Below:

• Vigil and March Oct. 19, 20 -- Down with Sludge, Up with Safety

• Oct. 19: Protect Wilderness in West Virginia

• Oct. 20: Is Toxic Sludge Good for You?

• Oct. 22, 23: Book Worms and Authors Unite Against Mountaintop Removal

• "Clean" Coal is a Dirty Lie

 Vigil and March Oct. 19, 20 -- Down with Sludge, Up with Safety
Oct. 19, 20: Mountain Justice Summer, MUPeace and OVEC invite you to Huntington to counter the coal industry's "Coal Quality '05." This year's meeting of industry reps focuses on coal processing plants (prep plants), from which Appalachia's signature 'death soup' - sludge - is born. Whether it is looming over an elementary school; spilling, leaking or sometimes exploding from the hundreds of active and inactive coal sludge impoundments in Appalachia; or injected into abandoned underground mines around the coalfields, sludge spells one thing for Appalachia - danger!

Join us as we expose the toll of coal prep plants and coal sludge impoundments on human health and safety. We'll hold a candlelight vigil for the mountains on Wednesday Oct. 19 from 7:00 - 8:30 p.m. in front of the Holiday Inn on 3rd Ave. where many of the conference-goers will be staying. From 3:30 to 5:00 p.m. on Thursday Oct. 20 it's a March on King Coal--speak out against coal sludge impoundments and mountaintop removal. Meet at Pullman Square at 3:30, march to the convention center, then to the nearby Army Corps of Engineers (which issues permits for mountaintop removal and coal sludge impoundments) building and back to the center. For more info: appalachian-always@riseup.net.

Warm up for these two events by listening to Ed Wiley of Coal River Mountain Watch and Hillary Hosta of Coalfield Sustainability Project. They will speak at 7 p.m. on Tuesday Oct. 18, at the Drinko Library, 3rd floor, on the Marshall University campus about sludge, mountaintop removal and climate change.

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 Oct. 19: Protect Wilderness in West Virginia
If candlelight vigils aren't your style, at 7 p.m. on Wednesday Oct. 19 in the downtown Huntington Public Library, join Helen Gibbins as she presents the Wilderness Coalition's multimedia show on proposals to update the Monongahela National Forest Plan. Because the Mon Forest holds special values for outdoor recreation In the Eastern United States, it is vital to send in comments on the plan. The comment period deadline is November 14. To learn more, attend this meeting, or click here.

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 Oct. 20: Is Toxic Sludge Good for You?
As you may recall from OVEC's latest newsletter, people living in the Lick Creek, Rawl, Merrimac, and Sprigg areas of Mingo County are very concerned about what the underground injection of coal sludge has apparently done to their well water. While some of us are marching in Huntington (see first entry above), others will gather from 5:30 to 7:00 p.m. on Thursday Oct. 20 at the Williamson Campus of Southern West Virginia Community & Technical College. We'll talk with officials about health concerns related to the area's water. The meeting is in Room 431, 1601 Armory Drive. This promises to be a heated meeting, as many area residents are distrustful of the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), which funded this health consultation meeting along with the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources. With the ATSDR's research and results often inconclusive by design, residents are justified in their mistrust of the agency. For more info, call 304-558-6751.

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 Oct. 22, 23: Book Worms and Authors Unite Against Mountaintop Removal
Oct. 22, 23: West Virginia Book Festival at the Civic Center in Charleston, 9-6 Saturday and noon to 6 Sunday. Stop by booth 11--that's the Friends of the Mountains booth, where we will have a display featuring some of the non-fiction and fiction books that mention mountaintop removal coal mining. For more on the book festival, click here.

Oct. 22: Missing Mountain S.O.S., a free community forum with some of Kentucky's most notable authors speaking out against mountaintop removal mining. More than a dozen Kentucky writers, including Wendell Berry, Bobbie Ann Mason, Ed McClanahan and more, are donating their time to help raise money for the statewide nonprofit group, Kentuckians for the Commonwealth. The program will include a presentation and discussion on the devastation that is mountaintop removal, an author social with book sales and signings, and a silent auction. The event begins at 2 p.m., at the Crescent Hill Baptist Church, 2800 Frankfort Ave., Louisville, Ky. Organized and sponsored by Carmichael's Bookstores, 1295 Bardstown Road & 2720 Frankfort Avenue, Louisville, Ky.

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 "Clean" Coal is a Dirty Lie
Is this America's dirty little secret? Coal's dirty when you dig it, dirty when you haul, dirty when your burn it, dirty when you dispose of the ash, and it sure dirties up politics! Hence, we get a little miffed when Big Coal lobbyists, politicians and the those who don't know about the full cycle of the world's coal use try to brand coal as "clean."  See: 'Clean coal' push concerns environmental activists and Friends of the Mountains Letter to NRDC.  (If you can't open any of these links, e-mail vivian@ohvec.org for text of the articles.)

It's true, oil supplies have already or will soon peak, but it's ecologically irresponsible, economically unsound, short-sighted and plain stupid to be suggesting that costly, polluting coal-to-oil technologies -- especially in light of global warming --  and other dirty coal schemes can save us from our over-consumptive ways. No matter how much of our tax dollars politicians invest in coal lobbyists' projects, any energy plans that do not address global warming are doomed to failure. After all, "clean" coal isn't climate-friendly yet, (and likely never will be).

Keep up with the latest news on mountaintop removal, global warming, energy policy and advances in renewable energy by checking the OVEC news page.

From the archives--more on the myth of "clean coal":
--Mwaura and Straight in the Huntington Herald Dispatch
--Tweddle in the Charleston Gazette
--Stockman on TomPaine.com
--Gibson and Stockman on CNN
--Living on Earth radio
--West Virginians question "security" of Bush energy policy

Also note this blurb on today's Charleston Gazette (Oct. 17) editorial page:
LAST week, we quoted a New York Times commentary by Montana’s scientist-governor who said coal can be converted into a less-expensive gasoline that doesn’t cause the harmful pollution of petroleum-derived gasoline. However, the Times was bombarded by letters saying coal gasoline produces plenty of pollution, including carbon dioxide, the “greenhouse gas” chiefly blamed for global warming. So, the energy dilemma remains murky. But the problem would be solved if scientists could discover a low-cost method to harness the abundant solar energy that bathes planet Earth every daytime minute.

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