As you probably know, there was a huge disaster in Tennessee last week where over 1 billion gallons of toxic waste spilled into the drinking water of millions of people. Read more below, Feel free to send checks for medical testing, copies, paper, gas and general support funds to:
United Mountain Defense
P.O. Box 20363
Knoxville, TN 37920
Please mark check: “For TVA Spill”
Or use our Pay Pal account at www.unitedmountaindefense.org

Visit www.CoalRiverWind.org to download the report.

Over 10,700 people from across the US and across the world have signed the petitionto save Coal River Mountain from 10 square mile mountaintop removal mine. In stead of the mountaintop removal site, residents want a wind farm. They've been trying to convince Governor Manchin of West Virginia that a wind farm is a better choice for the local residents, the county and the state than another mountaintop removal site. On Tuesday, that argument got a lot stronger.

Yesterday the Coal River Wind project of Coal River Mountain Watch released a study it had commissioned last August that compared the economics of a wind farm vs. a strip mine on Coal River Mountain. As part of the release, there was a press conference held in Beckley and another in Charleston.

The main message of the report is that the private landholding companies and mine companies benefit from the strip mining while the people living in the community and the county government benefits more from the wind farm. In fact, the annual taxes that will go to the county from the wind farm will be $1,740,000 while the severance taxes that will go to Raleigh County from the Surface mine will be $36,000. And that 1.7 million will be annual forever. The $36,000 from the mining will last only 17 years.

Posted by Sarah Moon on The Sunny Way

Sarah wrote this story after attending Mountaintop Removal Student Summit hosted by SEAC and Coal River Mountain Watch this past November. Bobby Mitchell (mentioned below) was a key part of SEAC for many years, please contact Prenter Water Fund if you are interested in working in solidarity with this project. -Dana

When residents of Prenter Road in West Virginia moved into their community, they were told their well water was so pure, they could bottle it and sell it. Today, that same water is making them sick. In response, the Prenter Water Fund was established this summer by activist Bobby Mitchell and local resident Patty Sebock. Since then, volunteers have been working urgently to get clean water to the community. “I don’t know how to be any more clear about this,” said fund manager, Mat Louis-Rosenberg, “People are dying now.”

Louis-Rosenberg has been living in the Coal River Mountain Watch campaign house for the past two months, devoting most of his waking hours to the Prenter Water Fund. He is sustained by a stipend from his position as Coal River Mountain Sludge Safety Intern. Assisted by fellow activist and friend Glen Collins, he has his mission cut out for him. Collins and Louis-Rosenberg joked merrily about being the Water Planeteers for Captain Planet. “We need to get our rings!” they enthused. Humor helps scatter the shadow of King Coal, the force behind Prenter’s polluted waters.

After 4 years, at least 60,000 letters and comments to the OSM and EPA, the Bush Administration has finally gotten the Stream Buffer Zone rule approved by the Office of Surface Mining and the EPA. The Stream Buffer Zone essentially takes away the ability to limit valley fills through the use of the buffer zone rule, to paraphrase Joe Lovett. Or, put even more simply, it removes one of the defenses that a citizen has when they don't want a valley fill to destroy the stream by their house. Or even more simply, it sucks.

In the words of Maria Gunnoe, world renowned anti mountaintop removal activist and the main focus of the documentary Burning the Future, "Oh my god, What are we going to do?"

But in case you really don't understand how bad this rule change is, lets hear it from the Bush administration (as quoted in the NY Times):
“This rule strengthens protections for streams,” said Peter L. Mali, a spokesman for the Interior Department office that wrote the regulation. “Federal law allows coal mine waste to be placed in streams, and the rule tightens restrictions as to when, where and how those discharges can occur.”

I know that someone is going to be doing a longer post about this later, but just to say that 70+ people joined SEAC and Coal River Mountain Watch and partners in Southern West Virginia this past weekend to learn about mountaintop removal and how to stand in solidarity with community members impacted by it.

Nearly 60 grassroots and national groups, including SEAC, from 26 states have joined together to ask President Elect Obama to think first of the communities impacted by coal when selecting appointees for key positions.

The positions of concern include the Secretary of the Interior, Director of the Office of Surface Mining, Assistant Secretary of Labor for Mine Safety and Health, and the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. The letter states that “it is absolutely essential that all of these posts be filled by people who fully and fairly enforce laws relating to underground and surface mining, mine safety and health, coal burning and coal combustion waste.”

“For far too long, the regulatory agencies have been led by people with close ties to the coal industry, people who seem to have forgotten that their responsibility is to protect human health and the environment, not the profits of the coal operators. The new administration needs to break this cycle and appoint regulators who will put our land, water, and people first,” said Teri Blanton of Kentuckians for the Commonwealth.

Groups are also opposed to Obama appointing candidates who have called for decreased regulation under the Bush administration, noting that for the safety of communities located near coal facilities, as well as the workers at these facilities, increased enforcement and regulation are needed.

For example, Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell has been mentioned as a Department of Energy possibility, but citizen groups in Pennsylvania are highly concerned. “Pennsylvania’s carbon emissions have increased by 11% over the last five years under Rendell, and he has called for an even more lax environment for coal power plants and coal combustion waste—despite serious health issues and cancer clusters found in communities near current coal facilities,” said Lisa Graves Marcucci, Pennsylvania Coordinator for Environmental Integrity Project.

Ivan is a lover of kayaking, a hero of many, a really nice guy and a former SEAC staffer. And he gives good hugs. Unfortunately, he has left WV for a few years to KAYAK AROUND THE WORLD, pooor, pooor Ivan, but he will be back soon. Check out this gorgeous video of our dear friend, and congratulations, friend!

PS Note the many other SEACers in this video. Be a part of planning www.MJSB.org 2009 and other SEAC events so you can win this award next year. And so we can get social and environmental justice in our communities.

Yeah New Sustainable Economy! Let's get moving!

Hot off the press comrades! Of course, us SEACers have known for a while that Al Gore and climate scientist James Hansen have encouraged young people to use civil disobedience to stop proposed coal fired power plants.

Not that we needed their advice to do so. Grassroots efforts wouldn't have stopped 59 plants in 2007 if people hadn't already been working with every tool across all social and age boundaries to fight for climate justice.

However, since we still have around 100 coal plant proposals left to shut down, I think it's time that Al Gore learns that while young people are incredibly effective and smart at civil disobedience, we are also really good at organizing our communities, lobbying, promoting efficiency and conservation and other measures that are less fun but just as important as locking our necks to dozers.

And really, while us young folks are pretty darn smart and pretty dang powerful, it would sure help the cause if Al Gore would encourage the older folks, and all folks, to do civil disobedience, as well as community organizing, lobbying, promoting renewables, and so on.

It takes a village to raise a child, but it takes a movement of all ages and kinds to stop and destructive man-kind munching dirty coal industry force from decimating our ability to sustain human life on the plant.

Civil Disobedience helps, but it's not the only answer, Mr. Gore.

The AP article is below.

At roughly 6 A.M. this morning more than 20 peaceful protesters locked themselves to steel barrels with functional solar panels attached at the construction site for a giant new coal-fired power plant in Wise County, VA. Right now, at 7:33A.M. the lockdown, which is the first project of Rainforest Action Network’s new Action Tank, continues at the site where Dominion Virginia wants to build a 585 megawatt plant. Find out more about the long fight against Dominion, past actions and here and an upcoming Virginia Power Shift Conference. Pictures from the action deployment are up on RAN’s Flickr site and you can follow all the news and updates today at www.wiseupdominion.org more coming soon to itsgettinghotinhere later.

Check out that Solar Powered Banner!!!

Full Press Release below.

Yeah Energy Revolution! Today at dead noon Al Gore sauntered up to the national media and made some pretty hot comments Read the whole speech here, but here are my highlights:

"I don’t remember a time in our country when so many things seemed to be going so wrong simultaneously. Our economy is in terrible shape...gasoline prices...electricity rates...Jobs...outsourced. Home mortgages...Banks, automobile companies...."

Ugh, what a bummer. What follows is a bunch of stuff about how the ice cap could be gone in 5 years, and other stuff that makes me think maybe I should give up this stopping the coal machine gig and just lay on an air conditioned beach drinking Cosmos...But wait!

"Yet when we look at all three of these seemingly intractable challenges...our dangerous over-reliance on carbon-based fuels is at the core...[of] the economic, environmental and national security crises...

Today I challenge our nation to commit to producing 100 percent of our electricity from renewable energy and truly clean carbon-free sources within 10 years. This goal is achievable, affordable and transformative. It represents a challenge to all Americans – in every walk of life: to our political leaders, entrepreneurs, innovators, engineers, and to every citizen...

So I ask you to join with me to call on every candidate, at every level, to accept this challenge – for America to be running on 100 percent zero-carbon electricity in 10 years. It's time for us to move beyond empty rhetoric. We need to act now."