A New Day for the EPA?
Could it be? Dare we think it? Is it possible that the Environmental Protection Agency might finally be getting serious about providing some protection for Appalachia’s environment and people?
For more than a decade, the ancient, serene, and beautiful mountains, valleys, and streams of central Appalachia have literally been under assault by corporate coal profiteers. Using a brutally destructive mining method called “mountaintop removal,” the corporations explode to bits the top third of mountains in order to get at the coal, and then they cavalierly bulldoze the resulting rubble and toxic coal waste down the mountainsides, filling the valleys, burying streams, poisoning the water supply, and destroying livelihoods.
As mountain after mountain has been wasted, the EPA has stood silent as the Army Corps of Engineers has rubber-stamped Big Coal’s selfish devastation. “The whole permitting process has become toothless,” says one observer.
But she’s not just any ol’ observer. She’s Lisa Jackson, the new head of the EPA, who recently declared, “We’re going to do our jobs.” Two subsequent steps suggest she might. First, the agency has preliminarily rejected the approval of 79 more mountaintop removal permits. Second, agency officials are quietly putting together a major new scientific study of the effects that the explosive process has on streams, water quality, and aquatic life.
A 2005 EPA report has already documented this devastation, but – incredibly – the Bush team perverted the findings to allow more devastation! Now, however, it appears that science, nature, and people might at long last be considered and possibly – just possibly – given priority over undiluted industry greed.
To stay informed and help push for environmental sanity, go to www.ilovemountains.org.
Rich Boors in Fancy Drawers
Experts tell us that America’s painful recession is “probably over.” That’s swell – but how’s your personal economy going?
If you’re not sure, check your underwear. Mintel, an economic research firm, considers sales of men’s undies to be a bellwether of the economy’s ups and downs. When men are short on cash, claims Mintel, they don’t buy new shorts as frequently. The firm expects men’s drawers to drop 2.3% this year.
However, you can bet that one small group of men skew the underwear indicator way upward: the five CEOs who have been named the “Highest Paid Worst Performers of 2008.” Despite doing a poor job, these executives can still afford to strap on a new pair of silk shorts every day!
The Corporate Library, a watchdog group, analyzed the pay of 2,000 top executives to cull out these “winners”: Abercrombie & Fitch, BJ Services Co., Comcast Corporation, International Paper, and Nabors Industries.
Take Abercrombie’s Michael Jeffries, for example. Despite a stock price that lagged behind other clothing retailers during the past five years, Jeffries has a contract that guarantees his pay will always be higher than the compensation earned by 75% of his rivals. Last year, therefore, he pocketed $72 million in pay, including a $6 million “stay bonus” to keep him from leaving the company. Come on – why would he ever leave a sweet deal like that?
Sweetest of all, though, is the deal that Eugene Isenberg gets from by Nabors Industries, an oil-drilling company. He is paid not on performance, but on a percentage of the corporation’s cash flow. Thus, even though Nabors’ stock price plummeted 51% last year, Isenberg hit a gusher with $79 million in pay.
To learn more about executive compensation excess, visit www.faireconomy.org.
This article appears in October 16 • 2009.