One year ago in this column, I called on Environmental Protection Agency chief Stephen Johnson to resign for letting politics, not science, guide his agency's decisions. Nor was I alone—10,000 EPA employees were in open revolt for the same reason. Johnson was defying the Supreme Court's ruling that his agency should move forward on climate change and was refusing to approve California's forward-looking controls on climate-altering pollution.
Today, I am calling on all Earthjustice supporters to join with me in thanking his successor, Lisa Jackson, for steering the EPA back on course with a string of good decisions, especially her action last week aimed at regulating one of the most toxic side effects of burning coal for power: coal ash.
Coal ash, as you'll recall, became a national story just before Christmas when 1.1 billion gallons of it burst out of a holding pond in Tennessee, flooding more than 300 acres up to 25 feet deep with toxic levels of arsenic, lead, mercury, selenium, and boron. Earthjustice has been working for years to prevent this from happening, but not even this Exxon Valdez-scale disaster moved the Bush EPA to act.
Fortunately, Jackson sees things differently. Only days after getting a letter signed by Earthjustice and 108 other green groups, she has promised to issue proposed coal ash regulations. She will be assisted by draft regulations we wrote and submitted to the EPA about two years ago.
Getting the federal government to take coal ash seriously is a major victory as we push forward with our goal of ending coal's toxic life cycle from how it is mined to how it is used. And we are optimistic about our coal work despite last months disappointing decision by federal judges, allowing the most destructive form of coal mining—mountaintop removal—to continue without regards for its devastating effects on communities and mountain streams. Across the land, there are numerous signs that King Coal is in retreat.
We successfully blunted coal's expansion in Kansas and in Florida, and we are challenging plants proposed in New Mexico, Wyoming and elsewhere. Our legal, policy and public education work has helped fuel a national trend away from coal as evidenced by the 100 or so permits for plants nationwide held up because of growing opposition.
Moreover, public resistance to new coal plants and the promise of tighter federal regulation has led investors to back away from new coal plants, just as the federal government's Rural Utilities Service has.
Now it's time for the new EPA and Congress to make dramatic investments in renewables, conservation and efficiency ... and it's our job to make sure that the coal industry's considerable money and influence and the false hope of "clean coal" don't sidetrack government action.
Amid the vigilance, however, let's not forget to be grateful. Join me in dropping Lisa Jackson a note, thanking her for the good work on coal ash, and encouraging her to keep mending an agency that for the last eight years abandoned its mission and the people and resources it was established to protect.
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Thank you for "right action". It is high time!
Thank you, Lisa Jackson for putting things right in the agency I retired from long before the Bush administration came to power. You are off and running in the right direction.
We expected no less. Thank you.
Thank the Good Lord that the EPA is finally doing what it was supposed to do all along -- protecting our natural resources so that all of America's citizens, human and creature alike, will ultimately live healthier and longer lives. May the GOP policies of destruction become a sad memory, never to be resurrected. Thank you EPA!!!
Thank you Lisa,
The State legislators need to be more aggressive with the distribution of coal ash to replace mined limestone. No doubt economics for the strip miners enters into the decisions to use the coal ash vs. mined stone. However "cinder blocks" and road fill have been around a very long time and can economically replace natural stone. The trains are already bringing in coal so let them take ca. 10% back to the distributors of road and concrete building products. Probably only the States can impose better use and regulation. This helps on both sides of the pollution issues, less gravel pits and less stored ash. It also saves the States money.
Darell Engelhaupt
Dear Ms. Jackson,
thank you so much for your work. We most urgently needed new regulations to protect our environment. Keep up the good work.
Jutta Vogelbacher
Thank you so much for your stand on coal ash. It is just one of many things that need action. It is good to see you digging right in.
Good. Dittoes!
Thank you Ms. Lisa Jackson for beginning the task of showing how one person can help undo all the failures of another administration. It's such a relief to see good things happening after 8 years of death and destruction.
You are a breath of fresh air, Ms. Jackson. And we need more clean air around here! Thank you.
thank you so much Ms Lisa Jackson! (:
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