Will Congress make our work illegal?- Email from Food and Water Watch

New York's announcement in December to remain frack-free was a game-changer for the movement to protect our drinking water and other precious resources. We give thanks to people like you, because together, we can protect public health and our environment.

However, now our opponents will likely intensify their efforts to silence and discredit our concerns about fracking, and with help from anti-environment members of the new Congress, we can expect radical actions trying to strip away current protections. That's why we need you to send the message right way that we're not going to stand for industry favors.

This week, the new Republican-controlled Congress is rushing to push through the Keystone XL pipeline approval, and we can surely expect more attacks on science like we saw in November when the House passed a bill forbidding scientists from advising the Environmental Protection Agency on their own research.¹

Even worse, paid lobbyists and industry-backed politicians have launched very deliberate and coordinated attacks on groups and individuals that champion environmental protections.² ³ They call us extremists in an attempt to thwart our growing movement. But we're not environmentalists for the sake of the environment. We aim to protect our environment because it has a direct affect on our health. We cannot live without clean drinking water, and we cannot grow healthy food without a healthy ecosystem.

Email your members of Congress to tell them that you support environmental protections, and that it shouldn't be illegal to stand up for safe drinking water and a healthy food system.

Now that Republicans have control of the Senate, a key committee — the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee — will be chaired by James Inhofe (R-Okla.), a notorious climate change denier and an unabashed champion for the fossil fuel industry. It was under his lead last year that, not just one, but two reports were released targeting environmental groups and their funders in an attempt to silence groups working in the public interest. Will you tell your Members of Congress that they shouldn't be using taxpayer dollars to fund attacks on groups trying to protect our environment?

We're being attacked in an attempt to draw attention away from what matters most: our food, our water, our health and our communities. But we won't be silenced. Instead, we'll gather all the support we can to show media and influencers that these attacks lack credibility. Will you stand up for environmental protections for our food and water?

Thanks for all you do,

Wenonah Hauter
Executive Director
Food & Water Watch
act(at)fwwatch(dot)org