Over 300,000 West Virginians’ water was poisoned with chemicals from the coal industry -- and now hundreds of people are sick. Water isn’t only being poisoned by these chemicals; there is a long history of water in West Virginia being poisoned by the coal industry; mountaintop removal has destroyed thousands of pristine streams, and there are dozens of toxic slurry dams across the state. West Virginia’s DEP (Department of Environmental Protection) has been captured by the coal industry, and can’t be trusted to ensure safe, clean, drinking water. We need OSM to step-in, terminate West Virginia’s ineffective mining enforcement program, and set-up a program that protects our water. Water in West Virginia is being poisoned every day, and another tragic spill like this could happen at any moment. The CARE Campaign, founded by concerned West Virginians, is petitioning the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement to terminate West Virginia’s mining enforcement program and implement a program that is accountable to the people of West Virginia. Demand President Obama’s OSM step-in and stand with West Virginians. "Exposure to the slurry of water and other chemicals formed after coal is washed would be more dangerous to human health than exposure to MCMH—and there have been numerous coal slurry floods and spills in West Virginia and U.S. history. That slurry is made far more toxic by the heavy metals and other dangerous elements leached from the coal itself. " - Scientific American (http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=how-dangerous-is-the-chemical-spilled-in-west-virginia&page=2)

Good News! The first hearing for this bill will be January 28, 2014. Please send your supportive comments to [email protected] Make sure your subject line is: "Testimony re PIA-58 Jan 28th" Address it to "Chair Hokama" This is only step one so keep sharing this petition widely!

In Massachusetts there are no laws for "Great Ponds" that require an environmental inspection and certification to ensure that all holding tanks on a boat have been permanently disconnected or sealed so that accidental leaking can not occur. New Hampshire has such a law, why not Massachusetts! Please copy and paste the link below into google search then look for the PDF named "WD-BB-38 The DES Boat Inspection Program New Hampshire" to read how New Hampshire addresses this problem. http://des.nh.gov/organization/commissioner/pip/factsheets/bb/documents/bb-38.pdf

Our Leaders in WV have turned our state over to the destruction caused by oil and gas extraction. Just as our long history with coal mining has proven; little more than lip service has or is being paid to the health and welfare of our citizens or the environment upon which we depend. Every day we face more contamination and potential death due to spills, pipeline ruptures, well explosions, dangerous roads and heavy equipment traffic. Lives have already been lost. We do not need jobs that kill. We need leaders who will focus on developing renewable energy which will guarantee jobs and a cleaner environment for our children well into the future. West Virginia must also be concerned about our neighbors living up wind and down stream from our ever increasing poisonous emissions. West Virginia is our home. We insist that our home be protected.

Scores of sailors from the USS Ronald Reagan and other US ships who responded with humanitarian aid for victims of the 3/11/2011 earthquake and tsunami were irradiated by Fukushima. They are now suffering radiation-related health effects. We ask that Tokyo Electric Power compensate them, and that the governments of Japan and the United States help in this process.

The residents of the Richmond South Shore are concerned about preserving the natural resources in our area. We want the proposed development and expansion of the U.C. Berkeley Campus/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory to integrate our concerns into their plan for the development of the Richmond Bay Campus (Richmond Field Station).

Climate change deniers, from Fox News to Donald Trump, are using the polar vortex to say that cold weather disproves global warming. Unfortunately, the same could happen in the opinion pages of The New York Times. In October 2013, The Los Angeles Times announced that it would refuse to publish climate-denying letters, just as it would any other "factual inaccuracies"--but the New York Times hasn't yet followed suit. Our national conversation is polluted by conspiracy theories, slowing progress for much-needed climate action. That's why it's more important than ever that our most respected newspapers--chief among them, The New York Times--set a precedent and refuse to legitimize climate denial in its letters pages.

We need to move to a more sustainable way of carrying consumer goods. Banning plastic bags is the best way to reduce the amount of waste we create.

Now that the law signed by President Bush has gone into effect mandating that no more standard light bulbs may be sold once store stock is depleted, we need to have mandatory recycling for the mercury containing CFL's that will replace the old style ones. Mercury is a deadly neurotoxin that we need to keep out of landfills and out of our water. This is a health hazard to all of us. Any store that sells these bulbs should be required to take back burnt out ones to be responsibly recycled.

Gunshots starting in early morning and lasting all daylight hours are bothering thousands of residents for the sport of a few duck hunters. The gunshots are loud and start very early in the morning even on weekends and last all day long. Dogs and children are frightened by the gunshots and adults are bothered by the frequent loud noise and the thought that there could be a hunting accident right in someone's back yard. Duck hunters create a noticeable amount of plastic trash from spent cartridges which fall into the water. This plastic washes ashore onto our beaches in large quantities. I remember one walk I took last year where about every 10 feet i picked up a cartridge. I had a bag full in 15 minutes. The hunters are hunting primarily Scaup ducks who's numbers are in decline since the 1980's. However, the noise alone is reason enough to ban the practice since it has no benefits for the surrounding local communities. Please sign and spread the word!

Our County Parks are owned by the public, not corporations. In order to preserve the clean air and water in and surrounding our parks, we must be steadfast in not allowing fracking, or any other form of industrialization, to take place in these areas.

To protect America's Free And Wild Horse Population!