August 19 |
OVEC Action
Alert Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition |
 |
WOC
On(line)
The latest edition of OVEC's newsletter, Winds of Change,
is now
online. Those of you who are OVEC
members, who have not opted out of snail-mailings, should
receive the print edition in your mailbox soon.
Plundering
Appalachia
Please take some time to explore the website for the upcoming book,
Plundering Appalachia. OVEC had a major role in the
development of this book, which should be available in September. We
hope people nationwide will find this oversize book, full of
large-format photographs and moving essays, to be a very useful tool
for educating family, friends, teachers and politicians about the
national disgrace known as mountaintop removal. As more and more
people learn the truth about mountaintop removal's disastrous
effects on communities, culture, water, and forests, we build the
groundswell of outrage we need to finally end this incredibly
destructive and needless form of coal mining. Be sure to check out
the
video on the website, and pass that link around.
This Sunday
in Charleston: Stop MTR CD Release Party / Free Concert
If you can make it to Charleston this Sunday (August 23), please
join us at the
CD
release party for
Still
Moving Mountains: The Journey Home. The free
concert begins at 2 p.m. at the stage on the West Virginia State
Capitol Grounds. The stage is in the center of the grounds, between
the State Capitol building and the high-rise government buildings.
Talent at the concert includes Jen Osha and Grayson Samples, The LoneTones, Andrew McKnight and The Halftime String Band. There'll be some speakers to fire you up and assorted groups, including OVEC, will have tables. This musical celebration of the movement to end mountaintop removal is organized by Aurora Lights and sponsored by the Appalachian Community Fund and OVEC.
Whether or not you can make it to the concert, please do consider ordering the CD from the website and be sure to check out the CD's companion website, Journey Up Coal River.
Films
Screening Across the Country
Across the country, screenings of documentaries about mountaintop
removal continue. The latest film released,
Coal
Country, will air on
Planet Green on Nov. 14. Click
here for updates on theater screenings of Coal Country
in assorted cities.
Please recall some of the
other mountaintop removal documentaries already out and watch
for OVEC volunteers and staff in all these movies:
Black
Diamonds
Burning the Future (be sure to check out the Coal Impact
Guide)
Mountain Top Removal
Patchwork Films
Each of these films offers a different perspective on mountaintop removal and each is an excellent educational tool. We hope you will consider purchasing one or more to watch, then passing the DVD along to your local library.
FEMA: Three Strikes and You Are Out?
The Federal Emergency Management
Agency (FEMA) is
proposing a rule that affects the reimbursement of property
owners for damages resulting from natural disasters, including floods
(or, as can happen in the coalfields, unnatural disasters - that
is mountaintop-removal-exacerbated floods).
FEMA has decided to cut the reimbursement rate for the third occurrence within a decade of a similar storm on the same facility. "For example, if a facility/home was damaged by a hurricane three times in a 10-year period, the facility/home would be considered a repetitively damaged facility," says the FEMA document.
Because FEMA traditionally does not make reimbursements for damages valued at less than $1,000, storm occurrences that create that little damage will not "count" in the determination of a third occurrence.
FEMA said it would only begin counting storm-related events after it issues an effective rule, rather than beginning the count retroactively, from the date of the passage of the law in 2000.
FEMA encourages the public to comment on its proposed new rule by October 13 by visiting
www.regulations.gov and citing docket number FEMA-2008-0006.Additional information is available from Tod Wells, acting director of FEMA’s public assistance division, at 202-646-3936.
www.ohvec.org 304-522-0246 vivian@ohvec.org |
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