The Sacramento Bee profiles the new executive director of the Sierra Club, Michael Brune, who comes on board the country’s largest environmental organization on March 15. Citing Brune’s prior leadership at the radical, fond-of-disruption Rain Forest Action Network, the Bee’s story is headlined, “New leader looks to fire up Sierra Club.”

By powering down the United States.

At the heart of that struggle, Brune says, lies America’s continued dependence on coal-fired electricity plants – plants which currently provide an estimated 45 percent of the nation’s energy but which are a major sources of greenhouse gas emissions…[snip]

“We must replace dirty coal in this country,” Brune said. “We must continue this fight until we convince our political and industry leaders that there are more economic benefits to be had by transitioning to wind power and other forms of clean energy.”

It’s fantasy to argue that “wind power and other forms of clean energy” can supplant coal, especially when Brune — as reported in this NewJerseyNews.com profile — opposes nuclear power.

Here’s what the Energy Information Administration had to say in its annual energy outlook about coal’s future role in the U.S. economy through 2035:

Total coal consumption increases from 22.4 quadrillion Btu (1,122 million short tons) in 2008 to 25.6 quadrillion Btu (1,319 million short tons) in 2035 in the AEO2010 reference case. Coal consumption, mostly for electric power generation, grows gradually throughout the projection period, as existing plants are used more intensively, and new plants, which are already under construction, are completed and enter service.

Brune’s leadership involves getting arrested in flashy protest actions with the usual suspects like Darryl Hannah and James Hansen.

Funny, too, that Brune rises to power advocating extreme action even as the anti-energy climate activists are in retreat scientifically and politically. When even The Washington Post has to acknowledge the seriously flawed “evidence”* being used to push a global economic restructuring — page one Monday, “Series of missteps by climate scientists threatens climate-change agenda” — then the movement is losing steam. Can a radical program of civil disobedience fire up the more mainstream Sierra Club or just cost it members?

Continuing our look at this year’s State of the State addresses, we turn to West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin, a Democrat. In his 2010 address on Wednesday, Jan. 13, he did not mention manufacturing and the only reference to industry was a passing reference to taxation of industrial property.

But this exercise — searching only for the terms “manufacturing” and the like — is limited. Manchin, a Democrat, certainly gave manufacturers prominent play in his speech, especially in the area of energy and coal:

We have more than 1,000 megawatts of wind power in service or in development – that’s enough to power more than 250,000 homes! And we have the third-largest wind capacity of any eastern state.

The world’s first successful carbon capture and sequestration project is at AEP’s Mountaineer Power Plant in Mason County, and an advanced pilot project is capturing CO2 at the Dow Chemical plant in South Charleston.

These pilot projects will lead the way for implementation of this technology at coal-fired power plants around the world.

Plans are moving ahead on a coal-to-liquids project in Mingo County that will use state-of-the-art cleaner coal technology. Through this technology, West Virginia coal will be our primary energy source as we make the transition to the fuels of the future.

Manchin also gave a plug to developing the natural gas resources in the Marcellus Shale.

Earlier posts on states of the state.

At the Atlantic City hearing on offshore energy development, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar made an exuberant claim about the potential of wind energy.

The idea that wind energy has the potential to replace most of our coal-burning power today is a very real possibility. It is not technology that is pie-in-the sky; it is here and now.

When the chinook winds come blasting across the Colorado plains it may seem that way, but it’s not. Wind generation is rapidly increasing, and that’s a good thing, but it cannot replace coal as a source of baseload power generation.

Wyoming Governor Dave Freudenthal, a fellow Democrat, took sharp issue with the Secretary’s comments yesterday. From the Casper Star-Tribune:

“Ain’t going to happen,” Freudenthal told reporters at an impromptu new conference Wednesday that mostly focused on other topics.

Freudenthal said Salazar’s comments were a “dumb thing to say,” and may provide a teachable moment in which the new interior secretary will learn the wisdom of “not making gratuitous statements.”

Freudenthal added that the importance of coal in the nation’s energy mix is a reality, despite any creative hypotheticals by those in the Beltway.

“That potential (for wind energy to replace coal) is never going to be realized,” said Freudenthal, adding that Salazar’s comment was out of step with other messages from the Obama Administration.

From the Energy Information Administration, “Electric Power Monthly,” March 2009 edition, “Net Generation Shares by Energy Source: Total (All Sectors), Year-to-Date through December, 2008.”

NASA employee and increasingly erratic climate scold James Hansen recently called for ratcheting up the level of protests against energy production, just in time for Monday’s rally at the Capitol Hill power plant. And in just in time for the biggest snow storm in three years.

From Fox News:

In a video on capitolclimateaction.org, Dr. James Hansen is seen urging Americans to “take a stand on global warming” during the March 2 protest at the Capitol Power Plant in Southeast Washington, D.C.

“We need to send a message to Congress and the president that we want them to take the actions that are needed to preserve climate for young people and future generations and all life on the planet,” says Hansen, who has likened coal-fired power plants to “factories of death” and claims he was muzzled by the Bush administration when he warned of drastic climate changes.

“What has become clear from the science is that we cannot burn all of the fossil fuels without creating a very different planet. The only practical way to solve the problem is to phase out the biggest source of carbon — and that’s coal.”

But critics say Hansen’s latest call to action blurs the line between astronomer and activist and may violate the Hatch Act, which prohibits federal employees from participating in partisan political activity.

“Oh my goodness,” one of Hansen’s former supervisors, Dr. John Theon, told FOXNews.com when informed of the video. “I’m not surprised … The fact that Jim Hansen has gone off the deep end here is sad because he’s a good fellow.”

The Climate Action website proclaims “Mass Civil Disobediance at the Coal-Fired CAPITOL POWER PLANT.” Good thing the site has an illustration of Gandhi along with all the riling/rallying. Too bad today’s protesters have only a passing acquaintance with the theory of civil disobedience, tending to whine when they go too far and are arrested. “But we mean well!” Really? By eliminating 50 percent of the power generation in the United States?

Moot point, perhaps, as the National Weather Service announces:

A Winter Storm Warning For Snow Remains In Effect From 2 PM This Afternoon To 2 PM EST Monday For The District Of Columbia…And Areas Of Maryland And Northern Virginia East Of The Blue Ridge.

Haven’t had a post about the Bakken Formation in a while, that vast and already proven layer of sweet crude in the Upper Midwest and Prairie Provinces, accessible via horizontal drilling and hydrofrac technology. And there are interesting things going on with clean coal out there, too.

From Bismarck Tribune, “Oil leases still vigorous in Mountrail, McKenzie“:

While far off the all-time highs, bids for oil and gas acres in North Dakota brought top dollar at the quarterly Bureau of Land Management auction Tuesday.

A Kansas company bid $3.5 million for a 10-year lease on 1,358 acres in Mountrail County, making the highest total bid of the sale, said BLM spokesman Greg Albright.

From the Oil and Gas Journal, “Final EIA figures show US oil reserves grew 2% in 2007“:

WASHINGTON, DC, Jan. 28 — Proved US oil reserves rose by 345 million bbl, or 2%, during 2007 to 21.32 billion bbl from 20.97 billion bbl at the beginning of the year, reported the US Energy Information Administration on Jan. 28.

The increase was a contrast to the rapid decrease in domestic crude reserves that began in 1970 but which have moderated in the past decade, EIA said as it released final yearend numbers for 2007. The federal energy research and statistical service will begin gathering 2008 numbers in February when it distributes proved reserves data survey forms to more than 1,400 US well operators…[snip]

EIA said Alaska, Texas, and North Dakota accounted for a majority of the year’s new reserves with a combined 605 million bbl of net additions. Eight other states showed relatively small increases while 13 states and the Gulf of Mexico reported declines, it said.

As for coal, “5 coal-fired power plants studying carbon capture“:

Five coal-fired power plants in the U.S. and Canada, including one in central North Dakota, are studying the feasibility of retrofits to capture and store carbon dioxide, a nonprofit industry research group says.

Electric Power Research Institute said studies are being done at Great River Energy’s Coal Creek Station near Underwood, and at plants in Illinois, Utah, Ohio and Nova Scotia. The group said the research could help guide development of future power plants and how they deal with carbon dioxide emissions blamed for global warming.

Which makes this Economist story all the more timely, “North Dakota is one of many states waiting for an energy policy from Washington.”

P.S. Crambe!

From The New York Times, “Burning Coal at Home Is Making a Comeback“:

Problematic in some ways and difficult to handle, coal is nonetheless a cheap, plentiful, mined-in-America source of heat. And with the cost of heating oil and natural gas increasingly prone to spikes, some homeowners in the Northeast, pockets of the Midwest and even Alaska are deciding coal is worth the trouble.

Burning coal at home was once commonplace, of course, but the practice had been declining for decades. Coal consumption for residential use hit a low of 258,000 tons in 2006 — then started to rise. It jumped 9 percent in 2007, according to the Energy Information Administration, and 10 percent more in the first eight months of 2008.

Online coal forums are buzzing with activity, as residential coal enthusiasts trade tips and advice for buying and tending to coal heaters. And manufacturers and dealers of coal-burning stoves say they have been deluged with orders — many placed when the price of heating oil jumped last summer — that they are struggling to fill.

The story quotes an air quality official from Fairbanks who regards burning coal as harmful to local residents’ health. Also cited is the president of an environmental testing firm from Portland, Oregon, who notes that restrictions on wood-burning stoves do not apply to coal-burning ovens. But that’s it in terms of opposition.

Too bad the NYT reporter didn’t ask a representative from a national environmental group for a comment, perhaps the answer to this question: “Your organization is leading a national ad campaign against coal as a source of electricity. Would you also like to ban the burning of coal in homes so people can stay warm in the winter? If not, why not?”

Environmentalists must surely dislike coal on all fronts; widespread acceptance of coal for home heating makes it more difficult to argue against the fuel generally as an evil, environmental monster. After all, you can’t concede that it’s OK for people to heat their homes with coal but then object to the use of an electric baseboard heater because the electricity is generated from burning coal.

(Hat tip: Glenn Reynolds, who recalls heating with coal in Heidelberg. Your correspondent remembers traveling through eastern Germany soon after the Wall fell, while they still burned high-sulfur brown coal. Now that was awful.)

A big political story to emerge this weekend was President-elect Obama’s intention of repealing many of President Bush’s executive orders. John Podesta appeared the FoxNews Sunday show, test-marketing the theme to gauge the response from constitutencies. AP summary, “Obama plans review of Bush executive orders“:

WASHINGTON — President-elect Barack Obama plans an “across-the board” review of President George W. Bush’s executive orders, with an eye toward making his own quick imprint on important matters, and will swiftly put in place a “diverse,” bipartisan team of Cabinet members and aides, key advisers said Sunday.

“There’s a lot that the president can do using his executive authority, without waiting for congressional action,” said John Podesta, who is coordinating Obama’s transition planning. “And I think we’ll see the president do that to try to restore … a sense that the country is working on behalf of the common good.”

Obama’s review of his predecessor’s executive orders will range from a ban that Bush placed on federal funding for research using new lines of embryonic stem cells to an expected easing of oil and gas drilling limits in sensitive Western lands that the Bush administration could seek in its final month.

Utah. It’s always Utah. We remember the hullabaloo over President Clinton’s unilateral declaration in 1996 of Grande Staircase of the Escalante National Monument in Utah, locking up 1.7 million acres of land without congressional action, land that holds a trillion dollars worth of clean coal.

 As Investor’s Business Daily recalled in an editorial earlier this year:

The Utah reserve contains a kind of low-sulfur, low-ash and therefore low-polluting coal that can be found in only a couple of places in the world. It burns so cleanly that it meets the requirements of the Clean Air Act without additional technology.

“The mother of all land grabs,” Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, said at the time. He has called what was designated as the Grande Staircase of the Escalante National Monument the “Saudi Arabia of coal.”

President Clinton’s move was a clear statement of policy that the Clinton Administration was not serious about reducing U.S. reliance on foreign energy and that “energy security” was anything but a priority. It’s useful historical reminder for the upcoming energy debates.

Democratic Governor Joe Manchin has been a business-friendly, tireless advocate of improving West Virginia’s economic climate, and a much-appreciated defender of the state’s coal and energy sectors. The NAM has also worked with Governor Manchin in promoting health-care information technology.

All in a way of leading up say, congrats, Gov. Manchin, on your re-election. West Virginia’s voters like the message of economic growth, and lots of tough issues will make your efforts even more necessary over the next four years.

Wow. Interest must be really high. As the doors opened this morning, the line wound halfway around the block. Who knew that many people wanted to buy Lou Reed’s “Berlin: Live at St. Anne’s Warehouse” the day of its release?

What did you think we meant?

Anyway, at the Chevy Chase Community Center at 8 a.m., there were indeed long lines, but not for people whose last names begin with T-Z. Voting took a total of seven minutes. The precincts around here are remarkably diverse politically, at least by District standards. McCain will probably get a good 7, 8 percent of the vote.

Elsewhere among the auguries, right before we reached the polling place, a commuting bicyclist smacked right into a car, or vice versa. We spotted eight people calling in the accident on their cell phones. Civic involvement lives! (Ambulance and firetruck came within five minutes; the biker survived but injured.)

And at the intersection of Connecticut and M, NW this morning, 8:45 a.m., a dead deer, a buck. Deer in Rock Creek Park, absolutely, but at one of the busiest downtown interesections in the city? Couldn’t have been shopping at Burberry’s. The cabbie said he’d never seen anything like it in his 18 years in D.C. (Alas, no camera.)

Apropos dead animals on Election Day, we’d missed this news about yet another California ballot measure. From USA Today: “If passed Tuesday, Proposition 2 would prevent California farmers from confining egg-laying hens, pregnant pigs and veal calves in ways that don’t allow them to lie, stand and extend their limbs.”

Wonder if there’s an interview with any presidential candidate saying,  ”So if somebody wants to build a confined-animal feeding operation, they can; it’s just that it will bankrupt them because they’re going to be charged a huge sum to meet all the regulations we’re imposing.” Would that be news?

There are few things less appealing than a bullying, self-righteous newspaper editor, scolding politicians  and the public. Case in point: Phil Bronstein, editor at large at the San Francisco Chronicle, responding to Gov. Sarah Palin and various commentators criticizing the paper for what should have been a big story, Senator Barack Obama’s anti-coal pronouncements.

Bronstein, “My role in the Obama interview cover-up“:

It’s hard to pack in righteous indignation, outrage and a big 15 minutes of fame all at one time.

That’s pretty much where we are here at the Chronicle after Governor Palin’s claims over the weekend that we suppressed comments about the coal industry by Barack Obama at a January ed board meeting right here in SF. If you know our editorial page editor John Diaz, you know that making him say “hell” in a story means he’s pretty livid over the charge.

Me? My feeling is that hinky things happen in a bar at closing time. Let’s always set the record straight whenever possible. But are we really shocked that politicians on all sides twist things a to suit their purposes? You must be as stunned as I am.

The reality is this: the interview wasn’t squirreled down some digital hole, as the Governor claims (”the notion of a “tape” itself is pretty Watergate-era dated). If someone “found it”, digging for anything to help in the coal states of Ohio and Pennsylvania, I guess we didn’t hide it. It was available in audio and video form shortly after it happened and remains on SFGate to this day. Links to both forms of the interview appeared in the print Chronicle on a number of occasions. If the McCain campaign wanted to use this, what took them so long?

Is that really the journalistic standard you want to set, Bronstein? Hey, we posted the recording, YOU look for the news.

Seems antithetical to the idea that journalists have value in exercising news judgment, skills of interpretation, the ability to provide context, and perhaps a small gift of good writing. “Hell, we posted it, our obligation is complete.” Is that it?

As said below, it should come as no surprise that the San Francisco Chronicle’s team of editors and reporters missed the news in their January interview with Senator Barack Obama, that is, his clear, unambiguous support for policies to prevent utilities from building new coal-fired power plants because the costs would “bankrupt” them. In a cocooned newsroom full of the like-minded in the one-party city of San Francisco, statements about bankrupting coal seem like unobjectionable observations of fact. We should bankrupt coal? Absolutely, it’s dirty. And we can replace it with wind and solar energy and conservation and wishes and hopes and dreams of a brighter tomorrow.

Bronstein seems to think his journalistic value was proved when Senator Obama criticized him for being cynical, and he throws in a gratuitous “wink wink” reference to his ex, Sharon Stone. But who cares what a candidate thinks of you (or your ex)? The important thing is the story, and you missed it, as you yourself admit.

Still, I didn’t jump out of my seat when Senator Obama made his comments about the coal industry. It didn’t lead our story and wasn’t in the leadline. Maybe I wasn’t paying enough attention. Or maybe, as John Diaz notes, the statements were a little more nuanced than Governor Palin found useful in her rally speech.

Nuanced?