Mountain State Matters

Let’s just say that hypothetically a small mountain community is able to choose between two different types of energy production. Both will put their town in a place of providing energy for a good chunk of the country. Both will provide jobs. One will be sustainable. The other will ruin the town’s mountains and streams and be used up in 14 years.

This is the quandary in which the folks of Coal River Mountain find themselves. An article today in the Register-Herald outlined the community’s proposal to the Raleigh County Commission to support a wind farm, rather than strip mining, on the mountain’s ridges.

A study was conducted that found the mountain’s ridges had strong Class 4 to Class 7 average annual wind speeds.

“It was found that Coal River Mountain has enough wind potential and land area to accommodate 220 two-megawatt wind turbines. Calculations showed that this was enough energy to power over 150,000 homes or over 90,000 total electricity customers, including residential, commercial and industrial units,” [Rory Mcilmoil of Coal River Mountain Watch said.]

Mcilmoil claims production estimates in the strip mining permits show that mining operations will last for only 14 years.

“Once the coal is gone, there will be no more jobs available, the water will be contaminated, many of the residents will have moved out or been bought out, and the forest, another source of potential jobs and revenue, will be gone for decades to come, as will the possibility of producing clean wind energy on the scale that is currently available,” he said.

The project also has the support of the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition, Appalachian Voices and the Sierra Club.

A fact that’s key is that mining permits haven’t yet been issued for the land, so there could be time to get a wind farm in. Let’s hope the Raleigh County Commission realizes a great opportunity for Southern West Virginia to begin cultivating more sustainable, environmentally-friendly energy sources.

Photo by: Lost Bob

The Asheville Citizen-Times reported yesterday that the North Carolina General Assembly will hear a proposal to halt the state’s use of coal obtained through mountaintop removal.

“Mountaintop removal coal mining presents a clear and present danger to the Appalachian Mountains, which are home to a vibrant and indelible culture, stunning biodiversity and enormous economic potential,” said Rep. Pricey Harrison, D-Guilford, the bill’s sponsor.”

Apparently nine of the state’s power plants get their coal from mountaintop removal. I have no idea if the bill will pass, but check out I Love Mountains to find out if your electricity is also coming from mountaintop removal.

The New York Times had a front page article today on clean coal…and how the industry seems to have slowed moving forward on the technology.

President Bush is for it, and indeed has spent years talking up the virtues of “clean coal.” All three candidates to succeed him favor the approach. So do many other members of Congress. Coal companies are for it. Many environmentalists favor it. Utility executives are practically begging for the technology.

But it has become clear in recent months that the nation’s effort to develop the technique is lagging badly.

In January, the government canceled its support for what was supposed to be a showcase project, a plant at a carefully chosen site in Illinois where there was coal, access to the power grid, and soil underfoot that backers said could hold the carbon dioxide for eons.

Perhaps worse, in the last few months, utility projects in Florida, West Virginia, Ohio, Minnesota and Washington State that would have made it easier to capture carbon dioxide have all been canceled or thrown into regulatory limbo.

True, this is a story in the business section, but I know few (or no) environmentalists who are into clean coal. The whole concept is basically a blind to make people think that coal could ever be environmentally friendly. If the industry is slowing down, it may be a reluctance to invest more money in something that doesn’t offer a long-term environmentally-viable solution. But probably not. It probably means people are questioning the profitability of clean coal.

The United Mine Workers of America endorsed Obama today. This follows Sen. Robert C. Byrd’s (D-W.Va.) Obama endorsement yesterday and Sen. Jay Rockefeller’s (D-W.Va.) in February.

I wonder if the UMWA’s endorsement will help Obama’s popularity in a state in which he was so soundly defeated.

The state’s second coal mining death of 2008 happened this Saturday when Nathan Dove, 24, was killed in Aracoma Alma No. 1 Mine in Logan County. Dove was electrocuted, and preliminary investigations suggest that he cut a live cable.

This is the same mine in which two miners died in early 2006, immediately following the tragedy at Sago.

In the Pump Handle, a blog about public health, Celeste Monforton addressed the issue yesterday, noting that Aracoma Alma No. 1, a Massey mine, received a safety award about a month ago. Yet, just a year ago MSHA fined the mine $1.5 million. Hmm…

From the Pump Handle:

In my post, “Safety Awards Gone Bad”, I reminded readers that just one year ago, MSHA issued a record-setting $1.5 million penalty against Massey for its ”reckless disregard for safety” in the disaster which killed Bragg and Hatfield. Between January 1, 2006 and April 1, 2008, this mine has been cited for nearly 1,200 violations of MSHA health and safety standards, with 665 of them designated “serious and substantial.” Moreover, this Massey operation has been assessed more than $2,226,000 in monetary penalties, and they’ve only paid $35,651. The vast majority of the violations are being contested, including the dozens of penalties associated with the Aracoma Alma disaster which are classified as “reckless disregard” for miners’ safety.

Last week, I had the opportunity to speak with Lenny Kohm, the campaign director for Appalachian Voices. Appalachian Voices is a non-profit with several offices throughout Appalachia; the organization’s goal is to bring people together to solve the region’s environmental problems. Recently, the group has been spending most of its time on issues involving clean air and mountaintop removal.

You can click on the media player to listen to the interview in its entirety (it’s five minutes long) or read the transcript of the interview, posted below.

Download Lenny Kohm Interview

Transcript

Erica Peterson: I’m on the phone with Lenny Kohm, the campaign director for Appalachian Voices. Thanks for talking with me, Lenny. So, tell me about your campaigns that specifically affect West Virginia.

Lenny Kohm: Well, there’s two. Obviously the most important one that we work on that affects West Virginia is trying to stop mountaintop removal and one of the vehicles we’re using is the Clean Water Protection Act, which is a bill in the House of Representatives that would basically make using the rubble from mountaintop removal explosions as valley fill.

EP: It would make that illegal?

LK: Well, yeah. It would make it illegal to put that waste into a stream. The way it is now, the current administration defined the waste from mountaintop removal as fill, which is legal to put in a body of water. But this legislation would once and for all make the definition of that rubble as waste and according to the Clean Water Act, you can’t put waste in any body of water in the United States.

EP: And what kind of opposition are you facing from coal companies on that legislation?

LK: I think we’ve gotten their attention. I really haven’t seen anything about the legislation from the coal companies yet. But certainly the coal industry is aware that they’re under the gun and I imagine that we’ll start seeing some push-back pretty quickly on the Clean Water Protection Act, H.R. 2169. I imagine, depending on how the election comes out, the way it looks like it’s going to come out, they’ll be pushing back pretty hard.

EP: Does Appalachian Voices do any work towards advocating alternative forms of energy?

LK: Yeah. You know, we work on clean air. Air is one of our programs, and one of the things we’re doing in that program is trying to stop coal-fired power plants from being built in the region. As part of that, we’ve done some studies on like, Coal River Mountain in West Virginia, a wind feasibility study that shows that they would actually realize more potential for electric power over a 50 year period from the wind than from knocking the mountain down. When a congressperson or a decision-maker asks us, ‘well, 50 percent of all the electricity in the United States comes from coal-fired power plants,’ we do talk about the options. It doesn’t have to be that way.

EP: And what do you think about clean coal?

LK: There is no such thing as clean coal. When they talk about clean coal, ‘they’ being the proponents of clean coal, basically what they’re talking about is when it’s burned in a power plant and it comes out of the stack, it’s probably cleaner than it was. But they’re only considering one part, the end part, of the process. They’re not considering extraction. What we say as part of our argument against clean coal, or the concept of clean coal, is how can coal that is mined using mountaintop removal coal mining possibly be clean? It can’t. I mean, it destroys the environment, it destroys people’s lives and the Appalachian culture. It can’t be clean coal. It’s sort of like ever since the surge started in Iraq and everyone’s saying how terrific it is. It knocked down American soldiers from being killed at 100 a month to 50 a month. How is that good? It’s sort of the same thing. Yeah, it burns cleaner, probably, not because the coal is clean, because the technology is better, but they still haven’t talked about the extraction part of it and all the steps in between.

EP: So are you saying that coal mined underground could potentially be clean coal?

LK: No. I mean, there are so many things the coal industry would have to do. First of all, they’d have to obey the law, which they haven’t been doing. So I think that there’s a long way to go. We’re not going to be off of coal tomorrow, and whatever coal mining they do, we would prefer they do it underground—it’s less destructive, and more miners would work and that’s really what they’re interested in doing.

EP: Is there any end to mountaintop removal in sight?

LK: Yeah, there is a light at the end of the tunnel, I guess is the phrase they use. I hesitate to talk about it, because when you start talking about ‘things are looking good,’ then people tend to slack off. But the point is that today they’re blowing up mountains in West Virginia, and as long as they’re doing that, they’re doing it, right, and we have to stop it. So, the end may be in sight, but it’s not in sight today and that’s what we’re after. I mean, I think that over the period of a couple years we’ll probably at least get the Clean Water Protection Act passed, but there’s a lot of work to be done, we’re not there yet. But we’re doing really well, and in the Congress we have 138 co-sponsors for the Clean Water Protection Act. So we’re doing pretty well, but doing pretty well is not the same as winning.

EP: Well, that’s all the time we have. Thanks so much for your time, Lenny, and good luck with your campaigns.

A week ago, I wrote a post about coal mining and drug use, specifically about a blog’s suggestion that testing coal miners for drugs would eliminate the rampant drug abuse that often exists in the mines. The blogger responded today:

I seriously doubt a coal miner will get fired for using painkillers in a legally prescribed manner. If you test positive for a prescription drug, your employer will not fire you if you have a legitimate prescription and follow the law regarding its use.

The whole point of testing is to remove people from the workplace who are a danger to themselves and co-workers. The bottle says “Do Not Operate Heavy Machinery” for a reason.

I think the blogger missed my point. My argument was NOT that coal miners (or anyone for that matter) should be operating heavy machinery under the influence of drugs or alcohol, nor that a miner would be fired for having a prescription drug (which was legally prescribed) in his system.

I simply don’t think drug testing miners is the complete solution. Drug testing WOULD remove those addicted to drugs from the mines, which would take away one safety hazard. However, I don’t think drug testing addresses the root of the problem.

To confirm, I called a friend of mine in Wyoming County, WV who wanted to be known as “Wild Bill the Coal Miner.” Bill confirmed that most of the miners he knows on painkillers became hooked because they were prescribed the pills after a mining-related accident. “Three to eight months down the road when it’s time to not take them anymore, your body is physically and mentally dependent on them,” he said.

Bill also said that there is no way a miner would work with someone they knew was under the influence of drugs while at work, partly due to the danger of the job. “You’re going to let someone know,” he said. “You aren’t going to let a man work next to you who’s messed up. It’s bad for everyone.”

It’s inaccurate to say that I am against removing “the miner who is addicted to a narcotic to the point of being a danger to others” from the workplace. Mines need to be made safer, period. However, as I stated in my original post, often these drug problems originate with mining. The U.S. Mining Safety and Health Administration has been continuously criticized for “serious and systemic lack of diligence in protecting miners,” most recently because of the cave-in in the Utah mine in August 2007 that killed nine people.

Drug testing is a band-aid solution that won’t get at the deeper issue of miners being hurt in the course of everyday work. The issue, by the way, is larger than mining. An editorial in the Charleston Gazette today outlined the issue, focusing on workplace deaths in fields other than mining. There was no mention of drugs, but of negligence.

The Associated Press reported today that Massey Energy plans on opening up a new coal mine at the rate of one every 17 days this year.

Massey is positioning itself to take advantage of soaring demand and prices for Appalachian coal. The expansion is centered on underground coal mines, giving Massey alternatives if a court decision that would make it more difficult and time consuming to get federal permits for surface mines is upheld.

“We have all the permits,” Chief Executive Don Blankenship told Wall Street analysts during a conference call Friday. “We have a line of equipment that’s set up that takes us beyond these currently announced expansion plans.”

Massey has a significant presence in West Virgina. Most recent notable Massey news:

• The company had to pay $20 million civil penalty in a corporate-wide settlement for polluting the streams of West Virginia and Kentucky in a flagrant violations of the Clean Water Act.
• Massey refused to do anything about the fact that one of their mountaintop removal mines was located 400 yards upslope from an elementary school (Marsh Fork Elementary in Sundial, WV), and a break in the impoundment dam would allow school officials only three minutes to evacuate the entire student population before the school would be under 15 feet of water.
• Massey CEO Don Blankenship was accused of threatening to shoot an ABC News producer when the reporter tried to interview him in a parking lot.

The Charleston Gazette reported today that West Virginia is the third-most dangerous state in the nation to work in, trailing only Alaska and Wyoming in workplace death rates.

However, I’m not sure that mandatory drug testing would be the answer, as suggested today on Think Tank, the Official Blog of the WV Republican Club.

True, Kentucky now tests its coal miners. However, the issue of coal mining and painkillers isn’t an issue that can be resolved by testing and firing all miners who are found to have drugs in their system. Which came first, for the majority of coal miners: coal mining or painkillers? Coal mining.

An excellent in-depth article in The Washington Post last January by Nick Miroff chronicled the lives of Virginia miners like Jeff Trapp, who got prescribed Oxycontin because of mining accidents and ended up hooked.

With disability rates as high as 37 percent in coal-mining areas such as Buchanan County, the region has many people with long-term pain management needs. As is the case with lots of aging miners, Trapp’s addiction to pills began in a doctor’s office, not a back-alley drug deal.

“Busted-up” from 30 years working as a heavy-equipment operator and mechanic on the massive excavators used for strip mining and mountaintop removal, Trapp needed multiple surgeries to fix seven ruptured and herniated discs. Doctors wanted to implant a magnesium rod to stabilize his spine, but Trapp refused.

“I’ve known too many people who’ve done it, and they can’t tie their shoes,” he said.

So Trapp loaded up on painkillers, first Percocet and later OxyContin. When the prescribed dose no longer did the job, Trapp took more. Then more. He began “doctor shopping,” driving to Roanoke and Richmond to find physicians who would give him prescriptions.

When the pharmacies couldn’t provide enough pills, Trapp found dealers who would. Friends were melting oxycodone tablets and injecting themselves — “bangin’ OCs” — but Trapp was too squeamish to mess with needles. He crushed the tablets and snorted them like cocaine off his kitchen table. He didn’t feel high, just “good.” The relief was instant.

“I got hooked on those bad boys real bad,” he says.

The Pump Handle, a public health blog, responded to Nick Miroff’s article. Celeste Monforton (who works for the Project on Scientific Knowledge and Public Policy at George Washington University and used to work for OSHA and MSHA) commented that MSHA has focused heavily on the problems and hazards caused by miners who come to work under the influence of alcohol and drugs. However, all the stress was put on creating a “Drug Free” workplace.

I went back to the symposium’s summary report and was disappointed to find nothing—absolutely nothing—about preventing workplace injuries as a way to avoid (at least) some cases of substance abuse. Should a little bit of money for the “war on drugs” be redirected to a war on workplace injuries?

Appalachian Voices has a petition up to gather names of those against Dominion building more coal-fired power plants in Virginia’s Wise County. While not in West Virginia, it’s pretty darn close. Rather than building more polluting power plants, App Voices argues, the focus should be put on developing clean energy sources that won’t ruin the mountains, pollute the streams and accelerate global warming. They want the petition to be a mile long, and right now it’s at 3,155 feet. If you support this cause, sign the petition.