Thursday, February 18, 2010
Politics / Woods Coal Companies Help Environment by Blowing Up Mountains, Wamp Says
Posted by Jeff Woods on Thu, Feb 18, 2010 at 2:50 PM
"The way it's done today is very responsible. We need an all-of-the-above energy strategy in our country, and we need all the economic opportunities that we can bring to our state. This is done in a responsible way. I sat around a campfire in Campbell County with all the experts--biologists, geologists, fish and wildlife--and it's actually good for the birds, and good for the environment, good for our natural environment in this state to actually mine coal in a responsible way. It's not a bad thing. It's a good thing. We need the energy."In his answer, Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey suggested the lights would go out in Tennessee if we made mountaintop removal illegal:
"Nobody wants their mountaintops removed in the state of Tennessee. But it's a highly regulated industry as it is right now. So we need to make sure we keep that proper balance, to make sure that, when we turn that light switch on, the lights come on, yet at the same time we are protecting our environment. I think we're doing a pretty good of that in the state of Tennessee."Update: Erik Schelzig's report.
Comments (14)
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How much money is that little bird getting for being the mountain-top blasting poster child? He looks like he was forced into this...I dunno...kinda sketchy to me.
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Our lights would NOT go off because there is alternative energy sources such as solar,wind, and water power. This is just another scare tactic that they use. If anyone is not sure and wants more information on this please go to ilovemountains.org. I love our mountains too much to believe this!
Our lights would NOT go off because there is alternative energy sources such as solar,wind, and water power. This is just another scare tactic that they use. If anyone is not sure and wants more information on this please go to ilovemountains.org. I love our mountains too much to believe this!
The TNGA Millionaire Lt. Governor Ron Ramsey is blocking a State of Tennessee ban on the strip mining practice of mountain top removal is due to perhaps one person - former King Pharmaceuticals, Inc. CEO John M. Gregory who (along with a Gregory brother) is heavily invested in United Coal Company.
United Coal Company moved the UCC corporate headquarters and world sales head into Sullivan County during April 2009, following the purchase of UCC by Metinvest
The World Sales Headquarters for United Coal Company is also now located within Lt. Governor Ramsey's hometown ov Blountville, Tennessee.
Metinvest bought United Coal Company in order to mine and ship overseas to Europe, not not necessarily as Ramsey asserts, to provide Tennesseans with lights whenever we turn the switch on,
While I don't like the use of MTR as a method of getting at coal, the simple reality is that banning it would have some pretty significant repercussions. First, whether one likes it or not, well over 50% of power in the US comes from coal powered generators. Without a reliable source of coal, we don't get electricity. Banning MTR would ultimately result in higher energy prices due to the increased costs of getting at coal through traditional deep mining.
These pipe dreams of alternative energy just won't cut it in this debate because they are not developed to the point of being viable or cost-effective. We have no more ability to expand hydroelectric power. Solar and wind are unreliable since the sun doesn't always shine and the wind doesn't always blow. We have no way to store extra power for those times. We also have an environmental movement that cries for these alternatives, but fights any attempts to implement them due to harm to the ecosystem or the area where they propose to put them. And ultimately, the technology just isn't advanced enough for these technologies to replace all coal based electricity. I'm not saying that they aren't valuable supplements, but they are not the total solution. This is why I argue that nuclear is the real solution and I'm glad to see that Obama finally got the picture.
Simply untrue, Veritas. Energy storage technologies exist and need development funding, instead of wasting tax dollars on dangerous and costly schemes like carbon capture and sequestration and nuclear.
And by the way, this isn't just about the birds and the salamanders. It's about people--people who drink water and breathe air and find it extremely unjust to have to become refugees because our homes and communities are unlivable, our water is depleted or contaminated, and we risk death from flooding or coal bully violence. All that so some scofflaw coal barons can rake in millions shipping coal overseas. They don't care whether you have a job or freeze in the dark, as long as they've got their millions. Stop mountaintop removal now!
Can you really trust Ron Ramsey as a possible Tennessee Governor to protect mountain ranges and water resources within the Tennessee public lands from strip and/or underground mining operations...? Well, the answer is "NO" - Ron Ramsey would sell us all out for another dime added to either his political campaign or political action committee treasury!
Tennesseans all across the Volunteer State need to ask why coal mining headquarters and sales centers (e.g. Metinvest d.b.a. United Coal Company) are just recently locating into Ramsey's Sullivan County (which to my knowledge does not have any working coal mines) or related coal industry businesses (e.g. New Tech Mining) are hiring in Blountville for a non-union work force to work in West Virginia underground coal mines.
Metinvest is a giant Ukrainian coal and steel corporation that is buying up U.S. based coal reserves with the intent of extracting these American coal deposits at the lowest cost possible and then EXPORTING this Appalachian coal to Metinvest industires based in Eastern Europe.
Based in the Millionaire Lt. Governor Ron Ramsey's hometown of Blountville:
NEW TECH MINING RESOURCES, INC
http://www.newtechmining.com/
United Coal Company - Metinvest
http://www.unitedcoal.com/metinvest.html
Uinted Coal Company Sales Team
World Sales Headquarters • 110 Sprint Drive • Blountville, Tennessee 37617
http://www.unitedcoal.com/sales.html
Veritas, if alternative energy is such a pipe dream, then why is Occidental (the fourth-largest U.S. oil and gas company) filing a lawsuit to stop the construction of a wind power station (equivalent to 10 large nuclear power plants) in Texas?
http://tinyurl.com/y8a7tp5
Seems like the carbon-based energy industry only uses the "alternative energy is inefficient/inconsistent" argument when it suits them.
MTR is good for the environment? What kind of happy drugs are these guys on, because I want some!
And Veritas, ending MTR would not turn anyone's lights off. Coal provides 42% of our energy in the US (and the number continues to decline), but MTR provides a small fraction of that, which could easily be made up for through energy efficiency. Anyone who tells you that ending MTR will cause you to freeze in the dark is using inflammatory scare tactics.
Why is Feinstein blocking solar in California?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/03/21/feinstein-seeks-to-block-_n_177646.html
Why are environmentalists blocking solar in New Jersey?
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2010/02/environmental_groups_turn_to_n.html
Why are they blocking wind in Colorado?
http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1258373/environmentalists_appear_to_be_winds_biggest_enemy/
Why was Ted Kennedy blocking a wind farm?
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2006/04/27/kennedy_faces_fight_on_cape_wind/
And the power storage capacity to make solar and wind a viable alternative to carbon-based electrical production is NOT advanced enough to make our national power grid reliable. It simply doesn't exist. At best, we would have to put batteries in every single home in America, which isn't viable due to cost and the fact that they only hold enough power to last a short period of time to supplement spikes in electricity consumption.
As I said before, I don't agree with MTR, but the lopsided and closed-minded views of environmentalists are the impetus for the general public to ignore their arguments. I'm sorry if some of you don't like to hear the truth, but unless you are willing to objectively look at the issue instead of standing behind dogmatic walls, things won't change.
