Press Release

May 28, 2003

***MEDIA ADVISORY***

Media Teleconference 

Mountaintop Removal Mining Environmental Impact Statement

On May 29, 2003, the Bush administration is expected to release a long-awaited Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) assessing the environmental and social harm caused by Mountaintop Removal coal mining-a form of strip mining in which the coal companies literally blast hundreds of feet off the tops of mountain peaks and push millions of tons of mining waste rubble into surrounding valleys, burying miles of streams. 

The EIS will confirm the widespread environmental destruction of streams and other valuable natural resources caused by mountaintop removal coal mining, and verify that-if left unchecked-hundreds of additional square miles of forests, mountains and streams will be destroyed by this form of coal mining. Yet the EIS is expected to contain no recommendations by the Bush administration for any substantive limits on mountaintop removal mining; in fact, the EIS is expected to recommend weakening environmental rules that currently apply to coal strip mining. 

Environmental groups in West Virginia, Kentucky and Washington DC are holding a briefing for media to discuss the EIS findings and the Bush administration’s response at 12:00 pm EST on Thursday, May 29th. (The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Interior Department’s Office of Surface Mining and Environmental Protection Agency will be holding a telephone briefing later the same day.)

Media Teleconference: Thursday, May 29, NOON Eastern (9:00 am PST) 
Dial in (DC Area): 703-326-9011 
Toll free (outside the DC area): 1-877-207-5479 

Telephone Press Briefing Participants Include: 

· Cindy Rank, West Virginia Highlands Conservancy 
· Joe Lovett, Executive Director, Appalachian Center for the Economy and the Environment 
· Vivian Stockman, Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition 
· Jim Hecker, Staff Attorney, Trial Lawyers for Public Justice 
· Judy Bonds, Coal River Mountain Watch 
· Jerry Hardt, Kentuckians For The Commonwealth 
· Sara Zdeb, Friends of the Earth 
· Joan Mulhern, Senior Legislative Counsel, Earthjustice