URGENT: EPA Administrator Wheeler is putting our health on the line by gutting coal ash regulations. Fight against this handout to Big Polluters and submit an official comment now!

This is outrageous, friend. EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler is risking our kids' health and our drinking water to give his former coal company clients a major handout.

Wheeler just announced the next step in his plan to roll back federal coal ash regulations — commonsense safeguards that protect against toxic coal ash produced from coal-fire powered plants. Rolling back these protections means that even more toxic chemicals will be dumped into our communities.

Civil rights advocates have been sounding the alarm for years: Toxic coal ash sites are overwhelmingly located in communities of color and low income communities, so these communities disproportionately suffer from coal ash pollution and its devastating health impacts. The stakes are too high — we should be strengthening existing coal ash regulations, not gutting protections.

Here's what LCV supporters like you can do to fight back: Wheeler can't move this dangerous plan forward without getting input from the public. We can make sure that the public record reflects just how opposed the people are to this blatant attack on our health and communities. We know that coal companies are going to be lobbying hard for looser regulations, so we have to be louder. Will you speak out now?

Tell Wheeler: Keep critical coal ash safeguards to protect our health and environment »

Wheeler — a former lobbyist for coal company Murray Energy — is gutting these public health protections because it will save the coal industry more than $28 million a year. Trump and Wheeler are propping up our dying fossil fuel industry instead of advancing action to solve the climate crisis and expand our clean energy economy.

And this break for Big Polluters will come at an extraordinary cost to our health. More than 105 million tons of coal ash — containing arsenic, lead, mercury, and other toxic chemicals — are produced each year and dumped into holding ponds. These ponds are often unlined, open-air waste pits that seep chemicals into our drinking water, pollute local waterways, and spill into nearby communities. Wheeler is trying to do away with the few regulations we have in place to protect us from this pollution.

Exposure to these hazardous pollutants can lead to permanent brain damage in children — risking the long-term health of the more than 1.5 million children that live near coal ash sites. Our families — especially families of color and low-income families that are much more likely to live near these toxic waste sites — deserve better. We cannot allow Trump's EPA to continue to perpetuate systems of environmental racism that further entrench inequality and injustice.

If enough of us submit a comment, the EPA will have no choice but to reconsider this dangerous sell out — we can protect our kids and frontline communities from toxic coal ash. But if the EPA only hears from the fossil fuel industry, they'll feel justified in their terrible policies and move forward full steam ahead. Can we count on you to join the fight?

SUBMIT AN OFFICIAL COMMENT: Keep toxic coal ash waste OUT of our communities »

Thank you for standing up for our communities.

Madeleine Foote
Deputy Legislative Director
League of Conservation Voters