PGHIMC - Pittsburgh Independent Media Center

City Council Member Bill Peduto is challenging Incumbent Mayor Luke Ravenstahl in the next mayoral Democratic primary.  Both candidates are promoting themselves as the environmentally friendly choice.

So which of these candidates is really green?  Local activist Stephen Donahue says the answer is neither.

[ Read more ]

Update: Bill Peduto has since withdrawn from the mayoral primary.

Spelled out vertically, in letters ten feet tall on Braddock Avenue on Friday July 21 was the message: NO M-F-X, no to the Mon-Fayette Expressway.  Standing on the opposite side of the street was the Mayor of Braddock as well as representatives of the many community groups opposed to the highway project and about 50 community members who had gathered earlier at the Mayor's Residence for the Goodbye Mon-Fayette party.

Much of the argument against the Mon-Fayette Expressway involves the expense of building a new toll road, especially in an area with such underfunded public transportation. Activists such as the Group Against Smog and Pollution, GASP, feel that the money is being put into road building instead of road maintenance.

Because the expressway will run through towns from Route 68 in West Virginia to Pennsylvania's Monongahela River Valley, the construction will call for the removal of homes, buildings, and natural surroundings that lie in the proposed path of the expressway. Many residents faced with these issues feel that the Mon-Fayette Expressway will do more to hurt them than to help.

[ Read more... | listen to a Rustbelt Radio interview with Braddock Mayor ]

While Massey Energy stockholders met at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City, parents, grandparents, and other residents of Coal River Valley, West Virginia rallied to oppose Massey's operations adjacent to Marsh Fork Elementary School. Two grandmothers and a third resident of the valley attempted to deliver a list of demands. The residents were met by the plant's head of security who refused to allow them to present their demands. When the residents again attempted to present their demands, they were arrested in a moving and dramatic act of civil conscience.

[ Read more... | Shareholders protest in New York City | Rustbelt Radio coverage ]

Also: Protests are planned in downtown Pittsburgh when the "National Coal Show" visits the convention center.  Visit Canaries in the Coalfields for more information.

Update!  16 more people were arrested in Sundial, WV today (5/31) for crossing onto the property of Massey Energy.  Read more...

Six Greenpeace activists climbed a 700 smoke stack of the Hatfield�s ferry power plant on Wednesday to protest the Bush administrations policy towards clean air. Hatfield is a coal fired power plant located 50 miles south of Pittsburgh on the Greene/Fayette county line and is owned by Allegheny Power.

The activists scaled the smoke stack early Wednesday morning. Around 1pm they unveiled a 122 foot long banner with a skull and cross bones wearing a cowboy hat and saying "WARNING The Bush Energy Plan Kills CLEAN ENERGY NOW." The activists remained there till 9:30pm when they began to climb down. They were arrested when they reached the bottom and were arraigned early Thursday morning. They face 7 charges which include burglary, criminal trespassing and rioting. The FBI is also investigating if they broke any federal homeland security laws.

[ Read More ] [ More Pittsburgh South Region News ]

Groups in Three States Rally for Coalfield Justice

Pittsburgh-based CONSOL was the target of a multi-state protest on June 23rd dubbed Coalfield Justice Day of Action. Their focus was the Coal Mining corporation's devastation of mountain tops and its creation of hazardous pollution. Coal mining centers of Charleston, WV, Pittsburgh, PA, and Lexington, KY saw significant and creative civil disobedience by folks sick of being disregarded by government and big business in the name of energy demands. There were arrests, banner displays, a hunger strike, and appeals to both CONSOL and the federal Office of Surface Mining for its lax enforcement of environmental laws. Street theater used satire to harken back to the old days of robber barons when magnates ran roughshod over ordinary people. People are asserting their democratic rights over their health as runoff threatens water supplies.

[ Read more... ] [ North Carolina IMC feature | Tennessee IMC feature ] [ Groups: OHVEC | SOCM ]
[ in the "other" media: Post-gazette coverage | Trib coveage ]

The Allegheny Defense Project released a report Thursday outlining problems with the management of the Allegheny National Forest and recommending solutions. The ADP calls for an end to logging and a gradual phasing-out of drilling in the forest. The Forest Service is currently asking for public input for a revision of its Forest Plan for the ANF.

[ Full Story ] [ Prescott National Forest in crisis ] [ SFIMC Forest Features ]
[ Allegheny Defense Project ] [ Allegheny National Forest ]