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Today is our second annual Virginia Loves Mountains Day! Citizens across the commonwealth are joining forces to tell Senators Webb and Warner that Virginians want them to fully support the EPA and to stop mountaintop removal once and for all. If you are looking for information on attending a meeting in person today please click here for meeting times and places.

Here’s what you can do:
1. Call Senators Webb and Warners’ offices using the script or talking points below.
2. Fill out the form at the bottom of this page for each call so we can tally our impact.
3. Share this page with your friends!

SCRIPT:
Hi, my name is __________ and I live in _____________ (say where you live so the person answering the phone knows you’re a constituent). I am calling to urge Senator _________ to oppose any effort to block, weaken or roll back the EPA’s enforcement of the Clean Water Act and the Clean Air Act. I would like the senator to support the EPA’s efforts to keep mountaintop removal waste out of streams and I look forward to the senator’s enthusiastic support of all the EPA’s work. Thank you.

TALKING POINTS YOU CAN USE:
- Already, 67 mountains have been destroyed and more than 150 miles of streams have been buried by mountaintop removal in Virginia.
- Mountaintop removal is happening in some of Virginia’s poorest counties. There is a direct correlation between areas with mountaintop removal and communities with high poverty rates and high unemployment rates.
- Mountaintop removal coal mining ruins southwest Virginia’s mountains and streams – arguably the region’s greatest natural resources— ensuring that the poorest region in the state will only get poorer.
- If southwest Virginia is to have a chance at economic diversification and a prosperous future, mountaintop removal must be stopped.
- Coal is making us sick.  From extraction to transportation, combustion, and coal ash disposal, coal can cause a host of serious, life-threatening health problems, inflicting children with asthma, stifling childhood development and cutting short thousands of lives.
- 647 Virginians die annually due to fine particle emissions from coal plants.
- Transitioning from dirty and dangerous energy sources like coal and oil to clean sources like energy efficiency, wind, and solar will create jobs, putting American workers and American ingenuity to work. This new clean energy economy will put our nation back on the map in the global competition with countries like China.

SENATOR WARNER: (202) 224-2023
SENATOR WEBB: (202) 224-4024