Mountain Monday: Introducing… Bills! Lies! Politicians!

Not One More Mile! Over 700 people joined Kentuckians for the Commonwealth for I Love Mountains Day in Frankfort, KY. The group marched over a half mile from downtown Frankfort near the Kentucky River, the headwaters of which have been severely damaged by coal company pollution. “Not One More Mile!” was the chant for the day as the defenders of Kentucky’s precious people and places said that 1,400 miles of streams buried or severely damaged by this practice is already way too many. Find more coverage of the event at the KFTC website

Better Know a CWPA Co-Sponsor: Rep. Todd Platts (R-PA-14) has served in the House for eight years, and currently sits on the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee as well as the Water Resources and Development subcommittee, so we are thrilled to have his support on the CWPA! According to a 2008 editorial released by his office, Platts believes that “further development of traditional domestic sources of energy” is an important step in our energy policy but that it needs to be done in an “environmentally-protective manner.” Protecting mountain streams from being buried in toxic overburden sounds like it fits that criteria!!

Better Know a CWPA Target: Rep. Jason Altmire (D-PA-04) is currently serving his second term in the U.S. House of Representatives. Altmire serves on the Transportation and Infrastructure committee, which makes him an important target for co-sponsorship of the CWPA. The electricity in Altmire’s district, which covers all or part of six counties in western Pennsylvania, is supplied by Pennsylvania Electric and Duquesne Light Company, both of which purchase coal coming from mountaintop removal mine sites. In Altmire’s issue statements on his website, he comes out in support of “additional funding for clean coal technologies.” Well, even if “clean coal technology” was here today, mountaintop removal mining would still be poisoning mountain headwater streams in Appalachia. That’s anything but clean, just ask the residents of Rawl, WV, whose well water was contaminated by toxic heavy metals thanks to a nearby mountaintop removal mine site.
Want to get to know Rep. Altmire better? Check out his appearance on the Colbert Report’s Better Know a District!