Check out the event details at SouthHolstonFlyFishing.com HERE.

Mountain Aid – THIS WEEKEND!!

Music is often moving, but only once in a while does it help stop mountains from moving. That is the hope behind the inaugural Mountain Aid festival, taking place this Friday through Sunday, June 19 – 21, at the Shakori Hills festival grounds just south of Chapel Hill in Chatham County, NC. Mountain Aid is being billed as “a concert to end mountaintop removal and create a clean energy future for North Carolina and beyond.”

Mountain Aid will raise funds for the Pennies of Promise campaign to build a new school for the children of Marsh Fork Elementary. Located in Raleigh County, W. Va., the school sits just 225 feet from a coal loading silo that releases chemical-laden coal dust and 400 yards from a 385-foot tall leaking sludge dam with a nearly 3 billion gallon capacity.

Just last week, a West Virginia court approved the construction of a second coal silo to be built even closer to the school. Independent studies have shown the school to be full of coal dust.

Headlining the festival will be Grammy Award-winning country artist Kathy Mattea, whose recent release, COAL, deals specifically with the West Virginia native’s many personal ties to the subject. Raised near Charleston, W. Va., her mining heritage runs throughout both sides of the family: both her parents grew up in coal camps, both her grandfathers were miners, and her mother worked for the local United Mine Workers Association union office. Mattea’s father was saved from the mines by an uncle who paid his way through college.

Other performers include rising cello star Ben Sollee, festival favorites Donna The Buffalo, upbeat reggae-tinged rockers the Sim Redmond Band and more.

Pennies of Promise
When his granddaughter returned home from school sick, Pennies of Promise founder Ed Wiley fought to get the school moved away from the massive neighboring mountain top removal mine despite government inaction. According to West Virginia state officials, construction of a new school is a fiscal impossibility, but that was not going to keep Wiley and scores of concerned citizens from taking it upon themselves to come to the children’s aid.

To kick off the campaign, Wiley presented West Virginia Governor Joe Manchin with $400 in pennies. He then walked more than 300 miles from his home in Rock Creek, W. Va. all the way to Washington, D.C. to continue the fight. Funds generated by Mountain Aid will help the Pennies of Promise campaign move closer to their goal of $8 million to fund the new school and move the children out of harm’s way. For more information on the nonprofit, click to www.penniesofpromise.org.

Mountain Aid is sponsored by the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition (OHVEC), a nonprofit organization formed in 1987 whose mission is to organize and maintain a diverse grassroots organization dedicated to the improvement and preservation of the environment through education, grassroots organizing and coalition building, leadership development and media outreach.

Tickets for Mountain Aid are $30 at the gate. Tent camping passes are $10 and vehicle camping passes are $40. For more information, click to www.mtnaid.com.

Story by David Brewer

Op-ed published June 13th, 2009

There has to be a better way.

Sure, it’s all legal. The state Supreme Court said so last week when it rejected an appeal that sought to bar Massey Energy subsidiary Goals Coal Co. from constructing another coal storage silo less than the length of a football field from Marsh Fork Elementary School.

But there has to be a better way.

Coal River Mountain Watch, which for years has argued that even one silo so close to the school was one too many, was, obviously, upset with the court’s decision, saying that “placing a second coal silo within 300 feet of the school is a clear violation of the intent of the law, which is to protect the public.”

But Justice Menis Ketchum, who wrote the unanimous opinion, made it clear the court was not going to become embroiled in policy questions that should be decided by lawmakers.

“It is the duty of the Legislature to consider facts, establish policy and embody that policy in legislation,” he wrote. “It is the duty of the court to enforce legislation unless it runs afoul of state or federal constitutions.”

So there, you have it.

Not quite.

Coal silos and preparation facilities are a fact of life in the southern West Virginia coalfields, but locating them in direct proximity of public schools isn’t the best policy.

In this debate between environmentalists and a coal industry giant, the ones with the most at stake are the young students at Marsh Fork Elementary.

They didn’t ask for this. They don’t have a seat at the table.

Collectively, they’re an innocent party with the most to lose.

Having a coal silo, having any kind of industrial complex, so close to a school, especially an elementary school, can’t be conducive to learning.

We suggested a long time ago that Massey pony up the money to build a new elementary school at a location not in the direct shadow of its Goals coal operations. But now, with the economic downturn that has affected every industry, including coal, that seems like a distant dream.

We would encourage Massey officials and local school leaders to sit down and try to work out a solution to this problem.

The Coal River Valley has long felt like a red-haired stepchild in Raleigh County, that it has lost while other areas of the county have gained.

It has also yielded the coal that, as they say, keeps the lights on and provides a steady stream of tax revenue.

Maybe it’s time that area receives something in return.

For more information, visit:

Here is a link to the original article.

The administration deserves credit for some minimal restrictions on mountaintop mining, but the president’s hands-off approach to coal defeats his climate-change efforts.

Clear-cutting forests, then blowing the tops off of mountains and dumping the debris into stream beds is an environmentally catastrophic way of mining for coal. President Obama and the green activists he has appointed to run his interior-focused regulatory agencies surely know this. But their contortions over mountaintop mining would make a Cirque du Soleil performer wince.

The administration last week announced a number of new restrictions on mountaintop coal mining in the six Appalachian states where it occurs. They are minimal steps that, among other things, will make it harder for mining companies to escape environmental review when seeking permits to blow up mountains. For this, Obama merits polite applause.

That’s in contrast to the much-deserved boos he received last month from environmentalists after his administration quietly sent a letter to coal industry loyalist Rep. Nick Rahall II (D-W.Va.) saying the Environmental Protection Agency wouldn’t stand in the way of at least two dozen new mountaintop-removal projects. It was a dismaying move from an administration that in March had blocked several such projects on grounds that they needed further review — yet some of the ones it greenlighted in May were as big and damaging as the ones it blocked two months earlier. What gives?

Obama is clearly intimidated by coal’s powerful lobby. The industry is a major employer in West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee and other Appalachian states, where miners tend to vote for whichever party is friendliest to Big Coal. Yet there’s also strong grass-roots opposition to strip mining in those states because of the effect it has on local communities; the technique poisons water supplies and pollutes the air with coal and rock dust. It also turns forests into moonscapes, ravages ecosystems and buries streams, which is good for neither wildlife nor the tourism industry.

The best approach to mountaintop mining would be to ban it completely. It’s cheaper and less labor-intensive than underground mining, but not worth the environmental cost. At a minimum, Obama should address some other highly destructive rule changes imposed by the Bush administration — a good place to start would be restoring a regulation that forbade mining within 100 feet of a stream, and disallowing the use of mine waste as “fill” material in waterways.

Obama can’t sidestep this issue forever, especially because his hands-off approach to coal defeats the purpose of his efforts to fight climate change. Coal is a key culprit in global warming, and it makes no sense to encourage cheap coal while seeking to boost renewable energy.

Visit Appstate.edu HERE to read this article.

CNN – Anderson Cooper 360 – Friday 6/12/09 – 10:00 p.m. segment Eastern Time – TVA Coal Ash Disaster

https://lifeonswanpond.livejournal.com/55502.html

Another one from Mr. Biggers:

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeff-biggers/clean-coal-knee-capping-s_b_214927.html

On the heels of a major Wall Street Journal report that we are reaching “peak coal,” and revelations that the Bush administration buried a 2002 report on the cancer risks associated with coal ash, Secretary of Energy Steven Chu made a $1.073 billion down payment today on the construction of FutureGen, “the first commercial scale, fully integrated, carbon capture and sequestration project in the country in Mattoon, Illinois.”

Chu’s buy-in into “clean coal,” a phrase that young liberal Democrat Francis Peabody first used back in the 1890s to peddle his brand of “smoke-free” clean coal in Chicago, places him in the company of FutureGen Alliance promoters like Peabody Energy, whose first quarter 2009 profits “only tripled” this spring–Peabody celebrated an 8-fold increase in profits in the last quarter of 2008.

… Read the entire article here.

Governor Tim Kaine of Virginia, a close ally to President Obama and current head of the Democratic National Committee (DNC), came out with this statement in favor of the Administration’s proposal regarding mountaintop removal removal yesterday.

“I applaud the new guidelines announced by the administration which will impose tighter restrictions on mountaintop mining.

“In Virginia, we’ve always taken a common sense approach to how we meet our energy needs. At the same time—for the sake of this generation of Virginians and the next—we have made conserving the natural beauty of our Commonwealth and protecting our environment more broadly a real priority.

“The improved coordination inherent in the review process proposed by the Obama administration today will ensure we address both our energy and our environmental needs. Moving forward, it is critical we maintain transparency in the review process to ensure all stakeholders—including our citizens and representatives of the coal-mining industry—have faith that their concerns are taken into account.

“As we continue to meet the challenges of the global financial downturn, we have an obligation to permit the recovery of traditional energy sources that fuel our economy. However, we also have a responsibility to discourage the use of mining methods that exploit our mountains and valleys. While we continue investing in and developing renewable energy sources, we must focus on using those mining methods that complement our conservation goals instead of moving our nation backwards.

“Along with the Department of Mines, Minerals, and Energy and the Department of Environmental Quality in Virginia, I look forward to working with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Army Corps of Engineers, and the U.S. Department of the Interior as we move towards a new process for implementing the proper environmental protection around mining operations.”

Congressman Yarmuth applauded the Obama Administration’s action yesterday, but calls for Congress to address valleyfills by taking action on the Clean Water Protection Act (HR 1310), which was introduced by Congressmen Pallone (D-NJ), Reichert (R-WA), and Yarmuth (D-WA)

(Washington, DC) Today, Congressman John Yarmuth (KY-3) expressed his support of federal policies designed to reduce the environmental impacts of mountaintop removal mining in the Appalachian Region.

“It is encouraging that the Obama Administration is taking a step forward to halt the devastating and irreversible damage of mountaintop removal,” said Congressman Yarmuth. “I call on my Congressional colleagues to build on these efforts to ensure that this irresponsible practice no longer threatens the Appalachian region or the health and security of its residents.”

A new, coordinated approach announced today by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Army Corps of Engineers, and the Department of the Interior (DOI) includes the following efforts:

• The Corps will modify the usage of Nationwide Permit (NWP) 21 to prevent its use for authorizing mountaintop removal permits in the Appalachian region.

• The EPA and the Corps will strengthen the regulation, enforcement, and permitting of surface mining operations.

• The EPA will improve and strengthen oversight and review of water pollution permits for discharges from valley fills.

• The Corps and EPA will jointly clarify how to evaluate impacts on proposed mitigation projects and streams.

“This is an important step, but much more action is needed to protect the Appalachian Region,” Congressman Yarmuth added.

Congressman Yarmuth then called on his fellow legislators to support the Clean Water Protection Act, which would change environmental standards to end mountaintop removal mining. The Clean Water Protection Act would amend the Water Pollution Control Act to clarify that the “fill material”- which mining companies are presently permitted to dump in valleys in streams and valleys – cannot be waste material from mountaintop removal sites.

As always, those intrepid and resolute reporters Ken Ward Jr. and Jeff Biggers alerted us to the Obama Administration’s new plan to “deal” with mountaintop removal coal mining.

From Ken Ward Jr.’s blog:

Administration officials announced that they are taking a series of short-, medium- and long-range steps that they say will allow mountaintop removal to continue, but reduce the impacts to communities and the environment.

We think Jeff Biggers summed it up best in his article on the Huffington Post:

In an extraordinary move to disregard a 38-year rap sheet of crimes of pollution, harassment and forced removal of some of our nation’s oldest and most historic communities, and the destruction of over 500 mountains and 1.2 million acres of deciduous hardwood forests in our nation’s carbon sink of Appalachia, the Obama administration will announce today that it has decided to “regulate” mountaintop removal mining operations, not abolish them.

All well-meaning intentions aside, if the Obama administration truly wanted to “enforce” mountaintop removal regulations and protect American watersheds, drinking water, and communities from catastrophic flooding and toxic blasting, it would simply reverse a 2002 Bush and dirty coal lobby manipulation of the Clean Water Act and restore the original definition of “fill” material to no longer include mining waste.

A growing number of Congress members understands this–and even conservatives like Sen. Lamar Alexander are now shepherding the Clean Water Protection Act. See: https://www.ilovemountains.org/appalachia-restoration-act/

Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards and Appalachian Voices distributed a press release this afternoon which included poignant quotes from two prominent mountain-lovers in Congress, as well as their organizational leaders:

Members of Congress working to end this devastating practice through legislative means applauded the Administration’s action, but also stress that until Congress acts, mountaintop removal coal mining will continue to be a threat to Appalachian communities, mountains and streams.

“The Administration’s announcement today is a positive step forward on this important issue and will help protect waterways and communities from the devastating process of mountaintop removal,” said Congressman Frank Pallone (D-NJ). “However, to address the heart of the problem, Congress needs to pass the Clean Water Protection Act (HR 1310), legislation I introduced to prohibit the valleyfill process, which allows coal companies to dump toxic waste into headwater streams.”

The Clean Water Protection Act, which was first introduced in 2002, would disallow the dumping of mining waste into the valley and streams near mountaintop removal sites. A companion bill, the Appalachian Restoration Act, was introduced into the Senate earlier this year.

“Mountaintop mining is one of the most destructive practices that already has destroyed some of America’s most beautiful and ecologically significant regions,” said Senator Cardin (D-MD), Chairman of the Environment and Public Works Water and Wildlife Subcommittee and sponsor of S. 696, the Appalachian Restoration Act. “Today’s decision by the Obama Administration to limit the practice through a stronger review of mountaintop mining permit applications is an important step in the right direction. However, it does not halt this incredibly destructive form of mining. We must put an end to this mining method that has buried more than a thousand miles of streams.”

Local groups fighting mountaintop removal in their communities also contend that until strong legislation is passed to end the practice, mountaintop removal will continue.

“We hope this will produce real change and not end up as business as usual,” said Kathy Selvage, Vice President of Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards in Wise County Virginia. “But what we really need is a law to abolish mountaintop removal coal mining.”

The announcement also falls on the heels of two major events influenced by increases in mountaintop removal coal mining. Yesterday the West Virginia Supreme Court approved a second coal silo to be built less tha 100 yards from the Marsh Fork Elementary School, which rests immediately below a coal sludge dam and an expanding mountaintop removal mining site. And last month, hundreds of homes were affected by severe flooding in Mingo County, WVa, and Breathitt County, KY, exacerbated by increased run-off from mountaintop removal sites.

According to both industry and environmental groups, mountaintop removal mined coal provides less than 5% percent of our nation’s electricity.

“With coal demand down by 5% due to the recession, the administration is missing an unprecedented opportunity to replace mountaintop removal coal with new sources of energy,” said Dr. Matthew Wasson, Director of Programs at Appalachian Voices. “We’re concerned that this incremental decision-making could open the door for an even greater expansion of mountaintop removal coal mining when the recession ends and the price of coal rebounds.”

Press releases, reactions, and useful documents

• Announcement package – released by the White House
• Reactions – Ohio Citizens Action
• Press release – Virginia’s Governor Tim Kaine
• Obama’s plan for mountaintop removal … – Ken Ward Jr.
• Obama looks to end expedited mining reviews – Associated Press
• Coalfield residents respond to Obama’s announcement on mountaintop removal – Jeff Biggers
• UPDATE: Coalfield Advocates Respond to Mountaintop Removal Crimes and Misdemeanors – Jeff Biggers
• Mining technique to be monitored – LA Times
• Mountaintop Letdown – President Obama’s decision will enrage environmentalists, but it’s the right one. – Washington Post
• Mountaintop Mining To Get More Scrutiny – Administration to Announce New Policies – Washington Post
• Mountaintop Mining To Get More Scrutiny – Administration Announces New Policies to Reduce Environmental Damage – Washington Post

The following email was sent to the 36,000+ supporters of iLoveMountains.org. To sign up to receive free email alerts, click here.

Dear mountain lover,
Yesterday, the Obama administration took a small step in the right direction.

The administration announced an agreement between the EPA, Department of Interior, and the Army Corps of Engineers that will end the streamlined permitting process for mountaintop removal coal mining.

The agreement also commits the Administration to help diversify and strengthen the Appalachian economy by focusing on clean energy investments and create green jobs in Appalachia.

BUT, we need you to call Obama and ask him to do more. Residents and advocates of coal communities were encouraged by the news, but disappointed in the lack of urgency displayed by the agreement. The announcement falls on the heels of two major blows to coalfield communities — the West Virginia Supreme Court’s decision to approve a second coal silo next to Marsh Fork Elementary School, and severe flooding in May which affected hundreds of homes in West Virginia and Kentucky — more than ever we need to push the administration to take aggressive action.

We applaud the Obama administration’s commitment to recognize and address serious issues surrounding mountaintop removal coal mining — but the administration needs to take the next step to actually end mountaintop removal coal mining today.

That’s why we need you to take action today.

Call the White House today to tell the administration that enforcing regulations is a good start — but that President Obama should take the next step by reversing the Bush Administration’s 2002 changes to the Clean Water Act that allows coal companies to dump their mining waste into our nation’s streams?

Reversing the Bush administration rule change will prevent most new mountaintop removal coal mining in the United States — but to make this reversal permanent, we need Congress to pass the Clean Water Protection Act (HR 1310) and the Appalachia Restoration Act (S 696) to permanently end the worst abuses of Big Coal.

So after you’ve called the White House, please take a moment to email your Senators and Representatives.

Thank you for taking action today.

Matt Wasson
iLoveMountains.org

P.S.–Please help us spread the word on Facebook.

The brave and relentless Ken Ward Jr. reported today on his blog:

Lawyers for the Obama administration this morning filed a notice that they plan to appeal the latest federal court ruling that — if not overturned — would require more stringent regulation of mountaintop removal coal mining.

Read the entire post on his Coal Tattoo blog.