If Henry Waxman wants to make a statement that the time has arrived for a serious debate about the country's energy future, climate change, deregulation, and policy effectiveness, his first act as the new chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee should be to launch hearings into last month's coal ash spill in eastern Tennessee.

The spill of toxic-laden coal ash was the largest such spill in US history, spewing a billion gallons into a tributary of the Tennessee River.  The Teneessee Valley Authority took days to test the water and data from the test have not been publically released.  In addition, the New York Times is reporting that the TVA tests were conducted UPSTREAM from the spill.  Today the EPA released its test results and data which indicated that levels of arsenic in the water are 100 times the maximum safety threshold.

Independent tests were conducted by scientists at Appalachian State University which indicate even higher levels of arsenic as well as troubling levels of lead and thallium.

Congress needs to take a hard look at the regulations governing fly ash waste so as to insure that the possibilities of such dramatic disasters are minimized--especially as coal state politicians like Barack Obama push the canard of "clean coal" to solve our energy and climate problems.

Trapping carbon from burning coal is a separate issue from dealing with the waste.  And the fly ash waste problem is not confined to Tennessee.  A simple google news search brings up concerns with arsenic levels in Virginia, a $54 million dollar lawsuit in Maryland against Constellation Power for contaminating ground water, and energy interests stifiling proposed regulations of fly ash in Iowa.

After eight years of little federal oversight on power company operations, the Kingston Disaster should be a serious wake-up call.  It looks like Senator Boxer is doing the right thing.  She has scheduled the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works to look at the Kingston Disaster next Thursday, 8 January at 10am est.  Waxman should join in.

For more information and updates on the situation in Kingston, I would recommend monitoring the websites of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy [check out their flickr stream for first hand pictures of the disaster] and the I Love Mountains coalition.  One thing that the region has going for it is a vibrant community of dedicated environmentalists.  Their efforts need support from folks across the country [and the world] for policy reform to succeed.