Reporter Erica Peterson will join Louisville Public Media on May 23rd. In addition to her role as Managing Editor of ORRC, she’ll report on the environment for WFPL News in Louisville.

“We’re excited to have Erica coming on board,” says WFPL News Director Gabe Bullard. “The environment is one of the most pressing issues of our time. With her experience covering the coal industry, government and numerous important topics, Erica will be a valuable addition to our expanding newsroom and to our community.”

A reporter and producer at West Virginia Public Broadcasting since 2008, Peterson has covered the environment and energy issues, as well as state government. Her work has aired on NPR’s All Things Considered, as well as Public Radio International’s Living on Earth and WNYC’s The Takeaway. A collaborative series about a massive fish kill in West Virginia was selected by the West Virginia Associated Press Broadcaster’s Association as the best ongoing coverage in the state in 2009.

Her work has been cited by numerous blogs, including NPR’s The Two-Way, PBS News Hour’s The Rundown, The Society of Environmental Journalists’ Headlines, the University of Kentucky’s The Rural Blog and the Charleston Gazette’s Coal Tattoo.

The first guilty plea has been entered in the federal criminal case that was launched after last year’s Upper Big Branch mine disaster in West Virginia.

Former Massey Energy foreman Thomas Harrah’s plea agreement includes the admission that he faked his foreman’s credentials while working at Upper Big Branch, then lied to federal agents about it.

From NPR:

Harrah left Upper Big Branch seven months before the April 2010 explosion that killed 29 Massey mine workers. But U.S. Attorney Booth Goodwin says the charges are “directed at preventing a similar tragedy from happening again.”

Mine foremen are responsible for conducting safety inspections before and during production shifts underground that are supposed to catch problems that could put lives at risk. Harrah failed the examination that would have certified him as a properly trained foreman.

In the plea agreement, Harrah admits to falsely blaming an unnamed official from Massey Energy for helping to fake his foreman’s certification.

“He left [Massey Energy] before we could terminate his employment, which we intended to do,” says Shane Harvey, the company’s vice president and general counsel. “We have no tolerance for such behavior and are thankful that no one was hurt as a result of Mr. Harrah’s conduct.”

Harrah faces as much as ten years in prison when he is sentenced August 11.

Investigators have also accused a security officer from Upper Big Branch of lying to federal investigators and attempting to hide evidence. The man has pleaded not guilty.

Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear spent part of Thursday visiting mountaintop removal coal mining sites in Eastern Kentucky. Beshear’s trip was the fulfillment of a promise he made to a group of activists who staged a protest in his office in February. The protesters had asked Beshear to end his support for the practice of mountaintop removal. Beshear would not change his position, but said he would tour sites at the group’s request.

The Lexington Herald-Leader reports that in Harlan and Floyd counties, members of the group Kentuckians for the Commonwealth showed Beshear streams and homes damaged by surface mining. The Governor also listened to residents opposed to mountaintop removal and to specific surface mining permits that have been filed with the state.

Beshear said he would consider the comments of residents regarding approval of the permits but made no commitments.

Why do Americans contribute more heat-trapping gases to the atmosphere than Europeans with similar standards of living? One reason is our dependence on cars, but another, less-talked-about reason is coal. Americans rely on coal for nearly half our electricity. Electrical generation pumps out more greenhouse gases than the entire transportation sector — cars, trucks, planes, and ships — combined.

Can we burn coal more cleanly? Can we get off of it?

A new American RadioWorks documentary goes back to the roots of our addiction to coal, and shows how our fuel choices changed American culture and history. There are some fascinating insights into the past and the future of a country built on coal.

Listen to the documentary now.

The Indian Head Rock is back home in Kentucky. The eight ton boulder was pulled from the Ohio River in northeastern Kentucky three years ago, starting a saga that caught national attention, and, occasionally, bordered on the comical.

“There was a group of fellas from over in the Portsmouth area who just took it upon themselves to dig this thing, they’ve studied about it and got it out of the river. Made a big deal about it and come to find out it’s an artifact and it shouldn’t have been removed to start with,” said Greenup County, Kentucky Judge-Executive Robert Carpenter.

The Ohio men who led the expedition to remove the rock were Steven Shaffer and David Vetter. The Commonwealth of Kentucky sued, and an agreement was eventually reached to return the Indian Head Rock to the other side of the river in Greenup County.

“I think it could be a great tourist attraction,” Carpenter said. “It’s very neat to look at it. I’ve went and looked at it a couple times, and it’s got a lot of interesting things to look at.”

Carpenter says the rock won’t be placed back in the river. He plans to appoint a committee next week to decide on a permanent location.

(Photo from the New York Times)
(By Brenna Angel, Kentucky Public Radio)

The Indianapolis Star is reporting that two schools in Central Indiana’s Union City have installed their own wind turbines.  What started as a science project has turned into a way for the school district to earn a projected $3 million dollars over the next couple of decades – just by selling power back to the community.  It’s a novel idea for schools looking for new sources of revenue.  And it’s a novel way of looking at power: the two turbines are owned by the school and the city government.

Credit: AWEA

Looks like it’s a trend.  Indiana has really pushed wind power recently, as anyone who has traveled North on I-65 knows, passing a giant wind farm along the way.  The American Wind Power Association ranks the state 12th in terms of the amount of installed wind power, with more than 1000 megawatts having come online since 2008; Ohio comes in at 32, and Kentucky trails at 49.

The economy has slowed wind power projects, and today there is a “dramatic drop,” the association says, in projects in the pipeline.  But they’re calling on Congress to pass a Renewable Energy Standard for the country, which would require that we get a certain percentage of our electricity from wind.  Whether that will find any traction – especially in an election year – remains to be seen.

The The

It’s a perfect storm this year for some Ohio Lakes, including its most polluted, Grand Lake St. Marys.

Harmful algal blooms (see this Ohio EPA fact sheet, a .pdf file) this summer have led state officials to prohibit recreational activities on the lake – no boating, swimming, fishing, no contact of any kind.  That’s because these blue-green algae blooms are producing potentially deadly neurotoxins (poisonous for the nervous system) and hepatotoxins (poisonous for the liver).  One family’s pet has died and at least two people have been confirmed seriously ill because of the blooms (which are really made up of bacteria).  There could be more because it’s hard to trace a diagnosis to the bacteria.

Lakes throughout the Ohio River Valley, and rivers too, bloom with blue-green algae frequently.  But why is this year so much worse, and, as the Cleveland Plain Dealer reports, on course to get even uglier?  Because what feeds these blooms is more abundant than ever.  They need nutrients to thrive, and humans are responsible for fl0oding them with more and more, from the phosphorous and nitrogen in agricultural fertilizer, to sewer overflows, and more.  Plus, they love sunlight and hot weather, which we’ve been having in spades. 

Researchers and state officials are scrambling to address the problem to prevent more deaths.  And local water utilities and spending more and more each time a new bloom is identified to treat drinking water.

An emerging health crisis?  Very possibly.

- by Kristin Espeland Gourlay

The San Francisco Chronicle is reporting that Wells Fargo, a West Coast bank, has joined the ranks of several other big firms that have decided to limit or stop funding mountaintop removal coal mining projects.  It says pressure on the bank came from an unlikely source, the Rain Forest Action Network, which lobbied the bank for years.  JP Morgan Chase and Bank of America have also published policies that say they’re reducing ties with MTR projects, or submitting them to more scrutiny.

Pittsburgh-based PNC bank, as well as the Swiss firm UBS, have not made any such announcements, and still finance related projects.

It’s not yet clear what effect this drying up of funding will have on the mining industry.

- by Kristin Espeland Gourlay

And now, for something completely different. Good environmental news!

Well, it’s not always bad, but we could certainly use even just this little bit of  good right now, what with all the tragic landslides, floods, and wildfires happening around the globe right now.

Photo credit: USDA

To wit: The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has taken the Tennessee Purple Coneflower off the Endangered Species List.  The flower, Echinacea tennesseensis, faced the dual threats of development and poaching for commercial medicinal use.

But Tennessee has since enacted a rare plant law and protected parcels of land where this endemic (native only to the area) species grows.  It took a bit more than 30 years, but the little guys recovered–another sign that, when cared for, nature is resilient, up to a certain point.

- by Kristin Espeland Gourlay

Pioneering an urban garden, or contemplating it?  If you happen to be in Louisville, KY this Saturday, August 14, you might want to attend Breaking New Ground’s “2010 Soil Summit: Get the Dirt on Your Soil” at the NIA Center (2900 Broadway), from 8:30 AM to 1:00 pm.  You can register here.

Appearing via video link will be Will Allen, founder of Milwaukee’s Growing Power, Inc., a community farming project (and so much more), and a 2008 recipient of a MacArthur Foundation “genius award.”  Louisville’s own Gary Heine of Heine Brothers Coffee and 15,000 Farmers will also be on hand.

Why devote a day to dirt?  Well, if you’re an urban gardener, you might want to know more about what’s in your soil and how to test it for pollutants.  But everyone could benefit from learning how to increase the yield of one’s garden with more sustainable methods -  less fertilizer, for instance.  Agricultural run-off, including fertilizer, is one of the leading causes of pollution in our nation’s water ways.

- by Kristin Espeland Gourlay