Thank Lisa Jackson for taking action against mountaintop removal mining.

Your message to Lisa Jackson, EPA Administrator: I want to thank you for taking bold action on mountaintop removal mining. After eight destructive years of Bush administration policies, it's well past time to use science rather than politics to guide U.S. environmental regulations.

The Environmental Protection Agency just announced the most significant administrative action ever taken against mountaintop removal coal mining.

During the Bush administration, the EPA ignored the science on mountaintop removal mining and simply rubber stamped destructive mining permits with little or no regard to the devastating effect of this form of coal extraction. The process leaves landscapes scarred, water contaminated, and communities in ruin.

Send Lisa Jackson a thank you for taking bold action on mountaintop removal coal mining. By clicking here, your "thank you" will automatically be sent.

Last week, President Obama's EPA announced new regulations — driven by science — to prevent the significant and irreversible damage mountaintop removal mining inflicts on our watersheds. Tough new water quality standards just released could spell the beginning of the end for this destructive practice.

EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson has directed the regional EPA offices that issue permits to coal mining companies to benchmark the levels of mining runoff that would enter local streams when a new mine is proposed. If a mining operation would raise the levels beyond a permissible standard — more than five times above normal — the regional office must deny the permit.

These guidelines will effectively prohibit most mountaintop removal mining operations that blow the rocks and soil of the top of a mountain and then fill surrounding valleys and streams with the detritus.

Send a quick thank note to Lisa Jackson. By clicking here, your "thank you" will automatically be sent.

Lisa Jackson's actions follow on the heels of an announcement that the EPA would block an existing permit for a massive mountaintop removal mining proposed by Arch Coal in West Virginia. The agency invoked the Clean Water Act in vetoing the project, the first time ever that the EPA has used this authority to reverse a permit that had already been issued.

Big Coal has proven that it will stop at nothing to continue exploiting the earth and the residents of coal country. With so many politicians — Democrat and Republican alike — in the industry's pocket, it's been impossible to get Congress to pass sensible environmental laws. That's where the EPA comes in.

When Congress fails to act, the EPA can invoke scientific studies and use its authority under the Clean Water Act and Clean Air Act to take bold action on the most pressing environmental issues of the day. Last week it was mountaintop removal mining. And soon EPA will be using the same tactics to regulate CO2.

The EPA and Lisa Jackson deserve our thanks. Your "thank you" will automatically be sent by clicking here.

EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson needs to hear from us that we applaud her efforts to use every weapon at her disposal to protect our environment. Give her your thanks and let her know we support using bold action to confront the most pressing environmental threats of our day — from mountaintop removal mining to greenhouse gas emissions.

Thank you for all of your work and dedication. Your pressure works.

Michael Kieschnick, CEO CREDO Action from Working Assets

P.S. My first job out of graduate school was with the EPA. Then, as now, the good people at the EPA got hammered for following the science by polluters, their lobbyists, and the members of Congress they bought. When the EPA does the right thing, it is good to thank them.