Please join Appalachian Voices and other concerned citizens across the country in Washington, DC, to advance the Clean Water Protection Act (HR 2719) and help end mountaintop removal coal mining.
The Mountaintop Removal Week in Washington is an opportunity for you to devote your ideas, passion and abilities to protecting the mountains of Appalachia. The Clean Water Protection Act (HR 2719) reestablishes the original intent of the Clean Water Act, and reverses the 2002 rule change that redefined "waste" to allow coal companies to dump millions of tons of mining waste into nearby streams. The Week in Washington is your chance to help end this devastating practice.
You'll start your Week in Washington experience by meeting other Appalachian activists from around the country at a Saturday evening reception. Sunday will be filled with panels and speeches from Appalachian advocates, intensive workshops and training on outreach, and meetings with your lobbying team. On Monday through Wednesday, you and your team will meet with your representatives and their staff to educate them about mountaintop removal.
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REGISTRATION
There are also a limited number of full and partial travel and lodging scholarships available. Not all requests for funding can be granted, and funding requests will be granted based on need and priority. For more information [or to register], please contact Lenny Kohm or call 828-262-1500 [From outside 828, call (877) APP-VOICE toll free. You can also register online.
This guy will stroll in just in time:
At 9:00am [yesterday] morning, in the middle of the sweltering heat wave that has gripped the eastern US, West Virginia grandfather Ed Wiley left the state capitol in Charleston to begin a 455-mile, 6-week walk to Washington, DC. Ed is walking to Washington to meet with decision makers about the problems at Marsh Fork Elementary School in the southern West Virginia town of Sundial.
Located in the heart of mountaintop removal country, Marsh Fork Elementary sits just 225 feet from a coal loading silo that releases coal dust associated with coal processing. Independent studies have found coal dust in the school. In addition, an earthen dam permitted to hold 2.8 billon gallons of toxic coal sludge looms in a hollow 400 yards directly upstream from the school.
Appalachian Voices will be posting regular dispatches from Ed's journey, directly from the road, on our new Front Porch blog.
In response to emmasnacker's request,
here's MTR 101. Sorry for the lack of links; we've been asked to cut energy use today, facing 100ºF and probably power outages, so I'm shutting down soon. The page I've pointed to has plenty, and pictures too.
Mountaintop removal is a relatively new type of coal mining that began in Appalachia in the 1970s as an extension of conventional strip mining techniques. Primarily, mountaintop removal is occurring in West Virginia, Kentucky, Virginia and Tennessee. Coal companies in Appalachia are increasingly using this method because it allows for almost complete recovery of coal seams while reducing the number of workers required to a fraction of what conventional methods require.
Mountaintop removal involves clear cutting native hardwood forests, using dynamite to blast away as much as 800-1000 feet of mountaintop, and then dumping the waste into nearby valleys, often burying streams. While the environmental devastation caused by this practice is obvious, families and communities near these mining sites are forced to contend with continual blasting from mining operations that can take place up to 300 feet from their homes and operate 24 hours a day. Families and communities near mining sites also suffer from airborne dust and debris, floods that have left hundreds dead and thousands homeless, and contamination of their drinking water supplies.
In central Appalachian counties, which are among the poorest in the nation, homes are frequently the only asset folks have. Mining operations have damaged hundreds of homes beyond repair and the value of homes near a mountaintop removal sites often decrease by as much as 90%. Worst of all, mountaintop removal is threatening not just the people, forest and mountaints of central Appalachia, but the very culture of the region. Coal companies frequently claim that mountaintop removal is beneficial for the people, economy and the environment, but the facts just don't hold up.
The film
Kilowatt Ours also has good MTR coverage.
Kilowatt Ours Reveals the Consequences of Our Coal Powered Economy.
The film opens with Vice President Dick Cheney's energy policy speech in which Cheney makes the claim that America needs nearly 1900 new power plants in the next 20 years to meet projected electricity demands.
From here, filmmaker Jeff Barrie takes viewers on a journey from the coal mines of West Virginia to the solar panel fields of Florida, as he discovers solutions to America's energy related problems.
Kilowatt Ours Shares Practical Answers
Along the way, Jeff and his wife Heather share a plan to eliminate their use of coal and nuclear power at home by employing energy conservation, energy efficiency and renewable energy sources.
Through their learning experience, viewers discover how they can save hundreds of dollars annually on energy bills, and use a portion of the savings to purchase newnewable energy.
Kilowatt Ours invites viewers to help build a net zero nation, by conserving energy to the greatest extent possible at home, then using clean renewable energy to provide the electricity used.
There are two versions of the film available on the same DVD: a 38-minute version and a 56-minute version.
The Dangers of Coal-generated Electricty
Mountain top removal mining, air pollution, haze in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, methyl mercury contamination of newborns, childhood asthma, and global warming all stem from the same root cause.
The most significant cause of each of these problems is our dependence on coal-generated electricity in America. In other words, the solution begins at our light switches and power strips.
Today, more than 50% of our nation's electricity is generated from coal. In the southeast U.S., where household electricity use is highest, this amounts to more than 12,000 pounds of coal burned per home per year.
Buildings in America consume nearly 2/3 of all the energy we use. The typical American home emits twice the annual global warming emissions of the typical car.