An important plea from the chapter MTR committee

http://action.sierraclub.org/WhatsAtStake

Dear Chapter and Group Leaders (and others)

I want to update you all on an important situation, in order to re-introduce
you to what the Chapter's Stop Mountaintop Removal committee is dealing
with.

As many of you know, this Chapter has been fighting MTR for a very long
time- for the last several years as a Chapter working group and years before
that as activist Dave Cooper took his Mountaintop Removal Road Show around
the country.

While our small committee has accomplished a lot, I need to make clear to
you that we have arrived at a very critical point now. Let me lay out some
basic points:

-We in Kentucky have over 90 pending MTR permits. Each of these have more
than one valley fill.  Some have as many as 12. That's a lot of mountains at
risk.

-The Obama administration has done some moves to provide additional
oversight, but make no mistake- there is little right now that is holding
these 90 permits back.

-West Virginia, the other state who has been battling these operations along
with us, lost their most critical battles in circuit court. They have been
at this longer and have more people fighting than we do. We are in a
different  Federal circuit.  What happened to them is just as likely to
happen to us.

-Because the courts have failed West Virginia's cause, the citizens there
are now taking drastic measures. If you saw the news yesterday, a large
group of citizens were arrested protesting at Marsh Fork Elementary,
including NASA scientist James Hansen and actress Darryl Hannah. Earlier
some young folks went onto an active mine site to stop a dragline.

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN??
It means if the Obama administration does not act, we in Kentucky are the
last line of defense. We DO NOT have enough capacity in our working group to
tackle 90 permits. We DO have tremendous help from the National Legal team
and the Club has just hired a coal organizer for this region, but I think
it's obvious that even with this fantastic support, it is going to take a
serious expansion of effort to get this done.

-We are at a point that is much like where we were in 2001 with the
Thoroughbred Power Plant fight. An impossible task with far less than
optimal resources. We have been here before.

WHAT WE NEED
-We need you, the ExCom, and the Group Chairs to help us ramp up our
capacity. We need more people to pitch in, and spread the word.

-We need more people to join our public listserv:
KY-MTR-FORUM@lists.sierraclub.org

-We need people to help us monitor permits in the tracker. You can find the
national permit tracker at: http://action.sierraclub.org/WhatsAtStake.

-We need more people helping us with ground work. We have prioritized sites,
because it will be impossible to investigate all 90 sites. But even
exploring a few takes time. What it takes are people willing to hike and who
are good with orienteering. So your outings leaders are critical.

-We need in particular, people with 4WD vehicles who can help us
occasionally out in Eastern KY. We only have one or two available to us at
any given time and many of these sites are out on backroads.

-We have a hike this Saturday. Come join us.

-There is much much more that we need, but I want to get the main points out
to you. PLEASE RELAY THIS MESSAGE TO YOUR KEY LEADERS in the groups, and as
you find people with interest in helping, send them to me. We will find a
way to make use of folks even if they cannot travel to the coalfields.

Much like the Thoroughbred fight, we need people pitching in in ways that
will use any and all skill sets.

Thank you , and please let me know if you have any questions on anything.

Lane (lanebold@earthlink.net)