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Tale of The Nautical Nightmare

Please tell us you’ve been keeping up with our Prisoner Updates every week! And if you have…here’s a *pat* on the back.

We tell you that BattleBlock Theater is formed on the basis of FRIENDSHIP. But there is much betrayal that is UNFORESEEN in the waters of LIFE!

Last week, in Part One of the Tale of The Nautical Nightmare, we watched Prisoner 10308 get left behind.

Prisoner 10307, the fish-faced individual sailed away without a care, or so it seemed. After a bit of contemplation, a decision was made. The only way to find out is to watch this video! Below, concoct answers of your own so you may act accordingly if the situation arises.

Book Club Discussion Questions:

1. Would you go back for your friend if they needed help?

2. Is your friend a “dead weight” or an essential key to survival?

3. If your friend survived, would that adversely affect your relationship? If so, how?

4. Are people essentially good or evil?

5. Is it natural to do everything in one’s power to stay alive?

Here's an image for your brain to munch on.

Check out our spotlight on Prisoner 10307 to see how he saves/doesn’t save his friend, and how another being can be of great use!


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Buffalo area congresswoman releases tax returns

Freshman Democratic Rep. Kathy Hochul of Erie County posted three years of her federal income tax returns on the Internet this morning, joining a small but growing number of members of Congress who have taken public transparency to a new level.
Hochul is challenging her Republican opponent, former Erie County Executive Chris Collins, to also release his tax returns.
Veteran Democratic Rep. Louise Slaughter of Fairport, Monroe County, also is planning to release her tax returns, according to campaign manager Liam Fitzsimmons.
Last month Sen. Chuck Schumer posted his 2011 tax return on his official website and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand posted five years of her tax returns dating back to 2007 when she first took office as a House member.
Gillibrand’s Republican challenger, attorney Wendy Long, has pledged to also post her tax returns.
Both New York senators said they decided to release their tax returns because of the national debate over Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s tax returns. Romney has released his 2010 return and an estimate of his 2011 taxes, but some Democrats have urged him to release more.
Schumer and Gillibrand are among a group of five Democratic senators who have released their tax returns.
Sens. Richard Durbin of Illinois and Herb Kohl of Wisconsin have each released their tax returns each year since the 1980s.
Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill released her 2011 tax return this year in response to a request from the McClatchy newspaper chain.
Several House members—including Democratic Rep. Barney Frank of Massachusetts—also release their tax returns.
Frank, McCaskill and Kohl release their tax returns to media organizations that make the request.
All members of Congress and candidates for Congress are required to file annual personal financial disclosures that list their assets, investment income and liabilities in broad ranges—such as $100,000 to $1 million—up to $5 million.
Most members of Congress consider that document to be sufficient public disclosure, but earlier this year Congress took an additional step by enacting the STOCK Act, which required lawmakers to also list, for the first time, any mortgages they owed. The STOCK Act also requires members of Congress, top administration officials and federal judges to publicly report most financial transactions of $1,000 or more within 45 days. Federal agencies are required by the end of this month to post the annual financial disclosure reports of 28,000 senior executive branch employees.
That has added to the attention that personal finances is getting this election cycle.

Here’s the link: www.kathyhochul.com/meetkathy/tax-returns/

Politics on the Hudson

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WeChat Store: TLG commerce is proud to announce the development of integrated WeChat stores: our online shops in China are now able to accept WeChat Payment when opened through WeChat’s internal browser (QQ browser).

Due to WeChat’s fast growth both in terms of users as well as a payment platform, brands and merchants are trying to leverage the app to build brand awareness and increase sales. WeChat doesn’t allow linking to Tmall or Taobao, so companies are left with 2 options: creating built-in a WeChat store using a third-party platforms, or linking to a standalone store.

WeChat Store

MyDmart WeChat Store

The first option means splitting stock, users, and offering limited eCommerce capabilities and features. It could work in the short term for a few quick sales but won’t sustain growth and expansion in the long term. The second options sounds ideal, since merchants could offer a better experience and more advanced capabilities without splitting stock and users, but eCommerce software were not ready to launch the WeChat app when completing the purchase. Until now.

WeChat Store

Luckily, TLG Commerce just developed the perfect solution to open and run a WeChat Store. After integrating the WeChat QR code payment, we completed the integration of the WeChat internal browser (QQ browser) payment. This means that, for shoppers using online stores built with TLG  proprietary eCommerce software LogiCommerce, it is now possible to complete an order through WeChat browser, and then pay with WeChat PayThis way, after filling in all the information and selecting WeChat as a payment gateway, the WeChat payment app will automatically open, and the payment will be registered in the backend.

We are very excited to offer this feature to our clients located both in China as well as abroad.

Contact us to know more about WeChat Stores.


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NationAir Aviation Insurance Creates Aviation Products Liability Division

Copy of NationAir New LogoRGB

WEST CHICAGO, Ill.–NationAir Aviation Insurance announced today that it has created a new Aviation Products Liability Division to expand its presence in the aviation insurance marketplace.

“As an aviation insurance specialty broker for 35 years, we can offer the expertise that commercial brokers cannot,” said NationAir President Jeffrey Bauer. “Our Products Liability division is part of our commitment to provide the full spectrum of risk management for aviation aftermarket suppliers. It’s a natural progression to extend our services through the supply chain.”

Leading the new division is Aviation Products Liability Director Jamie Benthusen, who draws on 15 years of experience with aviation products manufacturers and OEM distributors.

NationAir can provide superior service to products manufacturers and suppliers because of its position as an aviation-only brokerage. Many manufacturers do not realize that their products liability insurance frequently is purchased through wholesalers, Bauer explained. “With NationAir, there’s no middleman,” he said. “We provide direct communication, and we can also advocate directly with underwriters.”

Clients in the Aviation Products Liability division will have priority access to NationAir’s value-added services, including NationAir’s dedicated in-house claims advisor, plus complimentary contract review and certificate management service. Aviation products clients also will benefit from preferred rates with NationAir’s partners who cover a wide range of issues, including emergency response planning, legal counsel, and crisis communications consulting.

The division also will benefit from NationAir’s participation in key industry groups, including the Helicopter Association International and the Modification and Replacement Parts Association.

Source: NationAir

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Monday, March 10, 2008

Another broken thing!
Living in an RV with as much equipment as Señorita Tioga, I just have to expect things to break down. In addition, Señorita Tioga is going on 17 years old. That includes all the wiring, plumbing, all the screws holding the walls together; everything is 17 years old.

When something does break, I have to believe with all my heart that I will be able to fix it, or have somebody else fix it for me. I cannot afford to think bad thoughts and get all down when something breaks. That attitude would ruin everything!

And yet, yesterday afternoon when I reached for a sponge in the cabinet under the bathroom sink and found the sponge filled with water, I have to admit that I was a bit distressed! I emptied the upper shelf. Everything was wet. Not damp. Wet! I emptied the bottom of the cabinet which has a carpet floor. The carpet was drenched.

I used sponges to soak up most of the water, and then searched for the leak. I couldn't find that leak. Using a flashlight to illuminate the inside of the cabinet, I checked the plumbing again and again. Nothing seemed to be leaking.

I decided to let the cabinet air out and dry as much as possible to see what developed. Later that evening I was preparing to go to bed, and went to brush my teeth. One of the things that I removed from the cabinet was a gallon jug of distilled water [used for the solar battery bank]. Guess what? The gallon jug was leaking! The jug was the source of the water leak!

Double Wow with sugar on it! I am soooooooo happy to find that leaking water jug.

7AM - Sweet orange juice.
On the way out of the Town of Sola de Vega, we cruised around a bit. We spotted a little store where the lady was selling orange juice. While I sipped on my orange juice, I asked the lady whose name is Audela, if she had to obtain a license to sell food.

Audela told me that a license is necessary, and she showed me the papers. Audela's license cost her $1,000 pesos [$100US], and is good for six months. This license is a health permit, and spells out the things that she is required to do in order to sell healthy food.
Jorge at Audela's orange juice stand.

9:30AM - Poblado Ayoquezco.
We have arrived in Poblado Ayoquezco [poblado=town]. Señorita Tioga filled her fresh water tank at the Pemex. Then, we entered El centro de Ayoquezco and looked for an internet store.

While we were looking, we came upon Augustín Sanchez and his loaded burro. I asked Augustín if I could take a pic of him and his burro.

Immediately Augustín began telling me about his sons who live in California. I've found that people in Mexico love to tell me about their friends and relatives who live in the United States.

While I was taking the pic, Augustín began talking about how much it costs to buy cerveza [beer]. I took the hint and paid him $5 pesos for allowing me to take the pic.
Augustín Sanchez and his loaded burro.

10AM - Internet Store.
We parked in El Centro. A woman and man were talking there and we asked about the internet store. They pointed up. Would you believe that the internet store is on the second story just above where we were talking?! The stairs going up look formidable! Circular steel stairs! Wow!
Internet store in Ayoquezco.

Internet store using Hughes modem!
Would you believe that this internet store is using the exact modem that Mr. Datastorm is using? Except the store's modem is working! The internet store is also using the same satellite that Mr. Datastorm is using, which is SatMex 6.

12 Noon - Zimatlán.
The Team arrived in the Town of Zimatlán where we were planning to spend the nite. However, the fates turned against this plan. Wow! Here is what happened.......

In Zimatlán there is one bank, a Banemex. It is time to get some cash. Since parking is tight in this town, Señorita Tioga stayed several blocks away from the bank. Little Mavicito and I walked into El Centro and headed toward the bank.

We came to a good sized indoor mercado, and decided to take a peek. Just inside was a lady selling fried fish. There was a small stack of whole fish on the table, and I smelled them. They were fresh. So, I bought a fried fish for $10 pesos. Then I walked around the mercado eating my fish.

A guy came up to me begging for money. I asked him if he was hungry. He told me that he was hungry and I tore off a piece of my fish and handed it to him. That cracked up a couple of ladies who were selling veggies nearby. One of them commented to the other while still laughing, "The Gringo knows about these guys! If he gave him money, he would buy cerveza [beer]."

I met a guy who hauled fruits and veggies for a living. He trucked them from Oaxaca to the mercado here in Zimatlán. We got to talking about all sorts of stuff, mostly politics, George Bush and the war in Iraq. I told him that I was going to see the ancient city of Monte Alban, and he mentioned that I would have to go all the way into Oaxaca and return, because the road from
Zimatlán to Monte Alban is not paved. My map did not show the road being unpaved.

After that I went to the bank. And that is where this adventure begins. When I put my ATM card into the machine, the video monitor came up with a notice: "Your card cannot be read. We suggest that you contact your bank." Man-O-Man!

Can you imagine being deep in the south of Mexico, and finding that your ATM card does not work? Hmmmmmmm?

2:30PM - Looking for a bank in Oaxaca.
The State of Oaxaca must be the Topes capitol of the World. There are sooooooooo many topes here, you would not believe. Sometimes there are several topes in a row. Often within 50 yards of each other. It is stop and go. Stop and go. Stop and go. [A topes is raised hump in the road, designed to force vehicles to slow down and come almost to a stop.]

Inside the City of Oaxaca, traffic is like a giant puzzle. Besides the huge amount of cars, trucks and busses; there is no place to park. Not legally anyway. We came upon a Bancomer [bank] with an ATM machine, and there was no place to park. We tried to go around the block, but the streets were way too tiny for Señorita Tioga. So, we kept going. On and on we went. No way to turn back to the Bancomer.

Finally we came to a big intersection, and illegally parked just to look around and ask for help. A lady in a store told us that a BancNorte was not far away. When we saw the BancNorte, there was absolutely no legal place to park. So, we parked in a No Parking zone and put on Señorita Tioga's emergency blinkers.

My heart was beating fast when I put the ATM card in the machine. Would it work? Guess what? It worked! Wow!
A typical "wide" street in Oaxaca. Parking only on left side.

3:30PM - Heading toward Monte Alban.
It is a good thing that we have a compass, or else we would still be driving around in the City of Oaxaca. We found the highway heading toward Monte Alban, but decided to make a Nite Camp in the outskirts of Oaxaca.

It is getting late in the day, and we want to find an Internet Store to tell you what happened this afternoon.

What an adventure we had today! Is the TiogaRV Team ultra-challenged, or what?

Google Map Link

Google Earth Link


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Album Preview

March 7, 2009 |  by  |  Albums  |  Share

We just got a sample album put together from Elisha & Brian’s wedding.  It looks so amazing – I am REALLY happy with how it turned out.  It’s so easy to forget how much better images look in print.  There is just something SO satisfying about seeing your images in print.

I’ll be posting images of the actual album itself soon, but first off, here’s a slideshow of the spreads in this album.  I apologize in advance if this takes a little while to load, I think it’s worth seeing BIG though!  icon smile Album Preview


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What does Marine Stewardship Council certification mean?

by Sam Wiley

You may not have noticed it on our package, but the blue check mark on the front of every box is called the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) ecolabel. This is a prestigious and difficult to obtain certification: by our count (as of Feb 23rd 2014), only 27 fish oil supplements are MSC certified out of the thousands of different Fish Oil supplements sold worldwide.

First off – what is a fishery?  A fishery is defined as a geographic area, a species, and often a specific catch method. So for instance, Bering Sea / Aleutian Islands (area) Alaska Pollock (species) Pelagic Trawl (catch method. Don’t confuse a fishery with a fish farm (we get this a lot) – that’s called a hatchery! When we’re talking about a fishery, we’re talking about wild caught fish.

Here’s what MSC certification of a fishery means:

  1. Fish are caught Sustainably – MSC designs an exacting and rigorous fishing practices standard that looks at bycatch, environmental impact, and healthy stock levels fisheries management science,
  2. Independent 3rd party audit of supply chain – First, the fishery has to be certified that it meets the MSC’s standard. Then, individual fishing companies have to be audited that they comply with the standards. Then, any company who wants to use the MSC Ecolabel on their package has to be audited that their ingredients can be traced back all the way to the boat that caught the fish.
  3. Guaranteed Species – The MSC’s Chain of Custody auditing and inspection program guarantees we only use the species in our formulas that we say we do.

In the case of our Wild Alaskan Fish Oil supplements, it means that the fish used to make our fish oil were actually wild-caught in well managed US waters by American fishermen – no funny business here. They are guaranteed to be Wild-caught (not farmed). The MSC’s Chain of Custody program is important: a 2011 study by Consumer Reports estimated that 20-25% of all fresh and frozen seafood is mislabeled by species. That’s why we list the species name on our label (Alaska Pollock Theragra chalcogramma) – no generic, catch-all species list for us (mackerel, herring, sardine, and/or anchovy) – it’s important to us that you know where your supplements come from and who caught them.

Meet the Fishers: U.S. Alaska Pollock

I highly recommend you watch this great video from the MSC about Alaska Pollock: Meet the US Alaska Pollock Fishers

MSC Ecolabel scoring criteria

Isn’t the MSC mark just greenwashing? Nope! Far from it! In fact, a recent Accenture study commissioned by the World Wildlife Federation (WWF) found the MSC to be the best rated and most transparent of all sustainable fisheries certification standards in the world.  Andy Sharpless, CEO of Oceana, notes in his book  The Perfect Protein: The Fish Lover’s Guide to Saving the Oceans and Feeding the World, that the world needs seafood as a source of healthy protein. Andy notes that the world doesn’t have to be running out of fish – with good fishery management practices we can enjoy the sea’s bounty for many generations to come.

The challenge for each and every one of us to consistently choose fish from fisheries which use good fisheries management science and responsible catch methods. The MSC has a tagline they require on product packages, ‘Together we can help protect fish stocks for the future.” That may sound corny, but its true.  That’s our family’s commitment to using Wild Alaskan Fish Oil  for our supplements – we want these fish oil supplements to be available for our grandchildren’s grandchildren.

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Random Stuff

Zeid & Leila

Zeid & Leila wake up in their new appartement.

This is a bit old, but it has just been uploaded to youtube…Not suitable for minors.
If you want to know a bit about the creation process, you can check those albums:

Category: Animation

Tagged: , , , , , ,

  • Ghalas

    ZEIIID WA LEILAAA! I remember seeing this animation in the fest last summer was it? I laughed so hard 🙂 It kept surprising me, with it's multiple twists and turns… Can we have a sequel? 🙂
    Thumbs up, cheers, keep it going.. ahhh!

  • Thanks for the enthusiasm!
    A sequel would be weird, but a prequel is slowly coming of age, in my brain.
    Who knows?


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Thursday, October 25, 2012

Forgotten Music Thursday: The Iguanas - Nuevo Boogaloo (1994)

I've become a big fan of the great HBO drama series, Treme, (named after a neighborhood in New Orleans) in large part because of all the great music and nationally known artists the show features in every episode. A partial list includes Shawn Colvin, Dr. John, The Nevilles, The Preservation Hall Jazz Band, and Steve Earle (whose character recently met an unfortunate, violent demise at the hands of a couple of street thugs). There was also an appearance by a very fine live quintet, The Iguanas.

For those of you unfamiliar with this cool little band from The Big Easy they have been making music together since the late 80s and, despite the abundant Cajun and zydeco influences of their hometown, the sounds they make are also heavily seasoned by band founder Ron Hodges' Hispanic heritage.

The Iguanas lineup includes two saxophones and sometimes an accordion mixed in with the usual rock instruments. They also weave a little piano into their arrangements. Their two sax players, Joe Cabral and Derek Huston, mostly play in perfect, harmonic unison but they can duke it out the way Dickie Betts and Duane Allman often did with their guitars. Either way, The Iguanas' reed men offer a unique sound that the band uses to their full advantage.

The Iguanas have often been compared to Los Lobos, the great band from East L. A. However, there are differences between the two groups. Nuevo Boogaloo, their second album, earned the Louisiana based band some well-deserved recognition back in 1994 in part because it has a sense of humor that is often lacking in Los Lobos' music. Both "Oye Isabelle, and "My Girlfriend is a Waitress" bring a smile to your face just by hearing the song titles. Even the album title is fun.

"Boom Boom Boom" and "Hey, Sweet Darling" are straight ahead, unadorned rock songs that so many Americana bands play so well.

Nuevo Boogaloo is a typical Iguanas album in that it offers a mixture of styles while never straying too far outside of the band's comfort zone. Like most ethnically charged roots rock outfits they're proud of their heritage and it shows in their music. The decision to follow their hearts is admirable but, unfortunately, it keeps their work off the radio and sends it into obscurity.

1 comment:

  1. Sounds like my cup of multiflavored beverage...shall have to seek these folks out.


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Monday, October 10, 2011

Writing Spaces Monday: My Little Slice of Paradise

This is my own little desk, where I get my writing, blogging, drawing, procrastinating done. I love it. I built the desk myself, modified from these plans. It's a standing desk, which means when I'm feeling antsy and/or "Valerie" comes on my iTunes DJ, I can push back the chair and dance while I type.

There is something quite satisfying about a lovely little desk, a space that makes you feel happy and focused.

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May 25, 2013

The Power of Affiliate - Engaging with Consumers

The Power of Affiliate - Engaging with Consumers
The Affiliate marketing channel, with its unique, high performance online publishers, has the power to influence and connect with the new consumer at critical points in their decision journey.

1. Catalyst
Once a consumer decides they are in need of a product or service, they start with a short list of options based on initial brand awareness. TV, radio, print, word-of-mouth, online display advertising, social media and affiliate all play an ongoing role in shaping a consumer's awareness of their brand options.
Due to the influx of marketing noise we all experience, getting through the wilderness can be challenging. Connecting with potential customers during the next phase of their journey – Evaluation – has become more important than ever.

2. Evaluation
The affiliate channel powers a variety of powerful publisher websites that provide relevant, compelling information to the consumer as they evaluate their brand options and add new ones.
For example, search engine and shopping comparison publishers let users cross-shop countless products and services all in one place. They are a key destination for consumers who now desire more control over how they interact with and learn about products. The influence of Content & Community publishers, a.k.a. the blogosphere, is also on the rise. When a trusted blogger makes a recommendation, their readers listen…and often convert.

3. Conversion
The affiliate marketing channel is well known for its ability to close the deal – it drives the highest conversion rates of any channel, as well as higher average order sizes. But more than that, affiliate marketing is uniquely aligned with today's consumer focus on value.
At a time when 55% of shoppers say they always check for deals before making a purchase***, online publishers are more critical than ever. Shopping, Coupon and Deals publishers, who are committed to creating the most comprehensive and organized collections of coupons, deals, promotions, and sales, help bargain shoppers find an ideal combination of savings opportunities at the critical point of conversion.

4. Post Conversion
Each time a consumer interacts with a brand's product or service and compares the experience with friends in their social network, they continue to builds expectations that impact their loyalty. In rare instances, the post conversion experience is so powerful that a brand is able to produce a lifetime of conversions from a customer. However, more often than not, the next purchase catalyst will trigger another decision journey for the consumer... and another marketing battle for consumer attention during their evaluation process.
*McKinsey & Company, 2009
** Forrester Consulting, 2012

5. Loyalty Loop
A hyper-competitive marketplace and the evolution of the internet as a limitless information source have dramatically impacted consumer buying behavior and loyalty. Actively loyal customers, who not only stick with a brand but energetically recommend it, are especially valuable and increasingly rare. Only a handful of brands can truly command the consumer loyalty, bypassing the evaluation phase of the consumer journey and creating a lifetime of conversions.
Whether out of laziness or choice overload, most consumers today are passively loyal – despite repeat purchases, they remain open to alternative brands if given the right reasons to switch. In today's digital world, even the most widely-recognized industry leaders must win back the well-informed consumer after every single purchase.

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Tricks and Tips


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Tell a story, with Shadow Puppet

Using Shadow Puppet (similar to Photostory on Windows side) for storytelling invites the use of imagery and narrative in formative and informative ways in teaching, training, and learning. This app lets students put those iPads and smartphones to work collecting pictures, practicing narration, composing self-introductions in an online or face-to-face course, etc.

It is a fun app with lots of practical uses that are easy to create. As you become more comfortable with it, you can also start a story using Shadow Puppet and then add another sound track using iMovie or some other video editing applications.

Here’s a shadow puppet sample.

Here is an article: Shadow Puppet is a new storytelling app for sharing narrated slideshows of your photos

Want to use it in class? Here’s a sample rubric: Shadow Puppet rubric.

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Western region can gain million-plus jobs, grow GDP by $142 billion by accelerating move to clean economy

Speeding the development of clean energy in California, Oregon, Washington and British Columbia can generate more than one million jobs and $142 billion in gross domestic product (GDP) by 2020, according to a report released Tuesday.

It is the latest study showing that environmental policies can deliver broad economic benefits across industry sectors and to entire regions.

The report is a forward-looking assessment of how the West Coast mega-region can combine efforts to gain powerful competitive advantages. Among the key findings:

  • By 2020, the region’s clean economy could grow by more than 200% through the adoption of strategic policy measures, which represents up to $95.5 billion in new GDP contributions.
  • It is critical to put a price on carbon and use market-based approaches to drive innovation and investments that create long-term, sustainable employment.
  • The sectors with the highest job growth potential are: energy efficiency and green buildings; environmental protection and resource management; and clean transportation.

The West Coast Clean Economy Report was authored by GLOBE Advisors and The Center for Climate Strategies and released at the GLOBE 2012 Conference in Vancouver, Canada.

This entry was posted in Clean Energy, Climate. Bookmark the permalink. Both comments and trackbacks are currently closed.
  • About this blog

    How California can leverage market-based environmental policies to revitalize its economy, protect its quality of life and retain a leading edge in global innovation.

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Coal Tattoo

Later today, the U.S. Senate will almost certainly vote to approve a resolution to block a last-minute Obama administration rule aimed at replacing the long-controversial stream “buffer zone” rule. The House passed the resolution yesterday afternoon. Once that resolution makes its way to the White House, President Trump will sign it.

Presumably, it won’t take long after that before all of the coal miners in West Virginia who have lost their jobs over the last few years will get called back to work.

Well, at least that is what coalfield political leaders, industry officials — and now the most powerful man on the planet — would have residents of places like Boone and Logan counties in West Virginia believe.

Here’s Rep. David McKinley, R-W.Va., during yesterday’s House floor debate on the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement rule:

Simply put, it was President Obama’s attempt to drive a final nail into the coffin of an industry that made America great. Look, enough is enough. This war on coal has to come to a stop, and I think this election set the tone for that. Now that we finally have a President who understands the painful impact of excessive and unnecessary regulations,

It is time to give the families of the coalfields all across America a chance to get relief from the unelected bureaucrats in Washington.

Here’s Rep. Evan Jenkins, R-W.Va., during that same floor debate:

Stopping this rule matters to West Virginians, to our miners, to our families, to our consumers. We produce 95 percent of our electricity from coal. It is reliable and it is affordable … My State can’t afford to lose any more jobs, and I know that goes for other coal States.

It fell to Rep. Raul Grijalva, a Democrat from Arizona, to bring some reality into the discussion:

… If there is a war on coal, it is being led by the natural gas industry who produces a cheaper product at a lower cost. And if  there is any trouble that coal is in, it is directly attributed to the free market and that competition.

Continue reading…

Gearing up for OSMRE’s stream rule hearings

Coal industry officials and citizen groups are both gearing up for tonight’s start of a series of public hearings on the latest proposal to replace the stream buffer zone rule.

The hearings start this evening in Denver and end on Sept. 17 here in Charleston. The full schedule is here.

This afternoon, the National Mining Association had a phone call with reporters to emphasize the industry’s belief that “the rule is just the latest in a series of costly and unnecessary regulations that will harm mining communities as well as the larger economy, while contributing very little to the environmental protections already ensured by state and federal agencies.”

Meanwhile, the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition is telling its supporters that the public’s help is needed “to make sure this critical rule overcomes industry opposition.”

Let’s remember, though, what we reported previously about what the federal Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement calls its “Stream Protection Rule“:

Coal operators would have to conduct expanded monitoring and perform additional environmental restoration, but would be freed from the threat that a 32-year-old ban on mining activities within 100 feet of streams might be used to stop them from dumping waste rock and dirt into streams, under a proposed rule unveiled Thursday by the Obama administration.

The Interior Department’s long-awaited proposal acknowledges the growing body of science that links mountaintop removal and related large-scale surface mining to severely damaged water quality, the elimination of rich and diverse forests and increased risks of serious illnesses, including cancer and premature deaths.

However, Interior’s Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement backed away from again establishing a “buffer zone” around streams, a requirement that was never really enforced, allowing mining companies to bury hundreds of miles of streams across Appalachia beneath huge waste piles called “valley fills.”

It seems that at least some of the beltway media are expecting some serious news to come out of a hearing this morning before the House Natural Resources Committee, where Republicans are continuing to try to manufacture some major Obama administration scandal out of the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement’s bungling of the Environmental Impact Statement for its rewrite of the stream buffer zone rule.

The National Journal, for example, ran with the ridiculous headline, Explosions Coming Over Mountaintop-Mining Rule and a typical story reducing the matter — and all things related to mountaintop removal and coal mining — to the standard Democrats vs. Republicans story line.

If you missed the notice for the House committee hearing, here’s how the Republican leadership staff described their plan for the event:

For over two years, the Committee has been conducting an investigation into the rewrite of this coal production regulation. This unnecessary rewrite, carried out through the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSM) at the Department of the Interior, proposed to dramatically alter a regulation that took over five years of environmental analysis and careful scientific consideration to complete. The Department’s process in rewriting this regulation has been rushed and unorthodox. After tossing aside the 2008 plan, the Department spent millions of taxpayer dollars and hired new contractors to complete a new environmental impact statement, even though one was already completed for the 2008 rule. Those contractors were dismissed after it was publicly revealed that the Administration’s new proposed regulation would cost 7,000 jobs and cause economic harm in 22 states. The Administration has spent five years and over $9 million taxpayer dollars working on this rewrite, but has failed to even publish a draft rule. In September 2012, the Committee released its own report on this issue entitled, “President Obama’s Covert And Unorthodox Efforts to Impose New Regulation on Coal Mining and Destroy American Jobs.”

For those who have forgotten, this all goes back to the big scoop that Tim Huber wrote for The Associated Press in January 2011, about the potential job losses outlined in a leaked documents from the OSMRE EIS.

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OSMRE loses 18,000 public comments on stream rule

Here’s the news that the U.S. Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement waited until after the close of business on Friday to put out: The agency lost “two or three boxes” — I guess they’re not sure which — containing more than 18,000 public comments on the Bush administration’s changes to the stream “buffer zone” rule made in 2008.

In this “fact sheet and background information” sent to the media, OSMRE spokesman Chris Holmes explained it all this way:

When OSM discovered and verified the inadvertent loss of some public comments that were part of a mass mailing, it moved quickly to advise both the court and the group that submitted the comments in 2007. OSM retained a sample of the comments and a record of the number of comments received. The sample adequately represented the group’s position, and OSM addressed the comments’ substance in promulgating the 2008 Stream Buffer Zone Rule. The addition of substantially identical comments would not have influenced the rule’s content. However, OSM takes seriously the need to retain all public comments, especially those under a litigation hold, and OSM Director Joe Pizarchik has ordered the immediate development of new controls under which public comments submitted in the future will be safeguarded.

There’s more about all of this here, in a memo from OSMRE Director Joe Pizarchik. The above-noted “fact sheet and background information” identifies these as “substantially identical” comments submitted by the environmental group Earthjustice, which opposed — and then successfully sued to challenge — the Bush administration’s weakening of the “buffer zone” rule. This is apparently what OSMRE says happened:

OSM staff charged with maintaining the rule’s Administrative Record examined the submission and selected a representative sample that reasonably represented the comments. This sample was retained apart from the boxed comments. When the office used to store the comments became overcrowded, the boxes were moved to an adjacent office. More than five years later, OSM directed that the adjacent room be cleaned out. Sometime in 2012, the boxes of duplicate comments were inadvertently discarded.

Keep in mind that House Republicans and the coal industry have been trying their best to depict the Obama administration’s efforts to rewrite the Bush Administration’s rewrite of this rule as part of the “war on coal,” as more evidence of the administration’s hostility to the coal industry and coziness with environmental groups

In this Oct. 16, 2000 photo, 250-million gallons of coal slurry floods Coldwater Fork, which was spilled after the bottom fell from a 72-acre retention pond upstream several days earlier in Martin County, near Inez, Ky., flooding 28 miles of two streams.  (AP Photo/Lexington Herald-Leader, David Stephenson)

It’s been bizarre over the last few years to watch the coal industry and its friends in Congress try to pain the federal Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement as a major solider in the Obama administration’s “war on coal” (see here and here, just for example). As if the election of a different president could somehow turn an agency that’s spent more than three decades as the “poor stepchild” of the Interior Department into the strong advocate for environmental protection and the rights of coalfield citizens that Congress had envisioned.

So it was really a hoot yesteday to see the West Virginia Coal Association blast OSM for the release of the agency’s new report on the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection’s enforcement efforts regarding coal-slurry impoundments:

Over the course of this 12 year review, the industry has responded to previous issues in a prompt and professional manner when provided with an opportunity for an open dialogue with OSM, but that opportunity was not provided in this situation.  The agency never requested any information from the industry that may have satisfied their concerns nor did they contact the industry to make them aware of the pending release of these reports, or today’s media event. Sensationalism has never advanced meaningful dialogue and progress with respect to developing a path forward.

Sensationalism? First of all, it’s quite something to hear the publicists and lobbyists who make a nice living off the inflammatory and deceptive “war on coal” campaign against regulation of the mining industry call anything sensationalism. Come on, guys.  But the other thing is, while it was unusual for OSM to hold a press conference to release this report, agency officials handled this in anything but a sensationalistic manner.

I’ve been to press conference that were all about sensationalism. Several events years where minnows were dumped into a jar of poison water to show the effects of acid mine drainage come to mind. But this one? Roger Calhoun, OSM’s Charleston field office director was very measured in both tone and content, being careful to explain that his agency didn’t find any imminent threats to public safety, but simply believes the WVDEP needs to do more to make sure such threats don’t develop. And the OSM report itself is anything but sensationalistic. It’s written in dry technical terminology that would make it hard for any member of the public to really be sure what a serious issue we’re talking about here.

Gazette photo by Lawrence Pierce

I mean come on, DEP Secretary Randy Huffman certainly hasn’t been shy about voicing his opinions about the Obama administration’s moves regarding coal regulation, but even Randy wasn’t jumping up and down to complain about what OSM was doing here:

There are some unanswered questions and gaps in data … The information they are suggesting needs to be available in the files and available for consideration by the DEP , we can’t argue that the information shouldn’t be there. I’m not going to argue for less information.

And it’s not like OSM rushed into this thing … they’ve been working on an examination of the potential for coal-slurry dams to “breakthough” into nearby underground mine workings for more than a decade, since the October 2000 disaster at Massey Energy’s operations in Martin County, Ky. They’ve released at least two preliminary reports on the issue. Industry officials know what OSM was looking at, and they had plenty of opportunities to reach out to OSM and make whatever points they wanted to make.

In its statement, the Coal Association made these claims about coal-slurry impoundments:

These structures are some of the most highly engineered and regulated structures found anywhere in the world, with detailed engineering and geo-technical analysis associated with their design, operation and maintenance.

If that’s true, then the plan announced by OSM and WVDEP — for the state to require companies to submit more proof that they’ve minimized the potential for breakthroughs — shouldn’t be a problem. You would think the industry would by pleased to provide that information, and ease everyone’s concerns, instead of making unfounded complaints about “sensationalism” by OSM.

Feds: WVDEP wrong to extend Coal River permit

Photo from U.S. Office of Surface Mining

Word just in this afternoon about a potentially major decision by the U.S. Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement …

OSMRE officials here in Charleston have determined that the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection was wrong in its decision to retroactively extend a Massey Energy/Alpha Natural Resources mountaintop removal permit along the Coal River Valley in Raleigh County, W.Va. I’ve posted a copy of a letter from OSM Charleston Field Office Director Roger Calhoun to WVDEP mining Director Tom Clarke here.

Essentially, the letter says that OSM is taking this action because WVDEP’s policy to allow such “retroactive” permit extensions or renewals is not part of the state’s federally approved program for regulating West Virginia’s surface coal-mining industry.

In his letter to Clarke, Calhoun concludes that WVDEP’s actions on this permit were “arbitrary, capricious, and an abuse of discretion.” The letter gives WVDEP five days to file an appeal with OSM’s regional director. If Calhoun’s determination ultimately wins out, then OSM could launch a federal inspection and ultimately take action, under the Obama administration’s 2011 policy to get OSM back in the business of more closely examining potential defects in state agency permit decisions.

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Photo from iLoveMountains, via House Democrat report

We’ve covered here before the ongoing — and rather cooked-up — controversy over the federal Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement’s efforts to rewrite the stream buffer zone rule into something that OSMRE Director Joe Pizarchik insists on calling the “stream protection rule” (see here, here and here).

Well, the issue was on display again yesterday, during a hearing before a Republican-controlled House Natural Resources Committee hearing. Subcommittee leaders did their past to muddy the water, so to speak, on the issue of mountaintop removal and its impacts on both the environment and public health. Here’s how the GOP’s press release described the matter:

At the hearing Committee Members specifically questioned the amount of taxpayer dollars being spent to expedite a rewrite of a rule completed in January, 2009 after five years of extensive environmental and scientific review to complete. According to Pizarchik, the Obama Administration has already spent $3.7million to pay for a contractor that was terminated and awarded Industrial Economics a contract for over $1 million to finish rewriting the rule. Pizarchik was unable to say how much of OSM’s own man-hours have been invested into the process.

When asked by Chairman Lamborn how much more taxpayer money will be needed to finish the rule, Pizarchik replied, “I don’t know specifically how much more…”

However, the total cost of the rulemaking process is assured to be even more expensive.

Director Pizarchik also admitted OSM will miss their June 29, 2012 deadline to finalize the rule, which was set by a settlement agreement between the National Parks Conservation Association and the Interior Department, which could lead to additional litigation and spending more money.

This time, though, House Democrats — who couldn’t be bothered to a field hearing here in Charleston last year — actually had something to say. Democratic committee staff issued a report called Mountains Out of Molehills: Documents refute Republican allegations about rulemaking to protect streams from mountaintop removal mining. The report concluded:

Republicans on the House Natural Resources Committee, who oppose a new Stream Protection Rule, are now investigating OSM’s relationship with a contractor, Polu Kai Services (PKS), that was hired in June 2010 to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the rule. OSM and the contractor mutually agreed to end their relationship in March 2011 before the EIS was complete. Committee Republicans allege that the Obama administration and OSM acted improperly in seeking this separation agreement and in managing the contract.

The Department of Interior has provided more than 12,000 pages of documents to the Committee in response to Republican requests for documents related to this matter. Democratic Committee Staff reviewed these documents at the request of Ranking Member Ed Markey (D-MA) to assess the validity of the Republican allegations. The documents do not support these allegations and in fact show the allegations are untrue.

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Is OSMRE merger part of Obama’s ‘war on coal’?

It was kind of funny that last night’s public meeting on Interior Secretary Ken Salazar’s plan to merger the federal Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement with the Bureau of Land Management was held out at the West Virginia National Guard Armory, behind a door that was marked “War Room.” It had to wonder if President Obama and his aides flew into nearby Yeager Airport for a secret meeting with West Virginia environmentalists a while back, to plot the administration’s much-criticized “war on coal.”

But frankly, the meeting was pretty much a waste of time — and this is coming from somebody loves the very notion of getting the public together and making our government officials sit and listen to us for a while.

Turnout was pretty low, and only a couple of the 15 people who signed up to speak actually took advantage of their 3 minutes of fame to give OSMRE and BLM officials a piece of their mind about the proposed merger plans. The industry’s lobbyists — Jason Bostic of the West Virginia Coal Association and Bryan Brown of FACES of Coal  were both there — declined to say anything at the meeting, telling officials their groups would submit written comments later.

A representative of Sen. Joe Manchin read part of a prepared statement. Someone from Sen. Rockefeller’s office said something, but she was so quiet about it even the court reporter couldn’t hear her. My old buddy Lewis Halstead from the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection was there to listen, as were officials from several coal companies, including Alpha Natural Resources.

Vivian Stockman of the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition was about the only person who had much to say, offered a pretty weak statement of support for OSMRE, saying:

We find ourselves in an awkward position of advocating for an agency that has often fallen short of its duties.

Perhaps if OSMRE could have gotten a couple of the local television stations to show up the politicians would have turned out as well and the industry lobbyists would have taken advantage of the chance to make with the “war on coal” narrative that they’re somehow seeking to make this OSMRE-BML deal sound like it’s a part of.

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Salazar delays plans for OSMRE-BLM merger

As we reported in this morning’s Gazette, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar appears to have taken action that would delay any merger of the federal Office of Surface Mining, Reclamation and Enforcement with the Bureau of Land Management:

In a related move on Monday, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced he was delaying a report on his proposed merger of OSM with the Bureau of Land Management from Dec. 1 to Feb. 15. A prepared statement said the move was aimed at allowing more input from interested parties.

There’s an updated order from Secretary Salazar posted here, along with this statement from his press spokesman, Adam Fletcher:

In the weeks since Secretary Salazar directed OSM and BLM leadership to evaluate how certain functions of BLM and OSM might be consolidated to further strengthen the bureaus’ mining regulatory and abandoned mine land reclamation programs and achieve important efficiencies – without losing OSM’s independence as a regulatory body — some of the Department’s most senior officials have testified before Congressional committees; consulted with staff of the applicable committees as well as the Office of Management and Budget; and held employee meetings in Denver, Pittsburgh, Alton, Ill., and Washington, D.C., to discuss the proposed consolidation.

The discussions that have been conducted to date have been very productive. In particular, they have helped to identify efficiencies that OSM might gain by having BLM handle some of OSM’s administrative functions, in much the same way as some bureaus in the Department provide administrative support functions for other, smaller bureaus and offices. At the same time, it appears that some of OSM’s core functions might be strengthened by adding BLM’s abandoned mine reclamation program and BLM’s coal-related inspection responsibilities to OSM’s similar programs. Informative discussions also are underway regarding how best to maintain OSM’s independence over its regulatory responsibilities under the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act.

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Regular readers know that I’ve been a little suspicious from the beginning about this controversy over the leaked portions of the federal Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement’s “Environmental Impact Statement” on its efforts to rewrite the federal stream buffer zone rule (see previous posts here, here and here).

So it was certainly interesting this morning when a House Natural Resources subcommittee posted the witness list and then the prepared testimony of a couple of the subcontractors who worked on that study and apparently were involved in preparing the questionable estimates of the buffer zone rewrite’s potential economic impacts. Remember now that the mining industry and its political friends have made much of these estimates, and used them to continue their efforts to discredit and block Obama administration efforts to reduce the impacts of mountaintop removal.

Today’s witness list includes two speakers who worked for ESCI LLC, an engineering firm that apparently was a subcontractor for Polu Kai Services, which was working with OSMRE to write the EIS for the “stream protection rule,” or the agency’s proposals to rewrite the buffer zone regulation.

One witness, J. Steven Garder, president and CEO of ECSI, says in his prepared testimony that OSMRE officials tried to get contractors to change the results of their economic analysis to get different results:

A joint PKS and OSM team meeting was held in February in OSM’s offices in DC. During this meeting, OSM “suggested” that the PKS team revisit the production impacts and associated job loss numbers, and with different assumptions that would then change the final outcome to show less of an impact. The EIS team unanimously told OSM that it was not appropriate to change assumptions just to get a different answer. The team was also very concerned with the specific instruction from OSM to make the assumption that the 2008 Stream Buffer Zone (SBZ) Rule was in effect and being enforced across the U.S., which was not true. No state with an approved SMCRA program had promulgated the 2008 SBZ Rule, especially since the rule itself was subject to the litigation which brought about the SPR. If the PKS team assumed that the 2008 SBZ was in effect as part of the baseline existing environment, the nexus from the SBZ to the SPR would show less production, and therefore less job loss impact. The PKS team unanimously refused to use a “fabricated” baseline scenario to soften the production loss numbers.

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OSM: ‘Poor stepchild’ of the Interior Department

For the coal industry, discussion of the proposed merger of the U.S. Office of Surface Mining and the Bureau of Land Management is mostly just another opportunity to bash the Obama administration and any efforts it makes to better regulate things like mountaintop removal.  Katie Sweeney, general counsel for the National Mining Association, told today’s Senate committee hearing on the subject:

Another way the department can marshal scarce resources absent consolidation is to ensure agencies truly focus on mission-essential activities. OSM has strayed from that path with its recent policy of reviewing state-issued permits in primacy states and second-guessing state permitting decisions. This emphasis on massive increases in oversight of state programs has proven to be unnecessary, duplicative, and a waste of millions of taxpayer dollars. OSM’s own annual evaluation reports demonstrate that the states have consistently done an excellent job in regulating coal mines.

OK … well, Ms. Sweeney must be reading different OSM oversight reports than I am.

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The Obama administration’s proposal to merge the U.S. Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement continues to draw a lot of interest this week, with action to block the proposal in a House committee and a hearing today in a Senate committee.

Here’s the news from the House Natural Resources Committee:

Today, the House Natural Resources Committee approved an amendment by voice vote, to H.R. 3404, offered by Rep. Bill Johnson (OH-06). The amendment was a rejection of the Obama Administration’s recently announced intentions to merge the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSM) and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). Specifically, the amendment keeps OSM and BLM separate, independent agencies in the Department of the Interior and under the purview of the Under Secretary for Energy, Lands and Minerals.

Rep. Johnson said:

I’m pleased the Committee approved my amendment to protect the integrity of these two separate but equally important agencies. The attempt to merge these two agencies is yet another action by the Obama Administration in its ongoing war on American coal. There are serious statutory concerns with the Interior Department’s unilateral decision to merge OSM within BLM that could ultimately affect thousands of hardworking coal miners.

This amendment protects American jobs, ensures that the Obama Administration cannot skirt the laws passed by Congress, and guarantees these two agencies stay distinct entities within Interior Department while maintaining their individual, critical missions

Protects American jobs? Seriously now. This has to be one of the more baffling moves by coal’s friends among our nation’s political leadership. I have yet to hear anyone really explain exactly how it is that folding what little is left of OSMRE into the BLM for some administrative purposes amounts to a new front in the “war on coal.” Wouldn’t weakening OSMRE do more to get the federal government out of the business of overseeing coal, and isn’t that what the industry really wants?

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Salazar’s OSMRE-BLM merger drawing concerns

Not surprisingly, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar’s proposal to merge the federal Office of Surface Mining, Reclamation and Enforcement with the Bureau of Land Management is drawing some concerns from various quarters.

The issue got some attention earlier this month, when questions were raised about it during a House Natural Resources Committee hearing that was supposed to focus on OSMRE’s bumbling efforts to rewrite the stream buffer zone rule. Platts reported:

… Lawmakers from both parties raised concerns about the merger. A number of Republican members including Representative Bill Flores of Texas questioned whether Interior has the statutory authority to merge the two agencies.

Representative Rush Holt of New Jersey, the committee’s leading Democrat, asked for assurances that the merger would not impact the agency’s oversight.

“OSM is a separate and independent entity. … It will remain an independent agency,” Pizarchik said, quoting a statement Salazar gave to employees last week.

And environmental groups in Pennsylvania are raising concerns about the proposal’s potential impacts on the federal Abandoned Mine Lands program:

The Foundation for Pennsylvania Watersheds, the Citizens Coal Council and other environmental groups are calling President Obama’s plan to fold the federal Office of Surface Mining into the Bureau of Land Management a threat to the $1.4 billion in federal funds due to Pennsylvania to reclaim abandoned mine lands and weaken surface mining regulation.

“(Pennsylvania) has developed a foward thinking, visionary program for restoring the more than 5,500 miles of dead streams utilizing funds collected, held and distributed by OSM,” said John Dawes, Executive Director of the Foundation for Pennsylvania Watersheds. “To move the Abandoned Mine Land Program and its finances into an agency whose main purpose is to lease federal lands would be a disservice to all Pennsylvanians working diligently to restore our streams and abandoned mine lands.

“Pennsylvanians worked very hard to secure the future of the Abandoned Mine Land Fund for the purpose of restoring land and streams in this state. We fear that BLM will have little interest in seeing the culmination of our hard work,” added Dawes.

“This scheme is illegal and defies common sense,” said Aimee Erickson, Executive Director of the Citizens Coal Council. While the many devils in the yet-to-be-released details of the Salazar OSM-BLM merger scheme already raise many serious and practical objections, the illegality of the proposed bureaucratic entanglement makes the proposal a non-starter.

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What’s up with ‘bizarre’ Obama plan for OSMRE?

OK … now let me make this clear: When I first heard that the Obama administration and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar were going to merge the federal Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement with the Bureau of Land Management, I asked my source to repeat what they said … I thought for sure I had a bad connection on my cell phone.

But no, there’s the story in today’s Gazette from my buddy Dr. Paul Nyden:

The Obama administration wants to merge the federal Office of Surface Mining, which enforces and oversees federal and state regulations on the coal industry, with another federal agency … Late Wednesday afternoon, U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced he is currently evaluating the best way to integrate OSM with the federal Bureau of Land Management.

In a news release, Salazar explained the move this way:

We must always be looking for ways to make government work better, to build on our strengths, and to get the most out of the limited resources we have. OSM and the BLM have vital natural resource missions, tremendous public servants, and strong leaders who are helping us rethink how we better deliver services and how we can further strengthen our regulation, reclamation, and stewardship responsibilities. We will rely on the ideas and input of employees and many others at every step of the process, so that we ensure that an integration is successful and consistent with our authorities under the law.

There’s more about what the Interior Department is up to in this memorandum, this order, and this list of questions and answers.

Many questions to come to mind about all of this, but one thing is clear: The administration wasn’t ready to go public with this announcement, and was pushed into it by a story from Greenwire, which reported yesterday:

Rumors of an imminent announcement about the reorganization circulated among mining industry leaders and on Capitol Hill all day, and officials are reportedly vetting a draft order to accomplish the change. Interior Department spokesman Adam Fetcher is not commenting on the reports.

One source familiar with the deliberations cited cost savings and efficiency as reasons for the possible change, saying combining operations could cut down on administrative functions. Early critics of such a move say OSM and BLM have distinct functions.

And it’s also clear that our good friend Rep. Nick J. Rahall, a West Virginia Democrat who as a freshman congressman in 1977 served on the conference committee that wrote the federal Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act, is going to oppose this merger. As Dr. Nyden reported:

Rep. Nick J. Rahall, D-W.Va., the last member of Congress who was on the House Natural Resources Committee when OSM was created in 1977, said the agency “provides a sounding board for Appalachian residents to express their concerns to the federal government.

“I am concerned that OSM will be diluted, or denuded, and will not serve as the same repository of coalfield residents’ concerns,” Rahall said during a telephone interview Wednesday evening. He called the move “rather bizarre.”

Fair enough. And it seems likely that some coalfield citizen activists and environmental advocates — particularly those who have been around longer and have strong ties to the notion that OSMRE was set up by Congress to police the coal industry — will probably be uneasy with the Obama proposal, or oppose it outright.

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House panel sets ‘buffer zone’ hearing for W.Va.

As if we hadn’t heard enough about the U.S. Office of Surface Mining’s botched efforts to rewrite the federal stream buffer zone rule — or the coal industry’s campaign to promote a one-sided view of what OSMRE was studying

Now, we hear that the House of Representatives’ Committee on Natural Resources has scheduled a field hearing for next Monday here in Charleston to discuss the matter.

Republican committee leaders are calling the hearing, “Jobs at Risk: Community Impacts of the Obama Administration’s Effort to Rewrite the Stream Buffer Zone Rule.”  The witness list hasn’t been posted publicly yet, but I understand it includes West Virginia Coal Association officials, Tom Clarke from the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection, and our old buddy from the United Mine Workers union, Roger Horton — who has said publicly that EPA efforts to reduce the impacts of mountaintop removal amount to “state-sponsored terrorism” or breaking into people’s homes at night.

So, it’s clear that this hearing will provide another opportunity for a clear-headed, thoughtful, and reasonable discussion of the impacts of mountaintop removal on Appalachia and the industry’s role in the region’s economy.

Stay tuned ….

OSMRE and Brushy Fork: What’s a fed to do?

Citizen groups weren’t very happy earlier this week, when OSMRE Charleston Field Office Director Roger Calhoun informed them of his decision on the Brushy Fork coal-slurry impoundment. As we reported:

Federal regulators this week backed off any separate enforcement action at a huge Raleigh County coal slurry impoundment, but disputed West Virginia’s conclusion that the facility used “the most conservative design” and that concerns about the site are unfounded.

The U.S. Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement concluded that state officials had acted properly in policing the Brushy Fork impoundment, in part because the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection has promised more stability testing at the site just upstream from Whitesville.

But this whole thing is worth another look — and not just because the Brushy Fork impoundment is big and scary, and deserves all the scrutiny regulators can give it. This story is also about what local OSMRE officials can and can’t do — and how OSMRE has tied its own hands in these situations.

Keep in mind first what has happened here on two of the major issues citizens have raised about Brushy Fork:

— Regarding whether blasting at the nearby Bee Tree Mine could damage the impoundment, OSMRE officials don’t believe it will. But, OSMRE also forced the state Department of Environmental Protection to revised its permit for Bee Tree, to require monitoring and blasting limits at the impoundment site. OSMRE’s Charleston Field Office went after this issue under a new agency policy, instituted in November 2010, that brought back the ability of local OSMRE officials to investigate potential permit defects in decisions made by state regulators.

— Regarding the stability of the impoundment itself, OSMRE has pushed the state and Alpha/Massey into new testing to more fully investigate the potential for solid materials inside the site to turn liquid and cause major problems.

Now, this isn’t exactly a ban on mountaintop removal … They won’t get written up by national bloggers or prompt thousands of comment emails from activist groups. But these are not small things, especially in the world of OSMRE, an agency that’s never come close to living up to the promise of the law that created it (see here and here).

And make no mistake, state agencies in the coalfields don’t like it one bit when OSMRE takes steps to toughen its oversight of their programs.

I asked Tom Clarke, director of the WVDEP’s Division of Mining and Reclamation, if he thought OSMRE’s review had improved his agency’s work on Brushy Fork and other impoundments, and after a long silence, he finally said:

… There probably have been some improvements ..

Harold Ward, one of Clarke’s top assistants, was more circumspect:

… It’s not always pleasant, but it is beneficial.

At the same time, it’s worth it for everyone who cares about strip-mining issues to understand why OSMRE couldn’t do anymore … why in effect, Roger Calhoun’s hands are pretty well tied up.

Read carefully the language in Roger Calhoun’s letter to coalfield activist Joe Stanley:

My standard of review of a state response to an alleged violation is explained in 30 C.F.R. 842.11, which requires that ‘… a response by a state regulatory authority that is not arbitrary, capricious or an abuse of discretion under the state program shall be considered appropriate action.’

Now, take a look back and see what Congress wrote when it passed the 1977 Surface Mine Control and Reclamation Act:

Surface mining and reclamation standards are essential in order to insure that competition in interstate commerce among sellers of coal produced in different States will not be used to undermine the ability of the several States to improve and maintain adequate standards on coal mining operations within their borders.

Even more to the point, read the legislative history of SMCRA:

Despite claims from some quarters that State reclamation laws have improved so significantly that Federal mining standards are no longer needed, the hearing record abounds with evidence that this is simply not the case. For a variety of reasons, including the reluctance of the State to impose stringent controls on its own industry, serious abuses continue.

Or as James McElfish and Ann Beier wrote in their great book, “Environmental Regulation of Coal Mining: SMCRA’s Second Decade“:

The economic importance of the coal industry to at least some of the mining states produces powerful pressures on state legislatures and regulatory agencies to accommodate coal interests.

So given that, why can’t OSMRE do more? Why can’t Roger Calhoun overturn a state decision unless he finds that decision to be arbitrary and capricious?

Well, it’s not because the law says so … SMCRA itself describes what OSMRE can do this way:

Whenever, on the basis of any information available to him, including receipt of information from any person, the Secretary has reason to believe that any person is in violation of any requirement of this Act or any permit condition required by this Act, the Secretary shall notify the State regulatory authority, if one exists, in the State in which such violation exists. If no such State authority exists or the State regulatory authority fails within ten days after notification to take appropriate action to cause said violation to be corrected or to show good cause for such failure and transmit notification of its action to the Secretary, the Secretary shall immediately order Federal inspection of the surface coal mining operation at which the alleged violation is occurring unless the information available to the Secretary is a result of a previous Federal inspection of such surface coal mining operation.

As you can imagine, exactly what constitutes “appropriate action” under this part of SMCRA has been the subject of a lot of debate. And in July 1988, the Reagan administration — in response to a mining industry regulatory petition —  added this language to OSMRE’s rules for interacting with state agencies:

For purposes of this subchapter, an action or response by a State regulatory authority that is not arbitrary, capricious, or an abuse of discretion under the state program shall be considered “appropriate action” to cause a violation to be corrected or “good cause” for failure to do so.

Industry supports of the rule cited court cases, like one from 1981, in which a federal appeals court said:

Once a state program has been approved, the state regulatory agency plays the major role, with its greater manpower and familiarity with local conditions. It exercises front-line supervision, and the Secretary will not intervene unless its discretion is abused.

Of course, they didn’t always cite the following passage of the ruling:

But ultimate responsibility for guaranteeing effective state enforcement of uniform nationwide minimum standards lies with the Secretary, and his duty to disapprove proposed state programs that he considers ineffective may not be obstructed by a policy of judicial deference to the state agencies proposing those programs.

In their book, McElfish and Beier wrote that the “arbitary and capricious” standard should be eliminated from OSMRE’s rule:

Oversight that applies a judicial deference standard to state action undermines OSMRE’s capacity to protect the public and the environment.

OSMRE Director Joe Pizarchik has made much of his efforts to improve oversight of state programs. But nowhere in his plans do I see any proposal to rewrite that standard and untie the hands of agency staffers like Roger Calhoun.

Existing headwall of culvert that drains into Bingamon Creek.

Actions by the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection to force the clean up of a coal-mining spill at a Harrison County coal refuse recovery site have gotten a little bit of media attention in recent weeks.

But there’s a whole lot more to this story, according to a new report put together by the U.S. Office of Surface Mining, Reclamation and Enforcement. And in taking its own actions at this site, OSMRE officials at the agency’s Charleston field office are taking advantage of a new Obama administration policy aimed at improving federal oversight of state mining regulators.

The 38-page report, available here, says that not only were there on-the-ground pollution problems at the Coal Valley LLC site near Enterprise, but also that the WVDEP played a role in those problems by issuing a permit that did not comply with the state’s federally approved program for regulating surface mining operations.

Among the more serious problems:

— The company initially got approval to dispose of runoff by dumping it through a borehole into an old underground mine that had already filled up — meaning there was really no place for the new discharge to go.

— OSM investigators found that the DEP-issued permit had no real concrete and feasible plan for how old coal waste materials from the site would be removed safely, without creating a dangerous new impoundment.

— There was no detailed analysis of the potential for activities of the site to cause localized flooding, and no plan for treating existing acid mine drainage at the site.

“Our big issue with this site is that they don’t have a plan that works for controlling runoff,” Roger Calhoun, director of OSMRE’s Charleston field office, told me this afternoon.

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Republicans take coal’s fight to OSMRE

Today’s hearing before a House Natural Resources subcommittee was titled, “Effect of the President’s FY-2012 Budget and Legislative Proposals for the Office of Surface Mining on Private Sector Job Creation, Domestic Energy Production, State Programs and Deficit Reduction“.

But from what I could tell, a better name might have been, “Let’s hold a hearing so the Republicans can trash the Office of Surface Mining over a draft study that the coal industry leaked to the press.”

I couldn’t tell from the Webcast, but it looked like the Democrats didn’t even bother to show up. And gosh, you would think that Rep. Bill Johnson, R-Ohio, would have learned somewhere along the way to let someone else finish a sentence once in a while.

The whole thing almost made me feel a little sorry for OSMRE Director Joe Pizarchik … almost.  Because let’s face it, his agency is just taking its medicine after leaking that draft Environmental Impact Statement on the stream protection rule and then declining to go on the offensive about some of the possible benefits in terms of reduced environmental damage, well, does anybody really think OSM is handling this whole thing very well?

Even Joe Lovett of the Appalachian Center for the Economy and the Environment and Gene Kitts of International Coal Group agreed that the buffer zone rulemaking has become a fiasco.

If the issues underlying all of this weren’t so serious, you could almost laugh about how transparent the GOP’s efforts were in setting up and then carrying out this hearing.

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Today’s a big day in Washington, with the unveiling of President Obama’s proposed budget for the 2012 federal financial year that begins Oct. 1. Agencies and reporters will be scrambling around to a series of briefings discussing what the president has proposed for the various agencies.

I’ll be looking over budgets for agencies that deal most directly with the coal industry, starting with the Interior Department’s Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement.

The administration’s budget summary for Interior outlines a proposed 10 percent cut in the OSMRE budget, from $163 million to $146 million. A more detailed budget document, called the appendix, explains that Obama is proposing to cut OSMRE spending on regulatory matters from $127 million to $118 million and spending on abandoned mine cleanups from $36 million to $27 million.

At the same time, the administration is again proposing a more targeted approach to spending on the Abandoned Mine Land, or AML, program.

We’ve talked about this proposal in past years when it was proposed as part of the Obama budget.  The idea is to stop sending coal production taxes intended for AML cleanups to western states — primarily Wyoming — that have certified that they’ve already cleaned up their abandoned coal mines.

The Interior Department describes the proposal this way:

For abandoned coal mines, DOI currently charges industry an abandoned mine land (AML) fee and allocates receipts to states based on production, rather than on reclamation needs. The Administration proposes to target these coal AML fee receipts at the most hazardous sites through a new competitive allocation process with State participation.

OSMRE Director Joe Pizarchik speaks

While folks in Kentucky launched a sit-in at their governor’s office to protest mountaintop removal (see here for updates), the nation’s top strip-mine regulator — OSMRE Director Joe Pizarchik — finally ended his silence today, holding a telephone news conference about his agency’s work on a new rule aimed at protecting the nation’s streams from strip-mining damage.

But Pizachik sure didn’t talk for very long, and he didn’t allow much time for the media to get answers from him about the leaked OSMRE study of various alternatives for the agency’s new stream protection rule.

The press conference was 16.5 minutes long, and Pizarchik took most of the first six minutes of that reading a prepared statement. And his handlers from the Interior Department allowed only four questions from the media before abruptly ending the call.

Frankly, there wasn’t really a lot of news here. Pizarchik repeated OSMRE’s earlier statements that the draft EIS documents contained some inaccurate numbers. But when asked, Pizarchik did not identify which numbers were inaccurate, and his point really seemed to be not necessarily that the numbers are wrong, but that OSM hadn’t verified them yet and wasn’t very happy that they got out before that happened.

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Tuesday, December 14, 2010

King George rules with an iron fist (jab)

Georges St. Pierre sent more than a message Saturday night with a very impressive unanimous decision over Josh Koscheck, what King George did was put on display his amazing repertoire of fighting skill and ring intelligence. In a manner more suited to a quarterback that studies hours of film then goes out and executes the game plan, GSP recognized a weakness in the Hoscheck defense, brought on Freddie Roach the legendary boxing trainer whose resume includes the current Pound-per-Pound best fighter in the world Manny Pacquiao, and developed a jab that would even intimidate Floyd Mayweather. He used the jab to perfection and not only landed the most damaging punch of the fight in the first round, but perhaps the first strike with a jab to the left side of Hocheck’s face that broke his optical bone and then swelled up to the point where no vision was possible. Beating GSP with two eyes is has not been done as of yet, so attempting to do it with one was simply not possible. Unfortunately, it’s St. Pierre that might be at a crossroads after the fight because he must answer the question of ‘where to go from here’ because there may not be anyone left to fight, and after taking down the 100k bonus for fight of the year what can he do for an encore? Hey, if Floyd won’t man up and fight Pac-Man maybe George will. Who would you like to see GSP fight next and who could give him a good fight? Let us know here, or chat live with other MMA fans in the MMA chat room.

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Monday, April 30, 2012

Sox Annoyed by Floyd

The Red Sox went 6-1 in the Midwest, with Gavin Floyd spoiling a perfect 7-0 trip yesterday afternoon in Chicago. He took a no-hitter into the 7th inning. And even after that was broken up and the Red Sox chased him from the game, Chicago's bullpen was able to get the last 7 outs for him.

Beckett settled down after a 3 run 1st inning. In his remaining 5.2 innings, he only allowed 3 hits and struck out 7. The outing was certainly good enough to win on a normal day. But not when facing Gavin Floyd.

Beckett threw 126 pitches. And that's a day after Lester threw 122 pitches in his 1-0 win. That speaks to how unreliable the Sox' bullpen has been. But I don't think this will be a common trend throughout the season. Both Beckett and Lester will be making their next starts on 5 days rest. So why not take advantage of that?

The Red Sox should try to avoid Gavin Floyd in the future. He's now 7-0 in his career against Boston. I'm glad he pitches in the AL Central.

With all due respect to Floyd, the Red Sox' offense has been exceptionally inconsistent this season. The Red Sox have played in 21 games, and in 17 of those they've scored either 3 runs or less, or 9+ runs.

Youkilis missed the game with tightness in his back. He was just starting to get a few hits lately, but I'm concerned there might be a physical problem that's keeping him from hitting with consistency. Hopefully it's a problem that can be solved without an extensive absence from the lineup. However long it takes though, you don't want to have to deal with lingering back problems all season long. If something is wrong with Youkilis, he needs to get healthy now so he can contribute down the stretch.

Sox return home just 1 game under .500. They host the A's tonight. Buchholz opposes 3-1 Tommy Milone, who's coming off an 8 inning 3 hit win against the White Sox.

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‘Creepy’ Returns With An All New Preview Of Issue #5!

There has been a recent resurgence of horror anthologies within the industry lately, and one of the titles that continues to carry a faithful fanbase is Dark Horse’s “CREEPY”. The title will be returning this month with the fifth issue, and inside you can check out a 6 page preview of the story before it hits shelves on March 24th. Read on for the skinny!

WRITTEN BY: David Lapham and Benjamin Truman
ILLUSTRATIONS BY: David Lapham and Timothy Truman

“The newest, gnarliest, and ickiest incarnation of the classic horror anthology Creepy is clawing its way onto your must-read list for 2011! Don’t miss the demented debut of Creepy #5 this March, which features strange and stunning offerings by David Lapham (Stray Bullets), Timothy Truman (Conan), classic Creepy cover artist Sanjulian, and much, much gore. Whether you prefer your horror tales bloody and bold, or supernatural and subtle, Uncle Creepy and his maleficent minions are sure to satisfy your lust for scary stories!”

CREEPY” Issue #5 Drops March 23rd From Dark Horse Comics! (MSRP-$4.99)

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I always wanted my name to start with a J... for some reason I think it's the coolest letter in the alphabet. I laugh at almost everything... I use ellipses at all times... and i love sex, music, and food. I'm pretty simple

New Philosophy

We all act a little crazy... but Cudi is right... I'ma stay sippin my drank and feelin my breeze without any drama...
So you've all heard the announcement
Ashley renounces beef with any one in spring qtr.
believe me this is momentous event... but I learned my lesson from Cudi...
Ain't tryin ta get tazored like him.......

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Friday, August 05, 2005

An unintentional 'dacking' at Kinder Gym

Have you ever been to a Kinder Gym themed party? Here in South Oz, they are mostly held in gymnasiums in the rainier colder months and contain all sorts of fun things like Tarzan ropes, huge Olympic-sized trampolines, rolling mats, rings and - best of all by far - the Pits of Foam.

Pits of Foam, are, well, pits in the ground filled up with foam I guess. One Kinder Gym near us has a 10 feet deep pit in the floor, roughly two adult trampolines long that is entirely filled with foam and sponge squares. It can entered in one of two ways - by running along like a lunatic until you go "Sprooiiiiinnnnngggg!" off the mini tramp into the pit; or by flinging yourself in free-style at the other end.

Me, I prefer free-style so that I don't smother any little kid who inadvertently gets in my way. You see that's the joy of these Kinder Gym places: parents are allowed to play too. I defy any grown-up to say that they still feel stressed, angry, anxious or nervous after hurling their bodies about during their child's Kinder Gym party.

Admittedly, it does take a bit of bravery to do it. When the other Mums are clad in their Yummy Mummy designer duds and you turn up in your tracksuit pants and a ponytail, you are already saying loud and clear that you're up for a bit of immature action. I thought it was best to start slowly on something that's not attention grabbing, like a short go on the tarzan ropes. Feeling every single muscle under each of my arms snap away from the tendons like guy ropes on a tent is a subtle reminder that I'm no longer as supple as I was in those halcyon playground days of the 70s.

Still, I'm out there now, and there's no going back to the pursed lip crowd of the watching Yummy Mummies. It's over to the big trampoline. And what a flattering sporting device this is! Unlike my child's trampoline that has "NO-ONE OVER 90KG ALLOWED" stamped all over it - and my husband reminding you that my cuddly 67kg would translate to far more than 90kg when the physics of gravity and increased pressure caused by jumping are factored in - this trampoline is bloody HUGE. Three Kym Beazleys could jump on this and only be in danger of snagging one of their toenails in the netting. It's like swimming through air and boy, don't the children look small from up here? The only negative is that the last time I jumped on a trampoline (circa 1979) I didn't have breasts. Now they're threating to burst out from their underwire and spandex and blacken both eyes. Of the kid on the trampoline next to me.

Sadly, it's time to get off and let someone under the age of 37 have a turn and allow my now-throbbing hooters a chance to stop bouncing. Also because the Yummy Mummies are yelling at me to "Get the hell off and the kids a go!" All righty then, it's time for the PIT OF FOAM! In a lengthy run-up second only in athletic grace to that of a high-jumper, I go for the freestyle end. A triple pike, double lutz, back crackin', side splittin' dive later, my face is wedged up against the side and my back is being used as a landing pad for three foolhardy six year olds. Why is it that kids don't think that adults feel pain? I'd like to be able to voice that question out aloud, but by now my face has slid down the wall and I'm breathing in the crumbly bits of foam that gather at the bottom.

As for my bottom, it's sticking out of the foamy flotsam like a resurfacing whale and through the foamy spongey crumble-haze I am vaguely aware of another little midget landing on it after their leap off the mini trampoline end. Channelling Dory from 'Finding Nemo', I find myself singing 'Just keep swimming, just keep swimming, swimming swimming......' as I ineffectually flop around to flip myself upright. Five minutes later, my panicked red face bursts triumphantly through the surface of the foam cubes.

Each attempt to clamber out of the pit itself seems to result in sinking further to the bottom in an increasing cycle of exhaustion and foam crumb inhalation. Somehow I have success after hoiking my right leg up and out of the pit and dragging the rest of me behind. It would have looked rather dignified and deft if I hadn't have accidentally strained a hammie and popped off a stinker at the same time. Luckily, no-one heard or noticed my efforts except for a three year old sibling, who stared at me, stared at the booger on her finger and stared at me some more.

It is now that I curse wearing baggy trakkie daks with a generously elasticated waistband. A supervisory father kindly offers to grab my arms to haul me out. My arms and my torso are now being heaved safely out of the satanic pit, but my tracksuit pants have stuck to the god-awful cubes like obsessive velcro. As I slowly emerge, it is with increasing horror that I feel my daks slowly pulling themselves down. Do I yell out "STOP! Let me drop! You go on ahead and leave me here" to the helpful father or be more grateful to escape than ashamed at showing off my arse to a packed gymnasium?

Like a footy player caught with his shorts pulled down during a running tackle, I have no choice. It's the arse and then freedom. It is with an increasingly mature attitude that I realise the truth - I've got to keep going, finish the task and then pull up my pants with confidence. Pity about the Yummy Mummy choking on her takeaway latte though.

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Deep Kick Girl said...

You funny lady! I can picture the scene so clearly, it's scary! I so relate to the joys of jumping on the trampoline - though I've only been on Will's child size one. I probably shouldn't, but I can't help myself. It's just when you initially get on and the damn thing just about stretches down to the ground that you think it might not be such a good idea!