After falling more than 80 percent in two decades, coal mined in Tennessee represents around 0.1 percent of coal production in the United States. But even that amount increasingly comes from destructive surface mining methods.

Three-quarters of Tennessee’s coal came from surface mines in 2012, which have negatively impacted more than 125 square miles of the Cumberland Plateau. Tennessee has the smallest recoverable reserves of any coal-mining state in the U.S., and today mining takes place in just three counties — Claiborne, Campbell, and Anderson.

Your legislator stood up for the mountains by supporting the Scenic Vistas Protection Act, a bipartisan bill that seeks to ban high-elevation surface mining techniques such as mountaintop removal, on peaks above 2,000 feet in elevation

Let these legislators know that you are a Tennessean who cares about protecting our mountains and that you appreciate their courage and foresight for trying to protect our mountains by co-sponsoring the Scenic Vistas Protection Act.