The Alliance for Appalachia supports the Environmental Justice For All Act (H.R. 2021) as legislation rooted in the moral principle that all people have the right to clean air, water, and soil. We need the safeguards in this bill to ensure these rights are a reality.
The cumulative impacts of coal mining are pervasive and devastating to communities across our region and beyond. Fossil fuel extraction, including coal mining, impacts the environmental and human health of workers and communities. Mountaintop removal (MTR) coal mining devastates the landscape, turning beautiful, plentiful forests into ugly, barren lands where native plants and animals struggle to thrive. The U.S. EPA estimates that more than 500 mountains have been destroyed by mountaintop removal, over 2,000 miles of streams have been buried, and heavy metals and toxins have poisoned many more.
Read our full letter of support.
On July 27, the committee passed the much-awaited legislative markup on H.R. 2021 – The Environmental Justice For All Act (EJ For All).
Want to talk more about what environmental justice means in your community? Join us on August 18 for an #EJForAll workshop to discuss this and more. Registration required. https://bit.ly/EJ4AllWorkshop. In this workshop, we will together define environmental justice and discuss how this shows up in our communities and the barriers to achieving it. We will look towards solutions, including the Environmental Justice For All Act, HR2021.
