SAVE THE DATE!

West Virginia Environmental Council
20th Annual Fall Meeting Convention

September 25-27th, 2009

Holly Grey Park, Sutton, WV

*Please save the date for our 20th annual Fall Convention which will feature discussions & workshops on WV Environmental Issues, planning for our 2010 Legislative Priorities, a great keynote speaker as well as great music, great people, and an evening birthday party for the WV Environmental Council. More information will be coming out about this throughout the summer. But we want to make sure that WV Environmental organizations and our grassroots activists get this on your calendars now.

This should have probably been one of the first blogs I wrote when joining SEAC, but let me introduce myself, and tell you why I am with SEAC today

My name is Billy Astrove, and I am going to be a rising senior at West Virginia Wesleyan Callege in Buckhannon, West Virginia. I am affiliated with SEAC through West Virginia Wesleyan's Green Club which joined the newly-formed West Virginia Youth Action League last October, in order to connect with other students in various environmental groups around the state of West Virginia. Throughout the year, we did a fundraiser for our local green club where we brought fraternities and they participated in a coal vs. wind tug of war competition. In addition, we led campaigns to try to bring a trayless cafeteria in order to cut down on waste within the school, and a petition for a wind farm on Coal River Mountain. I started involving myself in the green club, and it continued to grow on me.

Throughout the Summer and hopefully into the fall, I am interning with SEAC to work organize youths who are from the coal fields to lobby Congress to put an end to Mountain Top Removal. At the end of this month, we will be bringing youth from the Coal Fields of Kentucky and West Virginia to speak out in favor of the Appalachian Restoration Act (S.696)to the senate and the Clean Water Protection Act (HR 1310). These bills would ban valley fills, effectively ending Mountaintop Removal. The lobby week will take place this month from July 27-31, and it is affiliated through SEAC and the Alliance for Appalachia.

We encourage coal field residents to come down and speak out to their legislatures about how Mountaintop Removal has effected them. This will be a wonderful time, and there is scholarship money available for those who register before July 17.

General Information:

On Saturday, July 4th and Sunday, July 5th, the annual Mountain Keepers
Music Festival will be held at Kayford Mountain's Stanley Heirs Park . This
concert is the premier music festival that celebrates environmental justice
in southern West Virginia. The two day event will feature local and regional
musicians playing a variety of bluegrass, gospel, country, rock, jam and old
time music, as well as a pot-luck meal. This is a free concert that will
celebrate Appalachian life and attendees are encouraged to bring a covered
dish.

The festival will feature many emerging artists who celebrate their homes
and heritage.

Stanley Heirs Park is located near Dawes, WV, which is about 35
minutes south of Charleston off of Interstate 64. For more
information about the concert and directions: www.myspace.com/mtkeepersfest

There is a potluck Saturday afternoon so please bring a dish to share.
There is also free camping available on both Friday and Saturday nights, but
music doesn't start until Saturday afternoon. Bring camping supplies, water,
and snacks if you plan on staying.

This is a drug and alcohol free event. This is a free concert,
but donations are welcome and appreciated, please bring your checkbook.
This Festival is sponsored by the Keepers of the Mountains Foundation, Ohio
Valley Environmental Coalition, and Student Environmental Action Coalition.

For more information on the effects of mountaintop removal, please visit
www.crmw.net, www.ohvec.org, or www.seac.org.

==========================================

Musicians

Sat, July 5th starts at about noon

Chelsea McBee: http://www.chelseamcbee.com/home.html
Benji Taylor: http://www.myspace.com/benjitaylor
The Lone Tones: http://www.thelonetones.com/home.html
Corporate Orange: http://www.myspace.com/corporateorange
Benji Burrell and Tricia Feeney: n/a
Kipp McGhee & Friends: http://www.myspace.com/pavlovsdogswv
Trish Ansley: n/a

In less than one week I'll be hopping on my bike and riding to Washington DC from Michigan! For the past 6 months (since I returned from Bangladesh) I have been coordinating a group of riders from Michigan as part of the Trek to Re-Energize America (http://trektoreenergize.org). We have 9 great riders coming from Michigan, all students and recent graduates. This weekend several of us will be attending Rothbury Music Festival to promote the Trek, and I'm lucky enough to have a spot on a "Think Tank" panel: http://www.rothburyfestival.com/festival/think_tank.php On July 6th we'll be starting in Muskegon Michigan and then meeting with a larger group of riders (some of whom starting in Washington!) in Columbus, Ohio, and on July 26th we'll arrive in DC to meet up with 50+ riders from all over the US!

So why are we biking to DC? Our ultimate purpose is to lobby congress to support strong climate legislation. We hope that by biking 900 miles across the country, we can show that youth care about the future of humanity and our planet, and climate change threatens both of these. Along the way we'll be stopping in both small and large communities throughout Michigan, Ohio, West Virginia, and Virginia, and learning about everything from organic agriculture to windmills to mountaintop removal.

To follow our adventure, please check out our blog at http://900miles.blogspot.com, where you can see our route, stories and pictures (even Twitter updates) from the road, and if you're feeling generous, you can donate to our "food and sunscreen fund" through PayPal. This is going to be an incredible journey, and I am so happy to have all of your support. Please comment on our blog to keep in touch over the next month!

Peace,
Marci

Hey folks, as a fun way to get to know eachother and form a united vision we are starting a collaborative story. We hope you'll feel comfortable adding some ideas to the beginning below, feel free to dream and get starry eyed! Just add a sentence or two, even just a word! The framing is as follows;

When I wake up and justice is ubiquitous...

funds, funds, funds
-or-
i hope this vista training pays off quick

. food cart for bar street
.. provide much-needed food to the drinkers downtown, as there are no good 24-hour places to eat anywhere in the city of charleston (southern kitchen, where are you???)
... why this will work: drunks love food, everyone in the bar & helping something that sounds rad: low cost due to food procurement methods & transportation: suggested donations cost on product keep us law-abiding & everyone fed: face-to-face, ear-to-ear, heart-to-heart community building: action, service & education: designated drivers, bouncers & bartenders love food too ...
.... supplies: food, mode of transportation, cart that fits mode, attention grabber, communication
..... our plan for now, as an example: use various methods to obtain cheap or free food. we have rocked with veggie sushi ( locally grown veggies & wild mushrooms) & dog treats, as organic as possible... carrots, peas, oatmeal, sunflower seeds, molasses, oatmeal, brewers yeast.
This was at yard sales, though, so we're going with a different approach for the bars: grilled cheese sandwiches (hopefully grilled on spot), baked potatoes w/toppings (mushrooms, cheese, corn & butter, gravy, sour cream.. all we need are thrift store spoons & aluminum foil .. both returnable for a deposit), pepperoni rolls, fruit, maybe something chocolate...frozen chocolate covered bananas?: bake sale on wheels- because we aren't selling, we should be able to bake in our own kitchens. If not, we may be able to use a dept. approved unitarian universalists kitchen (in-kind donations-i think that's on the quiz): some customers will be those we're trying to serve with the money, so donations allows for the working poor to support & eat, too: we'll probably use a handlebar jar for donations & make some cart side signs for education: we have a guy who can make carts. call if interested in a cart or know-how.

. jars

In the recent Days, Marfork Coal Company has been awarded with the Prestigious Green Miner Award from Massey Energy Co, which was presented at Massey Energy's Yearly Award Banquet on Wednesday June 17. Every year, Massey Energy gives this "prestigious" award to the company that they view has made the most attempts towards going green. Marfork is an underground mine that prides itself on staying about the environmental standards.

In the recent wake of this award, comes the realization that Marfork Coal Company is 6.8 miles away from Marshfork Elementary School, all of a 13 minute commute according to Google Maps. Now what is Marsh Fork Elelmentary School? This school, also in Raleigh County, is located in front of two gigantic coal silos. There is a 2.8 billion gallon coal sludge impoundment just uphill from the school. Kids report breathing difficulties, and frequently go home sick. One teacher at this school did a project with her students where she taped a white Kleenex tissue to the window on a monday. By friday, the tissue was black. Parents are concerned about their childrens' health and the rising rates of Asthma in the immediate area. Yet a coal company just less than 7 miles away receives the highest green honor by Massey Energy.

Marfork Coal Company is not the company directly responsible for the sludge dam. A 1,849 acre surface/strip mine, Goals Coal, operates just above the silo and the school. Thomas Cook who is the Massey Energy VP of Environmental Affairs says, "We like to keep our areas clean, we like to keep them pristine and usable for the future,and we believe our members lead the way in making that happen." Marsh Fork Elementary School barely has conditions in which students are able to live let alone learn.

Massey Energy chose Marfork Coal Company as a result of the following factors that go above and beyond the company's standards:

In the recent wake of last week's initiative to push more scrutiny on Mountaintop Removal Mountain, Obama left out a key piece: Saying No More. Throughout the first 140 days in office, Obama has shown a great amount of indecisiveness when putting an end to mountaintop removal by relegating decisions to the EPA. Maybe I am dreaming of the day when people can go to jail for 3 years and pay $5 million fines for destroying the tops of mountains, but until that day comes this is the time when we as a group of citizens need to stand up and tell our Head of State: No More.

Obama, however has done much more than Bush has ever done by requiring the review of permits. However, I do not know if he has a desire to end MTR practices. From what the Washington Post article:
Mountaintop Mining to Get More Scrutiny (written Thursday June 11), the Obama Administration is not ending MTR, but wasnt to have the EPA end some of its worst effects like the destruction of trees and buried streams. But isnt this a typical feature of MTR? Wouldnt it be easier to "Just Say NO"!

When reviewing Obama's stance on Mountaintop Removal, we can look back to March: “This is one of those things where I want science to help lead us. I will tell you that there’s some pretty country up there that’s been torn up pretty good. I will also tell you that the environmental consequences of the runoff from some of these mountains can just be horrendous. … Not taking that into account because of short-term economic concerns, I think, is a mistake. I think we have to balance economic growth with good stewardship of the land God gave us.”

– President Barack Obama on mountaintop removal, March 23, 2009.

From this quote, Obama is very hesitant to say no more removing mountains, even though that is definetely a priority that should be in the best interest in the country.

A new film about the teetering oil industry in the U.S. Check it out, spread the word. It's big.

http://www.houstonwehaveaproblemfilm.com/

If you're interested in hosting a free screening of this film, contact

Nicole Torre
New Angle Media
http://www.newangle-media.com
917-670-9324

or,

Johnny Kilroy
jrkilroy@gmail.com
703-984-9562