Representative John Shimkus Warns You to Back Big Coal or Die

On February 13, 2010, in Christianity, Coal Industry, Environment, Global Warming, John Shimkus, Peter Roskam, Religious Freedom, Utilities Industry, by RSR
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Another chipper Twitter message from Illinois’ 19th Distric Representative  John Shimkus, Big Coal’s guy in Washington, to his constituents: “the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

We continue to be bothered by Shimkus’ biblical tweeting, not because he is not within his rights to do so or because we don’t like Christians, but because we think it demonstrates profound insensitivity toward his constituents who are not followers of Christ. Shimkus was elected to represent all residents of his district, not just the Christians. His choice of passages continue to reflect, however, an attitude that his spiritual path is the only path with any legitimacy. Perhaps Shimkus could mix it up a bit. (Our Congressman, Shimkus’ buddy Peter Roskam, could sure use to hear some biblical wisdom on the practice of usury or on welcoming the stranger.)

Perhaps as troubling to us is that Shimkus is using his Christian religion to absolve himself from acknowleding the sound science that tells us that our continued dependence on fossil fuels is poisoning our environment threatening the possibility of leaving global ecological catastrophe as our legacy to our children and grandchildren. Shimkus’ warped theology gives him an out to keep on accepting big contributions from the electric utilities, oil and gas companies, and coal companies while using his vote in Congress to advance their interests rather than those of his constituents.

Don’t believe me? Have a peek at these videos U.S. House Subcommittee on Energy and Environment hearings in March, 2009 (preserved thanks to the outstanding progressive news site, Progress Illinois)

From the March 25, 2009 hearing of the U.S. House Subcommittee on Energy and Environment, Shimkus’ openening remarks using Genesis 8 and Matthew 24 to reassure us that we don’t need to worry about climate change because the “infallible word of God” tells us that only God will end the world:

Shimkus’ later with Christopher Monckton endorsing Monckton’s ridiculous conclusion that we are a “carbon-starved” planet and that cap & trade will starve plants of their food. Bear in mind as you listen to this drivel  that, in the Cambrian era, during which Monckton asserts our present “carbon shortage” did not exist, the world was a much warmer place and complex life was not found on land.  Shimkus concludes by again stating his biblically-justified belief that the “earth will not be destroyed by a flood”:

And, to wrap it up, because we couldn’t resist, here are the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity’s Clean Coal Carolers doing “Frosty the Coal Man”. ACCCE is a coal and utility industry astroturf group that thought this might be a good idea:

By the way, we understand Shimkus has a Democratic opponent, Tim Bagwell. We don’t know too much about him but 19th District voters might want to check him out.

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Peter Roskam Attempting to Prevent Regulation of Dangerous Coal Waste

On February 8, 2010, in Coal Industry, Energy, Environment, Peter Roskam, Utilities Industry, by RSR
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According to the Chicago Tribune, Republican Congressman Peter Roskam is working to prevent the Environmental Protection Agency from adopting regulations concerning the handling of contaminated coal waste. Roskam, along with several other members of the Illinois Congressional delegation, told the Office of Management and Budget in a letter that “regulating coal ash as hazardous material would impost “steep costs” on Illinois energy consumers, who draw much of their power from coal”.

But Roskam, who draws significant campaign contributions from the electric utilities standing to benefit if regulations are blocked, is disregarding the public health risks associated with contaminated coal waste, which, according to a McClatchy report, is presently subjected to less regulation than ordinary household trash. Coal-fired power plants each year generate millions of tons of ash contaminated with heavy metals and store it in liquid form in storage ponds or in landfills. When impounded in liquid form, there is a risk of catastrophic spills, like the one that occurred in the TVA plant at Harriman, TN in 2008. In either case, the waste poses a threat to the safety of drinking water. In 2007, an EPA report identified 24 sites in 13 states where there has already been surface and/or ground water contamination. 26 sites have been identified nationwide by the EPA as having a high hazard rating. Two of those sites are in Illinois: the facilities operated by Dynegy Midwest Generation Inc at Alton and Havana.

Further compounding the risk are the 70 new conventional coal-fired plants that are currently proposed. 3 of those are in Illinois and they are expected to produce and addition 632,521 tons of waste containing 8 tons of toxic metals annually.

Peter Roskam complains about the additional costs of energy production that may come with EPA regulation of coal waste, but those cost will come whether we regulate or not. If we don’t protect groundwater from contamination we will face cleanup costs and unnecessary healthcare costs later. The costs associated with preventing pollution should be paid by the energy companies now rather than the taxpayers later. Linking those costs to the production of electricity from coal will provide incentive for development of new, clean energy technologies and new green jobs.

Please contact Peter Roskam to urge him to stop interfering with EPA efforts to protect our drinking water. You can reach him at (630) 893-9670 in Bloomingdale or at (202) 225-4561 in Washington.

It will also be helpful if you send your comments to EPA administrator Lisa Jackson at jackson.lisap@epa.gov .

Please consider getting to know Peter Roskam’s 2010 opponent, Ben Lowe. Ben is an environmentalist who will work to protect our natural resources rather than to protect the big energy companies.

Here are some videos that give some more background on the Harriman, TN spill and the dangers of coal waste:

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