Divided House: Obama Policy on

Coal Waste at Odds with Itself

Divided House:
Obama Policy on Coal Waste at Odds with Itself

John Melendez
Cibola International ™
 Divided House: Obama Policy on
Coal Waste at Odds with Itself

Divided House: Obama Policy on Coal Waste at Odds with Itself (First Edition)

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Cover photo: Environmental expert Jeff Stant addresses coal waste issues at a Pennsylvania coal waste dumping site. Photo
courtesy of oscette.com.

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 Divided House: Obama Policy on
Coal Waste at Odds with Itself

Photo: A Tennessee Valley home is destroyed in a 2008 billion gallon toxic coal waste sludge spill.

Expert: “White House Divided on the Coal Waste Issue”

President Barack Obama’s appointments for key environmental offices are diametrically opposed
to one another, according to environmental expert Jeff Stant. Stant, a longstanding watchdog
and environmental regulation advocate, states Obama’s recent environmental office
appointments reflect a horrifyingly divided approach to addressing the nation’s largest industrial
pollution problem: coal combustion waste.

Says Stant, “Obama’s recent nominations to lead the Environmental Protection Agency [EPA]
and the Interior Department’s Office of Surface Mining [OSM] reflect a divided approach that
collectively don’t make any sense.”

“Obama’s nominations of Lisa Jackson and Joseph Pizarchik collectively makes no sense. On the
one hand we have Jackson, who would be heading up the EPA - an entity whose sworn purpose
is to protect the environment and our interaction with it. And then on the other hand we have
Pizarchik to head the Department of Interior’s OSM. This is a fellow whose entire career has
represented big business and its exploitation of the environment - to the detriment of ecosystems
and inhabitants of that environment, humans included.”

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 Divided House: Obama Policy on
Coal Waste at Odds with Itself

Why the Divided House?

When asked how US President Obama’s choices reflecting such an apparent division could have
been made, Stant post several possible scenarios.

“It's not exactly clear. Perhaps the President’s decision may have been based on partial ignorance
of these people’s backgrounds. On the other hand, perhaps he's just trying to walk the middle of
the line -- appease both sides. On the one side, we have the voice of concern from people who
care about the environment and who are represented in general by the EPA. On the other side,
Obama cannot deny the very real force of big business backed by big money and aggressive
lobbyist presence.”

“No matter what the reason, my greatest concern is that this seemingly opposing set of agendas
may result in an overall neutralizing effect in the coal waste issue. By this I mean this will leave
things pretty much in a status quo situation. Nothing will get done.”

Jeff Stant banks this statement on years of experience as a leader of movements starting at the
grassroots level, and whose work takes him on frequent visits to Capitol Hill to address the
ongoing environmental problems brought on by coal waste.

About Coal Waste

Each year US coal-fired power plants produce more than 126 million tons of solid coal
combustion waste, with about 100,000 tons of this comprising toxic metals (* U.S. Energy
Information Administration, 2005). After burning coal at their power plants, electrical power
utilities usually send their toxic waste back to the coal mining companies that sold the coal to
them. The mining companies usually either dispose of this waste in open pits, or bury it in the
ground from which the coal originally came. In either scenario, toxins from this waste eventually
leach into nearby groundwater and arrive in the tap water thousands of American families drink
every day.

About Jeff Stant

Jeff Stant has been a champion to various environmental causes for more than 30 years. With
experience as the former Director of the Hoosier Environmental Council and author of numerous
reports spelling out the many environmental effects caused by the dumping of coal combustion
waste. Jeff’s recent work includes the publication of his findings following a two-year research
project. His two-thousand page environmental impact report - issued in conjunction with the
Clean Air Task Force - blew the lid off of one of the largest unregulated coal waste dumping
operations in the United States.

In 2007 Jeff Stant published a two-thousand page environmental impact report funded by the
Clean Air Task Force. The report blew the lid off of one of the nation’s largest coal waste
dumping operations, and how this operation contributes to environmental pollution on a scale
never witnessed in previous generations.

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Coal Waste at Odds with Itself

About John Melendez

Freelance writer John Melendez helped co-author the report and periodically interviews Jeff
Stant for updates on events years following its issuance.