News
Great News!! EPA grants temporary reprieve for 79 mountains
Friday, September 11th, 2009
The following email was sent to the 37,000+ supporters of iLoveMountains.org. To sign up to receive free email alerts, click here.
Dear mountain lover,
We have great news!
The Obama Administration has heard you! Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency placed all 79 mountaintop removal permits they were reviewing on temporary reprieve. This represents the biggest step ever taken toward reining in the destruction of the Appalachian Mountains by mountaintop removal coal mining.
The release of a list of 79 permits begins a 14-day countdown in which the EPA regional offices must respond to the EPA headquarters' recommendations. While we applaud the current decision by the EPA, these permits could still be approved.
The EPA's announcement is part of a coordination procedure outlined in a "memorandum of understanding" between the Environmental Protection Agency, the Army Corps of Engineers, and the Department of Interior to deal with a backlog of permits held up by litigation over the past few years. The EPA has promised a more stringent and transparent review of all mountaintop removal valley fill permit applications, and as of today they have delivered.
The EPA is requesting public comment during these 14 days and we need to send them the message loud and clear to stand firm. No more mountains or communities should be blasted off the map.
However, the EPA is not currently set up to receive these comments, so we will be sending you an alert early next week, providing the tools you need to thank the EPA and to make sure the regional offices keep these mountains and communities safe from mountaintop removal coal mining.
In the mean time, we have set up a new page on iLoveMountains.org where you can see the location and track of the status of the permits pending before the EPA. You can view the permit map and see videos of nearby communities threatened by mountaintop removal at:
http://ilovemountains.org/epa-
Just wanted to share the good news – we'll be back in touch next week.
Have a great weekend!
Matt Wasson
iLoveMountains.org
P.S.–Please help us spread the word on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter.
September 12th, 2009 at 8:16 am
The earth is dying. God’s creatures are dying. their dying for their fur, fins, tusks, and yes their balls- just to name a few things. Their dying because we continue to build on their land, the land they need to survive. Build, mine, plow roads, through everything- all in the name of progress. It’s not PROGRESS when the ice caps are melting, and bears, and other wildlife have no place to go, and are unable to eat. When sharks are being killed for NO reason, when Bobcats, mountain lions, mountain goats, bears etc., land is blown up and mined- and they have no place to go. Their habitat is stripped away, and wildife are unable to live… People like Palin hunt wolves with choppers for no reason- except maybe to be cruel, that’s not hunting! Leaving baby wolves to die, I’m sorry- that’s twisted. This has got to stop, it’s got to stop now. Pretty soon wildlife itself will be stripped away, then Human life will be stripped away too! Maybe we will go first, and they (the wildlife) will somehow survive on their land, in their sea. Now that would be poetic justice thank you! Power to the Wildlife!