Published: July 14, 2008 10:26 pm      

Department officials upset over snafu

FRANKFORT — U.S. Interior Department officials “are very upset” a plane scheduled to fly Congressmen Norm Dicks and Ben Chandler on a tour of mountaintop removal sites could not take off Saturday after the pilot left a switch on overnight, killing the battery.

“We are very upset it didn’t go forward as planned,” said department spokeswoman Tina Kreisher. “After all, Norm Dicks is our chairman.” But she said the snafu was nothing but an inadvertent error by the pilot.

Dicks, D-Wash., who chairs the House Appropriation subcommittee which approves the department’s budget, had been invited by committee member Chandler, D-Ky., to fly over sites in eastern Kentucky, Virginia and West Virginia where coal is mined through the controversial mountaintop removal method. It involves blasting away the tops of mountains covering seams of coal and then stripping out the coal while the “overburden” is pushed over the mountain side into valleys and small streams. The top of the mountain is then reclaimed but leaves flat land where the mountain top once existed.

About 40 members of the Kentuckians for the Commonwealth, a non-profit group which opposes the practice and lobbies for restrictions on the practice, waited at the Hazard airport — itself built on a reclaimed mountaintop removal site — to share with the congressmen their stories about the effects on their lives and property of mountaintop removal.

But while Chandler and Dicks sat in the plan early Saturday morning at a Manassas, Va., airport waiting to take off, the Interior Department pilot informed them the battery was dead because he’d inadvertently left the master switch on over night. Chandler was clearly upset during a Saturday interview and he still wasn’t happy Monday.

“It’s quite unbelievable that they couldn’t get us there,” Chandler said Monday. “Here’s a pilot whose only job is to make sure the plane works and he didn’t make sure. At a minimum, it’s extreme incompetence by the pilot and the department — that’s the best-case scenario. The worst-case scenario is it was deliberate.”

That was the suspicion of KFTC members Saturday in Hazard. Elmer Lloyd of Cumberland and KFTC Chairman Doug Doerrfeld openly wondered if the department, which contains the Office of Surface Mining, wanted the congressmen to view the sites and meet with mountaintop removal opponents.

“Somebody up in Washington didn’t want them to talk to us,” Lloyd said.

But Kreisher, the Interior spokeswoman, said that doesn’t make sense.

“All I can tell you is (Dicks) is the chairman of the Appropriations Subcommittee that determines our budget,” Kreisher said. “We would’ve done anything in our power to make the trip successful and comfortable for the chairman.”

Kreisher said the pilot was de-briefed about the incident and reported that he was interrupted Friday by an airport official while he was shutting down the plane, “and during the shutdown check, he neglected to check the main switch and inadvertently omitted the battery main switch.”

On Saturday, Chandler said the pilot informed him and Dicks that it would take “one to three hours” to repair or charge the battery before the plane could leave, and Dicks canceled the trip at that point. But Kreisher said the pilot reported in his de-briefing that “both congressmen were informed it would leave within an hour.”

She said the department “is very upset” about the mix-up. Dicks, she said, “is our chairman and we respect and try to honor his wishes and again, we’re very sorry.”

She said the department will be pleased to try again if Dicks wants to re-schedule the flight to Hazard.

Chandler said the incident only “re-doubles” his and Dicks’ resolve to visit the sites but he hopes a flight can be arranged through some other party than the department. Chandler said congressional ethics rules won’t allow congressmen to take flights paid for by lobby groups such as KTFC and the committee cannot pay for the flight itself.

“We’re working today to see if we can keep the Department of Interior out of it,” Chandler said Monday. Chandler said Dicks was careful in advance of Saturday’s planned visit to work out any arrangements with the Interior Department. But he said Dicks was annoyed by Saturday’s snafu and “I’m not sure he feels that way now.”

Originally OSM Director Brent Wahlquist was to accompany Dicks and Chandler, but he decided on Friday not to make the trip. Kreisher wouldn’t say why he changed his mind. Also scheduled to fly on the plane was Burt Lauderdale, Executive Director of KFTC which lobbies on mountaintop removal issues.

A spokesman for Dicks, George Behan, did not return a message seeking comment.

Chandler said he is determined to arrange the visit to mountaintop removal sites. He said he does not oppose coal but he’s concerned about the effects of surface mining on mountaintops.

“I share the deep, deep concern of all the people who feel it’s a travesty,” Chandler said. “I’m not against coal, but I am for leaving mountains and places that are habitable.”

RONNIE ELLIS writes for CNHI News Service and is based in Frankfort. Reach him at rellis@cnhi.com.