High Steaks- Missouri Lawmaker Calls for Pork Steak Rebellion After EPA Mulls Regulations For BBQ Grills

Kicking off this seasons #PorkSteakRebellion pic.twitter.com/pSFKYohPBf

— Brian Stahlheber (@bstahlheber) March 22, 2015

Not content with restricting what kind of woodstoves New Englanders can have in their homes, the EPA is setting their sights on what kind of outdoor grills that people can use during cookouts.

The agency awarded a $15,000 grant to the University of California-Riverside to look into technology for grills that is intended to "reduce air pollution as well as health hazards in Southern California, with potential for global application". This has led to some concerns that the EPA will introduce further restrictions on newly manufactured propane grills.

One Missouri state lawmaker has taken exception to the EPA's maneuvering and has called for a campaign of defiance and civil disobedience dubbed the 'Pork Steak Rebellion' to preemptively thwart any moves by the agency.

It's a sentiment shared by State Senator Eric Schmitt.

Although this is not a new law the agency pushing to get on the books, Senator Schmitt isn't taking any chances.

He introduced a resolution discouraging any regulations on the tradition of backyard barbecuing. The lawmaker has a lot of support from people who couldn't agree more.

Schmitt has also taken his campaign to twitter--#porksteakrebellion--encouraging people to barbeque in their backyards.

Meanwhile, in Texas, Austin's city council is mulling an ordinance that would require BBQ joints or mobile food vendors within 150 feet of a residence to install restaurant grade scrubbers. Some businesses have stated they would have to move of shut down altogether due to the high cost of compliance.

Several council members believe the smoke being emitted from these businesses are having an adverse affect on the health and quality of life of the people who live nearby. Renteria says he’s fielded calls from concerned constituents.

“Saying that if this keeps on, they were just going to have to sell their house and move out,” said Renteria. “The whole resolution is not to try and run anyone out of business it’s just we all want to be good neighbors.”

This requirement does not apply to locations that burn supplemental wood chips and chunks in stove-top box smokers using gas-powered stoves or grills.

“We would have to leave town most likely, or just close up because it’s just not an option to put scrubbers in for eight smoke stacks,” explained Aaron Franklin, founder of the popular Franklin BBQ on East 11th Street.

Franklin says a solution is out there but they just have to find one so Austinites can enjoy BBQ without living in smoke.

“This BBQ thing creates a ton of revenue here in town,” said Franklin, who understands that something needs to be done to help neighbors cope with the smoke, but he feels that scrubbers are not the answer.

As recently as last year, the Texas state environmental agency- the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality- had received complaints about smoke had visited multiple BBQ joints in Austin, but in those instances the TCEQ found no violations.

EPA Reportedly Sets Sights on Fireworks Displays

Not content with killing off the coal industry, a new set of rules proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency could end up putting the kibosh on 4th of July fireworks throughout the USA. The changes reportedly ask for further clarification of which streams and wetlands would fall under the jurisdiction of the Environmental Protection Agency and Army Corps of Engineers.

However, in a letter to the EPA a number of GOP lawmakers have expressed concerns that these rules would leave small towns open to nuisance lawsuits from environmental groups seeking to shut down 4th of July fireworks displays.

"We are concerned, on the eve of the celebration of this great nation’s founding, that the EPA is set to foster expanded efforts to undermine this form of celebration," says a letter sent to EPA chief Gina McCarthy from 10 GOP senators.
"If finalized, EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers’ proposal to expand the Clean Water Act’s definition of the 'waters of the United States' may enable litigious environmental groups to jeopardize fireworks displays throughout the country," the letter, spearheaded by Sen. David Vitter (R-La.), adds.

Republicans in Congress have called the rules a "power grab," but the EPA has stressed the proposal does not expand protections.

The rules require that the EPA and Army Corps approve any project that might pollute the protected waterways already under their jurisdiction, keeping in place exemptions for farming, ranching and forestry practices.

But the 10 signatories claim the proposal would encourage environmental groups to challenge firework displays at lakes and recreational water areas legally.

In California, the Lake Murray July 4 fireworks show has been canceled three consecutive years due to litigation uncertainty, the letter states.

A number of newspapers have run op-eds supporting bans 4th of July on fireworks displays, citing fire hazards and air quality concerns.

The rules wouldn't leave just small towns vulnerable to such nuisance litigation- large cities such as New York City, San Diego and New Orleans launch their fireworks from barges strategically placed along a river or in a harbor for the 4th of July- although they would be better equipped to handle nuisance lawsuits than smaller towns or counties that launch fireworks from an adjacent river or lake.

However, in addition to nuisance lawsuits, numerous firework displays have been cancelled out west due to increased danger of wildfire and a number of 4th of July fireworks displays are threatened up and down the east coast this year with the approach of Tropical Storm Arthur.

Utilities Once Again Eyeing Coal As Sustained Chill Prompts Spike in Natural Gas Prices

Buffalo & Pittsburgh SD40-3 #3604 is seen backing a cut of hopper cars under the Rosebud Mining Lady Jane coal tipple in Pennfield, PA in January 2012. Mark MacDougall photo

As the winter Polar Vortex and supply problems with natural gas drive prices to four year highs, some utilities are shifting back to coal as a power source to deal with the increased demand.

Coal's share of energy production in the U.S. might climb to 40.3 percent from 39 percent last year. And the U.S. is on track for its coldest winter in more than 30 years through January, giving rise to the less expensive energy source.

“The idea of coal disappearing is not an effective climate change policy,” said John Thompson, an analyst at the Boston-based Clean Air Task Force told Bloomberg News. “Coal use is growing.”

Although a number of utilities have switched from coal to natural gas in recent years thanks to drilling in the Marcellus and Utica shale, the Energy Information Administration reported that utilities pulled a record 287 billion cubic feet from storage in January. The low storage levels have put pressure on the utilities and energy companies to replenish the supply in storage. The Polar Vortex has also prompted some energy companies to lobby for extending the life of older coal-fired power plants to deal with further spikes in demand.

Despite a concerted campaign by environmentalists and public health experts to stanch its use, coal, the most plentiful and cheapest fuel in the world, is proving globally resilient. In the U.S., rising natural gas prices are prodding utilities to switch back to coal at levels not seen since 2011.

Now, Edison Electric Institute, the Washington-based trade group of U.S. investor-owned utilities, is turning to the latest series of cold snaps to bolster their lobbying of the Obama administration and state regulators to keep coal and nuclear generators alive.

“I’ve been advocating fuel diversity so you don’t get overly dependent on any one particular fuel source,” the group’s president, Thomas Kuhn, said during a Feb. 11 interview at Bloomberg News headquarters in New York. “On a regional basis we still want to keep that in mind.”

During the 2008 campaign, President Obama infamously declared in a videotaped interview that he would seek to impose regulations that would essentially bankrupt the coal industry. Cap and trade legislation that would've eventually driven the coal industry out of business cleared the Democrat-controlled house of representatives in 2009, but the legislation died in the senate. However, the Obama Administration has sought to implement much of Cap and Trade through piecemeal regulatory fiat using the EPA. In late 2013, the EPA announced a 'listening tour' on proposed new coal regulations that would skip most coal mining states.

Proposed EPA Rules on Wood Burning Stoves and Fireplaces Prompt Rural Backlash

Sheer Delight- Gil Elvgren 1948

It's not enough that the Environmental Protection Agency has launched an all-out assault on the coal industry- now the EPA has designs on homeowner's woodstoves, fireplaces or pellet stoves.

A federal proposal to clean up the smoke wafting from wood-burning stoves has sparked a backlash from some rural residents, lawmakers and manu­facturers who fear it could close the damper on one of the oldest ways of warming homes on cold winter days.

Proposed regulations from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency would significantly reduce the amount of particle pollution allowed from the smokestacks of new residential wood-powered heaters.

Wood-burning stoves are a staple in rural homes in many states, a cheap heating source for low-income residents and others wanting to lessen their reliance on gas or electric furnaces. Outdoor models often cost several thousand dollars, but indoor stoves can cost as little as a few hundred dollars and sometimes double as fashionable centerpieces in homes.

Some manufacturers contend the EPA’s proposed standards are so stringent that the higher production costs would either force them out of business or raise prices so high that many consumers could no longer afford their products.

"There’s not a stove in the United States that can pass the test right now — this is the death knell of any wood burning,” Reg Kelly, the founder of Earth Outdoor Furnaces in Mountain Grove, told Missouri lawmakers during a recent hearing.

More than three dozen Missouri lawmakers have co-sponsored a bill that would symbolically fight back against the EPA by declaring that “All Missourians have a right to heat their homes and businesses using wood-burning furnaces, stoves, fireplaces and heaters."


This past week, a Missouri House committee endorsed a revised measure that proposes to ban state environmental officials from regulating residential wood heaters unless authorized by the Legislature.

Missouri appears to be one the first states to introduce legislation in response to the proposed EPA regulations. But concerns over wood stove pollution and regulations also have been simmering in other states, including Utah and Alaska.

There are about 12 million wood stoves in U.S. homes, including about 9 million that are less than half as efficient as the newer stoves, according to the EPA. The agency’s proposed rules would not affect stoves already in homes.

Most people who own wood stoves have other means of heat, such as electric or gas furnaces. But about 2 percent U.S. homes rely on wood as their primary heating source — a figure that has been rising over the past decade.

I can speak with some firsthand experience- if there's a prolonged, days-long blackout with freezing temperatures, an old fashioned woodstove or fireplace can seem like a godsend. With the eastern US getting walloped by waves of massive winter storms that have knocked down trees and power lines only a few weeks into 2014, a fireplace or woodstove along with a supply of firewood pays dividends.

There is no public hearings on the EPA's proposed revision of regulations for woodstoves and fireplaces, although the agency is accepting public comments through 90 days after their Jan 3rd publication.

Manufacturers have expressed concern that the new EPA regulations would drive up prices and make woodstoves unaffordable for most consumers.

Watson is president of Jotul North America, a wood stove manufacturer founded in Maine in 1980. Its 70 employees manufacture hundreds of cast-iron stoves each year at its facility in Gorham, where it has been located since 2005. Jotul’s stoves already far exceed the current emission standards, which were established by the EPA in 1988, Watson said.

Watson estimates it will cost the company $1 million to re-engineer its product lines and update its testing capabilities to meet the new standard, which because of variability in stove testing he thinks will result in a “statistically insignificant” change in the emissions compared to Jotul’s current stoves.

That cost will be passed onto stove dealers and consumers, resulting in prices for new Jotul stoves to increase by as much as 25 percent, or an additional $300-$500 per stove depending on the model, Watson estimates. Based on this economy and his understanding of supply and demand, he said he’d expect to see his sales fall as a result. Overall, there were roughly 4,500 wood stoves sold in Maine in 2012, according to industry figures cited by Watson.

“When you’re a manufacturer, to cough up $1 million and increase the cost of your stoves’ retail prices by 25 percent — that payback is going to be really tough to digest if sales of wood stoves go down because of that increased cost,” he told the Bangor Daily News on Friday.

That will end up having the opposite effect of what the EPA wants, which is more people to adopt new, cleaner-burning stoves.

Critics also point out that regardless of what sport of new regulations the EPA passes, stoves would still have inappropriate fuel such as garbage or wood from younger trees that would cause even more pollution that what the EPA seeks to abate with these new rules. Even pellet stoves, which have been touted as more versatile and efficient than woodstoves, are suffering from a shortage of fuel in northern New England.

Today's Train of Though- Dirty Work, October 17, 2013

Today's Train of Thought takes us to the Great Plains, yet features a distinctly northeastern cargo.

After World War II, manufacturing plants owned by General Electric [NYSE- GE] in upstate New York discharged more than 100 metric tons of polychlorinated biphenyl (PCBs) into the Hudson River. By 1983, the recently-formed Environmental Protection Agency declared a 200 mile stretch of the Hudson River from Hudson Falls, NY and New York City a superfund site and the New York Department of Environmental Conservation prohibited fishing in the Upper Hudson due to concerns over PCB studies.

Following more than a decade of studies for remediating the PCB contamination through the Hudson River, there were two possible solutions- leave the riverbed as-is and let additional layers of silt form of the PCB contaminated soil or start a lengthy project of dredging nearly the entire length of the Hudson River.

Phase one was completed in 2009- the contaminated soil was loaded onto barges that went up to Fort Edawrd, NY before being processed, put into liners and placed onto an 81 car train who's final destination is a landfill along the Texas-New Mexico Railroad in Andrews, TX.

In 2013, dredging began on a 12 mile stretch of the Hudson River between Fort Edward and Schulyerville, NY, with a new disposal site selected in Oklahoma.

Here, CSX SD50 #8513 is seen heading westbound through Ellinor, KS on BNSF's Emporia Subdivision with BNSF train U-CSXAVD [CSX interchange at Chicago, IL to Avard, OK] a unit train laden with the Hudson River's toxic bounty. According to photographer Austin Seely, once in Avard, the soil is offloaded from the railcars and onto trucks before being taken to some abandoned quarries in northwestern Oklahoma

EPA Announces "Listening Tour" For New Coal Regulations That Bypasses Most Coal Producing States

Coal loadout in Clymer, PA. Roy Blanchard photo

Following through on President Obama's June 2013 speech where he essentially promised to finish off the coal industry, the Environmental Protection Agency has announced a ten city 'listening tour' where they will hear public input on proposed new regulations for coal-fired power plants.

While the EPA's 'listening tour' includes New York, Boston, Washington DC and San Francisco, coal-producing states and states that rely primarily on energy from coal-fired power plants are mostly absent from the listening tour. While the listening tour includes Denver- the metropolitan area closest to Wyoming's Powder River Basin- cities such as Pittsburgh or Cleveland are conspicuously absent from the current schedule.

This has led to accusations by some lawmakers on Capitol Hill that the EPA's public input period amounts to a 'selective listening tour' where the agency would only hear input from audiences receptive to bankrupting the coal industry such as the Sierra Club's Beyond Coal campaign.

Representative Shelly Moore-Capito [R- WV2] and 17 other lawmakers have urged the EPA to include more states that would be heavily impacted by the proposed regulations while Kentucky GOP senator Mitch McConnell has contacted EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy to urge that the 'listening tour' includes a stop in Kentucky as well.

McConnell is running for re-election in 2014 and while the new EPA regulations may go over well with environmentalists and celebrities in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco, they will likely be a contentious issue in coal producing states like Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Montana and West Virginia for House, US Senate and gubernatorial candidates.

White House Makes War on Coal Official

Front end loader at work at the Jellico Branch National Coal loadout in Turley, TN in June 2009. BA Harrison photo

Well- at least Obama is following through on one of his campaign promises from 2008-



In a speech at Georgetown University this week, President Obama outlined plans to bypass congress and implement strict new emissions regulations on new and existing power plants throughout the USA. The proposals include shutting down the remaining coal plants in the USA through regulatory fiat and freeing up an estimated $8 billion in guaranteed loans to startup green-energy firms [such as Solyndra, Spectra-Watt or Evergreen solar- all of whom filed for bankruptcy or shipped production offshore- NANESB!].

The speech was basically a big middle finger to coal country and energy-producing states like Texas, North Dakota or Oklahoma. Senator Joe Manchin (D- WV) said that the President's proposals were essentially a declaration of war on the American economy in an interview after Obama's Georgetown address.

Similar proposals- such as a cap and trade system- couldn't make it through a House and Senate controlled by the Democrats in Obama's first term, which was why the President announced his intention to bypass congress with these new regulations.

The speech comes less than a year after the media and supporters of President Obama laughably denied that President Obama was even waging a War on Coal or that GOP candidate Mitt Romney would be more harmful than Obama for the coal industry. However, now that Obama has secured a second term, White House officials can openly declare "a war on coal is exactly what's needed" without having to worry about any immediate electoral consequences.

In recent years, the coal industry has been besieged by competition from oil and natural gas while simultaneously being targeted from the left by well funded and politically connected environmental groups. Although coal is also used in the steelmaking and cement making processes, roughly 40% of the electricity generated in the USA comes from coal-fired power plants. Metallurgic coal is also exported to China, South Korea and Europe for steelmaking there, proposed coal export terminals have been facing increased political opposition in the Pacific Northwest. In the traditionally coal-centered economies of western Pennsylvania, West Virginia and eastern Ohio, natural gas drilling in the Marcellus and Utica shales [along with the EPA's previous regulatory burden- NANESB!] has brought more pressure on the coal industry there.

While the Administration's focus on crippling the coal industry may have seemed to benefit the oil and natural gas industries at first blush, Obama also weighed in on the Keystone XL pipeline during his Georgetown speech, saying that the project wouldn't be approved if he determined that it increased carbon emissions. Backers of the pipeline cite a State Department finding from earlier this year transporting the oil sands from Canada by pipeline would emit less greenhouse gases than shipping it by rail.

Unlike President Obama's vaunted 'green jobs', hiring has been brisk around the oilfields in North Dakota and western Texas in recent years and parts of western and central Pennsylvania have seen economic growth due to exploration and drilling activities around the Marcellus shale.

AEP to Stop Burning Coal At Three Power Plants In President Obama's Latest Victoy in the War on Coal

As part of an settlement reached with the EPA and environmental groups, America's largest user of coal has annouced that agreed to stop burning coal at three of their power plants. American Electric Power [NYSE- AEP] also announced as part of the settlement that it would be developing more wind and solar projects in Indiana and Michigan.

While the Columbus, Ohio-based company had previously announced aspects of the deal, the full scope of the control measures and closings is a sign of the pressure on power producers to cut or clean up coal use for electricity generation, environmental advocates said.

“Across the country, the coal industry faces unprecedented setbacks as its share of electricity generation plummets, and the cost of coal continues to skyrocket,” Jodi Perras, Indiana representative for the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal Campaign, said in a statement. “This agreement is only the latest sign of progress.”

AEP said earlier this month that it expects to spend $4 billion to $5 billion on pollution controls at its coal-fueled plants through 2020, less than the $6 billion to $8 billion it had estimated in 2011. It also said its coal plants should generate about half of its power by decade’s end, down from 65 percent.

In return for that change, AEP will develop more wind and solar power in Indiana and Michigan. And it will close or shift to natural-gas three units at existing coal plants: Tanners Creek Generating Station unit four in Indiana, the Muskingum River Power Plant unit five in Ohio and the Big Sandy Power Plant unit two in Kentucky.

The company had previously planned to retrofit the Tanners Creek plant and continue burning coal there, Melissa McHenry, a company spokeswoman, said in an e-mail. It had already announced that it planned to shutter or remodel into natural-gas units the other two, she said.

Far from being an independent, grassroots campaign, the Sierra Club's 'Beyond Coal' campaign has enjoyed an infusion of donations- including a $50 million donation from New York City mayor and noted busybody Mike Bloomberg in 2011- since its 2001 inception.

The coal industry has been reeling from a one-two punch of increased competition from natural gas and an increased regulatory burden from the EPA under the Obama administration. Since Obama's re-election in November, coal mines from Pennsylvania to Virginia to Utah have announced closures and layoffs involving hundreds of employees.

'Coal Mine' Classification of Rural Virginia Airport Expansion Halts County's Economic Development Plan

An airport expansion in the southwestern tip of Virginia is being held up due to regulatory red tape regarding the local airport authority's plans to partially finance it by unearthing and selling coal from a seam that runs underneath the project.

Although state regulators had signed off of the project a few years ago, the runway expansion was subject to review from Federal regulators from the Office of Surface Mining. The project reached an impasse when regulators in Washington D.C. determined that the Breaks Regional Airport Authority proposal was in fact a coal mine and would be subject to a much lengthier and costlier permitting process.

Local leaders say the three-year battle with the U.S. Office of Surface Mining over plans to extend the runway at Grundy Municipal Airport has cost taxpayers in this poverty-stricken corner of Appalachia millions of dollars in lost opportunities, and a list of regulatory hurdles remains before construction can even begin.

“We were attempting to permit this project as an airport project, not a coal-mining project,” said state Sen. Phillip P. Puckett, a Democrat from Lebanon who has been involved for three years with the effort to lengthen the runway from 2,200 feet to more than 5,000 feet — the length needed to comply with insurance standards for corporate jets. The holdup: Federal regulators have refused to allow the runway project to go forward without a mining permit because of the coal deposits below the land that will be dug up during construction.

“That’s where the permitting process got caught up — in determining whether it was an airport project or a mining project, by the Office of Surface Mining in Washington,” Mr. Puckett said. “We’ve tried to resolve that with them for the last couple of years. We’ve had very little success.”

Regulators contend that a mining permit is needed because local authorities plan to sell the coal dug up in extending the runway to help finance the overall project. The Office of Surface Mining said it “will continue to work with the state, as well as other affected local and federal officials, regarding the best way to proceed with the proposed airport expansion.”

While coal would be recovered from the site the lengthy permitting process is more reminiscent of a permanent mining facility, not one that would see some limited recovery of coal before being converted to another use in short order.

The airport is located in Grundy, VA- a mountainous town of about 1100 people thats also the county seat of Buchanan County in the southwestern tip of Virginia. The Grundy airport was completed in 1969 on land donated to the town by the United Coal Company. Since United Coal had already done surface mining on the land, it was flat enough to build a runway but the additional 2800 feet would require adjacent hills to be levelled. Those hills also contain a fairly rich seam of coal that the Breaks Regional Airport Authority would sell to help offset construction costs. However, since the project was proposed in 2004, the cost of coal has declined dramatically as the airport project has been hampered by delays.
Moreover, attorneys for the town advised that a municipality cannot obtain a mining permit, putting Grundy in a Catch-22 situation. Federal regulators had reportedly relented only after pressure on the US Ofice of Surface Mining from Senator Mark Warner (D- VA). Town officials are getting ready to attempt a 'Plan B' that would involve a permitting process that would involve the Federal Aviation Administration as the primary agency. However, even if it is reclassified as a construction project, the airport expansion requires approval from the Environmental Protection Agency and US Army Corps of Engineers- two agencies that have halted scores of projects in coal country in recent years.

Currently, Grundy and Buchanan county are accessable by US Route 460 and Virginia Route 83. The nearest airports that can accomodate private jets are in Abingdon, VA while the nearest commercial airports are in Beckley, WV or Johnson City, TN. Although there is a recently completed 1200-acre mixed use business park in Buchanan County, potential investors have to travel at least an hour and a half over narrow, mountainous roads from the nearest airport if they want to see the industrial park for themselves.

It’s important for jets to be able to land and take off from Grundy because, for economic-development prospects — businesses that might locate in the area — air travel is the only efficient way to get there. The 43-year-old facility is the only airport in Buchanan County.

“Most of the time, they fly into Abingdon, and you’re talking about [a drive of] an hour and a half, at least,” said Tim Potter, who heads the industrial development authority in Grundy, which is more than 50 miles on mountain roads from the nearest interstate highway. “It’s not convenient.”

Now, Buchanan County has something to show off to visitors: a glittering new 1,200-acre mixed-use business park built on a nearby mountaintop also flattened by mining.

The town, with creative financing and an infusion of federal flood-control dollars, has remade itself as a retail destination. Local economic development officials are hopeful that the business sites they offer will lure more companies to locate in Buchanan County — but first, investors and companies looking to relocate have to see the park.

As of 2009, Buchanan County was the poorest in the state of Virginia.

The region also recieved bad news last month with Bristol, VA-based Alpha Natural Resources announcing the closure of eight mines and layoffs of nearly 10% of the company's workforce. Although a mild winter and increased competition from natural gas have depressed coal prices in the last year or so, President Obama had promised to bankrupt the coal industry and shut down a number of coal-fired power plants.

Anti-Fracking Movie Starring Matt Damon Bankrolled in Part by OPEC-Member United Arab Emirates

A new drama starring Matt Damon as a smooth-talking natural gas company official who attempts to purchase drilling rights from local residents in a rural Pennsylvania town is already generating buzz, but it has nothing to do with what takes place on-screen.

The movie Promised Land supposedly dramatizes the dangers involved in the drilling process known as hydrofracking- a local environmentalist seeks to thwart Damon and his company's attempts to drill in the area. To hardly any one's surprise, the local schoolteacher and environmentalist who raises the alarm regarding hydrofracking is portrayed in a positive manner while I suspect Damon's gas company official will be portrayed as manipulative and unethical- at least until his change of heart where he falls in love with a local woman.

Pretty standard Hollywood 'We-Liberals-and-Environmentalists-know-whats-best-for-you-rubes-in-flyover-country' boilerplate so far, right? With its December release, there's even Oscar talk for Promised Land all while bringing the ongoing debate over fracking front and center.

Only it was recently discovered that the film has received considerable financial backing from the United Arab Emirates- a member of OPEC and among the top 10 oil producing nations in the world.

The film was produced “in association with” Image Media Abu Dhabi, a subsidiary of Abu Dhabi Media, as first reported by the Heritage Foundation. Abu Dhabi Media is wholly owned by the government of the United Arab Emirates, a small but extremely wealthy federation of absolute monarchies along the southern coast of the Persian Gulf.

Very obviously, the UAE has an interest in slowing down the expansion of hydraulic fracking that has created an energy boom in the United States.

This would not be the first American film that would've received financial backing from Image Media Abu Dubai- other titles include The Help, Contagion and The Crazies among others.

Locations for filming Promised Land include the city of Pittsburgh as well as Westmoreland and Armstrong counties in Western Pennsylvania. A group of Armstrong county residents, upset at what they claim were the filmmakers using false pretenses to film in the area, started up a Facebook page called Armstrong County Promised Land Pride. Visitors to the page are greeted with the following succinct message: "They filmed this movie in our backyard. They said it would be fair to drilling. It's not. We're pissed."

Fracking opponents claim that the process injects massive quantities of hazardous chemicals into the groundwater and that hydrofracking can cause tap water to burst into flame and caused last year's magnitude 5.8 earthquake in Mineral, VA that was felt up and down the East Coast- even though the nearest natural gas well was hundreds of miles away.

The movie is loosely based on events in Dimock, PA where a handful of local residents had claimed drilling from nearby wells had contaminated their groundwater. However, after analysis by Pennsylvania's environmental agency and the EPA, the water was deemed safe to drink by the EPA this summer.

The real-life events in Dimock have reportedly prompted a hasty re-write of the Promised Land script. Of course this is where Hollywood decided to double down on the stupid in typical Hollywood fashion.

according to sources close to the movie, they’ve come up with a solution — suggest that anti-fracking fraudsters are really secret agents employed by the fossil-fuel industry to discredit the environmental movement.

In the revised script, Damon exposes Krasinski as a fraud — only to realize that Krasinski’s character is working deep undercover for the oil industry to smear fracking opponents.

Hollywood is worried about declining theater audiences; it’s blaming the Internet and the recession. But the real problem might be closer to home.

Damon and Krasinski said they were making a movie that “defines us as a country” but then shoehorned ideology into a script — and when real-world events became a problem, they shoehorned in more ideology.

You see, instead of the noble well-intentioned environmentalist perhaps having some kind of a 'Mea Culpa' moment and the dire environmental consequences Kasinski's charachter warned about not taking place, in west coast liberal screenwriter-land, the anti-fracking advocates being wrong are purely the fault of the oil company who are disseminating misinformation to discredit opponents.

Instead of some ancillary plot where the cash-strapped townsfolk can now afford to save up for their kids' college education or put an elderly relative in a decent rest home- all while drinking and bathing with tapwater that doesn't burst into flames- the alarmist and false narrative spun by the environmentalists and celebrity anti-frackers has to be placed at the feet of the energy companies. I believe that is called 'chutzpah' in some parts of the world.

President Obama's Latest Victory in the War on Coal: Virginia-Based Coal Miner Alpha Natural Resources Announces It's Laying Off Nearly 10% Of Its Workforce

Norfolk Southern train seen backing up the Gilbert branch in Wharncliffe, WV to serve the Alpha Natural Resources Premium highwall mine in July 2008. JB Lockard photo

Bristol, VA-based Alpha Natural Resources [NYSE- ANR] announced on Tuesday that they would be shuttering at least eight mines and laying off approximately 1200 employees- nearly 10% of the company's workforce.

Alpha CEO Kevin Critchfield cited a lack of coal-fired power plants being built in the country and increased regulatory burdens from the EPA on both mining companies and utilities that use coal as contributing to the announced layoffs.

During a 2008 video interview with the San Francisco Chronicle, then-candidate Barack Obama promised to bankrupt anybody who built a coal-fired power plant in the United States. He also promised that energy prices would 'neccesarily skyrocket' under a cap and trade system that he was in favor of.

In June 2009, the Waxman-Markey Cap And Trade act passed the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives, but never made it to the Senate as both the House and Senate focused on getting 0bamacare passed. However, the White House was able to impose a number of restrictions on utilities and coal-fired power plants by way of regulatory fiat through using the Environmental Protection Agency as its enforcement arm.

The impending Alpha closures will affect at least eight mines in three different states- Virginia, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. Work at those facilities will continue until current contracts are fulfilled.

Spokesman Ted Pile says the affected West Virginia operations are the Alloy deep mine near Powellton, the Alloy surface mine near Boomer, the Premium highwall mine near Gilbert and the White Flame Surface Mine near Wharncliffe.

The Virginia mines are Guest Mountain deep mines No. 8 and No. 9 near Norton, and Twin Star Surface Mine near Hurley.

In Pennsylvania, Alpha will close its Dora deep mine in Jefferson County.

With the EPA regulations in place and no new coal-fired power plants being built, many companies have shifted from mining thermal coal typically burned at power plants to produce electricity to metallurgic coal which is in demand for steelmaking overseas.

In June of 2011, Alpha had acquired competitor Massey Energy in a deal worth $7.1 billion. Some of the facilities being closed down include former Massey properties.

Alpha isn't the only coal mining company that has been struggling in the current economic and regulatory environment. In July of this year, Patriot Coal had filed for bankruptcy protection thanks in part to a weaker economy, cancelled contracts as well as the same hostile regulatory environment. Out west, environmentalists have rallied and attempted to obstruct coal trains and export terminals from even passing through their cities- even filing nuisance lawsuits against railroads over diesel exhaust and coal dust.

Democrats Skipping National Convention, Seek to Distance Themselves From Obama

At least a half dozen elected Democrats announced that they will not be attending the party's upcoming national Convention at Charlotte, NC in September.

The latest no-shows who made the announcement came from two incumbent Representatives from Upstate New York who are trying to get re-elected in competitive districts.

Congressman Bill Owens [D- NY23] and Kathy Hochul [D- NY26] announced separately that they would be spending time in their respective districts and with their campaigns in lieu of attending the party's gathering in the Tarheel state. The two upstate Democrats' announced their decision a day after Pennsylvania Congressman [D- PA12] told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review that he would be campaigning in lieu of attending the DNC's convention this September. The April Keystone state primary pitted two Democrat incumbents- Critz and Jason Altmire [D- PA4]- against each other to vie for the newly-redrawn congressional district. Critz fended off the challenge from Altmire by winning they newly-formed district's primary by a 52% margin.

Critz, Owens and Hochul each came into office during closely contested special elections since 2009 and all three of them are facing spirited challenges from Republican opposition in their districts, leading many to observe that they're distancing themselves from President Obama for their 2012 campaigns.

Meanwhile, the Democrat delegation from the Mountain State will be under-represented as Democrat governor Earl Ray Tomblin, US Senator Joe Manchin and Congressman Nick Rahall [D- WV3] all announced they would be skipping out on the DNC convention. The three West Virginia Democrats have criticized Obama's energy policies as effectively bankrupting the coal-producing state. Under the Obama Administration, the EPA has ordered the shutdown of dozens of coal-fired power plants and during the closing days of the 2008 Presidential campaign, Obama had promised that energy prices would skyrocket while he would bankrupt the coal industry.

Critz, Manchin, Tomblin and Rahall all represent coal producing regions while Owens and Hochul's districts could benefit from natural gas exploration on the Marcellus shale should New York state ever lift a moratorium on hyrdo-fracking. Despite being abundant and domestically available energy sources, President Obama, the Democrats and their environmentalist backers have demonstrated an inherent antipathy towards fossil fuels- including coal and natural gas- as a cornerstone of their energy policy.

In late May, prominent Democrats such as former Pennsylvania governor Ed Rendell, Newark, NJ mayor Corey Booker and Massachusetts governor DeVal Patrick were rebuked by the White House after they were critical of the Obama campaign's attacks on private equity firm Bain Capital as a means of going after presumptive GOP nominee Mitt Romney.

The convention venue itself is a point of contention among some Democrats. Although North Carolina is a right-to-work state, local officials agreed to outsource some labor contracts to out-of-state union shops. Last month, Tarheel state voters approved an amendment to the state's constitution that would define marriage as between a man and a woman. The move draw ire from the gay community, who had unsuccessfully petitioned the DNC to change venues.

Subsidized California Electric Car Company Folds, Leaves City of Salinas on the Hook for $500,000

Hmm....who didn't see this coming?

A Salinas car manufacturing company that was expected to build environmentally friendly electric cars and create new jobs folded before almost any vehicles could run off the assembly line.

The city of Salinas had invested more than half a million dollars in Green Vehicles, an electric car start-up company.

All of that money is now gone, according to Green Vehicles President and Co-Founder Mike Ryan.

The start-up company set up shop in Salinas in the summer of 2009, after the city gave Ryan a $300,000 community development grant.

When the company still ran into financial trouble last year, the city of Salinas handed Ryan an additional $240,000. Green Vehicles also received $187,000 from the California Energy Commission.

Salinas Mayor Dennis Donohue said he was "surprised and disappointed" by the news. City officials were equally irked that Ryan notified them through an email that his company had crashed and burned.

I suppose I shouldn't laugh, but as the ruling party is attempting to shut down oil platforms, coal-fired power plants or natural gas drilling through regulatory fiat or executive orders, they continue doling out subsidies and grants for electric cars or 56 MPG vehicles all in the name of 'green jobs'.

And poorly thought-out ventures like Green Vehicles, heavily subsidized by governments in the name of 'going green', will continue to fall flat on their face as long as the ruling party assumes that they can pick winners and losers in the private sector.

[Hat tip: Labor Union Report; The Lonely Conservative]

Obama Administration Offshore Moratorium Struck Down AGAIN; Taiwanese Super-Skimmer 'A Whale' Begins Testing

The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans rejected the federal government's request to reinstate a moratorium on offshore drilling in the Gulf of Mexico on Thursday afternoon. The three judge panel voted 2-1 against the moratorium, stating that Interior Secretary head Ken Salazar failed to make the case that his original stay was necessary.

"The secretary has failed to demonstrate a likelihood of irreparable injury if the stay is not granted; he has made no showing that there is any likelihood that drilling activities will be resumed pending appeal," the decision read

This may actually be a moot point, since the Interior Department or another agency can issue another moratorium or injunction- or tie up the permit and renewal process with so much red tape that one might as well be in effect. I'm sure the two judges that voted will have their financial records scrutinized like Martin Feldman's were when he issued the original injunction a few weeks ago. Again, I cordially invite these same dedicated internet sleuths to let me know when they devote their energies to finding the 'jobs created or saved' thanks to Obama's stimulus....or whether or not the dissenting judge was heavily invested in carbon offset schemes.



The first round of tests were deemed 'inconclusive' thanks to rough waters over the Independence Day weekend, but the Taiwanese bulk-freighter-turned-superskimmer A Whale is slated to undergo another week of testing around the Deepwater Horizon site. Taiwanese Maritime Transport owner Nobu Su announced that if successful, he's prepared to retrofit a second freighter dubbed the B Whale to assist in the cleanup efforts. Su and TMT (which apparently is in the middle of re-branding itself as Today Makes Tomorrow) are still awaiting approval from the US Coast Guard and EPA- if they decline Su's offer, he won't get compensated for the retrofit and voyage to the Gulf of Mexico [Personally, besides not wanting to see all those roughnecks and rig workers out of a job, I hope the A Whale proves effective- NANESB!].

The vessel was rebuilt in Portugal after the BP Deepwater Horizon sinking and first arrived in Norfolk VA.

A Whale of A Gulf Coast Update- Massive Skimmer Moves from Virginia to Gulf; Alex Playing Havoc With Cleanup; What's in a Name?

[AP/Patrick Semansky]

The newest weapon being deployed against the Deepwater Horizon oil spill dropped anchor in Boothville, LA on Wednesday. A massive Taiwanese owned, Liberian-flagged vessel arrived at the mouth of the Mississippi River earlier today that could remove as much as 500,000 barrels of oil per day from the Gulf of Mexico. TMT's A-Whale, which was built in South Korea as an oil tanker and refitted as a skimmer in Portugal earlier this month, was in Norfolk, VA last weekend where it underwent cursory examination by Coast Guard officials and the EPA.

Edward Overton, a professor emeritus from Louisiana State University, was among the visitors at the port where the A Whale was berthed. He called the current cleanup inadequate.

"It is absolutely gigantic. It's unbelievable. We need this ship,” he told TMT executives in Norfolk. “That oil is already contaminating our shoreline.”

The contaminated water is brought in through a dozen slits on the bow, where the oil and contaminants are separated and the cleaner water is discharged back out into the Gulf. However, the EPA has taken issue with the fact that the discharged water won't be 100% clean and needs to sign off on the quality of the treated water going back.

There is also the matter of the Jones Act, which has proven to be a major obstacle for foreign offers of assistance since the Deepwater Horizon sunk, is still in full effect. US Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen insisted that the Jones Act wasn't that big an obstacle, since it didn't hinder vessels operating three miles or more offshore. While this is true, this would hinder the foreign-flagged vessel's ability to resupply and return to shore during the cleanup unless there was an explicit waiver of the Merchant Marine Act of 1920 (the original name of the Jones Act).

[By the way, did you know that the A Whale, the Jones Act and the 80,000 or so feet of containment boom from a Maine company are "talking points" of the vast right-wing conspiracy? You see- the president of the Maine company sent Scott Brown a $500 donation back in January, so he's obviously in on it. Oh...and some commentor on a liberal blog says LaPointe's mom gave a few hundred dollars to ultra-right wing zealot Senators Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe over the last decade, so they're in on it. And while Mother Jones concedes that President Bush quickly lifted the Jones act in the wake of Katrina, it was only to help his Big Oil buddies move product out of damaged refineries in Southern Louisiana. Because removing a bunch of volatile and unstable chemicals and materials from industrial facilites damaged by hurricanes benefits nobody but Republicans and oil companies, apparently -NANESB!]

Elsewhere, cleanup efforts were halted because of the approach of Hurricane Alex. While the center of the storm made landfall in Northern Mexico, the outer reaches of the storm were expected to whip through the Deepwater Horizon site along with some of the coastline where cleanup efforts were under way. There was also the chance that Alex could've changed direction and moved closer towards the affected areas of Louisiana, Alabama or Mississippi. Hurricane Alex briefly gained in strength to a Category 2 storm when making landfall in a relatively sparsely area of Tamaulipas state in Northern Mexico, some 130 miles south of Brownsville, TX.

The aftermath of the oil spill took a more partisan turn when House Democrats nixed Republican Congressman Steve Scalise's (LA-1) proposed trip to fly 10 lawmakers down to the Gulf Coast to see the damaged coastal areas firsthand. The Republican Congressmen invited by Scalise wanted to use their office's spending allowance, but Democrats claim that the ever-so-effective Department of Homeland Security would not approve official visits to disaster areas (which constitute much of the Gulf Coast) and ask that trips be organized through jurisdictional committees in order to avoid having to cater to 'a ton of individual lawmakers'. Interesting how the House Democrats have magically discovered fiscal responsibility now instead of when Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi was using the US Military to chauffeur around her family and running up a $101,000 bar tab. All of Louisiana's coastal Parishes are represented in Congress by Republicans.

Shortly after Louisiana governor Bobby Jindal ordered the National Guard to begin construction on some artificial barrier islands to prevent to oil from reaching further inland, the Governor's efforts at oil abatement were thwarted by the Coast Guard themselves when they ordered the shutdown of oil vacuuming barges while they were inspected for fire-extinguishers and life vests. A few days later, the dredging effort was ordered halted by the Interior Department saying that the rock, dirt and ballast for the artificial barriers were being dredged up in an environmentally sensitive area. A state official stressed that the dredging had been taking place within the original federal permit area at the north end of the Chandaleurs all month.

Another measure the Interior Department has taken in response to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill is to change the name of the Mineral Management Services.

Yes. Really....

The agency formerly known as the Mineral Management Services will now be referred to as the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (BOMRE). The name change was effective June 18, 2010.