News
We Know What You Did Last Summer
Thursday, August 7th, 2008
Addendum: Many thanks to Kentuckians for the Commonwealth for organizing the mountaintop removal flyover tour with Congressmen Ben Chandler of Kentucky and Norm Dicks from Washington State.
August 7th, 2008 – The following email was sent to the 30,000+ supporters of iLoveMountains.org. To sign up to receive free email alerts, click here.
Here’s a question.
With Congressional Representatives heading to their home districts for the August Recess at the end of this week, is there anything we can do to keep the momentum going in Congress on the Clean Water Protection Act, whose passage would sharply curtail mountaintop removal coal mining?
The answer is yes. Last summer, many citizens just like you visited their Congressional representatives’ local office while he or she was at home.
These volunteers for the mountains spoke with their representatives about the damage done to our environment and the culture of Appalachia by mountaintop removal coal mining — and their efforts played a crucial role in helping us get to our current record 146 co-sponsors for the Clean Water Protection Act.
Would you consider visiting your representative during the August Congressional recess? We’ll guide you through the process of setting up the meeting, and supply you with materials that you can give to your representatives to make sure they understand the scale and scope of mountaintop removal coal mining:
Congressional interest in mountaintop removal coal mining has never been higher, which is why your efforts this summer can make a tremendous difference.
Just two weeks ago, for example, U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks from Washington State — the chairman of the House Appropriations subcommittee that has oversight of the Office of Surface Mining’s budget — joined Kentucky Congressman Ben Chandler in a flyover tour of mountaintop removal sites in Kentucky. This is the first time a member of Congress in such a powerful position has gone to Kentucky to view large-scale surface mining and meet with citizens affect by mountaintop removal.
To read more about the Congressional flyover of mountaintop removal coal mining site, click here and here.
If you have any questions about how you can meet with your representative this August, email outreach@iLoveMountains.org.
Finally, I wanted to let you know about a recent radio show worth listening to.
Two weeks ago, NPR affiliate KDHX in St. Louis featured iLoveMountains organizer Benji Burrell and retired miner Cary Huffman for to talk about America’s Most Endangered Mountains and to talk about the threat mountaintop removal poses to the Gauley River, which I recently wrote to you about.
To listen to the interview, click here.
Thank you for all that you do.
Mary Anne Hitt
iLoveMountains.org
