Activist Pressuring Obama to End Mountaintop Coal Mining

This morning, environmental activists erected two 20-foot teepees (for lack of a better term) in front of EPA headquarters in Washington to protest mountaintop coal mining. Ten hours later, they’re still there, and at least six of them have locked themselves to the teepees with a vow to remain until EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson agrees to fly over a mountaintop removal site . (The claim is that she’s never seen one.)

Via Twitter, Jackson acknowledged the protesters:

“People are here today expressing views on MTM, a critical issue to our country,” she said. “Theyre concerned abt human health & water quality & so am I.”

In the eyes of community activist Jeff Biggers, that ain’t enough. “Not one — count ‘em — of Jackson’s top officials in DC or herself have made any effort to actually visit a mountaintop removal site before making life-threatening decisions,” Biggers wrote today at the Huffington Post.

Considering what’s at stake, it’s difficult to argue that he doesn’t have a point.