Monday, August 13th, 2007

August 15th, 2007 – The following email was sent to over 20,000 supporters of iLoveMountains.org. To sign up to receive free email alerts, click here.

Dear Friend,

By signing up for iLoveMountains.org, you’ve become an integral part of the movement to raise awareness about mountaintop removal coal mining – and you’ve helped to expose the more than 470 mountains that coal companies have already destroyed in Appalachia.

Today, I want to tell you about a place that is ground zero in the fight to stop mountaintop removal coal mining ? a place called Coal River Mountain.

Located in westernmost Raleigh County, West Virginia, Coal River Mountain is under threat from Massey Energy.

Massey has applied for two mountaintop removal permits, and is considering a third, that would destroy nearly 6,000 acres of Coal River Mountain, effectively decapitating it. They would fill 18 Appalachian valleys with toxic coal mining waste and destroy the tallest peaks ever to be mined in West Virginia.

But a coalition of grassroots organizations, led by Coal River Mountain Watch, have joined together to protect Coal River Mountain – and bring the attention of the nation to the ongoing tragedy that is mountaintop removal coal mining.

You can help. Will you forward this email on to just one person you know, and ask them to add their voice to the more than 20,000 Americans who are standing up to raise awareness about mountaintop removal coal mining?

Simply forward this email right now, or click on this link to send an invite from your personal action page on iLoveMountains.org:

http://ilovemountains.org/take_action/

The effort to stop the Coal River Mountain project is gaining momentum at the local level. Just last week, more than 100 local citizens filled the bleachers at a public hearing held by the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection at the Clear Fork Elementary School to speak their minds about the massive proposal.

There has never been such a turnout to a public hearing on a mine permit in West Virginia… but even more incredibly, every single citizen who spoke, spoke in opposition to the mine.

There are many reasons that local citizens oppose the mine: it will pollute their drinking water, heighten the risk of local flooding, and destroy the mountains and the beautiful landscape that have been their family home for as many as nine generations.

The mine, too, would destroy the long-term economic future of Coal River Mountain. As many citizens said at the hearing, for just a few years worth of jobs and a few years worth of coal, the mine would wipe out the opportunity to build a wind power facility that could provide long-term jobs and enough power to meet the needs of more than 90,000 homes forever. (Click here to learn more about the alternative wind power facility.)

Yet despite the united – and, at the hearing, unanimous – opposition to the plan to destroy Coal River Mountain, local citizens hold little hope that their testimony alone will stop the mine – because the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection has never denied a permit application for a mountaintop removal mine. Never.

That’s why it is absolutely critical that you forward this email on to at least one friend or family member today.

Even though most Americans would never support the destruction of this beautiful mountain and irreplaceable landscape, the people living near Coal River Mountain believe that their mountain will be destroyed because most Americans simply don’t know what’s happening in the hills and hollows of Appalachia.

The power to change that lies in your hands, right now. Please, forward this email to your friends and family, and ask them to join you in standing up to end mountaintop removal coal mining. They can join by clicking here:

http://ilovemountains.org/take_action/

Thank you for taking action and standing with the people of Coal River Mountain.

Mary Anne Hitt
iLoveMountains.org

This entry was posted on Monday, August 13th, 2007 at 1:20 pm and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.