Ash Sunstein Campaign Calls On EPA to Regulate Coal Ash As Hazardous Waste

I wrote earlier this month about a protest at the Brookings Institution over Cass Sunstein's role in preventing the EPA's proposal to regulate coal ash as hazardous waste from becoming law. The protest was part of an upcoming campaign to overcome the political deadlock that the proposal has found in his office and to finally get it passed. That campaign is now live, and needs your participation.

According to the campaign organizers, AshSunstein.com "represents the citizens most personally affected by this growing mess, who are calling on Ash Sunstein to stop playing bureaucratic games and end the special treatment for Toxic Coal Ash by declaring it as the hazardous waste it is."

It's not considered hazardous right now because of a convenient exemption under federal law that allows coal companies to essentially dump coal ash anywhere.

As I explained in the previous post: the hazardous waste label has been a source of contention since the 1980s, when the EPA was instructed to rule on the issue but procrastinated for two decades, and then shelved the issue completely under Bush. Yet, Grist reports, there is "rock solid evidence that when coal ash waste is collected in unlined pits in the ground, it is extraordinarily dangerous to people, livestock, and wildlife, not to mention water quality."

The campaign ran an ad this week in publications its organizers thinks Sunstein is likely to read: the Harvard Crimson, the Chicago Maroon, and the Georgetowner. If you've got a moment, learn more and sign the petition today.