Posted by [EMAIL PROTECTED] : From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Mountaintop Removal Mining's Defeat Is the Environment's Victory!! Date: Thu, 09 Dec 1999 07:42:42 GMT TO: All Environmental Defense Activists FROM: Elizabeth Thompson, Legislative Director and Azur Moulaert, Member Action Network Project Manager DATE: Wednesday, December 08, 1999 Mountaintop Removal Mining's Defeat Is the Environment's Victory!! Thank you, Environmental Defense Activists, for your help in defeating Senator Robert Byrd's (D-WV) disastrous rider approving mountaintop removal mining. You overwhelmingly responded to our action alert on this issue, using your computer to send nearly 4,000 personalized letters to President Clinton urging him to veto Senator Byrd's rider if it passed intact. This grassroots response was enough to prevent Senator Byrd and the Senate from giving the mining industry a dangerous exemption from the Clean Water Act. This was a rare loss for Senator Byrd. All he was able to get was an unusual and largely symbolic vote (56 to 33) in the Senate when his proposal was attached to a resolution that the senators knew would not become law. Senator Paul Wellstone (D-MN) courageously risked Byrd's wrath by speaking against the proposal on the Senate floor. The House of Representatives never even considered the rider. Critical were the efforts of House members, particularly those moderate Republicans who consistently vote against anti- environment riders. Congress's opposition to Byrd's proposal was, no doubt, a response to their constituents' opposition. The rider will most likely not be included in the final version of the FY 2000 appropriations bill, and the Clinton administration has promised to veto any legislation containing it. Nonetheless, other anti-environmental riders are still attached to the omnibus appropriations bill, and Senator Byrd will almost certainly introduce this same proposal again when Congress reconvenes in January. So we cannot relax completely. But if Byrd's rider had passed, it would have set a precedent for other industries to exploit in the future, and we thank you for not allowing this to happen. Again thank you for all your help. I