Bush Admin Expands Mountaintop Coal Mining
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto 
on 08.23.07
Mountaintop coal mining at Hale Gap, Va. Michael Temchine for The New York Times
The quick and dirty way to get coal out of the Appalachian mountains is simply to blast the tops off mountains and dump the rubble into valleys and streams. Streams and valleys are obliterated and contaminated. According to John Broder of the New York Times, the practice has been used in Appalachian coal country for 20 years under a cloud of legal and regulatory confusion. No more; the new rules will allow it to continue and expand. Environmental activists say the rule change will lead to accelerated pillage of vast tracts and the obliteration of hundreds of miles of streams in central Appalachia.
“This is a parting gift to the coal industry from this administration,” said Joe Lovett, executive director of the Appalachian Center for the Economy and the Environment in Lewisburg, W.Va. “What is at stake is the future of Appalachia. This is an attempt to make legal what has long been illegal.” ::New York Times
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Par for the course for GW.
This seems like an issue that, no matter how much mentioned in the media, no matter the voices of environmentalists and activists, no matter the warnings of scientists, and especially no matter the outcry of Appalachians--no action is taken to stop it. It seems all collective concern is squelched in a nebulous cloud of industry and regulation.
I am a West Virginia native and am pained to see the beauty of this region ploughed under by our call for "inexpensive" energy. At what unaccounted cost do we maim the Earth? This process is so severe in consequence that all involved should be shamed into ceasing it (from the people who advocate it to the consumers who benefit from it...and this covers the spectrum from profiteers right to our electrical outlets).
I lament the destruction of Amazonian forests and fear the melting of polar regions; but, though everything is interconnected, America, this mining is happening right in your own backyard. Appalachia has yet wilderness and untouched beauty; but it's bleeding from the heart of its mountains as we ponder what is to be done far away.
Often people living in Appalachia feel they have no voice (or, unfortunately, there is outright intimidation that speaking out will cause trouble and maybe take jobs away where jobs are badly needed). There must be some way we concerned people can rally round and speak out against these things whilst time still remains.
I know this is a long post; however, it's close to my heart. I'm living now in an industrial town on the Czech side of the border with Germany. In the 1960's, the Soviets decided that a vast seam of coal directly beneath the city was worth more that the city itself. So the city, which looked much like a little Prague, was razed to the ground. Everyone was moved a few kilometres away to a new "Soviet style" city. The coal is all gone now and what remains is a vast crater in the ground.
Is the energy under Appalachia worth more than all the future of the land above?
The coal available in West Virginia is the highly-desirable low-sulphur coal, so there's a lot of pressure to get at the stuff. Also, the very dangerous nature of deep pit mining makes this look like a low-hazard alternative. Both of these facts militate against opposing this kind of mining on a large scale.
West Virginians should remember, however, that this coal is more valuable being kept in the ground. Think of it as a savings account, because no one is ever gonna NOT want to get at it. And considering that technology and economics may help deep pit mines in the future to avoid human hazards, there's a strong common sense argument for ending this practice.
Sanctioned in the name of pre-election donations - to both parties.
can they really afford to continue to look like absolute idiots like this? IMPEACH!