OVEC Action Alert - December 14, 2004

Chat Tonight Online

Meet Tonight in Tennessee

Take A Stand For Important Library

At 7 p.m. Eastern time tonight (Dec. 14), please join a live web chat about The Appalachians and mountaintop removal, featuring the book and film editor Mari-Lyn Evans, Sierra Club's Anna Sale, Coal River Mountain Watch's Judy Bonds, and OVEC's me. Don't worry, I won't say much, I can't type.  To join in, click the hot-linked-words above, or cut and paste this url:

http://forums.prospero.com/kr-ohio_evans/chat. The host, Akron Beacon Journal columnist Diane Evans recommends that participants register a user name a few minutes in advance of 7 pm. You can also join in in a discussion board on this topic at:

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Also at 7 p.m. tonight, please come to a public hearing at Cove Lake State Park, TN (directions below). The Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation public hearing is about a permit to relocate Dan Branch Creek. If this permit is issued, the Office of Surface Mining, Reclamation and Enforcement likely will allow the Zeb Mountain mountaintop removal mine to go forward.
Directions to hearing: Take I-75 to exit # 134. Go East off the exit toward Jacksboro. Travel ½ mile on Veteran's Memorial Highway. Take the first left turn (this is the entrance to the park). 

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Help Stop the Privatization of the Beckley Mine Academy Library
Please write Senator Byrd to thank him for his support of the Mine Safety and Health Administration's (MSHA) library, the people who work there and the library's unique and valuable collection related to mine health and safety.  The Bush administration is pushing to privatize this library (more information in the editorial below), which is housed in Beckley, W. Va.

Senator Byrd has decried the idea of privatizing this national treasure.  MSHA must not abandon its library to contractors whose only interest will be cutting salaries and benefits of staffers, while sucking as much profit as they can out of a publicly-held library. Libraries should be publicly funded; they are there for everyone and belong to everyone, including future generations.

This library provides extensive information to those doing environmental research, especially related to coal sludge impoundments. Here you can find reports and histories of such disasters as the Martin County (Massey Energy) coal sludge impoundment disaster of 2000, Hawk's Nest, Buffalo Creek, and so on.  Help protect this resource! For now, please contact Senator Byrd:
http://byrd.senate.gov/byrd_issues/byrd_contact/byrd_contact.html. If we hear of more ways you can help, we will let you know.

Mine library: Not broken; why break it?
Charleston Gazette Editorial from Nov. 26, 2004:  The mining industry library at the U.S. Mine Health and Safety Academy near Beckley has built a solid and credible reputation among  researchers and professionals. Staff members are prompt, helpful and             knowledgeable. The collection includes records from the defunct U.S. Bureau of Mines, plus thousands of books, films and historical     photos. It has moved with the times, putting mine fatality investigation reports online.
            
Now the Bush administration wants to mess with success. The library has been targeted in a White House effort to outsource government jobs to private companies. Under the initiative, private companies pitch proposals to replace government agencies and their employees. Goals of the administration’s effort to push government jobs to private companies sound good — reduce cost and improve service. But let the buyer — in this case, taxpayers — beware. The administration’s premise assumes that all government agencies function poorly, which simply isn’t true. This shows disrespect toward all government workers, even those who perform professionally and who bring many qualifications and years of experience to their public service.

Private enterprise is best suited for some things — making the best pizza or the best automobile, for example. But some enterprises are not about making money or saving short-term costs at long-term expense. Libraries, for example, are collectively owned by the people who use them. They should be managed in a spirit of service to those people, and to the generations to come. These goals are incompatible with most short-term business models.

Sen. Robert C. Byrd has criticized this effort and the animosity toward federal employees that has marked some of the             administration’s efforts. We agree. These plans are wrongheaded. Surely there are plenty of offices more deserving of improvement. The Government Accountability Office publishes frequent reports on housing, public assistance, Social Security and other topics that highlight failings in service to the public. Time and effort would be better spent fixing truly inadequate programs, rather than disrupting a federal installation that provides good service and enjoys a good reputation.

See also:  The Public Cost of Privatization

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