News
Gainesville Loves Mountains Campaign Near Victory!
Friday, April 4th, 2014
Exciting Update from our friends at Gainesville Loves Mountains!
It’s been 3+ years since Gainesville Loves Mountains first started our campaign to end GRU’s purchases of mountaintop removal coal.
This powerful campaign has finally reached its conclusion. We can win this victory with your support.
On April 17th, Gainesville City Commissioner Lauren Poe will direct City staff to take the initial steps to formally end GRU’s relationship with strip-mined coal from Appalachia. You can read more details on our website, but here’s how you can help us win:
*Please share this petition with everyone you know and ask them to sign on before April 17th.
*We also need Gainesville residents, as well as Appalachians living in the shadow of MTR, to contact our City Commission personally and let them know that you support our campaign. Even a brief personal phone call, letter, or email with the simple message “I want GRU to bring a permanent end to their consumption of strip-mined Appalachian coal” goes a long way.
*And finally, if you live in the Gainesville area, please help spread the word about the April 17th City Commission meeting on Facebook. You can also help us outreach for the April 17th meeting through phone-banking and canvassing at public events. If you have even one hour of time between now and the 17th and would be willing to help get out and spread the word, please contact us (gainesvillelovesmountains@
gmail.com ) and we’ll put you to work!Thanks so much for your support. With your help we can win a victory for the mountains and set an example for coal-consuming communities everywhere.
April 25th, 2014 at 11:29 am
Are any of the anti-coal mining groups working on the much-needed larger project of stopping the mining of coal altogether? Like other fossil fuels, several times more coal is already available than can safely be burned without sending the climate into an irreversible dash to world disaster. Coal is a real enemy, so a war on coal makes good sense, but in practice it would cause huge harm to the many people directly or indirectly employed in the industry and to communities dependent on it. There is a need, therefore, for a carefully worked-out master plan to provide alternative jobs and industries to replace coal in the socio-economic system. From rough calculations, I believe that it would be at no net cost to governments and huge benefits. I’d like to help such a master project in any way I can.