• Listen to this segment

A massive coal ash spill in eastern Tennessee in late 2008 has resulted in an environmental disaster. About a billion gallons of coal fly ash fell into the Emory River and surrounding areas because of a Tennessee Valley Authority plant failure, making it one of the worst environmental accidents in history. Despite the fact that it consists of fine and highly toxic and carcinogenic particles, coal fly ash is not regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency. California senator Barbara Boxer, chair of the Environment and Public Works Committee, plans to introduce legislation calling on the EPA to report on the dangers of coal ash and immediately regulate it. Meanwhile, in another coal plant run by the Tennessee Valley Authority, this time in northeast Alabama, there was a spill of 10,000 gallons of gypsum slurry last week. About half of the US’s electrical energy needs are met by coal. The incoming Obama administration has promised “clean-coal” technology as part of his economic recovery plan’s green jobs. One of the latest technologies of extracting so-called “clean coal” is long-wall mining. A new investigation of long-wall mining by the Center for Public Integrity exposes some deep problems with this method.

GUEST: Kristen Lombardi, Staff Writer with the Center for Public Integrity, lead reporter on Center’s project called The Hidden Costs of Clean Coal

Read Kristen Lombardi’s report online at http://www.publicintegrity.org/investigations/longwall/.