(And now a word from our sponsor.  No, not the site sponsor, but the sponsor of the Clean Water Protection Act -- the one I've been asking you to call about for the last three weeks.  I'm very happy to have these words from Congressman Pallone, and even more thrilled at the support he has given this issue. -- Devilstower)

For many years, I have been proud to stand with the people of Appalachia in opposing mountaintop removal, though like many of you here in the DailyKos community, I have seen mountaintop removal mostly fromphotos and satellite imagery in GoogleEarth. I’ve also sat with the people of Appalachia and heard firsthand their horror stories about how their health, water, communities and very way of life are immediately endangered by mountaintop removal mining.

Good evening to the DailyKos community.

I’d first like to thank DevilsTower for the invitation to speak with you about an issue I care very deeply about. Let me also extend my gratitude to each of you for the grassroots work you do on behalf of Democrats and important progressive issues, and for your help in building our party across the country. I’ve come to ask for your help in an important effort, which I hope all Democrats (and all Americans) will get involved in – stopping mountaintop removal coal-mining in this country.

Mountaintop removal coal-mining is one of the most outrageous assaults on our environment you can imagine. The tops of mountains are literally removed using heavy explosives, turning an incredibly diverse hardwood forest into a moonscape. The toxic rubble is then dumped into the river valleys below, burying and polluting headwater streams, which feed into most of the major rivers of the east.

Earlier this year in Congress, I re-introduced H.R. 2169, the Clean Water Protection Act (CWPA).  The CWPA is a simple bill which reverses the Bush Administration’s 2002 decision that the toxic rubble created by mountaintop removal coal-mining can be defined as “fill material,” and dumped into the headwater streams of Appalachia.

For communities in Appalachia, this waste has the horrible effect of poisoning water supplies, often turning tap water orange and even black. While the solid waste is dumped into “valley-fills”, liquid waste containing heavy metals like arsenic, lead and selenium is dumped into “slurry impoundments.” These ponds are known to leak and even break, most tragically at Buffalo Creek, when an impoundment break killed 125 people and displaced another 4,000. In 2000, in Martin County Kentucky, another slurry pond broke, leaking roughly 250 million gallons of toxic sludge into the Big Sandy River watershed. For those of us that remember the Exxon Valdez disaster, this spill was 30 times larger!

Mountaintop removal waste not only affects the health and water quality of the Appalachian region, but also pollutes American waters from the Mississippi River to the Chesapeake Bay to the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico. (Map of affected watersheds)

If you’d like to get a visual idea of how much damage mountaintop removal has already done, I would suggest looking at the satellite imagery in GoogleEarth. In the “Global Awareness” folder, there is an “Appalachian Mountaintop Removal” layer which shows the scale of destruction mountaintop removal is doing to our country. Members of Appalachian Voices and iLoveMountains.org have put together several tools to show you historic (pre-mining) image overlays, individual mountains, and mountaintop removal site tours.

If you have already seen mountaintop removal with your own eyes, then I know you are ready to stand with us and fight for this cause. However, if you would like to learn more, I encourage you to watch this video from our friends at iLoveMountains.org.  I hope you will visit their website, and get involved in our effort to stop the dumping of mountaintop removal waste into our headwater streams:

Thanks to the hard work of many people in this community, the Clean Water Protection Act now has 111 bi-partisan co-sponsors.  I am hopeful that as this issue gains more prominence, we will succeed in beating the coal lobby and passing this vital legislation.

[Join the Live Blog Discussion with Frank tonight at 8pm EST]

The political tide is turning.

The month of August has refocused American attention on the war in Iraq. With escalating violence against our troops, President Bush's freefalling approval ratings, one grieving mother's determination to be heard, and the administration's own pundits turning against the war, it is clear that the public has taken notice, and the majority do not like what they see.

Now is the time for Democrats to take a stand and put forth our own vision.

[Cross-posted on Frank's Blog]

I wanted to give you an update on our fight to stop CAFTA. CAFTA is scheduled to be debated on the House floor today. I cannot stress enough how disastrous this trade agreement will be for hard working Americans across our country. CAFTA threatens small farmers, and further erodes our manufacturing base here at home. CAFTA will also erode worker and environmental rights of those workers abroad. CAFTA is a no-win deal for us here at home or for those in Central America.

And the Bush Administration knows it. That's why they're trying the old bait-n-switch with our representatives in Congress. President Bush has been stumping around the countryside making claims that CAFTA will help solve our trade problems with China. What does China have to do with CAFTA? Not a whole lot, but that's not stopping the president from instilling fear into hard-hit American workers.

[Cross-posted on Frank's Blog]

I wanted to give you a brief update on the status of the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA).

Since my last posting, the Senate approved CAFTA by a vote of 54-45 and the agreement passed out of the House Ways and Means Committee.  Once Ways and Means files a committee report, it will trigger a 15-legislative day clock forcing the full House to vote on the measure.  

I believe strongly that we can still win this fight and force CAFTA back to the drawing board.  That is why I have decided to take action by launching an online petition -- to keep the pressure on members to show that the American people oppose CAFTA and demand fair trade policies.  

http://www.pallonefornewjersey.com/petition/CAFTA

[Cross-posted on Frank's Blog]

In 1992, Congress passed the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). I opposed NAFTA, but many of my colleagues were won over by the promise of more jobs and new markets for American products. They were convinced that free trade would mean greater opportunities for American workers and the creation of a middle class in counties where previously there were none.

But over a decade and a myriad of free trade agreements later, we have come to see that the promises of free trade were hollow.  Instead of a booming market, we have seen massive job losses and a skyrocketing trade deficit.  

Free trade has hurt working American families. To many people, NAFTA made it difficult to distinguish the difference between Republican and Democratic values.  We now have an opportunity to distinguish Democrats as the party who is fighting for working families. We as a party and as a nation have a moral obligation to pursue trade policies that improve the lives of workers both here and abroad.