Dear Congress: More sturgeon, less pollution.

My Michigan colleague, Brenda Archambo, is on her way to testify before the U.S. Senate to help ensure that a 200-million-year-old fish species doesn’t get wiped out by smokestacks, mercury and carbon pollution. Archambo leads a conservation group focused on preserving sturgeon species in Michigan and organizes hunters and anglers to defend public policies that preserve air, land, water and wildlife.

You can add your voice too, to fight pollution—the time to take action has never been more urgent.

Brenda’s leadership has not gone unnoticed. U.S. Sen. Thomas Carper (D-Delaware), chair of the Senate Clean Air and Nuclear Safety Subcommittee, asked Brenda to testify before his panel this Tuesday. She shared her story recently with the Petoskey News and in our new report, which focuses on the devastating impact of warming winters on America’s outdoor traditions.

Brenda—and the 1.7 million Michigan hunters and anglers she represents—are faced with hundreds of fish consumption advisories every year due to high levels of mercury and other toxins, commonly put into the air from coal-fired power plants both within Michigan and from neighboring states. And with increasingly warm winters, the ice on the upper Midwest lakes doesn’t get thick enough often enough to sustain cherished family ice-fishing traditions, nor 46,000 tourism and recreation jobs across the state.

Fortunately, the Obama Administration, Sen. Carper, Michigan’s Sens. Debbie Stabenow (D) and Carl Levin (D) and others in Washington are not putting the interests of big polluters ahead of public health, food safety, fishing traditions and local economies. The U.S. EPA’s Mercury and Air Toxics standard, and the Carbon Pollution standard, put into place protections passed by a bipartisan Congress in the early 1990’s, and signed into law by President George H.W. Bush.

Brenda is traveling a long way from Cheboygan to protect sturgeon, family fishing traditions, and local economies. But we also need you to stand up too.

Take Action to Combat Pollution Today

Take action today by adding your comment during the EPA’s 60-day public comment window, which actually started April 13th. Share this link via Facebook, Twitter or other social media as well.

Details on Tuesday’s hearing…good luck Brenda!

Subcommittee on Clean Air and Nuclear Safety hearing entitled, “Review of Mercury Pollution’s Impacts on Public Health and the Environment.”
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
10:00 AM EDT
EPW Hearing Room – 406 Dirksen

http://epw.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Hearings.Hearing&Hearing_id=9e3ece6e-802a-23ad-419e-915184add98c