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Turnout Needed This TUESDAY and Thursday at Overweight Coal Truck Task Force Meetings
Administrative Note: We attempt to keep Action Alerts short (really!) and organize them so you can easily scroll down to the topics of highest interest. Action Alerts are posted to the website soon after they reach your in-box and are more easily navigated on-line, where you can click on the desired topic. If you wish to be removed from the OVEC Action Alert list, please reply to this e-mail with "remove" in the subject line. We always appreciate any feedback you have on these e-mails.
***June 6 Hearing On Valley Fills In Dc*** Our allies, Senator Jeffords (I-VT), chair of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, and Senator Lieberman (D-CT), chair of the Subcommittee on Clean Air, Wetlands and Climate Change, have scheduled a Congressional Hearing on Valley Fills for the morning of Thursday June 6! Folks are already working out carpools / places to stay. While OVEC will have a big presence at the hearing, we simply haven't the funds to organize another bus trip so soon. We can help you network for carpooling/stayovers. MORE DETAILS SOON. Note that we can all submit written statements for the record! Thanks to our friends at Earthjustice in DC, we'll soon have a fact sheet to help you draft that written statement.
June 13 Post-Haden-Decision Strategy Meeting. Please join us for a dinner meeting on Thursday, June 13 at 6 p.m. at the Asbury United Methodist Church, 501 Elizabeth St., Charleston, WV (just down the street from Empty Glass). We'll brainstorm and discuss our post-Haden-decision strategy to end mountaintop removal. This won't be a potluck, but we are looking for one or two volunteers to make dinner for all. Dinner is at 6, meeting begins at 7 p.m. sharp. Please be on time. Please, you MUST pre-register for this free event by e-mailing dave@ohvec.org or vivian@ohvec.org. If you have questions, or would like to help with dinner, e-mail or call Dave or Vivian at 304-522-0246. Again, only those who have been pre-registered will be admitted to this meeting.
Overweight Coal Trucks Please come out for the coal truck task force meetings-one may be in your neighborhood! All meetings start at 6 p.m. If you need tips on what to say, please e-mail crmw@charter.net or call the Coal River Mountain Watch office at 304-854-2182.
This Week: --Tuesday, May 21, Byrd High School, Clarksburg --Thursday, May 23 Elkins National Guard Armory
Also: --May 28, Wyoming County East High School --June 6, Tug Valley High School, On Route 52, North of Williamson in Naugatuck --June 10, Riverside High School, Belle --June 11 Madison Civic Center Be sure to check the state's website for more info and schedule changes.
Coal Summit The Coal Summit has had a venue change. The event, which runs June 20-22, will now be held at the Charleston Civic Center (200 Civic Center Drive, Charleston). For registration materials, email your name, address, and organization if appropriate to outreach@appvoices.org. For more info on this conference, click here.
At the Summit, you'll learn all about the true costs of coal with lecture/workshop presentations, field trips, and low altitude plane flights over the nearby mountaintop removal mines and declining forests. Organizations involved in the planning of the Summit are: American Rivers, Appalachian Voices, Citizens Coal Council, Clean Air Task Force, Coal River Mountain Watch, Friends of the Earth, Kentuckians for the Commonwealth, Mountain Watershed Association, National Parks Conservation Association, National Wildlife Federation, Natural Resources Defense Council, Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition, Sierra Club, Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, Tri-state Citizens Mining Network and the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy.
Lodging exchange! Need a place to stay overnight during the coal summit? Got an extra bed or floor space where you could put up an activist? If so, please e-mail Bill McCabe at stopcoalcrimes@yahoo.com.
DC Wrap-up Over 60 coalfield residents and conservation-minded folks fanned out on Capitol Hill on Wednesday May 15, visiting 31 Congressional offices. An excerpted e-mail from Joan Mulhern at Earthjustice to OVEC co-director Dianne Bady best sums up the DC trip:
Dianne --
Thank you so much for your message. From my end, I also think this was a very successful trip to DC, and I am so glad you think so, too.
I have already heard from several of the Congressional offices you visited that they want to do anything they can to help. Two staff people told me they cried after their meetings, after hearing about the devastation to the communities and the environment that the groups told them about. You all had a huge effect on the Hill (I think your new OVEC organizer Dave is a star!).
Please know that this trip made a HUGE impression on the people that you met with and created a buzz on the Hill. I concur with you that the trip was a success. It also came at a critical time. This puts these issues in so much of a better position if an effort is made in Congress to weaken the laws for the coal companies. This is very important.
I hope you let everyone who made the trip know that their efforts had a big effect in DC. Many, many people on the Hill knew that you were here, not just those (many) that you met with. Everyone on the Hill (at least everyone we care about) knew you were here. That is a huge help for our efforts in DC to save the laws that are supposed to protect you.
Personally, it was such a pleasure for me to see some of the people I have met before and to meet many people I had not met before but heard so much about. Every person's involvement in the effort to enforce environmental laws is so important, it was inspiring.
VOTE! Should mountaintop removal be banned? You can still vote on this by clicking here. As of about 6 p.m. Monday, May 20 they results were: Yes--1231 votes / 67% No--584 votes / 32% 1815 total.
***Call On Fast Track Tuesday!*** Any of our national environmental laws could potentially be challenged under Fast Track so please call Tuesday! The information below comes from Jason Tockman, Director of the International Trade Program at the American Lands Alliance. For more information on Fast Track, including where our Senators stands, contact him at 740-594-5441 or tockman@americanlands.org. Also, for a local contact, talk with Mary Wildfire at mwildfire@hotmail.com.
** AFL-CIO's toll-free number: 877-611-0063 **
Please Contact Both Of Your Senators Today And Ask Them To Oppose Fast Track. If They Already Favor Fast Track, Encourage Them To Vote For The Kerry Amendment On Investment. (*See Background for a further explanation) Your Senators can be reached through the AFL-CIO's toll-free number: 877-611-0063.
Once approved by the Senate, the bill will go into Conference Committee to reconcile House and Senate versions, giving the House (which passed Fast Track last December by a vote of 215-214) a chance to revisit the legislation. CALLS TO YOUR HOUSE MEMBER EXPRESSING OPPOSITION ARE ALSO VERY TIMELY. Your House member can be reached at 877-611-0063. Please also note that the end of this week begins Congress's Memorial Day Recess, providing an excellent opportunity to schedule in-district meetings.
Background On Fast Track The US Senate is expected to vote this Tuesday on a key amendment to "Fast Track," the trade promotion bill that would encourage the Bush Administration to negotiate new trade deals under the NAFTA model. Fast Track would enhance the administration's efforts to extend the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) to the whole hemisphere and broaden the reach of the World Trade Organization, putting at risk labor standards and environmental protections. A vote on the full Fast Track package is likely Wednesday.
*Immediate action is needed to derail the corporate globalization agenda through pressure on the US Senate. At this time, please join us by pressuring your Senators to vote NO on Fast Track. Bear in mind, however, that the Senate is packed with Free Traders, and will likely pass Fast Track legislation. The strategy for those offices already supportive of Fast Track is to ask that they at least support Senator Kerry's amendment on investment, which would effectively block many of the worst trade provisions that allow foreign corporations to sue over environmental and other regulatory safeguards, as laid out in NAFTA's Investment Chapter.
Chapter 11, one of NAFTA's most controversial components, authorizes foreign corporations to sue governments where they feel their ability to make a profit has been "expropriated." The NAFTA provisions award new rights to foreign firms, well in excess of those granted to US citizens and companies under domestic law. Some of the best known cases are Mexico's payment of $16 million to a US firm for refusing a permit for a toxic landfill, and Canada's payment of $13 million and revocation of a prohibition on a poisonous gasoline additive upon challenge by a US company. Currently, several companies are seeking hundreds of millions of dollars from the US for measures it has taken to decrease the importation of Canadian softwood, cut largely from the ancient forests of British Columbia. The draft text of the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA)-NAFTA for the whole hemisphere except Cuba-includes language similar to NAFTA's Chapter 11. Fast Track is thus a mechanism to enable companies from an additional 31 countries to seek to impede our domestic environmental laws, and allow US corporations the same right in other countries.
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