Tidbits 

The Boston Globe ran articles on poor places around the world, including one on McDowell County. The Globe found that a boy born in McDowell County has a life expectancy lower than that of babies in 34 poor, developing nations. As the Charleston Gazette editorialized:

McDowell once was a booming coal region, bursting with life. In the 1950 census, it had a population of nearly 100,000. But by 1985, more than 100 mines had closed and 35,000 miner jobs were wiped out. Out-of-state coal corporation owners never paid much property taxes, so the industry left little but destitution behind as it vanished… The strongest message in this sorrowful situation is that the coal industry bleeds a region dry - then departs, leaving a wake of hardship.

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A study conducted for the Storm Water Management Authority of Jefferson County, Ala., found that the tree canopy in three of the state's counties saved local government $117 million on measures to fight air pollution and another $131 million on

measures to curb storm water runoff and flooding. The study advises the creation of tree preservation advocacy groups. Meanwhile, back in West Virginia… kablam!! Another few thousand acres of trees lost to mountaintop removal coal mining, another round of flooding in the making.

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Still don't think we need campaign finance reform? 

Who Bankrolls Bush and his Democratic Rivals?

http://www.bop2004.org/bop2004/report.aspx?aid=132

WASHINGTON, January 8, 2004 - Enron Corp., the Houston-based energy firm that touched off a financial, legal and political scandal when it declared bankruptcy in

December 2001, remains the top career patron of President George W. Bush, whose prolific fundraising in 2003 shattered all previous records for candidates. Enron's employees and political action committee have given more than $600,000 to Bush over the course of his political career, according to a new Center for Public Integrity book, The Buying of the President 2004.

Surface mining committee wants permanent status; Issue will be group's only request before Legislature this year by Brian Bowling, Charleston Daily Mail, Jan. 10, 2004

The House and Senate chairmen of the Select Committee on Surface Mining want their committee to become a permanent interim committee….The Legislature set up the committee at the end of the 2003 regular legislative session to address coal industry complaints that state regulations on mining are unnecessarily strict and put West Virginia coal producers at a competitive disadvantage with coal producers in other states.

The industry proposed rolling back state regulations to the minimum required by federal law.

While that hasn't happened, relations between the industry and the state Department of Environmental Protection have improved over the year, said Del. Steve Kominar, D-Mingo and House chairman of the committee….

One change since the committee was formed is that Environmental Protection Secretary Stephanie Timmermeyer has changed who oversees mine regulation in the state. Matt Crum, the former state mining director, was a federal environmental prosecutor. Joe Parker, the current director, formerly ran the DEP's Oak Hill office.

Bill Raney, president of the West Virginia Coal Association, said Parker's appointment has improved relations between the industry and the agency.

"I think he recognized a lot of things that perhaps needed to move forward quickly," Raney said.

Mr. MTR Griles to hob knob with those who pay for his favors….

Business leaders pay to wine and dine Bush environmental policymakers

Wednesday, January 07, 2004
By Sharon Theimer, Associated Press

WASHINGTON - Western business executives will get to wine, dine, and golf with members of Congress and top Bush administration environmental officials at Arizona gatherings this week that start with a fund-raiser for the lawmakers.

Companies whose employees or political action committees donate $3,000 can send two people to the "Mulligans & Margaritas" fund-raiser…

Deputy Interior Secretary J. Steven Griles, a former energy industry lobbyist, was to give the keynote address at a Thursday luncheon after sessions on the Clean Air Act and federal energy policy.

Lobbying Makes D.C. a Public Relations Capital

By Sabrina Jones Washington Post Feb. 2, 2004

…From 2001 to 2002, people and organizations with a cause spent more than $105 million inside the (Washington, DC) Beltway on the airwaves and in newspapers… according to a study last year by the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania.

Among the top spenders were Americans for Balanced Energy Choices, a friendly name for a coalition of big mining companies, coal transporters and electricity producers, which spent $8.32 million….

In "Bush Budget Increases Industry-Supported Programs" (Feb. 9, 2004) BushGreewatch.org reports:

Not all programs affecting the environment and public health were cut in President Bush's 2005 budget proposal to Congress. Some, including programs supporting the oil industry, coal industry and nuclear industry, would in fact get more money...

The 2005 budget also includes $447 million for the president's Coal Research Initiative, a $69 million increase over 2004 levels. This includes a $109 million, or 60 percent, increase for the Clean Coal Power Initiative, a controversial subsidy for the coal industry that has already received more than $2 billion in taxpayer money. Congress's investigative arm, the General Accounting Office, has released seven reports documenting waste and mismanagement in the program...

"Until the government properly regulates the mining of coal and the waste products from coal, there's no such thing as clean coal," said Meg Moore of the Citizens Coal Council. "We think the money would be better spent on more mine inspectors, cleaning up the thousands abandoned mine hazards we still have and helping coalfields' economies transition from a coal industry that provides fewer and fewer jobs every year even as it destroys more land and water."

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