Gathering Information

It takes time and effort to wade through all the jargon and acronyms in order to develop a common sense understanding of the information.  At first, it seems like people are talking in code.  This site is an excellent starting point for informing yourself about the issues and the facts.  As you make your case to others, you want to be sure you have the facts right.  And when the opposition spins information to distort the facts, you want to be able to expose the truth.

If you are faced with mining issues, local organizations already have great resources for engagement.  Please contact those organizations through the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition.  They will support you with extensive materials, helping you to master the subject and to address opposition.

For coal plants, Coal Moratorium Now is fabulous all-around resource and will help you find local organizations or start your own.  Still, here are some important things to look out for:

• Local Economic impacts of Coal Plants:  This will be the most compelling argument in favor of the plant.  You will want to understand why this is important to your neighbors and you will want to check the accuracy of assertions about economic impacts.
  • Jobs
  • Tax Revenue
  • Tax Abatements
  • Property Values
• Pollution and other harms:  Lots of info here.  Excellent resource for environmental info, including pollution, in your area can be found on this page at Sierra Club.
• State and Local laws and required permits, variances, etc.  This is a daunting task.  There will be folks in your region or state that have been fighting these fights for years, they are of immeasurable help in explaining this often complicated and confusing information.
• Who is supporting.  Who is Opposing:  It is good to know who is for you and who is against you.
• A list of information to gather about a proposed plant.
• It can be very difficult to locate information about local polluters as well as compliance and enforcement data.  Recognizing this difficulty, EIP has compiled a list of links to other Web sites that provide some basic data about air quality, water quality, enforcement and compliance, and upset emissions.  Environmental Integrity Project
• An online resource about online resources? This report gives detailed, easy to follow instructions on how to obtain information from internet databases available publicly through the US Environmental Protection Agency, states, and other sources, that track emissions and releases from power plants and other regulated industries at the state and national level. Additionally, it provides tips on how to get statistics and other figures related to compliance and enforcement actions for various facilities, as well as the political contributions made by some of the largest (and smallest) industries in America.