Statewide Organizing for Community eMpowerment

Originating in the coalfield areas of Tennessee and called the strip-mine committee, the E3 Committee was designed to help effected citizens deal with problems associated with strip-mining and other radical mining practices. Through the years, committee issues have expanded to include a wide variety of natural resources protection issues.

The University of Tennessee has proposed to open up the Cumberland Forest, a UT-owned research station in Morgan and Scott counties, to hydrofracking. The royalties from any gas produced from the wells would help fund a research project that would study fracking. SOCM members are concerned about the health and environmental effects of fracking, industry-funded research, and opening up public lands to be leased to oil and gas companies for profit.