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URGENT URGENT URGENT!!!!
PIZARCHIK NOMINATION HELD IN THE SENATE
You are being heard!! Please keep
it up!!
The ill-advised nomination of Joseph Pizarchik as Director of the Office of Surface
Mining, Reclamation and Enforcement (OSMRE) has been put on "hold" anonymously by a US Senator. As long as any
hold exists, the nomination cannot come to the floor for a vote. While
holds on bills and nominations are not unusual,
This is the first time in the 32 years of OSMRE's existence that
an OSMRE nominee has been held up over the concerns of coal-field
citizens about the failure to enforce the Surface Mining Control and
Reclamation Act, SMCRA. This action resulted from the
thousands of calls and emails from the grassroots, folks like
you, asking for a more balanced person to lead OSMRE.
Make no mistake, the
pressure to lift this hold from the Interior Department and the coal industry
is immense. The hold could be lifted and vote could come up today,or any day hereafter that falls on Tuesday,
Wednesday or Thursday.
We sincerely thank all of you who have already
emailed and/or called your Senators but we ask you to please contact them
again and ask others to do so as well. Let's keep making history!
- Urge your Senators to oppose the
nomination of Joseph Pizarchik as Director of the OSMRE.
- Ask them also to ask Senate Majority Leader Harry
Reid not to bring this nomination to the floor and the White House to
withdraw it.
Who runs OSMRE will make a
crucial difference in stopping destructive practices never
envisioned by the framers of SMCRA such as filling mines with coal combustion
wastes (ccw), longwall mining and mountaintop removal mining that obliterates
forests and buries streams and wildlife under tons of rubble.
While
mountain top removal does not occur in Pennsylvania, Pizarchik's policies
have included:
1. Long wall mining that has
destroyed streams, water supplies, historic sites, family farms and private property
2. Valley fills that have buried streams
under piles of coal refuse
3. Water supplies poisoned by toxic coal combustion
wastes dumped into mines into groundwater with no safeguards
4. Public hearing times and
formats that greatly reduced or eliminated citizen input
5. Decreased transparency and accountability
for decisions made by mining officials
6. A bonding program that failed to guarantee
reclamation of land or prevent contamination of water
To find out more about Pizarchik visit:
In the words of Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ):
"Transitioning to a new, clean-energy economy requires people
who are willing to break free from the inertia of doing things the way they
have always been done. From what I have heard from community groups in Pennsylvania, from my own questioning of [Pizarchik] in committee, his
answers to my written inquiries and a follow-up meeting with my staff, I do not
believe Mr. Pizarchik is willing to look at these issues with a fresh
eye."
Your call and/or e-mail
now will ensure that more decision-makers in Congress get the message
and loosen the stranglehold that coal companies and
utilities have always had on the OSMRE.
PLEASE e-mail or call your
senator TODAY! Ask them to oppose the Pizarchik
nomination and ask the Senate Majority Leader Harry
Reid and the Whitehouse to put someone in charge of OSMRE
who will finally care about the people, their
water, and the land, forests and wildlife as much as
the coal in America's coal fields; someone who will enforce SMCRA the way its
framers intended! Joseph Pizarchik is NOT that person.
Please use the Senate Target List on the left and contact all the staff people listed below your Senator's name.
Thank you again for all of your help! We must keep pressure on and let our Senators know we do not want Joseph Pizarchik in this very important position and we need change in the Office of Surface Mining, Reclamation and Enforcement!
Your Friends and Allies at:
Citizens Coal Council
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Visit Our Website and learn about the Whole Coal Cycle at www.citizenscoalcouncil.org
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