Those who know me or can read my posts, I'm a big envrionmentalist. A hippie in a way. And seeing mountaintop removal makes my stomach quinch. I used to work for a company that delivered electric traction drives to these mines, and I saw first-hand how destructive and massive these operations are.

 

GOOD NEWS

 

Environmentalists hope ruling ends mountaintop removal mining

 

Key --

1. A federal judge Friday ruled that the Army Corps of Engineers violated federal law by issuing valley fill permits for mountaintop removal mines without conducting extensive environmental reviews.

2. The decision involves four mines, the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition and two other environmental groups and could affect more than 30 pending permits for surface mines in West Virginia.

3. It has broad implications for other mines, active and proposed.

 

Article information: "Environmentalists hope ruling ends mountaintop removal mining, By TIM HUBER, AP, Tuesday, March, 27, 2007"

 

--

 

Environmentalists hope ruling ends mountaintop removal mining

By TIM HUBER

AP Business Writer

 

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — Environmentalists on Monday hailed a federal court victory over the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers as the possible death knell of mountaintop removal coal mining in Appalachia.

 

A federal judge ruled Friday that the corps violated federal law by issuing valley fill permits for mountaintop removal mines without conducting extensive environmental reviews.

 

...

Got this in an email.  Peabody was the #1 Funder of Global Warming Misinformation before Exxon took over.  Sigh.

 

GEPHARDT ENTERS THE COAL LOBBYING MINES

http://www.prwatch.org/node/5897

   In yet another example of the government-industry revolving door,

   "Peabody Energy, the world's largest private sector coal company,

   has hired Dick Gephardt's firm to spearhead its drive to defeat

   efforts by Democrats to put caps on carbon emissions in a bid to

   combat global warming," reports O'Dwyer's. Gephardt, a Democrat and

   the former U.S. House Majority Leader, will advocate for increased

   public funding of "clean coal technologies." Peabody's coal

   generators produce 10 percent of U.S. electricity. The company says

   "clean coal" research will help achieve the "ultimate goal of

   near-zero emissions from coal." Peabody's corporate social

   responsibility report calls mandatory caps on emissions

   "irresponsible, contributing to adverse health impacts and economic

   harm through the loss of affordable electricity."

SOURCE: O'Dwyer's PR Daily (sub req'd), March 23, 2007

 

They were going to do a mountaintop removal of the University of Kentuckys research forest back in the early 1980s.  This was called "Robinson Forest", and was a gift to the College of Agriculture by a eastern Kentucky lumber man named Robinson.  It was used by the forestry department, of course, but also by grad students and faculty doing research into biology and forest ecology science.

 

The forest had coal under it, and the Board of Trustees at the time (led by a coal operator) was looking into mining it and putting the coal money into a trust to generate income.

 

I was at UofK at the time, and was part of the group of students organizing to stop this, mainly as I was on the SGA with some others interested in the issue, who led the organizing.  This started small but ended up getting quite a bit of support from non-student groups, such as advocacy groups for environmental and Appalachian issues, and also support of the Courier Journal, which at that time was still the 'newspaper of record' in Kentucky.

 

So it was possible to stop the stripping of Robinson Forest at that time.

 

Strip mining in Kentucky has quite a controversial history..the environmental degredation of course, but also social impacts via the turning people off their lands via a liberal interpretation of provisions in the broad form deed for access to minerals, which took a statewide referendum and state consitutional amendment to overturn. 

Two Kentuckians who have written on the environmental and social affects of this attitude to the land are Wendell Berry and especially Harry Caudill.

 

Peabody Coal was immortalized in a well-know country/bluegrass song by John Prine, as they operated in his, or his familys, part of Kentucky.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hell, I remember when that was an active proposal not long ago!

^

So, 25 years on, they are still talking about strip mining Robinson Forest. 

 

Well, it looks like that court decision might help preserve it and other threatened areas. 

 

...a nice dramatic shot of mountaintop removal,  which is just that, but also "valley fill"...the landscape is totally transformed by this kind of mining.

 

 

 

pd editorial:

 

Congress should put a stop to mountaintop-removal mining - an editorial

Saturday, September 08, 2007

 

About 20 years ago, coal mine operators looking for a cheaper way to extract Ap palachia's riches hit on an approach that is every bit as sinister as it sounds: mountaintop removal. Think of it as strip mining - already an environmentally destructive enterprise - on steroids.

 

First, the mining company clear-cuts a mountaintop. Then it uses explosives and bulldozers to flatten the top and expose seams of coal. The dirt and other debris are dumped in nearby valleys and, quite often, into streambeds - Washington estimates that between 1985 and 2001, 724 miles of waterways were buried by mine waste. Whole communities are sometimes uprooted. When the mine is exhausted, the companies are supposed to reclaim and replant the land, but that usually produces excess debris and almost never succeeds in restoring the contours and, yes, the majesty, of an Appalachian mountaintop.

 

...

 

http://www.cleveland.com/editorials/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/opinion/1189240992161160.xml&coll=2

Yay, Plain Dealer!