On Saturday October 24th, Cleveland Climate Watch, The Cleveland Mountain Justice Project, 1 Sky and friends hit the streets as part of 350.org's international day of climate action, in front of the Avon Lake power plant in Avon Lake, Ohio. We had two messages: support strong global climate action to prevent us from going over the edge into climate chaos hell, and to demand that the owner of the plant, RRI of Houston, Texas, stop burning mountain top removal coal at Avon and the rest of its plants.

We are starting to do something right. After two to three months of an e-mail blitz in cooperation with the Sierra Club, RRI finally responded to us on the eve of the 350.org event. They agreed that they had been using mountaintop removal (MTR) coal in the plant for two years, because of market conditions (the usual explanation for just about anything in corporate speak), but had no plans to buy any in 2010. It is that last point that we like and that we are going to try to run with, in our response, which is in process now. We do not know what will come next. RRI came out last summer in favor of Markey-Waxman, thus joining many other utility companies that see the writing on the wall and want to be at the table instead of on the table. Therefore, we are relieved to know that dealing with them will not be like dealing with the Don Blankenships of the world, whose typical response to opposition is to kill it before it multiplies.

International coverage of the crisis in our own backyard.

Part 1

Part 2

More Information:

www.coalriverwind.org

Study: The Long-Term Economic Benefits of Wind Vs. MTR on Coal River Mountain Study, 12/2008, Downstream Strategies

Congresswoman Marcia Fudge (OH-11) has announced she will join fellow Cleveland area Representatives Dennis Kucinich (OH-10),  Tim Ryan (OH-17) and Betty Sutton (OH-13) as a consponsor of the Clean Water Protection Act (H.R 1310).   The Clean Water Protection Act (CWPA), introduced by Representatives Frank Pallone (D-NJ) and Dave Reichert (R-WA), would end a Bush-era modification to our Clean Water Act that permits the coal mining industry to dump their waste directly into American streams and waterways.

On June 23^rd thirty-one activists protesting mountain top removal coal mining and the building of a new coal storage silo above Marsh Fork Elementary School, were arrested. The protest, organized by Coal River Mountain Watch, included luminaries like Dr. James Hansan of NASA and actress Daryl Hanna. They can get out of jail. Not everyone could, and Coal River Mountain Watch has issued an urgent appeal for donations.

Go to http://www.crmw.net/mtnholler.php?id=113 and follow the links to make a donation for those who have made a sacrifice for their community and all the rest of us.

Bo Webb, Daryl Hanna on Democracy Now!

Photo: Vivian Stockman, www.ohvec.org

Cleveland Climate Watch Launches the Cleveland Mountain Justice Project to End Northeast Ohio’s Complicity.

Over 1.4 million acres of the most biologically diverse forest habitat in North America, destroyed and bulldozed into valley fill.  Over 500 mountains are no longer mountains.  Over two thousand miles of headwater streams buried.  Water supplies ruined.  Communities ravaged.  Residents subjected to a witches' brew of air and water pollution.  These are the brutal facts of mountain top removal coal mining in Appalachia and there is a link between all these injustices and energy providers and users in Northeast Ohio.