Mountaintop Removal Set to Take Center Stage

[Omaha Steve]

For nearly a year, we've been working to pull back the veil of secrecy that has protected the coal companies that are blowing up the mountains of Appalachia.

And now, thanks to your efforts and support, the debate about the future of mountaintop removal is about to take center stage.

Today, in a major editorial, the New York Times says that "mountaintop mining cries out for Congressional intervention to define once and for all what mining companies can and cannot do" and highlights the Clean Water Protection Act.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/27/opinion/27mon1.html

It's because of iLoveMountains.org supporters like you that today the Clean Water Protection Act (H.R. 2169) -- which would sharply limit what mining companies can do to our streams and rivers -- has a record 93 co-sponsors in the U.S. House of Representatives. Click here to write your representative today and ask them to take action to stop mountaintop removal coal mining.

http://www.ilovemountains.org/action/write_your_rep/

Unfortunately, the occasion for the New York Times editorial is a new rule proposed by the Bush administration that would legalize and expand the worst abuses of mountaintop removal.

If adopted, the new Bush regulation would exempt coal companies from a 1983 law that prohibits surface coal mining activities from disturbing areas within 100 feet of streams.

As Vernon Haltom, co-director of Coal River Mountain Watch, told Democracy Now radio, "what this rule change amounts to is a declaration of war against the Appalachian people."

We'll be providing you with the tools you need to speak out against this rule when public commenting takes place in the coming weeks.

It's because of your support so far that the word is getting out that it's time for mountaintop removal mining to end.

In addition to the The New York Times editorial and Vernon's interview on Democracy Now, this week CNN featured Kayford Mountain resident Larry Gibson in its CNN Heroes series. Click here to watch the video.

http://www.ilovemountains.org/memorial/c251/

And on Sunday, Rolling Stone contributing editor Jeff Goodell published an important editorial in the Washington Post on the true cost of coal. Click here to read the editorial.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/24/AR2007082401206.html?sub=AR

All of this press coverage -- and the Bush administration's wrong-headed rule proposal -- mean that in the coming weeks, the fight to stop mountaintop removal coal mining will be in the public's focus like never before.

In fact, in just the last week, more than 1,000 people have added their voices to iLoveMountains.org and the movement to stop mountaintop removal coal mining.

Help us keep that momentum going by spreading the word about our efforts today.

http://www.ilovemountains.org/take_action/

On a number of fronts, this fall is shaping up to be a defining time in the debate about the future of our mountains.

Please, continue raising your voice in defense of the mountains we love.

Mary Anne Hitt
iLoveMountains.org



P.S. Your financial contribution today could still be doubled through a Hanes matching grant. Click here to learn how to double your impact.

http://www.ilovemountains.org/news/269

[Kolesar]

1. A Pyrrhic Victory? Carl Pope's response to bush regulations for mountain top removal coal mining

A Pyrrhic Victory?

Washington D.C. -- Last Friday, the Bush Administration handed a seemingly huge payoff to the coal industry, which has been hammered all summer on Wall Street by a recognition that the tide of public and regulatory opinion in state after state is turning against the dirty fuel: the Administration proposed new regulations which explicitly authorized coal companies to continue mountaintop removal mining, even though federal judges have found the practice illegal. The Administration had hoped to bury the story with a Friday release, but the New York Times actually broke the story on Wednesday, and in doing so has made much more visible a reality that, however illegal, had remained largely invisible to most Americans. The fact is that, thirty years after Congress passed a law to regulate strip mining and protect streams and communities from its ravages, strip mining has been put on steroids and that Appalachia is literally being turned into a moonscape. (Check out these photos.) By issuing the regulation Bush actually stepped up public criticism and awareness. Local opponents of mountaintop removal called the regulation "a declaration of war on the Appalachian people."


The community response was prompt. Back in May, EPA had filed an enforcement action against Massey Energy Company that alleges thousands of violations of Section 402 of the Clean Water Act by Massey in connection with mountaintop removal and other surface mining operations in West Virginia and Kentucky. The government sought injunctive relief and damages -- a figure that could approach $2 billion. The Administration's new rule may have been designed to set the stage for a subsequent settling of this lawsuit; it was certainly designed to avoid the risk to Massey and other coal companies of any future such enforcement actions. So, the Sierra Club, Earth Justice, the Appalachian Center for the Environment, Coal River Mountain Watch, the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy, and the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition today filed for the right to enter the EPA enforcement action as Intervenors, to ensure that the Administration does not settle the case out from under the Department of Justice. And it's very clear that there will be a long, protracted legal battle over the proposed new regulation -- which means that, for the first time, opponents of mountaintop removal may have a national fulcrum for their campaign against the devastating practice. And as Archimedes said, "give me a lever and a fulcrum and I will move the world."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/carl-pope/a-pyrrhic-victory_b_62022.html