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CITIZENS COAL COUNCIL
Working Together for Justice in
the Coalfields
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Dear Friends and Allies of Citizens Coal Council:
We learned sometime this morning the hold was lifted on the nomination
of Joseph Pizarchik as Director of the Office
of Surface Mining, Reclamation and Enforcement and he was confirmed by
the Senate even though many Senators were gone for the weekend. We
currently do not know how many Senators voted or how they voted. We
feel this was rushed through just like the 12 minute hearing on his
nomination that was held by the Energy and Natural Resources committee
on August 6th.
Now more than ever we must continue to demand that the Office of
Surface Mining enforce the law and we must work together to make the
agency and coal industry accountable for the environmental damage.
Thank you to everyone that helped get the message out through your
phone calls, e-mails and letters to your Senators!There
were also many organizations and volunteers working behind the scenes
reinforcing your message that we will no longer tolerate inaction and
complacency from an agency that is suppose to protect the environment.
Make no mistake, the Office of Surface Mining heard our message loud
and clear!
Thanks again,
From Citizens Coal Council
www.citizenscoalcouncil.org
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: November 6, 2009
CONTACT: Aimee Erickson, Citizens Coal Council (724) 222-5602
(o); (724) 470-3982 (c)
CITIZENS COAL COUNCIL: SCRUTINY OF OBAMA
ADMINISTRATION'S DEALINGS WITH STRIP MINING INDUSTRY WILL INCREASE
BECAUSE SENATE HAS CONFIRMED INTERIOR SECRETARY SALAZAR'S
ANTI-ENVIRONMENTAL NOMINEE TO DIRECT COAL SURFACE MINING AGENCY
Environmental, public health watchdogs to increase
vigilance at Interior Department agency to be run by pro-industry
former state regulator.
Citizen Groups Vow To Insist On
Compliance and Enforcement As Top Agency Priority
Washington, PA - Citizens Coal Council (CCC), representing
citizen groups and community leaders in every part of America where
irresponsible coal mining companies create severe health, safety and
environmental problems, vowed today that Senate confirmation of the Obama Administration's choice to head the federal
Office of Surface Mining Regulation and Environment (OSM) will make
citizens work even harder to demand genuine reform in the
industry-captured Interior Department agency.
CCC
Coordinator Aimee Erickson stated "Those in the Senate who allowed
this nomination to go through are helping the Obama
administration continue to enable the worst coal mining practices in
this country."
"Coalfield
citizens are not about to sit back and let the destructive mining
practices that Joseph Pizarchik condoned when
he failed to properly regulate the coal industry in Pennsylvania spread
to the rest of the U.S. now that President Obama
and Interior Secretary Salazar have chosen Mr. Pizarchik
to lead the federal agency," Erickson continued.
Bill
Price, from the Sierra Club Environmental Justice program stated
"Except for the first two years, the OSM has been a dysfunctional
agency. The citizens groups in Appalachia
and their allies across the country are expecting increased scrutiny of
the OSM by Secretary Salazar. If Mr. Pizarchik
tries to run the OSM in the same manner that he ran the Bureau of
Mining and Reclamation in the Pennsylvania DEP, the world will
know."
Kentucky Resources
Council Director Tom FitzGerald added
"The pressure is now really on Interior Secretary Salazar to
personally see to it that genuine reform comes to Interior Department
enforcement of the laws that are supposed to protect Americans against
harm caused by the coal industry. We are grateful that the
Secretary is at least considering whether to start honestly enforcing
mountaintop removal laws again - but in every part of America where the
coal industry operates, people are losing their homes and communities,
their streams and their prairie and pasturelands, because OSM simply
fails to enforce the federal law regulating how the coal industry is
supposed to mine and reclaim the land."
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