The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today released action plans developed by 22 electric utility facilities with coal ash impoundments, describing the measures the facilities are taking to make their impoundments safer. The action plans are a response to EPA’s assessment reports on the structural integrity of these impoundments that the agency made public last September. Coal ash was brought prominently to national attention in 2008 when an impoundment holding disposed ash waste generated by the Tennessee Valley Authority broke open, creating a massive spill in Kingston, TN, that covered millions of cubic yards of land and river and is regarded as one of the worst environmental disasters of its kind in history. Shortly afterwards, EPA began overseeing the cleanup, as well as investigating the structural integrity of impoundments where ash waste is stored.

Received an email from the Office of Energy and Environmental Industries, Department of Commerce, International Trade Administration, regarding an upcoming clean energy business development mission to China and Indonesia. The text of this email follows.

U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke will lead a clean energy business development mission to China and Indonesia from May 15 to 25, 2010. U.S. companies interested in expanding export and market opportunities in the sectors of clean energy (including, but not limited to, energy efficiency, energy storage, transmission/distribution, smart grid, clean coal, air pollution control equipment, etc.) are encouraged to take part in the event. The application deadline is Friday, February 26. The details of the mission, including application procedures, are available at:
http://www.trade.gov/cleanenergymission/

We would agree with the President’s assertion in his State of the Union address on Wednesday evening that the economic and energy security of the country depends on the safety, affordability, abundance, and security of clean coal.

 

 SOTU 1-29-10 Clean coal excerpt [3:00m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Washington, DC, January 25, 2010 — Keynote speaker and panels for the 2010 Spring Coal Forum, March 2-4, Clearwater Beach (Tampa), FL are confirmed! Keynote speakers include:

• Matthew K. Rose, Chairman, President, & CEO of BNSF Railway will discuss the issues facing our nation’s railroads.
• Dr. John Doggett, Senior Lecturer in International Entrepreneurship & Management at the McCombs School of Business, University of Texas at Austin will discuss the “New Global World Order.”
• Nick Akins, Executive Vice President of American Electric Power, will discuss the issues facing our nation’s coal-fueled utilities.

Read the rest of this news release on the ACC website.

Rally set for Blankenship-Kennedy debate.

A pro-coal, “stand up for jobs” rally is scheduled for 5:30 pm Thursday, Jan 21st at the University of Charleston.

More information on the FACES website

Proposed EPA regulations to limit the recycling and beneficial use of CCPs (coal combustion products) could have some frightening implications for our economy and environment.

CCP recycling and use currently provides $6.4 – $11.4 in annual economic benefits, significant environmental benefits, reduced energy consumption, water savings, and reduced greenhouse gas emissions.

All of those economic, social, and environmental benefits — and many more — stem from our growing use of coal combustion products (CCP’s). However, pending EPA regulations that could classify coal ash as a “hazardous waste” could have substantial negative impacts on this growing industry.

The Behind the Plug blog has posted a good review of the ACC’s “Coal Fundamentals” project.

ACC Members can see the Coal Fundamentals project on the ACC website. Information on the ACC’s Tomorrow’s Leadership Council is also available on the ACC website.

Here’s some more video from our friends at ACCCE.

This video looks at a few of the stops on their Factuality Tour, where ACCCE’s National Communications Director, Steve Gates went on a “cross-country tour to show you exactly where coal comes from – and how it ends up as the electricity powering your life.”

Here’s another video from our friends at ACCCE.

In this video, we see more of the real people who rely on affordable energy for their every day lives, their jobs, and their well-being.

Here’s some more video, prepared by our friends at ACCCE.

In this video, we see how people from a variety of backgrounds and viewpoints agree that coal is an economic, abundant/secure, and environmentally sound energy resource.

(Note: this video contains footage of political rallies with partisan campaign rhetoric. We’re not interested in supporting one campaign theme or political party. However, we are interested in the fact that even those political figures who are typically cast as being against coal clearly support the funding of research and the use of clean coal technologies and carbon capture and storage.)