American Petroleum Institute also helped bury its own science on fossil-fuel related climate change, no surprise, but here's the story: Exxon's Oil Industry Peers Knew About Climate Dangers in the 1970s, Too

Exxon's Oil Industry Peers Knew About Climate Dangers in the 1970s, Too

Beyond the Polluters | Dissent Magazine

Beyond the Polluters | Dissent Magazine

Happy New Year, miners, Instead of 145 million, this: "Peabody to pay $7.5 million into retiree health fund"

Peabody to pay $7.5 million into retiree health fund



"In its lawsuit Peabody said it was scheduled to pay $75 million into the health fund in January 2016 and $70 million in January 2017. It agreed to make those payments back in 2013, after Patriot’s first bankruptcy."

Why capitalism is addicted to oil and coal

Why capitalism is addicted to oil and coal

We Are the Climate Change Complacency We Seek

We Are the Climate Change Complacency We Seek

Has Exxon Mobil misled the public about its climate change research?

Has Exxon Mobil misled the public about its climate change research?

Darkening the White Heart of the Climate Movement

Darkening the White Heart of the Climate Movement

Kings of Coal - toolkit for coal campaigners

Kings of Coal - toolkit for coal campaigners

Go tell that long-tongue liar, you can run on for a long time, but sooner or later.... Reading up for next semester: Peabody, Exxon, Volkswagen, I know Ameren is in here somewhere too, they are all crooked.

Reading up on the #ExxonKnew case, and took me back to our old friends Peabody Coal, also under the lens; and reminded me of Volkswagen, and then I started thinking about all the shenanigans that Ameren is up to trying to dump more coal ash and dirty coal air on the St. Louis region -- are they are all crooked? They are all definitely fighting against science.  And, they are all working to make sure your future is a hot one.  

And, while I'm not a religious person, this  preacher-man has the right message, which then took me to old Johnny Cash, below... for inspiration.

Story and picture from Desmog Blog: http://www.desmogblog.com/2015/11/05/ny-attorney-general-investigation-subpoena-exxonmobil-peabody-coal-climate-denial

In case you don't remember the lyrics, put your headphones on and turn it up:

You can run on for a long time, sooner or later God'll cut you down...
Go tell that long-tongue liar
Tell 'em that God's gonna cut 'em down
...
Well you may throw your rock and hide your hand,
Workin' in the dark against your fellow man,
But as sure as God made black and white,
What's done in the dark will be brought to the light

New Study Exposes True Extent, Influence Of Climate Denial Echo Chamber For First Time

New Study Exposes True Extent, Influence Of Climate Denial Echo Chamber For First Time

More Exxon Documents Show How Much It Knew About Climate 35 Years Ago

More Exxon Documents Show How Much It Knew About Climate 35 Years Ago

ARGENTINA: FRACKING AND OTHER FOSSIL FUEL VIOLENCES: Serie documental Territorio Crudo

Serie documental Territorio Crudo

Uruguay makes dramatic shift to nearly 95% electricity from clean energy

Uruguay makes dramatic shift to nearly 95% electricity from clean energy

Appalachia grasps for hope as coal loses its grip on energy

Appalachia grasps for hope as coal loses its grip on energy

Blankenship guilty of conspiracy, not guilty on other two counts

Blankenship guilty of conspiracy, not guilty on other two counts

Votes in Congress Move to Undercut Climate Pledge

Votes in Congress Move to Undercut Climate Pledge

From Climate Crisis to Solar Communism | Jacobin

From Climate Crisis to Solar Communism | Jacobin

Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: North Dakota (HBO)

Must See Movie: "This Changes Everything" Fri Nov 13 at 6:30 U CITY PUBLIC LIBRARY

sls project: Must See Movie: "This Changes Everything" Fri No...: Directed by Avi Lewis, and inspired by Naomi Klein’s international non-fiction bestseller This Changes Everything, the film presents seven p...

The Green Struggle | Jacobin

The Green Struggle | Jacobin

What Will It Take To Force a Real Conversation About Climate Change?

What Will It Take To Force a Real Conversation About Climate Change?

How Peabody Energy is coping with coal’s downturn

How Peabody Energy is coping with coal’s downturn

An Rx for cleaner air : News

An Rx for cleaner air : News

The true price of AMerican oil and gas: It’s Time to Break With Saudi Arabia’s ‘Kingdom of Horrors’ (from @Truthdig)

It’s Time to Break With Saudi Arabia’s ‘Kingdom of Horrors’ (from @Truthdig)

The Leap Manifesto: A Call for Caring for the Earth and One Another

The Leap Manifesto: A Call for Caring for the Earth and One Another

Help Protect Our Water from Coal Mining Pollution on September 10

Help Protect Our Water from Coal Mining Pollution on September 10

Why It's so Hard to Regulate Fracking

Why It's so Hard to Regulate Fracking

The Human Cost of America's Energy Boom

The Human Cost of America's Energy Boom

New EPA tool for mapping Environmental (In)Justice

http://www2.epa.gov/ejscreen

Climate message to transport unions: mobilize in Paris, build alliances back home

Climate message to transport unions: mobilize in Paris, build alliances back home

Peabody to cut 250 corporate and regional jobs, including 50 in downtown St. Louis : Business

Peabody to cut 250 corporate and regional jobs, including 50 in downtown St. Louis : Business

MORE's Statement in Response to Peabody's Corporate Layoffs

Sorry to see folks lose jobs, but these are dirty jobs for a dirty company.  Hope they can find something cleaner.



MORE's Statement in Response to Peabody's Corporate Layoffs

Can't make this up, but Peabody tried: #Ebola & #dirtycoal Coal giant exploited Ebola crisis for corporate gain, say health experts

Coal giant exploited Ebola crisis for corporate gain, say health experts



Also, see links to @WUSTL in PowerPoint that Peabody presented to the Norwegians in 2014, after which Norwegians decided to divest from all coal investments.

Solidarity from some wonderful Towson students, engaging #dirtycoal destruction and MTR

Definitely have to take some time to read through these student essays after first-hand engagement with mountain-top removal.

http://keeperofthemountains.tumblr.com

Visit site: http://keeperofthemountains.tumblr.com

Why W.Va.’s coalfields can’t have nice things

Why W.Va.’s coalfields can’t have nice things

Why doctors @wustl @wustlmed @WUSTLpubhealth @BarnesJewish should speak against coal.

Or take hypocritical oath. https://t.co/I2tdiNajOT

— SLSProject (@slsproject) May 19, 2015

Local democracy vs. Dirty Coal (Ameren's coal ash dump planned for Labadie/MO river floodplain)

Coal state senators introduce package of 5 'clean coal' bills

Coal state senators introduce package of 5 'clean coal' bills

Australia: The new coal frontier

Australia: The new coal frontier

Patriot Coal. Peabody's Spawn, and the bankruptcy scheme

What does bankruptcy mean?  Executives walk away wealthy.  Workers and retirees are abandoned to poor health and no benefits.  Land and water left polluted.

These are our partners, Washington University in St Louis.


Updated, via Ken Ward (5/12/15): Patriot Files for Chapter 11, Again 

From Ken Ward:

"Also late last month, the federal Office of Surface Mining had warned the state Department of Environmental Protection about the potential for huge water pollution treatment liabilities given the “precarious financial situation that many of the state’s coal companies find themselves in today.” Patriot is among the companies that have agreed to legal settlements that require expensive treatment to control toxic selenium runoff from its mine sites. Patriot also agreed to phase out the use of mountaintop removal mining in Central Appalachia.
“With the rise of affordable clean energy, stronger clean air and water protections, declining coal reserves, and an increasing realization that coal is the key contributor to climate disruption, companies like Patriot and its parent Peabody are now faced with the reality that coal is no longer king in America,” said Bruce Nilles, senior director of the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal Campaign.
“It is critical at this moment for state, regional, and federal leaders to acknowledge the declining role of coal mining in the economic life of the region, and to chart a viable course for the region’s economic future,” Nilles said. “Mine operators like Patriot and Peabody Energy, together with the state of West Virginia and the federal government, must commit to do far more to ensure a just, equitable transition for the region’s workers.”

And:   Patriot Coal files for bankruptcy.

SNL: Patriot in 'advanced stage' of asset sales talks, discloses Illinois Basin deals | SNL

Patriot Coal, a spin-off of Peabody that aimed to shed pension and health obligations for retirees, now completing its mission: to go bankrupt while enriching as many executives as possible.

Alberta election shock: More evidence that 'class and climate' politics can win?

Alberta election shock: More evidence that 'class and climate' politics can win?

Investments in Fossil Fuels Cost Harvard $21 Million

Investments in Fossil Fuels Cost Harvard $21 Million

What we've been saying: Data problem clouds annual St. Louis air report; ozone improves but still gets an 'F'

Data problem clouds annual St. Louis air report; ozone improves but still gets an 'F'

US to launch blitz of gas exports, eyes global energy dominance

US to launch blitz of gas exports, eyes global energy dominance

Would be funny, if not so true. Obama rips into the "bull(#*$" of climate science denial....

At Peabody Coal, we take pride in polluting the earth

We should be doing everything we can to make these numbers go down, and celebrate them going down.  And yes, that means finding other economies, other jobs, other possibilities.  But for the moment, Peabody loves its coal trains...

2015 Missouri Earth Day Rally at the Capitol Bldng, Jefferson City

Small but rising tide in this coal-ash state.

HSBC outlines four ways to divest from fossil fuels | Carbon Brief

Handy guide for our money managers...

HSBC outlines four ways to divest from fossil fuels | Carbon Brief

Peabody Coal, #Dirty Coal, #Criminal Coal: Regret to Inform You: Coal Blasting Rages On

Regret to Inform You: Coal Blasting Rages On

Why Ameren is part of the problem, not part of the solution: Carbon Lock-In: Ameren shareholder proposals fail to win majority : Business

Ameren shareholder proposals fail to win majority : Business



Finally, the shareholder activist group As You Sow proposed tying the company’s executive compensation to reductions in carbon dioxide. Only owners of 6.7 percent of the company’s stock voted in favor of the resolution.

USGS lets Oklahoma governor reveal it first, but here's the national report on seismicity related to wastewater and fluid injection

Another reason we need to just move on...
Full report available here: http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2015/1070/pdf/ofr2015-1070.pdf

Earth day: leading scientists say 75% of known fossil fuels must stay underground

Earth day: leading scientists say 75% of known fossil fuels must stay underground

Yemen as War of Right-Wing Billionaire Establishment in the Middle East

Yemen as War of Right-Wing Billionaire Establishment in the Middle East
On the attempt to maintain elite control in a region marked by deep inequalities, dwindling oil resources, and water scarcity, and on the US' contradictory place therein...

"This, of course, creates certain logical disconnects.

The United States is supporting the Saudi bombing in Yemen because the Houthis are allied with Iran and because Washington relies on the Yemeni government as a partner against al-Qaeda. But in Iraq, the U.S. is tacitly cooperating with Iran in the war on the Islamic State, or ISIS. And while the Saudi government is opposed to the Islamic State and al-Qaeda, aided by U.S. intelligence, it’s attacking one of the major forces fighting al-Qaeda in Yemen — the Houthis.

In the meantime, the Gulf Council has stepped up its support of the Nusra Front in Syria, a group tied to al-Qaeda and a sworn enemy of the Gulf monarchies as well as the United States."

Read the rest of the article here.

Our Power: Battling Austerity with a Bold Green Vision | This Changes Everything

Our Power: Battling Austerity with a Bold Green Vision | This Changes Everything

Blockadia Rising

As we've been saying, this is a political issue, not a technological problem: Five years after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, we are closer than ever to catastrophe

Five years after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, we are closer than ever to catastrophe

Students take Chancellor of Washington University St Louis to see Peabody and other coal industry destruction, Southern Illinois

Source: http://studentsagainstpeabody.tumblr.com

On this day in 1914, the Ludlow Massacre: Violent state at the service of criminal coal. History repeats itself.

Judges Skeptical of Challenge to Proposed E.P.A. Rule on Climate Change

Judges Skeptical of Challenge to Proposed E.P.A. Rule on Climate Change



Peabody and Murray -- the two companies stripping out Southern Illinois, are also suing the EPA.

2015 Could Be the Start of a Green Energy Revolution | The Nation

2015 Could Be the Start of a Green Energy Revolution | The Nation

George Will is ranting and raving incoherent things again: ‘Sustainability’ gone mad on college campuses

‘Sustainability’ gone mad on college campuses

"College tuitions are soaring in tandem with thickening layers of administrative bloat. So here is a proposal: Hundreds of millions could be saved, with no cost to any institution’s core educational mission, by eliminating every position whose title contains the word “sustainability” — and, while we are at it, “diversity,” “multicultural” or “inclusivity.” The result would be higher education higher than the propaganda-saturated version we have, and more sustainable."

Bad title, bad idea, not 'greener' at all: Making fracking greener | Chemistry World

Making fracking greener | Chemistry World

In case you like your science auto-tuned, check out Isaac Asimov et al, giving basic facts on global warming

Corny, but good, auto-tuned science, in case it helps you get the point:  fossil fuel burning is making the planet too hot.

So they can keep drilling, but missing the point: New Sea Drilling Rule Planned, 5 Years After BP Oil Spill

New Sea Drilling Rule Planned, 5 Years After BP Oil Spill



As we discussed:

Environmentalists also noted that a panel appointed by President Obama to investigate the spill concluded that the chief cause of the disaster, which left the Gulf Coast soaked in black tar, was not the blowout preventer but a broad systemic failure of oversight by the companies involved in drilling the well and the government regulators assigned to police them.

Uncertainty of renewable energy incentives a challenge for Missouri solar companies

Uncertainty of renewable energy incentives a challenge for Missouri solar companies

Can't trust Ameren on this one, they pulled the rebate program to stall solar's growth:

"Between 2010 and 2014, Missouri's program gave consumers a $2 per watt rebate to help recover the cost of installing solar energy systems, financed by AmerenMissouri and Kansas City Power & Light. Both investor-owned utilities were required by state law to get 2 percent of their power from solar energy, unless those changes would hike customer rates by more than 1 percent. In 2013 and 2014, the two announced they had hit that 1 percent mark, and ended the programs."

Oligarchy: As per last week's lectures, here, Robert Reich's take on money and self-censorship: How Big Money Is Buying Off Criticism of Big Money | BillMoyers.com

How Big Money Is Buying Off Criticism of Big Money | BillMoyers.com

Duke Energy called out for targeting black community with 'cynical' anti-solar campaign

This is how the industry tries to maintain carbon lock-in. 

Fight against solar, target low-income communities, use fear-mongering and environmental racism. 

Duke Energy called out for targeting black community with 'cynical' anti-solar campaign

Need to watch this: Pacific 'climate warriors' take on coal on the high seas

A Big, Crazy Idea from Peter Yacono on Vimeo.

Subcritical coal top 20: Engaging energy companies on climate & human rights impacts | Business & Human Rights Resource Centre

Subcritical coal top 20: Engaging energy companies on climate & human rights impacts | Business & Human Rights Resource Centre



Must read to understand how/why "engagement" will/not work with big coal-powered utilities.  Global engagement attempt discussed in detail.

Experts urge regional approach to EPA climate change rules : Business

Experts urge regional approach to EPA climate change rules : Business

Some worry that climate change rules threaten reliability of electrical grid : Business

Should we trust these coal-dependent utility executives to make good decisions about our air and our public health?



Some worry that climate change rules threaten reliability of electrical grid : Business

5 Years Ago & Blankenship is still a free man: Remembering the Upper Big Branch Tragedy Apr. 5, 2010

The Upper Big Branch Mine Disaster: April 5, 2010 (via Coal Tattoo; Ken Ward)

Trying to control the narrative: One on one: Pakrasi on the pulse of energy-research - St. Louis Business Journal

More ethically questionable use of the words "clean coal"

One on one: Pakrasi on the pulse of energy-research - St. Louis Business Journal

Climate change is a more of a priority for voters than you might think

Climate change is a more of a priority for voters than you might think

Hazel Dickens: Black Lung and Dirty Coal

"One of my brothers had lived his entire life, and never got any further than he did then when he first started out as a teenager in the mines...he lived his whole life [in the mines] and he died without enough to even bury himself..we had to go to the welfare to get enough to bury him... it just seemed that in a country like this that people shouldn't have to live and be buried as poor as when they came into the world.  That was the first that I begin questioning the way the economy is in this world and the way that poor people are treated."


"His soul full of coal dust till his body's decayed.
And everyone but black lung's done turned him away."

Seems pretty clear:  Dirty coal, criminal coal, criminal system.

 

Quotes of the day, by way of Francesca Martinez at a "This Changes Everything" event -- via @NaomiKlein

a key part of social change is to challenge the toxic ideas that disempower people and strip them of their confidence and their belief that change is possible

climate change is a physical manifestation of these disgusting ideals, these ideals of greed, of individualism, of materialism, they are literally killing the planet, and they are also creating mass suffering

the first step to create a better world is to believe in one

we have to be made to believe we are not good enough the way we are so that we go out and buy shit we don’t need 

accepting yourself as you are is an act of civil disobedience

everything good about society today was won by people who focused outwards, not inwards

Re: Today's Movie: the role of "faith" in the struggle over global warming (re: Tim DeChristopher)

Disposable workers of the oil and gas fields

Disposable workers of the oil and gas fields

WATCH: Nebraska farmer silences oil and gas committee with invitation to drink water tainted by fracking

WATCH: Nebraska farmer silences oil and gas committee with invitation to drink water tainted by fracking

Our author: Jessica Smith Rolston: In the “War on Coal,” the industry can be its own worst enemy

In the “War on Coal,” the industry can be its own worst enemy

Coal Music: Mark Knopfler 5:15 AM. Add to your coal music listening list, thanks to Eric Michael Kelly for the heads up.

5.15 a.m.
snow laying all around
a collier cycles home
from his night shift underground
past the silent pub
primary school, workingmens club
on the road from the pithead
the churchyard packed
with mining dead
....

the bandit man
came up the great north road
up to geordieland
to mine
the mother lode

seams blew up or cracked
black diamonds came hard won
generations toiled and hacked
for a pittance and black lung
crushed by tub or stone
together
and alone
how the young and old
paid the price of coal

eighteen sixty-seven
my angel's gone to heaven
he'll be happy there
sunlight and sweet clean air

they gather round the glass
tough hewers and crutters
child trappers and putters
the little foals and half-marrows
who pushed
and pulled the barrows
the hod boys
and the rolleywaymen
5.15 a.m.

As we said in lecture on Criminal Coal: Data Dispatch: Latest numbers show unionized coal mines safer, more productive than nonunion operations | SNL

From Taylor Kuykendall:

SNL: Data Dispatch: Latest numbers show unionized coal mines safer, more productive than nonunion operations | SNL

Today's lecture on Oil + Oligarchy = Oiligarchy. Some links and connections

Definition of "oligarchy"  (Bruce Kapferer)

"command of political organizations and institutions by close-knit social groups (families or familial dynasties, groups of kin, closed associations, or tightly controlled interlinked networks of persons) for the purpose of the relatively exclusive control of economic resources and their distribution, these resources being vital to the existence of larger populations” (Kapferer 2005:1).

Kapferer, Bruce

         2005        Introduction: Oligarchic Corporations and New State Formations.  In Oligarchs and Oligopolies: New Formations of Global Power. Bruce Kapferer, ed. Pp. 1-23.  New York: Berghahn.

Empirical research on the US as a system of "economic elite domination" or "biased pluralism" (i.e. oligarchy)

Gilens, Martin, and Benjamin Page. 2014. Testing Theories of American Politics: Elites, Interest Groups, and Average Citizens.  Perspectives on Politics  12(3): 581.

"Multivariate analysis indicates that economic elites and organized groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on U.S. government policy, while average citizens and mass-based interest groups have little or no independent influence. The results provide substantial support for theories of Economic-Elite Domination and for theories of Biased Pluralism, but not for theories of Majoritarian Electoral Democracy or Majoritarian Pluralism.The preferences of economic elites have far more independent economic impact upon policy change than the preferences of average citizens do."

Translation: Unless people are mobilized into movements of strong and sustained collective action, rich people have undue control over the political system, i.e. "oligarchy"

Oiligarchy at work in Missouri

Koch-backed Americans for Prosperity: http://americansforprosperity.org/missouri/

Peabody's new public influence organization: https://www.advancedenergyforlife.com

Do your own research on industry lobbying and political campaign finance:

www.opensecrets.org

Organizations focused on oligarchic corruption: 
International Forum on Globalization

Menotti, Victor, ed. 2011. Outing the Oligarchy: Billionaires who Benefit from Today's Climate Crisis.  On oligarchic power structures in Mexico, India, China, and the US.

Koch Cash "tracking the single largest source of private money corrupting democracy"

Plutonomy and Climate Program " Increasingly few, stupendously wealthy plutocrats have lately made enormous strides toward dominating global governance, finance and national democracies, while actively undermining traditional democratic expressions, such as collective bargaining rights, clean air protections, and services for social safety nets"

UnKoch My Campus

The Coal Industry Is Imploding. Why Is it Still So Powerful in Washington? | The Nation

The Coal Industry Is Imploding. Why Is it Still So Powerful in Washington? | The Nation

Gregory Boyce retiring as Peabody CEO – how’d he do?

Gregory Boyce retiring as Peabody CEO – how’d he do?

Boyce to step down at Peabody - St. Louis Business Journal

Boyce to step down at Peabody - St. Louis Business Journal

The Deepwater Horizon oil spill 27th - 28th May 2010

Today's Lecture: Deepwater Horizon and BP's Criminal Negligence: The 11 Workers Who Died During The Deepwater Horizon Explosion

Remembering The 11 Workers Who Died During The Deepwater Horizon Explosion

Excellent Overview of court settlements, payouts, ongoing litigation, and distribution of fines.

And, an overview of the science on the spill.

And an interactive map.

New York Times interactive video on explosion.

Guardian graphic on multiple human and mechanical failures.

A documentary on the disaster.

Fossil Fuels and Plastic Bags: Missouri Legislators lead the way back into the dinosaur age, by moving to ban local bans on plastic bags

The director of the Missouri Grocers' Association, Dan Shaul, also happens to be a Missouri legislator in the House of Representatives (R-Imperial, Jefferson County, south of south St Louis county).  His latest contribution to the betterment of society is his sponsorship of a bill that is moving through the chamber, to ban the banning of plastic bags.  

Columbia, MO, home to MIzzou, a progressive island, believe it or not, in the Republican Sea that is central Missouri, had been so bold as to vote for a city prohibition on plastic bags (pay or bring your own). Dan Shaul and the grocery people moved to block this, and block all such bans in the state forever.  Believe it or not.

China and California have similar legislation to ban plastic bag use (or charge for their use)  It reduces oil consumption on one end and litter that lasts for an eternity and clogs up land and sea on the other end.  Despite what we're told, it doesn't recycle well. 

Though in California the American Plastic - wait, they call themselves the American 'Progressive' [sic] – Bag Alliance (ABPA) rounded up (paid for?) enough signatures to get a referendum on the issue.  They are backed by big oil (American Chemistry Council, i.e. Dow, Exxon Mobil, etc.). Start shaking your head in disbelief.

Making a bad thing worse, the Missouri legislature is moving to also restrict any possible local experimentation to address environmental concerns – from agroindustrial impacts to TIFs to polluters to plastic bags.  The hand of ALEC is in this too.  

The dismantling of democracy in favor of big business interests continues apace.  And this despite the rhetoric of anti-regulatory local control that we hear from the right wing.  Money trumps all in good ol' Missouri.  People need to rise up and resist, but alas, did you forget your cloth bags at home? At least go paper.

This led to a bit of a detour this morning as I delved into the background on the plastic bag wars (plastic bags, of course, are made from oil and natural gas).

Best overview from Rolling Stone: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-plastic-bag-wars-20110725

Here's the link to the Missouri House website and bill. 

Here's Dan Shaul and friends at the Missouri Grocers' Association.

And here's a softball Post-Dispatch story on the whole thing.

Hope Nixon vetoes this...

Why banks and Unis should divest from fracking: Schlumberger Sees Prudence As New Normal For US Shale Oil

Industry already squeezed by price drop.  Banks and hedge funds tried to cash in on the destructive technology of fracking. Now confront reality.  No exports of LNG.  No fracking.

Schlumberger Sees Prudence As New Normal For US Shale Oil

Talk on Efforts to Combat Climate Change - Michael Levi of the Council on Foreign Relations @wustl

Wednesday, March 25

CFR Academic Conference Call: International Efforts to Combat Climate Change
11 a.m., Seigle Hall 108E, Detjen Seminar Room
Speaker: Michael A. Levi, David M. Rubenstein Senior Fellow for Energy and the Environment and Director, Maurice R. Greenberg
Center for Geoeconomic Studies, CFR

Optional Background Reading: Department of Defense: Climate Change Adaptation Roadmap, 2014
Global Governance Monitor: Climate Change, Energy, Security, and Climate Blog 

The Charleston Gazette | Future of coal, climate and communities debated at hearing

The Charleston Gazette | Future of coal, climate and communities debated at hearing

Hold on til the last chunk of coal is burned, or diversify the economy?  The coal struggle in West Virginia.  Some say Obama and the EPA are killing coal, but others that it's pretty much the end of coal, the rise of cheap natural gas.

Mine Workers Union and Power companies:  keep digging and burning.

But, Jeremy Richardson of UCS (Union of Concerned Scientists), said climate change is out of control, and we need to strengthen EPA regulations.

Read James M. Van Norstrand testimony "Regional Impacts of EPA Carbon Regulations: The Case of West Virginia"

Carbon Dioxide Emission Reduction Opportunities for WV, by Norstrand, a WVU lawyer and team.

Too Much Oil - Matt Huber

Why people must organize to demand transformation to renewable energy.  The private fossil fuel and utility industries will never do it on their own.  Nor will the market save us.  Nor will technology alone.

Too Much Oil - Matt Huber - Jacobin Mag

"A left approach to energy must take its provision back from the market, prioritizing ecological and social welfare over price signals. Energy should be viewed as something akin to education, health care, or water sanitation: something so fundamental to the collective good that it cannot be ceded to market forces and the profit motive. Yet unfortunately, market prices have, more than anything else, guided US energy policy over the last few decades."

More on #coal #Peabody and dispossession

Feds Can't Wait on Mountaintop Removal: As White House Hedges, Groups to Sue Obama Over State Lawlessness

Feds Can't Wait on Mountaintop Removal: As White House Hedges, Groups to Sue Obama Over State Lawlessness

Documentary on Upper Big Branch

Wall Street Journal on Blankenship and Massey Energy: criminal coal

America’s worst corporate ogre: How Big Coal is shamelessly plotting to stay alive

America’s worst corporate ogre: How Big Coal is shamelessly plotting to stay alive



Peabody hires old PR firm that tried to defend tobacco industry...

Read all about the Don Blankenship case - Ken Ward

Re: Today's lecture #justiceforthe29

Blankenship and Massey are not exceptions, they reflect a systematic "culture of deviance" or, what is ingrained in an anti-regulatory, anti-labor, anti-safety industry.

Read about the latest mine fatality in WVa Murray Mine (Taylor Kuykendall)

And, learn more about rib failure or rib rolls (CDC)

And, read all about the Don Blankenship case (by Ken Ward)