Sunday, December 11, 2011

You Can Tell The EPA On Monday You Want Cleaner Air In Milwaukee

Sick of unhealthy air in Milwaukee from coal-fired electric company smokestacks? Sick of being sick? Want to make a statement, literally, about the social justice implications of air pollution concentrated in Milwaukee's minority and low-income communities?


The US Environmental Protection Agency is coming to town Monday evening to take your testimony. Background and details below, courtesy of the ACLU of Wisconsin, and a coalition hard at work on this issue:

Everyone deserves to breathe clean air. But WE Energies continues to operate its dirtiest coal plant in the heart of a majority-minority Milwaukee neighborhood. And the air pollution this Valley plant creates subjects these communities to the health problems, like asthma, from polluted air.

This is NOT what environmental justice looks like. 

For more than a year, the Cleaner Valley Coalition - which includes civil rights organizations like the ACLU of Wisconsin, faith communities, and environmental groups - has been fighting for environmental justice by calling on WE Energies to clean up the Valley coal plant. On Monday, we're taking our message to the Environmental Protection Agency: EPA representatives will be in Milwaukee to hear from the community about how poor air quality hurts them and their families and why the Valley plant needs to be cleaned up. 
   
Join others who support Environmental Justice at a
Community Forum with the Environmental Protection Agency
Monday, December 12, 6:00 p.m.
Ascension Lutheran Church, 1236 S. Layton Blvd., Milwaukee 

Earlier this year, coalition pressure led to the announcement by WE Energies that they would explore cleaning up the plant. Although this is a step in the right direction, the Cleaner Valley Coalition wants a commitment to justice now. Tell representatives of the Environmental Protection Agency about your concerns for both racial equality and a clean environment.


The Cleaner Valley Coalition includes civil rights, faith and environmental groups including the ACLU of Wisconsin, Black Health Coalition of Wisconsin (BHCW), Milwaukee Latino Healthy Coalition (MLHC), Midwest Environmental Advocates (MEA), WI Asthma Coalition, Walker Square Neighborhood Association, Milwaukee Inner-city Congregations Allied for Hope (MICAH), Wisconsin Interfaith Power and Light, Interfaith Earth Network, Clean Wisconsin, Islamic Environmental Group of Wisconsin, Children's Environmental Health Sciences Core Center, Sierra Club, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and Milwaukee Riverkeeper.   

Download a flier for the event or share this email using the share bar to spread the word and invite others.

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