CitizenLobby your representatives:Write Congress: PUT AN END TO MOUNTAINTOP REMOVAL.
Write Congress: Stop Govt. Subsidties for Coal
The Bush Administration seems eagerto destroy our environment in as many ways as possible. In this case, they handed a victory to the coal industry by expanding mountaintop removal. This a controversial form of coal mining in which mountains are blasted apart for bulldozers to retrieve the coal underneath.
Coal is a fossil fuel and is extremely harmful to the environment. By exploding the tops of mountains the coal industry is 1) destroying the natural landscape including wildlife habitat, 2) contaminating the watershed by dumping excess waste into flowing rivers and streams, 3) contributing to global warming by increasing use of fossil fuels.
Those are only a few environmental effects but the economic effects on local communities has also been disastrous forcing many families to move.
It's not surprising that the administration is expanding mountaintop removal considering these facts published yesterday in the New York Times:
"The Bush administration has been much friendlier to mining interests, which have been reliable contributors to the Republican Party, and has worked on the new rule change since 2001.The coal industry has their guys in Washington do we? Click the links at the top and write congress!
The early stages of the revision process were supported by J. Stephen Griles, a former industry lobbyist who was the deputy interior secretary from 2001 to 2004. Mr. Griles had been deputy director of the Office of Surface Mining in the Reagan administration and is knowledgeable about the issues and generally supports the industry.
In June, Mr. Griles was sentenced to 10 months in prison and three years’ probation for lying to a Senate committee about his ties to Jack Abramoff, the lobbyist at the heart of a corruption scandal who is now in prison."
Learn more about mountaintop removal through a tour on GoogleEarth. All you have to is select the fallowing from the 'Layers' menu in GoogleEarth and then fly to Kentucky.
Seed Newsvine
No comments:
Post a Comment