Coal Kills

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Our mountains. In the Sierras, climbers climb them. In the Rockies, skiers ski them. In Appalachia, coal companies level them.

Coal isn't clean, and it's definitely not cheap. Across the Appalachians, companies are blowing entire mountaintops to smithereens to get at the thin coal seams below. The communities of the region are paying the cost in their health, their culture and their natural heritage.

Mining companies are clear cutting thousands of acres of some of the world's most biologically diverse forests. They're filling local rivers and streams with blasted debris, polluting drinking water with toxic waste and sacrificing the safety and sanctity of countless communities.

Mountaintop removal mining is not just devastating the region's environment and quality of life. It is also steadily crushing the heart of Appalachia.

Big coal companies should not be allowed to turn our nation's oldest (300 million years) mountains into molehills. Laws must change, environmental regulations must be enforced, corporations must reform their practices, and legal action must be taken to stop the most ecologically and culturally destructive form of strip mining on earth.

You can help today by urging Congress to reverse a Bush administration rule that allows mining companies to legally dump waste into mountain streams. Please go to the Natural Resources Defense Council website [link] and send letters today to the Obama Administration officials and urge them to pressure Congress close a loophole in the Clean Water Act that permits this deadly practice to continue.

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