FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 19, 2012
Contact:
Sean Sarah, Sierra Club, 202 548-4589 sean.sarah@sierraclub.org
Mountaintop-Removal
Coal Shipped Overseas at Alarming Rate While Locals Pay the Price
Congressional Report Shows Increasing Amounts of Coal Sold
Overseas
Washington, D.C. – Today, Edward Markey, ranking member
of the House Natural Resources Committee released a report entitled “Our Pain, Their Gain” that exposes the
explosion of coal exports from Appalachia over the last few years.
In response Ed Hopkins, Environmental
Quality Program Director of the Sierra Club, released the following statement:
"Every
day, people living near mountaintop-removal sites suffer serious health impacts
from that destructive practice.
Three-quarters of the coal taken from the ground in Appalachia is
exported, as Congressman Markey's report shows, and these exports have been
growing rapidly. But the health burdens
associated with mountaintop removal mining -- including high rates of birth
defects, cancer and serious respiratory disease -- stay with Appalachians who
live near these mines.
Coal
companies in Appalachia feed their bottom line by sending coal around the world
while leaving Americans to face the real human and environmental costs. This
report underscores the need for key decision makers to stop the devastating
health and environmental threats associated with mountaintop-removal
mining."
The full
report “Our Pain, Their Gain” can be
found here: http://democrats.naturalresources.house.gov/sites/democrats.naturalresources.house.gov/files/documents/Our_Pain_Their_Gain1.pdf
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