With the election behind us and the prospect of the a more Republican legislature ahead, the lame duck session could be wasted in throwing out symbolic bills with no opportunity of passage, or in hand wringing over what might have been. Or it could be used to do something worthwhile, something lasting, something that will save lives, livelihoods, and communities. We can ennoble this brief session with an accomplishment that will literally outlast the nation.
We can end mountaintop removal.
Mountaintop removal is not needed. Even if not one power plant in America changes its fuel, mountaintop removal provides only a tiny fraction of the coal we use -- a fraction easily replaced by other, less destructive, mining techniques.
Mountaintop removal does not generate jobs. It is the least job-intensive form of mining, and using it allows mine owners to employ fewer people than if the same amount of coal was mined in other ways. Ending mountaintop removal will create jobs.
Mountaintop removal has no redeeming qualities. It clogs some of America's most beautiful waterways, tears through the nation's richest ecosystem, and levels mountains raised up more than 400 million years ago. What it leaves behind is wreckage. Not "level ground to build on," not farm land, not recreational land. Wreckage. Unspeakable, unusable, repulsive ruins in place of the lushest, most diverse deciduous woodlands in the world.
That this practice continues to exist only shows how well represented MTR mine owners have been in Washington D.C., and how little attention has been given to the people, culture, and ecosystem of the Appalachians, which is being literally bombed out of existence, week after week, with more explosive power than that which leveled the city of Hiroshima. We can end this, and there is no better time to end this than right now.
There are already bills in both the House and the Senate to address this issue. The House bill is the Clean Water Protection Act (H.R. 1310). The Senate bill is the Appalachia Restoration Act (S. 696). Right now, the CWPA has 172 cosponsors in the current congress. In case you think this is one of those thousand page telephone book-sized bills laden with side issues and favors to individual districts, here is the whole bill.
HR 1310 --A bill to amend the Federal Water Pollution Control Act to clarify that fill material cannot be comprised of waste.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the "Clean Water Protection Act".
SECTION 2. DEFINITION OF FILL MATERIAL.
Section 502 of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (33 U.S.C. 1362) is amended by adding at the end the following: The term 'fill material' means any pollutant which replaces portions of the waters of the United States with dry land or which changes the bottom elevation of a water body for any purpose. The term does not include any pollutant discharged into the water primarily to dispose of waste.
That's it. All it does is restore what the current law was supposed to do in the first place before a few mine owners used a favorable court decision to allow them to dump the spoil from mountaintop removal into waterways. Stop them from destroying rivers with fill material, and you'll end mountaintop removal, it's as simple as that.
Why do this now when the days of the lame duck session are both few and potentially precious? Because we can. Because the legislation is ready. Because most of the Democrats who opposed this legislation in the House out of fear that the MTR lobbyists would focus their guns on them just lost anyway. That's you, Zack Space. And you, Rick Boucher. You too, Charlie Wilson
They can vote for the right thing now, without fear of reprisal. And they can do it before anti-environment Republicans take their place. Oh, and Democrats in mining states who had already signed up as sponsors? Guys like Ben Chandler, John Yarmuth, and Gerry Connolly won reelection, and though, on this issue and many others, we will miss the bravery of Tom Perriello, we can give him another chance to vote on one of his deep concerns.
On the Senate side, not one of the ARA's sponsors lost in this cycle. Senators Ben Cardin and Lamar Alexander (yes, that Lamar) have already voiced the idea of raising this issue during the lame duck session. There is enough Republican support that it can withstand a fillibuster if only Democrats will align to push it forward.
We can pass this quickly. We can have it behind it us. We can see that the mountains which have survived for geological ages, and the people who have held tight through hard times, are both given their chance to go into a future not shadowed by coming destruction.
Or at least that's true now, before House committees slip into the hands of Republicans with no interest in this (except the money it brings to their campaign coffers). It's true before the Democratic lead in the Senate is eroded to the point that it can't be overcome with the sincere help of a few on the right side of the aisle.
I know it's been a bad week. I know it's a tough time to ask anything of you. But please, let's salvage something. Let's get this done. Please shut me up so that I never have to ask this again.
WHAT CAN YOU DO?
Call three people. Just three. If we can move these three people, we can move the bills.
Representative Nick Rahall
Washington DC Office: (202) 225-3452
Beckley, WV Office: (304) 252-5000
Rahall has admitted that the CWPA would probably get 400 bipartisan votes if it reached the House floor. He has admitted that MTR will be over in a decade or two, and won't leave any jobs in its wake. He has even admitted, off the record, that he knows how destructive MTR really is. Despite that, Rahall took credit for singlehandedly blocking CWPA to protect his own seat. Fine. He won. Call him now, tell him that it's critical that the Clean Water Protection Act (H.R. 1310) get a vote. Remind him that 2 out of 3 West Virginia voters oppose MTR and that the people who favor it are already against him. Give him a another chance to do what he already knows is right.
Senator Jim Webb
Washington DC Office: (202) 224-4024
Toll free number: (866) 507-1570
A lot of people here worked hard to see Jim Webb elected. We look on him as one of "our" candidates. In Webb's book, he compared MTR to "rape." But in office, Jim Webb has not demonstrated his legendary bravery on this issue. Tell him that he needs to protect his constituents in southwest Virginia from the harmful impacts of mountaintop removal. Tell him to support the Appalachia Restoration Act (S. 696), and to ask that it be brought before the Senate.
Representative Jim Oberstar
Washington DC Office: (202) 225-6211
Duluth, MN Office: (218) 727-7474
Jim Oberstar is the current Chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. There are 29 bipartisan cosponsors on the committee who favor moving Clean Water Protection Act (H.R. 1310) forward, but Oberstar held this bill back "as a favor to Rep. Rahall." Oberstar lost re-election, so his time is limited. Next January, his role will be filled by a Republican. Give Oberstar the chance to do what he already knows is right, call him and tell him that getting the CWPA out of committee is important to you.
Need more information?
Try iLoveMountains.org for their fantastic set of maps and tools on this issue.
Try Appalachian Voices for their informative site and ongoing advocacy for the land, air, water, and people of Appalachia.
Try these diaries by faithfull, wisecountyva, rperks, Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse, DWG, FishOutofWater, Bruce Nilles, wvablue, and A Siegel.
Lift the eyes of men and women above the drab and desolate horizon of hate and fear and hopelessness -- Dwight Eisenhower
Lift your eyes, look up at the mountains, and do the right thing.