May 8, 2009: UAA Office of Sustainability co-sponsors workshop on coal

Tonight, May 8, 7 p.m. Rasmuson Hall, Room 101

Leading coal experts Judy Bonds and Joe Lovett will be in Alaska to share their knowledge, experiences and perspectives at coal workshops being scheduled around the state.

Few Alaskans know, however, that roughly half that coal is here in Alaska. Unlike the Lower 48 where coal supplies about 600 coal plants that generate roughly 50 percent of the nation's electrical energy, Alaska demand is limited to six Interior coal fired power plants, supplying 10 percent of the electrical supply to the Railbelt.

In addition to supplying the in-state market, Alaska's lone coal mining operation, the Usibelli Coal Mine, exports to foreign markets, including Chile, South Korea and other Pacific Rim countries. The vast majority of Alaskans are generally unaware of the impacts of coal mining and combustion.

Judy Bonds is a 10th generation Appalachian and a 10-year veteran in the fight to protect her West Virginia home from mountaintop removal. Bonds' work has been recognized nationally. She was awarded the 2003 Goldman Environmental Prize for the continent of North America. She was featured in the July 2006 issue of O, the Oprah Magazine, in a story about mountaintop removal, and in the April 2008 Earth Day edition of People Magazine as one of the featured Protectors of the Planet.

Joe Lovett is a lawyer from West Virginia who was featured with Judy in a March 2006 issue of National Geographic , as well as the May 2006 issue of Vanity Fair. Both are the subject of the acclaimed book Coal River. Lovett, the founder of Appalachian Center, a regional law and policy organization "works together with individual citizens and grassroots citizens' groups to clarify, analyze and act on the environmental and economic issues that affect Appalachian communities."

For more information about the workshops, please call Dennis Gann at (907) 929-9371.