Although the clean energy economy is gaining steam and our use of coal is declining, my home region of Appalachia is still threatened by mountaintop removal coal mining.

We’ve seen it with the overturning of the veto for the massive Spruce No. 1 mountaintop removal coal site in West Virginia, we’ve seen it as West Virginians continue to fight Arch Coal for its plans to strip mine historic Blair Mountain – and those are just two examples. Day after day, families in West Virginia, Kentucky, Virginia, and Tennessee continue to suffer from damaged homes, polluted air and water, and threats to their health caused by mountaintop removal.

It’s important to remember that these attacks on Appalachia’s mountains and communities don’t just come from coal companies, but also from the banks that finance these operations. Banks with household names are complicit in polluting our air and water, threatening the health of Appalachian families, and destroying our natural heritage.

That’s why today the Rainforest Action and Sierra Club are releasing a report detailing the five filthiest banks in our third annual “Coal Finance Report Card.” This year, we looked at not only financing of mountaintop removal, but also at financing of the coal fired power plants that are our nation’s biggest source of the sulfur pollution that harms our health, the mercury pollution that harms our children, and the carbon pollution that harms our planet.

The report looks at the stated policies for mountaintop removal and coal financing from each of the largest U.S. banks and assigns a letter grade to how well they uphold these policies based on investments, transactions, and ownership of coal mining and coal burning utility companies.

Here are the worst of the worst:

My colleague at RAN states it well: “These banks are the ATMs for a dirty industry that is bad for health and bad for business,” said Amanda Starbuck, Director of RAN’s Energy and Finance Program. “Coal is the ultimate subprime investment for the climate.”

We’re not the only organizations seeing the problem with financial organizations investing in dirty energy. This week also marks a huge 200-mile march across Pennsylvania by a coalition of groups hoping PNC Bank (headquartered in Pennsylvania) will stop financing mountaintop removal coal mining. Spread-headed by the Earth Quaker Action Team, the walk is part of their fantastic “Bank Like Appalachia Matters” campaign.

Through today’s report, Sierra Club and RAN are not only pointing out where banks are failing as energy and climate leaders, but also we are reaffirming our strong commitment to work with the companies to adopt and implement meaningful policies on coal.

Protecting the health and safety of our families is everyone’s responsibility – including those that fund this destructive and dirty practice.  We hope this report card helps draw attention and scrutiny to those who are bankrolling some of the biggest polluters in our country.

I want to share a story with you about an amazing event that took place this past Earth Day. For three days, in 100+ degree heat, Native Americans led a 50-mile march to draw attention to the devastating effects of coal pollution on their community.

The Sierra Club was proud to support the Moapa Band of Paiutes on their three-day, 50-mile cultural healing walk from their reservation to the Lloyd George Federal Building in Las Vegas in order to bring visibility to the damage that the Reid Gardner coal-fired power plant is doing to the tribe’s health, culture and economy. In the 50-mile march, tribal members and supporters from tribal nations across the Southwest walked from their homeland to the doorstep of federal decision makers.

“We were here, we are here, and we will be here,” Moapa Paiute member Calvin Meyers says of his tribe’s relationship to their historical lands.  The Moapa Band of Paiutes tribal lands abut Reid Gardner, Southern Nevada’s last coal-burning power plant, owned by NV Energy. Tribal members and local residents have been suffering for years from numerous pollution problems at the plant.

“It’s not just air pollution from the coal plant and its old boilers,” says Barb Boyle, a Senior Campaign Representative for Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal Campaign. “There are also several settling ponds for coal ash residue, there are enormous piles of coal that are uncovered, and a huge coal ash landfill that is also uncovered.”

The toxic coal dust at Reid Gardner is picked up during Southern Nevada’s frequent wind storms, blows over tribal lands, the town of Moapa, Mesquite and up to pristine areas like the Grand Canyon and Zion National Parks, threatening public health and creating regional haze pollution. The tribe wants the plant retired and replaced with clean energy.

Tribal members suffer from asthma attacks, allergies, sinus problems, ear infections, and thyroid disease that they believe directly result from their constant exposure to particulates that blow from the toxic coal ash disposal ponds onto the tribal lands, covering their cars, their homes and their families.

“People on the Moapa reservation have high rates of lung and heart disease,” says Barb. “This is a tribe that has born this burden for decades. It’s time to stop.”

The Moapa cultural walk ended Sunday with a large rally where a hundred and fifty people listened to speakers call for the closure of the Reid Gardner coal plant, and heard moving stories of the health problems for the young and old in the Moapa community. Members of the Moapa Pauites, the Las Vegas Paiutes, and the Shivwitts of Utah spoke about the dirty coal plant in their native languages, and performed traditional dances and songs.

Here’s a great TV news clip from the rally.

The next step happens on May 3, when EPA holds a public hearing on the Moapa reservation regarding a pollution permit for Reid Gardner. There’s another hearing on the same day just down the road from the reservation as well. Sign up here to attend the hearings.

“We want to get this plant retired as soon as possible,” Barb says. “That area has an amazing array of renewable energy resources – it’s a perfect place for solar power. The Moapa tribe is already working on a 350-megawatt solar system for their land.”

We can do better than coal – for the Moapa Band of Paiutes, other Native American tribes, and all Americans.

Photos by Alan Goya.

Nationwide, students are leading the way in pushing their universities and colleges to invest in innovative clean energy solutions.  There is a growing momentum on college campuses to move our nation off dirty, 19th century fuels that are making people sick.

Twenty colleges and universities have won fights to phase out coal plants on their campuses, thanks in large part to the hard hitting Campuses Beyond Coal campaigns of Sierra Student Coalition.  These plants are responsible for dangerous pollution including mercury, carbon dioxide, arsenic and lead and can lead to more severe asthma attacks, bronchial infections and cancer.

Students can help reinvent the American economy by pressuring school administrations to invest in clean, safe and reliable energy on campuses from California to Connecticut.

Here’s the latest example of this amazing work by students – from Michigan State University and Sierra Student Coalition Organizer Anastasia Schemkes:

Michigan State operates the largest coal plant on a university campus in the nation, burning approximately 200,000 tons of coal per year. Fortunately for us, it also has one of the largest Campuses Beyond Coal campaigns in the nation with MSU Beyond Coal who has collected over 10,000 petition signatures to retire the dirty, aging plant over the course of their 2.5 year campaign.

As a result of student pressure, the university released an “Energy Transition Plan” this semester that is meant be their road map toward cleaner energy for the campus. Unfortunately, the plan lacks, well, any real plan at all. In many ways the ETP is a smokescreen for furthering fossil fuel use at the school while talking a lot about clean energy in only vaguest terms.

Students have responded with action, especially as the plan is headed to the Board of Trustees for approval. Along with an 18-foot-tall (yes, close to two stories! – see the photo above) inflatable inhaler, students held a press conference today about the negative health impacts of burning coal.

“I know firsthand how awful it is to have an asthma attack so bad that I’ve been hospitalized and stuck in a bed with machines helping me breathe, rather than being in class or out with friends,” said senior and leader of MSU Beyond Coal Talya Tavor (pictured at the left at one of today’s events) who has been suffering from asthma since she was two-years-old.

“Coal pollution causes hundreds of thousands of asthma attacks every year, which is why MSU must be a leader by cutting their toxic air pollution and switching to healthier energy sources starting now.”

In addition to the inhaler sitting just behind “The Rock” – an iconic campus landmark they had to camp out all night to paint and defend – the group created a field of 37 10-foot-tall sunflowers to represent the 37 deaths per year in Ingham County from coal-related illnesses and a banner representing the 10,547 student petitions the group has collected asking the administration to retire the dirty coal-burning plant on campus.

Later tonight they’re hosting a Clean Energy Forum with energy experts from across the state discussing how Michigan can create jobs and improve the economy by being a clean energy leader. They’ll also be joined by Bill McKibben, renowned author and activist who you might know from 350.org or those massive protests against the Keystone XL tarsands pipeline, who is skyping in to cheer them on. (You can catch a livestream of the event starting at 7pm ET)

All of this is leading up to the Board of Trustees meeting on Friday where the administration will formally present their deeply flawed plan. It’s so bad that the students who were initially invited to participate in the Steering Committee refused to sign-off on the final version.

Michigan State has a long way to go to be a clean energy leader, but students are still hopeful.

“We know MSU can be a clean energy leader. Our vision is not just for cleaner air on campus, but to put Spartans at the forefront of building a prosperous clean energy economy for Michigan and being a model for our peer institutions,” said Tavor.

And you can help – take action today by signing a petition to the university’s Board of Trustees urging them to take real steps to move MSU to 100% clean energy starting now.

Photos by Kim Teplitzky.

This week, there were two big clean energy projects announced in California that are remarkable for a couple of reasons. Together, these two projects will power hundreds of thousands of homes with clean, affordable solar energy.

They will create thousands of good-paying jobs and billions in local economic benefits.

They also garnered support from a diverse and unexpected group of allies that included business, labor, and environmental organizations.

On Tuesday, the Los Angeles City Council approved an ordinance clearing the way for 150 megawatts of rooftop solar in the city. The CLEAN LA Solar program will allow local property owners to sell solar power generated from rooftops and parking lots back to the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (DWP), using a mechanism called a feed-in tariff, or, in plain language, a solar cash-back program.

Los Angeles will be the largest city in the nation to adopt such a program, which will supply renewable energy at a reasonable cost while spurring private investment and creating high-quality jobs.

“This is a smart, cost-effective method for businesses to create economic opportunity while weaning ourselves off the coal-fired plants that generate most of the city’s power,” said Brad Cox, Immediate Past Chairman of the Los Angeles Business Council.

Evan Gillespie of our California Beyond Coal campaign says this victory represents two years of work with the business community in LA, “The program, when fully realized in three years, will lead to 4,500 new jobs and $500 million in economic activity here in LA,” Evan says. This move will also offset 2.25 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions by 2016.

Meanwhile this week, more clean energy good news came out of California when we (along with Audubon California, Defenders of Wildlife and the Natural Resources Defense Council) announced our support for a set of proposed large-scale solar power projects in Imperial County.

When completed, the Mt. Signal, Calexico I and Calexico II solar projects under development by 8minutenergy will produce 600 megawatts of electricity, enough to power more than 200,000 households. The projects are located on privately owned, disturbed land currently used to grow highly water-intensive landscaping grasses.

The developer has agreed to create and implement a conservation fund to address possible impacts to burrowing owls, which are potentially affected by the large-scale development of solar in Imperial County. The biological effects from the projects are significantly less than proposed renewable energy projects on environmentally sensitive public lands. These Imperial County projects show that it is possible to develop viable, cost-effective projects without sacrificing our precious desert wildlands.

Importantly, to help ensure this project would provide quality jobs, the Sierra Club introduced the developer to the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. IBEW and 8minutenergy entered into a Project Labor Agreement to employ local Imperial Country workers for the projects. Imperial County has the highest unemployment rate in California (27%) and 23% of the population is below the poverty line.  The projects represent a $1 billion economic impact to the county over 30 years and will provide $20 million for the Calexico Unified School District.

“These projects are truly a win-win for local Imperial County workers and the environment,” said Johnny Simpson, Business Manager with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 569. “They will create good, middle-class green jobs with skilled training, healthcare benefits and pension retirement while reducing polluting greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change.”

We are replacing dirty coal power with clean renewable energy that won’t harm public health but will create good jobs. Now, we need to unlock this kind of innovation and job creation in every state in America. This is our energy future!

Last week we introduced you to Mr. Coal Guy, a coal industry executive with a penchant for 80s television. As he dubs over some classic TV programming, you realize that coal companies will say anything to prevent us from moving Beyond Coal.

Today, we’re excited to launch the latest video in this series, starring two guys in golden jumpsuits – click here to watch.

We’re releasing this new video just as the coal industry is launching some misleading ads, reaching into their deep pockets to kick off a brand new $40 million ad campaign that will try to paint a rosier picture. But just like the tobacco companies before them, it’s clear that they will say anything to hide the truth that coal is killing Americans. While they’re trying to make the case that our country’s future depends on coal, we know that clean energy innovation is the real key to creating jobs and keeping America competitive – without making our families sick or disrupting our climate. It’s time to move beyond coal and make Mr. Coal Guy history.

Since we launched the videos, the response has been incredible. The videos have been viewed more than 300,000 times and the buzz on Twitter and Facebook continues to grow. While these videos are meant to be funny, the message is serious: coal is a dirty fuel that is making our country sick.

We need your help – share the new video and spread the word!

The pollution caused by coal is serious business, as are the devastating affects coal pollution has on our health, our mountains, our air and water, and our planet. But sometimes the claims made by coal boosters are truly absurd, and the Sierra Club has just launched a new series of videos spoofing industry attempts to dismiss the very real harm that coal pollution causes.

I may be dating myself here, but I grew up watching the PBS classics, and so one of my favorite videos in the series is the one featuring painter Bob Ross. He always made it look so easy to plant those happy little trees. In our new video, a coal executive does a voiceover for Bob Ross as he paints a mountain: “Now, you can see where we’ve blown the mountaintop, exposing the coal. Scrapey scrapey, good bye lakey! And all the rivers and creatures as well.”

Watch Bob Ross and Mr. Coal

I hope you’ll check out the full set of videos here, and then share them with your friends – we launched these two videos this week, and we’ll be releasing three more in the coming weeks. You can also “like” Mr. Coal on Facebook and follow him on Twitter for more of his crazy talk.

Watch the second Mr. Coal video

These videos underscore how truly ridiculous it is for the industry to claim coal is safe and harmless. After all, every year, coal pollution contributes to 13,000 premature deaths, triggers 200,000 asthma attacks, and exposes 300,000 newborn babies to dangerous levels of mercury. Mountaintop removal operations have blown up over 500 mountains, and buried over 2,000 miles of streams with rock and debris.

That’s why Americans have rejected 166 new coal fired power plants, and why over 100 plants are now announced for retirement. America is moving beyond coal, to clean energy solutions like energy efficiency, wind, and solar that are creating tens of thousands of jobs, and sparking innovation that will power our country and our economy in the 21st century.

So help us spread the word. Enjoy these videos, and tell your friends – coal will say anything!

Today, our nation is taking a historic step for our health and our children’s future. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Obama Administration have just announced new carbon pollution safeguards that will protect clean air and the planet, while also spurring innovation and creating jobs in the clean energy economy.

Carbon pollution is linked to life-threatening air pollution like the smog that triggers asthma attacks, and it is the main contributor to climate disruption – making it a serious hazard to Americans’ health and future.

EPA today established new proposed safeguards under the Clean Air Act to protect Americans from dangerous carbon pollution produced by new coal plants.

These standards will protect Americans’ health, our economy and the future of our children, from carbon’s threats. Before today, there were no limits on the amount of carbon being spewed into the air by the nation’s largest sources of carbon pollution: dirty coal-fired power plants.

Concerned about these dangers, Americans have repeatedly said no to new coal-fired power plants for the past decade, defeating 166 proposed coal plants across the nation. Now, as the Sierra Club’s executive director, Michael Brune, said today in a press statement, “These first-ever carbon pollution standards for new power plants mean that business as usual for the nation’s biggest sources of carbon pollution, dirty coal-burning utilities, is over.”

As I’ve said before, a growing body of scientific evidence shows that warming temperatures caused by industrial carbon pollution pose a number of threats to our health and families, including worsening smog pollution, which in turn triggers asthma attacks and other respiratory illnesses.

Doctors, nurses, scientists and other experts say that this increased smog pollution is especially dangerous for children because it permanently damages and reduces the function of children’s lungs – a major concern for all my fellow parents out there.

These new air quality protections are a historic step forward in allowing EPA to focus on the industries that create the lion’s share of the nation’s carbon pollution, because it is time to hold big polluters accountable for the pollutants they spew into our air.

Over 120 health organizations including the American Academy of Pediatrics, American Lung Association, American Medical Association, American Nurses Association, American Public Health Association, American Thoracic Society and others are on record stating:

Climate change is a serious public health issue. As temperatures rise, more Americans will be exposed to conditions that can result in illness and death due to respiratory illness, heat- and weather-related stress and disease carried by insects. These health issues are likely to have the greatest impact on our most vulnerable communities, including children, older adults, those with serious health conditions and the most economically disadvantaged.

Clean Air Act protections like these also spur innovation and modernization in our energy sector, creating much-needed jobs, protecting public health and tackling climate disruption. Countries around the world are racing to see who will lead the clean energy future, and we cannot afford to let American fall behind. These new protections will help ensure our nation is leading the way in developing the cutting-edge clean energy technologies of the 21st century.

Every family has the right to breathe clean air, free from the toxic pollution that has taken too many lives and destroyed too many communities. We cannot accept more dirty coal while our friends and family miss days of school and work, ending up in the emergency room instead. Or while American workers remain off the job, when clean energy projects could create thousands of sustainable careers. Or while the fate of our planet hangs in the balance, as global temperatures rise.

By establishing carbon pollution protections, the EPA is moving forward to clean up and modernize the way we power our country – a move that will make for healthier kids, families and workers, while creating much-needed jobs and fighting climate disruption.

As aging coal plants retire, Sierra Club activists, members, and allies nationwide are doing innovative, exciting work to replace that power with clean energy. Americans know we must end our dependence on fossil fuels to provide cleaner, healthier air.

We also know that clean energy innovation is powering economic growth and creating new jobs in this country every day. These recent highlights from the Midwest are just a small sample of the groundswell of the homegrown support for clean energy that is sweeping the nation.

In Western Michigan last week, more than 170 people turned out for a wind energy public forum held by the local Sierra Club chapter and more than a dozen other businesses and non-profits. The crowd listened to speakers like this one talk about wind power’s benefits for that region, which includes everything from pollution-free electricity, to job creation:

A wind turbine is made of more than 8,000 parts, said Sue Browne, program manager for BlueGreen Alliance Michigan. The alliance works to expand the number and quality of jobs in a “green” economy. Manufacturing wind turbines will bring both, Browne said. The process employs a variety of professions, from iron workers to electricians, she said.

This wind power event came on the heels of last month’s report by the Michigan Public Service Commission regarding the state’s development of clean energy and also the future viability of coal as a source of energy.

The report shows Michigan’s renewable energy standard is directly sparking Michigan’s economy, generating $100 million in investments, spurring manufacturing and business growth, and creating jobs.

In Michigan, not only is the state’s renewable energy standard creating jobs and generating millions of dollars of investment, but the ongoing movement for clean energy has also meant that some renewable sources of energy – particularly wind power – are now cheaper than coal.

Also last week, the Sierra Club North Star Chapter in Minnesota delivered to Governor Mark Dayton more than 6,000 postcards calling for more solar power and clean energy. See their photo at the top of this post.

“It was a real team effort collecting these cards, with over 150 volunteers helping out since 2010,” says Sierra Club volunteer Stephanie Spitzer, who helped coordinate the delivery.

The Sierra Club is part of the Solar Works for Minnesota coalition, a group of businesses, consumers, labor groups, the solar industry, and clean energy advocates working to establish a Solar Energy Standard, with 10 percent of the state’s electricity coming from solar by 2030. The Club is pushing for state agencies to achieve that goal by 2025.

The North Star Chapter is also working with solar installers to teach the public about what it takes to install solar at your home or office. This month’s workshop is in Edina, Minnesota, where clean energy financing is available for businesses.

Finally, in Wisconsin last month, the Sierra Club John Muir Chapter hosted a Great Lakes wind stakeholder conference connecting potential supply chain businesses, local technical colleges, utility representative, labor, elected officials and environmentalists. Topics ranged from the economic opportunity of offshore wind for Wisconsin to responsible siting considerations. From the conference, a working group formed to continue exploring this clean energy opportunity.

And these are just three examples from the Midwest. All these events nationwide add up to a groundswell of support for clean energy. Americans see the benefits of clean energy and know it’s time to make the switch.

As coal use drops dramatically in the U.S. and clean energy continues to grow, King Coal is looking for new customers. The coal industry is now pursuing its corporate profits via coal exports at the expense of the health, safety, and quality of life of thousands of families in several states, including Montana, Idaho, Washington and Oregon.

Right now, several major coal companies are proposing to develop Northwest ports to export coal from the Powder River Basin to Asia; including ports at Cherry Point, WA; Longview, WA; Grays Harbor, WA; Coos Bay, OR; St. Helens, OR; and Port of Morrow, OR. You can see a map of the proposed ports here.

Coal exports could make thousands of Northwest residents sick with serious respiratory health problems in cities along the rail line, while fouling the air and water that farms and Main Street businesses depend on.  For residents in Montana who have been battling the effects of coal mining in the Powder River Basin, the idea of coal companies tightening their grip on their resources and quality of life to tap international markets is particularly threatening.

Millennium Bulk Terminals’ recent permit application for Longview, Washington, proposes exporting 44 million tons of coal annually, making it the largest coal terminal on the West Coast.

In February 2011, the company was exposed for deceiving Washington state officials about the amount of coal to be exported from the Longview terminal – although the company originally claimed they would only export five million tons of coal per year, news coverage revealed they actually planned to ship up to 60 million tons per year. Decision-makers sent them back to the drawing board, and now they’re pushing for the terminal yet again.

Another active coal export proposal is at Cherry Point near Bellingham, Washington, where SSA Marine’s Gateway Pacific Terminal would handle up to 48 million tons of coal annually. The health and environmental effects would be drastic in this beautiful coastal area north of Puget Sound, as coal piles and massive diesel tanker ships contaminate waterways and devastate local fishing and tourism industries.

Meanwhile, three other questionable coal export proposals are active in Oregon and Washington. In these projects, the coal companies are trying to bypass the public permitting process by negotiating with municipalities without public comment or input.

The International Port of Coos Bay in Oregon has been especially secretive, keeping coal export development plans behind closed doors. The Sierra Club recently filed a legal challenge in order to obtain more information about the plan.  The Port of Coos Bay has already secured a state dredging permit which would be the largest in state history and could devastate local oyster farming and fishing industries.

We can’t let coal companies make huge profits at the expense of these communities’ public health, economies, and environment – not to mention at the expense of climate disruption on our planet as they export US coal for others to burn, polluting communities every step of the way, including those living near huge power plants abroad.

This summer, officials from local counties, the Washington state Department of Ecology, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers are collaborating on a statewide environmental review process of these proposals.  It’s critical that Northwest leadership ensure state and federal agencies fully analyze all the health and environmental impacts of exporting coal from the Powder River Basin through any Northwest Port.

The Sierra Club’s “Coal-Free Northwest” campaign and the Power Past Coal Coalition are mounting an effort to ensure that public agencies fully and fairly consider impacts on communities across the region in their permitting process for the coal export terminals at Cherry Point and Longview – and beyond.

We are determined to stop these dirty coal exports across the region and instead build a clean energy future that protects the Pacific Northwest’s environment, health and economy.

Photo by Paul K. Anderson.

We are more thankful than ever for the recent mercury and air toxics protections released by Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson and the Obama Administration.

Unfortunately – but not surprisingly – some polluters filed legal challenges to the new mercury protections on the very day they went into effect. While some are attacking these standards on behalf of big polluters like the coal industry, we are joined by hundreds of thousands of Americans who want these protections to keep them safe from mercury and other toxic air pollution from power plants, such as arsenic, nickel, selenium, cyanide and acid gases. Some of those grateful Americans are featured in this thank you video we’re releasing today – I hope you’ll check it out.

As a mom, I’m especially aware that mercury, a dangerous neurotoxin, poses a particular threat to pregnant women and young children. Exposure affects a developing child’s ability to walk, talk, read, write and learn. The Centers for Disease Control, along with EPA, estimate that as many as 1 in 6 women of childbearing age have high enough mercury levels in their blood to harm a developing fetus. Additionally, this protection will reduce exposure to a host of other health-threatening toxics.

These strong new standards will ensure that more than 90% of the mercury from coal-burning plants is cleaned up, and each year will prevent up to 11,000 premature deaths, 4,700 heart attacks, and 130,000 asthma attacks.

Now we are on the verge of seeing EPA’s proposed carbon pollution standards. Carbon pollution poses serious threats to Americans’ health, our economy and the future of our children, but there are currently no federal limits on the amount of carbon being spewed into the air by the nation’s largest sources of carbon pollution – dirty coal-fired power plants.

A growing body of scientific evidence shows that warming temperatures caused by industrial carbon pollution worsen smog pollution, which in turn triggers asthma attacks and other respiratory illnesses. Doctors, nurses, scientists and other experts say that this increased smog pollution is especially dangerous for children because it permanently damages and reduces the function of children’s lungs – again, a major concern for all my fellow parents out there.

And of course, as with the mercury safeguards, big polluters are lining up in advance to challenge these protections. In response, we started running a new TV ad this week in several states that asks this simple question: What if polluter lobbyists in Washington were replaced with asthmatic children?

We support strong clean air standards that will safeguard our health, our families, and our planet. Clean, healthy air and water are fundamental American rights.  Join us in thanking the Obama Administration for standing up for public health, clean air, and clean water.

And tell EPA that Americans support industrial carbon pollution protections!