April 10 |
OVEC Action
Alert Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition |
 |
OVEC is Hiring
The Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition, based in Huntington, W.Va.,
seeks a full-time, highly reliable and experienced community
organizer to coordinate our
Sludge Safety
Project and to continue building momentum for justice in the
southern coalfields of West Virginia. If you are interested in
applying for this position, click
here.
Noon,
April 17: Come To Charleston for Blair Mountain
The Charleston Gazette's Ken Ward Jr. reported this week that
the "State
moves to delist Blair Mountain from historic register." West
Virginia Public Radio's Scott Finn reported that "Blair
Mountain letters show coordinated opposition campaign."
At noon next Friday, April 17, folks are planning to gather in Charleston to call out the Manchin administration on this attempt to delist Blair Mountain from the National Register of Historic Places. Bring a bag lunch and join us. E-mail vivian@ohvec.org for details.
Please
Contact OSMRE
The Obama administration may soon
select a Director of the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and
Enforcement (OSMRE). This agency - if it would do its job - helps
regulate, you guessed it, surface mining and post-mining
(so-called) reclamation . We need the laws enforced, so we
don't want an OSM insider in this post. The
Charleston Gazette and the Sierra Club have both
endorsed West Virginia University law professor Pat McGinley for the
position, while Kentuckians For The Commonwealth has spoken up for
Lexington, Ky., lawyer Joe Childers. Both these men have been
rumored as in the running for OSMRE Director.
Please call Renee Stone, the Deputy Chief of Staff at the Department of the Interior at 202-208-6133 or e-mail her at Renee_Stone@ios.doi.gov to tell her no OSMRE insider for Director, please. Here's a sample message:
Dear Ms. Stone,
I am writing today regarding the nomination of the future Director of the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement. It is absolutely essential that this post be filled by a candidate from outside the OSMRE and by a candidate who is not connected to the coal industry.
In addition, it is essential that the next Director of the OSMRE is committed to fully and fairly enforcing the law, following sound science, and respecting the voice of impacted citizens.
Further, because of the thousands of acres and communities that have been devastated by decades of unchecked mining, the new director must understand the importance of creating new jobs in Appalachia via true reclamation of our land post-mining.
I am concerned that proposed candidates from within the OSMRE do not fulfill these essential requirements -- which is why I urge you to nominate a new Director of the Office of Surface Mining and Reclamation from outside of the OSMRE.
Sincerely,
Your Name
PBS,
Appalachia, Coal and MTR
Check your local PBS' stations for program schedules for the
following:
Here in West Virginia, next Monday PBS will begin airing Appalachia: A History of Mountains and People narrated by Sissy Spacek. Among those interviewed are novelists Denise Giardina and Barbara Kingsolver, Coal River Mountain Watch's Judy Bonds, Blair Mountain friend Harvard Ayers and ecologist George Constanz. Here's Dianna Nelson Jones review of the series for the Pittsburgh paper, where the first episode has already aired.
This week on NOW on PBS, the topic is Can Coal be Earth-Friendly?
And finally, the documentary Mountain Top Removal is airing on PBS stations around the country. A partial schedule of stations and air dates is posted on the OVEC calendar page.
Volunteers
Needed!
People Concerned about MIC seeks volunteers for street teams
to hand out flyers and knock on doors to let people know about the
Chemical Safety Board meeting on April 23. (Details on that in
Upcoming Events list, below). The target areas are Institute, St.
Albans, Pinewood and Dunbar. Volunteers needed this weekend and next.
Contact
Maya Nye. Check back in to the PCMIC website for information
on the May 1-2 Bhopal Survivors Tour coming to Institute.
Note that both Bhopal and mountaintop removal are featured in Discover magazine online gallery: Man Greatest Crimes Against Nature in Photos.
Upcoming
Events, Near and Far
April 17 - 18: 2009 Sustainable Fair 2009, Stonewall Resort ~ 940
Resort Drive, Roanoke, W.Va.
More info here.
April 17, 5-9 p.m. at The Clay Center Art Museum (Charleston, WV) - Southern West Virginia Photovoice Exhibit and Public Reception. Public exhibit with over 100 "photostories" (photograph with narrative) from the forty Photovoice participants, across the five participating communities. Light refreshments will be served. The exhibit will be on display from April 15-April 19. Details here. News stories on Photovoice here and here.
April 20 : Charlotte, NC. Cliffside Climate Action - Mass Rally and Nonviolent Civil Disobedience To Shut Down Duke Energy's Cliffside Coal Plant. Details here.
April 21: Washington, DC. The Committee on Energy and Commerce holds an investigation into the August 28, 2008, explosion at the Bayer CropScience facility in Institute, West Virginia. The Oversight Subcommittee will examine the causes of the accident, the adequacy of the response, and the scope of the information provided to the first responders, employees, and the public. Visit People Concerned About MIC for more information.
April 26: 2:30 p.m.at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation, 520 Kanawha Blvd. West, Charleston, W.Va. - Leave No Child Inside, West Virginia: An afternoon with author Richard Louv. Details here.
April 28: Special Event for OVEC Members. If you are an OVEC member living in West Virginia, you should have received an invitation in the snail-mail. If you did not, please e-mail vivian@ohvec.org.
May 17-23: Mountain Justice Training Camp.
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Meet Rich Louv April 26 in Charleston |
Center for
Whole Communities
A couple of OVEC staff members have attended and benefited from
workshops at the
Center
for Whole Communities. Please check what is coming up this
summer at the Center by clicking
here.
www.ohvec.org 304-522-0246 vivian@ohvec.org |
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