Free Republic

LINFEN, China (AFP) – The choking soot that coats Linfen is testament to an inconvenient truth behind Beijing's promises to curb its greenhouse gas emissions: cheap and carbon-belching coal remains king in China. Although they say things are improving, residents of this city in northern Shanxi province live in one of the most polluted places on Earth thanks to China's reliance on coal, a dependence expected to continue for decades. "Everyone here hates the pollution. It's better than before... but it is hard to imagine it being worse than just a few years ago," said Qi Bao, who owns a...

Vast coal deposits lying deep beneath the North Sea will be burnt in situ to generate up to 5 per cent of Britain’s energy needs, under new plans approved by the Government last week. The UK Coal Authority has awarded licences to Clean Coal, an Anglo-American company, to develop five offshore sites for a technology called Underground Coal Gasification (UGC). The method, which has not been used on a commercial scale in the UK, although it is widely used in Australia, taps the high energy content of coal while doing away with the costly and labour-intensive need to mine it...

What is the WRVA-Alden Aaroe Shoe Fund?.The “Shoe Fund” was started in 1968 by legendary WRVA morning host Alden Aaroe as a way to raise money to literally buy shoes for needy Richmond area youngsters. Since its conception more than 6 million dollars has been raised for that purpose. Today the fund also buys coats, school supplies and other items. One thing is still the same, every penny stays here in the Richmond area. The fund is administered by the Greater Richmond Salvation Army. If you’re interested in making enough of a contribution to pay for a pair of shoes,...

Process could capture carbon more cheaply. Researchers at Ohio State University are developing a novel process for generating electricity from coal that also promises to make capturing carbon-dioxide emissions cheaper. The work is being done with the help of a $5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy's new Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy. The technology has been proven in laboratories; researchers will use the new funds to demonstrate it in a 250-kilowatt, pilot-scale power plant. A coal-fired plant based on the process, which is called chemical looping, would produce a highly concentrated stream of carbon dioxide. Such a stream...

A controversial economist working at the Office of Management and Budget has raised questions about whether a new air pollution rule proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency would impose too high a cost on coal-fired power plants...Randall Lutter, who served as the Food and Drug Administration's head of policy under George W. Bush and has battled environmentalists for years on issues such as climate change and smog, has been examining the economic impact of federal rules at the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. Lutter is a long-time ally of OIRA's director, Cass Sunstein. While Lutter's job portfolio remains unclear,...

COAL RIVER MOUNTAIN, W.Va. – This mountain in southern West Virginia, right in the middle of Appalachia’s spine, is fast becoming someone’s Waterloo. It’s too soon to tell who will be the loser: the coal industry, the environmentalists or the people who call this region home. Nearly 500 mountaintops in Appalachia have been destroyed (or used for commerce, depending on your perspective) by mountaintop-removal mining. MRM, as it is known, is cheaper and faster than underground mining. It involves blasting the top of a mountain to remove its layers of coal. The Coalition for Mountaintop Mining, an advocacy group under...

Not exactly sure what I can post since it is from Bloomberg but if you go the site one of the lead articles is the EPA threatening coal mining in Applachia over a insect. What the Spotted Owl did to the timber industry in the Pacific Northwest this bug will do to coal mining.

Dr. Rand Paul, Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, explained his position on taxes, government spending, the drug abuse epidemic, welfare and other government benefits during an exclusive interview with the Times-Tribune, just hours before his appearance at the University of the Cumberlands in Williamsburg. Initially, Dr. Paul addressed drug abuse in rural Kentucky. As a doctor, he immediately zeroed in on more vigilant policing of doctors who recklessly write prescriptions. He asked, “Are they being disciplined? I’m a doctor and occasionally I’ll get notification from the medical licensure board of people who are having their licenses suspended.” Referencing a recent...

Leadership: As Palin jousts with Biden on energy independence, the government reports that we lead the world in energy reserves. From oil to gas to coal, we are sitting on prosperity. So why are we importing anything? One of the interesting sidelights of the NY-23 race was an exchange on energy independence between Vice President Joe Biden and the former governor of energy-rich Alaska, Sarah Palin. Biden, who came in to campaign for Democrat Bill Owens, was reminded of the issue of energy. "The fact of the matter is that Sarah Palin thinks the answer to energy was 'Drill, baby,...

Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway upped its stake in Burlington Northern yesterday, paying about $26 billion for the rest of the big railway system. Is the purchase all about playing with trains? Not really. Buffett said it's a bet on the U.S. economic recovery, that moving goods around will surge when things pick-up again. It's also seen by some as a big bet on coal. B&N's system goes through Wyoming's Powder River Basin, which is the primary source for a lot of the low-sulfur coal many U.S. power plants rely on these days to keep down their emissions (including the W.A....

The United States could be energy independent if it possessed the collective political will to make it happen. After all, the country has the largest energy reserves on earth, according to a recently-released Congressional Research Service report.

Despite the fact that Navajo Nation president Joe Shirley Jr. won an international award for environmentalism, he's a thorn in the side for environmentalists. Why? Because, according to them, the power plant that provides energy and jobs to his people in Arizona is an environmental hazard, one that creates an unsightly haze over the Grand Canyon. The Environmental Protection Agency wants the Navajo Generating Station, which is supplied with coal from mines on Black Mesa, to install air-scrubbing equipment. A Sierra Club spokesman described the plants as "low-hanging fruit." And the journalist reporting the story cites Shirley as the only...

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway said Tuesday it will buy railroad operator Burlington Northern Santa Fe for $44 billion. Berkshire (BRKA, Fortune 500), which already has major stake in the company, said it would acquire the remaining 77.4% of the company in a cash-and-stock offer worth $100 per share. Widely regarded as both one of the world's richest men and the investment community's more brilliant minds, Buffett called his firm's investment an "all-in wager on the economic future of the United States." "Our country's future prosperity depends on its having an efficient and well-maintained rail system," Buffett...

Cap and Trade will be a disaster for what is left of manufacturing in this country. Right now, the Rust Belt is just rusty. With Cap and Trade, the rust will inevitably turn into dust. And, for what? Because some politically-driven environmentalists have trumped up a phony belief that mankind is completely killing the planet?

While campaigning for the Democratic presidential nomination, Barack Obama said his cap-and-trade tax plans would "bankrupt" anyone building a coal-fired power plant. Although those taxes haven't materialized, the Environmental Protection Agency has put the brakes on 79 surface mining permits in four states since he was elected. The EPA says these permits could violate the Clean Water Act and warrant "enhanced" review. But the agency went even further last week, announcing plans to revoke a permit for the Spruce No. 1 Mine in West Virginia - a move that has caused anxiety among coal-state Democrats about the future of the...

Almost two years ago, Barack Obama told the editors of the San Francisco Chronicle that anyone who wanted to open a new coal-burning electrical plant would get “bankrupted” by his policies. They may not even get the coal to burn, thanks to the EPA. The Washington Times’ Amanda Carpenter reports that the agency has held up scores of surface mining permits in an action that will get the attention of coal-producing states — and their Senators: While campaigning for the Democratic presidential nomination, Barack Obama said his cap-and-trade tax plans would “bankrupt” anyone building a coal-fired power plant. Although those...

CHARLESTON -- The governor of the country's second-largest coal-producing state is angling for a sit-down with President Barack Obama over his administration's stance on climate change and its pursuit of cap-and-trade legislation. West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin told The Associated Press on Tuesday that his state has a role to play as the nation considers cutting climate-affecting energy sources. Carbon dioxide traps heat in the atmosphere, and coal releases that gas when burned. The White House wishes to curb carbon emissions and reduce the use of fossil-derived fuel, though that goal also dovetails with the push to replace foreign oil...

There was almost a round of cheers at the joint meeting of the Alaska House Resources, Senate Resources and Senate Energy committees in Anchorage on Oct. 9, as enthusiastic legislators listened to executives from Cook Inlet Region Inc. unveil a plan to develop an underground coal gasification plant on CIRI land on the west side of Cook Inlet, with no requests for state funding for a project that might supply electrical power for the Alaska Railbelt for many years to come. CIRI is the Native Region corporation for the Cook Inlet area. “Our project we believe is a very exciting...

PIKEVILLE, Ky. (AP) - Thousands of coal miners fearing the loss of jobs if mountaintop removal mining is curtailed or outlawed shouted down a handful of environmentalists at crowded public hearings Tuesday on the much-debated practice. Many in Kentucky and West Virginia wore hardhats and T-shirts and waved signs proclaiming the merits of coal. Environmentalists who have fought for decades to end the destructive form of mining that blasts away peaks to unearth coal showed up in small numbers.

Support Coal, Now! America's Future Depends on it. Watch the downfall of Obama Socialism from real Americans in Kentucky.

An Anchorage Native corporation said this morning it aims to build a new electric power plant on the west side of Cook Inlet -- using coal instead of the region's dwindling natural gas supply. The 100-megawatt plant would rely on an emerging but proven technology that doesn't require the coal to be mined. Instead, the coal would be transformed into gas underground, according to officials from Cook Inlet Region Inc., which owns several hundred thousand acres in the vast Beluga coal fields. CIRI proposes drilling wells into coal seams, then injecting oxygen into those wells, causing the coal to combust...

Evironmental Nuts Fight Clean Coal, Plant Delayed

We have an emergency on the horizon and your participation is IMPERATIVE! The US Army Corps of Engineers is holding six public hearings October 13 and 15 to receive public comments on the two proposals related to Nationwide Permit 21 in the nation’s Appalachian Region. NWP 21 authorizes discharges of dredged or fill material into waters of the United States for surface coal mining activities. The effort is underway to apply regulations that will allow the regulation of water from the head of the watershed. The first proposal is to modify NWP 21 to prohibit its use in the Appalachian...

Conflict of Interest Resolved by: Brittany Fortier, October 07, 2009 Would you know bias when you see it? A majority of Supreme Court justices don’t seem to, particularly when it concerns their own judicial profession. Brad Smith, Professor of Law at Capital University Law School and former Chairman of the Federal Election Commission (FEC), discussed the case of Caperton v. Massey Coal at the Cato Institute’s Supreme Court Review on September 17, 2009. The case involved Massey Coal’s decision not to purchase Caperton’s mine located in Buchanan County, VA, after an extended period of negotiations. Caperton, alleging fraud and...

Now that the Senate has returned from its August recess, its members have many issues with which to contend. Although health care reform has received much of the attention in recent weeks, another bill, the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 (H.R. 2454) or more widely known as Waxman-Markey or “cap & trade,” is equally deserving of scrutiny. This is because most major economic impact studies demonstrate that the “cap & trade” scheme proposed in the Waxman-Markey bill will create massive consumer costs with undefined environmental benefits. In June, the Waxman-Markey bill narrowly passed the U.S. House 219-212...

President Barack Obama's administration put the brakes on 79 applications for surface coal mining permits in four states Wednesday, saying they would violate the Clean Water Act. The action is the administration's latest attempt to curb environmental damage from a highly efficient but damaging mining practice known as mountaintop removal. Each permit likely would cause significant damage to water quality and the environment, the Environmental Protection Agency said in a statement.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — President Barack Obama's administration put the brakes on 79 applications for surface coal mining permits in four states Wednesday,saying they would violate the Clean Water Act. The action is the administration's latest attempt to curb environmental damage from a highly efficient but damaging mining practice known as mountaintop removal. Each permit likely would cause significant damage to water quality and the environment, the Environmental Protection Agency said in a statement.

Nuclear Power The Electric Power Research Institute, (EPRI) whose members produce and deliver more than 90 percent of U.S. power, recently issued report, forecasting a need for five times more nuclear power capacity than U.S. Energy Department estimates. There are now 104 operating reactors in the U.S., and the last one came on line in 1996. It also calls building 100 million plug-in electric vehicles and retrofitting about 18 percent of U.S. coal-power plants to capture emissions. The department’s Energy Information Administration predicts 12,500 megawatts of new nuclear power by 2030. The EPRI report says 64,000 megawatts will be built....

The World Bank is spending billions of pounds subsidising new coal-fired power stations in developing countries despite claiming that burning fossil fuels exposes the poor to catastrophic climate change. It says that the world must reduce its dependence on fossil fuels, but it is funding several giant coal-burning plants that will each emit millions of tonnes of carbon dioxide a year for the next 40 to 50 years.

The Environmental Protection Agency announced Friday that 79 applications for surface coal-mine permits in Kentucky, West Virginia, Ohio and Tennessee might violate the nation's Clean Water Act and require closer scrutiny. Many of the 79 applications would remove mountaintops and dump debris in valley streams. The EPA's action was an abrupt shift from the last big batch of surface mining permits that it's considered during the Obama administration. In May, the agency said it had no concerns with 42 of 48 permits, and blocked six. The latest decision is in line with the Obama administration's call in June for a...

America’s problem of energy dependence has been pushed into the background by the brouhaha concerning Democratic health care proposals. In the year-plus since the “Drill Here, Drill Now” movement captured the support of a majority of Americans, absolutely nothing of value has been done to increase the domestic production of energy. This inaction keeps us dependent on foreign oil supplied by countries which hate America. This is a disaster well on the way to happening. And what will happen when the foo hits the fan?

Mayflies are, by scientific classification, not long for this world. They belong to the order Ephemeroptera which means, roughly, "short lived, winged creatures." In their adult form they live for a day. During that day, the Appalachian mayfly's primary function seems to be: Annoy hikers.They may soon serve a second, far more annoying function if President Obama's Environmental Protection Agency has its way. Emboldened by Obama's campaign pledge to "bankrupt" coal, EPA regulators have been aggressive of late. Bug protection may well give them an excuse to wreck coal mining in Appalachia. Why? Because recent research suggests that discharge into...

More Than 70,000 People to Attend Labor Day Rally in West Virginia As more than 70,000 people have signed up to attend the Friends of America Rally, Holden, WV, is likely to be home to America’s largest Labor Day gathering. The free event, to be held on a previous surface mine, will feature country music stars Hank Williams Jr. and John Rich; Sean Hannity, a nationally-syndicated radio host and Fox television host; and Lord Christopher Monckton, a former science adviser to former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. American Legend Ted Nugent will emcee the event. Friends of America from 30...

Morgantown, W.Va. (AP) -- A tree-sitting protest designed to halt blasting at a Massey Energy mountaintop removal mine in southern West Virginia ended Monday when the activists descended from the trees and were arrested. State Police confirmed that Laura Steepleton and Nick Stocks were taken into custody after spending six days in a poplar at the Edwight mine in Raleigh County. Stocks, 25, was charged with trespassing, obstructing and littering, and State Police Sgt. M.A. Smith warned of other possible charges. Steepleton, 24, was expected to face the same charges. Both were to be arraigned later Monday. The protesters are...

WASHINGTON — At a bend in the Ohio River, a bulky new device is being attached to a 30-year-old coal plant near the small town of New Haven, W.Va. The device is being housed in a building four stories tall and bigger than a football field. A 150-foot-tall exhaust stack — so wide that it would take six adults with their arms fully stretched to reach around it — will reach into the sky. And pipelines will run out of the building and into saline aquifers two miles underground. The entire contraption will start up as early as September. The...

Conservation: The Chevy Volt is said to be able to get 230 miles per gallon. That's if it's continually plugged into a fragile and overburdened power grid. Where will you be when the lights go out? Since most U.S. electricity generation is not carbon-free, the Congressional Research Service agrees. The "widespread adoption of plug-in hybrid vehicles through 2030 may have only a small effect on, and might actually increase, carbon emissions," it observes. "If you are using coal-fired power plants and half the country's electricity comes from coal powered plants, are you just trading one greenhouse gas emitter for another?"...

Slovakia mourns 20 killed in coal mine blast, fire (AP) BRATISLAVA, Slovakia — Slovakia is observing a day of mourning for 20 fatal victims of a fire and explosion in a coal mine, one of the worst accidents in the country's history. Rescue officials have recovered 18 bodies from the Handlova mine in central Slovakia and say they are certain that the two missing miners are also dead. Flags are flying at half-staff across the country Wednesday, and radio and television stations have canceled broadcasts of any entertainment programs. The explosion, caused by gases released in the fire, trapped the...

Climate Change: NASA's James Hansen leads a protest against a District of Columbia power plant in the middle of a snowstorm. Meanwhile, a scientist fired by Al Gore says we need to emit more carbon dioxide, not less.Speaking before Bill Clinton's Global Initiative in New York City last Nov. 2, Gore advocated the concept of civil disobedience to fight climate change. "I believe we have reached the stage where it is time for civil disobedience to prevent the construction of new coal plants that do not have carbon capture and sequestration," Gore said to loud applause. Following Gore's lead, a...

Residential customers aren't the only ones stung by a string of electricity rate increases. A year ago the steel mill faced a problem businesses love -- its Roanoke plant scrambled to match production with red-hot demand. "We were going great guns right through September of last year," said Joe Crawford, vice president and general manager of Steel Dynamics Roanoke Bar Division, formerly known as Roanoke Electric Steel. "And then October hit." The minimill melts scrap metal in electric-arc furnaces and thus depends heavily on electricity. For months now, it has operated at about 50 percent capacity and tried to cut...

The price of coal and efforts to control its emissions keep energy costs spiraling higher. American Electric Power, parent of Appalachian Power Co., reports that it is "the largest purchaser of coal in the Western Hemisphere." For Appalachian, coal-fired power plants generate about 98 percent of the electricity it delivers to customers in a territory that includes portions of Virginia, West Virginia and Tennessee. For AEP companywide, coal fuels about 70 percent of power generation. And all that coal, an increasingly controversial fuel, helps explain the upward spiral of Appalachian's costs for complying with environmental regulations. Appalachian and AEP report...

FRANKFORT, Ky. — Angry Appalachian coal miners are refusing to vacation in Tennessee because they say one of that state’s political leaders wants to eliminate needed jobs by banning mountaintop removal. Republican U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander is sponsoring legislation that would bar coal companies from the controversial mining practice that involves blasting away mountaintops to unearth coal and dumping dirt, rock and trees into the valleys beneath. Such a ban would effectively halt the destructive form of mining. Miners in Kentucky, Ohio, West Virginia and Virginia are taking part in the protest, said Roger Horton, director of Citizens for Coal,...

The push for conversion to plug-in electric cars will do nothing to stop carbon emissions, a report by the GAO warns, throwing cold water on a push by Democrats to get more plug-ins on the road. In fact, the problem could be made worse as demand goes up at coal-fired electrical plants. Plus, the need for batteries may just have the US changing the dictators to which we’re chained, as IBD reports...

Plans for a new coal-fired power plant in central Utah were canceled after the city of Los Angeles -- the plant's biggest power purchaser -- signaled its intention to be "coal free" by 2020. The Intermountain Power Agency -- a political subdivision of the state of Utah co-owned by municipal and rural electric cooperatives -- has dropped plans to build a proposed third 900-megawatt coal-fired generating unit at the Intermountain Power Plant near Delta, Utah. "The project has been abandoned," IPA spokesman John Ward said yesterday. The decision came after Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa announced last week that the...

ATLANTA -- Developers of a $2 billion coal-fired power plant won an appeals court ruling Tuesday in their battle with environmentalists, but more court action will likely be needed before the path is cleared to build Georgia's first new coal plant in more than two decades. A panel of the Georgia Court of Appeals reversed a trial judge's 2008 ruling that said plans for the south Georgia plant should have regulated carbon dioxide emissions. Environmentalists who had hailed the lower court ruling last year as a precedent-setting decision were dismayed. "We are very disappointed that the Court rejected other important...

Less than two weeks after voting in favor of the American Clean Energy and Security Act, Rep. Rick Boucher (D-VA-9th District) defended his vote Tuesday. The commonly called “Cap and Trade Bill” narrowly passed the U.S. House of Representatives last month. Senate debate is expected in the fall. Boucher is one of 219 representatives who voted in favor of the legislation. Proponents claim the act will reduce emissions of green house gases, increase the country’s use of green power, and decrease dependence on foreign oil. Opponents say it will dramatically drive up the price of everything from gasoline to electricity...

The West Virginia Conservative Foundation is backing efforts to convince the U.S. Senate to reject new cap-and-trade legislation passed by the House of Representatives last month. The new legislation would take steps to cut back carbon dioxide emissions in the U.S., particularly those from coal-fired power plants. During a Tuesday-morning news conference on the Capitol steps, a few people held signs reading, "West Virginia Needs Jobs, Not New Taxes. Say No To Cap & Trade." Mike Stuart, who heads the Conservative Foundation, said, "I am here as a citizen. My dad is a coal miner. My grandfather died from black...

When people in the coal business talk about "the valley of death," they are referring to a grim place not located near any mine. It is an economic chasm that the industry fears awaits it if the Senate approves climate legislation similar to what passed the House. Although the House bill includes some help for coal, it also creates incentives for utilities to move away from polluting fuels. Industry advocates and independent analysts say that leaves coal with few options for a sustainable future. "Unless they come up with a breakthrough technology to capture carbon and store it, coal is...

A state licensing commission said Wednesday it is appealing a court ruling rejecting a permit the commission issued for a coal-fired power plant in southwestern Arkansas. The Arkansas Public Service Commission said it petitioned the Arkansas Supreme Court to review the state Court of Appeals' ruling that would force Southwestern Electric Power Co. ( SWSEO.OB - news - people ), a unit of American Electric Power ( AEP - news - people ), to start over in its effort to obtain a permit for the $1.6 billion coal-fired plant the company hopes to build. "The commission hopes that the Arkansas...

Plans for a third coal-fired power plant at Delta are dead. The Intermountain Power Agency said Wednesday it will let the air-quality permit for a coal-fired Unit 3 expire. Instead, the company will focus on other options for the central Utah site, said IPA spokesman John Ward. "The understanding within IPA is that if there were ever an attempt to start another third coal-fired power unit at that location, they would have to start over," he said. "This particular permit application would be moot." Environmental groups, who have been fighting Unit 3 since it was first proposed, applauded the move....

Alternative Energy: A government report says reliance on electric cars will do little to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and may merely shift our dependence on foreign sources from one set of dictators to another..."If you are using coal-fired power plants, and half the country's electricity comes from coal-powered plants, are you just trading one greenhouse gas emitter for another?" asks Mark Gaffigan, co-author of the GAO report. The report itself notes: "Reductions in CO2 emissions depend on generating electricity used to charge the vehicles from lower-emission sources of energy."