Green Options » Taylor Shelton

TVA Coal Ash Disaster Much Worse Than Originally Thought

Taylor Shelton — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 15:00:15 +0000

Tuesday’s initial reports about the coal ash disaster in Harriman, Tennessee at the TVA’s Kingston Power Plant turned out to be false. The Tennessee Valley Authority initially estimated the spill to be approximately 500 million gallons, although they have now amended their estimate to 5.4 million cubic yards of toxic waste, which is the equivalent of over one billion gallons. My initial guess that this was the largest unnatural disaster of its kind has certainly given itself a bit of breathing room. A slurry impoundment, used to concentrate the waste byproducts that come from washing and burning coal, containing both uranium and thorium broke, releasing the toxic material into the surrounding community.

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Coal Slurry Disaster in Tennessee is Largest Ever

Taylor Shelton — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 21:56:08 +0000

Unnatural disasters have become a fact of life dependent upon fossil fuels. The latest of these disasters came early Monday morning when a coal slurry impoundment at the TVA Kingston Power Plant near Harriman, TN burst, allowing approximately 500 million gallons of toxic coal ash to rush into the surrounding community.

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Clean Coal Carolers Defeated By Environmentalists

Taylor Shelton — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 17:00:02 +0000

While the biggest news out of the energy and environmental world this week may have been a competition between the UN conference in Poznan, or perhaps the planned appointments of President-elect Obama’s environmental team or any other relevant news, the funniest news had a hands-down winner. That was, most certainly, the strange and sudden appearance of the ‘Clean Coal Carolers’ - an industry sponsored Flash animation of pieces of coal, dressed in warm hats and scarves, singing adaptations of traditional Christmas tunes. Only these songs were remixed to tout the brilliance and necessity of coal in American life.

On Friday, however, the Clean Coal Carolers ceased to exist. Thanks to an overwhelming voice of discontent with the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity’s (ACCCE) marketing ploy, the cute little lumps of coal were retired just about as fast as they popped up. The page once reserved for the carolers (http://www.americaspower.org/carolers) now redirects to a post on the ACCCE blog, lamenting that it was “time for them to head home for the holidays.” From the Rachel Maddow Show on MSNBC to the pages of environmental blogs across the net, the Clean Coal Carolers were ridiculed into nonexistence.

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Bank of America Divests from Mountaintop Removal, Refocuses on “Clean Coal”

Taylor Shelton — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 07:39:48 +0000

On Thursday, Bank of America announced that it would be pulling all of its investments in coal companies that engage in the environmentally destructive technique of mining known as mountaintop removal.

After significant pressure from the National Resources Defense Council, Rainforest Action Network and a whole host of other activist groups, Bank of America conceded to withdrawing financial support of multinational coal companies like Massey Energy, which is widely known as one of the worst perpetrators of environmental offenses in Appalachia. The bank’s official policy statement reads:

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Obama Must Be Listening To Van Jones, McCain Not So Much

Taylor Shelton — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 18:10:17 +0000

Although the cringing from last night’s uninspiring debate is over for the time being, today provides an excellent opportunity to look back at what was the first head-on collision between the two major party presidential candidates and the dual threat posed by global warming and our current economic crisis. This collision was the making of Ingrid Jackson, a student and social services worker from Nashville. In Tuesday’s town hall debate, Jackson asked:

“Sen. McCain…we saw that Congress moved pretty fast in the face of an economic crisis. I want to know what you would do in the first two years to make sure that Congress moves fast as far as environmental issues like climate change and green jobs.”
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Sheldon Whitehouse Calls Out GOP Senators on Offshore Drilling

Taylor Shelton — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 19:13:41 +0000

This week is going to be big for American energy policy. By week’s end, it is likely that we will see the US Congress vote on any number of energy bills, including one put forth by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), as well as the New Energy Reform Act of 2008, which has been endorsed by the so-called “Gang of 10″ Senators, who have since swelled in number to 16, and now 20 members. If you’re even remotely like me, you’re surely growing tired of the battle between the Democratic leadership in the House and Senate and the GOP minority that demands new offshore drilling. Unfortunately for all of us, few congressional Democrats have had the gall to stand up and say what’s been on all of our minds - offshore drilling isn’t the answer. That was, until last Friday’s Bipartisan Energy Summit, when Rhode Island Senator Sheldon Whitehouse seemingly decided that he’d had enough.

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NM-Senate: GOP All But Concedes Race to Tom Udall

Taylor Shelton — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 15:30:03 +0000

Last week I wrote about the US Senate race in Colorado featuring Democratic congressman Mark Udall - now is the time to feature his cousin, fellow congressman and fellow senatorial candidate, Tom Udall of New Mexico. Udall received some great news in the past week when the National Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee canceled all their ad buys in New Mexico. Given their prior commitment to refuse spending money in races they couldn’t win, they seem to have taken all steps in conceding the race, short of actually pulling their candidate. In this now-uncontested race, Udall faces current GOP Congressman from New Mexico’s 2nd Congressional district, Steve Pearce. As with all of the senatorial and congressional races that I’ll be highlighting this fall, the Senate race in New Mexico has significant implications for environmental policy. Now that the GOP has all but bailed on Pearce, we can even be a bit more certain about what those implications will be.

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3 University of Kentucky Journalists Jailed at RNC

Taylor Shelton — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 04:53:06 +0000

Who will protect us from the protectors?

Sometimes things get out of hand. And, usually, there is a group of people whose occupation it is to protect us from those situations. But as was the case on Monday night in Minnesota, the people who are supposed to protect us got a little bit out of hand themselves.

On Monday night, three colleagues of mine from the Kentucky Kernel were arrested while documenting the protests outside the Republican National Convention. Photographers Ed Matthews and Britney McIntosh, along with photo advisor Jim Winn were all arrested and charged with rioting. Matthews and McIntosh were both charged with felonies, while Winn was charged with a misdemeanor.

>>More convention coverage at RG&B>>

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CO-Senate: Udall Damages Pro-Environment Credentials

Taylor Shelton — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 12:45:40 +0000

From the outset of his congressional career and more recent run for the vacant U.S. Senate seat left by two-term Republican Wayne Allard, Colorado Congressman Mark Udall (D-CO 2nd) has posed in front of wind turbines and attempted to continue the association of the Udall family with the environmental movement (Mark’s father was Morris Udall, Arizona congressman, ‘76 presidential contender, renowned environmentalist and namesake to the Udall Scholarship).

Udall, in his nine years in the House of Representatives, has cast just a single vote contrary to the League of Conservation Voters established position on any number of environmental issues (Udall’s only strike was his 2007 Farm Bill vote). He has consistently promoted the development of wind and solar energy to counteract the environmental damage of fossil fuels. More recently, however, Udall has waffled on his longstanding commitment to the environment, throwing in his lot with the “Gang of 10″. This is an important development because Udall has, until now, been known as part of the staunch opposition to offshore drilling. The “Gang of 10″, of course, are promoting increased domestic oil, gas and nuclear energy production as the solution to America’s energy crisis

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Alaska Senate: Even Mark Begich Has His Flaws

Taylor Shelton — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 22:05:13 +0000

The progressive netroots have been all about Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich for quite some time. Not only is he challenging the legally-troubled and obstructionist Senator Ted Stevens (R-AK), but he boasts an extremely progressive platform in a state known for voting red across the board. And for any number of reasons, it seems to be working.

While Stevens’ federal investigation surely hasn’t helped his efforts (Tim Hurst has a great post on Senator Stevens’ list of indictments), he has only been ahead in two polls this whole year. Since Stevens was indicted, Mark Begich has extended his lead considerably, leading by 17 points in the most recent polls. Reelection is surely looking tough for Stevens, who has long been known as an enemy of environmentalists and a friend of big oil.

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