ESTABLISHED 1826 – OLDEST COLLEGE NEWSPAPER WEST OF THE ALLEGHENIES
The Miami Student FRIDAY, DECEMBER 4, 2015 Volume 144 №26
Miami University — Oxford, Ohio
MIAMISTUDENT.NET
Reclaimed: Our energy, their story In Appalachia, the tops of mountains are blasted off, revealing seams of coal underneath. While underground mining once employed thousands, mountaintop removal mining has made it possible for a dozen miners to strip a single mountain.
Then the coal is taken to preparation facilities where it is cleaned in a cocktail of hard chemicals. It’s then shipped by train and on river barges commonly seen on the Ohio River.
CSX
Coal is burned in one of the power plants in southwest Ohio owned by Dayton Power & Light and Duke Energy, among others, generating electricity. Miami’s steam plant on Western Campus that heats the university also runs on coal.
Finally, Ohioans are able to turn their lights on, heat their homes and power projectors, computers and classrooms.
KATIE HINH PAGE DESIGNER
As energy sources shift, consequences of coal dependence reach near and far ENVIRONMENT
JAMES STEINBAUER EDITORIAL EDITOR
Miami University currently owns 7,000 tons of coal — enough to heat the Oxford campus for nearly three months — sitting in a massive storage pile off Route 73, kept aside for a rainy day. The pile of coal is an accumulation of nearly half the 12 barges delivered to the university before the contract with its coal provider, The Coeclerici Coal Network, expired in early June. Coal generates nearly 39 percent of U.S. electricity. Many of the power plants owned by Dayton Power & Light that provide the electricity for the charge in our laptops and the lights on Miami’s Oxford campus are powered by coal from destructive mountaintop removal and poisonous underground mines. But due to stricter environmental regulations and the increased availability of cheap natural gas following a fracking boom, hundreds of institutions, utilities and communities are moving away from burning coal in their power and heating plants — including Miami University. Nearly five years ago, spurred by a Sierra Club campaign to retire more than 60 on-campus coal plants across the United States, Miami made a commitment to stop burning coal in its old steam plant, located behind Peabody Hall, by 2025. “The gears are already turning,” said Yvette Kline, Miami’s director of sustainability. “The goals that will be done are on track to being done within the next 10 years.”
Federal data shows that 27 gigawatts of capacity from coal-fired generators will be retired from 175 power plants between 2012 and 2016. In July, natural gas exceeded coal as the primary generator of U.S. electricity. The first time was in April. If natural gas prices stay competitive, that 7,000 tons of coal on Route 73 could be the last 7,000 tons that Miami University ever burns, and the significance of this will be felt closer to home than in the atmosphere. Miami’s sustainability goals, its shift away from fossil fuels and its movement toward geothermal and other forms of renewable energy — though good for the environment and, ultimately, Miami’s image — will have tragic consequences throughout the ‘hollers’ and coal mining communities of Appalachia.
“You’re going to have an impact in whatever you’re doing, whether it’s hydraulic fracturing in Ohio or lithium mines in Bolivia for all the batteries you’re going to need,” said Brian Currie, a geography professor at Miami. “There is no free lunch, and nobody is clean.”
Our connection
From its origins all the way to Oxford, the coal stored in the shed off Route 73 followed a typical path in the nation’s old energy economy. Miami’s coal is from West Virginia. The Patriot CoalKanawha Eagle Mine, to be specific — an underground coal mine about 15 minutes south of Charleston. Patriot Coal is a subsidiary of Peabody Energy — the largest coal company in the world. COAL »PAGE 2
‘Love them or leave them, just don’t destroy them’ In West Virginia, coal industry reshapes mountains, culture ENVIRONMENT
REIS THEBAULT EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
KAYFORD MOUNTAIN, West Vigrinia. — Here, Junior Walk lives off the land. He travels the same trails his grandfather once did. His great-grandparents are buried up here. He doesn’t bother with a cellphone — where he lives, it won’t get reception — and he loves his guns. But coal mining, he says, is threatening that existence. What’s more, mining — and, in the last 25 years, a particularly nasty brand called “mountaintop removal” mining — is desecrating Appalachia, its environment and its people. When Junior stands atop one side of Kayford Mountain, he can look in any direction and see the scars of mountaintop removal. In this area, Kayford used to
be the range’s saddle pass — the lowest part. It is now the highest. The tops of surrounding mountains have been blown off. It’s easier, quicker and cheaper to get coal that way. The landscape, however, will never recover. Much of the coal that powers Miami University’s campus and the Oxford, Ohio-area is extracted from mines like those that surround Kayford Mountain. The state has long been a hub for coal mining and, in Appalachia, almost nobody is unaffected by the industry. Junior is 25 years old. Coal companies ramped up mountaintop removal mining in the mid ‘90s, when he was a kid. “I’ve watched them tear it all up,” he says. On the West Virginian horizon, where the mountains used to dip and soar,
KYLE HAYDEN DESIGN EDITOR
Kayford Mountain in Boone County, West Virginia was once the saddlepath — the low point in its region of Appalachia. Now, it’s the highest point, surrounded by mountaintop removal strip mines.
NEWS p. 2
NEWS p. 3
CITY COUNCIL VOTES MIAMI PROF NEW MAYOR
BOARD OF TRUSTEES TO VOTE ON TUITION PLAN
Educational leadership professor Kate Rousmaniere elected Oxford mayor
Guaranteed tuition plan is expected to pass at today’s board meeting
CULTURE p. 4
the contours of many are now flat. This is what Junior wants the world to see. And, on a damp November weekend, it’s what he says he wants to show us, a couple journalists visiting from Ohio. But he also wants to show us his culture. “You boys wanna eat some squirrel tonight?” he says, his way of greeting us. We couldn’t say no. Trying to make conversation, play it cool, we ask him, “Is it light meat or dark meat?” Clearly, we’re not from around here. “I don’t know, it’s meat meat,” he says. Junior has long hair and a bushy beard. He deftly rolls his own cigarettes. And, of course, he makes a mean squirrel stew. “Squirrel season comes in the middle of September,” he says. “I’d say it’s a staple meal in the fall.” He’s an avid hunter, but not for the sport of it — “those people are dicks,” he says. Whatever he shoots, he eats. “The way I was raised is, whenever you kill an animal, you’re gonna eat that animal,” he says. “The culture here in Appalachia is that of self-reliance, of being able to take care of you and yours.” It’s this lifestyle that Junior says coal companies are endangering. “They’re not only destroying our water and land, but also stripping away our culture,” he says. “There’s not that much habitat left for squirrel or deer, or wildlife in general.” Junior, like most who live in coal country, comes from a lineage of miners. His father and grandfather worked in the mines. He was born KAYFORD »PAGE 5
OPINION p. 6
SPORTS p. 10
WRITER RECOUNTS FIRST-YEAR GIFT EXCHANGE
BOARD APPLAUDS ALL-GENDER RESTROOMS
CLUB FOOTBALL SEEKS NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP
Students in Emerson Hall celebrate holidays, relieve stress with White Elephant
Editorial board recognizes Miami’s transition to a more inclusive campus
Undefeated Miami club football team travels to Virginia to vie for national title