Teri Blanton: "American people need to know that the EPA has cooked the books to justify its decision to repeal "

Portrait of Teri Blanton from Robert Shetterly's series, "Americans Who Tell The Truth."

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Yesterday, while I was writing about retired miner Stanley Sturgill and his testimony against repeal of the Clean Power Plan, I looked at the list of the folks who had signed up to speak.  There, almost at the top of the list of speakers for 11/29 was my friend Teri Blanton, former chairperson of Kentuckians for The Commonwealth.  I wrote her last night and asked if she would share her comments here.

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My name is Teri Blanton. I am a Kentuckian. I grew up in Harlan County, in the heart of our Appalachian mountains. My community today is a toxic mess, poisoned by acid mine drainage, coal slurry, and industrial waste. After more than a century of mining coal, we remain one of the poorest and least healthy counties in America. Harlan County has been losing coal jobs for decades. First the industry replaced miners with explosives. Lately mining jobs have fallen off a cliff due to competition from cheaper energy. Most of us understand those jobs are never coming back.

Despite this hard reality, good people are coming together in Harlan County and all across Central Appalachia to build a brighter future. Our people have been producing energy for this nation for over 100 years. We’re proud of our heritage. But there is no reason we should stay stuck in time as the world changes. Why shouldn’t eastern Kentucky be in the forefront of a clean energy revolution? Why shouldn’t we seize this moment to create jobs in wind, solar and hydropower? Appalachian people are resourceful, skilled, and hardworking. We can put our communities back to work – today – by making our homes energy efficient and installing small-scale renewable energy systems. That’s true energy independence. This EPA climate plan can and should do much more to help us make this transition to a clean energy economy.

I’m also a grandmother to three wonderful grandchildren. My family lives within 40 miles of 3 coal burning power plants in Kentucky. All 3 of my grandchildren suffer from asthma or other COPD related illness. For us this debate is not just about reducing the threat of climate change. It is also about reducing exposure to toxic pollution from burning coal that contributes to high rates of asthma, premature death, and chronic heart and lung diseases all across KY. This EPA Clean Power Plan can and should do much more to protect our health and the health of all people living in frontline communities where dirty energy is extracted and burned.

I am sickened by the shameful, harmful, and corrupt actions of the EPA under President Trump and EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt. Your decisions to pull out of the Paris Climate Accord and repeal the Clean Power Plan are indefensible. Undoing the Clean Power Plan threatens the health and safety of our communities, families, and economy. It flies in the face of science and common sense.

The American people need to know that the EPA has cooked the books to justify its decision to repeal the Clean Power Plan. For example, the EPA under President Trump and Scott Pruitt refuse to accept overwhelming health data that reducing soot and smog from coal burning power plants will prevent thousands of premature deaths and asthma attacks. Instead, the agency has embraced a false theory that there are threshold levels of air pollution below which it is “safe” for us to breathe. With this wave of a magic wand, the agency claims that the Clean Power Plan would produce no health benefits. But we know the opposite is true. The costs of complying with the Clean Power Plan are far outweighed by the benefits in terms of lives saved and sick days and hospitalizations avoided.

We should be talking about ways to strengthen the Clean Power Plan, not scrap it. This rule is the very least that this country should do to protect the health of people living in frontline communities and reduce the risks of global climate disruption. The fact is, the Clean Power Plan was never strong enough. But it was a start. It was designed to encourage states and utilities to plan for and begin a gradual transition to low-carbon energy systems. It gave states flexibility and time to find their best path forward.

When Scott Pruitt announced his decision to seek the repeal of the Clean Power Plan, he came to Hazard, Kentucky and promised that this action was going to bring back coal jobs. What a pathetic lie. The Clean Power Plan has never been implemented due to legal challenges. It is responsible for exactly zero lost coal jobs in Central Appalachia, and its repeal will do nothing to bring new investment or jobs to our region.

My friends, family, and neighbors know that coal is not coming back. And we’re so damn tired of politicians who endlessly fight a fictional war-on-coal but refuse to support or invest in actual solutions that could help our people.

So in 2015, a grassroots organization called Kentuckians For The Commonwealth decided that if our politicians wouldn’t lift a finger to begin planning for how to comply with the Clean Power Plan, we’d do it ourselves. We led an 18-month public planning process. More than 1,200 Kentuckians participated from Pikeville to Paducah. We asked everyone to share their vision for Kentucky’s energy future, and their best ideas for moving in that direction without leaving people or workers behind. We did an environmental justice analysis of our state to learn which communities are most affected by cumulative pollution and poor health outcomes, and to better understand the relationships between poverty, race, and exposure to pollution in our state.

Then with all of that input we designed a plan we call the Empower Kentucky Plan. You can view all of the recommendations and a description of our process at www.empowerkentucky.org. It is loaded with homegrown solutions to protect health, create jobs, lower people’s energy bills and shape a just transition to a cleaner energy system in Kentucky.

Here’s what you need to know about the Empower Kentucky Plan: Our plan produces better results for Kentuckians in terms of jobs, health, and lower average bills than the business-as-usual scenario. Specifically, our plan would create 46,300 more net jobs over 15 years and lower average home energy bills by 10%, compared to business-as-usual. And it would slash CO2 pollution from Kentucky’s power sector by 40% over 15-years, far exceeding the requirements of the Clean Power Plan.

In other words, our People’s Energy Plan for Kentucky exposes Scott Pruitt’s Big Lie. The Empower Kentucky Plan shows that the steps needed to address climate change are actually better for jobs and ratepayers – and much better for health – than sticking our heads in the sand and doing nothing. And if we can do that in Kentucky, we can do it everywhere.

I therefore urge the EPA to follow the science and reject the corrupting influence of the fossil fuel industry. Drop this awful proposal. Defend and implement the Clean Power Plan. Return to the Paris Accord. Do your job.

We must do everything possible to protect our health and climate. For the sake of my grandchildren, and all of our children and grandchildren, the EPA has got to get this one right. We have got to get this one right.

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BTW, Related to the Empower Kentucky plan, see MACED's How$martKY project, highlighted by Anthony Flaccavento at the Indivisible New River Valley meeting November 13 on Bottom Up Economy. Six rural utility cooperatives in Eastern Kentucky (Big Sandy RECC, Fleming-Mason RECC, Grayson RECC, Farmers RECC, Jackson Energy and Licking Valley) are teaming up with MACED (Mountain Association for Community Economic Development) to provide energy retrofits as part of utility service under the KY Energy Retrofit Rider.

Flaccavento has announced his bid for the Democratic Party nomination for the 9th U.S. Congressional District in 2018, the seat currently held by Morgan Griffith. (website)

Stanley Sturgill on Our Health: "Scott Pruitt and President Trump are accelerating and cheering on the damage"

Photo by Chris Dorst of the Charleston Gazette-Mail via the Associated Press, as it appeared in Brady Dennis's (twitter) 11/28/17 Washington Post story, "In the heart of coal country, EPA gets an earful about Clean Power Plan’s fate."  Caption:  "Lindsay Pace, of Chattanooga, Tenn., testifies as retired coal miner and mine inspector Stanley Sturgill holds her son, Theo, during an Environmental Protection Agency public hearing Tuesday in Charleston, W. Va., on Tuesday. Both spoke against repealing the Obama administration’s Clean Power Plan." 


Our friend and my hero Stanley Sturgill, age 72, who mined coal for forty years in Kentucky, drove to Charleston, West Virginia to testify before the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (a misnomer under this administration) 11/28/17 on what he thinks of Scott Pruitt's proposed repeal of the Clean Power Plan.  Below, you'll see how you can participate and how I learned of his testimony on 11/29/17 and first posted on 11/29/17, but first, here's Stanley's complete statement, which he provided to me via email on 12/1/17.  This post was last updated on 12/1/17 at 10:55 am.
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My name is Stanley Sturgill and I live in Lynch, Kentucky located in Harlan County KY. I’m a 72 year old coal miner with 41 year’s of service to the underground mining industry. I have “black lung” and COPD.

In July, 2014 I traveled over 1300 miles to Denver Colorado, to speak at an EPA hearing and I told the EPA at that time I had “black lung” and other respiratory problems. I must stay inside most all the time. Emissions from coal fired power plants and other airborne pollutants across my state of Kentucky were affecting, not only my health, but the public’s health too. I told the EPA, “Do your job and protect our people and our health.” I told the EPA, “We’re dying, literally dying for you to help us.” That was 2014.

Well guess what? You didn’t help us. You didn’t do your job and now you say you are withdrawing the “Clean Power Plan,” the past administration put into place on August 3rd 2015, to try helping us and our climate, so I’m back to let you know, nothing has changed, “We’re still dying, we’re still literally dying for you to help us.”

I would like for the EPA to show me in your new plans to gut the EPA and destroy our climate just how many people must pay the supreme price of “death” for a few, rich, greedy people to bank roll a few more dollars? Can you honestly answer that question? I’d like to know.

You may be wondering why my wife and I would get up at 3 this morning and drive several hours from Harlan County Kentucky to Charleston? It’s plain and simple, we may be old but we still love living. We both know that living in the far southeastern tip of Kentucky, all the polluting, emissions from electrical power plants (no matter if coal, gas, oil, etc.) are a part of the air we breathe each day. The jet-stream moves across our state from “WEST” to “EAST” we live 6 miles from the Virginia border, so we get all the pollution.

Actually the state of Kentucky (according to a Jan. 2016 report/alternative daily) is #3 in a “top 10” list of most polluted states in America. But, even more pollution to choke on each day is the fact Kentucky borders many of the other top ten list of most polluted states. #9-Illinois; #6-West Virginia; #4-Tennessee; #2-Ohio; and the #1-most polluted state in the U.S. Indiana.
We need the EPA’s immediate help and not their abandonment?

Now to be realistic, do I really think that this administration cares what this old worn coal miner has to say? I don’t know. I really doubt it. But I had to be here and as long as I can draw a breath I’m going to keep working to fight climate change and protect the land and country I love.
Our health, environment and global climate are actively being destroyed. And it is clear to me that EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt and President Trump are accelerating and cheering on the damage. I have come here today to ask you to stop. For the sake of my grandchildren and yours, I call on you to strengthen and defend, not repeal, the Clean Power Plan.

There is an old Appalachian saying, “What we do to the land, we do to the people.” EPA, just look at West Virginiaand the surrounding states as you travel back to D.C. and you’ll see we’ve paid a terrible price in the miles of destroyed mountains, our streams, in our health, and in our declining economy.

Believe it or not “Climate Change” is real and it’s not only costing billions in dollars in public health challenges, it’s also destroying our nation and our world right in front of our of our eyes. This year, 2017, will most likely be a prime example due to the many hurricanes, fires and rains wreaking death and havoc as never before.

In conclusion, I’m here to say that repealing the Clean Power Plan is immoral and indefensible. I respectfully demand that the EPA withdraw this proposal. Stop listening to the corrupting power of the coal, gas, oil and all other fossil fuel industries. Start following the science and common sense, and do everything possible to protect our health and climate.

EPA, please never forget this old Cree Indian Proverb: “When the last tree is cut down, the last fish eaten, and the last stream poisoned. Only then will you realize you cannot eat money.

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Ken Ward Jr. shared an announcement 11/2/17 in the Charleston Gazette-Mail that  as part of the formal process for repealing the Clean Power Plan, the EPA  announced that date that it would hold hearings yesterday and today in Charleston, WV and maybe 11/30, if the agency receives “a high volume” of requests to speak. The speakers list is here for 11/28 and here for 11/29, with time set aside after these speakers for others who wished to comment and present supporting information.

Scott Pruitt signed the notice 3/28/17, indicating the EPA’s intent to review the plan, following Trumps's Energy Independence Executive Order the same date.  The details can be found in the 10/16 Federal Register and at the EPA webpage for the proposed repeal.for doing that, the agency.  If you did not attend the public hearing, your written statements and supporting information will be considered with the same weight, so long as they are submitted during the public comment period which was extended on 11/8 to 1/16/18. Comments should be identified by Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2017-0355 and may be submitted by one of the methods listed here.  The online comment form is here.  The website indicates that as of 11:59 PM on November 28, the website had received  For more information contact Peter Tsirigotis, Sector Policies and Programs Division (D205-01), U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Research Triangle Park, NC 27711; telephone number: (888) 627-7764; email address: airaction@epa.gov.

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I first saw that Stanley had testified in Charleston 11/28 through the Washington Post story, which I read via Roy Silver of the Appalnet list serve.  The author, Brady Dennis, is a national reporter for The Washington Post, focusing on the environment and public health issues. Before that he covered the economy and was a finalist for the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for a series of explanatory stories about the financial crisis. Before that, he was a reporter for the St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times. He is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Through an image search and some sleuthing, I also found the AP story by John Raby (twitter) and Michael Biesecker (twitter), which was the source for the photo: "EPA hears worries about climate in heart of coal country." It appeared without a byline in Chattanooga's Times Free Press.  

Environment and Energy Publishing's hub on the Power Plan is here.

Although I didn't initially find Ken Ward, Jr,'s story on the hearings, I checked his twitter feed and found a link to a story he posted "EPA greenhouse gas rule hearing in WV draws supporters, opponents," on 11/28.

RIta Coal Camp Residents Told to Move: Can This Story Please Go Viral?

This photo of a mobile home in Rita, WV,  owned by Russell Spear after being purchased for $200 in 1978, accompanied Martha Sparks's August 31 story in the Logan Banner, which has 29140 views,  according to the paper's website. I first published this post on September 5, 2012 at 8:28 p.m. and updated it mostrecently on September 7 at 11:02 a.m.

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It's bad enough when Logan County has its mountains blown up

Economic development touted  in Logan County and surrounding areas after mountaintop removal includes the so-called  Hatfield-McCoy Trails for ATVs, dirt bikes, and utility vehicles.  It's bad enough that West Virginia memorializes a mythic feud as our heritage and allows strip mining on the site of the Battle of Blair Mountain, our own civil war over unionization for the coal fields.

It's worse when that development contributes to another act of depopulation of the former coal camps.  An absentee landlord hopes to displace more than more than 30 families in Rita, WV in Logan County  and build a motel and convenience store to cater to tourists of the trail. At the end of August, DB Land LLC, reportedly of Topeka,   gave notice that residents should make plans to remove themselves and their belongings from property by October 1.  Trailers and modular homes or trailers left on the property--many of which replace the original coal camp structures--would be destroyed.

Thankfully a local journalist is more than a stenographer for economic development

 Martha Sparks (email)--who   still uses the quaint title of Society Editor--is writing about more than the lifestyles of the rich and famous.  She explains,

the lease termination notice sent to residents...stated that...[DB Land] had decided to use the property for commercial development purposes. Most of the residents were born and raised in the camp. Many of them are elderly or disabled and with low income.

Sparks took the time to interview resident Russell Spears, who told her, 

As long as the coal was going, we were okay....Nobody ever did any maintenance or anything, but they made us sign a contract in order to stay in our houses that we would pay $200 a month and do all maintenance. We signed a paper that we were responsible if anybody got hurt or anything. They gave us an option to tear down the houses and put in a trailer with our own sewage and everything.

Friends of Mountains (FOM) says there is organized opposition

James Blunt (email) of Rita is trying to organize opposition, according to a letter to the FOM  email list.   Someone wrote the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition to say that Blunt is

 asking that folks call  Rahall's  office  to at least ask for an injunction on the eviction process until the community members can find other places to live.

Rahall's numbers are: Logan 304.752.4934; DC 202.225.3452...

If you feel moved enough to call Rahall, and to perhaps pass this info on to others who may call, perhaps this eviction can be either avoided or made easier with help in finding places to relocate, and with financial assistance for the moves.

Sparks doesn't mention the opposition, but she did a good job of letting Spears tell Rita's story

He recounted,

As long as the coal was going, we were okay....Nobody ever did any maintenance or anything, but they made us sign a contract in order to stay in our houses that we would pay $200 a month and do all maintenance. We signed a paper that we were responsible if anybody got hurt or anything. They gave us an option to tear down the houses and put in a trailer with our own sewage and everything.

Spears added that the former owners son collected the rent:

He was giving out lifetime leases and telling some that they were buying their property and all they had was their rent receipt....He really pulled that off. It went like for five years and we never heard from them. Then their coal ran out and it was sold to this bunch. [DB Land LLC]  Well they found out that the coal wasn’t there and what was there was underground and it would cost them too much to mine....That’s when they noticed this little piece of property. When they bought this land, they didn’t even know they owned this community. They thought they only bought the coal.

Spears told Sparks that Mike Cline, representative for DB Land initially told residents that they would be able to purchase their lots. 

Well, the main man was supposed to come in and talk to us. He drives up in his Cadillac with his surveyor and they sit behind the church for a few minutes and then he left....I got a hold of Mike Cline and he tells me that they have changed their mind and they are not going to sell to us and they are going to make us all leave.... They told me that if I wasn’t out of here in three months they would take equipment and move our stuff....My trailer was purchased by the Red Cross for $200 for me when my house burnt in 1978.  If I move it there won’t be anything left of it....There’s no where to rent to put a trailer.

It seems a first priority to find folks in Rita a pro bono lawyer

A lawyer could outline legal rights and how to document  them for a fight. Do folks have copies of the lifetime rights agreements.  Are they legally binding? Since Appalmad complains about absentee landlords, I'm wondering if that public interest law firm can help or at least suggest someone?

Will members of Congress help?

Senator Rockefeller has recently stood up to the coal industry.  Can he do anything for his constituents in Rita?  Will coal aficionados congressman Nick Rahall and Senator Joe Manchin show they at least "care" about their constituents. It seems to me that the campaign to call Rahall and ask for more time doesn't give folks their do.

How about the professionals doing pr on Appalachia--can they make this story go viral?

A lot of money meant to fight the conditions in Appalachia goes to outsiders.  I once had someone in DC tell me he had fought mtr because he had obeyed Woody Harrelson and sent money to a national environmental group.

In August, the Alliance for Appalachia hired Sue Lomenzo of Small World Strategies of Ashville, NC  to do a media workshop on how to get the message out on the destruction of Appalachia by the effects of the coal industry.  I'm wondering if she is offering any help past the workshop.  Trayvon Martin's parents got his story out through a professional organizer, while Marissa Alexander languished for standing her ground against her abuser.  The low-wage school bus aide who was bullied now has lots of options after a cell-phone video posted to You-Tube got 2 million views June 21 and folks donated over $700,000.   AP is still reporting months later with WSJ picking up the story on on September 2.

In Appalachia, often the wrong stories  get attention

The History Channel distorts the reasons for the Hatfield McCoy feud.  CBS covers the drug scourge.  Testimony about the lack Congressional legislation to protect clean water morphs into a coal porn story after an an award-winning art photo goes viral and few other than Jeff Goodell report it in context of the war on Appalachians by Big Coal.

How do we get the AP to make the story of Rita go national?  I'm not even sure who the best person is to report this for WV Public Broadcasting now that Erica Peterson is gone.  I was underwhelmed with the Derecho coverage and I'm not the only one.

Peterson, to her credit, is still reporting on WV from Kentucky, witness the superior job she did reporting on Murray Energy's attack on environmental journalist Ken Ward.  Tim Thornton, who reports on Appalachian issues, such as coal ash in Giles and strip mining may have some ideas, too.  As may Beth Macy, who is attending the inaugural annual poverty journalism conference at Washington and Lee, hosted by Knight.  Or Sue Sturgis at the Institute for Southern Studies, who  has reported on WV, despite its limited resources.

We are in a war zone

 Some would  think that's hyperbole, but I have to agree with native Appalachians such as Maria Gunnoe and Bo Webb who make this complaint.

I've known about strip mining for years.  Some of my friends were abolitionists in the fight against strip mining that resulted in the Surface Mining and Safety Act.  And in Chris Green, who had published my poems, invited me to join the Ohio Valley Environmental Coaltions Mountaiintop Moval Writer's Tour.   Gunnoe, Judy Bonds and Larry Gibson and others asked writers to help them tell their stories.

 In "Looking Out Over an Abyss in Boone County" for Larry Gibson, I wrote,

Big Coal has its way
they will blow up Blair Mountain.
Permits are pending.

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Eighty years ago
10,000 miners rose up
ten days at Spruce Run

while federal troops
fired: civil war to keep
us company slaves.

Blow up Blair Mountain?
Feature Vicksburg, Bull Run gone
for thirty year's coal.

Mountains should abide
but Massey plays God
scattering our peaks.

How can we be the
Mountain State without mountains,
our home, a war zone?

That war continues

As in the Civil War and at Blair Mountains, Americans are pitted against their fellow citizens.  Witness the most recent example of the harsh treatment of mtr protesters by the WV State Police who seemingly helped miners stirred up by their employers to surround and threaten them.   Remember how Massey employees shouted down retired Congressman Ken Hechler--who had fought for their safety--when he said there needed to be a new school for Marsh Fork elementary school.  Remember how they jeered when filmmaker Mari-Lyn Evans thanked Hechler at the premiere screening of Coal Country.  As photographer Antrim Caskey wrote,

Talk-back to the screen came mostly from coal proponents who comprised about one third of the film’s audience. And when Evans thanked Ken Hechler in her pre-screening address, this vocal group errupted in jeers, catcalls and insults; in response, those who honor Hechler’s decades of service to the state of West Virginia, rose to their feet to give the 94-year-old a standing ovation. This was the tensest moment of the night.

The Goldman Prize, the Purpose Prize and The Martin Luther King Award  have recognized Gunnoe, Webb, Bonds and Hechler  for their bravery in fighting mountaintop removal.

At Gettysburg, Lincoln knew our nation had not yet measured up 

For the Lincoln bicentennial,Virginia Tech Library is hosting an exhibit from the National Constitution Center:  Abraham Lincoln:  The Constitution and the Civil War. The brochure states:

...at Gettysburg,  he challenged Americans to take up the 'unfinished work"...  Lincoln's words have echoed down the decaudes, speaking to what he termed on another occassion 'the better angels of our nature."

 Civil war scholar Bud Robertson gave the inaugural talk on Tech's Lincoln exhibit

I missed the lecture to post the first draft of this commentary.  I even missed any question and answer session.I ran into friends as they were leaving and was able to get there in time to say hello to Dr. Robertson.  On his way out the door, he kindly stopped to answer this question.

 "As a civil war historian, can you explain why Civil War battlefields are preserved even to the extent of fighting a Wal-Mart near Manassas, but in the meantime mountaintop removal is allowed on the site of The Battle of Blair Mountain."

Dr. Robertson told me that Blair Mountain had, for some reason, attracted no attention

Robertson seemed surprised  that I had been asked to write an article by  The Guardian and, in fact, the same paper had commissioned a second article by another author to write a second piece a year later.  He said he read that paper and he'd check out my writing.

I didn't even mention that filmmaker and MacArthur "genius grant" winner John Sayles has talked about Blair Mountain. That Soledad O'Brien had won a CINE award for her documentary on CNN.  That Pulitzer Prize winner Chris Hedges--who spent nearly two decades as a foreign correspondent-- had  included West Virginia in his new book about sacrifice zones and wrote again about Blair Mountain in July.

The eviction of the residents of Rita, WV is just the latest  skirmish

The Battle for Blair Mountain was a fight for decent living conditions the parts of our region impacted by coal-mining. The forced ouster of families, many elderly and handicapped is just the latest skirmish in that fight.

Washington and Lee's poverty reporting conference that Beth Macy  and I will be attending hopes "to build competence and community among people who report on the underside of the American dream." The keynote speaker  will be Barbara Ehrenreich on “Poverty reporting: Investigating the manufacture of misery.”

And so I ask, when will the misery of Rita and elsewhere in Appalachia affected by Big Coal be reported?  When  will we attract enough national attention to sustain outrage and stop this war  on our people by the coal industry, its politicians and its employees?

Mr. Lincoln,  Appalachia could sure use some better angels.

FEMA WV Derecho Emergency Feeding Plan: @ Perimeter (Near PGA Tourney)

My illustration shows the  location of FEMA's possible perimeter emergency feeding  centers in relation to Oak Hill, WV in Fayette County.  This post was originally published on 7/3/12 at 12:41 p.m. and last updated at 4:40 p.m.  At 9:00 a.m. July 4 via a friend I received an update from John David, that the National Guard is helping, so read the latest on what is needed here on how you can help one group.  I need to check with other sources before I finish this post regarding FEMA.

Please continue to spread the word via emails, twitter, Facebook and  aggregators.  I've revised the sample tweets:

Pl RT #Appalachia #WV #Derecho #FEMA site near PGA resort on disaster perimeter? http://bit.ly/LNBfkC

Here's a  shortened link for the public facebook post to share: 
http://on.fb.me/N67yat

(https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151896743010637&l=4fa59989f2)

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Jim Justice II made a lot of his income from selling his coal mines in West Virginia and then turned around and bought (hey, maybe even rescued) The Greenbrier Resort in White Sulpher Springs in 2009. He managed to recruit Tiger Woods to play in the PGA tournament taking place there starting July 5.  Since many of Justice's mines were involved mtr mining and selenium pollution suits, Press Action came up with a campaign to urge Tiger Woods and others competing in the tourney to

take advantage of the opportunity and urge Justice to clean up his act....

Well, Tiger's at the Greenbrier but the immediate issue appears to be whether the resort will

share the spoils of the PGA and rescue local residents....

So wrote John David (email) from the non-profit Southern Appalachian Labor School, this morning at 6:30 am. in an email about effects of the Derecho in his vicinity.

Southern Appalachian Labor School

 In a call with FEMA yesterday with another individual from the school and the President of the Fayette County Commission, he

pleaded with the Red Cross and related folks for an emergency feeding station in Oak Hill. We were rebuffed because "the plan" is to set one up in Summersville and Lewisburg [9 miles from the Greenbrier]  ...on the perimeter of the hard-hit area. In regard to the latter, ... one can certainly question how feeding decisions are being made.

He explains how dire things are

Fayette is one of the 5 most distressed with over 90% of the residents without water, food, phone/communication, or money to buy anything even if out of the area. ATMs and banks cannot function.....people have no cash. It is a disaster area with power not scheduled now until Sunday.

He adds how his organization lacks the capacity to provide a solution by itself.

Our efforts...are a drop in the bucket for 45,000 people, many of whom are trapped up hollows. The only place with internet service is at [WVU] Tech. The SALS problem is made worse because we have 400 volunteers arriving on Sunday at our Oak Hill facility for the planned next week of home repairs.....with no food nor water.

The school is asking for direct help with donation of items delivered to Oak Hill, WV (SALS Historic Oak Hill School, 140 School Street, Oak Hill, WV 25901) because there is

chaos, disorganization, and fighting...

You sure wouldn't know that from reading the story in the Beckley paper. Until I contact sources in Oak Hill and interview other organizations I don't know what to say.  But David wasn't interviewed by the paper, which seems incomplete, if not odd, given that apparently thePresident of the Fayette County Commission included David in the call to FEMA.  I'll list some of those I'll try to contact at the bottom of this post.

Here's a list of what SALS could use.  If you've got questions, you can contact David at 304.640.1772 or his colleague Vickie at 304.640.3792.

• Shower Trailers 
•  Tankers of water
•  Food
•  Portable Kitchens
•  Radio
•  Phones with Service
• Fuel cans 
• Batteries 
• Lanterns

According to its webpage, the mission of  SALS is to:

provide education, research, and linkages for working class and disenfranchised peoples in order to promote understanding, empowerment, and change. The Southern Appalachian Labor School is committed to developing a real comprehension of the social, economic, and legal structures which affect the lives of the Appalachian People.

The SALS homepage hasn't been updated with the request for Fayette County and instead offers to loan a copy of Jacques Arcelin's 1983 documentary  Bitter Cane, if  folks want to raise funds for Haitian relief.

 It's a good cause, but so is relief for the folks of Fayette County.

And while FEMA may have improved from Bush's debacle, Davis's allegation of  "perimeter" emergency feeding stations have raised questions in my mind.  And while I'm sure that the Red Cross, the United Way and other moneyed charities will be soliciting help, just as in the case of Katrina, I'd urge my readers to support, instead, those on the ground in the hardest hit areas. SALS, founded in 1977, is on the ground in Fayette County.

Information Available from FEMA

According its webpage,

FEMA’s mission is to support our citizens and first responders to ensure that as a nation we work together to build, sustain, and improve our capability to prepare for, protect against, respond to, recover from, and mitigate all hazards.

So, I wondered, what information was available for the citizens of West Virginia. Since I was doing my research on July 4, a federal holiday, I decided to start with what I could find online, although, of course, not everyone has computer access, especially not due to the after-effects of the Drecho. I figured the most up-to-date information would be on twitter, so I first turned to @fema.

The most recent tweet was at 4:54 on July 3 and referred folks to a webpage to learn Other Organizations Aiding Fayette County Derecho Sufferers

Oak Hill United Methodist Church's Lewis Community Foundation Christian Community Center (the "Oak Hill National Guard Building until 2005), which is the shelter for the area (cooling stations are only available days, according to the Governor's listing updated July 2),

House Mining Safety Bill Passes January 16

In "Coal: $35 million in Astroturfing," my friend, Clem who blogs with me over at West Virginia Blue, posted about about Steven Mufson January 18 WaPo story, "Coal Industry Plugs Into the Campaign" concerning the coal industry group, Americans for Balanced Energy Choices which is spending that amount

in primary and caucus states to rally public support for coal-fired electricity and to fuel opposition to legislation that Congress is crafting to slow climate change.

He aslo pointed out a long blog post of the same name by A Siegel at EnergySmart. I thought I'd add something about another such group, the National Mining Association's (NMA) ACT for Mining and George Miller (D-CA)'s "Supplemental Mine Improvement and New Emergency Response Act" or S-MINER (H.R. 2768) which passed the House January 16 by a vote of 214 to 199.

Our "friends" at the NMA took the position that Mr. Miller was

pushing a new "mine safety" bill even before the mining community has had a chance to fully implement the bipartisan Mine Improvement and New Emergency Response (MINER) Act. The House is set to vote on Jan. 16 on the Supplemental-MINER Act (H.R. 2768), a bill that would impose new, unnecessary regulations on both hardrock and coal mining operations that will do nothing to improve mine safety. Passage of this new legislation could possibly idle or close mines and have unintended, adverse effects on mine safety.

NMA sent out multiple alerts urging their supporters to call or e-mail their House members and ask them to vote against the bill. So what was the reaction to what it termed a "narrow" passage? In a new alert NMA wrote,

The 199 votes cast in opposition are substantially more than the 145 votes needed to sustain a threatened presidential veto, should one ultimately be necessary. This action also will likely diminish interest in Senate consideration of H.R. 2768, in essence, stopping the progress of this bad bill.

They're now urging that we write to thank the 199, which includes the following 16 Democrats:

• Barrow (GA)
• Berry (AZ)
• Boren (OK)
• Boyd (FL)
• Boyda (KS)
• Cramer (AL)
• Cuellar and Lampson (TX)
• Melancon
• Davis (TN)
• Herseth Sandlin (SD)
• Perlmutter, Salazar and Udall (CO).
  
• Peterson (MN)
  

My gut reaction is, instead, to ask our friends in their home states to curse them out (all right, to ask why they voted that way, express disappointment, look up the rest of their record to determine if it's problematic, and if so, work to get a more progressive Democrat elected in the next primary and General Election). Then, write to thank those who voted for the bill. Reactions? I know I've had one reader today from Whitewater, KS or thereabouts and several in TX. Could you help those of us who live in Appalachia?

Shelley Moore Capito of WV was one of only 7 Republicans to vote for the bill. The others were:
Spencer Bachus (AL), Wayne Gilchrest (MD), Sam Graves (MO), Frank LoBiondo (NJ), Chris Shays (CT) and Chris Smith (NJ).

Before the vote, the bill's sponsor, George Miller offered an amendment to provide

the mining industry with more time to install a new generation of fire-resistant conveyor belts,

as well as funds for the the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) to purchase

a new generation of dust monitoring devices to limit black lung disease, and ensure that breathable air requirements of the MINER Act of 2006 are properly implemented.

In addition, the amendment requires that the Secretary of Labor to

conduct a study on substance abuse by miners with recommendations for policy changes, in consultation with all interested parties. The Secretary shall report the findings within six months of the bill's enactment and, if she deems it feasible and effective, shall be authorized to establish a miner substance abuse testing, rehabilitation, and treatment program within MSHA in consultation with the interested parties.

Our Congressman, Rick Boucher (D) offered an amendment to provide ten million dollars for

grants to provide rehabilitation services to current and former miners suffering from mental health impairments, including drug addiction and substance abuse issues, which may have been caused or exacerbated by their work as miners.

Brad Elsworth (D-IN) offered an amendment to relieve mine operators

that have been assessed penalties and pay them in a timely fashion. It also establishes a trust fund within Treasury, composed of mine safety civil penalties. Funds from the trust fund can be used for mine safety inspections and investigations only.

All these amendments passed.

Meanwhile although there are exactly zero underground mines in SC (I looked it up--the Census Bureau's 1997 Economic Census on Mining for South Carolina page 13), and the pit mining there seems to be gravel and sand and clay (page 12), Joe Wilson (R-SC) who represents the second district which comprises the midlands of Columbia down to Hilton Head Island submitted an amendment in the nature of a substitute to:

promote the continued robust implementation of the 2006 MINER Act.

Then, after that motion failed and the bill passed Mark Souder (R-IN) tried to get the matter returned to committee, but failed.

Other interesting reading from today:

• Energize America--a citizen's group which self-organized on DailyKos to come up with a plan to wean the united States from its dependence on fosil fuels.
• Keith Olbermann Does The Impossible: Admits He Was Wrong--Greg Sargent's post on The Horse's Mouth at Talking Point Memo, his blog about the reporting of politics and the politics of reporting (hat tip to Glenn Greenwald at Salon)
• Mapquest by longitude and latitude (slow loading)
• KingPing--pings multiple search engines for free
• Candidate issue mattrix from MSNBC
  

Jack Spadaro's Fight Against Bush's MSHA

The above photo from OHVEC taken in March of 2001, shows the pumps on Wolf Creek, five months after the Martin County sludge spill. Here's that draft of my June 2004 article I promised on Jack Spadaro, who lost his job trying to hold Massey accountable.

Whistleblower Jack Spadaro Fights Bush Administration Retaliation

“I’m hoping that this problem I’ve had will show people how utterly corrupt the Bush administration is. I’m a perfectly law abiding citizen who was doing his job well for thirty years and they storm troop my office and lock me out of my office,” Jack Spadaro, former superintendent of the Department of Labor Mine Safety and Health Administration’s (MSHA) National Mine Health and Safety Academy, told the NRFP in an interview June 16.

On June 4, 2003, government agents entered Spadaro's office in Beckley West Virginia, went through his files, locked him out and placed him on administrative leave. Spadaro had accused the Bush administration of whitewashing the investigation into the October 2000 Martin County, KY sludge spill. Twenty-five times the size of the Exxon Valdez disaster, the Massey Energy sludge spill included hazardous chemicals, including arsenic and mercury. The failed impoundment polluted 100 miles of stream all the way to the Ohio River.

Spadaro had also complained that the new administration doled out lucrative contracts for work at the academy to friends. One contract, for a training program, was worth nearly $200,000. MSHA denied violating the law, but Spadaro told the NRFP they divided the program into 186 smaller contracts.

During their initial investigation, Spadaro and his colleagues discovered records of a 1994 spill at the same impoundment. Massey claimed it had taken corrective measures, but a company engineer said the problem had not been fixed, and that both he and Massey knew another spill was inevitable. It turned out that there was less than 20 feet of rock between the mine workings and an old flooded mine serving to hold mine, but the company had told the government there was a solid coal barrier, at least 70 to 80 feet wide.

Originally, the team wanted to cite the company for ten violations. Spadaro told the NRFP that once Bush took office “the change was dramatic.” The team members had been conducting a “clean, objective, forward-moving investigation.” After the inauguration, they received “instructions to limit the scope.” Spadaro complained on April 11 and 16. Then in October 2001, his new boss, Bush appointee Dave Lauriski called twice and and insisted he sign a watered down version of the report. “He said , ‘I'm in a hard spot and we need your name on the report.” Spadaro told Lauriski that since they weren’t allowed to complete the investigation that “your best bet is to strike my name and go on and publish it without me.”

The final report cited Massey Energy for only two violations, and the company had to pay approximately $110,000 in fines. Massey had been a generous contributor to the Republican Party. According to Public Campaign, a non-profit, non-partisan organization, "Buck" Harless, a board member of Massey Energy, was a Bush "pioneer", who pledged to raise at least $100,000 for the Bush campaign. He and his family alone have given nearly $70,000 to Bush and the Republican National Committee since 1999.

Lauriski was a former executive with Energy West Mining Company and Interwest Mining Company. Davitt McAteer, who had headed MSHA under Clinton when the disaster happened, had come from an entirely different background. He had served as executive director of the Occupational Safety and Health Law Center, a public interest law firm. He had also worked as an attorney with the Center for the Study of Responsive Law and as Solicitor of Safety for the United Mine Workers of America.

In October 2003, the government took steps to fire Spadaro, sayng he had abused his authority, failed to follow procedures, and used his government credit card without authorization. Spadaro denies all the charges.In November, investigative journalist Phillip Babich wrote an extensive article for the on-line magazine, Salon, and Spadaro received coverage on the National Public Radio program Living on Earth. Then on November 18, Representatives George Miller, D-CA, Robert Andrews, D-NJ and Major Owens, D-NY, all members of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce requested that Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao provide them with information to assess whether Spadaro is being wrongly terminated.

In their letter to Chao, they wrote: “Obviously Mr. Spadaro’s status as a whistleblower—questioning the conduct of the Martin County Coal investigation and the Department’s use of no-bid contracts with friends and associates of Department officials—raisers a very serious concern about the nature of the current disciplinary investigation against him.”

On a cold Tuesday this January, 60 people rallied outside the downtown Charleston, W.Va. post office to help the Friends of the Mountains (a coalition of mountaintop removal opponents) kick off its “ Bring Back Jack Campaign,” which is still in progress. According to the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition (OHVEC), Spadaro is “a rare person--a coal industry regulator who actually regulates the industry and works to protect miners and coalfield residents from the industry's excesses. Over his 30-year career, which began with investigating the causes of the 1972 Buffalo Creek tragedy, Jack has earned the trust and admiration of many Appalachians.”
OHVEC wrote, “It appears to us that Jack was placed on administrative leave…because he dared to delve into the truth about the coal sludge disaster and the Mine Safety and Health Administration’s (MSHA) role in that disaster.”

On February 17, the West Virginia Environmental Council presented Spadaro with its public service award. After talking about the threats to the environment faced in Appalachia, Spadaro acknowledged the public support he has received. “Finally, I want to tell you that your letters, public demonstrations, e-mails, and words of support have sustained me through the past eight months as I have fought to keep my job and continue my life's work. When I was at my lowest, you took up my fight. You helped to restore my energy and determination. I am forever indebted to you for your kindness and concern.”

MSHA officials told Spadaro in late February that he's not being fired. Instead, they want to demote him, cut his pay by $35,000 and transfer him to the agency's Pittsburgh office. That transfer has been stayed while the Office of Special Counsel for Whistleblower Protection investigates at Spadaro’s request.. He told the NRFP that he is concerned that the office has let attorneys from the Department of Labor sit in on the interviews and that there is “an intimidation factor—you can’t get unfettered interviews.” No representative for Spadaro has been allowed to attend. The spokesperson for the office would provide no information to the NRFP, citing its policy to neither comment on an open case nor to confirm whether a case is open.

The Labor Department's inspector general is looking into whether or not MSHA officials broke the law in awarding government contracts. Spadaro says that the report confirms all the charges but has not been released. He speculates that Chao wants to hold up release of the report until Congress’ August recess.

If he doesn't receive satisfaction from the Department of Labor or the Office of the Special Counsel, he plans to appeal to the U. S. Merit Systems Protection Board.
Spadaro’s plight has attracted the attention of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., writing in The Nation, of the National Audubon Society’s Magazine and of Sixty Minutes, which aired a Bob Simon interview on April 6. Spadaro told Simon he has no plans to go anywhere. “I think that they thought they could simply roll over me, and I would be gone and out of their way,” he said. “But I'm gonna fight them forever if it takes it.”

”I had never seen anything so corrupt and lawless in my entire ….I've been in government since Richard Nixon. I've been through the Reagan administration, Carter and Clinton. I've never seen anything like this.”

To help with the “Bring Back Jack” campaign, readers can call or fax the Office of the Special Counsel on Spadaro’s behalf. They can write Representative Miller, West Virginia Senator Byrd and their senators and congressmen. For details and links to media coverage, see OHVEC's page on Spadaro.