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Help Ban US Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining

Thursday, June 25, 2009
Posted in Environment | Tagged Environment

Can you blow up mountains and protect them at the same time? In mountaintop removal mining, the coal industry blasts away the tops of mountains, strips out the coal, then dumps the waste into valleys and streams below, destroying entire communities in the process. During election season, then-presidential candidate Barack Obama called this practice an “environmental disaster.” But now, rather than put an end to this disaster, his administration has green-lighted the issuance of permits for mountaintop removal in the fragile Appalachian region of the eastern United States while simultaneously promising “to ensure mining activities will occur in a more environmentally protective way in or near Appalachian streams.”

There’s no environmentally protective way to blow up a mountain and then dump it into a stream. The only thing being protected by the administration is the coal industry. Moreover, besides burying the biodiversity of Appalachia, the whole point of mountaintop removal is to produce coal, the burning of which pushes us even further down the path to climate catastrophe. Sadly, the Obama administration has no intention of ending this atrocious practice anytime soon. The good news, however, is that Congress is considering legislation that would do just that.

Please take a minute to contact your representatives and ask them to support the Appalachia Restoration Act, the Clean Water Protection Act, and end mountaintop removal coal mining.

If you have trouble following the link, go to http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/2167/t/5243/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=27485.

Subject: Support S. 696 and H.R. 1310 to Protect Appalachia

I am writing to ask for your support for legislation that would protect the communities of Appalachia from the irreversible impacts of mountaintop removal coal mining. Mountaintop removal is polluting waterways, destroying communities, and contributing to global warming. This devastating practice has destroyed drinking water supplies, contributed to flooding, and caused permanent environmental degradation. Mountaintop removal is destroying one of the most beautiful and ecologically diverse areas in our country, and is eliminating diversified economic development opportunities for this impoverished region.

The Appalachia Restoration Act in the Senate (S. 696) would prohibit the dumping of mining wastes into streams. Its companion bill in the House, the Clean Water Protection Act (H.R. 1310), contains similar provisions. These bills would effectively halt mountaintop removal mining. Please cosponsor this critical legislation to end this atrocious practice and safeguard our nation’s waterways, climate, and Appalachian communities.

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