Yeah, we’re still fighting them too.  If you’re like me and want a little bit of good news amongst all the bad news from the Gulf, today is your lucky day. Today, the Army Corps of Engineers announced that they are going to stop rubber-stamping valley fill permits in Appalachia.

As of today, the Corps will stop issuing Nationwide Permit (NWP) 21, which is has been used to “authorize discharges of dredged or fill material into waters of the United States for surface coal mining activities.”  Valley fills are a crucial aspect to mountaintop removal mining, because once the mountaintops are blasted off, all that material needs to go somewhere.  In Appalachia, that somewhere has been streams and headwaters.  Without the ability to shove all that rubble, i.e. former mountain, into valleys, mountaintop removal mining becomes far less…well, feasible.

The suspension in Appalachia will remain in effect until the Corps takes further action on NWP 21 or until NWP 21 expires on March 18, 2012. While the suspension is in effect, individuals who propose surface coal mining projects that involve discharges of dredged or fill material into waters of the United States will have to obtain Department of the Army authorization under the Clean Water Act, through the Individual Permit process.   The individual permit evaluation procedure provides increased public involvement in the permit evaluation process, including an opportunity for public comment on individual projects.

NWP 21 was intended for dredge and fill projects that would results in minimal aquatic impacts.  By any estimation, destroying headwaters, creating new topography and polluting downstream habitats is not minimal.  While this move by the Corps does not entirely eliminate the potential for additional valley fill permits in Appalachia, it does mean that there will be opportunities for public notification, comment and involvement.  Nor does it stop existing mountaintop removal mines from creating valley fills.  However, in this regulatory climate, it is not likely that many, if any, new individual permits will be approved.

This decision involved more than just the Army Corp of Engineers.  At hearings last fall, the coal industry packed public hearings with their supporters, attempting to intimidate and drown out supporters of the Corps proposal.  According to the Corps, approximately 23,000 comments were submitted, and the substantive comments were nearly evenly divided between support and opposition for the proposal.  Thanks to the many brave residents of the coalfields who stood up to the coal industry and made their support known and heard.  Submitting public comment is rarely a sexy form of action, but it is critical to influencing policy in the federal agencies.

Today is a good day for the mountains.  Now, to stop valley fills and mountaintop removal altogether.  Urge your member of Congress to cosponsor and pass H.R. 1310, the Clean Water Protection Act, and permanently ban valley fills.

Filed under: Climate Policy, Coal, Dirty Energy, global warming, Government, Impacted Communities, Legal, mountain top removal, United States, Victories

Please support the work of the Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards by clicking this link to keep up the pressure on the EPA in order to Keep Ison Rock Ridge Standing.

Late Monday morning, June 1, 2010, around 20 Wise County residents gathered at the offices of the Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy in Big Stone Gap, Va to rally in opposition to A&G Coal’s proposed Ison Rock Ridge surface mine. Picketers held signs with slogans including, “Ison Rock Ridge is families. Keep it standing!” and “Don’t blast our homes.” As part of the rally, two individuals delivered a “Certificate of Failure” to the DMME for failing to protect communities.

Residents of Inman, Derby, Arno, and Andover – communities that are directly adjacent to the pending 1,200+ acre mountain-top removal mine – took turns addressing the crowd to express their disapproval of the DMME’s apparent support for the project..”

“The DMME and the state of Virginia seem to be ignoring regulations protecting our waterways. It’s a shame we have to contact Washington DC to get our state officials to obey the law,” said Jane Branham a resident of Big Stone Gap and Vice President of the Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards (SAMS), the Wise County-based community group that organized the demonstration.

Ben Hooper, a resident of Inman added, “The DMME’s not there to protect us. It’s their job to keep the coal money flowing to Richmond not to make sure the coal is mined responsibly.”

The event was held on the heels of the DMME’s May 12th statement of “approval” for a portion of the proposed mine above the community of Inman. The state regulatory agency’s action was taken despite the fact that the EPA and Army Corps of Engineers continue to hold the pending mine’s NPDES permit for review due to evidence that strip-mining of such scale invariably violates the Clean Water Act. If operated, this particular mine would destroy three miles of streams and fill nine valleys with more than 11 million cubic yards of rock and dirt. The EPA has sent a letter to the DMME reiterating that the pertinent permits remain under federal jurisdiction.

“This thing would have happened nearly three years ago if it hadn’t been for us.” declared Dorothy Taulbee, a former resident of Stonega, referring to the previous successes of SAMS’ work to preserve the communities surrounding Ison Rock Ridge. The organization was formed in 2007 and has been fighting the Ison Rock Ridge permit since the beginning. In 2008, SAMS secured meetings between community members and EPA representatives and mobilized dozens of local residents to speak out against the proposal at public hearings. These efforts led to the EPA’s intervention in the permitting process, halting the mine thus far.

On Tuesday and over the course of this week, supporters of SAMS from across the state will be visiting Senator Jim Webb’s offices in Roanoke, Virginia Beach, and Falls Church to deliver a message from coalfield residents asking for the Senator’s support in defending the communities adjacent to Ison Rock Ridge. A similar event will take place at the EPA’s region 3 offices in Philadelphia where allies of the local organization will deliver a letter thanking the agency for affording adequate scrutiny and oversight to the proposed mountain-top removal mine, and asking that the NPDES permit be ultimately denied.

The Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards supports deep-mining and other industries that provide jobs for the people of Wise County. Mountaintop removal mining employs very few workers, instead favoring explosives and heavy machinery to extract coal. SAMS is concerned about the impacts A & G’s Coal Company’s proposed mine would have on nearby streams that have already exceeded acceptable levels of pollution from mine discharge, and will regard the issuance of the Ison Rock Ridge Permit by the DMME to be in violation of the Clean Water Act. The Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards will continue to fight for the people of Appalachia and surrounding communities until the permits for the Ison Rock Ridge mine are denied once and for all.

Please pass this story onto your friends and neighbors and take a moment to support the work of the Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards by clicking this link to keep up the pressure on the EPA in order to Keep Ison Rock Ridge Standing.

Update 1: Citizens with Rising Tide Philadelphia paid a visit to the Region 3 offices of the EPA to deliver letters from directly impacted coal-field communities. Solidarity in action:

Filed under: Coal, Dirty Energy, Impacted Communities, mountain top removal

That’s the big question that the coal finance monkeys at Chase keep asking themselves now that their love affair with mountaintop removal (MTR) has drawn the attention of Rev. Billy and the Church of Life After Shopping.

I’ve been a fan of Rev. Billy since I first saw him preaching the anti-corporate gospel in 2002 at an IMF/World Bank protest in Washington D.C.  Always out in front of the issues whether it’s Disney’s consumerism, Starbucks’ gentrification or creative communications with the 1st Amendment at the 2004 Republican Convention in New York, now the good reverend is taking on Chase’s financing of MTR.  On a weekly basis, Rev. Billy and his flock are leaving piles of Appalachian dirt recycled from actual MTR sites in Chase branches around Manhattan.  The Rev and his flock are bringing the mountain to Chase, because you’re damn sure Chase ain’t going nowhere near those mountains.

You’d think the Masters of the Wall St. Universe at Chase would appreciate having a little residue from their investments hand delivered to them (it’s not like he’s leaving them foreclosed homes or something… yet!), but they’ve already had Billy arrested once.  

Mountain deliveries keep coming though, RAN and friends’ May 6 day of action will feature activists doing all sorts of activities to Chase, from talking to Chase branch managers to more fun creative events.  Join the fun.

Mountain-a-lujah!

Filed under: global warming

reposted from the Understory

by Amanda Starbuck

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced today a major new guidance document that provides the coal industry and coal-state regulators with “clarity” regarding the permitting of mountaintop removal coal mining. This comes just days after the EPA blocked the Clean Water Act permit for the Spruce No. 1 Mine in Logan County, the largest mountaintop removal permit in West Virginia history.

You can read their full guidance notice here

And their news announcement here

After months of steps, the EPA has finally taken a leap to protect America’s mountains and drinking water from mountaintop removal coal mining. This is a clear response to resounding public opposition to the devastating mining practice.

The EPA is finally flexing its full authority under the clean water act to curtail valley fills and protect the health of our waterways from irreversible damage. Coal operators and state mining regulators will have to contend with this rigorous mandate.

The EPA has confirmed what science tells us, that mountaintop removal is harming water resources and public health in real and measurable ways, which is why these new guidelines should apply to existing mining permits not just new ones.

Today’s announcement has met with positive response from coalfield community members.

“Appalachia thanks Lisa Jackson and the EPA for taking the impacts on human health and environmental justice into consideration when issuing permits,” said Judy Bonds of Coal River Mountain Watch in West Virginia.

“Our 13,000 members are pleased that their pleas and prayers are being heard – the grandmothers and grandchildren I work with are seeing a new spark of hope today,” said Ann League of Statewide Organizing for Community Empowerment in Tennessee.

“While there is much good news for us today, we also wonder — will this help save the community of Twilight in Boone County, WV and so many other communities that are in the mountaintop removal cross hairs? The safety of these communities depends on how these guidelines and laws are enforced,” said Vivian Stockman, with the Huntington, West Virginia based Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition.

Moving forward, we urge the EPA to take holistic measures to end this devastating practice once and for all. We cannot end mountaintop removal coal mining pollution without ending mountaintop removal all together. To be clear, this is a strong step in mitigating the impacts of mountaintop removal, but the only way to protect America’s mountains, water and communities is to abolish the practice. The EPA has and must use its authority under the clean water act to stop this devastating practice.

Filed under: global warming

We have to make it clear: a Green economy that doesn’t work for everybody, doesn’t work at all.

I’ve seen the demand for Green Jobs for a while now. It has spread so widely across the country that political candidates are forced to take a position on our demand. We should celebrate pushing this demand so far, but we also need to evaluate what we’ve won with this demand. (and what it is exactly that we are demanding?)

I organize in SW Virginia with the Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards (SAMS), in a coal field community directly impacted by mountaintop removal.  The other day I had a conversation with a strip miner who also runs a cluttered second hand shop in the town of Appalachia. We were able to find a lot of common ground in our conversation: we both don’t like surface mining, and we both would love to see Green jobs in the community. I didn’t need to convince him about more jobs in his community, so much as I needed to show him what we’re actually doing to make it happen.

While in Richmond, Va, our state Capitol, on a lobby trip I spoke with some industry people at length about some different things. I asked them what they thought about a more sustainable and diverse economy in Appalachia, and they were supportive of the idea. They were also very honest with their belief that coal won’t be around much longer. But they also asked an important question, “Where is that Green economy?”

Its Time to Take Direct Action

Standing there in the lobby of the General Assembly in Richmond, I started thinking, “Its time to take direct action.” The basic idea of direct action is simple, when a problem exists, you take the shortest steps toward solving it. So far we are just beginning to budge politicians on the issue and so I think its time to move into a more constructive, and direct phase of our movement. By constructive, I mean we need to start creating that Green economy that we have in our dreams, instead of waiting for politicians (who are nearly all supported by the fossil fuel industry) to catch up to us. We need to take direct action and make it happen!

Inspired by the SEED project that has been developing for a while now in the Coal River Valley of West Virginia, members of SAMS here in Wise County, Va have begun to think about building a sustainable economy in their community through the Wise Energy Forums. We’re looking at ways to create more jobs in the area that will be positive for the environment, and positive  for the community. Community members are meeting with small business owners, talking with the community college that trains a substantial portion of the local workforce, and developing a plan for building a local Green economy.

Developing a sustainable economy is not only a goal in itself, but its also a strategy for Appalachian communities to declare independence from King Coal’s strangle hold on the region. Projects like SEED, and the emerging Wise Energy for Sustainable Economic Development and Diversification (WESEDD) are critical to our movement’s success. If we want to end Mountain Top Removal, stop Climate Change, and secure a Sustainable Society for our grandchildren, we need to build a sustainable and diverse economy in Appalachia today. We just don’t have the time to wait on Obama, the States, or any friend of the status quo.

What kind of Green Jobs

The demand for Green Jobs is important, largely, because when we do move beyond coal, and beyond fossil fuels, we’ll need sources of income for hundreds of thousands of people who rely on the fossil fuel industry to feed their families. While this is an important thing to recognize, we also need to recognize that people don’t just need a job, they need a living wage job that they can work with dignity. As much as people care about the environment, we all work to put food on the table, and a roof over our heads, and not for love of the company. People don’t just need jobs, and we don’t just need a Green economy. We need a sustainable economy that allows all people to meet their needs and work with dignity.

I remember how shocked I was a while back to see that Walmart was a sponsor of Power Shift. If this movement is hoping for Walmart quality Green jobs, jobs where there is little full time employment, where Union organizers are fired on the spot, and where poverty wages reign; then you can count me out. If this is our vision, then we are pitting working people against the climate change movement. This doesn’t have to be the case though. We can envision a Green economy that is not just bearable for working people, but one that allows people to go to work with their head held high, and to come home to a refrigerator with plenty of food.

Who will wear the Green Hardhat?

When I think about Green jobs that are also good for workers, it makes me think a lot about who’s a part of the youth climate movement. It makes me wonder about what a bunch of young college students wearing Green hardhats look like to working people like my dad who wears a hardhat to work everyday. I think we need to be honest with ourselves, as college students we will likely not be getting jobs where hardhats are required. College students will not be the labor force of the Green economy; so its time the student environmental movement stopped playing dress up and instead started building alliances with the movements of working people who share our values for a Green economy.

Its time we take the lead of the Blue Green Alliance,  forged between workers Unions and Environmental organizations, and incorporate the demands of union members into our vision for a Green economy. We should be looking to the people who will actually wear the Green hardhat when we formulate our vision for a sustainable economy, just like we look to Appalachians for leadership in the movement to end Mountain Top Removal. Building alliances is a critical component of every successful social movement.

We also need to realize that the people who work in the industry have the most potential to immediately end our use of fossil fuels. We’ve been very focused on federal legislation, but not as much on developing relationships and coalitions with Unions and workers who run the industries we want to change. There was a time in our country when Unions fought mechanization because it robbed workers of dignity and drastically cut jobs in the community. We should evaluate our relationship to the current Union movement, figure out how we can build grassroots relationships that are mutually beneficial, and move forward with students and working people all fighting for a Green economy of living wages and workplace democracy. We might gain a lot from talking with organizations like United Students Against Sweatshops and the Student Labor Action Project who have been uniting students and workers for years.

We also need to explore alternative industry models. The United Steel Workers (leaders in the Blue Green Alliance) are currently exploring worker ownership models of running manufacturing factories. If we’re building a new Green economy, why not explore models like this that keep the profits in the hands of the hardest working people? This is just one of many questions we should be raising about the possibilities of life under the Green hardhat.

We should not only focus on developing a Green economy that is good for workers, but one that is good for everybody. Too often economic development happens at the expense of the same people, poor folks and communities of color. Many of the thriving commercial districts in major cities were once black neighborhoods where people had lived for generations. In building our Green economy, we must align ourselves with those fighting gentrification so that we have a Green economy for everyone.

In many rural areas, including Wise County, prisons are popping up and are touted as economic development. Prisons are a profit based industry in this country, and in rural areas prisons import prisoners from cities to fill their cells. This for-profit, and often privately owned, industry forces inmates into slavery where they could not possibly generate enough money for the high expenses of being incarcerated. As environmental justice organizers, we must build relationships with communities and organizations fighting the expansion of the prison industry.

We have to make it clear: A Green economy that doesn’t work for everybody, doesn’t work at all.

Filed under: Direct Action, Economics, green jobs, mountain top removal, Visioning

And FYI, if this inspires you and you want to take action against Chase, Fossil Fool’s Day is only two days away.

JPMorgan’s War on Nature

How the Wall Street darling underwrites environmental Armageddon.

By Andy Kroll | Tue Mar. 30, 2010 3:00 AM PDT

Unlike virtually all of its competitors, JPMorgan Chase steeled itself early for the collapse of the subprime market and emerged from the rubble of the global financial meltdown with both its balance sheet and reputation intact. But the storied firm stands alone among its Wall Street rivals in another area, too. JPMorgan backstops one of the most destructive mining practices in the world: mountaintop removal coal mining. And it continues to do so even as other major banks have cut ties to this practice.

“Chase is the single largest remaining player in this game,” says Scott Edwards, advocacy director for the Waterkeeper Alliance, an environmental advocacy group comprised of lawyers, scientists, and activists, among others. “They just absolutely refuse to take responsibility for their role in this absolutely devastating industry.”

Mountaintop removal (MTR) mining, focused in Appalachian states like West Virginia, Tennessee, and Kentucky, involves deforesting huge swaths of land and blasting the summits off of mountains to expose the black veins of coal underneath. The waste and rubble from the demolition is then dumped into nearby rivers and streams, burying local water sources in toxic byproducts, choking off tributaries that feed into larger rivers, and wiping out plants and wildlife, according to numerous scientific studies. Despite the mining industry’s claims, there are no successful ways to mitigate the effects of MTR, according to Margaret Palmer of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science. The effects on the nearby environment, she says, are long lasting and often irreversible.

The impact of MTR mining is global, too. When mining companies deforest a mountaintop before demolition, they engage in a practice that overall contributes [1] 25 to 30 percent of greenhouse gas emissions each year. Between 1992 and 2012, MTR will have leveled 7 percent of Appalachian forests in areas studied by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Nonetheless, over the past 17 years, JPMorgan Chase has helped to underwrite nearly 20 bond or loan deals, worth a combined $8.5 trillion, for some of the biggest players in the MTR mining business, according to data from Bloomberg. Other large banks have either halted financing companies engaging in the practice outright or signaled their intent to do so. In December 2008, for instance, Bank of America publicly announced plans to “phase out financing of companies whose predominant method of extracting coal is through mountain top removal.” Wells Fargo has cut ties with coal giant Massey Energy. And a Credit Suisse official says the bank has a “global mining policy” that ensures “we explicitly do not finance the extraction of coal in a mountaintop removal setting.” But JPMorgan continues to back the practice.

By underwriting MTR, JPMorgan ties itself to some of the nation’s biggest polluters. Take Massey Energy, which leads the nation in MTR mining. In 2008, the company extracted more than 21 million tons of coal using mountaintop removal mining, according to opensourcecoal.org [2], an online database for coal production statistics. That same year, JPMorgan acted as lead manager on a $690 million bond offering by Massey, according to financial records.

Over the past decade, Massey has mined nearly 190 million tons of coal in Appalachia using mountaintop removal, according to opensourcecoal.org—and it has essentially disregarded the law and surrounding landscape to do so. Between 2000 and 2006, Massey violated the Clean Water Act more than 4,500 times by dumping sediment and leftover mining waste into rivers in Kentucky and West Virginia, the EPA said in 2008. (Environmental groups say the EPA’s tally is a lowball figure; they estimate that the true number of violations is more than 12,000.) As a result of these breaches of the law, the company agreed to pay the EPA a $20 million settlement.

Don Blankenship, Massey’s CEO and an avowed climate change denier, even admitted [3] in a January debate that it’s practically impossible to engage in MTR mining without violating the Clean Water Act.

Another major client of JPMorgan’s is Arch Coal, the second-biggest American coal company and a powerful opponent of climate change regulation. In 2009 alone, Chase helped finance $600 million for the Missouri-based company, which that same year mined 4.7 million tons of coal using MTR. Arch has had its run-ins with the EPA, too: It’s currently locked in a decades-long battle with the EPA and Army Corps of Engineers, which issues MTR mining permits, over the fate of its Spruce No. 1 mine. As first envisioned back in 1998, the MTR mine would have been the largest [4] ever, but environmental activists fought the project, and the Army scaled back the permit in 2007 so that the mine would bury [5] eight miles of nearby streams instead of 10. (Activists are still fighting the permit, and a new court ruling is expected later this month.)

All of this begs the trillion-dollar question: Why has JPMorgan remained in the MTR business? It’s hard to know with any certainty: Like most banks, JPMorgan keeps its decision-making private. Public financial filings offer little insight, either. The bank’s environmental guru, Jim Fuschetti [6], a managing director who oversees its Office of Environmental Affairs, declined to be interviewed for this story. Several groups, including Rainforest Action Network and JPMorgan shareholder Boston Common Asset Management, a socially responsible investment firm, say they’ve met with the bank about its MTR financing, but members of both groups declined to discuss negotiations other than to say JPMorgan is actively examining its backing of MTR mining.

There’s no doubt growth and profit underpin much, if not all, of JPMorgan’s MTR activities. Coal is still a top energy source for the US and the developing world, and companies like Massey and Arch play a role in providing that coal for power companies here and abroad.

But even the economics of MTR are up for debate. A 2009 report [7] by West Virginia University found that while the coal industry generates $8 billion a year for the state and other Appalachian areas in earnings and taxes, the estimated cost of excess deaths attributable to MTR mining is $42 billion a year—more than five times the economic benefit. And the authors of that report considered it a conservative estimate.

For years, environmental activists have highlighted the economic and environmental impacts of MTR in an effort to ban the practice, a goal that has the public’s backing, polls [8] show. San Francisco-based Rainforest Action Network in particular has zeroed in on JPMorgan. The group launched [9] a social media campaign day—using blogs, Twitter, Facebook, etc.—to protest JPMorgan, and delivered letters [10] to branch banks calling on CEO Jamie Dimon to end the bank’s MTR support. The Sierra Club produced a video [11] specifically singling out Dimon—a media darling and frequent visitor to the White House—for JPMorgan financing policies, contrasting Dimon’s statements about the importance of sustainability with the bank’s financing. “Tell Jamie Dimon,” the video’s narrator says, “that if he’s going to talk the talk, JPMorgan Chase needs to walk the walk.”

In mid-March, members from a progressive ministry called The Church of Life After Shopping placed mounds of allegedly toxic mud from West Virginia outside JPMorgan’s New York headquarters as well near other branch banks in New York. The Church’s Reverend Billy Talen said his group was launching an “as long as it takes” campaign to shift JPMorgan financing away from MTR mining.

Some JPMorgan shareholders have similarly protested the bank’s backing of mountain top removal mining. At least two shareholder groups have filed resolutions in 2010 highlighting JPMorgan’s support for the practice. One of them, Boston Common Asset Management, a firm focusing on sustainable and responsible investing, called on the bank to publicly report on the impact of MTR mining by its clients, like Massey and Arch Coal, as well as the financial impact on JPMorgan if it banned MTR financing. (Boston Common recently withdrew its resolution due to ongoing negotiations with JPMorgan officials, a Boston Common official, Dawn Wolfe, says.)

Another resolution, filed by Loyola University Chicago, demands that JPMorgan adhere to a 2008 agreement called the “Carbon Principles,” an effort among big banks—and which JPMorgan has signed—to improve environmental disclosures and ultimately shift more funding into green, sustainable projects. The pushback from the university grew out of a visit to MTR sites in Appalachia by Loyola students, who were shocked at the devastation wrought on the landscape and surrounding communities, says Elaine Lehman, a director of corporate relations at the school.

Environmental groups also point to JPMorgan’s membership in the “Equator Principles,” a voluntary set of guidelines (and predecessor to the Carbon Principles) calling for more disclosure on project financing and urging a shift toward greater investment in sustainable energy sources. If JPMorgan honored its participation in the Equator Principles, these groups say, the firm would better document its MTR financing.

Ultimately, however, environmental groups want JPMorgan to stop financing mountaintop removal mining altogether. Amanda Starbuck, who leads the Rainforest Action Network’s global finance campaign, says that if the bank is to satisfy its critics, “Nothing less than a blanket ban of mountaintop removal by Chase will suffice.”
Source URL: http://motherjones.com/politics/2010/03/jpmorgan-mountaintop-removal-mining

Links:
[1] http://www.fao.org/newsroom/en/news/2006/1000385/index.html
[2] http://opensourcecoal.org
[3] http://www.wvpubcast.org/newsarticle.aspx?id=12858
[4] http://www.cleanskies.com/articles/judge-gives-epa-until-friday-rule-arch-coal-mine
[5] http://sundaygazettemail.com/News/201003180803
[6] http://www.jpmorgan.com/pages/jpmc/community/env/office
[7] http://wvgazette.com/News/MiningtheMountains/200906200170
[8] http://www.wvgazette.com/News/MiningtheMountains/200810230324
[9] http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/02/ran-social-media-action-chase.php
[10] http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/08/ran-delivers-letters-jpmorgan.php
[11] http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/08/sierra-club-fingers-dixon.php#ch01

Filed under: global warming

Re-posted from the Understory by Amanda Starbuck

We’re hearing some reassuring news from the EPA this morning.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced today that it is moving to block the largest mountaintop removal mining permit in West Virginia history, at Spruce Mine, operated by Arch Coal in Logan County.

EPA Region 3 Administrator, Shawn Garvin, made the following statement:

Coal, and coal mining, is part of our nation’s energy future, and for that reason EPA has made repeated efforts to foster dialogue and find a responsible path forward.

But we must prevent the significant and irreversible damage that comes from mining pollution — and the damage from this project would be irreversible.

This recommendation is consistent with our broader Clean Water Act efforts in Central Appalachia. EPA has a duty under the law to protect water quality and safeguard the people who rely on these waters for drinking, fishing and swimming.

The EPA’s move to veto the Spruce mine permit is a big step for Appalachia’s historic mountains, clean water and community health. It is clear that EPA is responding to the resounding citizen opposition against blowing apart our nation’s oldest mountains.

It seems that EPA Administrator Jackson’s concern over the impacts of mountaintop removal coal mining on human health and waterways is now translating into meaningful action.

The science is clear that mountaintop removal is harming water resources in real and measurable ways. We hope that the Spruce Mine veto is a sign that EPA is going to begin using its full authority to stop this devastating practice.

We urge the EPA to take holistic and preventative measures, to issue no new MTR permits and end this devastating practice once and for all.

You can see the response of pro-coal West Virginia politicians here.  Expect more on this.

Filed under: Coal Campaign, global warming, Politics

by Nell Greenberg

At 7:00 am this morning, a dozen brave activists released a 25-foot banner on the lawn of the EPA headquarters in Washington, DC. The message on the banner calls on the EPA to pledge to end mountaintop removal coal mining in 2010. But there’s a catch—the banner and two of its holders are suspended from two freestanding tripods 20-feet above the air, and after seven hours they are still hanging there with no sign of coming down.

Today’s protest is an attempt to further pressure EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson to enforce the Clean Water Act and halt mountaintop removal coal mining (MTR). Called the worst of the worst strip mining, the practice blows the tops off of whole mountains and contaminates drinking water all for a tiny amount of coal. Activists in today’s protest say they won’t leave unless Administrator Jackson commits to a flyover visit of the Appalachian Mountains and MTR sites, which, shockingly, she has never done before.

After seven hours, Administrator Jackson has made no such commitment. However, a few hours ago she tweeted her response to the protest gathering attention outside her window. As Administrator Jackson said in her tweet: “People are here today expressing views on MTM, a critical issue to our country. They’re concerned abt human health & water quality & so am I.”

It is very clear that the EPA is listening to the message being brought to their doorstep. However, at this point in the battle to end mountaintop removal coal mining, the question isn’t about whether Administrator Jackson is concerned about the issue. The question is what is her agency going to really do about it?

Despite the Obama administration’s big announcement last year that it was going to take “unprecedented steps” to reduce the environmental damage from mountaintop removal coal mining in Appalachia, the EPA has been slow moving. Two weeks ago, the EPA delayed action on a set of broad-ranging and specific measures to reduce the environmental impacts of mountaintop removal, after details of the plan were leaked to coal-state mining regulators. The EPA has for months been close to finalizing these permit guidelines, which many hope will mandate tougher protections to limit damage to water quality and be a step in the right direction toward abolishing the practice.

Based on EPA Administrator Jackson’s statements on March 8th at the National Press Club, it appears that the EPA is seeking ways to “minimize” the ecological damage of mountaintop mining rather than halt the most extreme strip mining practice. A paper released in January by a dozen leading scientists in the journal Science, however, concluded that mountaintop coal mining is so destructive that the government should stop giving out new permits all together. “The science is so overwhelming that the only conclusion that one can reach is that mountaintop mining needs to be stopped,” said Margaret Palmer, a professor at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Sciences and the study’s lead author.

The science has become clear that mountaintop removal is harming water resources in real and measurable ways. The EPA definitely can and must do much more on mountaintop mining and that includes exercising its full regulatory authority to block every single mining permit application that seeks to remove America’s oldest mountaintops and dump the waste into waterways.

As Kate Finneran, one of the two main climbers in today’s protest, said from her 20-foot high perch: “Mountaintop removal cannot be regulated. It must be abolished. Otherwise, we will continue to jeopardize our historic mountains, precious drinking water and especially the lives of the people who call Appalachia home. All of this for a tiny percent of dirty coal, the trade off doesn’t add up”

Want to support today’s protesters as they continue to defend Appalachia’s historic mountains?

TAKE ACTION

1. Facebook Action: Comment on the Lisa Jackson’s Facebook page, and ask her to “Please go to Appalachia and see for yourself, it’s time to end MTR!” Facebook.com/lisapjackson

2. Twitter Action: Follow and Retweet @RAN’s tweets about MTR, including:

Dear @LisaPJackson, Over 470 American mountains are gone forever. How many more will it take for @EPAgov to ban #MTR #coal? #GoToAppalachia!

The Appalachian Mountains are being being blown to bits. To protest, tweet @LisaPJackson #GoToAppalachia!

Filed under: global warming

This morning activists in Philadelphia descended upon their Regional EPA branch to put an end to Mountaintop Removal mining (MTR). Decisions made here in Philly have devastating consequences for Appalachian communities and our country as a whole.

Activists prepared to enter the building and risk arrest by sitting-in until they were granted a meeting with officials inside, and after a successful engagement and demands met, the rally of 40 people exited.

In recent months, the EPA has wavered in their position on mountaintop removal coal mining (MTR); in particular with the recent approval of the high profile Hobet 45 Mine permit. Philadelphia’s EPA has oversight of MTR permits for Virginia and West Virginia, which includes the Hobet 45 Mine. Philadelphia’s Region 3 EPA is considering 16 upcoming MTR permits and is responsible for the enforcement of the Clean Water Protection Act at existing MTR sites, which makes it a critical agent in ending the mining practice.

This has become a national issue. Appalachians can’t wait any longer, and Philadelphia activists met this urgency with action.

Meanwhile, there is a simultaneous rally at EPA’s region 4 in Atlanta GA, also responsible for MTR permitting.

Every day, across Appalachia, the coal industry literally blows the tops off of historic mountains, impoverishing communities, poisoning drinking water, clear-cutting entire forests, wiping out the natural habitats of countless animals, and sacrificing the heritage and the health of families across the region. The EPA estimates that more than a million acres of American mountains across Appalachia have already been lost to MTR, and yet they allow it to continue.

More than 2000 miles of rivers and streams have been buried and contaminated by ‘fill’ waste from Mountaintop removal mines. In streams rainwater seeps over rocks that had previously been far underground, which release toxic metals that kill life in streams and cause health problems for people who drink the water. The EPA can intervene and must intervene – not in a month, not in a week, but now.

Most Americans oppose mountaintop removal coal mining. its time to ban this devastating coal mining practice, and to transition to energy that is clean, safe and forever – and to generate good clean jobs for Appalachia.

As the movement to stop coal continues to grow in the U.S. we are on the verge of ending MTR. Please help.

Filed under: mountain top removal

This morning activists in Philadelphia descended upon their Regional EPA branch to put an end to Mountaintop Removal mining (MTR).  Decisions made here in Philly have devastating consequences for Appalachian communities and our country as a whole.

Activists prepared to enter the building and risk arrest by sitting-in until they were granted a meeting with officials inside, and after a successful engagement and demands met, the rally of 40 people exited.

In recent months, the EPA has wavered in their position on mountaintop removal coal mining (MTR); in particular with the recent approval of the high profile Hobet 45 Mine permit. Philadelphia’s EPA has oversight of MTR permits for Virginia and West Virginia, which includes the Hobet 45 Mine. Philadelphia’s Region 3 EPA is considering 16 upcoming MTR permits and is responsible for the enforcement of the Clean Water Protection Act at existing MTR sites, which makes it a critical agent in ending the mining practice.

This has become a national issue. Appalachians can’t wait any longer, and Philadelphia activists met this urgency with action.

Meanwhile, there is a simultaneous rally at EPA’s region 4 in Atlanta GA, also responsible for MTR permitting.

Every day, across Appalachia, the coal industry literally blows the tops off of historic mountains, impoverishing communities, poisoning drinking water, clear-cutting entire forests, wiping out the natural habitats of countless animals, and sacrificing the heritage and the health of families across the region. The EPA estimates that more than a million acres of American mountains across Appalachia have already been lost to MTR, and yet they allow it to continue.

More than 2000 miles of rivers and streams have been buried and contaminated by ‘fill’ waste from Mountaintop removal mines. In streams rainwater seeps over rocks that had previously been far underground, which release toxic metals that kill life in streams and cause health problems for people who drink the water. The EPA can intervene and must intervene – not in a month, not in a week, but now.

Most Americans oppose mountaintop removal coal mining. its time to ban this devastating coal mining practice, and to transition to energy that is clean, safe and forever – and to generate good clean jobs for Appalachia.

As the movement to stop coal continues to grow in the U.S. we are on the verge of ending MTR. Please help.