FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 24, 2009

TOXIC POLLUTION SHOULDN’T PAY: NATIONAL CAMPAIGN AIMS TO GET COAL INDUSTRY TO COME CLEAN ON THE DEVASTATING EFFECTS OF COAL

Melcroft, PA – Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Chairman of Waterkeeper Alliance, announced today the launch of the group’s first national anti-coal campaign. Called “The Dirty Lie,” the campaign is intended to create broader awareness of the destructiveness of coal—from its role in propping up an antiquated fossil-fuel-based economy to its adverse effects on the environment and the health of millions of Americans—and, ultimately, to bring about a change in national energy policy.  

“Simply stated, clean coal is a dirty lie,” Kennedy said. “You don’t have to live in the coalfields or in the shadow of a coal-fired power plant to be affected by this filthy industry. Coal causes acid rain, pollutes our water and food chain with toxic mercury, destroys communities, and is grossly accelerating climate change.”

Waterkeeper programs in Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Utah, and West Virginia have been fighting the coal industry for years. The Mountain Watershed Association, as home of the Youghiogheny Riverkeeper program, was key in helping to develop the Dirty Lie campaign. 

“Once they learn the facts,” Kennedy said, “most Americans will demand policies that protect our water and our health and promote an economy built on cleaner, more sustainable energy sources.”  Information on the campaign and a petition to sign are available at www.thedirtylie.com. 

The campaign is reaching beyond the traditional environmental community by using online viral marketing techniques, with the goal of galvanizing broad popular interest via the web. The campaign’s hub is a website that will house video and editorial content and provide visitors with interactive tools to become anti-coal activists.

Every year, U.S. coal-fired power plants release 48 tons of the neurotoxin mercury into the environment, poisoning hundreds of square miles of waterways. And mercury doesn’t just poison ecosystems; it also poisons pregnant women and their babies. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates that one of every six women of childbearing age now has unsafe mercury levels in her blood and, potentially, breast milk, putting more than 410,000 American children born each year at high risk for neurological damage and a grim inventory of illnesses.  

And while coal-fired power plants generate about half of America’s electricity, they contribute 80 percent of the total greenhouse gases that result from electricity production. Ocean-level rise and other effects of global warming threaten barrier islands and coastal ecosystems and other irreplaceable wild areas.

“We’re fighting a powerful industry with deep pockets and an absolute determination to win,” Kennedy said, “but thanks to Waterkeeper Alliance’s thousands of dedicated local activists, the campaign’s goal is no less than to bring about a fundamental shift in national energy policy.” 
Waterkeeper Alliance is one of the world’s fastest growing grassroots environmental organizations with nearly 200 Waterkeepers defending and advocating for rivers, lakes and other waterways on six continents. 

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