Jeff Biggers: Obama in Ohio Friday: Why Not Fly Over TVA and Appalachia En Route?

President-elect Barack Obama could make an extraordinary statement this Friday, when he visits a factory in Bedford Heights, Ohio, that produces parts for wind turbines, as part of his American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan: En route, he could easily fly over the Tennessee Valley Authority's disaster zone, and a coal mining community in West Virginia working to install those very wind turbines in place of strip mining in Appalachia. Seventy-five years and an emerging depression and energy crisis after Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the TVA into existence as an innovative solution to new energy demands, Obama's fly over of the TVA's series of coal ash and sediment pond breakages -- the worst environmental disaster in American history -- would be a symbolic wake up call for an immediate shift in our energy and environmental policies. It would also be a stirring reminder to our citizenry that the incoming White House will not allow this colossal environmental and civil rights blunder to happen again. ... (link)