Press Release

February 15, 2008

CONTACT: Ailis Aaron Wolf, (703) 276-3265, or aaaron@hastingsgroup.com.

Another Setback for Mountaintop Removal: 'Overwhelming Majority' of 43,000 Comments Flooding Into Office of Surface Mining Oppose Stream Buffer Zone Rule Change

WASHINGTON, Feb. 14 -- No fewer than 43,000 Americans spoke out during the public comment period on a U.S. Department of Interior Office of Surface Mining (OSM) proposal to weaken the Stream Buffer Zone (SBZ) rule and unleash more mountaintop removal (MTR) coal mining, according to information gathered by 700Mountains.org and the Citizens Lead for Energy Action Now (CLEAN) coalition.

The "overwhelming majority" of the 43,000 comments were opposed to the industry-backed draft rule that would weaken the SBZ rule and pave the way for significantly more MTR-related pollution, including the potential leveling of up to 700 mountains over the next 10 years.

In conversations with a representative of 700Mountains.org, two OSM officials confirmed the total number of comments and the extraordinarily high level of opposition to the SBZ rule proposal.

"The public has clearly spoken: Mountaintop removal is a national disgrace and Bush should not change another rule in order to help Big Coal blow up more mountains and bury more streams," said Chuck Nelson, a former deep miner and volunteer with the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition, the West Virginia citizens' group at http://www.ohvec.org. .

"How can 43,000 people stand up and speak like we spoke against this destruction and somebody not hear us?" asked Carl Shoupe of Harlan County, a member of Kentuckians For The Commonwealth at http://www.kftc.org. "That's humanly impossible for me to fathom."

The strong opposition to OSM's proposed SBZ rule is consistent with the findings of a September 2007 survey sponsored by 700Mountains.org project of the nonprofit and nonpartisan Civil Society Institute (CSI) think tank. That survey conducted by Opinion Research Corporation that two out of three Americans (65 percent) oppose the Bush Administration's proposed rule "to ease environmental regulations to permit wider use of 'mountaintop removal' coal mining in the U.S." The survey also found that the Bush Administration plan to permit wider MTR coal mining is favored by only about one out of four Americans (26 percent), including just 14 percent of Democrats, 27 percent of Independents, and 42 percent of Republicans. Full survey findings are available online at http://www.700Mountains.org .

Civil Society Institute President and Founder Pam Solo said: "What we are faced with today is a threat about which no American should remain silent. With nearly 500 U.S. mountains estimated to already have been subjected to the ravages of mountaintop removal coal mining, we are deeply concerned that another 500-700 mountains could be at risk under the wide-open approach contemplated under the proposed rule change. If the coal industry succeeds in convincing politicians and the media to buy into the 'clean coal' myth, it gives them further license to engage in a massive expansion of mountaintop removal. The people who are selling the 'clean coal' myth today are the same ones who are falsely suggesting that Americans have nothing to fear from a stream buffer zone rule change. The good news is that 43,000 Americans have sent Washington the signal that they are not buying this dirty-coal PR job."

Under the industry's proposed SBZ rule change, mining companies would be permitted to dump their waste into streams and other fresh drinking water supplies. The new rule would unleash more MTR coal mining, which buries fresh water streams and creates toxic coal slurry impoundments, while employing many fewer miners than are involved in traditional mining methods. MTR coal mining already has destroyed more than 1,000 miles of fresh water streams and 700 mountains in the U.S. Changing the SBZ rule would result in the destruction of 1,000 more miles of streams and up to 700 additional mountains.

ABOUT THE GROUPS

700Mountains.org (http://www.700Mountains.org) is a project of the Civil Society Institute. The nonprofit and nonpartisan Civil Society Institute (http://www.CivilSocietyInstitute.org ) is a Massachusetts-based think tank that serves as a catalyst for change by creating problem-solving interactions among people, and between communities, government and business that can help to improve society. Since 2003, CSI has conducted more than 15 major national and state-level surveys on energy and global warming issues.

The Citizens Lead for Energy Action Now preamble to the detailed, step-by-step "call to action" reads in part: "The challenges posed by global warming can be solved through determined action and innovative thinking. We need to phase out fuels, technologies, and practices that contribute to global warming and phase in fuels, technologies and practices that move us toward solutions ... We call on the U.S. government to take decisive action to stop global warming and climate change. Our government should act immediately using all the tools at our nation's disposal ... It is not too late! It can be done! It will not happen without the American people demanding action of governments and businesses -- and taking personal action wherever possible!"

The list of groups initiating the CLEAN call to action consists of: Save Our Cumberland Mountains (Tennessee); Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition (West Virginia); Cook Inlet Keeper (Alaska); Christians for the Mountains (West Virginia); Coal River Mountain Watch (West Virginia); Kentuckians For The Commonwealth (Kentucky); Civil Society Institute (Massachusetts); Clean Power Now (Massachusetts); Indigenous Environmental Network (Minnesota); Castle Mountain Coalition (Alaska); Citizens Action Coalition (Indiana); Appalachian Center for the Economy & the Environment (West Virginia); Appalachian Voices (NC); and Rhode Island Wind Alliance (Rhode Island).