ValleyWatch

January 17, 2017 – by Erica Peterson, WFPL Radio

Coal Ash ponds at the LG&E Trimble Plant near Bedford, KY. File Photo BlairPhotoEVV

Kentucky’s Energy and Environment Cabinet has finalized a controversial plan to let the state’s utilities virtually self-regulate the storing of hazardous coal ash near power plants.

As details about the plan emerged over the past few weeks, Cabinet Secretary Charles Snavely defended the rules and the process, saying it included “full public participation.”

But documents obtained by WFPL News show the process was far from public and instead included more than a year of backroom meetings — under both former Gov. Steve Beshear and Gov. Matt Bevin — with representatives of the utility industry. During that time, documents show the regulations were significantly revised and weakened.

J. Tyler Franklin | wfpl.org

When regulators began meeting with representatives of the utility industry in September 2015, the regulations they had drafted (left) were extensive. By the time they submitted the drafts to the Legislative Research Commission in October 2016 (right), the regulations were weakened.

Environmental attorney Tom FitzGerald of the Kentucky Resources Council, who has spent more than 44 years working in the state, and oftentimes on workgroups with members of industry and regulators to craft regulations, said to his knowledge, such one-sided input from industry is unprecedented in recent years.

Tom FitzGerald, Kentucky Respources Council, Executive Director. File Photo: BlairPhotoEVV

“I think it’s unconscionable, and I think it does not reflect well on how little value [the regulators] place on public involvement in the development of regulations that are intended to protect the public,” FitzGerald said.

Representatives from the Energy and Environment Cabinet declined an interview request. In response to emailed questions, spokesman John Mura defended the cabinet’s regulatory process.

“As a part of the pre-KRS 13A deliberative process of regulation development, it is common for the state to informally discuss regulatory matters with the regulated sector that are directly impacted by those regulations,” Mura wrote.

Continue reading →

January 20, 2017 – by John Blair, valleywatch.net editor

I have a suggestion for President Trump. If he is serious about wanting to bring the country “together,” then there is one simple thing he can do to accomplish that. 

He could nominate Judge Merrick Garland today without hesitation and with that easy gesture, he would show deference to all of America as he outlined in his short speech today. 

After all, Garland already has support of the Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman, Orrin Hatch, who called Garland a perfect person for President Obama to nominate back about this time last year only to renege when Senate Majority figure head, Mitch McConnell decided that no one Obama might nominate is crazy enough. 

A Trump nomination of Garland would show that he is intent on following his own Inaugural Address depicting unity of all Americans. If Trump nominates one of the crazies on the list of potentials he released last summer, we could all be in for the ride of our lives. and that is no way to unify America. 

December 28, 2016 – by James Bruggers in the Louisville Courier Journal

LG&Es Trimble power plant sits adjacent to the Ohio River near Bedford, KY. Shown in this picture is the coal ash facility in the foreground which ran out of space. LG&E is wanted to open another massive coal ash facility to the upper left in this picture over some karst limestone formation including a rather large cave. Valley Watch, Sierra Club and Save The Valley objected and won in an administrative procedure in 2011. Photo © 2010 BlairPhotoEVV

After being the target of critical editorials in Kentucky’s two largest newspapers, Kentucky’s Energy and Environment Cabinet fired back Thursday with an internet posting that argues its proposed rules for coal combustion waste actually strengthen – not weaken – protection of the environment and public health.

But one of the state’s top environmental attorneys quickly countered that it is state officials who are misleading the public with Orwellian arguments along the lines of “war is peace” and “ignorance is strength.”

Attorney Tom FitzGerald, director of the Kentucky Resources Council and an expert on Kentucky waste laws, called the state’s argument “pure sophistry,”  which means the use of fallacious arguments, especially with the intention of deceiving.

The new EPA based rule came after decades of fighting nationally over how ash and scrubber sludge should be handled. Coal ash contains contaminants like mercury, cadmium and arsenic, according to the EPA, and without proper management, these contaminants can pollute waterways, groundwater, drinking water, and the air.

►CJ EDITORIAL: Kentucky shouldn’t ease coal ash rules
►H-L EDITORIAL: Don’t weaken coal ash rules

Kentucky, among the nation’s biggest coal-burning waste generators, argues that the proposed regulations will require managing dust and storm water as well as monitoring groundwater and other requirements. DEP went on to say the agency “has and will exercise its authority to inspect these facilities to ensure compliance, investigate citizen complaints, and take enforcement action as necessary.” Continue reading →

AEP’s Rockport power plant is one of the dirtiest plants in the nation. Built nearly forty years ago, with minimum pollution controls, it is a 2600 Megawatt behemoth that sends its power to northeastern Indiana and southern Michigan while the people of the Tri-State suffer all its huge levels of pollution. © 2016 BlairPhotoEVV

This is where we live. Do you know someone with cancer, or maybe its a heart attack or a stroke. It could be just a chronic but life threatening condition like asthma. Or, as recently studies have indicated, air pollution induced Alzheimers disease.

Whatever it is, the reason could well be the enormous level of pollution we are forced to breathe each day just so other places can flip the switch and completely lack the understanding that they are causing us severe health problems. Aerial Photo of the AEP Rockport Power Plant: © 2016 BlairPhotoEVV.

October 28, 2016 – Editorial in the Lexington Herald Leader

Give Gov. Matt Bevin’s environmental secretary credit. When asked about the prospects for Eastern Kentucky’s coal industry, he was honest — unlike all the misleading political ads and mailings that are bombarding Kentuckians.

What Secretary Charles Snavely said was important, but how he prefaced it is even more enlightening in this election season.

Charles G. Snavely, secretary of the Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet

When asked by a lawmaker at a meeting in February if there is hope for a coal-industry rebound in Central Appalachia, Snavely said, “I regret you ask me that question in a public forum because if you ask me a question, I’m going to give you the answer.”

OK. He seems to be saying Kentuckians can’t handle the truth. But why? What myth is it so important to perpetuate?

Snavely, a mining engineer and former coal-company executive, went on to say that he sees no rebound for Eastern Kentucky’s coal jobs anytime soon.

He based his prediction on world economic conditions, cheap natural gas and an uncertain regulatory environment that discourages electrical utilities from building new coal-fired capacity.

Plus, thermal (the kind for power production) coal from Eastern Kentucky has a unique market disadvantage. Because the remaining seams are thin, it costs more to mine, which means it can’t compete on price with coal from other regions, including the Illinois Basin, Wyoming, Montana and even Northern Appalachia — all of which produce cheaper coal than Eastern Kentucky.

That honest opinion from a Republican governor’s appointee echoes what a utility executive told the Kentucky Governor’s Conference on Energy and Environment in Lexington last month.

Natural gas is expected to overtake coal this year as the country’s No. 1 source of power and could continue to underprice coal for the next 20 to 50 years. Kentucky Power chief Greg Pauley said that because natural gas and wind energy are “the price winners,” demand for coal isn’t coming back “no matter who is elected in November.” Continue reading →

October 9, 2016 – by the Editorial Board of the Evansville Courier Press. Editor’s Note: Valley Watch has tried many times over the years to get the Evansville Courier & Press to look at the facts regarding the behemoth power plants located in the area and their relationship to  the region’s poor health performance. Finally, after  recent reports by the Center for Public Integrity, The Weather Channel and USA Today, The ECP published this editorial on October 9, 2016

EDITORIAL

Indiana needs to clean air polution 

We seldom are trendsetters in Indiana. And for the most part that’s OK. But sometimes our reluctance to accept change has serious consequences, including harming our health and our quality of life.

That’s certainly been true with our slow, downright stubborn, refusal to more aggressively cut our dependence on coal as our primary fuel source for generating electricity.

Nationwide, coal is used to produce only 33 percent of the electricity consumed in America’s homes and businesses. In Indiana, we still burn coal to generate about 85 percent of our electricity. Only three states — West Virginia, Kentucky and Wyoming — are more dependent than Indiana on coal.

To hear Indiana’s top political and business leaders tell it, the state has little choice but to continue its heavy reliance on coal. To do otherwise, they say, would risk wrecking the state’s manufacturingdependent economy because the cost of electricity would surge.

Perhaps. But then why have neighboring states such as Ohio and Michigan, also centers of manufacturing, been able to significantly reduce their reliance on coal? Is Indiana’s economy really less able to adapt to change than our neighbors?

Those questions arise out of an enlightening new investigation by the Center for Public Integrity, the USA TODAY Network and the Weather Channel. Their report found that about one-third of all industrial air pollution in the United States is produced at 22 sites. Four of them, all coal-fired power plants, are in southwest Indiana, near Evansville. The health consequences for Hoosiers, and for our neighbors in other states, are serious. Air pollution significantly increases the risk of cancer, heart attacks and respiratory illnesses, such as asthma.

So yes, the average cost for electricity is a bit cheaper in Indiana than in Ohio — 11.33 cents per kilowatt hour versus 12.47 cents. But how much do we lose from higher health care costs and insurance rates? How many years of productivity are lost because workers are burdened by chronic illnesses?

Even more important, how many lives have been cut short because our state has been slow to further reduce air pollution? Continue reading →

September 28, 2016 – by John Blair, valleywatch.net editor.

Six years ago today, a hearing was held in Louisville to take testimony from the public on whether to regulate coal ash. Today, the rule is being implemented and should go far in making areas around coal plants safer for people to live and work. 

This video shows me, John Blair, speaking to a rally on the steps of EON, the parent company of Louisville Gas & Electric Company. 

September 13, 2016 – Video from Right Wing Watch

September 5, 2016 – by Damian Carrington in TheGuardian

Toxic nanoparticles from air pollution have been discovered in human brains in “abundant” quantities, a newly published study reveals.

This picture was shot 2/13/14 at approximately 10 AM. It was shot from the river bank looking almost due east toward downtown Evansville. Evansville and much of the lower Ohio River Valley rarely have fine particle pollution levels at what USEPA considers “good.” Photo © 2014 BlairPhotoEVV

The detection of the particles, in brain tissue from 37 people, raises concerns because recent research has suggested links between these magnetite particles and Alzheimer’s disease, while air pollution has been shown to significantly increase the risk of the disease. However, the new work is still a long way from proving that the air pollution particles cause or exacerbate Alzheimer’s.

“This is a discovery finding, and now what should start is a whole new examination of this as a potentially very important environmental risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease,” said Prof Barbara Maher, at Lancaster University, who led the new research. “Now there is a reason to go on and do the epidemiology and the toxicity testing, because these particles are so prolific and people are exposed to them.”

Air pollution is a global health crisis that kills more people than malaria and HIV/Aids combined and it has long been linked to lung and heart disease and strokes. But research is uncovering new impacts on health, including degenerative brain diseases such as Alzheimer’s, mental illness and reduced intelligence.

The new work, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, examined brain tissue from 37 people in Manchester, in the UK, and Mexico, aged between three and 92.

The AEP operated Rockport Power Plant is a 2600 MW behemoth that has no scrubbers nearly 40 years after it began producing energy for northeastern Indiana and southern Michigan. It is also known for making clouds with its massive release of water vapor from its cooling towers. © 2012 BlairPhotoEVV

It found abundant particles of magnetite, an iron oxide. “You are talking about millions of magnetite particles per gram of freeze-dried brain tissue – it is extraordinary,” said Maher.

“Magnetite in the brain is not something you want to have because it is particularly toxic there,” she said, explaining that the substance can create reactive oxygen species called free radicals. “Oxidative cell damage is one of the hallmark features of Alzheimer’s disease, and this is why the presence of magnetite is so potentially significant, because it is so bioreactive.”
Continue reading →