TODAY, AN IMPORTANT LETTER WAS SENT BY TENNESSEEANS TO MR. OBAMA INVITING HIM TO WITNESS THE COAL DEVASTATION IN TENNESSEE.
During his capmapign, candidate Obama often repeated the misleading and inaccurate "clean coal" mantra. That was perhaps merely a problem of communication during the campaign.
But as President, reliance on the clean coal myth could be a matter of grave policy mistakes. Mr. Obama needs to see firsthand that "clean coal" is nothing more than misleading slogan. The letter below asks Mr. Obama to come to Tennessee and witness the "true face of coal".
WITNESS the dead and dying fish and wildlife.
WITNESS the contaminated wellwater.
WITNESS the airborne arsenic, cadmium and other toxic metals.
WITNESS the buried houses and displaced residents.
FULL TEXT OF LETTER:
President-Elect Barack Obama
c/o Honorable Carol Browner
January 7, 2009
Dear President-Elect Obama,
On behalf of our 8,600 Tennessee members and activists, we are writing to invite you to tour our communities in eastern Tennessee and see the true face of coal.
As you probably know, on December 22, more than one billion gallons of toxic coal ash sludge spilled out of its storage pool at the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Kingston Fossil Plant. The sludge rushed into the Emory and Clinch Rivers, tributaries of the Tennessee, which supplies drinking water to millions of people in the South. Following the spill, dead fish started washing up downstream. Early chemical analyses by the EPA show elevated levels of arsenic, lead, and thallium in the water. Coal ash also contains heavy metals like cadmium, selenium, and mercury, as well as other toxins like benzene. During 2007 alone, the Kingston fossil plant dumped 45,000 pounds of arsenic, 49,000 pounds of lead, 1.4 million pounds of barium, 91,000 pounds of chromium, and 140,000 pounds of manganese into the holding pond.
There are many issues at stake here that we want you to see first-hand on your tour. We hope you can ensure that people affected by this disaster receive proper care and compensation, including tests, if they request it, for exposure to toxic materials in the coal ash. We also hope you can investigate the response of the Tennessee Valley Authority to this incident and help us to hold them accountable. They have consistently downplayed the dangers of the spill. In addition, this spill and similar ones around the country show that safety regulations surrounding handling of coal ash are inadequate. While you are here, we hope you consider regulating coal ash as a hazardous waste.
The sad truth is that coal ash represents only a small part of the danger of coal. Normal operation of this one coal-fired power plant cuts short the lives of more than 140 people every year from regular air pollution that causes heart disease, respiratory ailments, lung cancer, and other illnesses; nationally, more than 24,000 Americans die each year from pollution from coal-fired power plants.
Furthermore, mountaintop removal coal mining has destroyed more than 450 mountains throughout Appalachia, including many in Tennessee, permanently destroying thousands of miles of streams and other waterways. And of course, coal is the number one U.S. source of global warming pollution. Here in Tennessee, we’re already seeing the impacts of global warming: temperatures across the state have increased one degree Fahrenheit in the last 100 years and are projected to rise at least 2 – 3 degrees over the next hundred years in Tennessee. If we don’t end our reliance on coal, heat waves and other extreme weather events are projected to increase; forests and wildlife are projected to diminish significantly; and our plentiful water resources could diminish significantly.
If our country doesn’t act quickly to phase out our use of coal and move to clean energy like wind and solar power, Tennessee will no longer be the same great place we grew up with and love.
We look forward to meeting you and showing you around.
Ellen Martin
Save Our Cumberland Mountains
Matt Landon
United Mountain Defense
Donna Lisenby
Watauga Riverkeeper/Appalachian Voices
Katherine Pendleton
TN Chapter Sierra Club
Renée Victoria Hoyos
Tennessee Clean Water Network
Dana Kuhnline
Alliance for Appalachia
Mr. Obama will immediately need to consider the coal sludge dam break upon taking office, and consider the USGS announcement that global warming will be much worse for the United States than previously thought.
COAL IS NOT CLEAN.
He will face the potential clean-up costs of the coal sludge dam break in Tennessee that will probably be borne by the taxpayers, and the costs of global warming that are five times more expensive than the false lower costs we pay for coal electricity today.
COAL IS NOT CHEAP.
Mr. Obama, please accept the invitation to go to Tennessee.