"Wondering what is coal ash? Interested in what is being done about the threat coal ash poses to our drinking water supplies?RSVP to our online chat today!

Coal ash is the leftover waste from coal-fired power plants. Over 129 million tons are created each year, enough for coal ash to flow over Niagara Falls for three days straight! Coal ash contains arsenic, mercury, chromium and a slurry of other highly toxic pollutants. It is often dumped into huge ponds or unlined landfills and there are nearly 600 of these sites located in 35 states. But despite the obvious threat to public health and the environment, the Environmental Protection Agency has not set strong rules for the disposal of coal ash and ensure this health threat stays out of our drinking water supplies.

To find out what Earthjustice is doing about this problem, join Earthjustice Campaign Director Jared Saylor in an online chat and he'll answer your questions.

-------------------

My comment;

Coal is one of our cheap forms of energy, making up a huge portion of electricity generation.

When you turn on your lights, chances are, coal is making it happen, unless you CHOOSE

to sign up for GREEN, pollution free power. Every person using power is generating this waste, 

both in the air, in the water, oceans, rivers and lakes, as well as soil. Coal toxins including 

mercury poison all life on the planet, making it more acid and poisonous day by day...

We are slowly strangling all life on the planet in order to keep power on in our homes and factories.

That is a fact... Now, what is each of us WILLING to do to change this fact? 

Dear Eric, 

Carefully-sited offshore wind power can make a critical contribution to reducing global warming pollution and cleaning up our nation’s energy supply. As America’s first offshore wind farm, Cape Wind would generate the equivalent of 75 percent of Cape Cod’s energy and would set an important precedent for the future of clean energy development in this country. More than seven years’ worth of state and federal assessments have found that Cape Wind would have overwhelmingly positive environmental effects. Now it needs to clear one last hurdle, a favorable ruling by the Department of Interior. Please urge Interior Secretary Ken Salazar to let Cape Wind finally be installed.



Sincerely,
 
Ben Larson
National Field Organizer
Climate and Energy Program

Dear Secretary Salazar:

After its extended review by state and federal agencies, the Cape Wind permitting process should come to an end. Please issue a favorable Record of Decision on the outstanding "Section 106" process under the National Historic Preservation Act, and let Cape Wind be built.

The Cape Wind project has undergone more than seven years of exhaustive reviews by both the state and federal government, including a comprehensive two-year review by the federal Minerals Management Service, which examined 27 categories of potential effects of the proposal. The reviews found that the vast majority of the project’s environmental effects will be minor, negligible, or even positive, and there will likely be no significant lasting negative impacts. With this in mind, Cape Wind should proceed, especially as it will not only reduce global warming pollution but will set a precedent—showing the way we can begin developing our country’s offshore wind resources in a responsible manner.

Please issue a favorable record of decision and let the Cape Wind project proceed.

A bill that would put credit card reforms in place now rather than in three months was just blocked in the Senate. So it's time to take the fight straight to the banks!

Tell the credit card companies exactly what you think of them, and that they won’t get your business until they stop raising interest rates, adding new fees and penalties, and other tricks prior to the credit card rules going into effect in February.

What better way to tell the banks "bah, humbug!" than to stop charging on their cards during the holidays.

 http://www.creditcardreform.org/learn.html

We can put the pressure on at the corporate level now if we all speak out together!

http://www.creditcardreform.org/learn.html
If we had a watchdog to prevent credit card tricks and other financial scams, we wouldn’t have to rely on Congress to fix problems after they happen. An independent regulator would put our money needs first, but the banks hate the idea! http://www.creditcardreform.org/learn.html

Cell phone on your holiday list?
Verizon just hit most smartphone customers with a $350 fee for canceling their service early. Tactics like these are outrageous, and it’s time they're stopped so we can shop for the best wireless deals. A bill was just introduced; let’s move it now! 

"Miscarriage reports from pregnant women who have taken the H1N1 swine flu vaccine are starting to pour in from all over the nation. Vaccines and pregnancy simply do not mix safely. In fact, the package inserts for the swine flu vaccines actually say that the safety of these vaccines for pregnant women has not been established."

"As the residential market continues to grapple with the current recession, the manufactured housing market seems to be going through a cycle all its own – a cycle that experts say is outperforming its site built home sibling....."

"Addiction to prescription painkillers — which kill thousands of Americans a year — has become a largely unrecognized epidemic, experts say.

"European scientists and health authorities are facing angry questions about why H1N1 flu has not caused death and destruction on the scale first feared, and they need to respond deftly to ensure public support.

Accusations are flying in British and French media that the pandemic has been "hyped" by medical researchers to further their own cause, boost research grants and line the pockets of drug companies.

Britain's Independent newspaper this week asked "Pandemic? What Pandemic?"

France's Le Parisien newspaper ran the headline: "Swine flu: why the French distrust the vaccine" and noted a gap between the predicted impact of H1N1 and the less dramatic reality.