Jay Dee's Post

More than 1 million acres of Appalachia have already been destroyed. An estimated 1,200 miles of headwater streams have been buried under tons of mining wastes. Over 500 mountains have been permanently scarred. Homes have been ruined and drinking water supplies contaminated. It is time to end this especially destructive method of coal mining. Our bill, [...]

by Ken Ward Jr. This just in: Sen. Robert C. Byrd, D-W.Va., on why he declined to co-sponsor Sen. Jay Rockefeller’s bill to block EPA from issuing greenhouse gas limits: I do not plan to cosponsor Senator Rockefeller’s legislation at this time.  I was encouraged by the response last week from EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson to a [...]

by Ken Ward Jr. West Virginia Sen. Jay Rockefeller today is introducing legislation seeking to delay — for two years — any federal limits on greenhouse gas emissions. Rockefeller says his bill aims to give Congress: … The time it needs to address an issue as complicated and expansive as our energy future … Congress, not the [...]

by Andrew Clevenger Last week, the U.S. Senate Committee on Veterans’ Affairs approved two bills geared towards improving health care and homelessness for veterans, particularly those who may have been exposed to hazardous materials during their service. You can read the press release here. Particularly of note, the Homeless Veterans and Other Health Care Authorities Act of [...]

by Ken Ward Jr. Last April, U.S. Chemical Safety Board Chairman John Bresland promised Kanawha Valley residents a complete investigation of the August 2008 explosion and fire that killed two Institute plant workers — and he made clear the CSB would get to the bottom of what kind of disaster might have happened that night. Bresland told [...]

by Ken Ward Jr. Two years ago, when the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency reached a record $20 million Clean Water Act settlement with Massey Energy, this was the lead of my Gazette story on the deal: Federal environmental regulators believe a record $20 million fine, new pollution monitoring requirements and the threat of automatic penalties for additional violations [...]

by Ken Ward Jr. Word just in today that a federal appeals court has declined to consider DuPont Co.’s appeal of a district judge’s decision that allowed New Jersey residents to pursue claims of private nuisance and strict liability as class-action suits against the chemical giant. The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the company’s request [...]

by Ken Ward Jr. In a move that’s been expected since September, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency just announced that it is tightening the nationwide air pollution standards for smog. EPA said: Smog, also known as ground-level ozone, is linked to a number of serious health problems, ranging from aggravation of asthma to increased risk of premature [...]

by Ken Ward Jr. This statement was just released by U.S. EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, in response to WVDEP Secretary Randy Huffman’s new policy on surface mining permits with valley fills: Today’s announcement from West Virginia’s State government is a critical acknowledgement of the substantial environmental, water and health impacts that result from mountaintop mining operations. EPA’s [...]

by Ken Ward Jr. Michel Jarraud, Secretary-General of the World Meteorological Organization, holds up a temperature chart during a press conference at the UN Climate Conference in Copenhagen, Tuesday Dec. 8, 2009. This decade has very likely been the warmest in the historical record, and 2009 will probably end up as one of the warmest years, [...]