FIRST MEETING TUESDAY!

In preparation for SF/SC's FIRST MEETING TUESDAY, at 10:15 pm in the Commons Gatehouse, I've been researching where MICA's electricity comes from. Ilovemontains.org, a website run by 7 anti-coal grassroots organizations, allows you to see your connection to mountaintop removal using Google Earth. You just type in your zipcode, and ilovemountains.org pinpoints the powerplants in your region of the grid that are using coal obtained via mountaintop removal. These plants are then connected to the actual mountains being mined. In MICA's zipcode region (BGE's grid), two coal-fired power plants are using mountaintop removal coal: Brandon Shores and Herbert A Wagner, both owned by Constellation Energy and located in Anne Arundale County. Above are shots of 6 of the 7 mountains in West Virginia that our coal comes from, as viewed using Google Earth. Crazy, huh?

How about some good news? The EPA just announced that all 79 mountaintop removal permits submitted by the Army Corps of Engineers would violate the Clean Water Act. (Under the Bush administration, the EPA failed to block any such permits.) We're not out of the woods yet - the permits can be revised and resubmitted any time in the next 60 days, but it is encouraging to see that Lisa Jackson's EPA is willing to take a strong stand against coal. To find out more, check out Bruce Nille's article on Grist

-Zoe

Why Cleaner Energy Matters

A view of the Appalachians taken from Carvers Gap in Tennessee. 

Running 1,500 miles long, the Appalachian mountain system extends from Quebec, Canada to northern Alabama. (1) The Appalachians hold some of the most diversity-rich forests in the United States. They are also the epicenter of devastating activity by US coal companies. In order to obtain the valuable fossil fuel buried deep within the mountains, companies like Peabody Energy level forests and blast away entire mountaintops with high-power explosives, dumping the resulting waste into valleys below. This method of extraction, aptly named "mountaintop removal," erases entire ecosystems, pollutes rivers and streams and can poison mountain and valley residents. (Carcinogenic chemicals can leach into groundwater poisoning wells, for example.) (2) 

The burning of coal to produce electricity has similarly ghastly effects on the environment. Burning coal releases carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, into the atmosphere, contributing to climate change. Over the past 200 years, coal has raised carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere by 28%. (3) 

According to the EPA's Clean Energy Power Profiler 49.6% of the electricity used in the United States is generated by burning coal. In our distribution region, 45.1% of electricity used is generated by burning coal (38.3% is generated by nuclear, 9.6% by gas, 4.0% by oil, 1.2% by non-hydro renewables, and .9% by hydropower). By supporting clean-energy alternatives like wind and solar power, we help turn the tide against the coal companies and help protect what should be held as sacred American land.  

Photo & Words - Zoe

SOURCES:

(1) "Appalachian Mountains." 

http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761560052/Appalachian_Mountains.html

(2) Reece, Erik. Lost Mountain.

(3) "Coal." http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761558734_7/Coal.html