Last month, Sierra Club volunteers and staff joined coalfield residents and activists from the Center for Coal Field Justice, Mountain Watershed Association, and the Citizens Coal Council at a hearing in Green Tree, Pa., just outside Pittsburgh, to support a new proposed federal stream protection rule and counter the coal industry's dire warnings of economic collapse in the region should the modest rule be finalized. Coal industry representatives, led by Robert E. Murray, CEO of Murray Energy Corporation, showed up in full force at the Office of Surface Mining and Reclamation Enforcement (OSMRE) hearing, decrying what it perceives as the Obama administration's "war on coal."
Murray is an outspoken critic of the scientific consensus about the human impact on climate change. (Murray Energy Corp. has sued the Obama administration over new EPA air-quality standards.) The OSMRE, which held six hearings around the country on the new proposed regulations, has stated that the effect of the Stream Protection Rule on mining jobs and production would be "negligible." If finalized, the Stream Protection Rule would be the first federal update of regulations governing surface coal mining's adverse impacts on streams, fish, and wildlife in 30 years.
Of the 50 or so attendees speaking out in favor of responsible mining at the hearing, half were from Pennsylvania and West Virginia coalfields. They shared common stories of environmental degradation resulting from surface coal mining in the areas surrounding their properties. Some supporters of a stronger Stream Protection Rule have suffered complete dewatering of local streams and the pollution of waters where they could once fish and play -- and from which they could and even safely drink. Many proposed a provision for citizen's rights, whereby individuals could take legal action against polluters if necessary.
The Center for Coal Field Justice and Mountain Watershed Association have collaborated closely with the Sierra Club for years. The three longtime allies and the Citizens Coal Council worked to ensure that the Green Tree hearing would not go unattended by those Americans most directly affected by surface coal-mining pollution. A pre-rally press conference attracted coverage in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette, Tribune Review, KQV, and the Public News Service.
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