Thursday, April 29, 2010
The following email was sent to the 41,800 supporters of iLoveMountains.org. To sign up to receive free email alerts, click here.
On Sunday, a memorial service was held for the 29 miners who were killed earlier this month in the explosion at Massey Energy’s Upper Big Branch Mine in Raleigh County, West Virginia.
The loss of these courageous men is a terrible tragedy, and as President Obama said in his eulogy, “Our task, here on Earth, is to save lives from being lost in another such tragedy.”
We agree. Mining—whether surface or underground—is an extremely dangerous occupation. More than 300 people have died mining coal in the United States in the past 10 years. Every day, three people die from black lung disease as a result of having worked in coal mines.
Yet the inherent dangers of coal mining are exacerbated by companies like Massey Energy, whose corner-cutting mentality has led to unsafe working conditions at the Upper Big Branch Mine and other facilities. Massey is also the number one producer of mountaintop removal coal in the country and, in 2008, was assessed the largest penalty in the history of the Clean Water Act.
Congressman Nick Rahall, Chairman of the Natural Resources Committee and long time leader in protecting miner safety, represents the district where the accident occurred. He recently said, “this mining catastrophe shows us that there is still much more that must be done to protect those who enter the mines each day working to support their families.”
You have been instrumental in the recent victories to protect Appalachian communities from the permitting of new mountaintop removal mines. While there’s much that still needs to be done to end mountaintop removal permanently, today we ask you to help protect those communities in a different way.
Will you please take a moment to sign this letter supporting Congressman Rahall’s efforts to strengthen protections for our nation’s coal miners?
Lorelei Scarbro, a community organizer with Coal River Mountain Watch, whose husband died of black lung and whose has family that works at the Upper Big Branch Mine, will hand deliver the letter of support to his office.
Please join Lorelei in supporting Congressman Rahall’s stance on miner safety. Safe working conditions are just another aspect of protecting the people of Appalachia from the impacts of irresponsible coal mining.
Please add your name to the letter today.
Sincerely,
Matt Wasson
iLoveMountains.org
Friday, April 02, 2010
Sen. Alexander Sen. CardinSenators Lamar Alexander (R-TN) and Ben Cardin (D-MD), co-sponsors of The Appalachia Restoration Act, weighed in on the EPA’s announcement Thursday of a new policy to crack down on valley fills associated with mountaintop removal coal mining.
Both Senators expressed the usefulness of the new guidelines, but also stated that only an act of Congress—in the form of The Appalachia Restoration Act—would actually put an end to the practice of mountaintop removal mining.
“The new EPA guidelines are useful in stopping some inappropriate coal mining in Appalachia,” Senator Alexander said in a statement issued Thursday, “but Congress still needs to pass the Cardin-Alexander legislation that would effectively end mountaintop removal mining.”
Read More...
Thursday, April 01, 2010
As always, the award winning Ken Ward Jr. breaks the story, posting an article on his blog even before the EPA finished their conference call. We’ve re-posted snipits below. Be sure to read his entire post on his blog, Coal Tattoo.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is releasing a bombshell: A major new guidance document that provides the coal industry and coal-state regulators with “clarity” regarding the permitting of mountaintop removal coal mining.
The biggest step included? EPA is warning that water pollution from these mining operations dangerously increases the electrical conductivity of streams — and setting up a much more rigorous mandate that coal operators and state mining regulators face up to this looming and long-ignored problem. But the new EPA guidance also addresses a host of other issues, from water quality monitoring to environmental justice, that are important to folks who are concerned about mountaintop removal.
As the new guidance document says:
It has been a high priority of this Administration — and EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson — to reduce the substantial environmental and human health consequences of surface coal mining in Appalachia, and minimize further impairment of already compromised watersheds.
As scientific evidence grows, EPA has a legal responsibility to address the environmental consequences of Appalachian surface coal mining.
Regarding the key issue of conductivity (a key measure of the presence of many harmful pollutants, such as chlorides, sulfides and dissolved solids), EPA cites the previous work of agency scientists who found that streams with conductivity of more than 500 microsiemens per centimeter were impaired.
But, EPA has also completed a draft of a new study by the agency’s Office of Research and Development that warns of impacts at even lower levels of conductivity of 300 microsiemens per centimeter.
. . .
Well, the short version is that EPA may block new permits or demand significant changes in mining plans where mining proposals are projected to cause conductivity downstream to exceed 500.
. . .
Read the entire post here.
Links to a few of Ken Ward Jr’s awards:
http://www.niemanwatchdog.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=about.viewContributors&bioid=202
http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1P2-14761739.html
http://www.sejarchive.org/about/stolberg_ward.htm
http://www.nationalpress.org/info-url3520/info-url_list.htm?cat_id=643
http://www.ire.org/contest/06winners.html
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
This just in from the Alliance for Appalachia Blog:
The Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSMRE) is charged with enforcing the law on mountaintop removal. Unfortunately, decades of rollbacks and giving in to coal industry corruption have left coalfield communities virtually undefended. Exceptions to the surface mine law have become the rule, and problems with dust, blasting, toxic water and giant wastelands remaining unreclaimed are impacting the lives of thousands across the coalfields.
The OSMRE is asking for advice on how to enforce the law - and we need you to offer it. (link to website) Comments are due by January 19th - please click here to send in sample comments or offer your own. Many of you have had personal experiences with the OSMRE - and we encourage you to write about them.
When the OSMRE doesn’t hear from citizens, they assume you have nothing to say - please let them know we are paying attention and we expect the laws to be enforced.
Thanks for your help!
The following email was sent to the 39,000+ supporters of iLoveMountains.org. To sign up to receive free email alerts, click here.
Can you come to Washington, D.C., March 6-10 for our 5th Annual End Mountaintop Removal Week —and help make 2010 the year that we put an end to mountaintop removal coal mining?
Click here for more information and to sign up.
In 2010, we have a real opportunity to pass the Clean Water Protection Act (H.R. 1310) and the Appalachia Restoration Act (S. 696)—bills that would significantly advance our goal of ending mountaintop removal coal mining.
But for these bills to pass, Congress needs to hear from ordinary citizens like you—and that’s what the Week in Washington is all about.
Last year’s Week in Washington was a tremendous success. More than 150 people from over 20 states came to Washington, holding more than 150 meetings with Congressional offices.
The result? We now have a record 160 co-sponsors in the House and 10 co-sponsors in the Senate.
Can you join us this year in Washington? You’ll get to meet and work with other passionate Appalachian activists from around the country; learn to engage decision-makers and others in your community about the issue; and meet face to face with legislators to help inspire and educate them to end mountaintop removal coal mining in 2010.
Full and partial scholarships are available on a needs-basis. To learn more and register for the Week in Washington, click here:
http://www.ilovemountains.org/wiw
If you can’t make it to Washington, please mark your calendars for Tuesday, March 9—that’s the day we’ll be holding a national call-in day that you can participate in from anywhere.
Please also consider sponsoring a participant by donating here.
We hope to see you in Washington!
Matt Wasson
iLoveMountains.org
Thursday, December 17, 2009
The following email was sent to the 39,000+ supporters of iLoveMountains.org. To sign up to receive free email alerts, click here.
Dear Friend of the Mountains,
Dumping mine waste into a valley fill on Kayford Mountain, WV
When the Bush Administration proposed gutting the “Stream Buffer Zone Rule”—a regulation that has prevented surface mining within 100 feet of our nation’s streams for decades—people like you responded in force. More than 75,000 comments were submitted to the Bush Administration, asking that the regulation be left intact.
The Bush administration overrode public opinion, however, and gutted the rule anyway—handing a parting gift to Big Coal before it left office.
Now, we urgently need the Obama administration to reverse this rule and protect our nation’s streams from being buried by mining waste from mountaintop removal coal mining.
Unfortunately, the Office of Surface Mining, Reclaimation, and Enforcement has proposed waiting until 2011 to begin making changes to the Stream Buffer Zone Rule.
Waiting an entire year is unacceptable— we are losing streams in Appalachia every day. Waiting another year means that many more miles of Appalachian streams—the headwaters of streams that provide the drinking water supplies of many eastern cities—will be forever buried.
The Office of Surface Mining, Reclaimation, and Enforcement is accepting comments until December 30th on its proposal to delay addressing Stream Buffer Zone Rule changes for another year. Can you take just a moment today, and tell them that waiting a year is unacceptable?
Click here to submit your comments today.
Please let the OSMRE know that we need to end the dumping of mountaintop removal waste into Appalachian streams immediately.
Thank you for taking action.
Matt Wasson
iLoveMountains.org
PS Please help gather the resources we need for the battles ahead by making a special year end contribution today: https://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/1741/t/6886/shop/custom.jsp?donate_page_KEY=1807
Monday, December 14, 2009
The following email was sent to the 39,000+ supporters of iLoveMountains.org. To sign up to receive free email alerts, click here.
Dear Friend of the Mountains,
As the Associated Press recently observed, “environmental activists gained more momentum this year than in the past decade against the destructive, uniquely Appalachian form of strip mining known as mountaintop removal.”
That momentum has been the result of your efforts.
Every time we’ve asked, you and nearly 40,000 people like you who love mountains have taken action—spreading the word among friends, speaking up to Congress, sending in comments to regulatory agencies, and making sure the world knows that the days of destroying mountains for cheap coal are numbered.
Yet the push back from Big Coal is gaining strength—and the final showdown to end mountaintop removal coal mining may arrive in 2010.
Can you help us prepare for what will surely be a critical year by making a contribution to iLoveMountains today?
Click here to make a contribution.
In the past year, your support has made a tremendous difference:
- In Congress, we’ve gained a record 161 Co-Sponsors for the Clean Water Protection Act—and a companion bill, the Appalachian Restoration Act, was introduced for the first time ever in the United States Senate, which currently has 10 co-sponsors.
- In an historic turnaround, Senator Robert Byrd (D-WV) “spoke the truth” and warned the coal industry that “the practice of mountaintop removal mining has a diminishing constituency in Washington.”
- The EPA recommended that 79 proposed valley fill permits not be issued as written, while the Office of Surface Mining proposed overturning the Bush-era stream buffer zone rule, which made it easier for big coal to dump mining waste into thousands of miles of streams.
- The importance of fight to save Coal River Mountain spread from living rooms across America to the Climate Summit in Copenhagan, becoming a symbol of the choice America faces between a clean energy future and the pollution of past sources of power.
All of this happened because people like you have sent more than 100,000 letters to Congress, the Senate, and Executive agencies… because hundreds of ordinary citizens have traveled to Washington or visited with their representatives during in-district visits… because more than 2,000 bloggers have joined our “Blogger’s Challenge” and spread the word about mountaintop removal…. and because you’e helped spread the word to family and friends, growing our movement to nearly 40,000 people who are committed to taking action online.
Can you help us increase that momentum by making a contribution today? Any amount you can afford to give—whether $25, $100, or $500—goes directly to supporting our campaign to end mountaintop removal, and gives us the critical resources we’ll need in 2010:
Click here to contribute today.
Thank you for doing everything you can to help end mountaintop removal coal mining.
Matt Wasson
iLoveMountains.org
PS. Want to be among the activists who join us for the 5th Annual End Mountaintop Removal Week in Washington, coming up March 6-10th, 2010? Save the date and learn more by clicking here.
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
The following email was sent to the 38,000+ supporters of iLoveMountains.org. To sign up to receive free email alerts, click here.
We’re hearing some promising news coming out of Coal River Mountain.
According to The Charleston Gazette, the EPA is taking a closer look at Massey Energy’s mountaintop removal project at Coal River Mountain strip mine, and questioning whether Massey Energy should have obtained a “dredge and fill” permit under the Clean Water Act.
We’re glad the EPA may be tightening its oversight of Coal River Mountain—but we need to stop mountaintop removal coal mining altogether, and not just tighten oversight on a case by case basis. 
Our latest America’s Most Endangered Mountain video illustrates why.
In southwest Virginia, the communities of Appalachia and Andover are threatened by a proposed mountaintop removal project on Ison Rock Ridge.
As Pete Ramey of Wise County, VA says, “It only take one push of a plunger to blow a mountain away and destroy a whole community.”
Watch the video here:
http://www.ilovemountains.org/endangered/
The stories of people like Pete Ramey, Maude Jervis and Angie Honeycutt—all of whom appear in our latest America’s Most Endangered Mountains video—are what keep us committed day in and day out to ending mountaintop removal coal mining.
And here’s something simple that you can do today to help us garner the resources we need to end the travesties unfolding today at Coal River Mountain, Ison Rock Ridge and dozens of other places throughout Appalachia.
Chase Community Giving is holding a contest that allows Facebook users to vote for the non-profit organization of their choice—and we’re in the running. 100 finalists will receive $25,000; the Top 5 winners receive $100,000, and the organization with the most votes receives $1,000,000!
If you’re on Facebook, simply click here to cast your vote for Appalachian Voices in order to support iLoveMountains.org (a joint project between the Alliance for Appalachia and Appalachian Voices):
http://apps.facebook.com/chasecommunitygiving/charities/41514
(Note that you must allow the application to access your profile to cast your vote.)
JP Morgan Chase remains one of the biggest funders of mountaintop removal coal mining. Wouldn’t it be great if we were to use their own money to stop the destruction of Appalachia?
Please take a moment to vote for Appalachian Voices today, and forward the Ison Rock Ridge video to your family and friends.
From all of us at iLoveMountains, Appalachian Voices, and the Alliance for Appalachia—have a Happy Thanksgiving.
Matt Wasson
iLoveMountains.org
Friday, September 11, 2009
The following email was sent to the 37,000+ supporters of iLoveMountains.org. To sign up to receive free email alerts, click here.
Dear mountain lover,
We have great news!
The Obama Administration has heard you! Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency placed all 79 mountaintop removal permits they were reviewing on temporary reprieve. This represents the biggest step ever taken toward reining in the destruction of the Appalachian Mountains by mountaintop removal coal mining.
The release of a list of 79 permits begins a 14-day countdown in which the EPA regional offices must respond to the EPA headquarters' recommendations. While we applaud the current decision by the EPA, these permits could still be approved.
The EPA's announcement is part of a coordination procedure outlined in a "memorandum of understanding" between the Environmental Protection Agency, the Army Corps of Engineers, and the Department of Interior to deal with a backlog of permits held up by litigation over the past few years. The EPA has promised a more stringent and transparent review of all mountaintop removal valley fill permit applications, and as of today they have delivered.
The EPA is requesting public comment during these 14 days and we need to send them the message loud and clear to stand firm. No more mountains or communities should be blasted off the map.
However, the EPA is not currently set up to receive these comments, so we will be sending you an alert early next week, providing the tools you need to thank the EPA and to make sure the regional offices keep these mountains and communities safe from mountaintop removal coal mining.
In the mean time, we have set up a new page on iLoveMountains.org where you can see the location and track of the status of the permits pending before the EPA. You can view the permit map and see videos of nearby communities threatened by mountaintop removal at:
http://ilovemountains.org/epa-permit-list/
Just wanted to share the good news - we'll be back in touch next week.
Have a great weekend!
Matt Wasson
iLoveMountains.org
P.S.--Please help us spread the word on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter.
Monday, September 07, 2009
For Immediate Release: August 27th, 2009
Contacts: Adam Wells, Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards, 276.523.4380, 804 240 4372
Oliver Bernstein, Sierra Club, 512.477.2152
Temporary Reprieve for Virginia Residents, Mountains
Amid Growing Community and Environmental Concerns, DMME to Request More Information on Ison Rock Ridge While Scrutiny on Federal Level Continues.
Big Stone Gap, Virginia – The Virginia Department of Mines Minerals and Energy (DMME) issued a letter late Wednesday once again requesting more information from A&G Coal Company on their controversial Ison Rock Ridge mountaintop removal mine proposed for Wise County, Virginia. The move is a reprieve for the communities, mountains and streams nearby.
Among the concerns outlined in the letter were questions about how the mine plans to proceed in the absence of a required approval from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and about how the mine will deal with the proposed discharge of pollutants into already polluted streams.
Despite overwhelming local opposition, a growing national movement opposing mountaintop removal mining, and heightened scrutiny from the Obama Administration, A&G has continued to seek to destroy Ison Rock Ridge via mountaintop removal coal mining. The permit, if approved, would decimate over 1200 acres of lush Appalachian hardwood forest and imperil hundreds of people living directly adjacent to the permit boundary.
Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards (SAMS) along with the Sierra Club have been fighting the permit application for more than two years. “This is encouraging,” said SAMS board member and retired underground miner Bob Mullins, whose back yard abuts the permit boundary. “People living in the shadow of this mine understand just how dangerous things could get. My whole community’s future is at stake here.”
DMME’s action yesterday is further indication that the mine application is in an excessively dangerous and irresponsible location. In addition to being literally in the backyards of residents, the proposed mine would also drain waste-water into the already impaired Callahan Creek. DMME had most recently requested more information from the permit applicant in a letter dated May 8, 2009. The permit application is currently on its ninth revision.
“This is a welcome temporary reprieve for the people of Wise County, but the threat of this enormous mine requires permanent protection for the communities, streams and mountains,” said Pete Ramey, President of SAMS.
###
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
PayPal ordering for Still Moving Mountains: The Journey Home is now available.
Cost is $15 plus shippping. For bulk rates, please contact us.
Alternatively, you may contact us to request a CD and arrange payment.
Request alternative payment
Jeff Biggers wrote a stunning review of a great new CD that aims to raise awareness about mountaintop removal coal mining.
Ever miss the wondrous liner notes from your old LP’s?
An extraordinary new album, “Still Moving Mountains: The Journey Home,” just released with one of the finest showcases of musical talents from the Appalachian coalfields, has gone one step further: Accompanied by a multimedia website the album includes a map and search engine that allows listeners to see the setting of a song or mining and environmental issue, scroll through photographs, videos, and interviews, and learn ways to become involved in local coalfield citizens groups.
For producer Jen Osha, founder and director of Aurora Lights, the West Virginia-based nonprofit cultural organization formed to raise awareness of the impacts of mountaintop removal coal mining, the album also takes the next step in the coalfield justice movement by focusing on renewable energy and the preservation of the beauty of the Appalachian mountains and heritage.
This just might be the most powerful soundtrack and organizing tool for the coalfield justice and climate change movements today.
The direct link is here: www.auroralights.org/journey
Read the rest of the article over at Grist.org.
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Sit down on a porch with someone from the American South and you’ll learn why the region is renowned for its storytelling tradition. In the book Something’s Rising: Appalachians Fighting Mountaintop Removal (University Press of Kentucky), authors Silas House and Jason Howard tell the story of mountaintop removal coal mining through the voices of 12 Appalachians who’ve been directly affected by this devastating practice. Each subject is introduced by a vivid profile, and then House and Howard get out of the way and let them speak. Studs Terkel, no slouch himself in the oral history realm, has called Something’s Rising “oral history at its best,” and I have to concur: Although I was familiar with the mountaintop removal issue, these personal accounts brought it home for me in an incredibly powerful new way. I recently spoke with House and Howard about their book, the growing movement against mountaintop removal, and the outlook for the future.
Read the entire conversation on the Utne website.
Tuesday, July 07, 2009
The following email was sent to the 36,000+ supporters of iLoveMountains.org. To sign up to receive free email alerts, click here.
Dear Mountain Lover,
”Mountaintop removal coal mining is the worst environmental tragedy in American history. When will the Obama administration finally stop this Appalachian apocalypse?”
So began an op-ed by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in Friday’s edition of The Washington Post. As Mr. Kennedy noted:
“Mining syndicates are detonating 2,500 tons of explosives each day—the equivalent of a Hiroshima bomb weekly—to blow up Appalachia’s mountains and extract sub-surface coal seams....
“On this continent, only Appalachia’s rich woodlands survived the Pleistocene ice ages that turned the rest of North America into a treeless tundra. King Coal is now accomplishing what the glaciers could not—obliterating the hemisphere’s oldest, most biologically dense and diverse forests.”
So when will the Obama administration and Congress take action to stop mountaintop removal coal mining?
The answer may be this: only when enough people demand it.
That’s why we’re asking you to visit your members of Congress this August—and to tell them that now is the time to stop mountaintop removal coal mining.
Learn more about visiting your representative.
Every August, Congress goes into recess, with many members returning home to hear from their constituents.
With your help, we can make sure your members of Congress learn about the destruction of mountaintop removal coal mining - and hear from constituents like you that itís time to end “this Appalachian apocalypse.”
Dedicating just an hour or two of your time this August will make a tremendous difference in ending mountaintop removal coal mining.
Click here to sign up for an in-district visit with your representative.
Thank you for taking action.
Matt Wasson
iLoveMountains.org
Monday, July 06, 2009
written by By Robert F. Kennedy Jr. - Printed in the Washington Post on Friday, July 3, 2009
Mountaintop removal coal mining is the worst environmental tragedy in American history. When will the Obama administration finally stop this Appalachian apocalypse?
If ever an issue deserved President Obama’s promise of change, this is it. Mining syndicates are detonating 2,500 tons of explosives each day—the equivalent of a Hiroshima bomb weekly—to blow up Appalachia’s mountains and extract sub-surface coal seams. They have demolished 500 mountains—encompassing about a million acres—buried hundreds of valley streams under tons of rubble, poisoned and uprooted countless communities, and caused widespread contamination to the region’s air and water. On this continent, only Appalachia’s rich woodlands survived the Pleistocene ice ages that turned the rest of North America into a treeless tundra. King Coal is now accomplishing what the glaciers could not—obliterating the hemisphere’s oldest, most biologically dense and diverse forests. Highly mechanized processes allow giant machines to flatten in months mountains older than the Himalayas—while employing fewer workers for far less time than other types of mining. The coal industry’s promise to restore the desolate wastelands is a cruel joke, and the industry’s fallback position, that the flattened landscapes will provide space for economic development, is the weak punchline. America adores its Adirondacks and reveres the Rockies, while the Appalachian Mountains—with their impoverished and alienated population—are dismantled by coal moguls who dominate state politics and have little to prevent them from blasting the physical landscape to smithereens.
Obama promised science-based policies that would save what remains of Appalachia, but last month senior administration officials finally weighed in with a mixture of strong words and weak action that broke hearts across the region. The modest measures federal bureaucrats promised amount to little more than a tepid pledge of better enforcement of existing laws.
. . . and it continues on the Washington Post website.
