Hidden Cost of coal

[boutons_deux]

Furious Coal Miners Blast McConnell For Ignoring Black Lung Plea

Kentucky coal miners who were dismissed by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell are now appearing in an ad for Democrat Amy McGrath, who is running to replace him.

“Ten hours on the bus, and we got to see him for all of one minute,”

says Kentucky coal miner Jimmy Moore in the ad, which was released Friday.

Moore explains in the video that his stepfather and grandfather died from black lung disease and notes that his son is suffering from the malady.

"Mitch McConnell let the coal companies walk away from us, then after one minute, he did too,” Moore concludes.

McConnell’s office had said before the meeting that he was concerned about the issue,

but once the miners and their family members arrived,

McConnell posed for photos with them but did not stay to listen to a discussion of their concerns.

The group did meet with Democratic senators who held a round table discussion and pushed Congress to pass the legislation.

The fund is $4 billion in debt

but the tax was cut by 50 percent while Republicans had full control of the government.

The drop in funding is a direct outgrowth of Trump’s decision to shut down the government.

McConnell has gleefully called himself the “Grim Reaper” of popular legislation,

refusing to act on bills like

gun control,

health care,

raising the minimum wage, and

a host of other bills that have passed the House and have broad support.

https://www.nationalmemo.com/furious-coal-miners-blast-mcconnell-for-ignoring-black-lung-plea/?cn-reloaded=1

[RandomGuy]

Furious Coal Miners Blast McConnell For Ignoring Black Lung Plea

Kentucky coal miners who were dismissed by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell are now appearing in an ad for Democrat Amy McGrath, who is running to replace him.

“Ten hours on the bus, and we got to see him for all of one minute,”

says Kentucky coal miner Jimmy Moore in the ad, which was released Friday.

Moore explains in the video that his stepfather and grandfather died from black lung disease and notes that his son is suffering from the malady.

"Mitch McConnell let the coal companies walk away from us, then after one minute, he did too,” Moore concludes.

McConnell’s office had said before the meeting that he was concerned about the issue,

but once the miners and their family members arrived,

McConnell posed for photos with them but did not stay to listen to a discussion of their concerns.

The group did meet with Democratic senators who held a round table discussion and pushed Congress to pass the legislation.

The fund is $4 billion in debt

but the tax was cut by 50 percent while Republicans had full control of the government.

The drop in funding is a direct outgrowth of Trump’s decision to shut down the government.

McConnell has gleefully called himself the “Grim Reaper” of popular legislation,

refusing to act on bills like

gun control,

health care,

raising the minimum wage, and

a host of other bills that have passed the House and have broad support.

https://www.nationalmemo.com/furious-coal-miners-blast-mcconnell-for-ignoring-black-lung-plea/?cn-reloaded=1

Already donated to her campaign. It will be well financed.

ActBlue

[SnakeBoy]

Already donated to her campaign. It will be well financed.

ActBlue

Thought you were putting everything towards paying off debt so you could afford to adopt some Libyans

[RandomGuy]

Thought you were putting everything towards paying off debt so you could afford to adopt some Libyans

Nah, I bet it all on White Millenials leaving the Democratic party in droves.

[RandomGuy]

Thought you were putting everything towards paying off debt so you could afford to adopt some Libyans

This election cycle will see my family donating a fair amount to campaigns, nothing huge, but it is a start. I'm sure you would prefer that not to happen, but it will. Suck it.

[SnakeBoy]

This election cycle will see my family donating a fair amount to campaigns, nothing huge, but it is a start. I'm sure you would prefer that not to happen, but it will. Suck it.

I don't mind at all. It's your money and those old news Libyans.

Real question though. Why aren't you (and your comrades) being more strategic in your donations? McGrath is just another wannabee trying to fail upwards like Beto, she can't win. With your prospects of taking the WH looking so dim you should be focused on Senate seats you actually have a chance of flipping. Your side screws this election up yet again and Mitch will go down as the most significant majority leader in history.

[Pavlov]

With your prospects of taking the WH looking so dim

[boutons_deux]

‘Like a Death in the Family’

Texas coal companies are leaving behind contaminated land. The state is letting them.

Alonzo Peeler Jr. struck a series of deals with three electric cooperatives: They could build a coal-fired power plant on the sprawling Atascosa County ranch

... thought the contract he signed ensured the

cooperatives would promptly restore his land as soon as they were done mining it.

In fact, the agreement required them to begin restoring the land within six months of abandoning excavated areas.

That wasn’t just in the contract, either:

State and federal laws require companies to “reclaim” mined land,

a process in which companies restore land to its former condition

so that it can be used again for grazing cattle, building homes, and businesses or recreation.

San Miguel has only fully restored about a fifth of the land it disturbed.

What’s more, the Peelers say the condition of the land that the cooperative has yet to restore is deteriorating.

Throughout the 4,000-plus acres of Peeler property that San Miguel mined over a quarter century,

it has buried powdery gray coal ash — a byproduct of burning coal at its nearby power plant — in deep mine pits and piled it into towering mounds.

The family says the damage is revealed in persistent sprawling wet spots on the property — even though the rural area about 50 miles south of San Antonio is always in and out of drought — and moonscape-like dead zones

the soil and surface water contained levels of arsenic and other contaminants considered unsafe for human exposure;

the surface water also contained levels of calcium and sulfur considered unsafe for livestock consumption.

the groundwater just beneath San Miguel’s power plant was more contaminated than any of the others.

the cooperative has been fined by the state of Texas in recent years for releasing wastewater into a creek tributary and allowing sediment from its mine to run off onto Peeler property.)

the Peelers tried to kick San Miguel off their property, saying their efforts to get the cooperative to accelerate restoration had been unsuccessful.

San Miguel promptly sued.

the Peelers took their complaints to the Railroad Commission of Texas, the state agency that regulates coal mining.
But Jason Peeler said a commission inspector who visited the ranch last year and surveyed the mounds of coal ash

“told us that he would let his kids play in [it], it was no big deal.”

the Railroad Commission’s

Surface Mining and Reclamation Division. ... led by Denny Kingsley, a former coal executive

who had retired from a 36-year career in the industry a few months before being hired to help regulate it.

helped mining companies throughout Texas avoid penalties and minimize their reclamation responsibilities,

perpetuating what the employees said was a pattern of pro-industry behavior among division leadership going back years.

Kingsley and Wootton on several occasions overruled staff when they identified problems with mining companies’ proposed reclamation plans or flagged violations.

The Railroad Commission has increasingly allowed companies to do the bare minimum when cleaning up their mining sites

The result of these practices is that there are potentially thousands of acres across Texas contaminated with toxic chemicals, which can leach into the groundwater and soil and endanger people’s health.

“A lot of our practices through the years allowed the mining companies to do not very good reclamation and turn back land to some of the landowners that was inadequate, or not as good as it was before, due to the fact that

it costs too much to do the right thing.”

https://grist.org/article/texas-peel...ad-commission/

All those good ol' boys are PROUD to be Texans and LOVE Texas, but they'll Texans and Texas for profit.

[Winehole23]

The Kingston coal ash spill in 2008 is the largest industrial accident in US history.

51 people died cleaning it up without PPE. Hundreds more suffered cardiac, pulmonaryy and neurological sickness. And cancer.

[ElNono]

The Kingston coal ash spill in 2008 is the largest industrial accident in US history.

51 people died cleaning it up without PPE. Hundreds more suffered cardiac, pulmonaryy and neurological sickness. And cancer.

[Winehole23]

"fugitive dust"

the reporter, Jamie Satterfield, has been canned by Gannett for speaking at a public meeting about coal ash hazards, which she has been reporting on for years.

More than two years after Knox News sounded the alarm that children could be exposed to radioactive coal ash on an East Tennessee playground, an independent scientific study has confirmed coal ash waste at the site.


The study — published this week in one of the nation's top environmental science and technology journals — reveals coal ash contamination at a children’s playground adjacent to the Tennessee Valley Authority's Bull Run coal-fired power plant in Claxton and on several properties downwind of the plant.


Coal ash is the byproduct of burning coal to produce electricity, and it contains a toxic stew of 26 cancer-causing pollutants and radioactive heavy metals.

TVA stores millions of tons of coal ash in the working-class neighborhood of Claxton and, so far, plans to leave it there when the utility shuts down Bull Run in less than two years.

https://www.knoxnews.com/story/news/...ng/7957371002/

[RandomGuy]

"fugitive dust"

the reporter, Jamie Satterfield, has been canned by Gannett for speaking at a public meeting about coal ash hazards, which she has been reporting on for years.




https://www.knoxnews.com/story/news/...ng/7957371002/

sad.

and sadly predictable.

gimmie those cheap windmills. we'll figure out what to do with the blades later.

sigh.