When most people think of "organizing", they imagine a leader shouting to a crowd of people with a megaphone, or they imagine going door-to-door asking people to be involved with their cause. While these are important components in organizing, Citizens Coal Council's organizing in the coalfields goes beyond rallies and canvassing.
To achieve lasting change, we help citizens and organizations in coal-impacted communities connect directly to the regulators. We have our finger on the pulse of the Office of Surface Mining Regulation and Enforcement (OSMRE), and we work hard to make sure that regulators are willing and able to fulfill their duty to protect people and the environment in the coalfields. Sometimes regulators face threats to their authority, and sometimes they don't adequately exercise their authority. |
In 2012, the Department of Interior announced that they were going to "merge" the OSMRE with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). The BLM is a huge bureaucratic entity with a massive number of employees that are tasked with managing nearly 250 million acres of public land. The proposed "merger" would have essentially buried the OSMRE under the BLM at the cost of the OSMRE's regulatory autonomy. CCC was pivotal in organizing groups and individuals from across the country to protest this proposed "merger." These efforts paid off as the planned merger was not only decried, but ultimately scrapped.
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Articles on the "merger" and CCC's work
"Salazar's OSMRE-BLM merger drawing concerns" (Ken Ward, Jr., WV Gazette) "PA Federal Abandoned Mine Reclamation Funds Threatened By OSM Reorganization" (PA Environment Digest) "Environmentalists pan proposed merger of BLM and mining agency" (Clair Johnson, Billings Gazette) |