The Appalachian Coalfield Delegation to the United Nations

For years, we’ve beseeched local, state and federal government to end mountaintop removal because it annihilates our communities, mountains, streams and water supplies. It destroys our culture and our future.

Yet most government officials continue to ignore the atrocities of mountaintop removal, coal sludge impoundments and underground injection of sludge. It is up to We the People to let the world know the harsh realities of an economy built on seemingly cheap electricity.

So we will take our case to the international community: to the United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development as it meets to discuss international energy strategy.

The United Nations needs to know that we cannot have sustainable communities without the mountains on which we rely for clean water, clean air, our health, and the health of our children. It is the people of Appalachian coal mining communities who are most immediately paying the true costs of our continued over-reliance on coal.

Thanks to everyone who has sent support already. We have raised over $5,000 so far! We still need $2,000 to travel to the United Nations in New York City this May.

Please help send an inspiring delegation of at least 10 coalfield residents (including OVEC members) from Kentucky, West Virginia, and Tennessee to the UN.

Make checks payable to: The Appalachian Coalition for Just and Sustainable Communities and send to PO Box 161, Whitesburg, KY, 41858, or contact Patricia Feeney at (606) 632-0051.

Thank You!

Thanks to the dozens of folks who have contributed to the Coalfield Delegation to the United Nations!

Thank you to all the folks who helped the Sludge Safety Project during the 2006 legislative session: Debbie, Billy, Jordan and Brittany Sammons, Carmelita and Ernie Brown, Larry and Brenda Brown, Donetta and Lisa Blankenship, Ron Wilkerson, Joey Mullet, Walter and Carol Young, Denver Mitchell, Rosemary Vidovitch, Joanne Linville, Terry Steele, Debbie Jarrell, Mary Miller, Pauline Canterbury, Rev. Dennis Sparks, Rev. Jeff Allen, Carol Warren, Regina Hendrix, Kathryn Stone, Julian Martin, Allan Johnson, Larry Gibson, Maude Rice, Joyce Adkins, Bill Price, Vernon Haltom, and Michael Morrison.

Thanks to Wilma and Terry Steele for always being there, and for giving weary organizers a place to stay.

Thanks to Barb and Roby Chafin for constant support and great dinners.

Thanks to Mel Tyree for constant support and extreme concern for humanity as global warming affects us.

Thanks to Chris “Willie” Dodson for work and support with planning the Mingo County Organizing Project.

Thanks to Brandi Jacobs for work to Get Out the Vote in Huntington.

Thanks to Larry Gibson for having, by now, 40 gazillion people up on Kayford Mountain.

Thanks to sponsors of the sludge safety bill: Delegates Barker, Marshall, Hrutkay, Moore, Hatfield and Susman. For supporting a resolution to study alternatives to coal sludge dams, thanks to most of the aforementioned delegates, as well as Delegates Caputo, Wells, Amores, Fragale, Hall, Hunt, Longstreth, Miley, Palumbo, Paxton, Stephens, Argento, Boggs, Wysong, Eldridge, Poling and Tansill.

Thanks to Senator Hunter.

Thanks to the WV Environmental Council lobby team: Ted Boettner, Julie Archer, Don Garvin, Allan Tweddle, Denise Poole, Chuck Wyrostok and Don Alexander.

Thanks to Joan Linville for her tireless energy for ending the destruction of our homes and our culture.  If everyone had her energy we’d have this whipped. 

Thanks to to Jim Foster, Retha Backus, Charles Bella, Cynthia Burns, Bob and Brenda Farris, Luther and Dara Mccarty. Russell and Misty Kuhn.

Thanks to Kenny King, Regina Hendrix, Bill Price, Frank Unger, Steve Fez, Nell Zeihl and others working to save Blair Mountain.

Thank to Greensburg Salem, Pa., High School students Stephanie Loughner, Jill Sompel and Kaitlyn Walton for producing “Bringing Down The Mountains” and for showing it at the WV Energy Gathering in Feb. ‘06.   

Thanks to Ronda Harper, Steven Perry, Michael Morrison for help with a mailing. And to Lisa Smith.

Thanks to RB for shelter and food.

Thanks to Linda Frame and Mike Forman, Regina Hendrix, Julian Martin and Mae Ellen for willingness to host guests.

Thanks to Mary Wildfire for editing.

Thanks to all the groups OVEC works with – all the Friends of the Mountains!