Gainesville says "NO!" to mountaintop removal coal mining!
Currently, nearly 60% of the coal that Gainesville Regional Utilities (GRU) uses to power our community's homes and businesses is mined using an incredibly destructive practice known as mountaintop removal (for more details on mountaintop removal and our community's connection, please visit: ilovemountains.org).
Over the next few weeks, the Mayor and our City Commissioners will decide whether to continue buying coal that is fueling the destruction of Appalachia or to phase it out as other options become available. But they need to hear from you!
Take Action!
Please call, email, or write to the following local leaders, and ask your friends and family to do the same. Tell them that you want to see an end to Gainesville's connection to mountaintop removal mining-the communities that supply our energy deserve clean water, healthy livelihoods, and respect!
Bob Hunzinger (head of GRU): HunzingerRE@gru.com; 352-334-3400
Susan Bottcher (City Commissioner, chair of Regional Utilities Committee): bottchersw@cityofgainesville.org; 352-334-5015;
Mayor Craig Lowe: mayor@cityofgainesville.org; 352-334-5015
Thomas Hawkins (City Commissioner): hawkinswt@cityofgainesville.org; 352-334-5015
Once you have notified local leaders and spread the message to your contacts, if you would like to do more to help win this victory, please contact Jason Fults (352-318-0060; Sisyphus@riseup.net)
More background on this issue:
Back in April, Larry Gibson
(http://mountainkeeper.blogspot.com/p/meet-keeper-of-mountains-foundation.html) visited Gainesville as part of the Cinema Verde film festival to let us know about mountain-top removal (MTR) coal mining and the detrimental effects that it has on Appalachian communities.
The Mayor and a City Commissioner came to Larry's well-attended presentation and a picture of Larry shaking the Mayor's hand appeared on the front page of The Alligator. We also met with leadership at GRU to better explain MTR to them.
Since then, I have been working to get this issue back on the agenda of the Regional Utilities Committee (the City Commission committee that directly oversees GRU), where it had languished for many months. While the sentiments of Mayor Lowe and Commissioners Bottcher and Hawkins seems to be somewhat sympathetic, they appear to be giving priority to the concerns of GRU leaders who do not want to have any restrictions whatsoever on where they purchase their coal from.
Out of respect to Appalachian communities, but also for very concrete economic reasons, we need to move away from coal that is mined using mountain-top removal. I believe that GRU could realistically commit to phasing out consumption of MTR coal over the next few years. If this commitment became too burdensome or expensive (which I do not believe it would), the issue could be revisited.
Our utility has already made international headlines with its efforts to support renewable energy and has been nationally recognized for its energy conservation work. Getting off of MTR coal would send a strong message throughout the U.S., and would be one more feather in the cap of what could become one of our nation's most forward-thinking utilities.
