March 9 |
OVEC Action
Alert Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition |
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March 27 - 29: Headwaters Gathering - Southern Appalachia at the Crossroads
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April 6 - 17: Near Your Home, Meet and Educate Your Congressperson
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April 26: Last Child in the Woods Author Speaks in Charleston
March 11:
E-Day! and Stop PATH Rally
Wednesday, March 11 is E-Day! at the West Virginia State Capitol in
Charleston. Join us for a day of citizen lobbying, a press
conference, programs and exhibits. Environmental organizations and
sustainable business exhibit from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the Lower
Rotunda. Stop by the
West Virginia Environmental Council
table for info on the day's lobbying and all the other activities.
From 3:30 to 5:00 p.m. on E-Day!, please come to the Stop PATH Power Line Rally and Informational Meeting at the Women’s Club of Charleston, located on the corner of Elizabeth and Virginia Street.
PATH - Potomac-Allegheny Transmission Highline - is a proposed joint venture between American Electric Power Company (AEP) of Columbus, OH and Allegheny Energy Company of Greensburg, PA. PATH, if approved by regulatory agencies and constructed, would be a giant 765 Kilovolt electrical power transmission line that would run 290 miles from AEP’s John Amos power plant substation near St. Albans, W.Va., to a new substation near Frederick, MD. PATH would include a right-of-way swath 200 feet wide through farms and forests and other public and private properties, across a dozen or more West Virginia counties, through the state's Eastern Panhandle into Virginia and Maryland. The apparent purpose of PATH is to transfer coal-fueled electricity from the Ohio Valley to eastern cities near the Atlantic Coast.
Citizens Against PATH will have an informational table at the Capitol on E-day!, with maps, petitions against PATH and other information. For more information, contact Frank Young at fyoung@mountain.net, or 304-372-3945. Read more about PATH in an article by E-Council president Danny Chiotos here.
Stay in Charleston for the E-Day! Benefit Reception Dinner & Award Presentation Ceremony, from 6:00 - 9:30 p.m., also at the Women’s Club. Dinner served. Live music. Suggested donation at the door: $15.
March 12: Sludge Safety Project Lobby Day
On Thursday, March 12,
Sludge Safety Project's Lobby Days
continue. Details
here. Join us and help make a difference in
the lives of people living near coal waste disposal sites.
Our hard work is paying off -Senator Randy White has agreed to
sponsor a bill to ban underground coal sludge injections! He is
planning to introduce the bill this week, which means we need more
voices now to move the bill through the process of becoming law.
Stopping sludge injections is a first step to protecting our water
resources, reducing our exposure to toxins and improving health in
the state.
Support
OVEC's Cemetery Legislation
Many family cemeteries have been
damaged or even destroyed as a result of mountaintop removal /
valley fill coal mining. Last week, our two cemetery protection
bills were introduced. Please write, call or visit your elected
representatives. Ask them to support HB 2905, which would
increase the buffer zone around a cemetery. Please also ask them to
support HB 2928, which would enhance existing West Virginia Code
laws, ensuring citizen access to cemeteries and helping prevent
desecration. Please thank your representatives for any help they are
able to provide.
Read about the press conference we hosted last Thursday as the bills were introduced: WV Groups initiate Efforts to Protect Family Cemeteries.
We want to hear from you! Whether you have had a problem related to accessing or preserving your cemetery, or you have important historical data about a cemetery, and people buried there, your story is important; this is our cultural heritage and it is worth preserving!
To get involved with our cemetery protection efforts, contact Robin Blakeman at robin@ohvec.org or 304-522-0246, or Carol Warren at peacelovemom@gmail.com.
March 22: Two
Authors Sign Their Books at Taylor Books
Join OVEC at
Taylor Books
(226 Capitol St. Charleston) on Sunday, March 22 from 2 to 5 p.m. as
we co-host authors Dr. Shirley Stewart Burns and Arnold "Bud" Fultz.
In Bringing Down the Mountains, southern West Virginia native Dr. Shirley Stewart Burns provides the first scholarly study about mountaintop removal's impact on the people and land and how we’ve gotten to this point. This well researched and highly readable book provides insight into how mountaintop removal has affected the people and the land of southern West Virginia. It examines the mechanization of the mining industry and the power relationships between coal interests, politicians and the average citizen. Bringing Down the Mountains reveals how a political system married to natural-resource extraction turns a blind eye to the irrevocable disfigurement of the earth while thousands of West Virginians suffer the consequences. OVEC's work is heavily featured in the book.
Bud Fultz grew up in Harlan County, Ky. and Raleigh County, W.Va. For accounts of conniving Kentucky and West Virginia politicians caught up in sex scandals and other sleaze, look no further than Fixing the Ungodly Mess. For stories about the coal industry’s onslaught on citizens and ecosystems, this book jolts. Fultz outlines a way to create tens of thousands of jobs in Kentucky and West Virginia while phasing out brutally efficient mountaintop removal mining.
Come meet both authors at this fun, educational book signing. We are asking people to invite their legislators to attend this event.
March 28:
Clean Elections Meeting in Huntington
Join us Saturday, March 28 from 10:00 a.m. to
noon at the Multi-Purpose Facility, Marshall Student Center in Huntington, W.Va.
for a town-hall-style meeting on Clean Elections. Co-sponsored by the
WV Citizens for Clean Elections and the
local Labor Council.
Why come? Are you: -Tired of elections paid for by the fat cats? -Appalled that the 2008 West Virginia legislative elections rang up over $4 million in campaign spending? -Amazed that some candidates for the West Virginia Legislature spend many times their annual legislative salary to get elected?-Angry that lobbyists often have more input into what ends up in a bill than the citizens the law affects? There is another way. Public financing makes for Clean Elections. Come to the meeting, get more information, or make plans to host a similar meeting near you -- contact Carol Warren at peacelovemom@gmail.com or 304-847-5121.
March
27 - 29: Headwaters Gathering - Southern Appalachia at the
Crossroads
Climate change is likely to impact every aspect of life in the
Southern Appalachians. Come to the Headwaters Gathering, on the
Warren Wilson College campus in Asheville, N.C., to discuss
effective, sustainable strategies with national leaders. Develop a
communication network to give voice to the issues. Form cross-sector
relationships for the work ahead. Speakers include OVEC board member
Chuck Nelson, Majora Carter, David Orr, Winona LaDuke, Herman Daly,
Andy Revkin and many others. For more information and register now
here.
Deadline to register is March 13.
April 6 - 17: Near Your Home, Meet and
Educate Your Congressperson
From April 6
– 17,
members of Congress return to their home districts for the Spring
District Work Period. This is an ideal time for citizens to meet
with their representatives to remind them about the issues that
matter in their communities. As a coordinated effort,
CLEAN would
like to help citizens set up meetings in each and every district to
let Congress know that their constituents demand a clean energy
future. Learn more
here.
OVEC is looking for commitments from folks who will meet with Congresspeople Rahall, Mollohan and Capito when they are in their home districts. We need to let our elected officials know that folks in West Virginia want green jobs! We have paid the price to industrialize the nation and now it's time to get something back. E-mail vivian@ohvec.org if you want to be involved.
April 26:
Last Child in the Woods Author Speaks in Charleston
At 2:30 p.m.
on April 26, Earth Day Sunday, OVEC and the
Kanawha
Unitarian Universalists co-host Last Child in the Woods:
Saving Our Children From Nature-Deficit Disorder
author Richard
Louv for "Leave No
Child Inside, West Virginia." Co-sponsoring this event (so far) are
our good friends at the
West Virginia
Highlands Conservancy and
West Virginia
Citizen Action Group. Join us at the UU, 520
Kanawha Blvd. West, Charleston, for Louv's engaging
speech, a Q & A session and a book signing, followed by light
refreshments.
Louv is chairman of the Children & Nature Network and the author of seven books. He is the recipient of the 2008 Audubon Medal. Past recipients have included Rachel Carson, E.O. Wilson and Jimmy Carter. He has served as an adviser to the Ford Foundation’s Leadership for a Changing World award program, is a member of the Citistates Group, appears often on national radio and television programs, and speaks frequently in the United States and overseas. He has written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, and other newspapers and magazines, and was a columnist for The San Diego Union-Tribune and Parents magazine.
www.ohvec.org 304-522-0246 vivian@ohvec.org |
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