Greenbrier beyond The Greenbrier: Jim Justice and the "Just Us" League

Photo by Danny Chiotos of the Keeper of the Mountain Foundation, posted to facebook shows the back of Gus Sodaro's Honda Element. This post was first published on July 6, 2012 at 1:31 p.m. I made the last revision on on July 7 at 10:29 a.m, in order to include news of additional developments I received throughout the evening of July 5 and to trim the overall outline .

If what you want to read isn't available, as outlined below, please check back. No staff, no funding, power,water still unavailable at home and VT library closes at 8 p.m. due to summer schedule. Until things are square in WV, I don't want any donations to SAMPLER. Paid writing assignments on the topic, however...are another matter.

This post includes:

1. The situation today
2. Interviews in Greenbrier County beyond The Greenbrier Resort
3. An update from Fayette County including a. John David's latest report (things are bad). I will have a future related post or posts
4. How to make donations for Fayette County through Coal River Mountain Watch

Anyone with further updates and/or photos and videos should write me, as always, at communitypoweredreporting @ gmail (dot) com. If all you have is a cell phone you can sign up with twitter and send a text message to @bethwellington.

The sample tweet for this post:

Pl RT Greenbrier officials say other parts #Greenbrier Co desperate--@PGATOUR Wives #2012classic stage photo ops bit.ly/M1hK3Z

To share on fb:

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151907811775637&l=60be7ce97b
(http://on.fb.me/NJqf3T)


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The situation today in West Virginia

Coal River Valley Watch summed  up where things stood this morning:

Last Friday's "Derecho" storm left hundreds of thousands of West Virginians without electricity.  As of today, more than 160,000 families are still without electricity across the southern part of the state.  In the record breaking heat, families are struggling to cope without electricity, in some cases without access to clean water and food.  Some residents who do have water are unable to boil it due to power outages.

The photo above is of Gus Sodaro's Honda Element, the work truck  for his business, Sodaro's Electronics.  He bought gasoline and loaned the truck to help his wife, massage therapist Linda Sodaro, so that she could transport 18 bags of ice and 80 gallons of water which the Keeper of the Mountain Foundation had bought at discount at  the Kroger in Kanawha City for relief in Fayette County.   The Element was so loaded down that Rob Goodwin of Coal River Mountain Watch transferred part of the cargo to his own truck before he and Sodaro set out from Charleston to Montgomery WV this morning.  Another driver met them there and shuttle the water and ice on down to the Southern Appalachian Labor School for distribution in Oak Hill. 

The phrase"Just Us" in the title of this post comes from a meme by filmmaker Mari-Lyn Evans. If you were to look at Greenbrier Classic--@GbrClassic--on twitter today, you'd see that the PGA Tour Wives Association --@PGATOURWives--are posting about their post-Derecho help "in the town we call home for the week," Lewisburg, WV.

I've reported about the dust-up after the Red Cross/FEMA sited the Emergency Feeding Station which  serves hard-hit Fayette County, WV in Lewisburg, which is in Greenbrier County.   Eric Eyre of the Charleston Gazette also published a story which included that topic.You might think at least things were fine in Greenbrier County.

You'd be wrong.

Local emergency service providers there are publicly complaining. They say they are not receiving the help they need, that representatives of the Greenbrier Resort refuse to talk with them and will only deal with the National Guard.

Interviews in Greenbrier County beyond the Greenbrier Resort

1.  County Health Department:  Miriam

Miriam at the Greenbrier County Health Department spoke by phone with Jen Osha of Coal River Mountain Watch and Aurora Lights.  Miriam said she was having respiratory problems and needs oxygen, but still came into work.  Osha writes,

  She said that there have had NO on the ground help. The national guard would not give them ice either. The only ice they have gotten has been from WalMart through private donations. She just got off the phone with The Greenbrier who said that they were only working with the National Guard. When she said that she was calling to represent Emergency Services of Greenbrier County, no one would still talk to her. 

Miriam told Osha,

We are hanging in there, but we do not have enough food, ice, or water. Our big issue is having non perishable food for our rural residents who are still trying to clear trees and can't get out to get a hot meal. Also, we are in urgent need of oxygen! We have a center at the Greenbrier Health Department, but the National Guard brought us old tanks and we can not get the adapters for them. We need people to donate small tanks please.

2. Emergency Services of Greenbrier County:  Al Whitaker

Al Whitaker is available to talk to the press.  Here is what he told Osha:

We need help from volunteers to man our shelters.  The Red Cross has not helped us at all with volunteers until we got one volunteer last night.  We need volunteers here.

The PGA ladies came to do a photo shoot here at the distribution center.  I told them, '"ere are the places that we need help if you really want to help."  When we made these suggestions, they said they had a schedule they had to keep and needed to get to Lowes.

3.  Fire Department:  Meredith Gray

Gray, who is answering phones today at the Fire Department spoke with Wendy Johnston, a volunteer with the speakers' bureau of Larry Gibson's Keeper of the Mountains Foundation.  Johnston lives  in Athens, WV. and wrote that Gray

and her brothers have been sharing a generator but they still lost all their food. She is in the military and has a regular job but is taking personal leave today so that she can help in her community. She is the communications director for two fire departments.She says that she would be thrilled to talk to... [the media--cell phone number available, upon request]  Sabout cried when I was talking to her...

 Update on Fayette County: John David, Southern Appalachian Labor School

July 6,2012, 8:43 a.m

Power is mixed, rural areas are out. The SALS shelter in Beards Fork still has no food delivery.and limited drinkable waterand no power. Another wind/hail storm went through at noonish and took out power in some areas that had been patched together, like Montgomery, WV.

The surges wiped out our big SALS Community Center multi-thousand dollar school freezer.  Stuff was spoiled already; now the freezer is shot also.

At the rural water plant in Page-Kincaid, we need more generators to our booster stations that fill up the supply tanks. We cannot distribute water everywhere , even if just for bathing, otherwise.

The National Guard is floating around with a kitchen trailer--a day here, a day there.  W are negotiating with Methodist Relief for a similar unit.

July 6, 2012, 3:13 p.m

... I went to the 911 meeting this morning and told them that a reality check was needed, especially in the rural areas that make up most of the county. With half of the 45,000 county residents without power and record temperatures forecasted, the demand is high. We are delivering loads of water, ice, and canned food now. While the water is “on”, it is not drinkable and must be boiled and most places do not have natural gas or propane.

There is also a major concern about health. People on life support, like oxygen due to Black Lung, need re-charged equipment or refill on medications. They are reluctant to leave their homes due to theft and live up hollows that many will not go due to downed wires. There is also home damage .

We are preparing the Historical Oak Hill School for 400 volunteers who will arrive Sunday. and will be sending out teams in a couple of days that will take water, food, and battery-powered tools to homes…and collect medical information. We will need funds for fuel, tools, and building materials. At our community center (The Historic Oak Hill School), we now have power but [as I mentioned] the sudden surge blew out our massive freezer, so we are scrambling to raise funds for a replacement.

How to donate to SALS to support their efforts to provide food and water in Fayette County

Coal River Mountain Watch announced it was taking donations through 10 a.m. tomorrow morning.   

"You have got to stop it."

This is a preliminary post published on 7:54 July 5, 2012.  Check back for updates on both the mobilization against Mountaintop Removal and the Derecho.  I updated this post on 12/1/2012, as I had never made time to include Jim Justice's July 3 news conference.

Tweet:
Pl RT Folks working #Endmtr put that aside, aid #WV #Derecho. Greenbrier, Tomblin keep up images. http://bit.ly/Ob9GyX

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"You have got to stop it."  That's  what Wendell Berry said in his speech about mountaintop removal which I got to hear when he delivered it (for the second time) at Sunday breakfast at the Society of Environmental Journalists Annual Conference for 2008 in Roanoke, Virginia.



I thought of Wendell Berry today, as I got a request to help spread word on twitter that we should   #EndMtr. I had already promised to help Elisa Young and Robin Blakeman spread the word for the need for aid in the aftermath of the Derecho.

Elisa felt the effects of the storm herself in Ohio. Robin Blakeman was lucky enough to be on vacation with her daughter New York City, but AMTRAK's cancellation of her trip home to Huntington because of the weather meant a budget-busting (and exhausting) car rental.

 And yet both of them are working with John David and others at the Southern Appalachian Labor School to  mobilize those who want to donate  food and water to those in Fayette County WV who still have no electric power after the Derecho.  There are others involved now, too.  The ones I know about are:

• Stacy Gloss (whom I know from United Defense in Tennessee, but she has since moved to Charleston and works for another group)
•  Danny Chiotos of Mountain Keepers
•  Vernon Haltom and Rob Goodwin of Coal River Mountain Watch 
• Janet Keating and Tonya Atkins from Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition.

All these folks pitching in have something in common:  they are actively engaged in the fight against mountaintop removal.  Unlike mtr coal baron and owner of the Greenbrier Resort Jim Justice, they just started helping.  They didn't feel the need to dot any i's .  I take this phrase from the July 3 news confence July 3.  Justice promised donations of food, water and more, but when asked for the particulars, he said,who responded to questions about what the resort would do to help area residents in the aftermath of the record storm:

We don't have all of the T's crossed and the I's dotted. All I can tell you is we're going to give it all we've got...

You can watch the whole conference in this video from Douglas Imbrogno of The Charleston Gazette:

Since then, I haven't read anything documenting his donations.  In fact, not much news out of West Virginia has concentrated on the need for relief. This in the face of reports from Vickie at SALS that the National Guard is not helping anymore, because there is no longer emergency and that

400-500 volunteers were sent up to the PGA to clean up the golf course - PGA is most important thing in the state.  Heard the governor said he was going to go to the PGA  just to show the rest of the world that West Virginians are tough and could make it through anything.

(At the bottom of this post, I've got more of Elisa's notes from talking to Vickie)

If you can't send food because you're too far away, donations of money which will be used to buy food. Vernon has told me that his  group will be taking donations with a deadline for purchases to deliver to the school.  That's because the school is doing everything it can just to cope without handling donations.  (Again, I'll update in just a while with the details.)  Here's what Elisa mailed in her "urgent update."

Communities in Fayette County, WV, have asked for help during the state of emergency declared during the extended power outage from last week's storms. Fayette is still...largely without electricity, food, and water. The national guard has been dispatched, but has not reached many of these communities from what we are hearing.

http://earlystart.blogs.cnn.com/2012/07/04/food-water-crisis-in-w-va-as-utility-crews-race-to-restore-power-brian-todd-reports/...

I'm scheduled to drive down to Charleston on Friday morning for a records review at the WVDEP, where volunteers from SALS and OVEC are planning to meet to transfer and distribute donations to people who have been doing without food and water for over a week. A lot to do in very little time for people who really need the help now. I'm sure any and all donations will be much appreciated.

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The title for this post is from Wendell Berry's "Speech Against the State Government."  It follows his more famous statement about strip mining,  "You cannot regulate an abomination."   Here is the quote in context:

Kentucky conservationists are not the first people to have to confront their own helplessness before an alien government. Others have done so, and you know some of their names. Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King are two of them; there have been many others. Their solution to the problem of powerlessness is to make of powerlessness a power. The name of this solution is non-violent resistance or insistence, including civil disobedience. If your government will not rise to the level of common decency, if it will not deal fairly, if it will not protect the land and the people, if it will not fully and openly debate the issues, then you have to get in the government’s way. You have to forbid it to ignore you. You have to provide it with two new choices: either it must grant you the consideration that it rightfully owes you, or it must expose itself openly as a government not representative of the people but owned by the privileged few.

And here yet another temptation asserts itself. Why not wait until our cause becomes vivid and urgent enough, and our side numerous enough, to vote our opponents out of office? Why not be patient?

My own answer is that while we are being patient, more mountains, forests, and streams, more people’s homes and lives, will be destroyed in the Appalachian coal fields. Are 400,000 acres of devastated land, and 1,200 miles of obliterated streams not enough? This needs to be stopped. It does not need to be “regulated.” As both federal and state governments have amply shown, you cannot regulate an abomination. You have got to stop it.

 I think that it is that very unwillingness to remain patient that has provoke Elisa and Robin and others  to remedy not only the acts of man, but an act of God.  Or was the Derecho just an act of God? Some say that the climate change brought on by carbon emissions has contributed to the severe weather.  But does it really matter?   Only the most stringent supporters of fossil fuels could argue that those emissions have made things better.Why debate?  Only the most stringent supporters of Justice and of Alpha could argue that they have behaved nobly in the current crisis.

If I recall correctly (you can listen here to fact check), Berry explained when he gave his speech for the second time that he had talked it over with his brother.  Since not many legislators had listened in Frankfort at the Kentucky State Capitol on "I Love Mountains Day" in February, they both reckoned it was okay if he gave the speech again to the Society of Environmental Journalists.

As far as I am concerned, I could listen to Berry give his speech as many times as he care to. But, I wish it no longer rang true. I wish that it were quaint and outdated. I am tired of  politicians and coal companies executives justifying their inaction--whether in making changes to preserve our mountains and ensure a sustainable future or in allocating the resources for thirsty and desperate people in the face of the Derecho.  

So please folks, do what you can to help.  And spread the word. 



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Here's the full transcript Elisa sent me of  her conversation with  Vickie at SALS today:

I'm swamped, so this won't be so coherent, but passing on brief notes I typed while on phone about delivering donations tomorrow.  She said it was okay to share.  I think the
same thing is happening here in Ohio, but no communication.  I just heard about this from friends in WV I'm connected with.  The Red Cross, food pantries, are not working on his here when called.  UCM [United Campus Ministries] doing meal tonight and upcoming, expecting more people.

I just got off the phone with SALS about delivering donations tomorrow and wanted to share that the situation there is pretty desperate.

One woman came up asking for help while I was talking with SALS - put her on the phone saying it was a typical scenario.  She was crying saying she normally works at the
restaurant, but because the electricity was out had not been able to work in a week.  She had 3 children.  They weren't prepared for a major disaster and they'd had a couple
of cans of soup in the house, but normally kept frozen and refrigerated food, which went bad.  Most people have spent money on fuel either to get to more remote pantries and feeding centers or running generators.  She had spent $600 on fuel for a generator and now had nothing left for food, and there was no food to buy anyway.

SALS told me there are kids walking down the road to them, asking for food.  How do you tell kids there is no food?

The electricity had been restored temporarily to part of the area last night, more affluent, but not in the rural areas.  At the 911 meeting that was held, the officials said there was no longer an emergency.  They gave SALS one pallet of MREs and one pallet of water.  All of the ice that had been brought in was given to nursing homes, saying they "didn't want to give it to people just to put in beer coolers."  They have locked up the ice.  There are two feeding stations in Glengene(?), but people can't get there.

The national guard is not helping now because the officials have told them there is no longer an emergency.  The temporary electricity that was hooked up has now gone back out and no one has anything.  She said the people in charge have good jobs and don't understand why people can't spend $600 on diesel fuel and have nothing left for food.  She started crying at that point and said she wished she could cure the world and make them have sense, compassion, but they think if they are okay then everyone else must be.

I asked her how many people had come for help today, food and water.  She said that even not being advertised, there were at least 30 who came, each representing a family of
between 3-5, many single parents.   People begging for crumbs and they don't have crumbs to give them, it's disheartening.

Said if she had a gas powered generator there are four floors in their community building and could house a thousand people in natural disasters like this, but as is, they
can't.  It will probably take in her estimation 6 months to get the power back up and running.

She said 400-500 volunteers were sent up to the PGA to clean up the golf course - PGA is most important thing in the state.  Heard the governor said he was going to go to the
PGA  just to show the rest of the world that West Virginians are tough and could make it through anything.

Down to their last, there is no more to get - where to go from here.

Nursing home across street is 60+ seniors now out of food.  Can't replace it.  Fed them today, took it to them, they could not walk over to them.  One MRE meal a day can
survive on it if have to - 2000 calories.

Oh my God. 

Borne on the Fourth of July: Only Some Can Celebrate After the Derecho

Photo from a slide show of Iowa State students volunteering through SALS in 2010. This piece was posted on July 4, 2012 at 1:23 p.m.  The most recent update was on July 5 at 12:25 a.m.  I will be updating as I receive more information and as I get time to return to the topic of my original post.

Sample tweet:
Pl RT #WV #Derecho #IndependenceDay Nat Guard arrives Oak Hill, how to help Fayette Co. http://bit.ly/Rfyc5p

To share on facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151900968350637&l=8ca755763d (http://bit.ly/Rfyc5p)

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So there I was early this morning starting to write about activist Brian Willson's birthday and Andy Griffith, I was researching the state of civil liberties on the Independence Day and planning to attend the parade and fireworks in the small town of  Shawsville, Virginia.

But at 9:00 a.m., it seemed as if things had improved since when I wrote yesterday about Fayette County, WV. The National Guard (or what I took to be the National Guard--the word used was "military") was supposed to be, thankfully, on site at the Oak Hill School. If FEMA persisted in its perimeter plan, Oak Hill School still needed bottled water, food, batteries and lanterns.

Then I learned across the river they need everything, according to Bob Kincaid. Where IS the National Guard for those folks? Presbyterian minister and OVEC Organizer Robin Blakeman suggests everyone who does have phones can call and ask when the remaining folks will be helped. I've included phone numbers and email contacts below.

The report from Bob Kincaid

At 5:50 p.m. Bob explained why things remain terrible in his part of Fayette County: 

We're not dying or anything, but with everyone I've talked to, there's a real sense of "W-T-F!"

If it's true that SALS begged for centrally located help and were rebuffed, someone needs to lose his/her job. Folks could get to Oak Hill a darned sight easier than other locations. I know of one person who drove a half hour trying to find gasoline in Smithers, on the Kanawha County line. That's ten miles down Gauley Mountain and another ten yet.

Using the school would've made perfect sense. Among other things, they have the existing infrastructure to deal with large crowds. Please pardon my paranoia, but I can imagine a scenario where folks like Earl Ray wouldn't have wanted SALS to have that kind of publicity. If he could've set up a relief station on an MTR site, my money says he would have. And you can quote me on that, for sure.

Bob lives on the other side of the New River from river from Oak Hill. He wrote, "under the circumstances such as these, might as well be the other side of the moon."

 John David at SALS wrote at 6:00 p.m and confirmed the National Guard help

The National Guard had a food trailer set up at 9 am today at the SALS Historic Oak Hill School. The free picnic is in Fayetteville now. The Guard will move the trailer down to Page/Kincaid/Bears Fork on Thursday, we expect.

Contacts to ask when the remaining folks will be helped

Joe Manchin

Toll-free: 855-275-5737 (from a 304 or 681 area code)
Washington, D.C. office:  202-224-3954.

Governor Tomlin

Office Telephone: (304) 558-2000 or 1-888-438-2731
Governor’s Mansion: (304) 558-3588

Homeland Security Secretary Jimmy Gianato

Main Office/24/7 Emergency Call Center: 304-558-5380
mailto:Jimmy.j.gianato@wv.gov

Fayette County Emergency Coordinator Teresa White

Cell:  304.673.9331
Office: 304.574.3885

Full Update from John David at the Southern Appalachian Labor School

The volunteers were actually scheduled previously as part of our workcamp/home repair program. They consist of faith-based high school youth from throughout the U.S. We have 800 coming, 400 this weekend for the Plateau area of Fayette County (residing at the The SALS Historic Oak Hill School) and in two weeks another 400 coming for the Upper Kanawha Valley (residing at Riverside High School). Together, they were scheduled to work on about 100 homes of low income families.
For the group coming this weekend, we might need to change the plan modestly. If the homes of the selected families have tree damage or blocked access, we will focus on that matter first. In the midst of the chaos this week, we had SALS staff pre-delivering paint and building supplies to families….so we will dispatch work crews at 8:30 am on Monday morning. For food, we are bringing in to The SALS Historic Oak Hill School two self-powered refrigerated semi trailers.
Vickie Smith from SALS will be attending the 9 am Fayette County Emergency meeting at the 911 Center this morning, July 4th. She can be reached at 304.640.3792. The county emergency coordinator, who would likely be the best person to contact for a comprehensive perspective, is Teresa White at cell 304.673.9331 or 304.574.3885.
I am sharing this email with Matt Wender, President of the Fayette County Commission, and Senator Bill Laird….both of whom have worked extremely hard on this matter and may wish to offer additional clarity and perspectives if they have internet service.

You can share any of this you like if you feel it may be of interest. If folks wish to help, bottled water and food would be very helpful. Since power may be spotty, particularly in rural areas, batteries and lanterns for families who we visit during the coming week would be useful. The physical address for the SALS Historic Oak Hill School is 140 School Street, Oak Hill, WV…..our mailing address is SALS, P.O.Box 127, Kincaid, WV 25119.

If power is not on at The Historic Oak Hill School by Wednesday, July 4th, a military unit will set up an emergency kitchen there at 9 am on July 4th.

Generators have arrived at several PSDs to pump water. Our Page-Kincaid PSD is pumping as this is being written and we hope distribution can resume on July 4th on a “boil it” basis. We serve 4.5% of the county’s population. Boiling water, of course, without electric is tough in areas such as Beards Fork that do not have natural gas service (even though there are nearly natural gas wells!). SALS operate a shelter in Beards Fork that runs on generators hooked to propane…and stoves powered the same. The pantry there was also opened.

Electric is trickling on. Oak Hill has scattered service this evening, as does some areas in the Valley. Phone service is cell only ….which need to be re-charged.

Bottled water has arrived by truck in some locations and distribution is underway. The promised National Guard folks to do house calls never showed.

People have come together to host a county picnic for hungry folks with free food and drinks on July 4th, 5 pm, Fayette County Courthouse lawn.

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),

Firsthand Accounts: Parts of WV, Ohio "Apocalypse" due to the Derecho

I first posted this on 7/2/12 at 11:05 a.m. This photo is used by permission from Tina Thomas (@Grannytt). This is preliminary blog post to get the word out. Check back often as it's being updated. The most recent update was on July 8 at 9:41 a.m.

Please help us spread the word of the storm's effects. If you're on twitter, here's a tweet:

Please RT, spread word 1st hand reports #WV #OH #Derecho #Appalachia Apocalyptic bit.ly/N4ceBa

Here's a public version of photo and link to this post which is up behind the "facebook garden" gate, which you can share:

http://on.fb.me/NXZd9R

Please share via all your social networks and news aggregators, such as Stumbled Upon. Remember that Aaron Bady got all those hits on the post about Maria because someone shared it to Redditt. So many,even locally,have no communication on conditions other than through social media.

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Unexpected wind gusting above 80 miles per hours through parts of Appalachia affected us here in Blacksburg and the Roanoke Valley of Virginia, but things were inconvenient, rather than dire (excluding the fatalities.)Our electric coverage was a patchwork, which meant you could drive further down the road and find gasoline, restrooms, water. Such was not the case in most of West Virginia and Eastern Ohio.

Tina Thomas lives on the Kanawha River in Arbuckle, WV

She has open skies all around her. She told me via twitter that she took the above picture in Leon, WV looking west towards Ripley Friday evening as the storm was moving in. I have another one she took looking east towards Point Pleasant. She's a priority electricity customer, because she shares the grid with Urgent Care of Leon County in Buffalo, a small facility for rural folks in WV. She explains,

Without this some out on the back roads would have to drive one hour or more for help.

She and the urgent care and "only" went without power for 26 hours...

Believe it or not, that is what it looked like to the West.

Bob Kincaid lives in Fayette County, WV

Kincaid, has been Board president of Coal River Mountain Watch. He runs the internet radio network, H.O.R.N. On July 1 at 1:18 p.m., he wrote me

Here's what I know at this point:

This is my third trip to Summersville since the storm hit. I'm trying furiously to get my generator going to afford us a little relief.

Gasoline is available at the Sheetz and a few other places in Summersville.

Ice is a distant memory. Haven't seen a single place where it's available. This is where the Nat'l Guard should be providing relief: ice, water and MREs.

WalMart is sold out of camp stoves, propane, lantern fuel, ice chests and gas cans and batteries. So is every other store.

Sheetz is to be commended. I've seen a tanker truck there every time I've been here. They seem to be treating the situation with the gravity it deserves.

I have not seen a single Nat'l Guard vehicle in the times I've been out. No state troopers, either.

And yes: I reiterate: Earl Ray Tomblin's [campaign] website entry page is some silly stuff about writing a letter to the EPA over the so-called "War on Coal." Nothing about the emergency, nothing about safety, nothing about relief efforts. He should be roundly excoriated for his inaction.

At 2:30 p.m., he added,

I saw my first Nat'l Guard Vehicle today: a Hummer pulling into the Taco Bell in Summersville.

Lorelei Scarbro lives in Raleigh County, WV

Scarbro, the widow of a coal miner volunteers full-time at the Boone-Raleigh Community Center, which she helped found and of which she is the Board Chairwoman. She emailed me on July 3, 2012 at 7:26 p.m.

I was in Whitesville this morning. No power and I did see the national guard unloading a truck of water at the fire station. That water was going to clear fork because they have no power or water. I saw only one truck and one Hummer..no food just water. No tornado the streets were clean axnd empty.

We need so much more. I stopped and asked the fire chief what I could do. He asked if the community center was open. I said no because we have no power. If we had power we could be cooking for people.  I am looking forward to the day when we can fill the roof with solar panels.  Me and mine are ok.

I first became aware of how bad things were elsewhere when I received an email

Documentary filmmaker Mari-lynn Evans lives in Akon, Ohio, but has family in Braxton, WV. She sent word through via a friend at 11:45 p.m. on June 30, calling the situation "Apocalyptic."

Things haven't improved much.  As another friend pointed out, we don't have the military and National Guard defending us from the police. No one is trying to shoot us. Almost all the houses are still standing. There are no people being left behind, forgotten about in hospital and jails.But here, folks are still in a bad situation and the government response appears lacking.  And we're dealing with high temperatures and lack of water.  As Mari-Lyn explained,

Driving in the darkness with nothing open for hours felt so eerie.

Another passenger in the car said

it was like being in a Steven King novel. It is a horrible situation for so many living in this state of disaster.

As if it weren't enough that folks weren't already dealing with poisoned water from chemical and coal industries. I wondered when the national media would start covering events. Marilyn posited:

I think no one knows this is happening because so few of us are able to get this info out due to no phones or computers.

How would folks in the national media find out what was happening?

I would have not known how bad things were, if  I not received had first-hand accounts.  Mari-Lyn was emailing and posting to her facebook page.The email lists we are on are closed to most media so that folks can talk freely. The facebook page requires that you be her "friend."  The accounts in the paper and the releases from the governor's office were so bland and minimized the damage.  The tweets from WV media weren't using the hashtags #WV #Derecho.

Here are some samples of what I was learning

Below, you'll find emai posts from Mari-Lyn and from Elisa Young, a paralegal in Ohio, used by permission.

In an update, I'll be posting from others as I receive permission. But before I update, I want to report, in a separate post, on FEMA in Fayette County, one of the areas hardest hit and complaints that feeding decisions are being skewed by the PGA tournament at the Greenbrier.  Then I'll be back to add more accounts.

Mari-Lyn Evans, Saturday, June 30, 2012,  11:45 p.m.

I'm In WV. It's desperate. No food water gas. Post email help!!!!!! If near WV bring food and water. Oxygen patients flooding hospitals. Many people with no phone service or gas to get help, water or supplies.

Post this to our Facebook. If you can come into wv with food water and check on people. I have not seen 1 emergency vehicle. People in hollers with no way to get help or leave. No one going house to house to check. 79 50 all clear no traffic. Come with aid

Where...is the national guard.  Cars and people are stranded at closed gas stations. No gas or lights from Parkersburg to Clarksburg. Then none in Braxton Upshur or Lewis Co.  Apocalyptic.

At the time, the Corps of engineers was not letting people use the facilities at Huntington and Burnsvillle.  By 7:02 p.m. the Corps of Engineers had unlocked the gates at Burnsville Lake, but the situation was still dire.  Her family in Buckhannon had reported lights have just come on there, but St Joes Hospital was not taking patients.  By this morning, things were still dire.

Mari-Lyn Evans,  Monday, July 2, 9:47 a.m.

Just off with Joe Manchin. They are calling Tomblin re Guard and State Police checking on people and setting up communication and help.

Now?

They did not know where any Guard was in WV. That is Tomblin's to do apparently.

I told them how desperate the situation was on the ground, that no one can get out word to get help.

I organized 4 trucks of food and water to go into Braxton County this morning. But, I have no idea how to help other than to help in the small area where I have family.

Mari-Lyn Evans, Monday, July 2, 9:47 1:22 p.m.

No one is in their offices. No one.
We are the few who are able to get calls out.
Posting everything I get to FB.

Elisa Young, Sunday, July 1, 12:01 a.m.

We are facing the same thing in Ohio, at least SE - Kasich is sending help to Cincinnati and central Ohio,has said the urban areas are the priority, but has said only when they are done there are they sending any help here.

I got stuck in Vinton County last night . It was like a typhoon. Just from the people there at the camp who were calling home, the electricity ...was completely out from Lancaster to Jackson, Marietta, and Meigs. At least a quarter of the state. I was low on gas, and when I got back to Nelsonville in the morning, the line for the only gas station open was farther than I could see the end of. I waited for two hours and then the police said another station had opened in Nelsonville and flagged us away. Waited another hour and a half at the next gas station and two people tried to fight me for the gas I'd paid for, but got enough to get home, where there was no water or electricity.

The electricity is on now, The [City of ] Athens County was made a priority, but they said it will be sporadic and they expect it to go out again. Still no water. More storms are coming through Monday and Tuesday.

It's been like a scene from a Steven King novel. The emergency help may be tied up somewhere, but it's not in this quarter of Ohio.

Elisa Young, Sunday, July 1, 8:18 a.m.

Aside from re-posting to friends, local lists and facebook. If we can't get down there, is there someone we can be calling to put pressure on for help?

Elisa Young, Sunday, July 1,  9:25 a.m.

Are toll roads open or does anyone know who to check with on that - state highway patrol?

Elisa Young, Sunday, July 1, 12:17 p.m.

Our electric is back on now, but neighbors keep knocking on the door. We have five families on the same well, happens to be in our house, and the water is still out....Landlord not responding.

A friend from Meigs just called me - I left her a message early Saturday to see how she was. She had been standing in line at the gas station that's open to charge her cell phone so she could have communication. Everything still out there.

Elisa Young, Sunday, July 1, 12:38 p.m.

...Mobile homes and 100 degree weather aren't a good mix with senior citizens without a hospital or ER in the county and gas supplies no guarantee if you can get there.

Elisa Young, Sunday, July 1, 12:44p.m.

[My friend in Miegs] has no cell coverage from her home - land line requires electricity to work with the type of phone she has. Had to drive to the gas station that was open to charge her phone and get cell coverage.

The county is sparsely populated - no cities, no hospital, university, or population density to make the county a priority.

I remember we always got the bulk of the pollution, dead last, bottom of the barrel service. I remember AEP telling me the reason they would not go to the expense of insulating the high tension power lines that ran across the community (they have the technology to reduce electromagnetic radiation), was that there weren't enough people to justify the expense.

Same old same old.

Elisa Young, Sunday, July 1, 12:48

I've been asking people here about injection well issues on the wells that require pressurization, when the power went out, and where they were actively injecting. MariLynn raised a good point about the impoundments. Would be a good idea for people to check on those near them - have never known industry to go out of it's way to report problems.

Elisa Young, Monday, July 2, 4:04 p.m.

On the way down to Meigs last night to check on some people and take food, I saw at least 30 repair trucks high-tailing it through Athens County headed toward Columbus. I was assuming to re-restore electricity.

It was strange going up to Columbus this morning for the press conference on the frack waste testing results. When I got to Columbus, it was business as usual.

The people I met there from Cleveland had no clue what was happening to the South.

NPR news also said that 20,000 additional people in SE Ohio were left without electricity after last nights' storm, bringing the total in the bottom two-thirds of SE Ohio to 243,000 homes without electricity.

They said power in Meigs/Gallia Counties won't be restored until Thursday at the soonest (7 days from when it went out) - we were dead last on the priority list and they listed Wellston specifically in their own category within the county list. Wellson is in Meigs County, where homes were blown off their foundations into the road by the winds - they are predicting electricity will be restored in Wellston, Meigs County, by next Tuesday. (12 days)

NPR also announced that the National Guard had been dispatched to central Ohio due to the power outages

Nuns on the Bus Defend Poor

"Nuns on the Bus taking US by storm."   Given the Derecho, News 24 reporting from Harrisonburg, Pennsylvania chose an odd headline July 1 for its story of  a tour which started in Iowa on June 17 and reached Richmond today.

The trip, sponsored by the Catholic lobbying group Network, headed by Campbell, came about in May after the Vatican released a report that charged the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR), which represents most US nuns, of "radical feminism" and not focusing enough on fighting gay marriage.

 My friend historian Marian Mollin drove to Richmond to greet them.  Tomorrow they finish up in DC.  I'll be updating this post tomorrow am.

derecho

I need to provide a link for this photo, which comes from the blog of a British wine writer, transplanted to Florida, who recently visited Charlottesville for a tasting of Virginia Viogniers.  This post was originally published at 11:02 p.m. on June 30, 2012.  I last updated it at 5:53 p.m. on July 1 to incorporate additional content.  I still need to add some links, so check back.

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Facebook Email Adresses

 I was wondering if we were having the Virginia Viognier wine tasting tomorrow at the home of friends in Roanoke who had lost power.  Another friend, unaffected by the Derecho wind storm that passed through Virginia,  had offered to host the event at her home.  The possible postponement or change in venue was a minor casualty of fallen AEP and Virginia Tech powerlines, due to gusts that reached up to 81 mph here.   Really minor in the face of death that some suffered elsewhere in Virginia.  Or  the devastation, lack of water and gasoline that friends experienced over in WV and Ohio--but more on that later.

To help out the original host and hostess a bit--who were contending with downed trees and lack of power and spoiled food--I thought I'd email the list of guests to keep everyone in the loop.  There were only a couple I didn't know and figured the hosts could forward my content on to those. I had neglected to ever make a list of folks' email addresses.  So, if I hadn't corresponded with them before, I went on facebook to compile the list.  But, when I looked, everyone had mysteriously changed their email providers from gmail or aol or yahoo or hotmail to facebook.


Several days ago,  I had wondered why several of my  friends had opted for a facebook email, when so few had opted for the "new timeline." But I hadn't thought anything of it.  But now the number appeared to be 20 out of 20.  That seemed odd,  given the high percentage of my contacts whom had not gone along with a switch to the "new timeline."


Doh, oh, that's right!   Facebook gave us a choice on whether to switch to the new timeline, at least for now. It turns out that Facebook, without prior permission or even notice,  has seen fit to change real public email that everyone had opted to list to a fake email that actually routes things as a facebook message.


I  hadn't notice any change in my own listing, because I only provide the URL for this blog, which then lists my public email. That in response to my being miffed by the photo-tagging facial recognition debacle, which I've written about.

So, we have yet another high-handed stealth change from Facebook,  after it promised the FCC to do better .  Just one more nail in the coffin of any remaining trust. The attempt to monopolize us within the garden is bad enough, although I can just message folks and ask for their real emails.  But why should I have to take that step?  And how many folks will just follow the path of least resistance?

Facebook email is an inferior product`

Facebook email is actually the same as its messaging, which has, like other functions, an oddly vague time stamp I find useless for communication.  There's the additional problem that Facebook hides most of the content if your chat goes on for a while. So even if I didn't want fb monopolizing my data, for who knows what purpose,  I'd opt out.  Yahoo messaging crashes the whole email system, so I'm still using gchat, which I've used for years.  That, depite Google seeming boldness in  jettisoning of its former promise to its users to "Not Be Evil.

And then there's the new Facebook messenger

If the email switch were not not enough, when I open up Facebook, I am hounded by a message each day uring me to install its messenger, so I can chat from my computer.  That way facebook can track me even when I don't open its website.  Say what?  Can you spell "fugetaboutit?"

As a small consolation Facebook has substituted this for a message telling me how many of my connections are updating to the new timeline.  But that may be because it stalled at a bit over
100 out of 934.   (I have a big list because so many folks use facebook to communicate about the fight to end mountaintop removal coal mining.  And then there are relatives, my fellow literary writers,  journalists, and folks I know in the community, who are also here).  

That sent me looking for another illustration, which I had to adapt via Paint to adjust the dimensions to a square, the better to deal with the oddities of the layout on the "new timeline."



The original graphic, which I prefer, came from Eric Qualman and looked like this:



Qualman (email, twitter, bio)  is the author of  Socialnomics: How Social Media Transforms the Way
We Live and Do Business (Wiley, 2010, 320 pp). He used the graphic (no attribution) to illustrate his blog post http://www.socialnomics.net/2010/05/20/facebook-privacy-issues-the-irony/ about his concept that "Word of Mouth goes World of Mouth."

He wrote that he believed that

Facebook is smart enough to restore...comfort [about privacy] and restore it soon.If they don’t, it could be their eventual demise.After all, perception is reality, and their own tool can definitely hyper-accelerate perception into reality. Ironic, isn’t it?

Wonder what Qualman thinks now? If I found out, I'll let you know. I'm sharing this with him to let him know I want to use his art work.

When All Else Fails with The BLM Try Street Theater

Photo I cropped from one that appeared at a  2007 article at The Consumerist, "3 Confessions from a former Used Car Salesman." This post at 6:27 p.m. is a first draft to get the news out on tomorrow's protest against the BLM "auction" to Peabody Coal. I revised it at 7:37 p/m. but will be adding other links, so y'all come back, now!

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By now I hope you have read Juliet Eilperin's June 24 article in the Washington Post,
"Powder River Basin coal leasing prompts IG, GAO reviews."

As I wrote in a June 25 update to my original post on June 22,  Eilperin reports on the investigations of BLM "auctions" and also on  The Great Giveaway: An analysis of the United States’ long-term trend of selling federally-owned coal for less than fair market value by Tom Sanzillo (email) published by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis on June 25.  Today, even on vacation,  She she tweeted and sent to fb  a link to the June 25 letter to Interior Secretary Salazar, signed by the Greenpeace, along with 21 other groups.  You can follow her @eilperin.

Unfortunately, Eilperin had a mainstream media "exclusive," although criticism of the BLM has been going on for years. If you were to look for coverage of the June 28 "auction" of coal leases to Peabody, you would find it on the websites of environmental groups and public interest law firms. For instance, Joe Smyth (email), of Greenpeace, wrote about the the BLM's coal leasing program on June 22. Theo Spencer (email) got something up on the NRDC on June 25 (after Eilperin's story appeared.)

And it's not just national media.  If you check the daily in Cheyenne, the last article appears to be "Coal leases could bring state billions" by Becky Orr (email) 3/23/2011, when Ken Salazar arrived to announce the leases, accompanied by Gov. Matt Mead, at a news conference at "Cheyenne's new South High School...one of many in Wyoming built with state money from mineral revenues."

That coverage kinda sounds like the stenography I've read by some "journalists" in Appalachia.  At least in West Virginia we have environmental journalist Ken Ward, Jr. and business writer Paul Nyden of the Charleston Gazette and  energy reporters Pam Kasey and Taylor Kuykendall of the State Journal to provide some nuance on the downside of the industry. And we have other good journalists in Bristol, Roanoke, Knoxville and Lexington, KY and in Pittsburgh, PA.

So what are folks to do to stop the BLM auctions in Cheyenne? As I reported, the BLM has continued helping Big Coal, despite  GAO criticism and lawsuits dating back for years.  And BLM is also a friend to the oil and gas companies: Tim DeChristopher is in jail, after successfully bidding at an oil and gas lease auction of 116 parcels of public land in Utah's redrock country.

 What are folks to do?  Out west, they've decided on ridicule.

Bryce Carter--who attended Virginia Tech--is now in Colorado with the Sierra Club. Even in face of the wildfires, he's working with Gina Hardin one of the activists on Coal Swarm's No New Coal Plants and Micah Parkin of 350.org and Kristin Owen Reay of High Country Rising Tide on a piece of street theater: "Get Rich Quick at Public Expense." If you happen near enough that you can join them, email Hardin at ginahardin@msn.com or call (303) 525-3076 or fax (303)539-3978.

Hardin tells me that at 8:30 in the morning tomorrow, June 28th, citizens will converge on the Bureau of Land Management Office in Cheyenne, WY to protest the fire sale of coal to benefit highly- profitable fossil fuel companies and foreign markets.

Some will dress up as used car salesmen and as Vanna White of Wheel of Fortune. Others will greet the BLM staff and its visitors holding a banner that reads “Coal Sale Happening Now: Get Rich Quick at Public Expense.” Other will dispay signs highlighting how the BLM sells leases to coal companies for a little over a dollar per ton for coal, which is then exported to Asia for close to $100 per ton.

All will urge the suspension of the day's "auction" of hundreds of acres and a moratorium of the BLM Powder River Basin coal auctions as a whole, until a comprehensive review and overhaul of the coal leasing process is completed. Besides the groups mentioned, other allies include WildEarth Guardians (who joined Sierra Club in suing the BLM), Jews of the Earth, Greenpeace and CO-FORCE. And of course, you'd don't have to be a member of a group to join in.

Of late, some direct actions against coal in Appalachia have been serious affairs, featuring lockdowns and sit-ins in Congressional offices. Next month RAMPs will plans to shut down a mountaintop removal site.

But, we have a tradition of street theater here, too.

Most recently United Mountain Defense showed up as coal zombies. Klu Klux Klowns of Mountain Justice ridicule the other KKK. The Southern Climate Convergence dressed up as polar bears suffering from the effects of greenhouse gases in Asheville. And Blue Ridge Earth First has sing Christmas coal carols at banks which fund mtr, long before the astroturf group Faces of Coal came up with their own lyrics.

Yesterday, media in Ohio did a good job of covering first-time civil disobedient Madeline Fitch's lockdown to protest fracking. In Ohio, unlike WV, KY, VA and TN, direct action may still be novel. And fracking seems to have more traction than coal protests.

So, I'll be interested to see what Orr and her fellow writers come up with, if anything, to cover tomorrow.

Today's Attack on EPA, Part Infinity: Coal Ash

 

Photo of  the largest coal-ash pond in the United States – the 1,700-acre Little Blue Run impoundment site in Pennsylvania and West Virginia for FirstEnergy’s Bruce Mansfield Plant. I started this post on June 26, publishing it at 8:06 p.m.  At that time, I identified it as the start of a post.  "It's been a busy news day, given the fracking protest in Ohio. "  On July 3, I worked a bit to add information on the MACT vote, but  I have more work to do.  The last revision was July 3, 12 at 7:37 p.m.

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 June 19, the WaPost's transportation reporter, Ashley Halsey III (email, archive) filed his latest story on the transporation bill, saying that both Reid and Boehner want it finished by June 30.

Without a conference-committee deal by June 30, Congress will face extending funding levels set in 2005 yet again.

 In an earlier story on June 13, he had reported how

The Republicans have linked three controversial non-transportation issues to the bill: expansion of offshore and arctic oil exploration, approval of the Keystone pipeline and relaxation of restrictions on use of coal ash.

Notice how all three have to do with environmental issues,  which the Republicans had not succeeded  in getting passed as stand-alone bills?  Actually, Halsey, who, after all is not an environmental reporter, didn't quite sum up the coal ash issue accurately to my lights. As Lisa Evans from the public interest environmental law firm EarthJustice explained in an email at 2:13 p.m. today, the proposed provision in the transportation bill:

 would prevent the EPA [Environmental Protection Agency] from ever issuing federal public health safeguards and would allow dangerous coal ash ponds to continue operating.

I'm not sure about the hyperbole that EPA would be prevented from "ever issuing" safeguards.  Any  law can be reversed.  And surely, if this transportation bill does pass, those supporting the EPA will have their work is cut out for them.  And it will be a hard slog, if they can't get enough Senators to stand up to the House. I'm sure they're hoping for a repeat of June 19's Senate rejection of Inhof's attempt to limit the EPA's authority to regulate reduce mercury emissions at U.S. power plants through its MACT regulations.  The opposition claimed the EPA was to bankrupt coal plans, harking back to his supposed hidden interview on coal with the editorial board of the SF Chronicle that the paper's political writer Carla Marinucci (@cmarinucci) debunked with a transript and video on November 2, 2008, when it was sprung as a "November suprise" right before the election.

Senator Rockefeller courageously stood up to Big Coal, leading Politico to calling him a lame duck.  Virginia's senators Webb and Warner voted with the Republicans.

Evans was asking folks to write their Senators and EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson (email)

We don’t have much time. We are hearing a decision may be reached as soon as today.

Here's my letter to Senator Webb.  Since Webb is not running for re-election, I decided not to take him to task.

Dear Senator Webb,

Since you are not running for re-election, first let me thank you for your service to Virginia and the nation. As your constituent, I am writing you today to urge that you protect the health and environment of your fellow Virginians and other Americans and oppose a coal ash amendment in the final transportation bill. This is a underhanded legislative maneuver from the allies of moneyed polluters who seek both almost-total constraint on the EPA's authority and special treatment that absolves them of their true cost of doing business.

 The nation's attention has been focused on coal ash, ever since the TVA spill, which I wrote about here. Safe disposal of this waste is necessary for the public health and is an environmental justice issue. In nearly 200 cases in 37 states, coal ash has already poisoned water with arsenic, lead, selenium and other heavy metals. And we especially worry here in the New River Valley, where there is an unlined coal ash dump in the floodplain on the banks of the scenic New River, as reported on by Tim Thornton and which I've written about here. And we are not the only area affected. We've seen our fellow Virginians in Chesapeake become the subject of a 60 Minutes investigation of coal ash poisoning water the Battlefield Golf Course.

As you know, the coal ash amendment would prevent the EPA from enacting federal standards for the safe disposal of toxic coal ash. Please protect the public good, rather than siding with polluters.

Respectfully submitted,

Beth J. Wellington
P.O. Box _________ Blacksburg, VA 24062

I decided to confront Warner, however, although I tried not to antagonize him.

BTW, I heard back quickly, but only from Webb's Chief of Staff:

Thanks for your note. I shall share this with Senator Webb and Courtney Weaver, who handles these issues on the Senator’s staff.

Mr. Peabody's coal train wants to haul it away

 This photo  of mining in the Powder River Basin of Wyoming came from Peabody Energy (via Bloomberg).  I originally published this post on June 22, 2012 at 7:10 p.m. and last updated it at 10:45 a.m. on June 25, so that I could add this reference for you:  The Great Giveaway: An analysis of the United States’ long-term trend of selling federally-owned coal for less than fair market value by Tom Sanzillo (email), Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, June 25, 2012.  

H/T to the WaPo's terrific environmental reporter Juliet Eilperin (email, article archive) for helping me locate the report and for her June 24, 2012 article:  "Powder River Basin coal leasing prompts IG, GAO reviews."

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John Prine could have been singing about Peabody  in Wyoming in when he performed  his song "Paradise" on the January 2, 2010 episode of the Marty Stewart Show.

(2:00) And then the coal company came with the world's largest shovel
Well, they tortured the timber and they stripped all the land
They dug for their coal till the land was forsaken
And then they wrote it all down as the progress of man.

Of course, Prine was singing about Kentucky:

And daddy won't you take me back to Muhlenberg County
Down by the Green River where Paradise lay
Well, I'm sorry my son, but you're too late in asking
Mister Peabody's coal train has hauled it away

But, just as in Appalachia, Peabody and other big coal companies are hauling away parts of the West, using the Powder River Basin as a a sort of colony, from which it can strip mine taxpayer-owned coal and ship it to the lucrative Asian market. For this, you can thank the  U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM), which in 1990 moved to de-certify the the Basin as a coal producing region – even though it’s the source of almost half the coal mined in the US.

The de-certification means that on June 28,  2012,  BLM will “auction” an additional 721 million tons in the Powder River Basin (announced in the Federal Register on May 25).  And Peabody can again low-ball its bid knowing that it can just submit another one, should the BLM balk (ever so slightly.)

I say again because Peabody Energy  leased 402 million tons of coal reserves in five square miles adjacent to its North Antelope Rochelle mine in Wyoming, as the only bidder in an  "auction"  by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) on On May 17, 2012.  The company paid $1.11 per mineable ton in a sealed "lease by application". It had previously bid just $0.90 per ton on February 29, which resulted in the "do-over."  In addition to the Peabody lease, BLM sold another to Arch Coal Inc., owner of Black Thunder Mine, the largest coal-mining complex in the world, according to the company's website.

On April 24, Congressman Ed Markey called for another  Government Accountability Office examination of the BLM’s coal leasing practices. Tom Sanzillo holds that , the BLM’s methods dramatically undervalue the coal, so much so that it has amounted to a $28.9 billion subsidy over the last 30 years. As early as 1984, subsequent to the controversial Powder River Basin coal lease sale of 1982,the Office of Inspector General (OIG) of the Department of the Interior found that the "reports and related investigative work were "inadequate and incomplete. Numerous leads were either dismissed or not pursued to reasonable conclusions, and serious discrepancies were never resolved."

On May 2, the Sierra Club and WildEarth Guardians filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., (Civ. No. 1:11-cv-00670-CKK) saying the federal Bureau of Land Management failed to consider the impact of greenhouse gases when 2 billions tons of coal is burned from four government mineral leases in the Wyoming portion of the Powder River Basin.

The environmental groups argue that the BLM broke federal laws and agency rules by neglecting to analyze fully the global impact of carbon dioxide and other pollutants released by power plants and want a federal judge to suspend the government's plan to lease and mine coal from the tracts at least until the BLM completes a supplemental analysis on the environmental impacts.

On May 10, Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly  dismissed the case without prejudice for lack of standing, adding in a further blow that she didn't have the purview to reign in the BLM's actions:

if Plaintiffs had standing, the Court would adhere to its prior holding that “the question of when and where to establish coal production region s is a matter that has been committed to the BLM’s discretion by law and lies beyond the ambit of judicial review .” WildEarth Guardians v. Salazar, 783 F . Supp . 2d 6 1, 74 (D .D .C . 20 11) . To the extent circumscribed judicial review of the BLM’s discretion is called for in the context of a petition under 5 U .S.C . § 553(e), the BLM “has adequately explained the facts and policy concerns it relied on and [the Court is satisfied] that those facts have some basis in the record .” Defenders of Wildlife v. Gutierrez , 532 F .3d 9 13, 9 19 (D .C . Cir . 200 8) (internal quotation marks omitted); see also Am . Horse Prot. Ass’n, Inc. v. Lyng , 8 12 F .2d 1, 4 - 5 (D .C . Cir . 1987) . When “agency action is committed to agency discretion by law ,” 5 U .S.C . § 70 1(a)(2), the dismissal must be for failure to state a claim , see Sierra Club v. Jackson , 64 8 F .3d 84 8, 853-54 (D .C . Cir . 20 11), which is an adjudication on the merits. Therefore, although the end result would for all practical purposes be the same, the Court cannot rely on this ground as an alternative basis for its decision .

In a June 8 email, Frank Zaski, a retired Chrysler Manager in Franklin, MI, who is active with the Sierra Club analyzed the BLM's October 2011  "Record of Decision" for the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for Peabody's  North Porcupine Coal Lease Application (WYW173408 ):

In the North Porcupine EIS, the BLM stresses the US will need a lot of coal thru 2035 and they are only looking out for our future energy needs. Using dated assumptions, the BLM went out of their way to minimize the charge that leasing this track would contribute to climate change.

Zaski points out that while the BLM stated in its EIS that studies “were consistent in finding that coal-fired electric generation would represent 52-58 percent of the electric generation portfolio by 2030, as compared to the current 51 percent” and that "“coal use continues to be projected as the largest portion of the domestic electric fuel mix.”

Coal's share of total net generation actually dropped to 34% in March 2012. [according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.]

He adds that while the BLM argued that denying the lease "would deny the mine operator the ability to compete with other operators in an open market for a future coal demand that is projected to continue until at least 2035," the agency

didn't mention that many PRB [Powder River Basin] mining companies already have up to a 30 year supply and big export plans.

He  questions the BLM statement that “the key determinant of energy consumption is population" and that "Fossil fuels and clean technology coal will have to be part of the mix if the U.S. is able to have enough energy in the future," asking

Why is the BLM leasing these rights as fast as they can? At the current (and declining) rate of use, the miners probably a have 40 - 50 year supply of coal in the ground. Is BLM selling these coal leases while they can before natural gas, EE, RE, EPA, increasing strip ratios and diesel costs really kill coal?

He points to  the BLM's website statement that its "managed land contributed more than $130 billion to the U.S. economy and supported more than 600,000 American jobs. The Bureau is also one of a handful of agencies that collects more revenue than it spends," stating,

[T]he BLM appears to think of themselves as a profit center on a mission.

I'd add that the BLM's mission is supposed to be, according to its own statement, to

sustain the health, diversity, and productivity of America’s public lands for the use and enjoyment of present and future generations.

We know about the impact of coal mining and burning on public health, not to mention how little is left after strip mining of public lands for us to use and enjoy. WildEarth Guardians’ 2009 report “UnderMining the Climate” found that over the last 20 years, only 3 of 21 lease by applications to mine coal on public lands had more than one bidder.

You'd think we'd want to lease to the highest bidder and reserve our coal for our own country's use, when nothing cleaner will do.  If we can't count on the administration or on the Courts, it would seem our last hope rests with a Congress, which to date has been too friendly to Big Coal.

BLM's  de-certification and current auctions make me wonder just how long we're going to let our government  help Mr. Peabody with his hauling.

Michael Chapman at Gillies with the Twigs

Photo of Michael Chapman by his  "partner and muse," Andru from my friend (and fellow journalist)  Mike Gangloff of the Black Twig Pickers 's photo essay on Facebook.  For those of you who don't have access, let me know and I'll ask Mike if I can email you a copy or quote from it here when I have more time.  This was originally published on June 15, 2012 at 8 p.m. and last updatedat 6:20 pm on June 30, when the Twigs had another gig playing at The Cellar.


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How great is this?  I got to see The Black Twig Pickers and Michael Chapman @ Gillie's on Thursday night with Sally Morgan. If you want an encore, come to Community Center in Newport, Virginia at 7 on Saturday night, June 16, where they'll be playing again at the Jamboree, along with the Porch Loungers.

You can also listen to Tad's interview podcast of Chapman, which includes selections from his music.  


And here's a video of Rainmaker:

Here's Tad's video of the Twigs playing the Old Time tune "Boatman"

And here's his video on Chapman playing his song, "In the Valley."