[GPCA Updates] GP RELEASE Greens call 'clean coal' myth a major threat to public health, citing study

[Green Party of California Updates]

GREEN PARTY OF THE UNITED STATES
http://www.gp.org

For Immediate Release:
Tuesday, August 18, 2009


Greens call 'clean coal' myth a major threat to public health, citing study

• Poisons released from mining, high Appalachian illness and mortality
rates, and mountain removal's destruction of landscapes: Greens blast
concessions to coal industry in the fight against global warming


WASHINGTON, DC -- Green Party activists and leaders today called coal
a threat to publc health and a false alternative to petroleum energy
in the effort to fight global warming.

Greens cited "Mortality in Appalachian Coal Mining Regions: The Value
of Statistical Life Lost," a study published in the July-August issue
of Public Health Reports
(http://www.health.wvu.edu/newsreleases/news-details.aspx?ID=1217),
which reports that, while coal mining contributed about $8 billion to
the economies of Appalachian states, the costs of reduced life-spans
associated with coal mining were $17 billion to $84.5 billion.

"Coal mining doesn't only destroy the landscape, it kills people,"
said Jody Grage, treasurer of the Green Party of the United States.
"There is no such thing as clean coal.  President Obama is repeating a
lie designed by the coal industry to maintain its profit margins and
to continue turning states like West Virginia into a poisonous
wasteland covered with giant craters."

The Green Party has demanded a halt to mountaintop-removal operations,
which have destroyed over 500 mountains in West Virginia, filled in
river valleys, and caused toxins to be dumped into freshwater streams
and rivers.  The Public Health Reports studied offered evidence that
the coal industry is causing sickness and early death not just among
coalminers but among populations living near mines, processing plants,
and transportation centers.  The combination of these effects has
elevated poverty rates in Appalachian states.

During the Green Party's 2009 Annual National Meeting in Durham, North
Carolina, Jesse Johnson of the West Virginia Mountain Party
(affiliated with the Green Party) spoke on the catastrophic effects of
mountaintop removal.  Mr. Johnson's speech was followed by a screening
of the new documentary 'Coal Country: Rising Up Against Mountaintop
Removal Mining' (http://www.coalcountrythemovie.com), which he helped
produce.  (See also "Coal Country Premiere: Big Coal Lobby Does Not
Want You to See This Powerful New Film" by Jeff Biggers, Huffington
Post, July 3, 2009
(http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeff-biggers/icoal-countryi-premiere-b_b_225341.html).

Mr. Johnson, currently on a speaking tour to promote the documentary,
has called West Virginia the "epicenter of global warming" in the US
and stresses that "Mountaintop removal is ground zero for global
climate change and water depletion for more than half of the US
population."

Greens noted that deals for huge surface-mining operations in the
Illinois Basin (Armstrong Coal Co.) and in Bear Run, Indiana (Peabody
Energy Corp.) will fire up the US's densest cluster of aging plants
(http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gyfwiDRoVhwDrDCP--iSJjxuaNJwD99OVGNO1).
  The immediate boost to the economy may soon be offset by the
environmentally harmful effects of coal mining, said Greens, who
emphasized that the toxins "scrubbed" off of coal don't simply
disappear.

The Green Party has called the myth of clean coal and nuclear energy
and cap-and-trade schemes dangerous distractions and impediments to
the real steps necessary to curb global warming.  The party criticized
a recently passed US House energy bill (HR 2454) for enacting a
cap-and-trade system, severely inadequate emissions caps, and and
provisions that restrict legal efforts to block coal projects, noting
that the legislation will lead to more coal use in 2020 than in 2005
(http://www.gp.org/press/pr-national.php?ID=235) and that it increases
incentives to keep some of the oldest and dirtiest coal plants in
operation.

"We need a sustained national and international effort to defeat
global warming that has the kind of unity, determination, and sober
planning that led the Allies to defeat our enemies in World War II,"
said Mark Dunlea, former co-chair of the Green Party of New York
State.  "Without such an effort, we are complicit in the threat to
civilization and to hundreds of millions of human lives.  Making
concessions for the sake of polluters' profits is like negotiating
trade with Germany and Japan in the middle of the war."


MORE INFORMATION

Green Party of the United States http://www.gp.org
202-319-7191, 866-41GREEN
Fax 202-319-7193
• Green candidate database and campaign information:
http://www.gp.org/elections.shtml
• Green Party News Center http://www.gp.org/newscenter.shtml
• Green Party Speakers Bureau http://www.gp.org/speakers
• Green Party ballot access page http://www.gp.org/2008-elections
• Green Party Livestream Channel http://www.livestream.com/greenpartyus

"In Appalachia, Coal Mining Costs $9-$76 Billion More Per Year Than It
Pulls In, Claims Study"
By Matthew McDermott, TreeHugger, July 13, 2009

Green Pages: The official publication of record of the Green Party of
the United States
Summer 2009 issue now online
http://gp.org/greenpages-blog


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