radical-sensation asked:
well, it is concerning the topic of the article which you posted on march 24. the SS Badger, which operates out of Ludington, MI and Manitwoc, WI. now you say in the description of this pager that you are on a nationwide tour working on a book about coal ash, and i would like to know if you had any thoughts on the SS badger or were planning on visiting Ludinton to see the impact of the car ferry on the citizens there.
Yes. I do plan to visit that area and speak with people on all sides of the issue.
radical-sensation asked:
do you really think that the small amount of coal ash dumped into lake michigan by the SS badger warrents the laying up or re-tolling of one of the only large coal-powered vessels in the entire world and that is vital to the economy of its home ports which have also had car ferries as part of their heritage since 1889? and the fac that the SS Badger's engines were deemed a historic mechanical landmark?
I have not made a judgement on this issue, and don’t plan to do so. I would, however, like more information on the topic.
The bill passed today doesn’t just kick the can down the road – it ties the livelihoods of millions of Americans to the pet projects of the dirty energy industry, including the costly and dangerous Keystone XL tar sands pipeline, and stiff arms public input on transportation projects that will significantly impact communities. Just as reckless, the bill also would also put a weak and dangerous scheme in place that requires more protections on household trash than toxic coal ash, even though coal ash pollution leads to health risks like cancer, neurological disorders, birth defects, reproductive failure, asthma and other serious illnesses. The three million Americans whose jobs are on the line deserve an explanation from Boehner: how does allowing cancer-causing coal ash pollution have anything to do with transportation?
Black dust from the giant coal ash heap across the street from Kathy Little’s Louisville home swirls in the wind, coating her windows, her car, and blows indoors to settle on the furniture.
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“It’s a constant struggle and it’s a sad situation because there’s not a lot of people that know that goliath is over there,” Little said of the ash dump near her home — at Louisville Gas & Electric’s Cane Run Station.
LaHood was critical of the transportation measure that is scheduled to appear before the House on Wednesday.
LaHood called the bill, H.R. 4348, a “big Christmas tree,” but he also the measure would “probably pass.
“They’ve loaded it up with everything they think will assuage their members,” LaHood said of Republican leaders in the House, who have resisted holding a vote on a two-year, $109 billion transportation measure that has been passed by the Senate.
“Look what they’ve loaded it up with,” LaHood continued. “Keystone, coal ash — none of it has anything to do with transportation.”
The infrastructure that supports the Internet, online commerce and nearly all corporate data services is engaged in a vast migration eastward in search of energy prices cheaper than anything available in Silicon Valley, where the digital revolution began, according to a report released Tuesday by the environmental group Greenpeace.
Internet companies often cloak themselves in an image of environmental awareness. But some companies that essentially live on the Internet are moving facilities to North Carolina, Virginia, northeastern Illinois and other regions whose main sources of energy are coal and nuclear power, the report said. The report singles out Apple as one of the leaders of the charge to coal-fired energy.
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“They are very brand-conscious companies,” Mr. Cook said. “They want to be presenting themselves as responsible and innovative.” He added that the companies “don’t want people to be concerned about, when they post their videos, that that’s somehow attached to coal.”
In fact, coal accounts for about half the generation capacity of the electric utility that powers an enormous data center in Maiden, N.C., that Apple recently opened, and some industry analysts think the center will be expanded. Nuclear power accounts for the large majority of the rest of that capacity, according to figures supplied by the utility, Duke Energy.
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Kristin Huguet, a spokeswoman for Apple, added that the company is building two large projects intended to offset energy use from the grid in North Carolina: an array of solar panels and a set of fuel cells.
Also from Greenpeace:
Online Cloud Services Rely on Coal or Nuclear Power, Report Says — James Glanz, The New York Times
Richard Fireman is a retired emergency room doctor and the founder of Asheville, North Carolina’s branch of Interfaith Power & Light, tagline: “A religious response to global warming.”
Watch him explain his take on environmentalism as a moral and religious issue.
Watch his entire interview, where he discusses coal ash, explains why he believes it should be regulated and what you can do about the issue on YouTube. (Uploading; I’ll link to it here ASAP.)
A couple quotes from the full interview: “We have to recommit to reverence for life and develop a sacred stance toward the energy we use,” he says. “Energy is sacred. It is a one-time gift.”
He also says, “We are going to have to have a moral transformation and learn to use less energy, and the energy that we do use needs to be renewable energy.”
