Where’s the Love? Will Lisa Jackson and Nancy Sutley Ever Visit a Mountaintop Removal Site?
I think at the Obama administration we all believe that everybody has the right to live in a clean, healthy environment and a prosperous economy. And we're working towards that. We need to reach out to communities whose voices have been ignored and where there are disproportional impacts, whether it's environmental protection or promoting [a] clean energy economy. –Nancy Sutley interview, July 31, 2009
Question of the week: Given all of their agencies' beautiful rhethoric about “reaching out to communities whose voices have been ignored and where there are disproportional impacts,” why haven't EPA chief Lisa Jackson and CEQ administrator Nancy Sutley found three hours in the schedules to visit a mountaintop removal site–the most egregious environmental tragedy in their administration?
Will they ever visit Coal River Mountain in West Virginia–the mountaintop removal battleground for clean energy and a healthy environment?
On June 11, in responding to the national outcry over the tragedy of mountaintop removal mining, the Obama administration promised it would, “engage the public through outreach events in the Appalachian region to help inform the development of Federal policy.”
And the EPA, the Council on Environmental Quality and the Department of Interior jointly announced their intent to “work in coordination with appropriate regional, state, and local entities to help diversify and strengthen the Appalachian regional economy and promote the health and welfare of Appalachian communities.”
Five months later, where is the Obama administration and its promises to visit the besieged coalfields of Appalachia?
