FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

For more information, contact: Lisa Doty 828-265-4852

MOUNTAINKEEPERS & APPS FILM COUNCIL SPONSOR

SHOWING OF “FUEL”

Boone, NC (February 24, 2009) — Willie Nelson is not only an accomplished singer/songwriter, but he also is quite an advocate for our planet. He now devotes as much of his time and energy to that passion as he does his touring.

He and several other celebrities and public figures appear in a newly released documentary – “Fuel” – that addresses America’s addiction to oil and what it will take to change our course. Nelson is quite outspoken about his concerns around the sustainability of our life style and our slow response to the world’s predicament.

In collaboration with the APPS Films Council, the MountainKeepers are bringing “Fuel” to the I.G. Greer Super Cinema on the ASU campus for three showings next week. Admission to all shows is only $1.00.
Thurs., February 26: 7:00 and 9:30 p.m.
Fri., February 27: 7:00 and 9:30 p.m.
Sat., February 28: 7:00 p.m – This showing is expressly for the community and will be followed by discussion hosted by the MountainKeepers.

Internet Movie Database (IMDb) summarized the film this way, “Record high oil prices, global warming, and an insatiable demand for energy: these issues define our generation. The film exposes shocking connections between the auto industry, the oil industry, and the government, while exploring alternative energies such as solar, wind, electricity, and non-food-based biofuels. Josh Tickell and his Veggie Van take us on the road to discover the pros and cons of biofuels, how America’s addiction to oil is destroying the U.S. economy, and how green energy can save us, but only if we act now.”

MountainKeepers has been an independent, fact-based voice for sustainability in the High Country for the past decade. “Fuel” is the first in a series of award-winning documentary films we are sponsoring to educate ourselves and our community about the challenges we face as a society and what we can do about them.

For more information about the film, go to www.thefuelfilm.com. For more information on MountainKeepers, go to www.mountainkeepers.org.

Not One More Mile! Over 700 people joined Kentuckians for the Commonwealth for I Love Mountains Day in Frankfort, KY. The group marched over a half mile from downtown Frankfort near the Kentucky River, the headwaters of which have been severely damaged by coal company pollution. “Not One More Mile!” was the chant for the day as the defenders of Kentucky’s precious people and places said that 1,400 miles of streams buried or severely damaged by this practice is already way too many. Find more coverage of the event at the KFTC website

Better Know a CWPA Co-Sponsor: Rep. Todd Platts (R-PA-14) has served in the House for eight years, and currently sits on the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee as well as the Water Resources and Development subcommittee, so we are thrilled to have his support on the CWPA! According to a 2008 editorial released by his office, Platts believes that “further development of traditional domestic sources of energy” is an important step in our energy policy but that it needs to be done in an “environmentally-protective manner.” Protecting mountain streams from being buried in toxic overburden sounds like it fits that criteria!!

Better Know a CWPA Target: Rep. Jason Altmire (D-PA-04) is currently serving his second term in the U.S. House of Representatives. Altmire serves on the Transportation and Infrastructure committee, which makes him an important target for co-sponsorship of the CWPA. The electricity in Altmire’s district, which covers all or part of six counties in western Pennsylvania, is supplied by Pennsylvania Electric and Duquesne Light Company, both of which purchase coal coming from mountaintop removal mine sites. In Altmire’s issue statements on his website, he comes out in support of “additional funding for clean coal technologies.” Well, even if “clean coal technology” was here today, mountaintop removal mining would still be poisoning mountain headwater streams in Appalachia. That’s anything but clean, just ask the residents of Rawl, WV, whose well water was contaminated by toxic heavy metals thanks to a nearby mountaintop removal mine site.
Want to get to know Rep. Altmire better? Check out his appearance on the Colbert Report’s Better Know a District!

NATIONAL CAMPAIGN AIMS TO GET COAL INDUSTRY TO COME CLEAN ON THE DEVASTATING EFFECTS OF COAL

Boone, NC – Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Chairman of Waterkeeper Alliance and Donna Lisenby of Appalachian Voices, announced today the launch of the group’s first national anti-coal campaign. Called “The Dirty Lie ,” the campaign is intended to create broader awareness of the destructiveness of coal-from its role in propping up an antiquated fossil-fuel-based economy to its adverse effects on the environment and the health of millions of Americans – and, ultimately, to bring about a change in national energy policy. It can be viewed at TheDirtyLie.com

“Simply stated, clean coal is a dirty lie,” Kennedy said. “You don’t have to live in the coalfields or in the shadow of a coal-fired power plant to be affected by this filthy industry. Coal causes acid rain, pollutes our water and food chain with toxic mercury, destroys communities, and is grossly accelerating climate change.” The campaign is reaching beyond the traditional environmental community by using online viral marketing techniques, with the goal of galvanizing broad popular interest via the Internet. The campaign’s hub is a website that will house video and editorial content and provide visitors with interactive tools to become anti-coal activists like the video below:

For more information please see:

1. TheDirtyLie.com
2. TheDirtyLie.com press release
3. TheDirtyLie.com NC fact Sheet
4. TheDirtyLie.com op/ed template
5. TheDirtyLie.com national fact sheet

Courtesy of Bob Kincaid and our friends at Head On Radio

These sites have carried Webb’s full letter:

Huffington Post: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeff-biggers/urgent-webb-letter-to-oba_b_168604.html

Mountain Journey https://amountainjourney.wordpress.com/2009/02/20/an-open-letter-to-president-obama/

Grist: https://gristmill.grist.org/story/2009/2/19/153153/897

Stop Strip Mining: https://stopstripmining.gnn.tv/blogs/31217/An_Open_Letter_to_President_Obama

GNN TV: https://gnn.tv/threads/34430/An_Open_Letter_to_President_Obama

Alternet: https://www.alternet.org/environment/127877/american_citizens_in_appalachia_are_living_in_a_state_of_terror_/?page=entire

Dirty and dangerous may be desirable qualities when you’re looking to date a biker, but are less so when you’re talking about the source of approximately half the energy for electricity in the country.

The report from The Star Tribune of a coal dust explosion in suburban Milwaukee definitely put an emphasis on the coal’s dangerous side, and not in a sexy James-Dean-Rebel-Without-a-Cause kind of way. The explosion, which happened early Tuesday at a We Energies plant in Oak Creek, WI injured six workers.

Says the article:

The U.S. Chemical Safety Board, a federal agency that investigates industrial accidents, said the government has ignored repeated calls from safety officials for tougher standards to prevent dust explosions.

Irresponsible use and too lax regulations have been a theme for the last 8 years, but also, promisingly, in recent media coverage of coal from the Coal River Mountain protests to Clean Air Act lawsuits. Check out this great post from New York Times blogger Tom Zeller, Jr. entitled “A Tough Week for Coal”.

Residents have lost faith in their state government, long known to be friendly to coal interests, and have taken their plea nationally. Climate expert James Hansen, the head of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies and the man who first testified to the existence of global warming, asked President Obama to “please look at Coal River Mountain, your strongest supporters are counting on you to stop this madness.”

Their concerns about their safety and the reality of the alternatives are well documented. A 2008 report by the federal Office of Surface Mining revealed serious deficiencies in the WVDEP’s regulation of coal waste dams (www.wvgazette.com/News/200901110512?page=1&build=cache). The Coal River Wind Project relies on wind studies, and economic analyses of the benefits of wind vs. mountaintop removal for the community. The project received the 2008 Building Economic Alternatives Award from Co-op America.

“We can’t sit by while Massey jeopardizes the lives and homes of thousands of people,” said Vernon Haltom of Naoma. “Governor Manchin and the West Virginia Dept. of Environmental Protection have proven that they are unwilling to protect the citizens. What do they expect us to do? Will they wait until we’re in body bags to take this threat seriously?” In November, WVDEP approved a permit revision allowing Massey to begin the mountaintop removal operation. Despite citizens’ objections, DEP denied public participation in its decision process.

“We need to stop the madness and stop Massey from blowing up our beautiful mountain,” resident Gary Andersen adds. “We need to go with the better energy option, and that’s a wind farm, which is perfect for Coal River Mountain. We could have a green energy future for the country, starting right here.”

For updates, photos and video footage, go to https://climategroundzero.org

West Virginia Governor Joe Manchin’s office can be reached at 1-888-438-2731, or you can contact his office online using our simple web form to email the governor.

Official call participants were:

Jeff Stant, Director of the Coal Combustion Waste Initiative for the Environmental Integrity Project. In this position and for the past 21 years as the Executive Director of the Hoosier Environmental Council in Indiana, Director of the Power Plant Waste Program for the Boston-based Clean Air Task Force and consultant to other organizations, he has researched, advocated and negotiated for local, state and national regulations to stop contamination of water supplies and harm to people and the environment from coal combustion waste. He is based in Indianapolis.


Chris Irwin, Staff Attorney for United Mountain Defense and a sixth-generation Tennessean. Irwin worked for a year as an AmeriCorps volunteer doing watershed preservation work; and for the World Bank and U.S. Agency for International Development as a Peace Corps volunteer, where he saw the U.S. spend millions to protect watersheds overseas. Protection of Tennessee’s water has been a focus of his work in his current position.



Sarah McCoin, a resident of Harriman, Tenn., and member of the Tennessee Coal Ash Survivor Network. Sarah resides at Adkisson Farm, a 40-acre Emory riverfront property that has been in the family since the early 1800’s. She is the fifth generation to live on the farm. Sarah moved back to Tennessee last summer after a career in employee benefits consulting in Saint Louis, Mo. She plans to finish out her career in Tennessee and retire on the farm to raise Irish sport horses. Most recently, Sarah has become a community advocate for federal coal ash regulation. She is joining the call as a representative of the Tennessee Coal Ash Survivor Network, a new community organization which aims to publicize the harsh realities of the coal ash disaster and the need for federal regulation to prevent similar disasters in some 152 communities nationwide.

OVEC first learned of mountaintop removal in 1997, when directly-impacted residents came to us to tell us about the issue and ask for our help. OVEC organized and hosted the first-ever public forum on mountaintop removal, and has been organizing in the West Virginia coalfields since then. The Coalition works with state, national and international media* to raise awareness about and ultimately hopes to end this extremely damaging form of coal mining. So far, OVEC has held back 90 valley fill permits at proposed mountaintop removal operations through litigation. Besides a host of newspaper and magazine articles, our work has been featured in music, books and films.

OVEC and its sister group, Coal River Mountain Watch, collaborate on the Sludge Safety Project (SSP), which works to protect clean water and promote human health and safety near coal waste storage sites. The recent coal ash disaster in Tennessee underscores how dirty and deadly the rear-end of the coal-use cycle is. SSP’s work examines and exposes the dirty and deadly front-end of that cycle. We encourage everyone reading this blog to learn more about coal slurry impoundments and underground coal slurry injection by exploring the SSP website and, if possible, attending our Jan. 31 SSP Legislative Kick-Off event–details here.

In addition, you can learn more about SSP volunteers work by listening to this West Virginia Public Radio news story.

As it stands right now, with the new permits I saw last week, they’re gonna blast off the mountain I look at when I look off my front porch. And I get to set and watch that happen, and I’m not supposed to react. Don’t react, just set there and take it. They’re gonna blast away my horizon, and I’m expected to say, “It’s OK. It’s for the good of all.”

OVEC’s work also focuses on solutions to the energy crisis. We’re a founding member of CLEAN , a grassroots collaboration of state and local organizations. CLEAN, a project of the Civil Society Institute, seeks policies that will protect our environment, cease and reverse global warming, disentangle the U.S. from unstable regions of the world, and create a new energy economy that promises jobs and a sustainable and equitable economic prosperity.

To address a root cause of all the issues OVEC has worked on, we lead the West Virginia Citizens for Clean Elections with the West Virginia Citizen Action Group . This upcoming legislative season (Feb. 11 to April 11, 2009), we’ll be working at the West Virginia State Capitol to advance on Clean Elections, Sludge Safety Project concerns and on cemetery protection issues. Join OVEC’s Action Alert e-mail list (two to four e-mails a month, usually) to stay current with our work and/or check out daily news updates.

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* Newspapers that have quoted our members or staff or used our photos include New York Times, Los Angles Times, Washington Post, Toronto Star and scores more. Radio and TV outlets that have aired news of our work include National Public Radio, Bill Moyers of Public Broadcasting, British Broadcasting Company, Danish, Norwegian, Australian and Canadian Broadcasting, and more. Magazines that have featured are work include Smithsonian, National Geographic, People,
E-magazine, O (Oprah Winfrey’s magazine), and dozens more.

Thanks to Vivian Stockman of OVEC for helping put together this post. Check back next week for more news from the mountains, a new edition of Better Know a CWPA Sponsor & Target, and more!

January 19, 2009
(Sorry for the late crosspost, as I’m sure you all know the beginning of this week was very exciting!!
With the opening of the Congressional session last week, and the inauguration on Tuesday all eyes are on capitol hill.

This, thought the folks here at iLoveMountains, makes it the perfect time to roll out a new weekly feature. We’re taking a page from the great Stephen Colbert and using each Mountain Mondays post as a vehicle to spotlight one of our valued co-sponsors for the Clean Water Protection Act, and a representative from a nearby district we would love to see add their John Hancock.

In the future, we’ll have a regular post along with this new feature, but for this, the inaugural post, it will stand on its own.

Better Know a CWPA Sponsor: Rep. Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ-06)
Frank Pallone, Jr. is the lead sponsor of the Clean Water Protection Act bill. He introduced the bill in the 110th congress, and will again in the 111th. Rep. Pallone has a strong history with water issues in his home district, successfully working to stop ocean dumping and offshore oil and gas drilling. Check out his great blog about the CWPA on Daily Kos.

Better Know a CWPA Target: Rep. Frank Lobiondo (R-NJ-02)
Congressman Lobiondo represents New Jersey’s second district. He serves on the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure and its subcommittee, Water Resources and the Environment. According to his official biography, he “has worked to protect fragile wildlife and wetlands areas,” meaning he knows some about threatened ecosystems, and the importance of maintaining water resources.
Rep. Lobiondo has also shown firm support for the broad implementation of sustainable alternative energy sources in an effort to both achieve energy independence and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Promisingly, though energy independence is his ultimate focus, he did not see coal as key in the achievement of that goal, presumably because of its know impact on the environment and place at the top of the pile when it comes to greenhouse gas emissions.

If you’d like to get involved, send a letter to your congressperson asking them to co-sponsor the Clean Water Protection Act in the 111th congress. You can do it easily with our online tool.
And, if you want to get up close and personal with your congresspeople, register for the End Mountaintop Removal Week in Washington, March 14-18, 2009. Registration ends February 25, so sign up now!

Jan 21st, 2009 – The following email was sent to the 33,000+ supporters of iLoveMountains.org. To sign up to receive free email alerts, click here.

Yesterday was a historic day for our nation. And like millions of others across America, those of us here at iLoveMountains.org watched the inauguration with a mixture of hope for the future and awe at how far we’ve come.

But we know that we still have a lot of work to do if we are going to stop mountaintop removal coal mining and achieve a clean energy future for our nation.

That’s why iLoveMountains.org is joining with a nationwide network of clean energy and justice advocates for 100 Days of Action to Power Past Coal:

https://www.powerpastcoal.org/

Beginning today and continuing until April 30th — the first 100 days of the Obama administration — Power Past Coal will organize national actions calling on President Obama and Congress to ensure a clean energy future for America.

Today, people from all over the country and all walks of life are calling the White House, asking Obama to invest in real solutions to our energy and environmental crisis — clean, renewable energy.

To take part in today’s action and see what other events are coming up near you, click here:

https://www.powerpastcoal.org/

Here at iLoveMountains, we’re hoping to get Congress to power past coal during our 4th Annual End Mountaintop Removal Week in Washington, from March 14th-19th, 2009.

Please consider joining us in Washington to meet your representatives and ask them to stop the destructive practice of mountaintop removal coal mining.

To learn more and register for the Week in Washington, click here:

https://www.ilovemountains.org/action/wiw2009

Thank you for doing everything you can in the next 100 days to help America power past coal.

Matt Wasson
iLoveMountains.org

January, 13th 2009

2009 promises to be a good year for clean water.

The TVA coal ash spill in Harriman, TN, though devastating, has given citizens a new insight into the dirty side of coal. It has served to remind many of us that the interests of coal companies do not align with what is best for the people of Appalachia or the environment.

As the new session of Congress begins this week, and a new administration to enter office early next week, there is more attention than ever before on the energy crisis and the need for a green economy.

The time is right to pass the Clean Water Protection Act, and with that dramatically curb the instance and impact of mountain top removal mining. Last session closed with the broadest support we’ve ever had for the measure:

The Clean Water Protection Act can be passed this session. You can help make it happen.

By attending the 4th annual End Mountaintop Removal Week in Washington, you can join us in lobbying our legislators to pass the CWPA. Past lobby week participants have come from all across the United States to join with other activists and impacted citizens in speaking with their congressional Representatives about MTR and the CWPA.

At last year’s lobby week, people like you helped us gain 8 new co-sponsors!

Registration is open now and will continue until February 25th. Scholarships are available on a limited basis; scholarship deadline is Feb 20th. Get the answers to more of your questions at our FAQ page.

If you are antsy to get started appealing to your elected representatives, here is another initiative to tell the new administration clean energy is a priority:

CLEAN- a collaborative movement of state and local organizations working, at all levels of government, to implement new energy policies – has launched a campaign to let President-elect Obama know that there is strong grassroots support for bold action on our clean energy future. The next step in the campaign is a national call-in day to the White House on Wednesday, January 21st* in order to make our voices heard on Obama’s first day in office. We want to make it known that the American people are saying YES to renewables, YES to energy efficiency, NO to coal and nuclear! It will take people calling from all across the country and all walks of life to make an impact. We need your voice, too! Please click here to make your pledge to call the White House on Wednesday, January 21st. It will only take a few minutes to take part in this national movement to ensure a clean energy future for America!