Energy

Good money from not-so-good benefactors: Part v

10 December 2009

Yet another development on the “Good Money from Not-So-Good Benefactors” front: According to the Coal Tattoo blog, members of the West Virginia University student chapter of the Sierra Club presented a petition yesterday to President Clements signed by 1,100 faculty, staff, students and Morgantown residents urging him to reject future donations from coal CEOs Bob Murray and Don Blankenship and demanding that the faculty chair funded by Murray be named for the people who died in the Crandall Canyon Mining disaster, rather than the person whose negligence caused their deaths.

While I am generally sympathetic to the Sierra Club cause, I think their opposition to these gifts is wrong-headed. In my perfect world, West Virginia University, which actually has a competitive advantage in the field of energy research, would become a leader in the alternative and renewable energy fields. To do that, they need money from people in the energy industry – and for good or ill, that includes people like Murray and Blankenship, who at least understand the potential benefits of energy research, even if their statements about global warming and other issues are far afield.

It would be great if higher education institutions never took money from benefactors who did not-so-good things, but we wouldn’t have some of the world’s finest educational institutions without the benefit of some ill-gotten gains – Duke University (built by tobacco), Carnegie Mellon University, and Rockefeller University, just to name a few.

Like a fine wine …

4 December 2009

… Senator Robert C. Byrd only seems to get better with age. I first began to appreciate our Senior Senator when he was the lone voice in the wilderness urging President Bush, Congress and the American people to reconsider their headlong rush into a war in Iraq. During that debate, he used his tremendous grasp of history to explain that we had never before gone to war in the absence of a clear and imminent threat to our nation. America paid a heavy price for failing to heed Senator’s Byrd’s message.

Today Senator Byrd speaks truth to power about coal. His theme: “The time has come to have an open and honest dialogue about coal’s future in West Virginia.”

Why aren’t we having that important dialogue? Because politicians and industry are “scapegoating and stoking fear over the permitting process.”
Can the world live without coal? ”No deliberate effort to do away with the coal industry could ever succeed in Washington because there is no available alternative energy supply that could immediately supplant the use of coal….”
What about mountaintop removal coal mining? ”It is not a widespread method of mining, with its use confined to only three states. Most members of Congress, like most Americans, oppose the practice, and we may not yet fully understand the effects of mountaintop removal mining on the health of our citizens.”
What about climate change? ”To deny the mounting science of climate change is to stick our heads in the sand….”
What do we need to do? ”West Virginians can choose to anticipate change and adapt to it, or resist and be overrun by it.”

West Virginia will pay a heavy price if it fails to heed Senator Byrd’s message.

Good money from not-so-good benefactors: Part i

13 September 2009

On Friday West Virginia University announced a $1 million gift for energy research from Robert and Brenda Murray. The gift will be matched by $1 million from the Legislature’s $50 million Research Trust Fund. According to WVU’s press release, the funds will be used for a good purpose: “research on safer, more efficient and cost effective ways to use fossil fuels.”

Bob Murray is the President of Murray Energy Corporation. Murray Energy owns Utah’s Crandall Canyon mine, where nine people lost their lives in August 2007. You may remember that Mr. Murray initially came across as a sympathetic character in media broadcasts, but opinions changed as the investigation unfolded and it became clear that the accident was the result of serious safety violations and $1.6 million in fines were imposed against the mine operator.

As you would expect, WVU accepted the money and said nothing about Mr. Murray’s controversial past. I think they did the right thing.

A conversation on southern energy

10 September 2009

The Southern Growth Policies Board spent the last year studying energy issues and recently issued its 2009 report titled “A Conversation on Southern Energy.”

The report begins by making a not-all-that-compelling case that energy issues in the South are different from energy issues in the rest of the country. As support for this premise, SGPB points out that four states, including West Virginia, are net exporters of energy; the South produces more coal and nuclear power; the South uses more energy per capita because of its climate and industrial base; and the South has great alternative energy potential.

Some interesting information about West Virginia energy contained in the report:

A GOOD THING: In 2006 West Virginia produced far more energy (4,107 trillion BTU) than it consumed (829 trillion BTU) and edged out Louisiana as the southern state (there were four) with the largest energy surplus.
A GOOD THING: Only about half of the southern states have developed state energy plans, and West Virginia is among them. A quotation from the West Virginia state energy plan highlighted in the report: “A long-term solution to our energy needs will involve a combination of all three energy opportunity areas: (1) enhanced production of fossil energy sources including advanced coal technologies; (2) renewable energy development; and (3) energy efficiency.”
A BAD THING: West Virginia has 332 clean energy businesses and 3,065 clean energy jobs and is the only state to have seen a decrease in clean energy jobs over the last decade. (Source: The Pew Charitable Trusts, 2009)
A BAD THING: West Virginia had no clean energy venture capital investment between 2006 and 2008. Nationally over $12 billion in such investments were made.
A GOOD THING: West Virginia is projected to have 10,700 new green jobs by 2038.

The report recommends the following:

Educate people about energy issues.
Pursue a broad range of energy options (which appears to be a fundamental principle of every state’s energy plan).
Begin with energy conservation and efficiency (but realize it won’t produce energy independence).
Encourage research and development related to new energy technologies. (The federal investment in energy R&D in 2007 was $2.8 billion; stimulus funding is providing $2.5 billion for advanced energy technologies.)
Ensure that the workforce is prepared for emerging green jobs. (WorkforceWV currently is working on such a plan.)

To be fair … And you know how I hate to be fair …

31 August 2009

2009-08-31 Washington and Lee University

… Washington and Lee University’s School of Law has two truly spectacular public service law programs worthy of recognition:

Virginia Capital Case Clearinghouse. Instead of helping lawyers try to get death penalty sentences set aside after a case has been handled poorly at the trial court level, which is what most law school programs do, VC3 actually helps lawyers in the midst of death penalty proceedings. VC3 deserves some credit for Virginia’s low death penalty imposition rate.

Black Lung Legal Clinic. When I was a student, I learned that one of the most challenging cases to make was for federal black lung benefits, even if the person were dying or had died from pneumoconiosis. Washington and Lee law school students have been assisting coal miners and their survivors bring such claims for years and are five times more successful than average.

It’s easy to poke fun at all the rich kids who go to Washington and Lee University, but they did admit a poor kid like me, and some of those rich kids did learn a thing or two about real public service from these fine programs.

Good money from not-so-good benefactors: Part v

Like a fine wine …

Good money from not-so-good benefactors: Part i

A conversation on southern energy

To be fair … And you know how I hate to be fair …

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