New Cosponsors Swarming as Advocates Prepare for Critical Test Tuesday

Tonight a host of House Republicans, Democrats, and the state’s sole elected Independent signed on as cosponsors of the Tennessee Scenic Vistas Protection Act, signaling an unprecedented shift in momentum for our efforts to protect Tennessee’s Mountains. The bill is scheduled for a critical vote tomorrow (3/27) at 1PM EST in the House Environment Subcommittee.

A big Appalachian THANK YOU to the new cosponsors of the Scenic Vistas Act, listed below…
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(Clockwise from top): Victor Ashe, Rev. Gradye Parsons, Anne Davis

Prominent Tennessee citizens are lending their voices of support to the original language of the Scenic Vistas Protection Act, a bill currently in the state legislature that is aimed to stop mountaintop removal coal mining in Tennessee.

In the state’s top daily newspaper, The Nashville Tennessean, an editorial by former long-time Knoxville mayor Victor Ashe and Southern Environmental Law Center managing attorney Anne David called for state officials to pass the Scenic Vistas bill in its original language to protect the mountain heritage of Tennessee.
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Dawn Coppock, Legislative Director of LEAF has a spot-on letter in the Knoxville News Sentinel. Reprinted below.

Can an engineer make a mountain as well as God can? The coal industry says, “Yes”; Tennesseans loudly say, “No”; and the state Senate is still ducking, stalling and faking.

I advocate for the Tennessee Scenic Vistas Protection Act, SB 577, a bill to prevent blasting off high-elevation ridgelines to remove coal. When I arrived in Nashville on Tuesday morning, the staff of the Senate Energy and Environment Committee, both pro and con, greeted me with exasperation. They couldn’t get a call out for calls coming in, hundreds of calls for the TSVPA. They couldn’t find other emails in the overwhelming flood of pro-mountain emails. They even had piles of paper letters — old-fashioned paper, snail-mail letters, handwritten and heartfelt — asking the senators to keep Tennessee’s ridgelines intact. It warmed my heart and encouraged Senate supporters while giving opponents pause.

Under all that pressure, the Senate leadership tried a fake, gutted the TSVPA and amended it with a big mess of nothing, then patted Tennesseans on the head and said the mountains are safe.

The sponsor of the amendment, Sen. Mike Bell, and Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey, Sen. Jack Johnson and Sen. Mike Faulk agree that the amended bill adds no protection that is not already in current federal rules. Ramsey says we have reached “a point all honest stakeholders can be proud of,” but the amendment was not shared in advance with any stakeholder except industry. And industry does seem to be proud….

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Mountaintop Removal Bill Goes to the Senate Floor

We’re still alive! Appalachian Voices and other Tennessee coalition partners have moved the conversation on banning mountaintop removal to the floor of the Tennessee State Senate. The Senate Energy and Environment Committee this morning vote 8-1 to move a bill forward.

BUT, its a bit complicated. Before what we call the “Scenic Vistas Protection Act” was passed from Committee, the title and language of the bill were gutted via an amendment offered by Senator Mike Bell (R) of Polk County. Senator Bell’s amendment erased the bill language as written and inserted a very narrow definition of mountaintop removal that will – by Senator Bell’s own admission – have little if any impact here in Tennessee. The amendment was written behind closed doors, and no one was allowed to see it prior to the actual hearing, even the sponsor of the Scenic Vistas bill, Senator Stewart. Senator Bell’s amendment was actually handed to the members during the committee hearing, giving them no chance to review its impacts. However, there was complete consensus that the members of the Committee wanted to get the issue of mountaintop removal off of their backs. Their phone-lines have been off the hook this week with people asking them to pass the Scenic Vistas Protection Act.

After the amendment was added, the bill sailed through unanimously with the exception of Senator Beverly Marerro, a great mountain advocate who voted against the final bill because of how badly the original bill had been gutted.

Needless to say, the bill as passed is not the Scenic Vistas bill. It is, as we say – a marshmellow – with essentially zero value. It is a blank slate which allows us to take up the conversation of mountaintop removal with the entire 33 member Tennessee State Senate. An amended bill is not the very best scenario that we could have faced, but it isn’t a bad position to be in. For the first time in history, to my knowledge, a mountaintop removal ban will be heard in its entirety on the Senate floor of a state legislative body.

While we are terribly disappointed by the mockery of the legislative process made by Senator Bell, the fact is that the bill could have died in Committee today, or it could have moved to the floor. We now have a chance to go to the floor of the Tennessee State Senate and have a conversation about mountaintop removal, while trying to add some meaningful language back into this bill.

This critical conversation continues, and we need to make sure all Tennesseans step up the pressure and contact their state Senators to let them know that they want to protect our mountaintops in the state of Tennessee by adding meaningful, powerful language back to the bill that will protect our mountaintops and our Appalachian citizens.

An image of the Bell amendment is below the fold, and you can watch the full committee meeting here:
[Note, embedded video is not working for some users. You might try the original site here.]

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Why does the coal industry need to make things up? Because they are on the wrong side of the facts, they are on the wrong side of public opinion, and they are on the wrong side of history. Fortunately, they don’t have a defensible case to continue doing mountaintop removal here in Tennessee. Unfortunately, too many legislators are easily swayed by their misinformation.

The text of the legislation clearly states:

(2) Except as provided in subdivision (3) under no circumstances shall the commissioner issue or renew a permit, certification, or variance that would allow surface coal mining operations to alter or disturb any ridgeline that is above two thousand feet (2,000′) elevation above sea level, such elevation being determined using the most current edition of the United States forest service’s publication, Ecological Subregions of the United States. This subdivision (2) does not prohibit any otherwise allowable surface coal mining above two thousand feet (2,000′) elevation above sea level that does not alter or disturb a ridgeline.

The rest of the bill is mostly exemptions and things which the language will not effect. Who are the legislators going to side with? A hired coal lobbyist, who is making up things about the Tennessee Scenic Vistas Protection Act, or the majority of the Appalachian and American people who are sick of seeing are mountains torn down!

We’ll know tomorrow morning (2/29) at 11:30eastern/10:30Central. If you can, take 5 minutes and call the Committee members this morning. Tell them you support the Scenic Vistas Protection Act and want them to vote YES.

Senate Energy and Environment Committee
Senator Steve Southerland, Chair – Phone (615) 741-3851
Senator Jack Johnson, Vice-Chair – Phone (615) 741-2495
Senator Jim Summerville, Secretary – Phone (615) 741-4499
Senator Mike Bell – Phone (615) 741-1946
Senator Mike Faulk – Phone (615) 741-2061
Senator Kerry Roberts – Phone (615) 741-1999