The importance of your vote

The victory achieved after many long years of court fights and many destroyed communities highlights the importance of Tuesday's election and the need for an environmental champion in the Senate to serve alongside Senator Elizabeth Warren.

Congressman Ed Markey has championed the environment.

The nation needs people in the Senate who reflect Ed Markey's values.

After years of court fights, the coal industry has lost a major battle against the EPA’s veto of one of the largest, most destructive mountaintop removal mining operations ever proposed in Appalachia!

This week, a federal appeals court in Washington, D.C. upheld the Environmental Protection Agency’s power to veto the permit for the Spruce No. 1 Mine in West Virginia.

The Spruce Mine was the first mountaintop removal permit ever challenged in the courts, by our coalition partners 15 years ago, and has been in litigation ever since. Earthjustice attorneys have worked with our allies for years to support and defend the EPA’s veto, and we will continue to do so during the next round of this case.

Thanks to your phone calls, letters, comments, photo petitions, and activism, you share in this great victory—one of the most monumental so far in our fight against mountaintop removal.

But, this is no time rest on our laurels. The coal industry and its friends in Congress are doing everything in their power to undo this victory and block clean water protections. We must not let them; nor can we let the Obama administration rest on enforcing the Clean Water Act and protecting Appalachia.

Please take action now to thank the EPA, demand more vetoes like this one, and urge a rulemaking on mountaintop removal mining pollution.

For mountains and mountain people,

Liz Judge Campaign Manager