Lamar Alexander: ‘Coal Is A Dirty Business’
Lamar Alexander: ‘Coal Is A Dirty Business’
Before yesterday’s Senate hearing on the devastating Tennessee coal plant billion-gallon ash spill, Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) demolished the “clean coal” myth. Alexander told Knoxville’s WVLT-TV:
Coal is a dirty business.
Watch it:
Cleaning up the spill is estimated to take over $250 million and at least two years, although as yet Tennessee Valley Authority CEO Ed Kilgore told senators he does not have an actual plan for the clean up. After problems for decades, including two leaks since 2003, the TVA dismissed a $25 million plan to shore up the sludge pond’s retaining walls as too expensive. Yet Kilgore testified that there were no warning signs the dike could fail:
We had no reason to believe it wouldn’t hold this. I don’t know what caused this but I don’t think it’s something that betrays the public’s trust in that we were careless.
Due to industry resistance and compliant politicians in Washington, coal ash waste is not federally regulated. Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) “plans to ask Lisa Jackson, Democratic President-elect Barack Obama’s nominee to head the EPA, about providing regulation of the ash during her confirmation hearing next week.”
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6 Responses to “Lamar Alexander: ‘Coal Is A Dirty Business’”
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No, Senator, it’s clean. Haven’t you seen the ads?
Jeez, you think a sitting US Senator would know that.
January 9th, 2009 at 5:17 pmJust so readers know, Alexander was not at the hearing yesterday. I don’t know precisely when he said what is shown in that clip, but it’s important that people realize, this man is elected by the TN residents to represent the TN residents and he is on the committee that called the hearing during which the TVA and others testified about the Harriman, TN coal ash disaster. But Alexander was absent from that hearing because he was attending a congressional GOP retreat:
As host of the retreat, one would assume he had control over when it was scheduled. The TVA hearing has been on the schedule since at least early last week if not before.
January 9th, 2009 at 7:59 pmOk - correcting myself - Alexander was at the hearing, but not at the briefing held prior to the hearing - he was, at that time, at the retreat he was hosting.
Grrr - I still think the visitors from his home state who were there deserved his attention while there but…I’m just a voter.
January 9th, 2009 at 8:17 pmToxic coal ash piling up in ponds in 32 states
By DINA CAPPIELLO (Associated Press Writer)
From Associated Press
January 09, 2009 3:47 AM EST
WASHINGTON - Millions of tons of toxic coal ash is piling up in power plant ponds in 32 states, a practice the federal government has long recognized as a risk to human health and the environment but has left unregulated.
An Associated Press analysis of the most recent Energy Department data found that 156 coal-fired power plants store ash in surface ponds similar to the one that collapsed last month in Tennessee.
Records indicate that states storing the most coal ash in ponds are Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, Georgia and Alabama.
January 9th, 2009 at 2:16 pm
January 9th, 2009 at 9:34 pmDear TP,
It’s not just Tennessee, as this tip I gave you 18 hours ago shows:
Toxic coal ash piling up in ponds in 32 states
By DINA CAPPIELLO (Associated Press Writer)
From Associated Press
January 09, 2009 3:47 AM EST
WASHINGTON - Millions of tons of toxic coal ash is piling up in power plant ponds in 32 states, a practice the federal government has long recognized as a risk to human health and the environment but has left unregulated.
An Associated Press an@lysis of the most recent Energy Department data found that 156 coal-fired power plants store ash in surface ponds similar to the one that collapsed last month in Tennessee.
Records indicate that states storing the most coal ash in ponds are Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, Georgia and Alabama.
[dang filter!]
January 9th, 2009 at 9:42 pmDoes the coal ash have iron or lithium in it? Does it have enough uranium and thorium to be worth processing? Does it have enough arsenic to be worth sealing in casks? Can we use it as ceramics stock?
January 12th, 2009 at 1:36 pm