Nominations for OSM Chief

As the Obama Administration moved to appoint someone to head the federal Office of Surface Mining, Reclamation and Enforcement (OSMRE), OVEC worked with groups nationwide to try to assure that the appointee would be good for coalfield communities.

In September we rushed to DC, with one days notice, for meetings obtained by the Citizens Coal Council, to voice our opposition to OSMRE nominee Joseph Pizarchik. As head of Pennsylvanias DEP, Pizarchik had a dismal record of caring about the coal industrys impacts on communities and the environment.

Present at the DC meetings were people from West Virginia, upset with OSMREs record on mountaintop removal; people from Pennsylvania and Illinois upset with Pizarchiks promotion of the "beneficial" uses of toxic coal combustion waste and with OSMREs poor oversight of longwall mining; and representatives of the Navajo nation where OSMRE lets coal companies exploit the people and the land, drain aquifers and dump poisons.

Our thanks to our colleagues in Pennsylvania, the Environmental Integrity Project, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, the Alliance for Appalachia, Citizens Coal Council and numerous other groups.