Ever wondered exactly what I'm doing when I say that I'm "logging"?  Well that's what this blog post is all about.  

Logging (verb):  to make a log of your interviews, to transcribe verbatim your sound-bites

So here is my log for today's story: The Controversy Over the New Coal Plant in Hope.  I interviewed two people... one is for the new coal plant, the other is against it. 

INTERVIEW #1: Leah Arnold - American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity

30:40 Plant was issued final air permit on November 5th. There has been an appeal filed and there was a stay issued... However, SWEPCO was issued a relief from a stay about 4 or 5 days after the stay was initially granted. So they are allowed to continue construction. 31:03 That means that 400 people in Southwest Arkansas currently have a very well-paying job in building that plant with a possibility of a thousand more so that's 1,400 people in SW Arkansas, a relatively poorer part of the state, that now have jobs. 31:17

- a must needed economic boom to that region of the state, plant is going forward with construction, going on-line in 2011-2012

- Clean Coal = one of the top emitters of greenhouse gasses

- greenhouse gasses are not currently regulated in AR or under federal law

- The plant will emit Carbon Monoxide, Sulfur, Mercury. But the plant will still be under compliance with federal air standards.

32:32 It's not going to be significantly harmful to Arkansas' Environmental Quality. It follows under the guidelines and 32:40 the bottom line is SWEPCO needs the plant for additional electricity generation. Nobody wants to get to the point where 3 or 4 years down the line and the lights don't come on. 32:49

33:04 In the past 30 or so years, emissions from coal fired powered plants have diminished by 70%. That's a lot. 33:09

- Arkansas gets 47% of its electricity from coal, coal = 1/3 of price of natural gas

34:14 Arkansas has about 123,000 families below the poverty line, and those people can't afford to pay their energy bills. So any increase in those electricity bills, it hits those families even harder. 34:24

- 200 years worth of coal in USA right now, that means we don't have to go to the Middle East to get power

35:17 We think that there needs to be all electricity sources. We think that wind and solar and biomass and other renewables are great. 35:25 But the reality is that they are only about 2% of our country's electricity generation. 35:28

- SWEPCO had to go through a rigorous permitting process to show that the air quality around the surrounding counties and in Hope would not be adversely affected

37:19 They wouldn't have been allowed to build this plant if it was going to adversely impact their air quality and their lives and their health. 37:25

- you can still have the power that you need and the clean air that you want

INTERVIEW #2:  Glen Hooks - Sierra Club

- saying no to dirty coal

41:05 We're saying it because of the incredible amounts of mercury pollution it emits, incredible amounts of Carbon Dioxide it emits, and just the way it traps Arkansas into a dirty energy future. 41:15

- Kansas, Oklahoma, Kentucky, Georgia are all saying no to dirty coal

42:04 These are not liberal states, these are not fringe states, these are heartland states like Arkansas. 42:07

- Obama has pledged to regulate Carbon Dioxide

42:20 I think we have a great change to beat back this coal plant and all the other ones across the country because they are not keeping up with the wave of the future. 42:27

42:21 You don't solve global warming without stopping coal-fired power plants, and that's what we aim to do. 42:44

- Why AR? SWEPCO said they felt the regulatory environment was more conducive to getting approval in AR?

43:45 I'm a lifelong Arkansan and that is insulting to me. You know, we shouldn't be the depository for dirty coal. 43:52

43:54 What's happening in other states is they're waking up and they're saying we can't keep doing this anymore. We don't want our children to have higher rates of asthma and autism. We don't want mercury poisoning in our fish, because Arkansas is a state that really loves to fish. 44:08

44:11 It's the natural state and that's an unnatural thing. 44:13

44:26 Arkansas has an opportunity to be a leader nationally in developing green technology. Or we can latch ourselves onto dirty, coal-fired power for the next 40 or 50 years. 44:36

45:27 When this power plant is built, we're talking about 110 jobs. We're not talking about thousands and thousands of jobs. 45:32 Most of those jobs will be run by out-of state people...

45:40 There are some construction jobs that are going to be temporary while this plant is being built. But nobody should be fooled into thinking that if this coal fired power plant is built, that Arkansas is going to have thousands of jobs. 45:50

- 85% of this power is going to out-of-state customers

46:12 85% of this power goes to out-of-state, but we get 100% of the pollution. I don't think that's a good deal for Arkansas at all. 46:17 Especially when we are a site that could really benefit from green manufacturing jobs. 46:24

47:46 This is our number one priority at the Sierra Club, stopping coal-fired power plants. This is going to be a fight that's going on for another couple of years for sure. We're not going away. 47:55