OVEC Action Alerts

Ted Williams is the conservation writer who first realized it is not only mountaintop removal, it is mountain-range removal. He wrote the recent Audubon expose on the plight of coal sludge impoundment expert Jack Spadaro. Ted has another hard-hitting article--Coal-Country Trout: Fish don't have to be just another coal-industry waste product. Check out the quotes from aquatic biologist and OVEC friend Ben Stout, and get involved to protect Appalachia's streams.

Speaking of getting involved in stream protection, click here to take an Earthjustice web-action: Tell Congress to Support Environmental Safeguards for Mountain Streams & Other Waters. For the past three years, the Bush administration has repealed or proposed repealing a number of longstanding environmental laws designed to protect streams from extractive industries, especially mountaintop removal coal mining. First, in May 2002, the administration repealed a 25-year-old Clean Water Act regulation that prohibited industries from burying streams, wetlands, and other waters with their wastes. Then, in January 2004, the administration proposed repealing the “Stream Buffer Zone” rule, and allowing coal companies to mine and dump waste right in streams.

It is time for Congress to step in and protect the nation’s waters from these devastating policies that are reversing decades of efforts to preserve streams and wetlands. Representatives Chris Shays (R-CT) and Frank Pallone (D-NJ) have introduced the Clean Water Protection Act (HR 738) to restore important clean water safeguards against destroying streams and other waters with industrial wastes. Please contact your representative today and ask her or him to co-sponsor this important and urgently needed legislation.

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Did you hear Music from the Mountains on WV Public Radio last night (Friday, June 18)? Joe Dobbs interviewed singer/songwriter Andrew McKnight, who has a great cut on Moving Mountains: Voices of Appalachia Rise Up Against Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining. Andrew spoke and sang passionately and knowledgably about mountain-range removal coal mining. Andrew noted that the Moving Mountains CD is flying off the shelves, and that's great because music really moves and motivates people; plus a large portion of the proceeds from the sale of the CD go to help groups like OVEC and Coal River Mountain Watch in our efforts to end mountain massacre. Call the OVEC office at 304-522-0246 or e-mail vivian@ohvec.org if you'd like to purchase a copy of Moving Mountains. The CD is fantastic. Thanks so much to idea-originator and culminator Jen Osha, Falling Mountain Music, OVEC board member and sound engineer Jeff Bosley, artist Winter Ross and all the incredible musicians who donated their talent to make this CD a reality.

Tonight, June 19 in Nashville, TN: Premiere screening of new documentary "Kilowatt Ours" by filmmaker Jeff Barrie of Nashville, Tennessee at the Historic Belcourt Theater, 2102 Belcourt Avenue. $15 suggested donation at the door. 5:45 p.m. reception (catered by Wild Oats); 6:45 p.m. screening; 8:00 p.m. panel discussion featuring Coal River Mountain Watch's Judy Bonds, OVEC board member Larry Gibson and other coalfield residents whose lives have been disrupted by mountaintop removal mining. Both Larry and Judy are featured in "Kilowatt Ours."

From the filmmaker: For more than two years, I journeyed across the Southeastern United States with my video camera, in search of answers to the most urgent environmental issues of our day: global warming, air pollution, childhood asthma, and mountaintop removal coal mining in Southern Appalachia. Now I am thrilled to share my eye-opening discoveries with you, at the debut showing of my new documentary "Kilowatt Ours." Please attend this very special event. If you cannot attend the premiere on Saturday, there is a second showing on Monday, June 21 at 7:30 p.m. RSVP: (615) 438-5060 or email kilowattours@yahoo.com. Seating is limited, so please reserve your seats today!

Saturday, June 26 at 2 p.m. at the Logan Area Public Library (16 Wildcat Way, Logan) meet Robert Shogan (a journalist for over 30-years who worked for the Los Angles Times and Newsweek), the author of The Battle of Blair Mountain and Mari-Lyn Evans, editor of The Appalachians, a book which includes essays from Judy Bonds and Vivian Stockman (the person typing (typo-ing) this). Evan's book is a companion to an upcoming PBS TV series of the same name. She will show clips from the film, which includes footage of WV coalfield residents and activists.

Listen to the National Public Radio segment on wasted energy, then make sure your computer's power options are set for saving energy (for many computers, look in the control panel folders). Saving energy saves mountains!