Mountaintop Coal Mining Face Off Starts Now!
Have you heard of mountaintop removal coal mining? The companies who do it prefer the more value neutral “mountaintop mining.” But the “removal” part is very descriptive. The practice involves blowing off the tops of mountains to get at the coal underneath. Leftover rubble is dumped into the mountain valleys, burying hundreds of streams, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
This goes on mostly in Appalachia, so you may be wondering what it has to do with the District. While D.C. doesn’t have any coalmines or coal-fired power plants, the city relies on electricity from coal produced in other states, according to American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity, a trade association.
In my less than comprehensive Internet search, I have failed to unearth, so to speak, the exact amount of D.C.’s electricity that is fueled by mountaintop removal coal. (Does anyone know? Please share.) Suffice it to say, however, that if we go on this way S.C. Gov. Mark Sanford is going to have to come up with a different excuse next time he rendezvous with his Argentine paramour because the Appalachian Trail will be an even less viable excuse.
This brings me to my point: Activists fighting to end mountaintop removal and miners looking to keep the practice alive are set to face off on the Hill any minute now. The Senate Environment and Public Work Committee’s Subcommittee on Water and Wildlife is holding a hearing this afternoon that environmentalists and Appalachian activists hope will mark the beginning of the end of mountaintop removal. Both sides have descended on D.C. by the busload. According to my sources, the first skirmish was over seating in the hearing room. But you don’t have to leave the comfort of your Internet connection because all the action will be webcast, live blogged and twittered.
Comments
Leave a Reply
You can follow any responses to this entry through its comments RSS feed.
Blogs Linking to this Article
-
Linked From: June 26th, 2009City Bans Toxic Road Building Material, Announces $2,500 Fine - City Desk - Washington City Paper
10:27 am[...] Yesterday, the environmental and human toll of mountaintop removal coal mining was the subject of a Senate hearing. Today, the DC government announced a $2,500 fine to anyone using coal tar in pavement [...]
-
Linked From: June 26th, 2009iLoveMountains.org » Blog Archive - End Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining -- A day to shine on Capitol Hill
12:25 pm[...] The best headline thus far was printed before the hearing even started: Washington City Paper - Mountaintop Coal Mining Face Off Starts Now! [...]
-
Linked From: June 26th, 2009A Day to Shine on Capitol Hill
4:20 pm[...] The best headline thus far was printed before the hearing even started: Washington City Paper - Mountaintop Coal Mining Face Off Starts Now! [...]
-
Linked From: June 29th, 2009The Alliance for Appalachia » Blog Archive » A Day to Shine On Capitol Hill
12:16 pm[...] The best headline thus far was printed before the hearing even started: Washington City Paper - Mountaintop Coal Mining Face Off Starts Now! [...]
4:10 pm
http://ilovemountains.org/myconnection/ lets you enter a ZIP code and see your connection to mountaintop removal. Exact amount I don't think it does, but it's a start and the site might point you to more resources.
4:16 pm
Thanks, Noah. That interactive map is very cool. I'd still like to know how much mountaintop removal coal is helping my laptop running right now.
Anyone else know?
1:08 pm
I worked at a charter school in DC this year and at the end of the year, I led a group of students to visit southern West Virginia and explore the cultural and environmental effects of mountaintop removal. We met with Judy Bonds and Coal River Mountain Watch, an organization that advocates putting a wind farm on top of Coal River Mountain instead of blowing it up, and works to save Marsh Fork Elementary, a school that has a 9 billion gallon tank of coal sludge just above it, and with Larry Gibson, the keeper of Kayford Mountain, who travels the country advocating against mountaintop removal. The thugs at Massey Energy have bulldozed his family cemetery, shot his dogs, put bullet holes in his trailer, and terrorized his family and community. It's despicable, really.
More pictures are here.