It's official: The first shot has been fired in the legislative battle to end the devastating practice of mountaintop removal mining in central Appalachia.
With the quickly growing and extraordinary nationwide support of over 115 co-sponsors, including 17 members of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee in the United States House of Representatives, US Rep. John Yarmuth from Kentucky's embattled state of coal joined US Rep. Frank Pallone (D-NJ) and Republican US Rep. Dave Reichert (R-WA) in reintroducing the Clean Water Protection Act today.
The Clean Water Protection Act was introduced originally to challenge the outrageous executive rule change by the Bush administration to redefine "fill material" in the Clean Water Act, which has since allowed coal companies to blast hundreds of mountains to bits, dump millions of tons of "excess spoil" into nearby valleys, and bury hundreds of miles of streams. An estimated 1,200 miles of waterways have been destroyed by this extreme mining process.
The end result: Toxic black waters and poisoned aquifers that have denied American citizens in the coalfields the basic right of a glass of clean water.
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"Congress meant for the Clean Water Act to protect our nation's water resources; the Administrative rule change endangers those resources," said Rep. Pallone, who is the heroic author of the legislation. "The dangerous precedent set by the Bush Administration's rule change undermines the Clean Water Act."
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As blasting continues to shatter peace and prosperity in the coalfields of West Virginia, Kentucky, Virginia and Tennessee today, anti-mountaintop removal advocates also continue to make their appeal to President Barack Obama, who told a campaign rally in Lexington, Kentucky, on August 27th, 2007, "We're tearing up the Appalachian Mountains because of our dependence on fossil fuels."
So, the big question is: will the bill have enough support to finally make it to the floor and pass this year?
