This is not helping me keep my blood pressure down.
Poor, poor coal executive feels persecuted:
A senior coal company executive on Wednesday lambasted U.S. lawmakers for proposing caps on emissions blamed for global warming, saying the Democrats were out to destroy America's coal industry.
Robert Murray, chairman, president and chief executive of Murray Energy Corp., also blasted the federal government's mine safety agency for "outrageous" new fines that he warned could put some miners out of business.
[Deep breaths]
...
[More deep breaths]
...
OK, the deep breaths aren't working.
Hey, Murray, screw you, and screw your corrupt, vicious, law-breaking, public-teat-sucking, mountain-blowing-up, working-poor-killing, planet-destroying dinosaur of an industry. The sooner the world is rid of you the better. Crawl back under your rock.
[Leaves to get a cup of coffee and read a few soothing smart-grid articles]
OK, OK. Here's something calmer:
Look, the coal industry is still large and very influential. It's going to take some time to transition to clean energy, so its influence will be around for a while. Of course politicians have to go out of their way to assure everyone that coal still has a role to play. Of course "prominent environmentalist" David Hawkins of the NRDC has to rush in and say, "We don't see a conflict between protecting the climate and continuing to use reasonable amounts of coal." Nobody in positions of power can afford to take on Big Coal directly.
But I'm not a politician or a prominent environmentalist, so I don't have to bullshit. The goal is to eliminate the coal industry. Of course the goal is to eliminate the coal industry. Coal is filthy. It destroys ecosystems to dig it up. It kills the people who work around it. Coal plants throw particulates in the air and causes respiratory ailments. They throw mercury in the water and causes birth defects. They throw CO2 into the atmosphere and causes global warming. The coal industry corrupts the political process. It lies to the public about global warming, and mine safety, and coal reserves, and everything else. It leeches money and opportunity out of the states where it is based.
The only reason we think of coal as "cheap" is that we don't tally all those costs in the debit column.
We still use it because of inertia -- we have an enormous infrastructure built up around it; the industry has insinuated itself into our political system; we've never forced the industry to internalize its costs so the market can develop alternatives. We'll be using it one way or another for the foreseeable future. But long-term, 50, 75 years down the road, yeah, eliminating the coal industry is the only sane goal.
Sure, the industry employs lots of people. So did lots of other industries that progress left behind. We'll need to put money into caring for the working people the industry employs, retraining them, finding them new jobs, bolstering the social safety net that protects them from falling between the cracks. But make no mistake: the concern for "workers" from coal executives is pure crocodile tears. Nobody has done more to fight against safety regulations for workers, health compensation for workers, and collective bargaining rights for workers than coal executives. Nobody has done more to lock workers into crappy jobs with no futures. Coal executives treat the working class people in the states they inhabit like disposable trash. Big Coal has sapped Appalachia of money and opportunities and left behind sickness and despair. They don't give a shit about workers. They care about money -- that's it.
Murray's company, by the way, is notorious for safety violations and union-busing, and Murray is a notoriously large donor to Republicans (here are the candidates that have received money from the Murray Energy PAC). So yeah, I'm sure workers' welfare keeps him up at night.
Robert Murray and his ilk are loathsome leeches on this country -- on its values, its economy, its democracy. They are literally driving humanity toward a cliff, and doing so with a pampered sense of entitlement and martyrdom. They can, collectively, kiss my ass.
Make the kids pay: The economic effects of climate change on future generations
Why won’t Lisa Jackson/Nancy Sutley visit a mountaintop removal site?
Comments
View as Flat
Pangolin Posted 6:42 am
28 Jun 2007
Coal is the enemy of the human race; period. There is no clean coal.
Everything coal does now we can now do with electricity from a clean source or bio-sourced carbohydrates. Even transportation can be managed if we would just electrify the roadways.
NO COAL!!! FOREVER!
Put the Carbon Back
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FuriaFubar Posted 6:43 am
28 Jun 2007
Sincerely
Furia
http://www.xanga.com/furia_fubar
All the Best,
Furia -
http://www.xanga.com/furia_fubar
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Jon Rynn Posted 7:48 am
28 Jun 2007
On a bad day - which can be hundreds in a year - the ancient city of Linfen in the northern province of Shanxi is environmental hell. Named by the World Bank last year as having the worst air quality on Earth, its 3.5 million people more often than not choke on coal dust; its soil and its rivers are covered with soot, and its Buddhas are blackened and shrouded in a toxic mist.
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Laurence Aurbach Posted 8:03 am
28 Jun 2007
Ped Shed Blog
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SustainableGreen Posted 8:09 am
28 Jun 2007
It is true, killing the coal industry is a goal we should all embrace and work to achieve. It is an archaic destructive technology and fuel, and the stakes are much too high to allow it to continue. "Clean Coal" is a product of the tortured machinations of a cracked-out methed-out corporate marketing whore.
But, as you imply, we need to make sure we support the coal workers and their families and the underlying economies. Most of them and those are poor to start with, even as they are currently working. The fat assholes like Murray are able to donate blood money to BushCo. precisely because the working families ain't getting it. Another reason is the vast externalized health costs imposed on the workers as a result of the corrupt system.
Help the workers.
David
Sustainability For Life
Messages done with sustainable energy, with Wind and Sun!
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Biodiversivist Posted 9:23 am
28 Jun 2007
In the end, it all comes down to biodiversity. Poison Darts--Protecting the biodiversity of our world
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Karen Lee Orr Posted 10:22 am
28 Jun 2007
By Matt Reitman
September 13th, 2006
The Joyce Foundation has awarded 3 million dollars to promote "clean coal" integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) coal-burning technology. IGCC is touted as the cleanest option for coal-fired power plants, but it is a new problem, not a solution. The awards are going to mainstream "environmental" organizations such as Clean Air Task Force, Clean Wisconsin, the Natural Resources Defense Council, and the Izaak Walton League, to get them to promote the technology. 3 million dollars is a serious amount of money - we could run the entire Campus Climate Challenge on that kind of funding. So, what's the real story here?
President Bush brags about his commitment to the "$1 billion, 10-year demonstration project" called FutureGen, leading the way for IGCC and now targeted at either Illinois or Texas. But there's a problem with IGCC: it does not help us to minimize global warming, and it relies on untested and even improbable science.
IGCC is supposed to be a savior technology. It is often discussed in tandem with a related carbon-storing technique called "sequestration," which involves injecting CO2 into geologic formations or the ocean, to hold the gas for long periods of time. But there is no proof or requirement that this technique will ever work or become implemented.
IGCC plants may also be less inefficient, especially with the addition of sequestration. Many companies are now promising IGCC plants and promoting carbon sequestration without any intention of actually doing it. Do not be fooled, any plant sited on a geologic formation near fault lines, wells, mines, or other potential instabilities (just about everywhere!) is not suitable for large-scale carbon sequestration.Joyce's money is promoting coal-burning without any explicit intention of mitigating the associated greenhouse gases. Even if sequestration does become a reality, no geologic formation is capable of holding CO2 forever, just as no landfill is capable of preventing toxics from escaping into the water, soil, and air (oh and by the way, IGCC's "cleaner" air emissions equals more toxic sludge). And global warming, last I knew, is sticking around for a while.
So, I checked the Joyce website out of curiosity, and they are not forthcoming about their sources of funding. Who is paying Joyce this money? Why are they so confident that it is money well spent? How much does Joyce's money affect the platform and autonomy of constituent organizations? Etc. etc.
The industry is using this as a strategy to divide and conquer environmental groups. There is nothing redeeming or sustainable about IGCC "clean coal" technologies. Imagine if we had an economy based on clean renewables - what kind of "environmental" group would support a fossil fuel-burning industry? We need to stop letting corporations rule the frame and the rhetoric. It isn't "cleaner," it's "less filthy/deadly."
Also, we are running full speed ahead towards peak coal! And coal-burning is invariably poisoning our air and water, and adding to serious and immediate global warming problems. The money and resources being directed towards "clean coal" are squandered.
If we hope to really slow global warming, we have got to get these (dare I say it) anti-youth folks to get their heads around solutions: conservation, efficiency, and wind and solar. Otherwise, what a waste of valuable time and money!
There is no clean, safe way to mine coal.
There is no clean, safe way to burn coal
There is no clean coal.
There is only filthy coal, and filthier coal.
As a mountaintop removal community activist said last week - "even if rose petals come out of the smokestacks, we still pay with our blood."
Anybody disagree?
-----------------
At this site of It's Getting Hot in Here:
http://itsgettinghotinhere.org/478
------------------
Matt Reitman is an organizer with the Energy Justice Network
http://www.energyjustice.net
----------------------------
How NRDC Sold Out to Help Enron
By Sharon Beder
http://www.prwatch.org/prwissues/2003Q3/enviros.html
----------------------------
NRDC "Clean Coal" Mythology ~
http://www.nrdc.org/onearth/05fal/coal1.asp?r=n
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EnvironmentalChemistry Posted 2:41 pm
28 Jun 2007
While I'm happy to see cleaner technologies come out because it will be a long time before we can totally wean ourselves off of fossil fuels, people should not be duped into believing that coal can be made clean or that it isn't bad for the environment. Coal is an environmental problem all the way from it being mined through it being burned. CO2 isn't just produced from coal energy when it is burned, it is also released by all the equipment used to mine and transport coal. We also shouldn't forget all the other environmental impacts from mining tailings and mercury getting into our lakes and streams because of coal fired power plants. Here in Maine it isn't even safe to eat the fish anymore because of mercury pollution caused by the burning of coal in Midwestern states.
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Patty Posted 1:54 am
29 Jun 2007
My husband has been a union, underground coalminer for 30 yrs. He was injured in Oct. 2004 and Peabody coal has denied him treatment and his workers compensation benefits since Nov. 2004. He was forced to retire because of his injury and finances.
As soon as the coal company found out how bad his injury was they cut off his benefits and now we're headed to the supreme court. That's been around a 10 month wait just to get a date (which we still don't have). Also can't get any local news reporters to write about this.
I also know another man injured from Peabody who wanted to speak to a reporter but I haven't been able to find one in WV brave enough to do a story about these men.
Coal is King in WV and they have paid lobbyists that wine and dine our legislature and that's what is wrong with our system.
If you want to know anything about how they pollute our streams and communities or how they treat their workers I can tell you. Not as good as the old company mule they used to use.
Thanks Patty
Coal is dirty from cradle to grave. Don't believe the lies the coal industry tells.
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cce Posted 5:01 am
29 Jun 2007
rtsp://video.webcastcenter.com/srs_g2/epw062807a.rm?start=13:58
Biggest. Bafoon. Ever.
I didn't watch it too closely but I heard him repeat a lot of the common baloney, even the "Rachel Carson killed millions" canard. Make sure you watch Boxer's exchange with him during the question period.
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Hmmph Posted 4:02 am
07 Aug 2007
Here's that video in case it's not linked: http://www.breitbart.tv/html/4032.html
What a dipsh*t. So myopic and self-centered.
Thank you for posting about this.
I agree with the other post here, though, that we need to keep in mind the families that depend on coal for a livelihood. Unfortunately, there are no easy answers. We can say "relocate them to solar", etc, but that's easier said than done. I, personally, don't have the answer for them, though I am sure someone does. All I know is we can't keep belching out coal smoke. I gave my testimony at an EPA hearing about ten years ago in Philadelphia and I heard the stories from parents whose children were dying here in NJ due to the crap that PA coal-burning plants are putting out. So many cases of asthma in children due to this crap. One after another parents came forward. Very sad. My sister happens to be one of those afflicted with severe, life-threatening asthma for which she was hospitalized 17 times during the year I told the EPA what I thought about coal pollution.
I see no possible justification for this. We need to CLOSE these plants NOW and use cleaner fuels. Enough is enough.
End of rant
Again, this guy can go suck on a lump of coal for all I care. His industry is KILLING PEOPLE and he's only concerned about his own business. As*hole!
Okay, now I'm really done with my rant!
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