COAL ASH WALL OF SHAME

The document criticizes 260 U.S. House members who voted on June 21, 2012, to include a provision in a transportation bill that allows coal ash ponds to operate without basic safety standards and prevents the EPA from establishing national health and safety regulations. It highlights that these members represent districts containing the vast majority of the U.S.'s hazardous coal ash sites and notes a correlation between these votes and campaign contributions from the electric utility and mining industries.

• On June 21, 2012, 260 House members voted for a provision in a transportation bill that allows coal ash ponds to operate indefinitely without mandatory inspections or engineering safeguards and prevents the EPA from establishing national health and safety standards for coal ash.
• The 260 members who voted for the provision represent districts that contain a high concentration of hazardous coal ash sites, including 79 percent of all coal ash ponds in the U.S., 85 percent of significant hazard-rated ponds, and 77 percent of high hazard ponds.
• The document identifies 25 members who voted against EPA regulations despite having at least 8 coal ash ponds in their districts; it further notes that most of the top 10 listed members received their highest 2012 corporate campaign contributions from the mining or electric utility industries.
• The document states there are currently over 260 coal ash ponds presenting a significant or high hazard to the environment and human health, and nearly 200 sites where coal ash has contaminated water with arsenic, lead, and other toxic heavy metals.

APA

Earthjustice (2012). COAL ASH WALL OF SHAME. https://earthjustice.org/wp-content/uploads/wall_of_shame_0.pdf

Chicago

Earthjustice. COAL ASH WALL OF SHAME. 2012. https://earthjustice.org/wp-content/uploads/wall_of_shame_0.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Earthjustice |title=COAL ASH WALL OF SHAME |date=2012 |url=https://earthjustice.org/wp-content/uploads/wall_of_shame_0.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{earthjustice2012coal, author = {{Earthjustice}}, title = {{COAL ASH WALL OF SHAME}}, institution = {Earthjustice}, year = {2012}, url = {https://earthjustice.org/wp-content/uploads/wall_of_shame_0.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }