I'll be on the radio tomorrow discussing the myth of "clean coal"

This Thursday afternoon, July 17, I'll be on Doug Henwood's "Behind the News" show on New York City's WBAI radio, discussing so-called "clean coal" technology. Henwood is the editor and founder of Left Business Observer and a frequent contributor to The Nation. The show starts at 5 p.m., and I'll be on from about 5:10 to 5:30 p.m. You can tune in live over the Internet here, or listen to the archived edition here.

An oxymoron is sponsoring tonight's Democratic debate on CNN:

The "clean coal" industry. This is "clean" as in the "ultra clean" waste coal-to-oil plant planned for Gilberton, which the state has permitted to dump to the air annually 99.9 tons each of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide and fine particulate matter; 49.9 tons of volatile organic compounds; 100 tons of ammonia; 38 pounds of mercury; and unlimited amounts of carbon dioxide. For more about the sponsorship and a Web form to weigh in with moderator Wolf Blitzer, visit ThinkProgress.org.

Superfund365 coming to Hometown

An online project that will be documenting one Superfund site each day for a year will soon be arriving in the Hometown area. Led by Brooke Singer, an assistant professor of new media at the State University of New York at Purchase, the project is titled Superfund365. The project began on Sept. 1 in the New York area and will wrap up next year in Hawaii.

Next week it's scheduled to make stops at several Superfund sites in the Hometown area: the Palmerton Zinc Pile on Wednesday, Oct. 3; Eastern Diversified Metals in Hometown on Thursday, Oct. 4; and McAdoo Associates in McAdoo on Friday, Oct. 6. The project's producers will be conducting video interviews with people involved with or impacted by the Superfund sites.

For a complete listing of sites the project will visit, click here.

Inky comes to Hometown, misses story

Philadelphia Inquirer photographer Tom Gralish stopped by Hometown recently as part of his regular feature for the paper, "Scene on the Road." An Air Force brat who moved often while growing up, Gralish was looking for the kind of place that said "home," hoping to get at least a commemorative T-shirt out of the visit.

But he didn't find what he was looking for, as was clear from his headline: "Hometown visit proves unfulfilling."

Too bad Gralish didn't do any background research before he came. Residents might not have been able to show him the sort of ideal home he dreams of, but there's a heck of a story to be told about a rural community struggling with the environmental pollution that's killing them.

Local environmental watchdog launches news Web site

Schuylkill County residents looking for information on important political issues including toxic dumping, local control, corporate welfare and property tax reform have a new online source to turn to.

Dr. Dante Picciano, director of the Tamaqua-based environmental watchdog organization Army for a Clean Environment, has launched a Web site at www.dante7.com that aims to serve concerned citizens with news and commentary on these and related political matters.

Picciano explains why (hotlinks added by me):

Experience has taught me that the information being disseminated by the media is filtered. There are two examples from the website. Recently, the Pottsville Republican & Herald reported that incumbent Schuylkill County Commissioners Frank Staudenmeier and Robert Carl said that they never considered John Schickram a serious challenge to their re-election effort. John sent a response to Staudenmeier and Carl's criticism but the newspaper refused or failed to publish it. The response was published in the Lehighton Times News and now it is posted on my website.

Second, the Pottsville Republican & Herald reported on the Schuylkill County unemployment rate as evidence by the Commissioners of the success in the county economic development efforts. I sent a response pointing out the fallacy of the Commissioners' interpretation of the the unemployment rates but the newspaper again failed or refused to publish it. My response was published in the Lehighton Times news and now it is posted on my website.

All I read in the newspapers and see on television are stories about the number of jobs that our politicians have created, about their efforts to lower our property taxes, about what they are doing to stop the dumping, about what they are doing about our cancer problems, etc. The politicians are claiming that they created more jobs than there are people in Schuylkill County, our property taxes are constantly increasing, we are continually being assaulted with contaminated, hazardous and toxic wastes from outside the county and the cancer rates continue to climb. All of the media are guilty of one-sided reporting and it is time for a more balanced presentation. Our politicians represent industry and I want to let everyone know the truth.