Arbitrary Mountaintop Removal
Posted on May 11, 2008 | By Denny Tyler | No Comments
I was reading a few articles today and a couple of them I want to share with you and talk about a little. The first quote is from Chelsea Clinton speaking to students in Kentucky. Clinton: Mom is ‘most prepared’
A new Clinton administration would resume full enforcement of the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts and would not favor “arbitrary mountaintop removal,” she said.
I’m a little curious what exactly she meant by arbitrary mountaintop removal. To begin with arbitrary means – Determined by chance, whim, or impulse, and not by necessity. Does it mean the Clinton camp is saying there is mountaintop removal going on right now that is unnecessary? Or does it mean there will not be mountaintop removal unless it is necessary?
I like how all of the candidates like to dance around the topic of mountaintop removal. I think we should create a new reality show and call it Dancing with a Politician. All you have to do is ask a politician their opinion on a controversial issue and away you go. Obviously the one who can dance around the topic the best wins. And what do we have for our lucky winner? – The Presidency of the United States!!!
Something that bothers me a little is the way coal industry officials never bring up mountaintop removal in any part of their environmental monologue. Peabody Chairman and CEO Greg Boyce Highlights Record Results and Outstanding Outlook at Annual Shareholders Meeting
Technological advances are making coal increasingly versatile, allowing the energy in coal to be converted into clean electricity, natural gas and transportation fuels. And coal’s environmental profile continues to improve as the industry works to commercialize near-zero emissions technologies.
“Peabody is a global leader in developing clean coal solutions with carbon capture and storage, advancing clean coal projects and partnerships around the world,” said Boyce. Chief among these is China’s GreenGen project, a multi- phase 650 megawatt integrated gasification combined cycle technology plant that will ultimately use carbon for enhanced oil recovery.”
Sometimes when I say there is no such thing as clean coal I mean it metaphorically. How can you blow up the mountains, destroy forest, destroy streams, destroy a culture, basically destroy everything and then consider the only product you get from the venture clean? It is dirty coal powering this nation.
The public doesn’t have the first notion about clean coal technology or carbon capture and storage except for what the coal industry has told them. The coal industry is blowing up Appalachia and selling clean coal in Washington. I can tell you this – they sure do have to move a lot of debris, overburden, mining waste to get that clean coal.
Our remnants of wilderness will yield bigger values to the nation’s character and health than they will to its pocketbook, and to destroy them will be to admit that the latter are the only values that interest us. – Aldo Leopold
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