Blankenship, a major proponent of mountaintop removal coal mining, will likely continue to doubt the science.
Question of the week: As Capitol Hill and the various Obama administration agencies hold meetings with coalfield residents and coal industry representatives, as part of their fact-finding process of making major decisions on mountaintop removal, coal and climate change policies, will they meet the "real" faces of coal or Big Coal mannequins?
"It's heartening any day we learn that a major player decides that mountaintop-removal is not in the best interest -- of the company or of our mountains, streams, and communities.
There are now more than 25 peer reviewed and published research papers showing mountaintop removal is a major health threat to the living and the unborn.
The objective of this evaluation is to understand the human health impacts of mountaintop removal (MTR) mining, the major method of coal mining in and around Central Appalachia.
Mountaintop removal mining (MTM) is a major form of surface coal mining in Appalachia, especially in West Virginia and Kentucky.
While this agreement does not end all mountaintop removal in the region, it marks major progress, and signals that the days of large scale surface mining in Appalachia are numbered.
The EPA administrator announced a major decision today to clamp down on Clean Water Act violations from mountaintop removal mining--yes, the EPA administrator actually used the words "mountaintop removal" and not "mountaintop mining" in the press conference today--and effectively bring an end to the process of valley fills (and the dumping of toxic coal mining waste into the valleys and waterways).
In fact, mountaintop removal has received far more attention and media coverage -- and generated major foundation support and large donations to numerous nonprofit groups outside of the coalfields -- than many other forms of dirty energy mayhem.
The latter is the mountaintop retreat where St Francis received his stigmata, which is why it's one of Italy's major pilgrimage sites.
