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No Need to Panic About Global Warming (Wall Street Journal)
There's no compelling scientific argument for drastic action to 'decarbonize' the world's economy.
A candidate for public office in any contemporary democracy may have to consider what, if anything, to do about "global warming." Candidates should understand that the oft-repeated claim that nearly all scientists demand that something dramatic be done to stop global warming is not true. In fact, a large and growing number of distinguished scientists and engineers do not agree that drastic actions on global warming are needed.
In September, Nobel Prize-winning physicist Ivar Giaever, a supporter of President Obama in the last election, publicly resigned from the American Physical Society (APS) with a letter that begins: "I did not renew [my membership] because I cannot live with the [APS policy] statement: 'The evidence is incontrovertible: Global warming is occurring. If no mitigating actions are taken, significant disruptions in the Earth's physical and ecological systems, social systems, security and human health are likely to occur. We must reduce emissions of greenhouse gases beginning now.' In the APS it is OK to discuss whether the mass of the proton changes over time and how a multi-universe behaves, but the evidence of global warming is incontrovertible?"
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Don Ferguson: Descent into zinc mine opened eyes (Knoxville News Sentinel)
The business of reporting the news can give you many experiences that you would otherwise never have. One of mine was going 600 feet down into a zinc mine in Jefferson County 51 years ago.
When there was a fire at 800 feet down in the Young Mine in New Market a couple of weeks ago, I thought of my trip into that same mine and got out the article I wrote about it.
It wasn't a fire or accident that took me into the mine. I was accompanying a group of about 100 geologists who were convening in Knoxville.
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Notice sent on Premium Coal discharge in New River (Tennesseean)
Mining regulators responding to a discharge of partially treated coal cleaning wastewater in the New River in East Tennessee have sent a notice of violation letter to Premium Coal Inc.
The Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation issued the Monday letter in response to a Jan. 3 discharge of partially treated coal process wastewater and coal slurry that includes chemicals used in the washing operation in the Devonia community of Anderson County.
The operation remains shut down. No drinking water operations are affected, although there were reports of a black water pollution "plume" more than 28 miles away, said agency spokeswoman Meg Lockhart.
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State cites Premium Coal for water quality permit violation (Knoxville News Sentinel)
The state on Monday issued a water quality permit violation notice to the coal company that discharged more than 1.4 million gallons of black water into the New River earlier this month.
A "pollution plume" of fine particles of coal, shale and other rocks from the discharge was seen nearly 29 miles downstream, a state official said.
Premium Coal's coal-washing plant in Anderson County's Devonia community will remain shuttered until it receives both state and federal approval to resume operations, Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation spokeswoman Meg Lockhart said.
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Patriot Coal agrees to major selenium cleanup (Charleston Gazette)
Patriot Coal has agreed to a major legal settlement that will require the company to clean up dozens of illegal discharges of toxic selenium at three major mining complexes in Southern West Virginia, according to court records filed Wednesday.
Attorneys for the Sierra Club and other groups negotiated the deal with Patriot to resolve ongoing litigation following a September 2010 federal court ruling that began forcing coal operators to deal with selenium violations around the state's coalfields.
The Patriot deal, outlined in a consent decree filed after the financial markets closed for the day, is the most significant in a series of water pollution settlements worked out by citizen organizations in the last year.
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Groups to sue EPA for release of coal ash regulations (State Journal)
Environmental and public health groups announced their intent Jan. 18 to sue the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in federal court to force the release of delayed regulations for the disposal of coal combustion residues.
Groups notifying the EPA today that they plan to sue under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, or RCRA, include Earthjustice, on behalf of Appalachian Voices; Chesapeake Climate Action Network; Environmental Integrity Project; French Broad Riverkeeper; Kentuckians For The Commonwealth; Moapa band of Paiutes; Montana
Environmental Information Center; Physicians for Social Responsibility; Prairie Rivers Network; Sierra Club and Southern Alliance for Clean Energy.
"Politics and pressure from corporate lobbyists are delaying much needed health protections from coal ash," said Earthjustice attorney Lisa Evans on announcing the intent to sue.
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EPA: Power plants main global warming culprits (Herald Leader)
The most detailed data yet on emissions of heat-trapping gases show that U.S. power plants are responsible for the bulk of the pollution blamed for global warming.
Power plants released 72 percent of the greenhouse gases reported to the Environmental Protection Agency for 2010, according to information released Wednesday that was the first catalog of global warming pollution by facility. The data include more than 6,700 of the largest industrial sources of greenhouse gases, or about 80 percent of total U.S. emissions.
According to an Associated Press analysis of the data, 20 mostly coal-fired power plants in 15 states account for the top-releasing facilities.
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Group Prays To Stop Mountaintop Coal Mining (News Channel 5)
It may look and sound like any service, but a group that met on a random Tuesday night represents nearly all denominations ended 40 days of praying for the same thing.
"The way we love the creator of the universe is to love the creation," said Pastor Ryan Bennett says the environment may not be the first thing you'd think from a pew, but here it's a grassroots issue firmly planted in faith. "It's sort of like a David and Goliath sort of scenario. We're volunteers. We don't know what we're doing, but we believe that God is with us."
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Prayer groups hope prayers protect ridge tops in Tennessee (Tennessean)
Those who don’t believe that the ridges of mountains should be blasted away to extract coal in Tennessee have taken to prayer in the 40 days leading to this year’s opening of the state legislature.
Baptist, Catholic, Church of Christ, Presbyterian and Methodist church members are among those who have been focusing on the beauty and wonder of the mountains, waters and sky in advance of the upcoming legislative session.
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Has Controversial Coal Baron Don Blankenship Made a New Home in East Tennessee? (MetroPulse)
It’s usually unalloyed good news when Tennessee industrial recruiters sweet-talk a baron of industry into relocating to the Volunteer State, but it’s tough to find any Tennessean who’s ready to roll out the welcome mat for Don Blankenship.
In fact, it’s tough to find anyone who is willing to speak on the record about the former CEO of Massey Energy who dropped out of sight after he was forced to retire a year ago, just days after he was dubbed the “dark lord of coal country” in an extensive Rolling Stone expose. This month, reports have been circulating that he has relocated his home base to Johnson City, Tenn.
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21 U.S. coal miners killed on the job in 2011 (Beckley Register Herald)
The death toll from U.S. coal mine accidents fell to 21 during the past year, the second lowest annual count since the federal government began keeping records more than a century ago.
Kentucky led the nation in coal deaths in 2011 with eight miners killed on the job, followed by West Virginia with six.
Joe Main, head of the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration, said stepped-up federal safety enforcement has helped the coal industry to rebound from 2010 when 48 miners were killed nationwide, 29 of them in an underground explosion in West Virginia.
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3 zinc miners rescued from Tenn. mine after fire (Knoxville News Sentinel)
A fire broke out inside a zinc mine in Tennessee on Wednesday, trapping three miners inside for about three hours before they were rescued, authorities said. Two other miners below ground were injured by smoke inhalation.
The three miners were trapped by smoke and needed respirators before they could leave the mine. A rescue team helped them out and they appeared unharmed, though they were taken to a hospital as a precaution, said Tim Wilder of the Jefferson County EMA.
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GOP state House, Senate redistricting plans unveiled (Knoxville News Sentinel)
The Republican state House redistricting plan unveiled Wednesday is designed to end the careers of at least six incumbent Democratic representatives while creating six new districts with no incumbent.
The Senate redistricting plan, also made public Wednesday, will abruptly end the political career of one incumbent Republican senator and targets Senate Democratic Leader Jim Kyle for defeat by another incumbent Republican senator.
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100 years ago today: Cross Mountain Mine disaster commemorated (Knoxville News Sentinel)
The scene was enough to make hard-rock coal miners cry.
R.J. Lester was dead. Clutched in his arms was a 9-year-old boy. They were two of the 84 coal miners and boys who died in the Cross Mountain Mine disaster a century ago Friday.
Wanda Perry, Lester's great-granddaughter, told that story for the first time just prior to participating in the 100th anniversary remembrance of the Cross Mountain coal mine disaster in the historic Briceville Community Church on Friday.
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Knoxville coal company files bankruptcy; attracts Chinese investors (Knoxville News Sentinel)
A publicly traded Knoxville energy company has filed for bankruptcy protection — and drawn an investment from China.
Americas Energy Co. is a coal-mining firm that is headquartered on North Peters Road, and operates in Southeastern Kentucky. Its stock trades on the OTC bulletin board.
Last week, AEC filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, saying it has estimated assets in a range between $500,000 and $1 million, and estimated liabilities that fall in a range between $1 million and $10 million. Company officials and an attorney did not return calls seeking comment.
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Centennial of Briceville’s Cross Mountain Mine disaster remembered (Knoxville News Sentinel)
The coal mine that spawned this once-thriving community was the scene of a ground-shaking calamity 100 years ago this week.
Flame from a miner's lamp deep inside the state-of-the-art Cross Mountain Mine ignited a methane gas blast, which detonated coal dust.
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NASA satellite confirms sharp decline in pollution from US coal power plants (Science Daily)
A team of scientists have used the Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) on NASA's Aura satellite to confirm major reductions in the levels of a key air pollutant generated by coal power plants in the eastern United States. The pollutant, sulfur dioxide, contributes to the formation of acid rain and can cause serious health problems.
The scientists, led by an Environment Canada researcher, have shown that sulfur dioxide levels in the vicinity of major coal power plants have fallen by nearly half since 2005. The new findings, the first satellite observations of this type, confirm ground-based measurements of declining sulfur dioxide levels and demonstrate that scientists can potentially measure levels of harmful emissions throughout the world, even in places where ground monitoring is not extensive or does not exist. About two-thirds of sulfur dioxide pollution in American air comes from coal power plants. Geophysical Research Letters published details of the new research this month.
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House votes on act that could restrain regulatory agencies (State Journal)
The U.S. House of Representatives on Dec. 7 passed the REINS Act, which would require congressional approval for any federal regulation with an economic impact of greater than $100 million.
The Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny, or REINS, Act passed the House 241-184. Both West Virginia Republican Reps. Shelley Moore Capito and David McKinley voted in favor of the legislation. Democrat Nick Rahall voted against it.
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Report links MSHA failure to UBB blast (Charleston Gazette)
Six weeks after the Upper Big Branch Mine blew up, someone slipped some papers under Bob Hardman's door at the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration's district office in Mount Hope.
MSHA's Southern West Virginia district manager found two memos, detailing serious methane leaks in 2003 and 2004 at the Massey Energy mine where 29 workers had just been killed in a massive explosion.
The memos -- both six years old -- detailed how the Upper Big Branch Mine's floor was a likely source of explosive gas, and gave clear recommendations on what Massey should do to avoid a potentially deadly methane blast. Massey never implemented those recommendations, and MSHA officials admit they never made sure the company took action.
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Friday’s Cross Mountain Mine centennial includes ceremonies, tours (Knoxville News Sentinel)
Schoolchildren and descendants of victims and survivors of the Cross Mountain Mine explosion will join in Friday's ceremony observing the 100th anniversary of the disaster.
Eighty-four men and boys, ranging in age from 16 to 61, died inside the mine on Dec. 9, 1911.
Centennial events will begin at 9 a.m. in tiny Briceville Church, which overlooks the Briceville community and is itself a historical treasure.
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