In a Wednesday column, the president of a major coal industry group defended coal energy against recent attacks from the environmentalist left. The current drive to drastically redcuce coal power in the United States, he claimed, would deal a body blow to the American economy. “There are challenges inherent with using every energy resource,” wrote Steve Miller, president and CEO of the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity. “But if the United States backs away from any of our domestic resources because it poses challenges, we will soon find ourselves …
Sometimes things don’t work out the way we expect. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg today announced a $50 million gift to the Sierra Club. His motive? “Coal is a self-inflicted public health risk…and the leading cause of climate disruption.” But what will actually come out of the Bloomberg gift? 1) The Sierra Club is likely to be more effective in attacking the U.S. coal industry; 2) U.S. coal production will therefore not reach the level it might have without the gift; 3) U.S. coal exports are then unlikely to reach …
The Washington Post‘s Juliet Eilperin reported yesterday that “U.S. environmentalists are engaged in their most profound bout of soul-searching in more than a decade” and are planning to “redirect strategies” in the coming year. Faced with the failure of cap and trade and the defeat of “many of their political allies on both the state and federal level” the enviros are shifting focus away from “the toxic partisanship of Washington” and back to “the grass roots.” And just what type of grass roots activism will the left be pursuing at …
The Hopi Nation’s Tribal Council is telling the Sierra Club and other environmental groups they’re not welcome on the reservation anymore and for good reason: Tina May, a council spokeswoman, said council members meeting in Kykotsmovi unanimously adopted a resolution declaring that the conservation groups are unwelcome on Hopi lands because they have damaged the tribe’s economy by pushing for closure of a coal-fired power plant near Page. The resolution says environmentalists have “spread misinformation” about Hopi water and energy resources, attempting to “instill unfounded fears into the hearts and …
What does creating an “enduring legacy for America’s wild places,” have to do with denying employees the right to vote by secret ballot during a union organizing election? Nothing—or so it seemed until the earlier this week, when the Sierra Club began urging its members to support the misnamed Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA). In the March 17 issue of Currents—Sierra Club’s weekly electronic newsletter—the group urges its members to support EFCA. Their rationale?
National Rural Electric Cooperative Association CEO Glenn English and Virginia, Maryland & Delaware Association of Electric Cooperative CEO Jackson Reasor write in the Washington Post: In the past five years, utility bills have risen 30 percent, largely because of the rising cost of fuel, mainly coal and natural gas. The country’s leading consumer organizations, including the Consumer Federation of America and Consumers Union, recently wrote to President-elect Barack Obama, calling on him “to devote as much attention to the affordability of electricity as has been devoted to gasoline.” The U.S. …
DENVER – OK … he bought everybody in The Big Tent lunch today. Pickens sponsored a meal for all the bloggers here catered by Wahoo’s Fish Tacos (I had a steak burrito). Later Pickens took to the main stage where he was joined by Sierra Club president Carl Pope and Center for American Progress president John Podesta. Pope and Podesta enthusiastically endorsed the Pickens plan. Coupled with Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s personal investment and rhetorical support for Pickens, it is becoming clear that the left is adopting the Pickens energy platform …
