Twitter Feed

    Follow After the Press

    _CNN SELLS OUT CANCER SURVIVOR FOR COAL

    COAL IN YOUR STOCKING THIS CHRISTMAS: CNN

    CNN’s report on coal ash was welcome attention from a national news outlet for the people near Little Blue Run. But the coverage left a mis-impression and was neither objective nor without bias as CNN often claims. The coal industry is one of CNN’s sponsors, and their commercial airing during the report is tantamount to a rebuttal of the claims of the citizens harmed by the industry. Not only is the commercial inaccurate propaganda; the industry perspective is furthered by the reporting. Some of CNN’s news report was wrong or uninformed. Opinion was given as fact, and worse, it was the opinion of the sponsor. It cannot be considered objective journalism to report on a story when one of the parties is a supporting it financially. In fact, After the Press considers the very idea of objectivity to be false and misleading. After the Press does not claim to be objective and instead provides the views of Paul Joffe, whose opinions are clearly stated. Little Blue Run is a coal ash dump owned by First Energy. The company promised the residents back in the ’70s that it would build a retention pond that they could use for boating and recreation — just like the one shown in the Clean Coal commercial. At this time there is no operational Clean Coal technology. Coal contains small amounts of heavy metals like selenium, cadmium, arsenic, and lead. When coal is burned, whatever doesn’t burn is left over, and it’s called fly ash. Heavy metals don’t burn, so they are concentrated in the fly ash. In creating Little Blue Run, the waste dump, First Energy mixes the ash with water and pumps it through a large pipe to a valley that they bought in rural Pennsylvania and West Virginia. The flow of ash-water filled up an entire farming valley on the border between those two states, and a dam was built to hold back the ash mud. No liner was installed to keep the heavy metals from percolating into the water table and poisoning local wells. As the water evaporates from the top of the dump, the ash forms a dry layer. The ash is called fly ash because it is very light and will blow away in a wind; however, no cap was installed to keep that from happening. A similar fly ash dam-dump collapsed in Kingston, Tennessee, leading to a violent poisonous flood. There was another “waste impoundment” flood in Hungary outside a copper factory. CNN’s report followed the Hungarian collapse, which was covered briefly on the same program. However, again, CNN is sponsored by the coal industry’s trade association: “The Coalition for Clean Coal”,  which promotes the fiction that new technology makes burning coal clean. In reality First Energy won’t even use old technology to clean up their toxic waste dump. The air around the plant is so toxic that it pits car paint. First Energy’s answer to that is paying for paint jobs on local cars.

    for more information:

    Citizens Against Coal Ash

    http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=349796824747

    www.sierraclub.org/coal/pa

    Carl Paladino Admits Hydrofracking Risk

    Carl Paladino Candidate for Governor of New York state weighs in on the technique called “Hydro-Fracking”  or hydraulically fracturing a natural gas bearing layer of rock using water and chemicals. This technique can contaminate ground water.  He agrees it’s risky but thinks it’s OK as long as it is not done in the watershed on New York City.

    Where’s the Oil? UNC Scientists Demonstrate BP Oil Spill Fluid Dynamics

    One of the interesting things we learned in the fluids lab at UNC was that the oil coming out of the BP Macando well was probably coming out at between 100 and 300 degrees F meeting water that was just above freezing. that alone combined with its great velocity would be enough to cause it to entrain sea water and become neutrally or negatively buoyant and form cloud layers. The professors told us that the smaller the droplets of oil the longer they will persist in the ocean in stratified layers. BTW -- The oil was hot because it was coming from so far deep in the earth. Great thanks to UNC Chapel Hill and Professor Roberto Camassa and Professor Rich McLaughlin.