Archive for December 2011
BLM/OSM Merger Postponed | Newsbites
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar has announced a postponement of a merger between the Bureau of Land Management and the Office of Surface Mining and Reclamation Enforcement to Feb. 15, 2012. In late October, Salazar announced the proposal and received immediate and staunch criticism. Some argued that the two agencies have little overlap and expressed doubts…
Read MoreAppalachian Coal Mining Jobs Reach 14-year High
Increase Comes Despite Arguments that Regulations Kill Jobs Some congressional representatives claim that federal oversight of mountaintop removal mining in Appalachia threatens domestic coal production and the regions coal mining jobs, but new government data indicates the opposite is true. Data released by the Mine Safety and Health Administration show that the number of jobs…
Read MoreProposed Coal Ash Regulations Weaker than Household Waste Laws
Nearly three years after the Tennessee Valley Authority coal ash disaster spilled over a billion gallons of toxic sludge into the Emory River in Harriman, Tenn., the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is set to finalize guidelines regulating coal ash ponds. However, a bill in the Senate could put a permanent hold on the EPA’s ability…
Read MoreKids in the Creek: Connecting Youth to Their Watersheds
Alan Felker, eighth grade science teacher at Hardin Park Middle School in Boone, N.C., believes it’s important to expose kids to the environment around them. In North Carolina, eighth grade students are required to study state river basins and water quality issues. Felker took this opportunity to expose his students to our local and regional…
Read MoreRally to Save Ison Rock
Hundreds of citizens gathered at U.S. Environmental Protection Agency headquarters in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 16 to call on the EPA and White House to block a proposed mountaintop removal permit that would destroy Ison Rock Ridge in Wise County, Va. More than 2,000 residents living in the five communities that surround the mountain would…
Read MoreGroups Challenge Public’s Exclusion From Secret Negotiations
An agreement negotiated in secret between the Beshear administration and a major polluter in eastern Kentucky does little to protect the public or prevent future violations, claimed several groups representing Kentucky citizens who use water polluted by the company’s coal mining operations.
The citizens’ groups filed a petition in Franklin Circuit Court on Thursday asking that the agreement between Nally & Hamilton Enterprises and the Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet be vacated on the grounds that there is “no factual evidence in the record, much less substantial evidence, [that] supports a finding that the Agreed Order is a fair resolution of Nally’s thousands of [Clean Water Act] violations, or that it will be an effective deterrent of future violations.”
Read MorePublic Interest Groups Renew Call to Revoke Massey Energy’s Corporate Charter
PUBLIC INTEREST GROUPS RENEW CALL TO REVOKE MASSEY ENERGY’S CORPORATE CHARTER JOINT STATEMENT OF FREE SPEECH FOR PEOPLE, APPALACHIAN VOICES, AND THE RAINFOREST ACTION NETWORK Dec. 7, 2011 ——————— Contacts: Trevor FitzGibbon, 202-506-7162 or 202-406-0646 Sandra Diaz, Appalachian Voices, Sandra@appvoices.org, 828.262.1500 ———————- This week, Alpha Natural Resources, the parent company of the Massey Energy coal…
Read MoreVersión en Español de Correo Electrónico de la Campaña “Rojo, Blanco y Agua”
Muchas gracias por visitarnos y por actuar en beneficio de la protección del agua limpia el fin de semana pasado en el Festival Latino en Wilmington. El agua limpia es fundamental para nuestra forma de vida – necesitamos a gente como usted, interesada en el tema, para defender este valioso recurso natural. Nuestras vías fluviales han mejorado…
Read More