Urgent Action Alert 11/14/11 1:05 PM

Super Committee Your urgent action needed today!

Contact Information
Greetings!
More information
CCC Press Release on burial of We need your help to keep the Office of Surface Mining
OSM under BLM (OSM) alive!
E&E News article on OSM-BLM
Please take just a few minutes to join with your friends and
Letter from Western Organization
of Resource Councils (WORC) colleagues in contacting the Department of the Interior, the
White House, the Super Committee and the Senate Committee
What is the Super Committee?
on Energy and Natural Resources.

You can make your voice heard and let Secretary Salazar, the
White House and the Super Committee members know that
this plan is unacceptable! For the easy steps you can take to
make those contacts just click here.

Here's some background information and talking points for you:

Background Information

What little hope we have for the Obama administration to focus

on strong regulation of coal mining is in danger of being
smothered in the bureaucracy of the Bureau of Land
Management (BLM). On October 26th, Secretary Salazar issued
Secretarial Order No. 3315 announcing his plan to bury the
OSM under the massive BLM.

We must all contact Secretary Salazar and the Super Committee

members -- who are in charge of deficit reduction planning --
and let them know of the serious concerns about the regulatory
chaos that this will cause at the expense of coalfield citizens.

We only have until November 14th to convince the Super

Committee members not to take any action on the OSM or
Abandoned Mine Lands (AML) programs. The Super
Committee should reject Secretary Salazar's OSM-BLM

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Urgent Action Alert 11/14/11 1:05 PM

proposal-- especially including any use of the states' precious

Abandoned Mine Lands (AML) funds-- to reduce the deficit.
Any such use of the AML funds would seriously hurt the
states who have a huge backlog of AML sites.

Talking points

Here's a set of talking points to make it easy:

The OSM was established by Congress as an independent

entity. The Secretary possesses neither the authority nor
the power to create a new land management mega-
bureaucracy with OSM an inferior component.

SMCRA prohibits integrating OSM with any Federal

agency "whose purpose is promoting the development or
use of coal or other mineral resources" (Sec. 201), which
is a primary responsibility of the BLM.

Coal leases are granted by BLM "on the condition that

the lessee will obtain the appropriate permits and licenses
from OSM," creating an obvious and inescapable conflict
of interest between the two entities.

OSM is a law enforcement agency whose responsibilities

relating to coal mining and reclamation are significantly
different than those of BLM which is primarily a land
management and mineral leasing agency; the integration
of OSM into BLM will result in expense, inefficiencies,
loss of expertise and bureaucratic dysfunction.

BLM employs 10,000 and has an annual budget of $1.1

billion --- OSM only has 500 employees with one-tenth
the budget --- OSM would be buried within the behemoth
BLM bureaucracy.

BLM has no understanding of Eastern coal mining

technology, regulation or enforcement which occurs
almost exclusively on privately-owned land.

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Urgent Action Alert 11/14/11 1:05 PM

If the decision to merge BLM and OSM was a legitimate

effort by the Secretary to streamline government and save
money, coalfield citizens question why it was made
without prior notice or consultation with Congress or
coalfield communities.

The decision to radically change SMCRA's decades-old

relationships is yet another symptom of Interior's lack of
understanding of -- or interest in -- OSM's important role
in protecting coalfield citizens and their communities
from irresponsible coal mining operations.

The following are things you can do now to protect coalfield

citizens:

#1-- Send a letter to Secretary Salazar opposing his plan to

bury the OSM under the BLM. You must send the letter
via email to Gail Adams, Director of Interior's Office of
Intergovernmental and External Affairs at:
gail_adams@ios.doi.gov (ph: 202-208-1923) -- and CC the
email and letter to:

i. Citizens Coal Council - ccc@citizenscoalcouncil.org

ii. Counselor to the President - Contact Peter Rouse at:

peter.rouse@whitehouse.gov
iii. Deputy Secretary (Department of the Interior)
David Hayes at: david_hayes@ios.doi.gov
iv. Director Joseph Pizarchik at:
jpizarchik@osmre.gov

FYI, this is the address of the Department of the Interior to

use on your letter:

Department of the Interior

1849 C Street, N.W.
Washington DC 20240

#2 Contact members of the Super Committee to let them

know that you are opposed to burying the OSM within the
BLM. Click here for their contact information.

#3 Come to DC, if you can, and attend the Senate

Committee on Energy and Natural Resources hearing on

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Urgent Action Alert 11/14/11 1:05 PM

November 17 @ 9:30 AM. We need a great turnout by

concerned coalfield citizens! Click here for more
information on the hearing. Please let Aimee Erickson
know if you are attending or plan on carpooling:
aimee@citizenscoalcouncil.org.

#4 Submit the comments and letters that you sent to

Secretary Salazar to the Senate Committee on Energy and
Natural Resources at publiclands@energy.senate.gov.
Be sure to request that your comments be made part of
the public record of the November 17th hearing.

Please copy Citizens Coal Council with your comments at

ccc@citizenscoalcouncil.org. Your comments will be
added to the CCC OSMRE Watch Library.

About Us
The mission of Citizens Coal Council is to build and strengthen
coalitions among people in the coalfields, empowering them to
defend existing environmental regulations, promote better
environmental policies and to protect people, air, land, and
water from the harm caused by the whole coal cycle.

Citizens Coal Council

605 Taylor Way
Bridgeville, Pennsylvania 15017

Phone: 412-257-2223
ccc@citizenscoalcouncil.org

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