Top 10 Energy Stories of 2014 (according to Energy Insider)

http://www.energytrendsinsider.com/2014/12/30/my-top-10-energy-stories-of-2014/

Chevron Refinery Flames Up in California Bay Area | News | teleSUR

Chevron Refinery Flames Up in California Bay Area | News | teleSUR

Books coming in for Spring 2015

Fracking: New York bans fracking in 2015, insights and coverage from DeSmog Blog

http://www.desmogblog.com/2014/12/17/new-york-governor-cuomo-ban-fracking-state-citing-health-threats

It's pretty simple:  think about your children.

"The primary reason cited by the Cuomo administration is health concerns related to the extremely controversial, water- and chemical-intensive fracking process. According to The New York Times, the acting state health commissioner Howard Zucker, said, “I cannot support high volume hydraulic fracturing in the great state of New York.” 

Zucker then made a simple argument in support of the decision. 

“Would I live in a community with [fracking] based on the facts that I have now? Would I let my child play in a school field nearby? After looking at the plethora of reports behind me … my answer is no.”

Read the entire article.

Industrial Homicide, again? Patriot Coal mine kills another one, slated to be laid off.

Remember, (St. Louis-based) Patriot Coal is the Peabody spin-off that is scraping out what is left of American coal as the market for coal declines, tried to shrug off pensions, cutting corners on safety, breaking the laws on worker safety (cited for destruction of evidence, etc.), ignoring violations warnings, etc. At what point do we deem this type of business "criminal"?   Ken Ward update Dec. 17.

Updated by BG, Dec18.  I've added a question mark to the industrial homicide?  Give Patriot a chance to say it was an accident without fault.

34-year old #coal miner killed at Patriot Coal mine in western Kentucky had just been informed he could be laid off http://t.co/hNKO3WPLmO
— Dan Lowrey (@dlowreysnl) December 16, 2014

Carbon Corruption, American Style: NYT investigation illustrates concept of "regulatory capture" at work, also: bad news for the climate

POLITICS | COURTING FAVOR: A HIDDEN COALITION

Energy Firms in Secretive Alliance With Attorneys General

By ERIC LIPTONDEC. 6, 2014  (New York Times)

Excerpt below, read the whole story here.

Addendum (left): December 10, 2014: See This Changes Everything's take on this new "oil-state" merger, Shell, COP-20, ALEC and the corruption of the regulatory system.



And, look who made the New York Times (background):

SCOTT PRUITT The Oklahoma attorney general, second from right, in Dallas in July, and his Republican counterparts have formed alliances to oppose federal regulations.CreditDylan Hollingsworth for The New York Times

"Attorneys general in at least a dozen states are working with energy companies and other corporate interests, which in turn are providing them with record amounts of money for their political campaigns, including at least $16 million this year.

They share a common philosophy about the reach of the federal government, but the companies also have billions of dollars at stake. And the collaboration is likely to grow: For the first time in modern American history, Republicans in January will control a majority — 27 — of attorneys general’s offices.

The Times reported previously how individual attorneys general have shut down investigations, changed policies or agreed to more corporate-friendly settlement terms after intervention by lobbyists and lawyers, many of whom are also campaign benefactors.

But the attorneys general are also working collectively. Democrats for more than a decade have teamed up with environmental groups such as the Sierra Club to use the court system to impose stricter regulation. But never before have attorneys general joined on this scale with corporate interests to challenge Washington and file lawsuits in federal court."

The Fall of Big Don, King Coal’s Brutal Baron » CounterPunch: Tells the Facts, Names the Names

Good news, finally, out of coal country.  At least the justice system creaked along in the case of this indictment.

The Fall of Big Don, King Coal’s Brutal Baron » CounterPunch: Tells the Facts, Names the Names

Coal Power Plants for 5th Graders (Sierra Club)

KEYSTONE XL: "Sioux tribe calls Keystone XL approval 'act of war.'" (CSM)

Beautiful: Lakota resistance to Keystone XL vote in the Senate Chamber.  Watch through the ad, then the vote, then smile.

Full story & video here: Sioux tribe calls Keystone XL approval 'act of war.' What does that mean? ( video)

With great background info on the KXL pipeline.

Fossil Fuels and Republican Triumphalism: Bad News for the Planet (Michael Klare)

NEWS ON RAMPANT CRIMINALITY IN COAL INDUSTRY, JUST KEEPS COMING: Frasure Creek and Dirty Water in Kentucky

UPPER BIG BRANCH AND DON BLANKENSHIP (I.E. COAL AND CRIMINALITY): THE ARC OF HISTORY, BENDING TOWARD JUSTICE, SORT OF

Ken Ward unpacks the indictments in his usual way (with deep insight):

5 more things about the Don Blankenship indictment

COAL, CRIMINALITY, AND INDUSTRIAL HOMICIDE: NPR STORY ON A DEEPLY COMPROMISED REGULATORY SYSTEM

We keep pointing out that the coal industry has baked-in malfeasance -- that is, an institutionalized culture and practice of avoiding and/or delaying an active response to mine-safety violations.

This is a great exposé of the worst violators.  Yet, NPR does not dig into how the companies who supposedly pay their fines also spend years jamming up the system with appeals of violations. These are the just the worst of a bad lot across the board.

  http://www.npr.org/2014/11/12/363058646/coal-mines-keep-operating-despite-injuries-violations-and-millions-in-fines

China emissions deal doesn't change much — yet — for coal industry : Business

China emissions deal doesn't change much — yet — for coal industry : Business

PEABODY and POWDER RIVER COAL (WYOMING): Or, since this where a lot of our coal comes from, why Missouri, St. Louis, and Ameren are complicit with turning public land into a national sacrifice zone

 

By Suzanne Goldberg  "In the fossil fuel jackpot that is Wyoming, it can be hard to see a future beyond coal. One of the few who can is LJ Turner, whose grandfather and father homesteaded on the high treeless plains nearly a century ago.

Turner, who raises sheep and cattle, said his business had 

suffered in the 30 years of the mines’ explosive growth. Dust from the mines was aggravating pneumonia among his Red Angus calves. One year, he lost 25 calves, he said.

“We are making a national sacrifice out of this region,” he said. “Peabody coal and other coal companies want to keep on mining, and mine this country out and leave it as a sacrifice and they want to do it for their bottom line. It’s not for the United States. They want to sell it overseas, and I want to see that stopped.”

As do some of the most powerful people on the planet. About 120 world leaders met at the United Nations (UN) in September to commit to fighting climate change – many noting that the evidence of warming was occurring in real time. Obama last year proposed new rules that will make it almost impossible to build new coal power plants.

Last week, an exhaustive UN report from the world’s top scientists warned of “severe, widespread and irreversible impacts” without dramatic cuts in greenhouse gas emissions."

.... continues.... Read the entire article here (or click on graphic).

Ken Ward: Why We Should be Talking about the Transition to Post-Coal in the USA

Since many politicians, Democrat and Republican, are funded by the coal industry, very few of them have the courage to talk about what the region needs - an economic transition away from coal in the coal regions.  Ken Ward spells it out.

From Ken Ward "What Natalie Tennant could have said about coal:"

"Last September, when I heard Secretary of State Natalie Tennant speak during the  “A Bright Economic Future for West Virginia,” event here in Charleston, there was a glimmer of hope that she might follow a slightly different path than most of our state’s political leaders. As I reported at the time, while generally sticking to the fossil fuel bandwagon, Secretary Tennant did throw in a line about the continuing questions over whether most of the jobs from the natural gas boom are going to West Virginia residents:
… Tennant also spoke strongly in favor of the state trying to continue the boom in Marcellus Shale natural gas drilling and production, but said more needs to be done to ensure the jobs that are created go to West Virginians.So it was pretty disappointing to hear her silly responses to questions from the Daily Mail editorial board about coal issues and the Obama administration."

Read the entire article.

PUBLIC HEALTH = REDUCING EMISSIONS. ATTN: AMEREN: EPA carbon rules would save thousands of lives in Illinois and Missouri : Business

Good reporting coming out of St Louis Post-Dispatch:



Study: EPA carbon rules would save thousands of lives in Illinois and Missouri : Business

CRIMINAL COAL: More on negligent homicide, industrial homicide: MSHA cites Patriot subsidiary in Brody mine deaths

File under: climate criminality, or just criminality.

From Ken Ward at West Virginia Gazette (my summary):

Subsidiary of Patriot Coal (St Louis), itself a spawn of Peabody Coal, cited for negligence and alleged destruction of evidence relating to accidents, one of which caused the deaths of two coal miners in West Virginia.

The Charleston Gazette | MSHA cites Patriot subsidiary in Brody mine deaths

Read full report here. Chronicle of two deaths foretold?  Miners' knowledge of safety conditions apparently over-ridden by management.  Chilling to read the full report.  Salute to these men, sacrificed by an industry that values profit over labor and nature:

DESMOND TUTU: WE FOUGHT APARTHEID, NOW CLIMATE CHANGE IS THE ENEMY

Fracking brings few jobs, major destruction, mountain residents tell NC energy commission

Fracking brings few jobs, major destruction, mountain residents tell NC energy commission

MUST WATCH/READ: JEFF BIGGERS' RECKONING AT EAGLE CREEK

And knowing that members of Wash U's board of trustees (Ameren, Peabody, Patriot) actively fight against science, on top of waging a destructive war on people and communities right here in the USA, and you still repeat phrases like "clean coal?" St Louis region: over 50,000 pediatric asthma cases, 200,000 adult asthma cases. 12th worst air for ozone (American Lung Association stats).  The coal and utility companies are suing the EPA to fight new emissions regulations.  They just want to burn as much coal as they can for as long as they can.

As Natalie Merchant sings in this trailer:  "Whose side are you on?"

See full story at: http://ecowatch.com/2014/09/24/climate-reckoning-jeff-biggers/

Watch trailer by, obviously, clicking below:

GOOD NEWS OUT OF COAL COUNTRY: GREAT TAGS: FUTURE, COAL, DEAD.

Happened to miss a bit of good news: Peabody Coal got delisted from the S&P 500 last week.  Hope they keep heading downward.  And their science-denying friend Murray energy is crying about new emissions regulations. Click on graphic for story.

JON STEWART CALLS OUT PEABODY ENERGY FOR FUNDING THE BIGGEST SCIENCE DENIER (I.E. IDIOT) ON HOUSE COMMITTEE ON SCIENCE

Worth watching for a laugh (if you don't cry about the imbeciles on the House Committee on Science, etc...). Stewart takes apart the buffoonery behind climate science denial.  And, lo and behold, he points out how Peabody Energy is one of the biggest donors to Indiana Republican Representative Larry "I could read that [science journal] but I don't believe it" Buchson  (at about 8:30 in the video).  Peabody, Murray Energy, and Koch Bros are Buchson's major donors.


Stewart noted a bit too optimistically that at least Peabody and their friends can't buy scientists - "if scientists could be bought, these motherf---rs would have already made it rain [money] in nerdtown."

Unfortunately, scientific integrity can be bought, and the "motherf---rs" at Peabody have apparently made it rain at Washington University's "nerdtown" where we have sold our integrity to repeat corporate propaganda phrases like "clean coal."

WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY: ONE OF OURS ADDRESSING IMPACTS OF CRIMINAL OIL COMPANIES: Newsroom | Washington University in St. Louis

Good to have positive leadership in at least one area of fossil fuels; working to address the impacts of BP's crimes:
Schaal-led advisory group on Gulf oil spill finishes its term with strategic vision document | Newsroom | Washington University in St. Louis

And, once again, we are speaking of a response to corporate criminality:

"The $500 million, 30-year program to be run by NAS — an independent, nonprofit institution — was established at the request of the U.S. government as part of the criminal settlements related to the Deepwater Horizon explosion."

CLIMATE CHANGE AND CAPITALISM: Interview with Naomi Klein on her new book

CHINA: National carbon market. Not the solution, but something at least...

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/01/business/international/china-plans-a-market-for-carbon-permits.html?hpw&rref=science&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&version=HpHedThumbWell&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well

FOSSIL FUEL INDUSTRY ON THE GOVERNMENT TAKE, BAD FOR PLANET

Richest Countries Spending Billions to Expand Unburnable Carbon Stock

CLEAN COAL: Peabody false advertising, i.e. a lie and certainly far from science

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-08-20/peabody-clean-coal-advertisement-ruled-misleading.html

17 miners killed in coal mine blast in China | The Indian Express

17 miners killed in coal mine blast in China | The Indian Express

Peabody Coal: Spin Machine Working Overtime

Peabody's General Counsel for the Americas Mary Frontczak, has written an anguished and self-righteous defense of Peabody's support for development and democracy in the Post-Dispatch.  She dismisses the efforts of Take Back St. Louis, and the signatures of 20K+ St Louisans to restrict public handouts to extractive industries.  Frontczak, invoking a right-wing judge who ruled on the case, says this democratic initiative, an effort to shape how public money is spent, is somehow an attack on development.

But beyond the tone of the article, predictively dismissive of any kind of public mobilizing effort, what truth does it bear?

To pick apart the misrepresentations, not to say lies, in this piece, will take a few days.  Start with one overarching (and false) point -- that this initiative would have restricted the city's ability to deliver public services.  That is a lie.  Is this part of the general counsel's job description?

The initiative would have restricted the city's ability to hand over public money to a subset of businesses tied to the extractive industry.  It would not have restricted the rights or operations of those businesses, who should respond to market signals, not public handouts. (Frontczak refers to Peabody's own handout, a 20 million dollar tax break, i.e. TIF, as an "incentive" -- though it is not made clear why the world's largest coal company needed an incentive from a city that she herself describes as suffering decades of "urban decay".  Peabody CEO Greg Boyce took home over 10 million in 2013, and the company had revenues of about 7 billion that year.)

Against her assertion, the initiative would not have done anything to cut public services (or impact jobs). It would have exerted a democratic control on how public money is spent.  The shrill claim that any progressive change will destroy jobs is a canard, an idiot's argument.  The idea that any development is good development sets aside moral and environmental concerns tied to these extractive industries.  Frontczak is simply telling stories to defend one of many powerful corporations that blackmail struggling cities so that they will bow their heads to corporate interests.

The judge made his decision based on a criterion not mentioned by Frontczak, that, after Citizen's United, more or less, corporations are people too.  Given that the three branches of government celebrated by Frontczak disagreed with the people on this one is not surprising.  Peabody and its affiliated industries spend a lot of money giving, lobbying, and influencing these branches of government.  And, after all, this is Missouri, where the legislature and the Supreme Court are firmly rooted in (or corrupted by) the idea that anything that is good for any business (or at least the biggest corporate donors) must be the right thing to do.  She calls this democracy at its finest.  It's more like corporate corruption of the democratic process and of law. This is oligarchy at its worst.

St. Louis is a company town.  Frontczak and Peabody are merely deepening that reality.  There is no democracy in company towns, there is only dependence. The deepening of that dependence is the task of the company and those 'leaders' who are beholden to its interests.  Public acceptance of stories like Frontczak's is also part of what makes company towns persist. For the relationship to be maintained, communities have to remain silent and exercise docile consent.  Take Back STL was a challenge to this docility.

Peabody's counter-attack, carried out via the Mayor's office, was an assault on the democratic process and on citizen participation.

It does not hurt when a major media outlet lines up to genuflect as well.

Pick through the piece yourself, the front lines of the war on truth - and the war on climate, democracy, and public health – Peabody style.

Development, not democracy, at stake : Stltoday

St Louis: Is King Coal undermining our democracy? : Stltoday

Is King Coal undermining our democracy? : Stltoday



"why the democratic system is rigged in favor of big corporations"

Export coal to China? Klare on Big Carbon's Tobacco-Like Strategy to Ship Pollution Overseas

More on the topic of why companies like Peabody coal are doubling down on labor exploitation in the United States, while turning their sights on places like China, where they hope to export publicly subsidized American coal – to return to us cheap manufactures and a hefty dose of global warming and trans-oceanic pollution....read on.

Let Them Eat Carbon 
Like Big Tobacco, Big Energy Targets the Developing World for Future Profits 
Michael Klare

"The fossil fuel companies -- producers of oil, coal, and natural gas -- are similarly expanding their operations in low- and middle-income countries where ensuring the growth of energy supplies is considered more critical than preventing climate catastrophe."

READ MORE

COAL, RETREAT MINING: organized crime, industrial homicide, or Russian roulette?

Quote of the day, on "retreat mining" - responsible for two miners' deaths at a Patriot mine in W Va.:

“It’s Russian roulette,” said mine safety expert Davitt McAteer, who ran MSHA during the Clinton administration. “It should be abolished.”

From Ken Ward, http://www.wvgazette.com/article/20140517/GZ01/140519359/1419

‘Explosions like this in the mines happen all the time’: What the Turkish disaster says about the world’s coal industry – and about all of us

‘Explosions like this in the mines happen all the time’: What the Turkish disaster says about the world’s coal industry – and about all of us



Ken Ward confirms, via McAteer and Howard, what we were saying:  "bottom line is mine operators putting production ahead of safety and mining regulators unable or unwilling to stop them"

Another Illinois miner killed on the job

Another Illinois miner killed on the job



Organized crime and dependent labor.

COAL MINE DISASTER IN TURKEY -- Industrial homicide, American (or Patriot) style?

After two men died on May 12 in a West Virginia mine owned by St Louis-based Patriot Coal, more than 200 appear to have lost their lives in a Turkish mine explosion on May 13.  Both accidents were more than likely due to the rush to cut costs by decreasing safety controls.  In the Patriot case, the men were 'retreat mining' - basically what companies that are scraping the bottom of the barrel - or mine, as the case may be - do to eke out the last few dollars from the earth.

http://www.msha.gov/POV/October2013Letters/BrodyMiningLLC.pdf

Retreat mining is dangerous, since it involves removing coal pillars that hold up the mine roof.  As reported by Ken Ward, Patriot Coal had been cited repeatedly for violations of safety regulations on "roof and rib" issues during 2013.  Patriot was declared a "pattern violator" – which is significant given the gutting of MSHA regulation and oversight. You have to be pretty bad to get this designation.   In other words, they had been negligent in ensuring compliance with minimal safety requirements.

File under organized criminality?
(Updated 5/14/14 @4PM: Ken Ward and NPR reveal inordinately high and systematically recurring violation rates at Brody mine, which was controlled by Patriot even before its formal purchase in 2012.  This is the way that scraping the bottom of the mine yields higher profits: cutting corners by jeopardizing a dependent labor force.  Conclusion: if the industry hadn't spent so much money to lobby legislators, seduce regulators, and rewrite rules that allow them to jam up regulators with incessant "contestation" of violations, and with minimal monetary consequences, all of this would be illegal.  They would have been shut down (or jailed) long ago and we would be calling Patriot an organized criminal entity.)

Patriot is a spin-off from Peabody Coal.  It seems Peabody was increasingly looking to international markets as well as Powder River Basin strip mining, recognized the growing costs of mining in the east, tried to slough off pension and health benefits of Patriot workers, and eventually took Patriot private to avoid public scrutiny.  (Despite the spin-off, many of the chief executives are ex-Peabody and there is clearly a cozy relationship among this strata of the corporate coal elite).  As the coal industry has gutted unions, weakened regulatory oversight (and destroyed economies) in the Appalachians, we continue to see the human costs of what is the end of mining in the American east.

How do you say industrial homicide in Turkey? "work assassination"

Relatives of miners grieved during a funeral
on Thursday in Soma, Turkey. CreditUriel Sinai for The New York Times

In Turkey, stay tuned, this may likely bring down a Prime Minister.  Workers' organizations are calling Turkey, after the article below, a graveyard for workers.  Surely Hollywood or the American press will turn this into a story of heroism and emotion rather than one of a war on nature and labor, as they did with Chile's Los 33.  (Update 5/15/14: Cengiz Aktar reports that following privatization, the CEO of Soma mine bragged of great cost reductions.  Workers' organizations decry rise of "work assassinations" despite Turkey's claim to be in a development boom.  Meanwhile, after dismissing the mine explosion as "typical," much like American coal men do, the Prime Minister Recep Erdogan, reportedly punched a protester in the face today.  Apparently he did not want to be upstaged by his assistant Yusef Yerkel, a former PhD candidate at London's SOAS, who kicked a protester (or mourner) yesterday.  The victim was already on the ground, being detained by two uniformed military men.  The things one does for coal?)

The West Virginia miners who died are Gary Hensley, 46, and Eric Legg, 48.  Facebook dedications ask for prayers for their families.

The CEO of Patriot Coal is Bennet Hatfield, formerly of Arch Coal and Massey Energy.  Hatfield took over in 2012, as Patriot exited a fabricated bankruptcy plan.  After massive protest and a lawsuit by the UMWA, Patriot (in fact Peabody, via Patriot) was forced to continue paying some health benefits.  Yet, as Patriot was going through Chapter 11 reorganization in 2013, it distributed almost $7,000,000 in bonuses to its executives.  The United Mine Workers of America, according to Bloomberg, called this "massive bonuses to corporate insiders."  At the time, Patriot was still trying to cut its benefit obligations to workers and reduce other obligations through the bankruptcy proceedings.

At Least 238 Are Killed in Turkish Mining Disaster

By SEBNEM ARSU and ALAN COWELL NEW YORK TIMESMAY 14, 2014

Fight Global Warming: But Mayor's Office on the Backward Train w/ WUSTL

Slay’s office turns to Legislature to block local ballot measure : News



Mayor and Peabody supporters, alongside @wustl, fighting against democracy and the rising public support for a move beyond fossil fuels.   Dinosaurs all....

Breaking the grip of fossil fuels: akin to the struggle for the abolition of slavery

The New Abolitionism
Christopher Hayes
to appear in the May 12, 2014 issue of The Nation

"In fact, the parallel I want to highlight is between the opponents of slavery and the opponents of fossil fuels. Because the abolitionists were ultimately successful, it’s all too easy to lose sight of just how radical their demand was at the time: that some of the wealthiest people in the country would have to give up their wealth. That liquidation of private wealth is the only precedent for what today’s climate justice movement is rightly demanding: that trillions of dollars of fossil fuel stay in the ground. It is an audacious demand, and those making it should be clear-eyed about just what they’re asking. They should also recognize that, like the abolitionists of yore, their task may be as much instigation and disruption as it is persuasion. There is no way around conflict with this much money on the line, no available solution that makes everyone happy. No use trying to persuade people otherwise."..."As the great abolitionist Frederick Douglass said, “Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.” What the climate justice movement is demanding is the ultimate abolition of fossil fuels. And our fates all depend on whether they succeed."

Read the whole article

Students against Peabody Energy

ON THE STUDENT SIT-IN, COAL, AND WUSTL INTEGRITY: TIME TO SPEAK THE TRUTH

ON THE STUDENT SIT-IN, COAL, AND WUSTL (Washington UNIVERSITY IN ST. LOUIS)  INTEGRITY - BG - APRIL 18, 2014

I have been asked by a number of students to share the call below, and here, to sign a petition of support for the sit-in.  (There is also a rally Saturday 4/19 at 3 PM on Brookings Steps).  This does not commit us to particular demands, but affirms our commitment to science, public health, sustainability, and social justice (words we often say around here, but which ring hollow because they are systematically undermined by our relationship to the fossil fuel industry).  What follows are my thoughts on this.

In 2008, many WUSTL faculty members – invoking both science and gender equality – bravely protested an honorary PhD given to anti-feminist anti-evolution extremist Phyllis Schlafly.  Yet today, the work of the coal industry against climate science (and against public health, and by virtue of the patriarchal form of extractive industries everywhere, against women) is infinitely more extreme than Schlafly.  Our relationship with the coal industry has become institutionalized complicity which undermines our integrity and credibility when we talk about climate change, science, health, medicine, or sustainability.  

The IPCC (UN Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change) has just released another report which highlights the urgency of confronting carbon emissions in the next decade. The AAAS (American Association for the Advancement of Science) has also established a consensus position that drastic steps need to be taken to address carbon emissions and global warming.  Even conservative economists argue for modest policies such as carbon-pricing (or tax).  Former Republican mayor of NYC Michael Bloomberg has signed on to Sierra Club's 'beyond coal' campaign, a move summarized on the memorable post-Sandy cover of Business Week in November of 2012: "It's Global Warming Stupid!".

Peabody, Ameren, Arch, and the rest of the fossil fuel industry fight against scientific consensus and even modest policy proposals with lobbying, PR, anti-regulation lawsuits, and public disinformation.  (The most recent publication of the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity, ACCCE, of which Peabody, Arch, and Ameren are members, is titled "The Social Costs of Carbon? No, The Social Benefits of Carbon"). This would be funny if it were not so scary.  These companies should not be using their money to distort the core mission of American universities.  By allying with the coal industry, branding, and lobbying, we are positioning ourselves with anti-science extremists.

Peabody alone spends at least as much per year ($3-5 million of late) on anti-climate lobbying as the one-time payment (reportedly $5 million) made to cajole WU into embracing the 'clean coal' fallacy.  As one colleague suggested, If we are going to sell our credibility and integrity, at least we ought to demand a higher price than a year's worth of DC lobbyists.  (Though because of lack of transparency, we do not know how deep the money goes or what autonomy has been signed away in contracts with university units.  Rumor has it there is a plan to deepen the coal tie perhaps to push the industry goal of increasing coal exports to China, a monumentally bad idea.).   

There is no such thing as clean coal and there never will be. None of the research under that label comes anywhere near addressing the urgent problem of carbon emissions as recognized by scientific consensus.   This is not to question the research that our colleagues do (though none of it should be called 'clean coal utilization'). The students are engaged in an ethical and empirical questioning of our values and our commitment to science and truth, all undermined by our relationship with the coal industry.  

Faculty acquiescence to the WUSTL pact(s) with coal is surprising. There is nothing to fear; reason and right are on the side of these students.  The integrity and credibility of our administration, our leaders, our board, and our university are at stake. How much is your scientific and ethical integrity worth?

WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY: If you truly stand for public health and science...

U.N. Climate Panel Warns Speedier Action Is Needed to Avert Disaster 

To the Washington University Board of Trustees, the Chancellor, the Provost, many scientists among you, most probably have grandchildren, and you hope that your grandkids and others look to your legacy kindly:  What part of this universally accepted set of scientific arguments is not clear? Do we, or do we not stand for science and public health? When will you find the courage to stand up for your professed values?

(quoted material and entire article here by Justin Gillis, NYT, April 13, 2014, no connection to this blog)

"countries of the world have dragged their feet so long on global warming that the situation is now critical
only an intensive worldwide push over the next 15 years can stave off potentially disastrous climatic changes later in the century"

 “If we lose another decade, it becomes extremely costly to achieve climate stabilization.”

 "the emissions problem is still outrunning the will to tackle it, with global emissions rising almost twice as fast in the first decade of this century than in the last decades of the 20th century. That reflects a huge rush to coal-fired power plants in developing countries that are climbing up the income scale, especially in China,"

"Scientists fear that exceeding the target degrees could potentially produce drastic effects, such as the collapse of ice sheets, a rapid rise in sea levels, difficulty growing enough food, massive die-offs of forests and mass extinctions of plant and animal species."

“The I.P.C.C.'s new report highlights in stark reality the magnitude and urgency of the climate challenge,”... “It shows, even more compellingly than previous studies, that the longer society waits to implement strong measures to cut greenhouse gas emissions, the more costly and difficult it will become to limit climate change to less than catastrophic levels.”

WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY: Time to move to the future/Cut ties with Coal

On the side of science, sustainability, and public health, Wash U needs to commit to its own professed values.  To the board of trustees: cut ties with the coal industry (Peabody's not the only culprit, might as well go all in), be coherent in your values in support of this great university, this city, this region, and the country. To Wash U scientists: Peabody and the industry are waging a war against climate science. Time to speak out. To Wash U doctors: the coal industry acts against public health. Do you profess to ethics of 'do no harm'? These students are the future.  Our children and grandchildren and their grandchildren are the future.  Dirty coal and the logic of being bought and sold in a company town are the past. Wash U needs to stand with the future.

Follow @WUStopPeabody on twitter  or http://studentsagainstpeabody.tumblr.com/ or https://www.facebook.com/pages/WashU-Students-Against-Peabody/508037472634639