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Dear Paul,
Coal is not clean. Period. Need proof?
On December 22, one billion gallons of coal ash sludge and contaminated water, the waste product of coal-fired power plants of the Tennessee Valley Authority, broke through a containment area into the rivers of Harriman, Tennessee.
The volume of the spill is bigger than the Exxon Valdez disaster, 50 times bigger. Forty-five homes in the surrounding area were affected by the sludge, three completely condemned and the water in the area now contains dangerously high levels of pollutants such as arsenic.
This disaster is another stark reminder of the environmental, health and economic hazards of our over-reliance on coal as an energy source.
Please contact President-elect Obama today and urge him to adopt our Clean Slate Agenda, which will help us move beyond coal and avoid other disasters like this from happening in the future.
The Sierra Club is taking immediate action in Tennessee to ensure proper cleanup and remediation and that the responsible parties compensate local residents.
But there are literally hundreds of these sludge impoundments near coal plants and mountaintop removal coal mining sites across the U.S., and that number will grow if we continue to increase our use of coal.
This is why we must start with a Clean Slate in 2009: We must stop building new coal plants and end mountaintop removal coal mining.
Please contact President-elect Obama today; click here to get started.
Over 33,000 people have already contacted President-elect Obama on our Clean Slate Agenda. Obama and his advisors Obama can jumpstart a clean energy economy and start reducing global warming pollution immediately by doing the following:
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Direct the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to grant a waiver that will allow California and over a dozen other states to limit global warming pollution from cars.
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End the rush to build dirty coal plants by directing the EPA to require all new and existing power plants limit their global warming emissions.
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Direct the EPA to end irresponsible mountaintop removal coal mining by stopping coal companies from dumping rock and waste into valleys and streams.
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Restore America's international leadership in the fight to end global warming by publicly committing the U.S. to cut its CO2 emissions by at least 35% by 2020.
Click here to contact President-elect Obama today and ask him to adopt the Clean Slate Agenda.
Thanks for all that you do to protect the environment.
![Signature Greg Haegele]()
Greg Haegele
Director of Conservation
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