"You're not the first one to tell me that."
-- Coal lobbyist Jim Roewer in response to a comment from 60 Minutes' Leslie Stahl that not many people trust the utility industry.
In this issue:
1) Tune In: Tell Your Senator We Need a Strong Clean Energy Jobs Bill
2) Take Action: Defend the EPA Against Polluting Industries
3) New Video: Coal is Too Dirty, Even for College
4) Mining: Groups Petition for Justice in the Coalfields
1) Take Action: Tell Your Senator We Need a Strong Clean Energy Jobs Bill
Introduced last week, the Clean Energy Jobs & American Power Act is a historic step forward towards a clean energy economy that works for everyone. The bill makes America more energy independent and creates 1.7 million good-paying new jobs by investing in secure, clean energy sources that are made in America and work for America.
The Clean Energy Bill will create more jobs, less pollution and greater security, but Big Coal and Oil are trying to weaken or even kill this important effort.
Tell your Senator to fight back against attempts by polluting industries to weaken this legislation and to pass a strong clean energy jobs bill.
2) Take Action: Defend the EPA Against Polluting Industries
Polluters like Coal and Oil are telling their friends in the Senate to use every trick in the book to hold back progress on more jobs, less pollution and greater security. Now they want to get rid of the tools that hold them accountable -- like the Environmental Protection Agency's authority to regulate global warming pollution.
Senator Murkowski has threatened to offer an amendment to prohibit the EPA from spending any money to regulate or control carbon dioxide emissions from stationary sources like coal plants and oil refineries -- unfairly exempting them from pollution rules that apply to other global warming sources like cars.
Tell your Senator to defend the EPA against polluting industries and lead our country in a new direction toward a clean energy economy.
3) New Video: Coal is Too Dirty, Even for College
As part of its Campuses Beyond Coal Campaign, the Sierra Club today launched a new advertising effort to help kick coal off campuses. Centered on a series of three videos the campaign will use print and online advertising to highlight that some things are just too dirty, even for college.
The ads play off stereotypically "dirty" college behavior, becoming progressively more "dirty" throughout the series. Though college life allows for leniency in the socially acceptable, coal still crosses the line.
Check out the first video now!
4) Mining: Groups Petition for Justice in the Coalfields
A coalition of Appalachian residents and community organizations yesterday submitted a petition to the Environmental Protection Agency, urging the agency to address the environmental justice tragedy of mountaintop removal coal mining. The residents want the EPA to consider the very real environmental justice concerns when it reviews pending applications for new mountaintop removal coal mine permits.
See a list of pending mine permits here.