"The more I learn about this well, the madder I get. It is pretty clear to me now it was a screwed-up plan."
-- Buddy Trahan, BP oil disaster survivor
In this issue:
1) Take Action: Call for Better Coal Ash Protections!
2) Take Action: Offshore Drilling, Enough is Enough
3) Human Rights: Blast from the Past
4) Katrina: 5 Years Later
1) Take Action: Call for Better Coal Ash Protections!
Next week the Environmental Protection Agency will be holding the first in a series of public hearings on new rules to protect communities from toxic coal ash. Left over after coal is burned, coal ash is full of dangerous pollution like arsenic, lead and selenium -- pollution known to cause cancer, learning disabilities and birth defects. Yet it is currently regulated less strictly than household garbage.
Attend a hearing near you or make your voice heard online.
Tell EPA that we need federally enforceable protections from toxic coal ash!
2) Take Action: Offshore Drilling, Enough is Enough
The ongoing fall-out from the terrible BP disaster in the Gulf Coast is a sad reminder that oil is dirty, dangerous, and deadly. It has no place in a 21st-century energy economy.
Although President Obama has heeded our call to cancel exploratory drilling permits for the Arctic's Beaufort and Chukchi seas and Virginia's coast, we need to go one step further and halt all new drilling.
Contact President Obama to say you've had enough -- it's time to halt all proposals to allow more oil drilling off our coasts -- permanently!
3)Human Rights: Blast from the Past
This week the Inter-American Court of Human Rights will hold a public hearing in the case of environmental defenders and Sierra Club honorees Rodolfo Montiel and Teodoro Cabrera. The two worked as anti-logging activists in Mexico in the late 1990's before they were arrested and tortured by the Mexican army.
Though they are out of detention now, the men have been unable to return to their home state, and this hearing may at last mean justice for the environmental crusaders. For more info visit http://sc.org/dsexz2.
Photo Credit: Center Prodh
4) Katrina: 5 Years Later
As the fifth anniversary of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita approaches, Gulf Coast residents are continuing to cope with the damage wrought by the latest tragedy, the BP oil disaster. Gulf Coast communities are also leading the way in clean energy solutions that will prevent future oil disasters and help combat climate disruption and the catastrophic weather events it will bring.
On Sunday, Sierra Club staff and volunteers in New Orleans will mark the Katrina anniversary and highlight Gulf Coast solutions with everything to block parties to mobile art exhibitions.
Check it out!
Photo Credit: Candlelight vigil in Jackson Square, New Orleans, Louisiana. Courtesy, Jordan Macha