If Duke Energy was listening to the citizens gathered at High Point’s City Hall last night, they sure got a burning earful! Over one hundred private citizens turned out to express their extreme displeasure with Duke Energy’s attempt to return a profit to their investors at the expense of North Carolina rate payers in the midst of a serious economic downturn.

“I’d rather be robbed at gunpoint than ball point” one Duke Energy customer stated. The same individual went on to express his grave dissatisfaction with Duke’s self-interested initiative to raise electricity rates, even as many residents were trying “to make a dollar out of fifty cents” and choosing between “eating or heating”.

While individuals were noticeably upset by the proposed rate hike, their comments were thoughtful and many well researched – one speaker even going so far as to review his Duke Energy bills and statements for the last several years to demonstrate a trend in rising charges by the utility giant and another providing a cogent economic analysis of the many free-market failures and contradictions of NC’s electricity market and Duke Energy’s business model.

At least 10 activists from the Occupy Greensboro movement attended the event, holding the proposed rate increase up as another example of affluent corporate overreach and greed paid for at the expense of most Americans.

At least 3 television news crews, 1 NPR reporter and three Piedmont newspapers were on hand for the event.

Read more about the event at the web sites below:

• Fox News 8
• News & Record

• WXII 12
• News & Record

• News & Observer
• Daily Motion

• WFDD

Just how much do we pay for environmental pollution? How much are polluters taxing the health of our communities, families and friends? Find out by listening to Planet Money’s podcast on the true full cost of coal and other forms of environmental pollution HERE.

Coal plants = #1 source of mercury into our air. Bonding with water and falling from the air, mercury deposits in our lakes, rivers, streams, and other water bodies that provide drinking water, fish, recreation and ecological habitats. Read here & learn about mercury’s toxic effects.
Right now, you can take a stand to reduce mercury emissions from coal plants across the country. Click here to take action.

This past March, the EPA submitted stronger regulation standards for mercury, acid gases, and other toxic air pollutant emissions from power plants. Through July 5th, 2011, you can send a public comment to EPA Administrator Jackson in support of this progressive measure. There will be public hearings in Chicago (May 24), Philadelphia (May 24), and Atlanta (May 26). Comments can come in the form of letters, emails, or videos to be shown at public hearings.

A local example of mercury’s far reaching toxicity is Watauga Lake in Tennessee. As shown in the video below, Watauga Lake is a pristine, high elevation mountain lake with no direct pollution sources. Yet, the lake is listed under the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation’s precautionary fish advisory due to high mercury levels in fish tissue. Women who are nursing or pregnant and young children are advised not to eat these fish so as to reduce the risk of developmental and neurological deficiencies in children.

Clean air and water are human rights that must be protected from coal industry pollution. Your comment will only take a few minutes, but can help prevent years of environmental destruction from air toxins.

Voice your support for stronger EPA regulation of mercury and other air toxins HERE.

The Black Mesa Mine

Read more about the suit at the following links below:

• The Navajo-Hopi Observer: FOIA lawsuit filed for Peabody coal records
• CoalDiver.org

The cost of nuclear generated electricity
vs. solar generated electricity

Check out the rest of the post on FacingSouth’s Blog HERE.


Below is a teaser to tide you over until the FacingSouth Blog loads:

The report points out that both new solar and new nuclear power sources will cost more than present electricity generation. However, power bills will rise less with solar generation than with new nuclear.

Duke Energy and Progress Energy, North Carolina’s largest utilities, estimate that proposed new nuclear plants would generate power at a cost of 14 to 18 cents per kilowatt-hour. But commercial-scale solar developers are already offering utilities electricity at 14 cents or less per kWh.

Today an average North Carolina homeowner can have a solar electricity system installed for a net cost between $8,200 and $20,000 or more, depending on generation capacity.

The following email was sent to the 41,800 supporters of iLoveMountains.org. To sign up to receive free email alerts, click here.

On Sunday, a memorial service was held for the 29 miners who were killed earlier this month in the explosion at Massey Energy’s Upper Big Branch Mine in Raleigh County, West Virginia.

The loss of these courageous men is a terrible tragedy, and as President Obama said in his eulogy, “Our task, here on Earth, is to save lives from being lost in another such tragedy.”

We agree. Mining — whether surface or underground — is an extremely dangerous occupation. More than 300 people have died mining coal in the United States in the past 10 years. Every day, three people die from black lung disease as a result of having worked in coal mines.

Yet the inherent dangers of coal mining are exacerbated by companies like Massey Energy, whose corner-cutting mentality has led to unsafe working conditions at the Upper Big Branch Mine and other facilities. Massey is also the number one producer of mountaintop removal coal in the country and, in 2008, was assessed the largest penalty in the history of the Clean Water Act.

Congressman Nick Rahall, Chairman of the Natural Resources Committee and long time leader in protecting miner safety, represents the district where the accident occurred. He recently said, “this mining catastrophe shows us that there is still much more that must be done to protect those who enter the mines each day working to support their families.”

You have been instrumental in the recent victories to protect Appalachian communities from the permitting of new mountaintop removal mines. While there’s much that still needs to be done to end mountaintop removal permanently, today we ask you to help protect those communities in a different way.

Will you please take a moment to sign this letter supporting Congressman Rahall’s efforts to strengthen protections for our nation’s coal miners?

Lorelei Scarbro, a community organizer with Coal River Mountain Watch, whose husband died of black lung and whose has family that works at the Upper Big Branch Mine, will hand deliver the letter of support to his office.

Please join Lorelei in supporting Congressman Rahall’s stance on miner safety. Safe working conditions are just another aspect of protecting the people of Appalachia from the impacts of irresponsible coal mining.

Please add your name to the letter today.

Sincerely,

Matt Wasson
iLoveMountains.org

“25 miners were killed, and 4 remain missing, in a Raleigh County WV coal mine.”

April 5th, 2010 – Background information
April 6th, 2010 – Press briefing from officials
April 6th, 2010 – Update from the WV Governor

The Appalachian Voices’ family – our staff, our friends, and our respective communities – hold the families of Raleigh County in our thoughts and prayers today. The sudden loss of these courageous men is unspeakable, and we encourage any and all efforts to see that no similar tragedy ever befalls our region again.

There ought be a monument to America’s coal miners in every town and city in the United States. As Jeff Goodell says, coal helped the US win two world wars and build the strongest national economy the world has ever seen. But, Appalachia can no longer be a national sacrifice zone. Our miners, our mountains, and our communities are non-negotiable.

We stand ready to join coalfield communities and Appalachian elected officials in encouraging safe, sustainable ways to grow our communities in Appalachia.