. Capitol. Attached below is a letter of invitation from Wendell Berry and Bill McKibben that convinced me that this protest is a good thing that's well worth … [View More]doing. I hope it will convince you too. A great many of those attending this event will be there primarily because they're concerned about climate change. I think it's especially important that people living in and near Appalachia's coalfields be there as well, and so do folks who are organizing the protest. Money is available to help carloads of people coming to DC from the coalfields pay for gas or van rental. Please note that although the organizers of this event expect to see many, many arrests for civil disobedience that day (and are prepared to provide legal support for those who are arrested), it's also expected that most folks who attend the protest will not be intending to get arrested. Please note also that this event is being carefully planned to be completely nonviolent. The organizers of the March 2 event are asking everyone who wants to attend to go first to a nonviolent direct action training. Training will be available in DC on the morning of March 2--so it should be doable for you to travel to DC on March 1, do the training and go to the protest on March 2, and plan to travel home on March 3. (Arrestees might be delayed in leaving if the police take a long time processing them.) Nonviolent direct action trainings are also being held well in advance of March 2 in several states; see www.capitolclimateaction.org website for more about this, and more information about the protest itself. I want to emphasize that my intention here is not to divert anyone from going to the MTR lobbying week in DC March 14-19--that's important work, too. If you're already planning to go to DC for lobbying and can't manage to come on March 2 as well, that's fine. But if you aren't able to go or interested in going to DC for lobbying that week, or if you can come to DC both for March 2 and for lobbying later in the month, I hope you'll do so. If you think you might be interested in going and would want to carpool and/or share a hotel room with others who live near you, please let me know and I'll try to sort out the details. (It would be simpler and better if one or more folks in or near West Virginia could coordinate this there. If you're willing to do that, please let me know and I'll make sure you get all the information you need.) If you know other folks who might be interested in going, please feel free to forward this email to them. Best regards, Tricia ------------------------------------------------- Tricia Shapiro 2330 Woolyshot Branch Road Hot Springs, NC 28743 ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------ Dear Friends, There are moments in a nation's--and a planet's--history when it may be necessary for some to break the law in order to bear witness to an evil, bring it to wider attention, and push for its correction. We think such a time has arrived, and we are writing to say that we hope some of you will join us in Washington D.C. on Monday March 2 in order to take part in a civil act of civil disobedience outside a coal-fired power plant near Capitol Hill. We will be there to make several points: #Coal-fired power is driving climate change. Our foremost climatologist, NASA's James Hansen, has demonstrated that our only hope of getting our atmosphere back to a safe level--below 350 parts per million co2--lies in stopping the use of coal to generate electricity. # Even if climate change were not the urgent crisis that it is, we would still be burning our fossil fuels too fast, wasting too much energy and releasing too much poison into the air and water. We would still need to slow down, and to restore thrift to its old place as an economic virtue. #Coal is filthy at its source. Much of the coal used in this country comes from West Virginia and Kentucky, where companies engage in "mountaintop removal" to get at the stuff; they leave behind a leveled wasteland, and impoverished human communities. No technology better exemplifies the out-of-control relationship between humans and the rest of creation. #Coal smoke makes children sick. Asthma rates in urban areas near coal-fired power plants are high. Air pollution from burning coal is harmful to the health of grown-ups too, and to the health of everything that breathes, including forests. The industry claim that there is something called "clean coal" is, put simply, a lie. But it's a lie told with tens of millions of dollars, which we do not have. We have our bodies, and we are willing to use them to make our point. We don't come to such a step lightly. We have written and testified and organized politically to make this point for many years, and while in recent months there has been real progress against new coal-fired power plants, the daily business of providing half our electricity from coal continues unabated. It's time to make clear that we can't safely run this planet on coal at all. So we feel the time has come to do more--we hear President Barack Obama's call for a movement for change that continues past election day, and we hear Nobel Laureate Al Gore's call for creative non-violence outside coal plants. As part of the international negotiations now underway on global warming, our nation will be asking China, India, and others to limit their use of coal in the future to help save the planet's atmosphere. This is a hard thing to ask, because it's their cheapest fuel. Part of our witness in March will be to say that we're willing to make some sacrifices ourselves, even if it's only a trip to the jail. With any luck, this will be the largest such protest yet, large enough that it may provide a real spark. If you want to participate with us, you need to go through a short course of non-violence training. This will be, to the extent it depends on us, an entirely peaceful demonstration, carried out in a spirit of hope and not rancor. We will be there in our dress clothes, and ask the same of you. There will be young people, people from faith communities, people from the coal fields of Appalachia, and from the neighborhoods in Washington that get to breathe the smoke from the plant. We will cross the legal boundary of the power plant, and we expect to be arrested. After that we have no certainty what will happen, but lawyers and such will be on hand. Our goal is not to shut the plant down for the day--it is but one of many, and anyway its operation for a day is not the point. The worldwide daily reliance on coal is the danger; this is one small step to raise awareness of that ruinous habit and hence help to break it. Needless to say, we're not handling the logistics of this day. All the credit goes to a variety of groups, especially EnergyAction (which is bringing thousands of young people to Washington that weekend), Greenpeace, the Ruckus Society, and the Rainforest Action Network. A website at that latter organization is serving as a temporary organizing hub: http://ran.org/get_involved/powershift_and_mass_civil_disobedience_updat es/. If you go there, you will find a place to leave your name so that we'll know you want to join us. Thank you, Wendell Berry, Bill McKibben ------------------------------------------------------------------------ --------- -- Kind Regards, Rory McIlmoil Coal River Mountain Wind Project (w): (304) 854-2182 (h): (304) 854-1937 www.coalriverwind.org www.crmw.net "The progressive state is in reality the cheerful and the hearty state to all the different orders of the society; the stationary is dull; the declining melancholy." ADAM SMITH. [View Less]

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Re: [EC] Stimulus update: Adios to big nuke, coal assistance - St. Louis Post-Dispatch
by James Kotcon 13 Feb '09

13 Feb '09

Maybe we dodged a bullet. Thank goodness for National Sierra Club staff, they earned their salary on this one. JBK Lyndsay Moseley wrote: > Economic Recovery Bill to exclude $50 billion in DOE Loan Guarantees > > The conference agreement on the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act > will not include a controversial $50 billion DOE loan guarantee program > that could have been used for liquid coal, coal gasification, and nuclear > power projects. As you all know, the … [View More]House version included funding for > loan guarantees only for renewable energy and efficiency projects, but > Senator Bennett (R-Utah) working with Sen. Dorgan (D-ND), inserted a > provision into the Senate bill authorizing $50 billion in additional loan > guarantees for all eligible projects listed in Title XVII of EPACT 2005 > (including liquid coal, coal gasification and nuclear power projects as > well as renewable energy, efficiency, hybrid and advanced vehicles, etc.). > > > Mobilizing quickly, we worked with House and Senate leaders, especially > Speaker Pelosi and Rep. Waxman, as well as members of the new Sustainable > Energy and Environment Coalition (SEEC) in the House, to convey the > message that we should not undermine this historic investment in > clean/renewable energy by investing in high-risk, expensive energy sources > that will do little to promote economic recovery, and take us backward in > the fight against global warming. > > Given our overall support of the bill, our effort required a strategic and > delicate lobbying and communications plan, but Sierra Club successfully > collaborated with taxpayer, environmental and health groups on extensive > lobbying, as well as rapid-response online and grassroots campaign to > eliminate the $50 billion DOE loan guarantee program from the bill. We > developed a community letter, fact-sheet, and made contact with over 200 > offices in the House and Senate. The votes on final passage of the > American Recovery and Reinvestment Act are expected today in the House and > today or tomorrow in the Senate. > > Moving forward, we plan to work with DOE Sec. Chu and key members of > congress to ensure that funds from the DOE loan guarantee program are > directed toward clean energy. > > Great work everyone! > -Lyndsay > > > > Stimulus update: Adios to big nuke, coal assistance > By: Bill Lambrecht > Post-Dispatch Washington Bureau > WASHINGTON ? Nuclear operators and clean-coal dreamers had better start > looking elsewhere to finance their plants. > A $50 billion Senate provision boosting government loan guarantees for > energy projects was sliced away when House and Senate conferees pared down > the economic recovery package to $789 billion. > A conference report isn?t out yet but several sources tell us that the $50 > billion proved to be a target too fat to ignore. > The cut is a blow to companies in the St. Louis region looking to build > so-called clean coal plants, like the $1 billion FutureGen project > proposed for southern Illinois seeking a Holy Grail of energy production: > burning coal with zero emissions. > It?s also a bitter pill for companies like Illinois-based Exelon, the > nation?s biggest nuclear operator, and AmerenUE who eyed loan guarantees > to put some cash behind the frenzied planning in this era of worry about > global warming. AmerenUE is looking to add another reactor at its Callaway > plant in Missouri. > Financing an $8-10 billion nuclear plant is all but impossible in the best > of times considering all the risks. That?s one reason we haven?t seen an > order for a new nuke plant in the U.S. for three decades. > Budget hawks like Taxpayers for Common Sense are pleased at the reduction, > noting that the loan guarantees are a chancy proposition for taxpayers, to > say the least. The Government Accountability Office places the risk of > default of a new nuclear plant at 50 percent and worried in a report about > DOE?s ability to oversee all that loan money. > > Lyndsay Moseley > Washington Representative > Sierra Club > 408 C St. NE > Washington, DC 20002 > tel: 202-548-4581 > fax: 202-547-6009 > > - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - > To unsubscribe from the COAL-CAMPAIGN-ALERTS list, send any message to: > COAL-CAMPAIGN-ALERTS-signoff-request(a)LISTS.SIERRACLUB.ORG > > Check out our Listserv Lists support site for more information: > http://www.sierraclub.org/lists/faq.asp > > To view the Sierra Club List Terms & Conditions, see: > http://www.sierraclub.org/lists/terms.asp > > - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - To unsubscribe from the COAL-CAMPAIGN-ALERTS list, send any message to: COAL-CAMPAIGN-ALERTS-signoff-request(a)LISTS.SIERRACLUB.ORG Check out our Listserv Lists support site for more information: http://www.sierraclub.org/lists/faq.asp To view the Sierra Club List Terms & Conditions, see: http://www.sierraclub.org/lists/terms.asp [View Less]

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Jim Sconyers - new phone number. 304.906.6628
by Jim Sconyers 13 Feb '09

13 Feb '09

I have a new phone number. It its: 304.906.6628. This is my only number. It replaces my old number of 603.969.6712, which is now dead. Jim Sconyers jim_scon(a)yahoo.com 603.969.6712 Remember: Mother Nature bats last.

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Fwd: PEC files with the Virginia Supreme Court
by James Kotcon 12 Feb '09

12 Feb '09

_If you have trouble reading this message, view it online here_ (http://citizen-networks.org/pec/all-msgs.html) (http://www.pecva.org/) An Extraordinary Motion Prompted by Extraordinary Circumstances Dear Donna, With _demand dropping_ (http://citizen-networks.org/ct/qd_mD8Y19uF_/) , the SCC should have to take another look. When the State Corporation Commission decided to approve the 500 kV transmission line project, it relied on PJM's forecasts regarding future … [View More]electricity use. Turns out PJM's forecasts were way off the mark. Demand for electricity dropped this year, and according to PJM, it's going to drop further. We've filed _a motion with the Virginia Supreme Court_ (http://citizen-networks.org/ct/q7_mD8Y19uFA/) asking them to vacate the State Corporation Commission's approval and send the case back for further review. Electricity Demand is Down Demand for electricity was down this past summer --PJM's 2008 unrestricted _peak was down_ (http://citizen-networks.org/ct/a1_mD8Y19uFN/) over 10,000 megawatts from 2007. PJM expects further declines this coming summer. For reference, the average coal plant generates 600 MW and the average 500 kV transmission line carries 3,000 MW. In light of this precipitous drop in demand, the State Corporation Commission has more time to properly evaluate both need and alternatives. In their decision this past fall, the SCC Commissioners discounted alternatives presented by respondents like PEC, Fauquier County and Virginia's Commitment. The Judges ruled that the alternatives we presented were not certain to be in place in time to avoid potential overloads in 2011. Now that demand is dropping, that 2011 time frame should no longer constrain the Commission's decision making process. With Falling Demand, the SCC Should Take Another Look Our _VA Supreme Court Motion_ (http://citizen-networks.org/ct/q7_mD8Y19uFA/) was filed by Richmond attorney Patrick McSweeney. Here's a short excerpt from the introduction: "This is an extraordinary motion prompted by extraordinary circumstances. The facts and assumptions upon which the State Corporation Commission predicated its decision to approve the construction of the [transmission line] have changed dramatically since the Commission entered its October 7, 2008 order, from which the appeal is taken. The drastic decline in the national economy and the economy of the relevant multi-state region has significantly affected the demand for electricity in the area to be served by the transmission line at issue. There is no present of near-term need for the new transmission line if the reduced level of demand for electricity that is now projected by disinterested expert sources and the expert on whom the applicants relied is substantially accurate." West Virginia Case Still Open, Pennsylvania Group Files Appeal While we continue the fight in Virginia, other citizens and groups are pushing for a better result in Pennsylvania and West Virginia. In PA, the _Energy Conservation Coalition_ (http://citizen-networks.org/ct/qp_mD8Y19uFM/) has filed an extensive and compelling appeal. In West Virginia, a number of PSC conditions have not been met by TrAILCo, and no final order has been granted. In the meantime, we're working on our grounds for appeal and expect to file "assignments of error" with the Virginia Supreme Court shortly. Very best, Bri West Piedmont Environmental Council _bwest(a)pecva.bwe_ (mailto:bwest@pecva.org) [View Less]

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Fwd: MI: Links to some key documents and Governor's Executive Directive 2009-2
by Paul Wilson 12 Feb '09

12 Feb '09

Lots of information here. But check out this website Clean Energy Now is the name -- www.cleanenergynowmi.org . It would be great to do something like this in WV. paul ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Anne Woiwode <Anne.Woiwode(a)sierraclub.org> Date: Wed, Feb 11, 2009 at 9:51 PM Subject: MI: Links to some key documents and Governor's Executive Directive 2009-2 To: COAL-CAMPAIGN-FORUM(a)lists.sierraclub.org Folks: Below is a draft summary I put together on Governor … [View More]Granholm's Executive Directive, along with some links. The full State of State is also of interest because it lays out the full energy agenda ( http://www.michigan.gov/documents/gov/SOS2009_265915_7.pdf on pages 5 through 7) Some of the key documents that were produced by our amazing legal team (Faith Bugel and Meleah Geertsma of Environmental Law and Policy Center, Shannon Fisk of NRDC, Bruce Nilles, James Gignac and David Bender for Sierra Club, and more recently Noah Hall of Great Lakes Environmental Law Center) are posted on the GLELC blog site: http://www.glelc.org/glelc/clean-energy.html . These folks did a phenomenal job of looking at the opportunities for creatively tackling the fight in Michigan. This started in the summer of 2007 with two separate petitions submitted to the Michigan DEQ requesting the Director to regulate CO2 in keeping with the Supreme Court's direction (one petition was a request for rulemaking submitted by a small group near the Wolverine Power Cooperative proposed plant in Rogers City, the other was a request for declaratory ruling submitted by our group of initial collaborative organizations). While both of these failed, the practice of working together started that fall, and we kept reenforcing it. Another site of interest was mentioned by Jan O'Connell -- Lee Sprague, who came on board with Sierra Club almost a year ago, worked with a volunteer web designer who has been willing to have a site put up that is shared by our collaborative group (Clean Energy Now is the name -- www.cleanenergynowmi.org ) which Lee worked to get up and running probably 6 to 8 months ago -- it has its flaws, but it has been a useful place to send folks for updates on all the plants. Since not every member group of our collaborative is working on every plant, it is useful to have a single site for all of them If anyone is interested in seeing our original plan, I'm happy to share it with you. We put it together in an interative process with the dozen groups originally involved in the Clean Energy Now collaborative, and this was the basis for what was provided to the Energy Foundation when they requested grant proposals for the Michigan coal fight. The plan was accompanied by several appendices, which included details about strategies to be implemented in each community, the state-wide strategy, the beginnings of a communication plan, and information about each organization that was a partner and what they were doing or proposing to do. By laying it out this way, the Energy Foundation was able to select the groups that they work with and deal with them directly, rather than try to shoehorn all the groups into a single grant proposal with a single fiduciary agent, and since was still the early stages it helped us all learn to work together without competing for funds. I also do have a six page summary of the work over the course of the past eight months, since the plan was completed, that gives an idea of what we actually did. Again, let me know if you would like to see it. Thanks for all the kind words, and we are very eager to share what worked here, in particular because we know we are going to continue to need all of YOUR good advice well into the future! Anne Woiwode, State Director Sierra Club Michigan Chapter (517) 484-2372 ------------------------------ *From:* Anne Woiwode [mailto:Anne.Woiwode@sierraclub.org] *Sent:* Sunday, February 08, 2009 1:14 PM *To:* 'nocoalmi(a)mienv.org'; 'energy(a)mienv.org' *Subject:* DRAFT Discussion of the Governor's Executive Directive and State of the State Folks: As the dust is starting to settle and the PR from the coal and utility companies is beginning to heat up, I think it will be useful for all of us to get clear on *Executive Directive 2009-2, Consideration of Feasible and Prudent Alternatives in the Processing of Air Permit Applications from Coal-Fired Power Plants, http://www.michigan.gov/gov/0,1607,7-168-36898-208125--,00.html . *As we encounter resistance to this action, it is important to try to be as accurate and complete as possible because we are already seeing the Doctors of Spin both political and corporate get out there to question the legality and the fairness of the Governor's actions. After discussions with our terrific group of attorneys from ELPC, NRDC, GLELC and Sierra Club, I am taking a stab at a Q&A below to try to answer some of the questions I am guessing are out there. I will NOT pretend that this is all correct or at all complete, but lets use our forums here to raise and try to answer questions so we are all prepared to defend which is probably one of the boldest, if not the boldest, move by Governor Granholm in her 6 + year tenure as our state's CEO. *PLEASE TREAT THIS AS AN INTERNAL DISCUSSION DRAFT AND DO NOT FORWARD IT AS IS!!* *Q &A:* *What proposed coal plants does the ED apply to?* All the ones currently before the DEQ and any that might seek permits in the future. Northern Michigan University's permit was issued last year and is in appeals to the EPA Environmental Appeals Board, so is not covered. However, Wolverine, Holland, Consumers and MidMichigan are all covered, and if Lansing, M & M or Tondu were to apply they would also be covered. *Under what authority is the Governor taking this action? * The ED cites both the federal Clean Air Act and the state's Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Act as giving the Governor authority to act (see ED for specific cites). In fact, these provisions were suggested to the administration in memos sent to both the DEQ and the Governor last year drafted by NRDC, ELPC and Sierra Club's attorneys ( http://www.glelc.org/files/mi-co2-granholm-letter.pdf ) and also included in the comments submitted on the specific air pollution permits. The letter to Governor Granholm, while focused on CO2 regulation, provides a very good explanation of the authority the she and her administration have to take action to require consideration of alternatives to the proposed actions. *Is the Executive Directive the equivalent of a "new law"?* No. An Executive Directive is direction from the Governor to her Administrative agencies and staff on how to apply existing laws or to take specific actions already authorized in the law. With regard to ED 2009-2, the Governor is directing the DEQ to take steps to determine a) is there is a need for the power proposed to be generated by these coal fired plants, and b) to consider "feasible and prudent alternatives" to these facilities. The ED cites two specific provisions of law regarding the requirement to consider "feasible and prudent alternatives. The first is in state law under the section of NREPA know as the Michigan Environmental Protection Act (MEPA). The second is the Clean Air Act Section 165(2)(a), which the ED points out gives "discretion" to the DEQ to "consider alternatives to proposed sources of air emissions when determining whether or not to grant an air permit to that source." The Governor's action tells her agency that they are to exercise that discretion. The ED also directs the Public Service Commission to assist the DEQ in its implementation of these directives, clarifying that this cross agency coordination is to occur. *Is this a "moratorium" on new coal plants?* No, this is not a moratorium on coal plants. It is instead clear direction from the Governor to her agencies that no new permits can be issued to coal plants without completion of these steps. Attempts to characterize this as a moratorium may well be efforts by the applicants and their supporters to pretend that the Governor's actions are overstepping legal bounds, when in fact her ED is well within her discretion. Instead, it should be understood that the ED reflects conclusions of the administration based on today's realities that may be responsive in part to comments raised in public comment on the Wolverine and Holland permits and in memoranda submitted to both the Governor and the DEQ. Neither Michigan nor any other state has faced so many proposals to build coal plants (the Governor used the words "a slew of new coal power plants" in her State of the State), combined with growing concerns about the environmental impacts, clear documentation of declining demand for electric generation, and passage of RPS and EE requirements last year that promise even more reductions in demand for new coal plants. As DEQ's Press Secretary Robert McCann said in a Bay City Times article: "It's an addition, part of a review that's going to be done," he said. "It makes our review more comprehensive and frankly, a lot more real-world based. "There's a growing concern among the public that we have these five new applications in for power plants, but is there really a need for five new coal plants?" Prior to the governor's directive, the DEQ was only able to evaluate each permit for meeting air quality regulations, McCann said.' *Is the Governor going back on agreements struck in passing the 2008 energy legislation?* No. The utilities and others proposing new coal plants are desperate to claim that there was a violation of "agreements" made last year, suggesting that one of more of the coal plants was "promised". This is posturing for political benefit only, and if any such agreements were made they would have been contrary to requirements of the Clean Air Act and NREPA that environmental protections must be assured. Some contention is also made that since Consumers Energy is already required by the laws passed last year to do a needs assessment under the Integrated Resources Plan requirements, in order to obtain a Certificate of Need from the Public Service Commission, that this is somehow changing the rules. The PSC is still in the process of developing the requirements for the IRP and the DEQ has been directed in the ED to work with the PSC in this process, so there is no reason to think that this would be in anyway inconsistent with the law passed last year. As pointed out in the ED, the Governor is not making new law, she is simply making clear how her agencies should apply existing laws to these circumstances. *How will this process play out?* In discussions with the DEQ last week it was explained that they have not yet figured out exactly how this process will unfold. Over the course of the next few weeks we can expect the agency, working with the Public Service Commission, to put together the steps they will pursue. This is an important time for members of the public to feel free to suggest ways that agency should proceed, and to assure that they have information that may help shape the best process, and several groups following the specific coal plants will be seeking to engage the agency in discussions about their process. While we expect the public will have input into this process, the details for that are not yet spelled out. *What happens to the comments already received by DEQ on Wolverine and Holland?* Because these requirements are additive to the permitting process that has been underway on both of these plants, all of the comments and input on those permits will be part of the record going forward. However, we are also convinced that both of these proposals are already fatally flawed and would not warrant issuance of an air quality Permit to Install today, even short of the needs assessment and alternatives assessment. It is certainly appropriate for all of us to argue that DEQ should deny these permits outright. If the applicants chose to submit new applications, they would still be required to meet the requirements for needs assessments and alternatives consideration. However, there is no excuse for moving these into those stages of review when the permits should be denied outright based on public comment to date. *DRAFT DRAFT DRAFT DRAFT DRAFT DRAFT DRAFT DRAFT DRAFT DRAFT DO NOT FORWARD* ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Anne M. Woiwode, State Director Sierra Club Michigan Chapter - 109 E. Grand River Avenue, Lansing, MI 48906 - 517-484-2372 anne.woiwode(a)sierraclub.org http://michigan.sierraclub.org/index.shtml Support the Sierra Club Michigan Chapter - contact Wendi Tilden at wendi.tilden(a)sierraclub.org *The bold steps that are needed to solve the climate crisis are exactly the same steps that ought to be taken in order to solve the economic crisis and the energy security crisis - Al Gore* - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - To unsubscribe from the COAL-CAMPAIGN-FORUM list, send any message to: COAL-CAMPAIGN-FORUM-signoff-request(a)LISTS.SIERRACLUB.ORG Check out our Listserv Lists support site for more information: http://www.sierraclub.org/lists/faq.asp Sign up to receive Sierra Club Insider, the flagship e-newsletter. Sent out twice a month, it features the Club's latest news and activities. Subscribe and view recent editions at http://www.sierraclub.org/insider/ -- Paul Wilson Sierra Club 504 Jefferson Ave Charles Town, WV 25414-1130 Phone: 304-725-4360 Cell: 304-279-1361 "There is no forward until you have gone back" ~Buddha [View Less]

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Fwd: Re: Manchin's "alternative energy" bill online now
by James Kotcon 12 Feb '09

12 Feb '09

Below are comments from myself and Vickie Wolfe (Chair of WVEC's Renewable Energy Committee) on the Gov's AREPS bill (attached). Jim Sconyers asked if this bill was legit. I am more pessimistic than Vickie because, although the bill defines "Advanced Coal Technology" to mean carbon capture or advanced high efficiency technologies to reduce carbon emissions, the actual portfolio standard also allows existing plants that burn coalbed methane, coal waste, or even tire-derived fuels, to qualify … [View More]for the credits. That means that 20-year-old plants like the MEA Beechurst Avenue plant in Morgantown would qualify as generating these credits. I also re-read the text of the speech, and it is not clear if Manchin is even aware that WV already has net metering rules in place. If he is, his bill would actually weaken current rules under the guise of expanding them. If not, it makes me wonder how competent his staff is. JBK >>> Vickie Wolfe <ibtreehugger(a)gmail.com> 2/12/2009 2:28 AM >>> First to address the question Danny posed to just a few of us, I too have not yet studied the bill, just read it briefly--it's too late in the day for my brain to work well. But the bill does not specify how much energy must come from each source. As I understand it from my cursory reading, utilities are required to acquire credits (one credit = one mwh) equal to 25% of the electricity they sold in the preceding year. They receive one credit for each mwh purchased from an "alternative energy resource facility" (see definition (c), p. 4); two credits for each mwh purchased from a "renewable energy resource facility;" and three credits for each mwh purchased from a "renewable energy resource facility" that's sited on a reclaimed surface mine. To be honest with you, I'm not too worried about many of those "alternative" sources; I think the gov might've outfoxed himself. I think "advanced coal technology" (see definitions) will be too expensive. So will coal gasification/IGCC. In case you're not aware, currently there exist only TWO IGCC facilities in the whole U.S. FutureGen--which was an IGCC facility that was to include CCS--was shelved because it was too expensive. So I guess I'm more optimistic than Jim. No, there's no requirement for renewable energy per se; but there is a requirement for energy that comes from "alternative" sources that INCLUDE renewables; and I'm thinking market forces may actually drive these credits toward renewables. (Please feel free to argue with me, Jim.) The provision I saw that concerned me most was that there's an "out" on p. 17: the portfolio standards may be "eliminated if the commission determines that alternative or renewable energy resources are not reasonably available." ----- Original Message ----- From: "James Kotcon" <jkotcon(a)wvu.edu> To: <Duane330(a)aol.com>; "Kathryn Stone" <XKatwalkx(a)aol.com>; "Denise Poole" <deniseap(a)earthlink.net>; <kgrubb(a)fairmontstate.edu>; "Matt Sherald" <matt(a)getpimby.com>; "Vickie Wolfe" <ibtreehugger(a)gmail.com>; "Trevor Swan" <levelingAppalachia(a)gmail.com>; "matt noerpel" <mnoerpel(a)gmail.com>; "Rory McIlmoil" <rorygep(a)gmail.com>; "Daniel Chiotos" <trouserdude(a)gmail.com>; "Vivian Stockman" <v.stock(a)gmail.com>; "Vernon Haltom" <vernoncrmw(a)gmail.com>; "Mary Wildfire" <mwildfire(a)hotmail.com>; <pjgrunt(a)lycos.com>; "Heather N Sprouse" <sprouse15(a)marshall.edu>; "Mel Tyree PhD" <tyree13(a)marshall.edu>; "Frank YOUNG" <fyoung(a)mountain.net>; "Bill Price" <bill.price(a)sierraclub.org>; <haning2(a)verizon.net>; <jkotcon(a)wvu.edu>; <unclesteve197(a)yahoo.com> Sent: Wednesday, February 11, 2009 8:17 PM Subject: Re: Manchin's "alternative energy" bill online now I have read over this bill twice, and I cannot see any requirement for renewable energy. As I read this, a utility could achieve its entire portfolio standard from "alternative" sources, which could include existing coal-fired power plants that use pressurized fluidized bed boilers, or from an IGCC boiler. The could use coalbed methane, tire-derived fuels, or a "pump-storage" hydro facility, in which the original energy comes from coal. I am concerned that the net-metering provisions appear to open up our current rules to allow coal for net-metering incentives. It also appears to me that this bill would offer fewer credits for carbon emissions offsets to sequester carbon in trees, etc., than are generated from the coal in the first place. My calculations suggest that a utility would get 4-6 "credits" for burning a ton of coal in an approved power plant, thereby releasing something like 2 tons of carbon dioxide, but would only get two credits if they fix those two tons of carbon dioxide in trees. Unless my math is wrong (and it is late, so somebody double check this before you quote me), a utility gets more credits for polluting the air than they get for cleaning it up. (1 BTU = 0.293 W-hours) 1 pound of coal is 8,000-12,000 BTU If coal is 60 % carbon, 1 ton of coal yields 2.2 tons Carbon dioxide It looks like this "standard" would put West Virginia seriously out of compliance with any of the RPS standards in surrounding states, and would likely lead us down a blind alley, setting up a system that would not meet the requirements of any likely national Renewable Portfolio Standard. Am I missing something, or is this worse than nothing? I keep looking for the pony, but I just don't see it. Jim Kotcon >>> Vickie Wolfe <ibtreehugger(a)gmail.com> 2/12/2009 12:07 AM >>> Everyone, Didja watch the State of the State address? Ken Ward has posted the draft text of Manchin's "Alternative and Renewable Energy Portfolio Standard" on his blog: http://blogs.wvgazette.com/coaltattoo/ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Vickie L. Wolfe PHONE: (304) 744-8777 E-MAIL: IBTreehugger(a)gmail.com ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Think coal-derived electricity is "cheap"? Visit http://www.alternet.org/story/70475/?page=entire [View Less]

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