Below:

• July 30--Save the Date!

• July 8: East Coast (Richmond,  Va.) Convergence Against Mountaintop Removal

• Please Comment--OSM Agrees To Do Environmental Impact Statement On Stream Buffer Rules!

• Masses Swarming to End Global Warming--DC Fast and More

Folks, I have no concrete explanation as to why many of you received, on June 20, an Action Alert I sent on June 2. The fault probably was with our server, but a couple of you suggested it was Echelon or Carnivore...

 July 30--Save the Date!
Save the Date! We need you, your family, your neighbors and everyone you can bring along to come to Charleston for a Stop Mountaintop Removal event on Saturday, July 30. We'll send out more info in mid-July, but if you want to know more sooner, please contact Abe at abe@ohvec.org or 304-522-0246.  Do please save the date and plan to join us!

A reason to come out on July 30: An aerial view of Kayford Mountain, June 15, 2005. Click here to see a very high resolution view of this photo.

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 July 8: East Coast Convergence Against Mountaintop Removal 
July 8: Monroe Park, Richmond, VA. East Coast Convergence Against Massey Energy and Mountaintop Removal. For details, click here.

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 Please Comment--OSM Agrees To Do Environmental Impact Statement On Stream Buffer Rules
    Victory!--OSM delays changes to buffer zone rule (Charleston Gazette report)
Tom Fitzgerald writes: In comments submitted to the federal Office of Surface Mining (OSM) in June, 2003 and again in April, 2004, the Citizens Coal Council, Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition, Mountain Watershed Association (PA), Bull Mountain Land Alliance (MT) and Kentucky Resources Council warned OSM that further agency action to weaken the federal mining rules protecting stream buffer zones and to relax standards for management of excess spoil created by the mining, would invite litigation unless the agency halted efforts to change the rule and first complied with the National Environmental Policy Act's mandate that an Environmental Impact Statement be conducted evaluating the impact of the proposed changes and other alternatives.

On June 16, 2005, OSM announced an intent to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement on the stream buffer zone and excess spoil rules, and invited more public comment on the issues and alternatives. Click here to take a look at what people said in hearings on the issue in 2004. To read a note from OSM, click here. 

Please e-mail OSM at dhartos@osmre.gov. Note that you oppose the weakening of these rules, and support strict enforcement of the current rules, including an insistence that each state protect the full extent of headwater streams from filling with mine wastes. For more detail, click here and here.  You have until mid-August to comment.

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 Masses Swarming to End Global Warming--DC Fast and More
July 5-8: Join  the National Global Warming Coalition in a Fast to Slow Global Warming, outside the White House, during the Scotland G-8 Summit, where global warming is supposed to be a major topic. This fast is an opportunity for us to communicate our determination that the United States address the threat of global warming. Consider joining us in Washington or organizing a companion fast in your community. Click here for more details. To register or for more info, contact David Merrill, Executive Director, GlobalWarmingSolution.org, P.O. Box 9201, Missoula, MT 59807. (406) 542-8089, david@globalwarmingsolution.org.

Join a "Virtual March on DC" on global warming by clicking here.  Also see www.undoit.org/.

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