Coal ash floods Tennessee neighborhood

Coal-fired power plants generate enough coal ash every year to fill a train stretching from the North Pole all the way to the South Pole. There is enough coal ash being stored in ponds and landfills to fill 738 Empire State Buildings, or flow continuously over Niagara Falls for three days straight. It's no mystery that we create staggering amounts of coal ash, the dangerous byproduct of burning coal to fuel our energy demands.

But what remains a mystery is why the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency still hasn't made a clear commitment to federal safeguards that ensure protections for our health and environment against this hazardous waste.

<Update: The New York Times reported blow-by-blow from the Senate oil spill hearing as it came to a close.>

<Update: At today's hearing, BP President Lamar McKay blamed the well's blowout preventer as the culprit in the Gulf oil spill catastrophe, and described the failure as unusual. But, an Associated Press investigation shows that blowout preventers are notoriously unreliable.>

<Update: Lisa Jackson, head of the Environmental Protection Agency, said today the Gulf oil spill disaster was unprecedented, telling CNN the spill "has the potential to be worse than anything we've seen.">

While the Big Three companies responsible for the Gulf of Mexico oil spill face scrutiny from the Senate Energy and Natural Resources and the Environment and Public Works committees, Reuters reports that "32 of 40 Democrats and Republicans who sit on the [ENR and EPW committees] have collected millions of dollars from BP or other oil and gas interests during election campaigns dating to 1990, public records show."

The three companies responsible for the spill in the Gulf of Mexico—British Petroleum, Transocean and Halliburton—appeared in the second panel of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. They'll also appear this afternoon before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, making it a long day under the congressional microscope for these companies.

Lamar McKay (President of BP America Inc.), Steve Newman (President and CEO of Transocean) and Tim Probert (President of Global Business Lines for Halliburton) stressed that more information is needed before a rush to judgment about the disastrous spill.

Newman said that "until we know what happened, we cannot determine the best route for the future." This comment supports the "time out" Earthjustice is asking President Obama to take on drilling offshore in the Arctic Ocean. There is still much scientific data needed to ensure a spill such as the one that happened in the Gulf doesn't happen again.

The first panel of witnesses were effusive in their answers as the majority of questions targeted Minerals Management Service representative Elmer Danenberger. Although Danenberger retired in January after 38 years at MMS, he faced strong questions from senators asking why MMS seemed so inept on the permit that resulted in the catastrophic Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

Was it appropriate that MMS is both advocate and regulator of the oil and gas industry? Danenberger replied: "That concept might merit further attention."

Many senators seemed unhappy with the responses from the first panel, and made their disdain known. Sen. James E. Risch (R-ID) took the opportunity to toss a jibe at those organizing the first Earth Day, blaming them for stopping development of nuclear power and thus increasing our reliance on fossil fuels, but he did note that he was "less than satisfied" with the answers he recieved.

On a separate note, Interior Sec. Ken Salazar will announce today plans to split MMS into two parts, as reported by the Washington Post: one with oversight responsibilities for the oil indsutry and another that would provide drilling leases and collect federal royalties on the operations. The move could address what some senators questioned as MMS' relationship as both advocate and regulator.

The first two witnesses on the panel, Dr. F.E. Beck, associate professor at Texas A&M University and Mr. Danenberger, former chief of the offshore regulatory division at the Minerals Management Service (MMS), opened up the hearing as Sens. Bingaman and Murkowski asked mainly technical questions.

Danenberger spent much of his time promoting the great virtues of MMS, but of course, failed to mention that "MMS granted a categorical exclusion and failed to require a thorough environmental review before allowing BP to proceed with this exploration well," as Earthjustice legislative associate Jessica Ennis noted in a press statement on today's hearings.

Even as Congress is asking questions, MMS and President Obama's Department of Interior are moving full steam ahead with offshore drilling in America's Arctic Ocean with a drill rig similar to the one that exploded in the Gulf of Mexico. Senators continue to question the first panel of experts, and more than a few of them have suggested they're much more excited to grill the second panel of witnesses, which includes representatives from BP, Transocean Limited and Halliburton.

Earthjustice is blogging live from congressional hearings starting today on the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. This is the second report.

Senate Energy and Natural Resources Chairman Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) offered brief remarks on today's hearing that were critical not only of the companies responsible for the spill but also of the regulators who failed to stop this catastrophe. He said today's hearing is the "first of many hearings" and noted that Interior Sec. Ken Salazar (who was originally scheduled to testify at the ENR committee last week) will be testifying next week before the ENR committee.

Bingaman also said that the goal of today's hearing is to gather "a thorough, factual record" of what happened before, during and after the spill. "It's not enough to chalk what happened to a view that accidents will happen," Bingaman added. "We'll likely discover there was a cascade of failures and technical and regulatory errors."

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), the ranking minority member on the committee, recognized the tragic nature of this spill, but put her own "drill, baby, drill" spin on future oil drilling efforts, noting that "accidents remain a cold reality" of energy development. Surprisingly, she also said, "We need to steadily minimize production of oil in our energy mix," but then added that "under anyone's figures it's going to be a long time before we competely ween ourselves off our oil addiction."

The first panel is now offering opening statements, and the companies responsible for the spill will testify in the second panel. Bingaman is hoping to wrap up the hearing before lunch, so stay tuned for more updates.

Earthjustice is blogging live from congressional hearings starting today on the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. This is the first report.

The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee will be the first committee to hold a hearing looking into the causes and cleanups of one of the biggest environmental disasters in the last two decades. Just a few hours later, the witnesses in the ENR committee will walk down the hall to appear before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.

It's a chilly spring day here in D.C., but we certainly expect some fireworks to come from these two hearings. Appearing before each committee are representatives from BP, Halliburton and Transocean Limited. I'll be blogging about the hearings as all the excitement occurs, so stay tuned throughout the morning for updates.

The witnesses for each hearing include:

Mr. Lamar McKay, President and Chairman, BP America, Inc.; Mr. Steven Newman, President and Chief Executive Officer, Transocean Limited; Mr. Tim Probert, President, Global Business Lines; Chief Health, Safety and Environmental Officer, Halliburton.

Cleaning up after the TVA coal ash spill in Tennessee, December 2008. Photo: http://www.tva.gov

It's been a long time coming, but they're finally here: the EPA announced today plans to set the first ever federal safeguards for coal ash, one of America's most dangerous wastes. But what they really did was announce two plans: one good and one bad. The agency will accept public comment on both plans and then decide which to pursue.

The good plan classifies coal ash as hazardous waste, a move we've been pushing the EPA to make for some time. The agency also proposed, however, to classify coal ash as non-hazardous (the bad plan), a move that will not yield strong protections for communities and won't get at the problems associated with coal ash ponds and landfills.

NASA image of Gulf of Mexico oil spill

The latest news reports suggest the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico from the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig that sunk earlier this month is much worse than anticipated. The oil slick, which is now the size of West Virginia and getting bigger by the day, could hit Louisiana's coastline by this weekend. Experts say the oil continues to leak at a rate of about 5,000 barrels per day, more than five times original estimates. The Coast Guard's plan to ignite the oil slick and burn most of it away isn't going as planned as winds have limited their ability. The White House has declared this a spill "of national significance."

But just a month ago, the Obama adminsitration announced plans to open new areas off the East Coast to more offshore oil drilling, and also upheld Bush-era leases in almost 2.8 million acres of the Chukchi Sea in the Arctic Ocean. The announcement allows exploration drilling to move forward starting as early as this summer. As we and many other groups have said in the past, a catastrophic oil spill in the icy, remote waters of the Arctic would be an emergency beyond any we've ever seen.

It's raining here in Washington DC, but there's no way this gray day is going to put a damper on my spirits. We got some great news from the House of Representatives this morning, announcing important clean water legislation has finally been intrdouced!

Here's the gist: the U.S. Supreme Court made some supremely bad decisions over the last few years that essentially call into question whether up to 60 percent of our rivers, lakes, streams, wetlands and coastal areas are protected by the Clean Water Act.

The word in question is "navigable." And for the last few years, government agencies have been exempting clean water protections for streams that feed communities with drinking waters, rivers where fishers wade, lakes for boating and swimming holes for summer fun. This means polluters can dump pollution into waters where we drink, fish, swim and play.