<![CDATA[Grist - Comment Feed for West Virginian advocates push to build a wind farm on a proposed mountaintop removal site]]> Grist Comment Feed en Comment #1 by David Roberts http://www.grist.org/article/on-a-wind-and-a-prayer/ Thu, 21 Aug 2008 09:24:37 -0700 http://www.grist.org/article/on-a-wind-and-a-prayer/1 But ... I'm so confused

Massey just issued its Corporate Social Responsibility Report! Listen to all this exciting social responsibility!Highlights from the report include a discussion of Massey's community programs such as "Doctors for our Communities" and "Partners in Education". Environmental efforts detailed in the report include the planting of over 1 million trees on previously mined land, a partnership with the American Chestnut Foundation to help restore the "Redwood of the East" to Appalachia and the development of new technologies to enhance and improve environmental testing processes. Finally, the report provides insights into the programs Massey has established that resulted in 2007 being the safest year in the company's history.Maybe the Coal River Wind folks just don't understand how socially responsible Massey is. They're partners in education, after all.

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]]> But ... I'm so confused

Massey just issued its Corporate Social Responsibility Report! Listen to all this exciting social responsibility!Highlights from the report include a discussion of Massey's community programs such as "Doctors for our Communities" and "Partners in Education". Environmental efforts detailed in the report include the planting of over 1 million trees on previously mined land, a partnership with the American Chestnut Foundation to help restore the "Redwood of the East" to Appalachia and the development of new technologies to enhance and improve environmental testing processes. Finally, the report provides insights into the programs Massey has established that resulted in 2007 being the safest year in the company's history.Maybe the Coal River Wind folks just don't understand how socially responsible Massey is. They're partners in education, after all.

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]]> Comment #2 by Erik Hoffner http://www.grist.org/article/on-a-wind-and-a-prayer/ Fri, 22 Aug 2008 00:56:57 -0700 http://www.grist.org/article/on-a-wind-and-a-prayer/2 wind

It's such an important piece of this issue of stopping MTR, to advocate the alternatives. Glad to see this is really getting going now.

Erik

The Orion Grassroots Network: supporting grassroots groups working for conservation, justice, & more

]]> wind

It's such an important piece of this issue of stopping MTR, to advocate the alternatives. Glad to see this is really getting going now.

Erik

The Orion Grassroots Network: supporting grassroots groups working for conservation, justice, & more

]]> Comment #3 by EnviroFan http://www.grist.org/article/on-a-wind-and-a-prayer/ Fri, 22 Aug 2008 12:14:14 -0700 http://www.grist.org/article/on-a-wind-and-a-prayer/3 American Chestnuts?

Does that mean that Massey is planting American Chestnuts?  Because that would mean they found a cure for Chestnut blight...which they hadn't, last I'd heard.

Let's make this place better.

]]> American Chestnuts?

Does that mean that Massey is planting American Chestnuts?  Because that would mean they found a cure for Chestnut blight...which they hadn't, last I'd heard.

Let's make this place better.

]]> Comment #4 by Gar Lipow http://www.grist.org/article/on-a-wind-and-a-prayer/ Fri, 22 Aug 2008 14:29:48 -0700 http://www.grist.org/article/on-a-wind-and-a-prayer/4 But, but, but...

Don't those horrible wind advocates understand that big wind is as bad as coal? All those Mountaintop Removal opponents have no business supporting sticking giant wind turbines on top of a mountain that would otherwise be torn away. They should remain pure in this fight; their virtue will be rewarded by support from the tooth fairy and  victory assured.

]]> But, but, but...

Don't those horrible wind advocates understand that big wind is as bad as coal? All those Mountaintop Removal opponents have no business supporting sticking giant wind turbines on top of a mountain that would otherwise be torn away. They should remain pure in this fight; their virtue will be rewarded by support from the tooth fairy and  victory assured.

]]> Comment #5 by Wolverine http://www.grist.org/article/on-a-wind-and-a-prayer/ Sat, 23 Aug 2008 03:52:00 -0700 http://www.grist.org/article/on-a-wind-and-a-prayer/5 Come On Gar

No one has ever said that a big wind project is as bad as mountaintop removal, or even anything close to that.  What we've said is that placing human contraptions, including wind generators, solar panels, and transmission lines,  in natural areas ruins those areas, ecologically, spiritually, and aesthetically.  Clearly wind generators and power lines are not as bad as blasting the top of a mountain off and depositing the remains in a creek or river, but that doesn't make the former good things.  It's like Obama/McCain; Obama's not as bad, but electing him almost certainly won't provide anything good.

Ad nauseam, the root of the problem is overconsumption, and if we don't stop that all else is just rearranging deck chair.  The windmills and power lines will still ruin the area, thought without blasting the top of the mountain off, they could always be removed at some point, whereas blasting away the mountaintop causes permanent destruction that can never be fixed.  And remember, they still want to allow coal mining, which is also hideously destructive.  You don't need mountaintop removal to cause massive ecological harm from mining, it's just the most harmful way to mine.

]]> Come On Gar

No one has ever said that a big wind project is as bad as mountaintop removal, or even anything close to that.  What we've said is that placing human contraptions, including wind generators, solar panels, and transmission lines,  in natural areas ruins those areas, ecologically, spiritually, and aesthetically.  Clearly wind generators and power lines are not as bad as blasting the top of a mountain off and depositing the remains in a creek or river, but that doesn't make the former good things.  It's like Obama/McCain; Obama's not as bad, but electing him almost certainly won't provide anything good.

Ad nauseam, the root of the problem is overconsumption, and if we don't stop that all else is just rearranging deck chair.  The windmills and power lines will still ruin the area, thought without blasting the top of the mountain off, they could always be removed at some point, whereas blasting away the mountaintop causes permanent destruction that can never be fixed.  And remember, they still want to allow coal mining, which is also hideously destructive.  You don't need mountaintop removal to cause massive ecological harm from mining, it's just the most harmful way to mine.

]]> Comment #6 by eutopianow http://www.grist.org/article/on-a-wind-and-a-prayer/ Tue, 26 Aug 2008 00:44:14 -0700 http://www.grist.org/article/on-a-wind-and-a-prayer/6 Underground Coal Gasification

One possible way around MTR is to convert the coal mining process to UGC. The conditions have to be good and I don't know whether or not they are or not in this part of West Virginia. If we are going to use coal as an energy fuel, then UGC does pose several advantages: 1) No ash or slag removal and handling are necessary, since inert material predominantly remains in the underground cavities, 2) Optimal pressure in the underground gasifier promotes groundwater flow into the cavity, thus confining the chemical process to the boundaries of the gasifier and preventing contamination of the underground environment, 3)The gas is produced under pressure and at a moderate temperature, and easily lends itself to CO2 removal by a range of standard methods, with low energy penalty and at a relatively low cost. A UGC test was done recently in Australia: http://www.lincenergy.com.au/cpb.php

]]> Underground Coal Gasification

One possible way around MTR is to convert the coal mining process to UGC. The conditions have to be good and I don't know whether or not they are or not in this part of West Virginia. If we are going to use coal as an energy fuel, then UGC does pose several advantages: 1) No ash or slag removal and handling are necessary, since inert material predominantly remains in the underground cavities, 2) Optimal pressure in the underground gasifier promotes groundwater flow into the cavity, thus confining the chemical process to the boundaries of the gasifier and preventing contamination of the underground environment, 3)The gas is produced under pressure and at a moderate temperature, and easily lends itself to CO2 removal by a range of standard methods, with low energy penalty and at a relatively low cost. A UGC test was done recently in Australia: http://www.lincenergy.com.au/cpb.php

]]> Comment #7 by MaryLynn http://www.grist.org/article/on-a-wind-and-a-prayer/ Thu, 28 Aug 2008 05:36:52 -0700 http://www.grist.org/article/on-a-wind-and-a-prayer/7 Sarcasm?

I really hope that's sarcasm that just isn't clearly coming through in the typed word!

CSRs can be written to make even the worst corporations (ehem, Massey Energy) look like friends of the environment.  Residents of WV know all too well just how environmentally and eithically responsible Massey Energy is.  This year alone Massey was given the largest fine in EPA history for violations of wastewater discharge permits. And who can forget that Don Blankenship vacationed with a WV Supreme Court Justice WHILE that Justice was hearing a case against Massey Energy????

If putting wind turbines on top this mountain is the only way to stop Massey, I'm all for it!

]]> Sarcasm?

I really hope that's sarcasm that just isn't clearly coming through in the typed word!

CSRs can be written to make even the worst corporations (ehem, Massey Energy) look like friends of the environment.  Residents of WV know all too well just how environmentally and eithically responsible Massey Energy is.  This year alone Massey was given the largest fine in EPA history for violations of wastewater discharge permits. And who can forget that Don Blankenship vacationed with a WV Supreme Court Justice WHILE that Justice was hearing a case against Massey Energy????

If putting wind turbines on top this mountain is the only way to stop Massey, I'm all for it!

]]> Comment #8 by rezero http://www.grist.org/article/on-a-wind-and-a-prayer/ Wed, 03 Dec 2008 11:47:12 -0800 http://www.grist.org/article/on-a-wind-and-a-prayer/8 This is too much

This is too much. Don Blankenship and Massey Energy are the poster children for mountaintop removal. They not only wreck the planet and fuel economy by selling the coal they mine to be burned, but wreck Appalachian communities and landscape in extracting it. It's a pretty horrible process and this guy labels us as the crazy ones?

]]> This is too much

This is too much. Don Blankenship and Massey Energy are the poster children for mountaintop removal. They not only wreck the planet and fuel economy by selling the coal they mine to be burned, but wreck Appalachian communities and landscape in extracting it. It's a pretty horrible process and this guy labels us as the crazy ones?

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