OVEC Action Alert - February 28, 2003

Party Tonight

All Out Push on Stopping Overweight Coal Trucks

TONIGHT, FRIDAY FEB. 28

Starting at 6 p.m., come out to Taylor Books, 226 Capitol Street in Charleston, for a Friday night Book Party with acclaimed West Virginia author Denise Giardina. We'll celebrate the publication of "Fallam's Secret," Denise's brand new book. Fallam is a fictional mountain lost forever to mountaintop removal. Or is it lost forever? Only time (travel) will tell. Denise will read from and sign copies of the book. Music and refreshments, as well as lots of good people, round out the event.

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PLEASE PUT THE HEAT ON REGARDING OVERWEIGHT COAL TRUCKS 

We need your help in an all-out attempt to push on stopping overweight coal trucks. Help us counter the latest in Coal's long line of attempts to legalize its illegal behavior. Thanks to Julie Archer of Citizen Action Group for a lot of the information below.

--RALLY ON OVERWEIGHT COAL TRUCKS 

March 4: Take Action! Please come out to the State Capitol to say NO coal truck weight limit increase! The rally begins at noon outside the Governor's Office (inside the state capitol). Please come and bring your friends. We need a huge turnout!

--EXERT PRESSURE! 

Your calls and e-mails are needed now more than ever. For fourteen counties, SB 583 would increase the coal trucks weight limits to 120,000 pounds, with a 5 % variance. This bill is welled greased, and we need to turn up the heat on our elected representatives. A groundswell of public opposition stopped a weight increase from passing the legislature last year, but apparently our elected representatives think the public has forgotten. They need to be reminded that West Virginians are for public safety and against heavier coal trucks. Please contact your delegate right away. If you have already done so, please call and e-mail again, and ask your friends to do the same.

To use the handy "Contact your Legislators" form in the sidebar, just type in your zip code and click "go" to get contact info. You can call legislators at home this weekend; their home numbers (as well as their office numbers) are here.  You can also contact legislators toll free at 1-877-565-3447 (but they won't get these messages till Monday if you call late Friday). The bill will be taken up in the House Judiciary committee. There, delegates Caputo, Brown, Webster, Mahan, Thompson, and Fleischauer are reliable votes for our side, and while they probably will appreciate thanks for fighting the good fight, they don't need pressure.

Potential swing votes on Judiciary are Craig, DeLong, Ellem, Foster, Hrutkay, Morgan, Palumbo, Pethtel, Pino, Stemple, Armstead, Calvert, Overington, Shadler, Smirl, and Webb. These are the most important calls you can make. If any of these delegates represent you, please call them, and get everybody else you can to call them. As Julie says, if that's not enough to do, for this as for all issues, the strongest statement you can make is to show up in Charleston and visit your legislator. You might want to call or write Governor Wise, even though he's probably made up his mind. He had serious problems with early versions of the bill, and we think he threatened to veto the really horrible first version; but amendments to the bill have addressed the governor's concerns and he's back on the coal bandwagon. You can leave him a message by calling 1-888-438-2731 or 558-2000. He needs to know that a weight increase is unacceptable, even with these safety and enforcement provisions.

To e-mail the Governor and each Senate and House member from your area, log on to the UMWA web page. Then scroll down and click on the action link. Next, click on the county in which you reside. The letter is already written for you. All you need to do is type in your name and address and click send.

--PLEASE ASK YOUR OUT OF STATE FRIENDS TO HELP Please ask your out of state friends and relatives to visit www.citizenscoalcouncil.org/ and click on "Take Action," then fill in the blanks. Your friends from afar can help us in our campaign to stop overweight coal trucks.

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