Rule to Expand Mountaintop Coal Mining

[Snazzy]

Source: NYT

Rule to Expand Mountaintop Coal Mining
By JOHN M. BRODER
Published: August 23, 2007

WASHINGTON, Aug. 22 — The Bush administration is set to issue a regulation on Friday that would enshrine the coal mining practice of mountaintop removal. The technique involves blasting off the tops of mountains and dumping the rubble into valleys and streams.

It has been used in Appalachian coal country for 20 years under a cloud of legal and regulatory confusion.

The new rule would allow the practice to continue and expand, providing only that mine operators minimize the debris and cause the least environmental harm, although those terms are not clearly defined and to some extent merely restate existing law.

The Office of Surface Mining in the Interior Department drafted the rule, which will be subject to a 60-day comment period and could be revised, although officials indicated that it was not likely to be changed substantially.



Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/23/us/23coal.html?hp

[Trillo]

1. Idiots. n/t

[glitch]

2. Barbaric idiots. Way way way past extinct their extinct-by date. nt

[rodeodance]

3. someone posted some pics of this destruction on DU a while back.

[Duppers]

6. that was me

thanks for remembering.

Please ck. these links:

http://www.ilovemountains.org/multimedia#photo_gallery

http://www.stopmountaintopremoval.org/what-is-mountaint...

[annabanana]

11. Thank you for that Google Earth link.. I downloaded the overlays.

They will come in handy when I try to explain to people the extent of the damage. (Yet another place where that "damn libbrul media" has failed us.)

[DCKit]

4. Morans.

They don't give a shit that a lot of city's main water supply is from a river that begins in those valleys they're filling in with toxic rubble: DC, for one, though I don't know if that branch of the Potomac runs that far south into WV.

Regardless, there is no single person in this country who shouldn't be horrified by this practice and the environmental and aesthetic damage it does.

[Staph]

21. The Potomac doesn't reach that far south.

But most of those streams that they are covering up with toxic rubble feed into the Ohio River and from there to the Mississippi. Watch out, Cincinnati, and Memphis, and New Orleans! Oh, I forgot, we don't really care about New Orleans.

[HowHasItComeToThis]

5. BOB MURRAY IS CLAPPING HIS CHUBBY LITTLE HANDS

LEGALIZING PLANET RAPE

[liberal N proud]

7. I have a stupid idea: A flat America

We can knock down all the mountains and fill the valleys raping them for what ever minerals are hidden beneath them.
Just imagine the view from the valley, no more early sunsets because of that mountain range to the west.




What is wrong with these fuckers?

[bahrbearian]

8. and we can pave'em.. I bet I could probably get 8 mpg in my Hummer.

[tom_paine]

9. Watching Amerika Bushify/Nazify has been very entertaining, sometimes

in between the tragedies...there is the gallows humor common to both places which Bushies have modelled themselves after, Soviet Russia and Nazi Germany.

This is so obviously counter to our nation's long-term interests. Take a look at some recent sattelite photos of Appalachia, but hurry, Bushification is proceeding apace and it is only a matter of time (be it 2 years or 20 years) until those black and brown patches that cover large swaths of the Appalachians are Bushified into untouched greenlands by the magic of PhotoShop.

I do not know why this particular Orwellian Insanity, of which the Bushies lliterally perform THOUSANDS per year, has triggered cackling gallows humor in me, moreso than any of the others, but there is something acutely comical about hominids shitting where they live and rolling the poop down into the water they (we) drink.

[annabanana]

10. dupe

[cmd]

12. Damn. n/t

[blondie58]

13. thanks for posting this, Snazzy

what a horrible practice. This is the equivalent of the rape of the Earth.

[Freddie Stubbs]

14. Just wait until Senator Byrd hears about this! He'll put a stop to it

[Lorien]

15. Horrible. It's inconceivable to me that anyone who maintains that they

believe in "God" could allow such a practice to go on. Mountains are one of those natural features that seem-at least to this agnostic- "close to the divine". Or at the very least, to a believer evidence of the hand of God because of their magnificence. I spent many summer vacations in the hills of West Virginia. I can't imagine growing up in a mountainous area, thinking that those familiar ranges would always be there, then.....not to mention that the debris makes living in those areas almost unbearable. But the gOP could care less; their true God is $$$, and the people they harm are mostly poor.

[hunter]

28. Your post in a billboard...

[Javaman]

16. Oh the humanity!!!!

Folks, 50% of our power needs comes from coal.

Figure out a way where we can run our electrical gewgaws without coal and you will be the worlds savior.

I just so love the over emotional disdain when people read about mountain topping.

Damn right it's horrible but...

WE THE PEOPLE ARE THE ONES CAUSING IT!

Cut back on electrical use and the coal demand goes down. Thus the need for mountain topping is reduced.

simple simple logic.

Oh the humanity.

[Spiffarino]

18. We the people can't do much without help

It's going to require serious legislation. Powerful tax incentives for solar panels on homes. Wind and water power where feasible accompanied by tax incentives. Legislation that requires power-saving technologies to be used in all new buildings and, again, tax incentives to retrofit existing ones.

We need to nut-punch the Publicans in Congress until they submit to these changes and tell the goddamn White House morans to go fuck themselves. In that sense you are exactly right: It's about we the people. We the people who persistently, aggressively hold Congress' feet to the fire until they damn well fix the problems they've caused with their 50-year suckfest to Big Energy.

[Javaman]

19. Nut-punch!!

That was great. Yup. we can whine all we want but until we do something rather just complaining, it will continue.

Love the nut-punch! LOL

[Spiffarino]

25. I believe DUers are all big fans

...of a sock in the baby basket for the R's. They've had it coming since Joe McCarthy.

[hunter]

27. If we had any sense, we'd shut down every last coal fired power plant.

We could probably do it in fifteen years, starting with the oldest, dirtiest plants and working our way up to the newest plants.

But we don't have any sense. Instead we will continue to depend upon this dirty, deadly nineteenth century technology until really bad things start to happen and the economy collapses around us to the point where the electric grid isn't reliable enough or the demand high enough to support big coal fired power plants.

[Javaman]

29. If our "elected" leaders* had any sence we wouldn't be in a war either.

I'm really curious as to when anyone that has been elected to any sort of position in washington actually last listed to "the people".

[Sapphire Blue]

17. Informative Online Videos & Links, and Capitol Hill Switchboard TOLL FREE numbers:

Online Video:

Moyers on America: Is God Green? (Bill Moyers / PBS): http://www.pbs.org/moyers/moyersonamerica/media_players...

National Memorial for the Mountains (from AppalachianVoices): http://youtube.com/watch?v=MpSDY6r2BVc

Mountaintop Removal Movie (from iLoveMountains.org): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RPixjCneseE

Keeper of the Mountain (by symbolman): http://www.tbtmradio.com/video/mtrgibson.wmv

Ed Wiley on Marsh Fork Elementary (from Pennies of Promise): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9afd2K6xx_I

Ed Wiley Visits with Senator Byrd (from Pennies of Promise): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6974iOVCsFk

Links:

Appalachian Voices: http://www.appvoices.org

Coal River Mountain Watch: http://webpages.charter.net/crmw/index.htm

ilovemountains.org: http://www.ilovemountains.org

Kentuckians for the Commonwealth: http://www.kftc.org /

Mountain Justice Summer: http://www.mountainjusticesummer.org/index.php

OHVEC: http://www.ohvec.org /

Pennies of Promise: http://www.penniesofpromise.org

Save Our Cumberland Mountains: http://www.socm.org /

Sludge Safety Project: http://www.sludgesafety.org/index.html

If anyone feels moved to contact their US Senators and Representative, they may be reached @ the following Capitol Hill Switchboard TOLL FREE numbers:

1-877-851-6437
1-800-828-0498
1-800-459-1887
1-800-614-2803
1-866-340-9281
1-866-338-1015
1-866-220-0044

[burrowowl]

23. Yes and there are orgs

that send you an e-mail when e-mailing, petitioning congress, etc. with action alerts, is necessary!

[alfredo]

20. Here's some people who are fighting the good fight against

mountaintop removal.

http://www.kftc.org /

they are good people deserving our support.

[glitch]

22. Excellent site. Plus I wanted to kick :) nt

[alfredo]

24. Ok, use me, I'm used to it.

I feel so dirty.

[glitch]

26. :)- nt