Tennessee

The New York Times front page story today about the dangers inherent in piles of burned coal by-products (fly ash) shows Wisconsin with a big concentration of fly ash dumps.

Here's the map.

Anyone keeping an eye on these dumps, and the hazards they pose to groundwater, air quality and other public health issues?

Michigan media are already tracking dumps near the Great Lakes, including in Wisconsin, and all this comes in the wake of a disasterous spill in Tennessee.

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Since Dairyland Power has decided against siting an ash landfill in Vernon County, this might seem like yesterday's news, but maybe not.  As UppityWis reported, there has been a major failure of a Tennessee ash storage facility that has polluted downstream areas with an polluting sludge.  Activists here had concerns about possible failures during flood events, and Tennessee is a case making the unfortunate point. [And more from Macastat]...

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One of the continual drum-beats of the energy industry is the promotion of the myth of clean coal.  If we need to continue the intense us of fossil fuel in this country, it's a reassuring notion to believe that somehow the environmental damage of coal burning could be stopped, while still using the vast resource of coal the US has. 

However, as a Christmas present to the people of Tennessee , we're reminded this morning just how clean coal can be, as a wall of fly-ash sludge has breached its containment pond, and washed over 400 acres of land.  This has contaminated the water supply for a large number of people and made several homes uninhabitable.  I expect that the cleanup for this incident will be lengthy and extremely expensive. The current push to continue to use coal and nuclear energy, despite the long-term environmental damage caused by both, is an irresponsible approach to stewardship of our country and the planet, and as we continue to reap the rewards of not maintaining the fragile infrastructure that holds this garbage in place, we'll see this sort of incident more and more.

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Update II: Thank you William Greider: Stop Senator No, Senate Dems should disable the rule that gives Mitch McConnell a virtual veto over anything he wants to kill. Advocating the filibuster defies reason.

Update: Bush is acting now, good for him.

The take-away from last night is: Kill the filibuster.

At this moment when a depression is facing the American people on the heels of two historic elections and Democrats' huge majorities in the House and Senate, are we going to let the antiquated filibuster halt needed legislation next session?

Southern Republican senators [Bush seems to be a non-actor] would throw the country into a depression to lower the wages of workers and break unions.

See John Judis: The Feather-Brained GOP Senators Who Sold Out U.S. Workers. for an explanation of what these idiots did.

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