Why it matters:
Because at this rate there won’t be any Appalachians left to save. The Appalachian Mountains, that is, not the people.
Recap:
The word is out from TwilightEarth, the EPA has approved more sites for Mountaintop Removal (MTR) mining.
Despite disapproving the company’s requested permits in May, citing environmental concerns, this month the EPA gave the thumbs up to Consol Energy’s Peg Fork Surface Mine in West Virginia. The proposed site would have comprise more than 800 acres, would feature eight dump sites, and would have permanently throttled 3 miles of mountain streams.
It’s unclear if any changes were made to the proposal before the permits were issued because the approval came without any public announcement and because government officials have yet to publicly release the permits themselves.
Commentary:
For those of you who missed our first installment of this story, get the straight skinny right here. Our own Chief Editor, Scott Badenoch, summed it up in his article for MNN:
Mountains are forever; they are not renewable. They are priceless and infinitely important to our planet. Instead, 3.5 millions pounds of explosives are destroying them every single day, day in and day out, more explosives than the US Military detonated over Hiroshima each week.
A very brief recap: In March, the Obama administration approved the continued practice of blowing up mountains and then sifting through the rubble for coal, then dumping what’s left over into mountain valleys.
Sounds like an ecological bummer right? It is. Much the way the Rwandan genocide was a humanitarian bummer.
It’s unclear why the Obama administration continues to approve this buffoonish practice. Maybe it’s because the Blue-Dog Appalachian Senators and Congressmen wring their hands into sweaty little knots every time someone mentions changes in energy policy. Or maybe it’s because the leveled mountains remind Barack of his own hairdo. Well let me say this Mr. President, buzz-cuts may look good on you fellah, but they look like hell on the mountains. Ba-dum!
Ahem. This is actually a very serious matter. MTR has only one advantage… It’s cheap. And not in the way you might think. MTR saves money on workers, to the tune of 10,000 jobs lost since the technique’s inception. Representatives on Capital Hill would be wise to consider that.
Luckily local activists and groups like the Rainforest Action Network are making themselves heard. As part of a broader coalition, RAN helped convince a Virginia court to halt construction on a coal-fired power plant and now they’re 8,000 signatures deep into a petition calling on EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson to head to the mountains and witness MTR first hand. So take up the fight…
Creative Solutions:
- Send a letter to President Obama
- Donate your Facebook Status & Tweet This: “@barackobama Mr President, please come to Appalachia & see the devastation of Mountaintop Removal for yourself www.ran.org/obamamtr #MTR”
- Sign the petition at ilovemountains.org and stopmountaintopremoval.org
- Find out your connection to MTR
- Call your representative
- Send a letter to your local representative
- Support the Clean Water Protection Act
- Support the Appalachia Restoration Act and track the bill below
