Save the Mountains!

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700 Mountains
The Bush Administration's Office of Surface Mining (OSM) is proposing rules to relax environmental regulations in such a way that the coal industry would be able to use "mountain top removal" mining techniques to devastate more mountains, nearby communities and streams. Hundreds of mountains in the U.S. already have been lost to this coal-mining method and, if approved, the Bush rules could pave the way for the leveling of 700 more mountains over the next 10 years. Please speak out today to save America's mountains and nearby communities!
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Prefix Firstname Lastname
123 Street Address
MyCity, St 12345

November 8, 2009

RE: Comment on OSM proposed rule 1029-AC04/Docket ID OSM-2007-0007-0001/Federal Register No. E7-16629

Mountain top removal (MTR) coal mining already has devastated hundreds of mountains and surrounding areas in America - destroying the landscape, poisoning streams and rivers, crushing entire ecosystems and making life a living hell for nearby communities. I am writing to oppose a new rule proposal by the Bush Administration that would relax environmental regulations so that even more MTR coal mining would take place, destroying another 700 mountains over the course of the next 10 years.

I am writing in reference to the Department of Interior's Office of Surface Mining (OSM) proposed rule 1029-AC04/Docket ID OSM-2007-0007-0001/Federal Register No. E7-16629. I urge the following: (1) Congress should insert itself into this process and take an active leadership role; and (2) the Department of Interior/OSM should take more time to hold a series of public hearings across the United States, with particular emphasis on those regions where MTR practices are now widespread.

I object strenuously to the fact that OSM officials already have been quoted as indicating that the comment period for this rule is, in effect, a farce with the rule "not likely to be changed substantially" (New York Times, August 23, 2007). This arrogant tone on the part of OSM puts the entire rulemaking process under cloud of suspicion. Congress and the Department of Interior need to assure the American public that good public policy is at work here - not the secret backroom dealings of influence peddlers!

Unfortunately, there is little room for doubt that the proposed OSM regulation is exactly what it appears to be: an early Christmas present to the coal industry from the Bush Administration. I urge the Department of Interior and my members of Congress to compel the Office of Surface Mining to put the people of coal country and their environment first - rather than demoting them to a distant second place behind the rapacious agenda of the Big Coal lobby.

I oppose this outrageous attempt to destroy 700 more mountains and the communities around them. We can't afford to let the unelected bureaucrats at the Office of Surface Mining run roughshod over America's peoples, mountains and surrounding ecosystems!

Sincerely,

[Your name will appear here.]

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