Be Part of the Solution

I recently attended the 25^th anniversary of the first environmental conference sponsored by what later became the West Virginia Environmental Council, or WVEC.

It was simultaneously inspiring and disappointing. Inspiring because I was among long-time movers and shakers in the environmental movement in WV like Norm Steenstra, Cindy Rank, Vivian Stockman, Jim Kotcon, Bill Price, and Wendy Radcliff, who  spoke about issues they were working on and passionate about. Disappointing because I was one of only about fifty people in attendance.

One reason this was my first time attending a WVEC conference is that I’ve never considered myself an “environmentalist” or an “activist” on environmental issues.  However, I went because I have come to realize that due to the scope of problems facing our state and our world, all of us must, to some degree, become environmental activists.

The precipitating event for me was the January 9, 2014 Freedom Industries chemical spill which poisoned the water supply of 300,000 people in nine counties of West Virginia including the state capital, Charleston, where I live. I call it Aquageddon. If you experienced it, you haven’t forgotten it. Even if you didn’t, you likely remember the extensive national news coverage of the chemical, “crude MCHM”, about which little was known.  After only a few days, state officials and the Center for Disease Control declared the chemical was present in small enough amounts not to be a health risk.  But even a month or more later, the affected public continued to be highly suspicious of water that had the telltale odor of licorice, which the chemical emits. Questions about what level of exposure might result in long term health risks remain unanswered, and almost a year later there are still people in the affected areas who refuse to drink the tap water.

Prior to Aquageddon, I considered myself a supporter of environmental issues. Given a choice, I always voted for candidates who were more likely to support environmental protection, and on occasion I attended fund raisers, made contributions to environmental organizations, and attended rallies.

In the wake of Aquageddon, I attended rallies and led the singing of “This Land is Your Land,” with new lyrics I’d written about the water crisis and mountain top removal (MTR) mining. I attended public meetings and went to E-Day at the legislature to lobby for the tank storage bill, a bill that passed by a unanimous vote of the WV House and Senate. UNANIMOUS! How often does that happen?

I wondered if this would be a “come to Jesus moment” heralding the beginning of a new day for recognition of environmental catastrophes that have been occurring for decades in West Virginia due to MTR and other lightly regulated industries: poisoned water supplies, flattened mountains, buried streams,  increased cancer rates and other negative health impacts on communities near mountain removal coal mines? Would the legislature take another look at the effects on our water supply and communities caused by “Fracking” in order to decide whether stricter regulations are needed? Would they begin to question the actual cost of burning carbon fuels when damage to roads, water, air, health, tourism, and communities is factored in?

Or was this the Legislature’s version of “giving the Devil his due” in which they would have to be seen doing something because so many rich and powerful people in the state were affected by Aquageddon, but could ignore the by and large rural communities affected by MTR and Fracking. Surprise, surprise, it turns out it’s the latter.

I am not a scientist, don’t like to attend meetings, and don’t want to spend my time walking the halls of the Legislature. But I want to make sure that the environmental heroes who are working to protect us continue to have the resources they need to organize meetings and rallies, to study the impacts that fracking and MTR are having, to take water, soil, and air samples.  Before WVEC was formed, activists from groups working on local issues from all around the state descended on legislators in uncoordinated and overlapping ways. WVEC was formed so the environmental community could speak with a unified voice, sharing information with legislators so they are hearing the facts about the impacts of a lack of sensible regulation on West Virginians. Without WVEC and other environmental organizations, legislators only hear what the industry lobbyists have to say about how laws and regulations might impact their bottom lines.

To help support this critical work, I started a project called AWARE: Artists Working in Alliance to Restore the Environment. AWARE’s mission is primarily to raise funds for environmental organizations in West Virginia, especially WVEC and its member groups, which include the GreenbrierRiver Watershed Association, Ohio Valley Environmental Council, Sierra Club ofWest Virginia,  WV Citizen Action Group, WV Highlands Conservancy, and the WV Rivers Coalition, I hope you will think about what you’re willing to do to help protect our environment, and if it doesn’t include activism, at least make a donation to one or more of these organizations or another like them, or to AWARE, which will distribute the money among them.

Climate Change No Longer Being Ignored

*2 Day Diet progress follows post

Climate Change is back in the news, and it seems like, except for a few die-hards on right wing talk radio, the conversation is finally changing from whether it’s real to what to do about it. It started on May 6 with the release of the National Climate Assessment (I recommend visiting the website), a comprehensive document which confirms that everything most of us saw was happening to be true: the climate is changing; it’s the result of burning fossil fuels; severe weather and droughts are becoming more severe and more frequent; they will continue to get worse unless global emissions are severely reduced (and maybe even if they are); and human health, water supply, infrastructure, agriculture, oceans, and indigenous peoples are all threatened.

And now, after years of Congressional inaction, the EPA has proposed regulations forcing states to confront the emissions from power plants in an effort to reduce carbon emissions by 30% of 2005 levels by 2030. It sounds like a lot, but in fact we are already almost halfway there because of rules in place for new power plants and competition from cheaper natural gas. Contrary to rhetoric from those who scream, “War on Coal” this merely continues the retirement of older coal-fired power plants that cannot meet current standards and encourages a better mix of energy sources. Coal is still expected to supply about 30% of America’s energy needs. These regulations do nothing to control carbon emissions from other sources such as vehicles, homes, and factories. It is not a comprehensive carbon policy.

Republicans and some Democratic lawmakers in coal states like ours complain about EPA overreach, but a recent poll by the Washington Post showed 70% of Americans willing to pay more for electricity to lower carbon emissions. Lawsuits will be filed in an effort to stop or delay implementation. But if lawmakers don’t think we should be regulating carbon emissions, there are proposals for market-based solutions to a problem that even they are finally having to admit exists and must be addressed. The one most likely to be palatable to Republicans is referred to as a “Revenue Neutral Carbon Fee.” It also referred to as a carbon tax, but most Republicans prefer the word fee, even though the recent Supreme Court ruling upholding the individual health insurance mandate equated the two words.

If this were to become law, the cost of emitting carbon would be applied to every household and business in America and also to imports from countries that did not adopt a similar fee. This fee, or tax, would start low, but increase every year for ten years giving businesses a predictable cost curve. And the revenue neutral part means the government would not keep the fees. Instead, it would return the money equally to every citizen of the United States. This would offset the costs for those who use a moderate amount of carbon and would even pay a dividend to some households, who, for instance, do not own a car.

While I would support allowing government to withhold some of the revenue to use to offer aid to those whose jobs may be lost and for alternative energy production, this legislation offers Republicans a way to decrease carbon emissions without expanding government, without regulations, and that is market based. We should urge all of our state and national lawmakers and the candidates to consider this proposal. You can learn more about it at citizensclimatelobby.org/carbon-tax.

My 2-Day Diet Progress Week 30, June 2, 2014 

Beginning weight 11/3/13: 209 lbs.

Height 5'8" Age: 62

Goal weight: 165 lbs.

Total loss goal: 44 lbs.

Beginning waist size: 43 in.

Current waist size: 38 in.

Weight end of this week:  177 lbs.

Gain/Loss this week:  +1 lb.

Total Gain/Loss:  -32 lbs.