Obama Administration Allows "Appalachian Apocalypse" to Continue

June 2, 2009
Chicago Tribune

WASHINGTON - With the election of Barack Obama, environmentalists expected to see the end of the "Appalachian apocalypse" -- their name for exposing coal deposits by blowing the tops off of whole mountains.

But in recent weeks, the Obama administration has quietly decided to open the way for at least two dozen more "mountaintop removal" projects.

The decision to clear a path for the controversial projects was never officially announced, but instead conveyed in a letter this month to a West Virginia congressman and coal ally, Democratic Rep. Nick Rahall. The letter said that the Environmental Protection Agency would not block 42 of 48 mine projects that it had reviewed so far, including some of the most controversial mountaintop mines.

The administration's decisions are not the final word on the projects -- or on the future of mountaintop removal -- but it removes a major obstacle. And the decision, coupled with the light it sheds on relations between the mining industry and the Obama White House, has disappointed environmentalists. Some say they feel betrayed by a president they thought would end or sharply limit the practice . . .

The White House is "searching for a way to walk this tightrope," said Phil Smith, a spokesman for the United Mine Workers of America, whose president, Cecil Roberts, has urged administration officials to allow the procedure. "They have a large constituency of people who want to see an immediate end to mountaintop removal, and an equally large constituency -- many of them Democrats, I might add -- whose communities depend on those jobs


read more: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-tc-nw-mountaintop-mining-053jun01,0,3998035.story

This is bullshit. Where ARE all those 'green' jobs? Buried in the damn coal slurry?

I'm still pissed about that. x(

OK with destroying mountains and streams ("God's creation"). I guess there is nothing scared except the almighty buck (and yes, I agree; there SHOULD be green jobs available to those workers)!

I don't think blowing up mountains requires much labor.

Instead, we get Clinton Redux: "Well, sure we'll save the environment -- to the degree our corporate sponsors allow!"

...and no government agency is going to enforce a regulation that doesn't exist.

Too bad that money wasn't spent educating the public about mountaintop removal and the need for less obtrusive ways of mining coal.

There was NEVER any question coal will be mined.

It is one of the most absurd propositions you will ever hear, that everyone in West Virginia works in a coal mine, or in this case is a dozer operator on a strip job in that small area of the state where "mountain top removal" is practiced. More people work in Wal Marts down in the southern coal fields than work at mines and there aren't all that many Wal Marts.

Folks, its isn't uncommon for those strip jobs to only have 1~3 people working at any given time and even on the big jobs its just not that many people. Also, many (I'd guess and say 'most') of the strip jobs are not union.

The only thing that has saved my hometown from this environmental holocaust is the fact that we have iron ore in our mountains, not coal, and the mines have been closed for years.

What these corporations (aided and abetted by their bought and paid for government) are doing to Appalachia on both sides of the state line is nothing short of environmental terrorism. It ruins the land, pollutes the water and air, endangers wildlife, and causes health problems for people living in the area.

The damage done by this practice is incalculable and heartbreaking. I suppose I should be grateful, as my hometown is a railroad community, and were it not for the coal trains, rail business would be severely curtailed.

Well, I am not grateful. I take no pleasure in my community profiting from someone else's loss. An environmental assault of this magnitude hurts us all. It's a small planet, it's all we've got, and we damn well better protect it.

Like health care reform, environemental protection is a deal breaker for me. If this is allowed to continue, I'll be working for a 3rd party candidate in 2012.

I grew up in abject poverty in Grundy, VA. Unemployment is at about 15%, median income is $22k/year, 1/5th the population is addicted to drugs and/ or alcohol, and another 1/5 is on disability / SSI / UMWA pension. The major employer is coal- mines, coke ovens, hauling, equipment maintenance.

The only flat land in the county is carved out from the mountain, or is flood plain. (google grundy 77 flood)

There is very little industry outside of the coal mines- there's just no flat land to build on. Satellite View of Grundy, Va

All of my fathers 7 brothers worked in or around the mines, my mother's family all worked in the mines or military, or both. M&Ms.. mines and military- those are the two choices for most.

When I left, the Land Reclamation Act of 1974 was limiting strip mines (the coal companies had to put a mountain's contours back after removing the coal) and there was a lot of animosity about it. Flat land, perfect for economic development, was being 're-contoured'.