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Big Coal Freaks Out – Write Your Senators Today
Thursday, August 13th, 2009
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The growing public pressure to end mountaintop removal coal mining is clearly rattling the coal industry. Increasingly, Big Coal is resorting to desperate measures to try and keep mountaintop removal coal mining alive.
Recently, we learned how two subsidiary companies of Arch Coal were encouraging their employees and families to boycott Tennessee in response to Sen. Alexander’s support of the the Appalachia Restoration Act.
The two companies canceled annual company outings to Dollywood and encouraged their almost 1200 employees to not visit Tennessee on their vacations.
The boycott triggered a damning editorial from the Chattanooga Times Free Press. Senator Alexander, one of the original sponsors of the Appalachia Restoration Act reportedly responded by saying that “Every year, millions of tourists come to Tennessee and spend millions of dollars to see our scenic mountaintops, not to see mountains whose tops have been blown off and dumped into streams.”
Touche!
Big Coal has also recently been caught “astroturfing” opposition to the climate bill. The industry front group ACCCE was forced to “come clean” (sort of) when their lobbying firm Bonner and Associates got caught forging letters of opposition to the climate bill under the names of Charlottesville area non-profits.
While ACCCE tried to distance themselves from their lobbyists and dismissed the forgeries as a one time event, a former Bonner and Associates employee said such unethical tactics are common. “They just got caught this time,” he said.
Bungling PR and ineffective boycotts aside, however, Big Coal’s efforts to trump up support for mountaintop removal coal mining is a serious threat to the mountains we love.
That’s why we need to keep the pressure on Congress to close the loopholes that help Big Coal blow up mountains — and to take action to stop mountaintop removal coal mining altogether.
The Appalachia Restoration Act that was introduced this year by Senators Alexander and Cardin to stop coal companies from dumping their waste into our nation’s waterways and would go a long way to ending mountaintop removal.
Please write your Senator today and ask them to cosponsor the Appalachia Restoration Act.
Thank you for taking action.
Matt Wasson
iLoveMountains.org
PS Last week, the National Council of Churches held a prayer vigil to remember the more than 500 mountains already destroyed by mountaintop removal coal mining. For more on that story, click here.
