Backstreet Boy joins mountaintop mining fight

Back - Index - Submissions - - What is RSS? Date: Jun 05, 2002 Source: Charleston Gazette Submitted By: Gina Cates By Ken Ward Jr. “Backstreet Boy” Kevin Richardson wants the coal industry to quit playing games with the rugged mountains of his native Kentucky. On Thursday, Richardson will add his voice to the ongoing battle against mountaintop removal coal mining in Appalachia. The boy band member will join environmental lawyer Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and other activists at a U.S. Senate hearing on mountaintop removal rules. Residents of Southern West Virginia and Eastern Kentucky have planned a press conference following a Senate subcommittee hearing on the regulation of valley fills. Backstreet Boys of Orlando, Fla., first hit it big in the United States with the single, “Quit Playing Games (With My Heart)” in 1997. The group’s Web site, www.backstreetboys.com, includes information about a variety of environmental issues, including beach pollution and the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste site. Richardson, a 30-year-old Lexington native, has spoken out about mountaintop removal before. In August 2001, he wrote a letter to the editor after reading a New York Times Magazine article on the subject. “As our government debates a national energy policy for our country, they need to remember that coal is not really the ‘cheap’ source of energy proponents claim,” Richardson wrote. “Right now, coal is cheaper than other energy sources because the mining companies are allowed to rip off mountaintops, fill valleys, and clog watersheds with dirt, and dump toxic soups of acids, heavy metals and sludge in huge lakes,” he wrote. “Right now, electricity from coal is cheap because old power plants get to ignore clean air laws that others must abide by.” The hearing Thursday is scheduled before the Clean Air, Wetlands and Climate Change Subcommittee of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. Subcommittee Chairman Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., called the hearing. Lieberman wants to examine a Bush administration rule change designed to help legalize mountaintop removal valley fills. Last month, the US Environmental Protection Agency and the Army Corps of Engineers made final changes to Clean Water Act permit rules that govern the filling of streams. Under previous rules, the corps could not authorize the burying of streams with mountaintop removal waste. The new rule allows such permits. Shortly after the rule was final, Chief US District Judge Charles H. Haden II ruled that the Clean Water Act itself generally prevents the corps from issuing valley fill permits. In addition to Richardson, witnesses at the hearing are expected to include EPA Administrator Christie Whitman and Assistant Acting Administrator of the Army R.L. Brownlee. Michael Callaghan, director of the state Department of Environmental Protection, is also scheduled to testify, as are Mike Whitt, executive director of the Mingo County Redevelopment Authority, and Joan Mulhern, a lobbyist with the group Earthjustice. Comment on this item. Recent Comments Submitted by: Greg Guepy Submitted by: Kevin Submitted by: Paulo Submitted by: Mark Submitted by: Monika Submitted by: John Submitted by: Paulo Submitted by: Joe Submitted by: Antony Submitted by: Kevin Click here to see more comments. Comment on this item. Next Item: Nick on a secret visit to Sweden? Prev Item: Kevin & Robert Kennedy, Jr. Joins Clean Water Protest