Green Options

NASA’s Dr. James Hansen joined in an act of civil disobedience against mountaintop removal mining by attempting to trespass on the property of Massey Energy near Coal River Mountain in West Virginia, and was arrested along with other protesters including Darryl Hannah and former US Representative Ken Hechler (D-WV).

With the recent successes in stopping the further expansion of coal-based energy, activists direly need a complete list of proposed mining projects.

While SourceWatch.org already hosts the CoalSwarm database with all sorts of information about coal plants across different states, it’s lacking information on proposed coal mines. Legal opposition and community protests have been shown to work, so if you live in a coal mining area please add any known projects to this wiki list.

When a new coal preparation plant decided to begin construction without first securing a permit, Plains Justice with the Dakota Resource Council and local residents jumped at the opportunity to file a complaint against the company.

With the complaint challenging the plant’s construction, Great Northern Power Development withdrew its application for a new coal mine that was to work in conjunction with the plant. But the victory is bigger than one plant — it has repercussions for coal mining across North Dakota.

With the help of conservation groups, the U.S. Office of Surface Mining launched the Appalachian Regional Reforestation Initiative to attempt to rescue the thousands forest acres left barren by mountaintop coal mining.

The volunteer-based initiative, which hopes to eventually plant 38 million trees in Appalachia, received the endorsement of the United Nations Environment Program yesterday. The UN aims to plant 7 billion trees in the next three years across the globe, so every small project across the globe contributes.

A coalition of environmental groups emerged victorious today when Patriot Coal agreed to test a new way to remove selenium from coal mine run-off.

The West Virginia-based coal company agreed to the deal to settle a lawsuit filed by the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition and West Virginia Highlands Conservancy which made allegations that the company had violated the Clean Water Act.

The bucket-wheel excavator has long scoured the lignite fields of western Germany, erasing whole villages and leaving a trail of bad soil and salty water.

With all sorts of claims being made about clean energy and clean tech, it is more than a mere academic exercise to explore what those terms really mean. One way of defining something

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House Energy and Commerce Chairman may be moving towards the centre, and away from his traditional opposition to coal. Observers are waiting to see what impact this may have on upcoming climate change legislation.

Apparently the story about the coal slurry impoundment disaster in Tennessee isn’t getting much play in the mainstream media. This video should help.

Despite activists’ efforts earlier in the month to stop the Bush administration’s 11^th hour changes to environmental regulations, the EPA has gone ahead with undoing some rules. Specifically, they have signed off on loosening 1983’s coal dumping regulation, which prevent dumping within 100 feet of a river.

Fortunately, environmental groups are taking the ruling to court, saying that the already lax enforcement of the law has led to environmental destruction. Over 500 miles of rivers and streams have been adversely affected by dumping since 2001, and further weakening of the law could be devastating.

Earlier this week, Mongolia’s parliament announced that it was permitting the Mongolian government  re-open talks with international mining companies about the Oyu Tolgoi gold and copper mine and the Tavan Tolgoi coal deposits.

Potential investors include Ivanhoe Mines and Rio Tinto, claim that an agreement on the Oyu Tolgoi gold mine would increase Mongolia’s GDP by 34%.

The latest in a flurry of environmentally-devastating, last-minute rule changes from the Bush administration will give the go ahead for coal mining companies to fill valleys with the mining debris left over from lobbing-off mountaintops