Romney Skips Earth Day, Goes Straight to Coal Day

Mitt Romney had no public events or statements about Earth Day this year.  But just one day after, the Republican candidate found time to campaign at one of the nation's largest coal companies - a company that also happens to be one of Romney's largest campaign donors.

Consol Energy is a billion-dollar natural gas and coal company based in Pennsylvania notorious for polluting American waterways, streams, and drinking water with toxic runoff from its plants. In 2011 alone, the company paid more than $200 million dollars in fines and settlements due to hundreds of violations of the Clean Water Act.

And, today, Romney paid Consol a visit to praise the company's work. Directly from the floor of a Consol-owned building , Romney gave a speech praising dirty coal power. At the same time, he attacked the landmark safeguards put into place to protect our air, our water, and the health of our families from the toxic pollution created by
Consol’s own plants.

In other words, this week, instead of celebrating the planet, Romney pushed for policies that would poison it.

Currently, the asthmatic kids who get sick from coal plant pollution do not have any registered political action committees or Super PACs.

But Consol and other coal companies definitely do - and they've opened up their wallets this year to support Romney and smear anyone who opposes their reckless agenda.

Consol Energy has given thousands of dollars to Romney’s campaign - and he's using their talking points along with their money. Romney’s taken every opportunity to attack the historic progress we’ve made over the last four years to protect the future of our planet and the health of our families, and he's lined up behind the priorities of a handful of billionaire, big polluting donors.

-Trey Pollard, Deputy National Press Secretary, Sierra Club

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Learn more about the positions of the Republican Presidential Primary candidates at Realrepubs.com.

The Sierra Club Voter Education Fund’s Real Republicans project seeks to educate voters about the records of the 2012 GOP presidential candidates by highlighting their extreme positions on public health and other issues of critical importance to the American people and encourage the public to find out more about the candidates and their positions on these issues.