Its time to protect forests, streams from environmental degradation.
Buried underneath Appalachia is some of the best coal in the USA, and for years it was mined the traditional underground way, which can be difficult, dangerous and expensive. In the 1970s, however, mining companies figured out a cheaper and more productive way to get at much of that coal: Use explosives to blow the tops off mountains and take the coal directly out of the ground.
"Mountaintop removal" mining became widespread in the 1990s and now accounts for about 10% of U.S. coal production. It employs thousands of workers in Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Pennsylvania and Ohio. But it often comes at a grievous environmental cost that will leave its mark long after the coal is burned.
Debris from mountaintops has filled up and destroyed surrounding streams more than 1,200 miles of them, by a government estimate. Mountains have been lowered, some by as much as 800 feet, and vast areas have been denuded of trees.
By 2012, according to one estimate, areas roughly the size of Delaware will have been stripped throughout the region. Mining companies are required to restore land to something approaching a mountain's original contour, unless the new flatland will be used for commercial or municipal development. Even when land is restored, though, grass and scrub often grow where forests used to.
While blowing up mountaintops for surface mining is not illegal, two restrictions bar dumping the waste in or near surrounding waterways. But it took environmentalistlawsuits during the Clinton administration to push federal agencies to enforce the prohibitions, and regulatory changes during the coal-friendly Bush administration undercut the rules.
When Barack Obama took office, environmental groups pushed for a clampdown on mountaintop removal and were dismayed when officials approved dozens of new permits. Now, though, the administration has taken a step in the right direction. Last month, the Environmental Protection Agency froze 79 permits for further review after evaluation showed that the projects might harm the environment. The administration would do well to block the worst of them and change regulations to make the permitting process much stricter.
The industry argues that the nation gets almost 50% of its electricity from coal and needs a steady supply. Mountaintop removal means jobs about 26,500 people work directly in mining operations in the six affected states, and more than 50,000 other jobs are tied to those in an impoverished region.
Studies suggest, however, that enforcing rules to minimize dumping waste into streams would add at most $1 or $2 per ton to the cost of coal (which recently sold for about $50 to $56 per ton) and cause comparatively little job loss. And while underground mining might be more dangerous, the answer is to make it safer, not to encourage environmental degradation.
Producing fossil fuels such as oil and coal always involves balancing jobs, energy supplies and price against harm to nature. For too many years, the balance in Appalachia has tilted too far away from the environment, and the region will bear the scars for generations. It's time to tip the scales the other way.
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