Federal Ruling Opens Flood Gates for Strip Mining in Appalachia
Ashley Judd is speaking out against mountaintop removal mining, and you can too.
Here is Judd’s speech, delivered at a Kentuckians For The Commonwealth rally. The footage of strip mined mountaintops is horrifying:
According to the Sierra Club, mountaintop removal mining:
…has already buried more than 1,200 miles of streams and threatens to destroy 1.4 million acres of land by 2020. The mining poisons drinking water, lays waste to wildlife habitat, increases the risk of flooding and wipes out entire communities.
A recent federal ruling allows the Army Corps of Engineers to start mountaintop removal mining in several sites in Appalachia. This overturns a 2007 ruling that found the permits to mine the land illegal. There is a backlog of 80-90 permits that could be granted, dramatically increasing the devastating mountaintop removal mining in the area. Local activist groups and the Sierra Club are asking President Obama “to follow up on statements he had made during his campaign that were critical of mountaintop mining by reversing Bush administration policies intended to expand the practice,” according to the New York Times.
- » See also: Let’s Keep Not-So-Clean Coal From Getting Even Worse
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Take Action
The Sierra Club wants us to contact EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson and Chair of President Obama’s Council on Enviornmental Quality (CEQ), Nancy Sutley and ask them for help. The CEQ and EPA have the power to freeze the permits on any new mines. If you want to be heard, the Sierra Club makes it easy. Just fill out your info, and personalize your email to Lisa Jackson and Nancy Sutley.
