Jay Dee's Post

WV Environmental Group Challenges US Senate Seat Contenders to Over Flight of Mountaintop Removal Sites HUNTINGTON, W.VA. – The Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition (OVEC) is challenging all candidates vying for the U.S. Senate seat vacated at Senator Byrd’s death to take a fly-over of mountaintop removal in West Virginia before the August 28 primary. “We [...]

Appalachia is Rising (Again) Summer time, and the livin’ is easy in the coalfields–except from dust to dawn, when untold millions of pounds of explosives are detonated across 24 states in the nation, raining down silica and coal dust, contaminating wells and watersheds, sending boulders the size of bowling balls into the homes of American [...]

by Ken Ward Jr. The U.S. Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement today formally announced its plans to write what it is now calling a “Stream Protection Rule” to replace the ever-controversial “buffer zone rule.” OSMRE’s press release is here, and the text of a notice to be published in tomorrow’s Federal Register is [...]

By Jeff Biggers Earlier this morning, I wrote a piece for April Fool’s Day, Obama Ends 150-Year War of Strip-Mining in 24 States: Mountaintop Removal Loses Its Groove. Well, turns out the second part wasn’t an April Fool’s joke after all. EPA administrator Lisa Jackson invoked the rule of science and law today–and for the [...]

by Ken Ward Jr. Well, the race to stand up for coal continues at the West Virginia Legislature … Yesterday, the Coal Association lobbyists gave their pitch about mining permits to the special committee set up by House Speaker Rick Thompson. There are reports out from Larry Messina at The Associated Press and Ry Rivard [...]

by Ken Ward Jr. If you follow the federal Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement’s Web site, you may have noticed a half-dozen or more new entries under the “News and Stories” section. OSMRE staff have been busy posted photos and captions from agency Director Joe Pizarchik’s late January tour of the West Virginia [...]

by Ken Ward Jr. Well, here’s the answer to the question posed on my previous post, “What’s Gov. Manchin going to say?“  For starters, Manchin emerged from a long meeting with coalfield citizens and issued a call for an end to threats and intimidation against West Virginians who are fighting to stop mountaintop removal: We [...]

Perched on 60-foot-high platforms in tulip poplar and oak trees, three nonviolent tree-sitting protestors associated with Climate Ground Zero and Mountain Justice carried out the duty of the EPA and the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection this morning–they reportedly shut down the reckless mountaintop removal blasting at the controversial Bee Tree Strip Mine on [...]

Goodbye purple mountain’s majesty–here comes Patriot Coal! Last night on the Colbert Report, Stephen Colbert hosted scientist Margaret Palmer in a brilliant takedown of the Obama administration’s recent decision to green light more mountaintop removal permits, in light of a blockbuster new scientific study that concluded that “mining permits are being issued despite the preponderance [...]

by Ken Ward Jr. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers officials will return to the scene of their infamous mountaintop removal hearing tomorrow morning, this time for a special meeting with coal company officials. I’m told the meeting was originally set up as a private discussion for coal operators with the Corps, U.S. EPA and the [...]