Friday, September 11, 2009

King Koal Feels the Pinch...a little

Good news...
(quoted from ilovemountains.org)
Today, September 11th, 2009, the EPA announced recommendations on 79 mountaintop removal valley fill permits that have been under review.

The EPA recommended that none of these permits be passed through for approval as they are written. The decision is not final, but is part of a coordination procedure outlined between the EPA, the Army Corps of Engineers and the Department of Interior. To understand the timeline and next steps, read our Background Info.

...and, a stunning, but depressing video from Kentuckians for the Commonwealth, which features local perspectives on the destruction caused by mountain top removal. Watch it:


Mountaintop Removal Slideshow from Kentuckians For The Commonwealth on Vimeo.

now, contact your congressional representative and urge them to support/co-sponsor:
  • Clean Water Protection Act (H.R. 1310) in the House
  • Appalachia Restoration Act (S. 696) in the Senate

See which politicians line up for coal money at:
Follow the Coal Money
You can find your representatives' contact info here:
Contact Your Representative

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Mountaintop removal continues...


So it ends.

The tree sitters, Nick Stocks and Laura Steepleton, (with Climate Ground Zero) at Pettry Bottom, West Virginia were chased away by mine security staff who saw fit to torment the protesters with lights, noise, and finally buzzing chainsaws. So the tree sitters descended. But not before six days passed and the two protesters delivered a little more attention to the plight of these verdant hills and hardwood forests which the Massey Mining Corp. is destroying for a few bucks profit. And don't think that Massey employs loads of local residents in their calamitous endeavor. They don't. In fact, with groundwater cleanups, road construction, etc. it would be cheaper for the states where mountaintop removal is conducted to pay the miners to stay home. But that's not where the real money is. The real money goes into executive's pockets. And then around election time, a bit of those ill-gotten gains are used to buy the compliance and silence of key politicians.

Meanwhile, local residents get screwed: their groundwater is poisoned, their air is fouled with dust, the silence is punctuated with earthshaking dynamite blasts, their villages and homes are threatened by rickety sludge impoundments, and their long cherished hunting, fishing, berry & mushroom picking, and hiking grounds are lost forever. Instead of rippling hills and valleys with sun-dappled glades and sparkling streams, they are left with flat, gray, infertile plains of wasteland. And so are the rest of us. Forever.