Announced yesterday on their blog: http://aaenvironment.blogspot.com/

AAEA opposes mountaintop removal.

The Clean Water Protection Act, H.R. 1310 was introduced by Congressman Frank Pallone (D-NJ) on March 4, 2009 and amends the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (commonly known as the Clean Water Act) to define “fill material” to mean any pollutant that replaces portions of waters of the United States with dry land or that changes the bottom elevation of a water body for any purpose and to exclude any pollutant discharged into the water primarily to dispose of waste.

For years, the Clean Water Act allowed for the granting of permits to place ‘fill material’ into waters of the United States, provided that the primary purpose of the ‘filling’ was not for waste disposal. The intention was to prevent industries such as coal mining from using the nation’s waterways as waste disposal sites. That changed in 2002, when the Army Corps of Engineers, without Congressional approval, altered its longstanding definition of ‘fill material’ to include mining waste. This change accelerated the devastating practice of mountaintop removal coal mining and the destruction of more than 1,200 miles of Appalachian streams.

H.R. 1310 restores the original intent of the Clean Water Act to clarify that fill material cannot be comprised of mining waste. The legislation has 154 cosponsors and has bipartisan support.

Al Jazeera English, the world’s first global English language news channel to be headquartered in the Middle East, aired a ten-minute segment on the energy future war taking place in West Virginia coalfields, and focuses on the struggle over Coal River Mountain.

Unofficial transcript on mountaintop removal question:

I think everybody acknowledges it, the President has said it, everybody we talk to acknowledges that there are serious impacts associated with mountaintop mining and we have to address that. Going forward we have to look at what we can do under existing authority to strengthen the oversight of these projects and to see that we are using those authorities fully to try to address the environmental impacts of mountaintop mining. So, does it mean fewer projects? I don’t know the answer to that. But it will mean that we will deal with the environmental impacts of those projects.

If that is the question, then the answer is easy. Dealing with the environmental impacts of mountaintop removal means there will be fewer projects. In fact, it means there will be zero mountaintop removal projects. No amount of regulation can make it environmentally sound, economically practical, or ecologically beneficial to blast the tops of of our mountains and dump the waste into our streams. Dealing with the environmental impacts of mountaintop removal means that we stop the practice. Its that simple.

PayPal ordering for Still Moving Mountains: The Journey Home is now available.

Cost is $15 plus shippping. For bulk rates, please contact us.

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Jeff Biggers wrote a stunning review of a great new CD that aims to raise awareness about mountaintop removal coal mining.

Ever miss the wondrous liner notes from your old LP’s?

An extraordinary new album, “Still Moving Mountains: The Journey Home,” just released with one of the finest showcases of musical talents from the Appalachian coalfields, has gone one step further: Accompanied by a multimedia website the album includes a map and search engine that allows listeners to see the setting of a song or mining and environmental issue, scroll through photographs, videos, and interviews, and learn ways to become involved in local coalfield citizens groups.

For producer Jen Osha, founder and director of Aurora Lights, the West Virginia-based nonprofit cultural organization formed to raise awareness of the impacts of mountaintop removal coal mining, the album also takes the next step in the coalfield justice movement by focusing on renewable energy and the preservation of the beauty of the Appalachian mountains and heritage.

This just might be the most powerful soundtrack and organizing tool for the coalfield justice and climate change movements today.

The direct link is here: www.auroralights.org/journey

Read the rest of the article over at Grist.org.

Shortly after a Senate sub-committee hearing on the anti-mountaintop removal bill the Appalachia Restoration Act (co-sponsored by Senator Lamar Alexandar [R-TN] and Senator Ben Cardin [D-MD]), a letter was released to the public detailing how two subsidiary companies of Arch Coal were encouraging their employees and families to boycott Tennessee in response to Sen. Alexander’s support of the bill. The letter claimed that the two companies had canceled annual company outings to Dollywood in Gatlinburg, and encouraged their almost 1200 employees and their families to not visit the fair state of Tennessee for personal vacation.

Not to be deterred, Senator Alexander reportedly responded that “Every year, millions of tourists come to Tennessee and spend millions of dollars to see our scenic mountaintops, not to see mountains whose tops have been blown off and dumped into streams.”

Since the letter first came out, one of the companies, TECO Coal based in Kentucky, reportedly backed off from its original support of the boycott, stating “We regret our previous action, which was an emotional response that doesn’t benefit our 1,200 employees, the eastern Kentucky communities we support, the environment we work to protect or our neighbors in Tennessee.” Tennessee brings in a reported $14.2 billion in tourism revenue a year, compared to coal, which generates only $67 million for the state.

We would like to encourage our readers to visit Tennessee for vacation this year. We even held our summer staff retreat on the banks of Watauga Lake, near Butler. What a beautiful state.

Read the original story by WV Public Broadcasting, the original letter, and the recent article by the New York Times.

GetEnergySmartNow.com posted an article today examining the escalating violence in the West Virginia coalfields between proponents and opponents of mountaintop removal coal mining. Threats of violence, both in written form and verbally, are growing on a daily basis. Videos posted to YouTube from the June 23 Marsh Fork Elementary School anti-mountaintop removal rally and from the July 4 family festival at Kayford Mountain have garnered numerous comments that are increasingly hostile. How will all of this turn out?

Read the full article on GetEnergySmartNow.com

According to GreenBiz.com

The Sierra Club enjoyed a victory last week when a Utah-based utility announced it would walk away from plans to build a coal-fired generating unit in the state.

According to the environmental group’s tally, 100 coal plants have been foiled or abandoned since 2001, the beginning of an era it dubbed the “Coal Rush.”

The Intermountain Power Agency (IPA) announced Thursday it has given up plans to build an additional coal-fired unit. Its biggest customer — the city of Los Angeles — signaled its intent July 2 to phase out use of all coal-based electricity by 2020. IPA’s expansion project had effectively died in its original iteration when the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power pulled out of the deal in 2007, Reuters reported.

Visit GreenBiz.com to read the rest of the article.

Wonderful news: 2 new co-sponsors bring us up to a new record. See if your Representative is signed on — and ask them to join if they aren’t — and email them thanks if they are.

Our two new Reps:

Representative Marcia Fudge, 2nd term Democratic congresswoman from Ohio’s 11th district became the 154th (including Rep. Pallone) cosponsor of the Clean Water Protection Act. Ms. Fudge serves on the Education & Labor and Science & Technology committee’s. Rep. Fudge is the 30th member of the Congressional Black Caucus to become a cosponsor of the Clean Water Protection Act!

Rep. Lloyd Dogget (D-TX25) is serving his 8th term in the U.S. House of Representatives. Mr. Dogget serves on the Budget & Ways and Means committee’s. He is the 155th cosponsor of the Clean Water Protection Act, and was also a cosponsor in the 110th congress.

Hats off to all of the folks out there that made this happen.

Read all about the Clean Water Protection Act on the iLoveMountains.org website

Read the post at ScSaysNo.com HERE.