Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining 101
- Rob Perks
- Director, Center for Advocacy Campaigns, Washington, D.C.
- Blog | About
- Posted November 11, 2009 in Health and the Environment , Saving Wildlife and Wild Places , Solving Global Warming
I have blogged countless times about mountaintop removal, the world's most destructive coal mining. My posts explore the various ecological, economic and cultural harm caused by this reckless strip mining. I've also highlighted specific people and places most affected by the practice, as well as detailed policy solutions.
Today I'm pleased to point folks to a new online resource about the issue, essentially a comprehensive primer that briefly touches on the key aspects of mountaintop removal that I have discussed in my frequent blog posts. This document -- "Appalachian Heartbreak" -- is now available on NRDC's website. Here is an excerpt:
Coal is America's dirtiest energy source -- and the country's leading source of global warming pollution. Pollution from coal plants produces dirty air, acid rain, and contaminated land and water. Nowhere is the debate over how far we are willing to go for inexpensive energy more contentious than in the coalfields of Appalachia. It is there -- between the hollows of West Virginia, beyond the bluegrass of Kentucky, bordering the Blue Ridge of Virginia, and above the smoky vistas of Tennessee -- where mining companies are blowing up America's oldest mountains to get the coal beneath the peaks. Mountaintop removal mining is scarring the landscape and threatening communities throughout Appalachia.
Instead of extracting the coal by underground mining, this reckless strip mining uses explosive charges and large machinery to remove the mountain and get to the coal. More than 500 mountaintops have already been destroyed and more than one million acres of forest have been clearcut. Well over a thousand miles of valley streams have been buried under tons of rubble, polluting drinking water and threatening the health and safety of all who make their home in the region.
NRDC and our grassroots partners are pushing for federal legislation to close the legal loopholes that make mountaintop removal pollution possible. Instead of allowing dirty mountaintop removal to continue, America should look to clean energy solutions that will create jobs, boost the economy, and help fight global warming.
To read the entire paper, click here.
Another way to delve into the issues surrounding this controversial mining practice, from a more personal standpoint, is to read this article published today, entitled "Blowing Their Tops". The story focuses on one man's fight to save his family's homestead from the ravages of a mountaintop coal mine on the mountain above his property. A few months ago I visited with the Kentucky gentlemen profiled in the piece, 76-year old McKinley Sumner, to see for myself what he's facing. It's a harrowing yet beautifully written story about how "the mountains in front of him have been turned inside out."
"This is a disgrace to the human race and a disgrace to God's creation," he says, jabbing a finger at the devastation in front of him. "I'll never give up fighting mountaintop removal mining. I hope it stops in my lifetime."
This article touches on most of the issues around mountaintop removal that I cover in "Appalachian Heartbreak".
(Photo by J Henry Fair)
(bookmark or email this entry)
Comments are closed for this post.
We close comments on a blog post when it's clear the conversation has moved on -- click on the tags (above) or on our homepage to see if we've got fresh news and views on this post's topic.
Comments
Craig Stout — Nov 11 2009 03:09 PM
This is hypocritical. You are using the very resources that the coal industry supplies to get your "message" distributed. Coal supplies almost 60% of the resource for electricity in the United States. There is NO reliable resource to supplement that level of energy, except Nuclear. That waste NEVER goes way and has to be stored underground in (hopefully) secure facilities.
Lower the usage, lower the demand, lower the rhetoric.
The people who live in the areas you want to "save" have very few other resources for jobs. If you remove their livelihood, you put these familes out of work.
So, to "save" the mountains, you have to not only work to lower the energy consumption by Americans or provide viable (not pie in the sky words like windfarms, solar, hydrogen - something that is useable and workable solutions for everyone) options, but you also have to provide alternative job opportunities for the people of the communities that are supported by the Coal Industry. These types of organizations NEVER address this second issue. Save the mountains, but put people out of work.
I live in Southern West Virginia and am proud of the people who work here. I am proud that we supply energy to America, that we supply jobs to thousands of people who support the coal industry through complimentary jobs (this is the area in which I work) and who work above or underground working directly with coal, AND that the coal industry works hard with EPA, DEP and other Government agencies to reclaim the land that is mined.
See Friends of Coal for information that provides a spirited counter discussion to the information in this article.
Rob Perks — Nov 11 2009 05:47 PM
Ah, "Friends of Coal." That explains it. Well, I think the document cited above neatly and accurately address all the points you raise. I also encourage folks to read this newspaper story from today, which puts provides a personal touch to the debate: http://www.citybeat.com/cincinnati/article-19291-blowing-their-tops.html
rolf westgard — Nov 11 2009 06:00 PM
Actually, coal supplies just at 49% of our electric power, and relatively little of it comes from West Virginia.
Art N Livestock — Nov 12 2009 08:43 PM
Coal is down to 43% and dropping.
But three percent of West Virginians work in the coal fields. As an industry, lumped together with all other types of mining, as well as timber and logging, coal ranks 10th in WV w/respect to the number of folks employed. Contribution to state GPD? About 4.5%. Sure 6000 "miners" work on MTR sites. How many West Virginians don't work there?
Your absolutely right, my Friend of Coal, we need to talk about the economics and the mountains. Tell me again, how do those coal counties rank for poverty?
R.S. Sukle — Nov 12 2009 10:01 PM
Mountain tops in Wise County, Virginia are being blasted away and the rubble is dumped into the streams.Does this sacrifice of our beautiful mountains provide more coal for our energy uses? According to the Bristol Herald Courier, United Coal Company was purchased by Metinvest Holdngs based out of the Ukraine. The coal goes there to make steel. An article on a different date stated that our coal goes to Eastern Europe or Asia. Think about it.
Baltidome — Nov 13 2009 05:09 PM
Please support a project aimed at creating more sustainable jobs for coal miners and reducing negative environmental impacts in Appalachia. Go to Brighterplanet.com and vote for Community Biopower Association: Institutional Empowerment in the Coalfields of Appalachia. You can vote up to 3 times for this project. Right now, this project is in 2nd place and is only 50 votes behind the first place project. Voting ends on November 15th. If you have not voted before, you have to create a log in. The log in is easy and the site promises not to use your email for any purposes other than verification.
Karl Green — Nov 13 2009 06:18 PM
No one wants to kick people out of work but it has been coming for a long time. I do not wish to make life hard on those in the military either but life needs to go on and their are better ways to do things.