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Recap on Senate Hearing on Kingston Coal Ash Disaster
I just finished watching the live feed of the Senate Environment and Public Works hearing on the Kingston, TN coal ash spill. Here are some initial impressions:
- Chair Barbara Boxer did a good job pushing TVA CEO Tom Kilgore on safety issues and general TVA approach to dealing with coal ash waste. He wasn't altogether forthcoming in his answers and disappointingly wasn't enthusiastic about the possible federal regulation of coal ash as a hazardous waste. Currently coal ash is regulated at the state level.
- Boxer indicated she intends to press Obama's appointee to head the EPA on the issue of coal ash regulation at her confirmation hearings next week.
- I was struck by how many committee members were absent from the hearing, especially those who claim to be strong on the environment like Lieberman, Sanders, and Klobuchar [I am assuming that these folks are still on the committee]. The only Republicans who bothered to show up were the ranking member, James Inhofe, and Tennessee's Lamar Alexander [there may have been one other I'm forgetting]. The new senator from New Mexico, Tom Udall, had good questions.
- Witness, Steven Smith, of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, was effective at stating the case for stronger oversight on coal ash and the TVA. His prepared testimony [.pdf] offers a comprehensive treatment of the Kingston disaster and the general issue of dealing with waste from coal fired power plants.
- The final witness, Rowan County Director of Emergency Management, Howie Rose, gave compelling testimony [.pdf] of the immediate response to the disaster. Among the challenges faced by local authorities was the TVA's failure to follow emergency procedures. The first reports of the breach of the ash pit came in to local authorities at 12:40am on December 22 and emergency responders were on the scene shortly after 1:00am. The TVA didn't appear on the scene until nearly 5:00am. Rose pointed out that the TVA has a relatively lax emergency preparedness procedure for their coal plants in comparison to their nuclear and hydroelectric facilities.
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Thank you for the update, Hugh.
My inability to use the links you provided this morning had to do with my slow dial-up ISP and not a mistake on your side. I should have said so then and I apologize for not explaining sooner. 24kbs is the usual speed. Sad.
I'm glad good questions were asked and I'll keep my fingers crossed that Boxer keeps her nose to the trail until the hunt is over. No C-SPAN at our house either, so I appreciate posts like this.
I'm only five pages into the first .pdf file and already I'm thinking the authorities at the Authority need permanent replacements. Wow. Total disregard for...everything.
Migwetch (Thanks) again.
January 8, 2009 7:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks for the nice words. Tom Kilgore--TVA head--got relatively "kid gloves" treatment. Boxer kept on calling him a "nice man."
The main issue now will be to see if the EPA regulates coal ash as a hazardous waste.
The Republicans on the committee are generally unenthusiastic about regulation--even Alexander didn't push the idea even though the disaster occurred in his own state.
The Dems--such as Boxer--don't have as large of a concentration of these coal ash pools. They tend to be situated in the South and Midwest.
Next week's confirmation hearings for the new EPA head, Lisa Jackson, might offer some insight into how aggressively Congress is going to take on this issue.
Boxer said she will ask Jackson about it--let's see who else expresses concern.
The main hope is that a respect for professionalism and science will return to the EPA and that their previous gestures towards regulating coal ash will be heeded by the new team.
January 9, 2009 12:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yep. Let's hope that P stands for Protection once again instead of Pandering.
I will be keeping an eye on Ms. Jackson.
Migwetch.
January 9, 2009 5:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
Good update. I ditto remarks of Flower.
You have to admit that Congress moved quickly on this considering that everything is coming at once as far as issues and the economic mess. Read the piece by Hilary99 (sp) on this site.
Coal is so important to this country right now and has caused so much devastation over the centuries.
January 8, 2009 8:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yeah, props should go out to Boxer. I'd like to see the House take up the issue as well. I think I posted last week that Waxman should hold hearings on the disaster.
January 9, 2009 12:17 PM | Reply | Permalink