Archive for November, 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://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
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We are excited to announce the 161st co-sponsor of the Clean Water Protection Act! See the full list after the jump. Please take a moment to send a letter to your Representative, thanking them for being on board or asking them to sign onto the bill to end mountaintop removal.
Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ 8th District) is serving her 2nd term in the U.S. House. Rep. Giffords serves on the Armed Services, Foreign Affairs, and Science & Technology (chair – Space & Aeronautics subcommittee) Committees.
Thank you, Representative Giffords!
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By Brodie Farquhar of the Wyoming Business Report:
November 18, 2009 —
CASPER — The news that the U.S. Department of Interior intends to dramatically restrict mountain-top removal coal operations back East, shouldn’t get Wyoming citizens too excited (unless your coal company removes mountain tops).
Interior’s Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSM) announced proposed rulemaking regarding the protection of streams from the adverse impacts of mountain-top removal operations, by overturning a stream buffer zone rule issued by the Bush Administration in December 2008.
read the entire article here…
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Companion CD to the Film ‘Coal Country’ Features Stellar Cast of Artists United To STOP Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining
On November 10th, Heartwood, a member of The Alliance For Appalachia, released ‘Coal Country Music,’ the companion CD to the documentary ‘Coal Country’ slated for concurrent national broadcast and DVD release.
With all tracks donated by a stellar cast of renowned musicians, ‘Coal Country Music’ is dedicated to ending the practice of mountaintop removal coal mining exposed in ‘Coal Country’ — net proceeds from the release will benefit the Alliance for Appalachia.
‘Coal Country Music’ is a poignant collection of songs inspired by the central role the Appalachian Mountains have played in American music, history, and culture. From the brilliantly raw and never before released recording of Willie Nelson performing Bob Dylan’s “Blowin’ In the Wind” to Diana Jones’ heart rending “Appalachia,” John Prine’s classic “Paradise,” and Natalie Merchant’s “Which Side Are You On” the songs tell of the struggle for survival in Coal Country.
An exposé on mountaintop removal coal mining and the personal stories of those it affects, the documentary ‘Coal Country’ will also see national release as a DVD on November 10th, and will premiere on the Discovery Networks’ Planet Green channel on November 14th in the new film series REEL IMPACT.
Spanning a cross-section of uniquely American musical styles, and startlingly topical, the album’s music marks the perfect complement, with songs chronicling the passions and sorrows common to the real life characters and communities so powerfully portrayed in the film.
Tracklist
01 – Cedar Hill refugees with Ralph Stanley “Keys to the Kingdom”
02 – Gillian Welch “Acony Belly”
03 – Celeste Krenz “Big Coal River”
04 – Jason and the Scorchers “Beat on the Mountain”
05 – John Prine “Paradise”
06 – Kathy Mattea “Red Winged Blackbird”
07 – Justin Townes Earle “Down in the Valley”
08 – Jason Wilber “In Her Veins”
09 – Shirley Stewart Burns “Leave Those Mountains Down”
10 – Natalie Merchant “Which Side Are You On”
11 – Diana Jones “Appalachia”
12 – Tom T. Hall “I’m a Coal Mining Man”
13 – John Prine & Bonnie Raitt “Angel From Montgomery” – Duet
14 – Phylis Geller “Canary”
15 – Jean Ritchie “Now is the Cool of the Day”
16 – The Klezmatics “Heaven”
17 – Schuyler Fisk “(It’s a) Long Walk Home”
18 – Public Outcry “Can’t Put it Back (Wrecklamation Song)”
19 – Willie Nelson “Blowin’ in the Wind”
The Appalachian Mountains have played a central role in this nation’s history, cultural heritage and musical traditions. There is not a musician on this compilation whose music does not owe a substantial debt to those traditions, which debt they freely acknowledge, and hope in some small measure to repay with this album, dedicated as it is to protecting those mountains and preserving those cultural traditions.
– Bob Santelli, Executive Directory, Grammy Museum
Available from Heartwood
http://www.coalcountrymusic.com/
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a response from the Alliance for Appalachia:
DOI Releases Tentative Plan to Protect Streams; Citizen Groups Call for More Immediate Action to Protect Appalachian Streams and Communities
Charleston, WV – Members of The Alliance for Appalachia have welcomed the announcement by the Department of Interior that it intends to move forward with more stringent enforcement and oversight of current coal mining operations and a commitment to utilizing the best science to formulate new rules. However, the agency confirmed that it intends to delay proposing a new stream buffer zone rule until 2011. The Stream Buffer Zone was originally intended to protect a 100 foot barrier around mountain streams. This rule was severely undermined by the Bush administration, leaving waterways, and the surrounding communities and wildlife, vulnerable to mining waste.
While supporting the agency’s decision to use sound science in decision making, it was noted that numerous studies conducted during the past decade, including the 2005 Environmental Impact Study compiled by the Environmental Protection Agency, have repeatedly shown that the impacts of mountaintop removal can be catastrophic.
“Sound science already has shown us that we can’t wait for years for a rule while our streams are being buried and lost forever. If the Department of the Interior is following the science, then it should be clear that they need to end the dumping of mountaintop removal waste into Appalachian streams immediately,” said Ann League with the Tennessee group SOCM – Statewide Organizing for Community eMpowerment.
The Department of the Interior’s announcements were related to the June 2009 Memorandum of Understanding which outlined the steps federal agencies intended to take on the issue of mountaintop removal. Citizen groups have been disappointed at the lack of action from federal agencies. The Alliance for Appalachia, which represents over 13,000 members, is calling for the Department of the Interior and the Obama Administration to take swift action to issue a new rule that would protect the important headwater streams.
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This just in from the Department of the Interior:
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Department of the Interior is taking immediate actions to strengthen oversight of state surface coal mining programs and to promulgate Federal regulations to better protect streams affected by surface coal mining operations, Interior officials announced today.
“America’s vast coal resources are a vital component of our energy future and our economy, but we have a responsibility to ensure that development is done in a way that protects public health and safety and the environment,” said Assistant Secretary for Land and Minerals Management Wilma Lewis. “We are moving as quickly as possible under the law to gather public input for a new rule, based on sound science, that will govern how companies handle fill removed from mountaintop coal seams. Until we put a new rule in place, we will work to provide certainty to coal operations and the communities that depend on coal for their livelihood, strengthen our oversight and inspections, and coordinate with other federal agencies to better protect streams and water quality.”
Interior’s Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSM) is publishing an advance notice of proposed rulemaking regarding the protection of streams from the adverse impacts of surface coal mining operations. The notice requests comments on alternatives for revising the current regulations, which include the stream buffer zone rule issued by the Bush Administration in December 2008.
The 2008 rule modified a 1983 rule that prohibited the dumping of overburden within 100 feet of a perennial or intermittent stream except when such activities “will not cause or contribute to the violation of State or Federal water quality standards and will not adversely affect the water quantity or quality or other environmental resources of the stream.” The 2008 rule allows a surface coal mine operator to place excess material excavated by the operation into streams if the operator can show it is not reasonably possible to avoid doing so.
While the new rule is being developed, Interior is taking immediate actions to strengthen protections for streams and communities in coal country, provide regulatory certainty for industry, and bolster OSM’s oversight and enforcement activities.
“We are moving as expeditiously as possible in the rulemaking process, but we will not take shortcuts around the law or the science,” said OSM Director Joe Pizarchik. “Until we complete the new rule, we have to manage the shortcomings of the 2008 rule. OSM will establish a new practice for reviewing permits under the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act (SMCRA) that will improve consistency and coordination with other Federal agencies.”
Under the new practice, the review and approval of SMCRA permits must be coordinated with reviews and authorizations required under the Clean Water Act. OSM will work with the Corps of Engineers and the Environmental Protection Agency to coordinate these permitting processes and ensure effective and coordinated compliance with provisions of the Clean Water Act.
Lewis and Pizarchik also announced a number of proposed actions to improve the agency’s effectiveness in overseeing state implementation of their approved surface coal mining regulatory programs. Under these proposed actions, OSM would, for the first time since coal-producing states assumed responsibility for their regulatory programs, conduct independent inspections of operators with state-issued surface coal mining permits. OSM would also conduct more oversight inspections, place greater emphasis on reducing the off-site impacts of mining, and review more state-issued surface coal mining permits and state permitting processes in an effort to improve state permitting decisions. The new OSM oversight and enforcement policy would also include revised guidelines for conducting oversight inspections.
“Through tougher oversight and stronger enforcement of SMCRA, we are putting all hands on deck to ensure that Appalachian communities are protected,” Pizarchik added. The reforms announced today are consistent with the Obama Administration’s commitments in a June 11, 2009, Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) among the Department of the Interior, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Army Corps of Engineers to reduce the harmful environmental consequences of Appalachian surface coal mining.
The public is invited to review and comment on the proposed rulemaking and on OSM’s proposed Oversight Improvement Actions. The advance notice of proposed rulemaking will be sent to the Federal Register shortly. Beginning on the date of publication, comments may be submitted using the Federal e-Rulemaking Portal at www.regulations.gov. The document has been assigned Docket ID: OSM-2009-0009.
The public is also invited to review and comment by December 18, 2009, on OSM’s proposed Oversight Improvement Actions, which can be accessed at (http://www.osmre.gov/topic/Oversight/SCM/SCM.shtm). The preferred method for submitting comments is via e-mail to Oversight@osmre.gov. Comments may also be mailed to: Administrative Record (MS 252 SIB), Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement, 1951 Constitution Avenue, NW, Washington, DC, 20240.
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The following email was sent to the 38,000+ supporters of iLoveMountains.org. To sign up to receive free email alerts, click here.
Two weeks ago, we wrote to tell you that Massey Energy had begun blasting on Coal River Mountain — ground zero in the fight to end mountaintop removal coal mining.
We asked you to tell the Obama administration to intervene — and your response was incredible! You sent more than 15,000 letters to the Obama Administration, and in partnership with other organizations, more than 64,000 citizens took action to save Coal River Mountain.
The blasting at Coal River Mountain represents an escalation in the fight for the future of Appalachia. Massey Energy has already been cited with using stronger explosives than is allowable near a gas line, and local residents are worried about the impacts of the blasting on a nearby coal sludge impoundment.
That’s why we need to ensure that we’re ready to meet Big Coal’s efforts to destroy the mountains we love across the region.
Can you make a contribution to iLoveMountains today, to help us grow the campaign to end mountaintop removal coal mining and support the activists on the ground at Coal River Mountain?
Click here to make a contribution today.
Whether you’re able to contribute $25, $50, or $200, any amount you can afford to give makes a tremendous difference in the effort to end mountaintop removal coal mining once and for all.
You contribution goes directly to helping iLoveMountains.org raise national awareness and keep the pressure on decision makers to end mountaintop removal coal mining. Your contribution also helps the Alliance for Appalachia build regional support for ending mountaintop removal coal mining, and lends support for the activists at Coal River Mountain Watch, who are on the ground every day working to save Coal River Mountain.
You can also help grow the movement by taking just a moment today to invite 5 friends or colleagues to join you at iLoveMountains.org. To date, more than 38,800 people have joined you in supporting a clean energy future for Appalachia. Can you help us reach 40,000 people in a week’s time by inviting 5 friends to join you at iLoveMountains.org today?
Invite 5 friends to join us today.
Thank you for everything you do to contribute to the end of mountaintop removal coal mining. Your efforts form the backbone of our campaign.
Matt Wasson
iLoveMountains.org
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cross posted from NRDC’s Switchboard blog:
by Rob Perks at NRDC. Rob is the Director of their Center for Advocacy Campaigns in Washington, D.C.
Nashville is “Music City”, the home of country music — but the heart and soul of this celebrated American musical genre lies a few hundred miles east in the Appalachian Mountains. Yes indeed, Appalachia is where country music was born. And more and more country stars are starting to wake up to the destruction facing the mountains that are the inspiration of their songs and the lifeblood of their livelihood.
I just returned from Nashville, where NRDC co-hosted an event with the Gibson Foundation (yes, those legendary guitars!) at the home of mega-manager Ken Levitan. The purpose of this event was to raise awareness about mountaintop removal coal mining amongst the music industry and to recruit more artists to our campaign: MusicSavesMountains.org.
More than 100 people attended the event and heard NRDC’s Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. tell how the Appalachians are being ravaged by the most destructive form of coal mining ever devised. He explained how companies are blowing entire ridge tops to smithereens to get at the thin seams of coal below. He spoke of the roughly 500 peaks leveled thus far, along with wide swaths of forests clearcut, miles of streams destroyed or polluted, and countless communities harmed by the hunger for this dirty fossil fuel.
With the future of America’s oldest mountains at stake, NRDC called on country singers and musicians to come together with us and to say “enough is enough.” Who better to join the fight for these cherished mountains than country music stars? These popular and influential messengers can use their platform to lend their voice, and help keep the ‘country’ in country music.
(Pictured left-right: Randy Travis, Dierks Bentley, Kid Rock, Big Kenny, James Otto, NRDC founder John Adams, Emmylou Harris, NRDC scientist Allen Hershkowitz, RFK Jr., Gloria Dumas, Ken Levitan, Gibson Guitar CEO Henry Juszkiewicz and Gibson Guitar President Dave Berryman)
Here’s a great story about the event in The Tennessean. We’re talking about a star-studded lineup featuring: Emmylou Harris, Randy Travis, Ben Sollee, Big Kenny Alphin, Delbert McClinton, Dierks Bentley, Gloriana, James Otto, J.D. Souther, Matraca Berg, Jeff Hanna, Michelle Branch, Kid Rock, Patty Griffin, Michelle Branch, Rodney Crowell, and Glorianna.
NRDC is so grateful to Emmylou Harris, a long-time supporter of our organization, for helping us launch this campaign. Other artists who joined early-on and have been crucial to building momentum include: Sheryl Crow, who unfortunately couldn’t join us in Nashville this time; Kathy Mattea, who has been very visible and vocal against this reckless mining which has ravaged her native West Virginia; and Big Kenny Alphin, who visited the region with us last year to view the destruction and since then has become a tireless advocate against mountaintop removal.
As a result of this successful event, we expect to enlist many more stars to our Music Saves Mountains campaign, all of whom will be counted on to educate their fans and carry the message against mountaintop removal to people and policy-makers all over the country.
This rogue mining may be devastating the Appalachian region but these mountains belong to all Americans — and the damage inflicted there affects each and every one of us. Mountaintop removal coal mining is a national shame — a purple mountain tragedy — and together with the country music industry we hope to generate broad public support that can spur the political will to finally put a stop to it.
Many mountains, one voice: It is time to save the Appalachians from mountaintop removal coal mining. Music Saves Mountains just may mark the swan song for this horrendous crime against not just nature but a crucial component of our American heritage.
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CITIZENS COAL COUNCIL: SCRUTINY OF OBAMA ADMINISTRATION’S DEALINGS WITH STRIP MINING INDUSTRY WILL INCREASE BECAUSE SENATE HAS CONFIRMED INTERIOR SECRETARY SALAZAR’S ANTI-ENVIRONMENTAL NOMINEE TO DIRECT COAL SURFACE MINING AGENCY
Environmental, public health watchdogs to increase vigilance at Interior Department agency to be run by pro-industry former state regulator.
Citizen Groups Vow To Insist On Compliance and Enforcement As Top Agency Priority
Washington, PA – Citizens Coal Council (CCC), representing citizen groups and community leaders in every part of America where irresponsible coal mining companies create severe health, safety and environmental problems, vowed today that Senate confirmation of the Obama Administration’s choice to head the federal Office of Surface Mining Regulation and Environment (OSM) will make citizens work even harder to demand genuine reform in the industry-captured Interior Department agency.
CCC Coordinator Aimee Erickson stated “Those in the Senate who allowed this nomination to go through are helping the Obama administration continue to enable the worst coal mining practices in this country.”
“Coalfield citizens are not about to sit back and let the destructive mining practices that Joseph Pizarchik condoned when he failed to properly regulate the coal industry in Pennsylvania spread to the rest of the U.S. now that President Obama and Interior Secretary Salazar have chosen Mr. Pizarchik to lead the federal agency,” Erickson continued.
Bill Price, from the Sierra Club Environmental Justice program stated “Except for the first two years, the OSM has been a dysfunctional agency. The citizens groups in Appalachia and their allies across the country are expecting increased scrutiny of the OSM by Secretary Salazar. If Mr. Pizarchik tries to run the OSM in the same manner that he ran the Bureau of Mining and Reclamation in the Pennsylvania DEP, the world will know.”
Kentucky Resource Council Director Tom Fitzgerald added “The pressure is now really on Interior Secretary Salazar to personally see to it that genuine reform comes to Interior Department enforcement of the laws that are supposed to protect Americans against harm caused by the coal industry. We are grateful that the Secretary is at least considering whether to start honestly enforcing mountaintop removal laws again – but in every part of America where the coal industry operates, people are losing their homes and communities, their streams and their prairie and pasturelands, because OSM simply fails to enforce the federal law regulating how the coal industry is supposed to mine and reclaim the land.”
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The following email was sent to the 38,000+ supporters of iLoveMountains.org. To sign up to receive free email alerts, click here.
Today, organizations across the nation are joining forces with iLoveMountains.org to send a powerful message to the Obama Administration that blasting on Coal River Mountain needs to stop now. More than 500,000 people across the country are being asked to contact the 4 decision-makers in the Obama Administration that can put a stop to the blasting on Coal River Mountain. This could be the largest day of action on mountaintop removal ever, and we need your help to make history.
Will you take a moment to send a message to these decision-makers today?
http://www.iLoveMountains.org/CoalRiver
Last week, we told you about how residents in southern West Virginia have been promoting a plan that would save the last remaining mountain in the Coal River Valley from mountaintop removal coal mining – through wind power. Your response to our appeal to contact the President was incredible. Reports came back from the White House of a deluge of calls, and in less than a week more than 1,500 new people joined the movement to end mountaintop removal coal mining.
But local reports of blasting on the mountain have continued to come in, and we need to redouble our efforts. Blasting is occuring directly next to the Brushy Fork slurry impoundment, a dam which holds 8.2 billion gallons of toxic coal slurry. Every day that blasting continues, more than 1,000 people are in danger of being overtaken by a 50-foot high wall of coal sludge should the dam fail.
The fate of Coal River Mountain is still uncertain, but its implications for our energy future are clear. Will we continue down the path of destroying our nation’s oldest mountains for a few years worth of coal, or seize the opportunity to produce clean wind power for 85,000 homes and generate green jobs and a new energy economy?
Help make history today- and help save Coal River Mountain for the future. Ask the Environmental Protection Agency, Army Corps of Engineers, Department of the Interior and the Council of Environmental Quality to stop the blasting on Coal River Mountain
Thanks for all that you do,
Matt Wasson
iLoveMountains.org
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