When coal mining obliterates mountaintops, environmentalists rally

Although President Barack Obama has spoken out against mining that destroys mountaintops, the Environmental Protection Agency has approved 42 such permits.

If the projects go through, hundreds of miles of Appalachian mountains, forests and streams would be tarnished. This news has caused an uproar from both environmental leaders and elected officials.

“(The) reported approval of a wave of new mountaintop removal coal mines would represent a leap in the wrong direction,” Sierra Club Director Carl Pope told Reuters. “With the bulldozers and explosives standing by in Appalachia, the Obama administration should take bold action to protect communities, streams and mountains before it's too late.”

One protest against mountaintop mining in West Virginia resulted in at least a dozen arrests, according to the West Viriginia MetroNews.

During the mountaintop removal mining process, miners blast apart a mountain to uncover bands of coal, which are hauled away. Not only does the mountain come down, but adjacent valleys are filled in with leftover materials, according to Mountain Justice, an Appalachian environmental group.

The EPA responded to the issue in a brief statement that doesn’t explain why the permits were issued, but did say six out of the 48 were blocked.

“EPA’s understanding is that none of the (42) projects would permanently impact high value streams that flow year-round,” the statement said.

Mountaintop mining already devastated 700 miles of streams between 1985-2001, according to a 2005 EPA report.

While Obama has yet to address these specific permits, he did tackle the issue more than two years ago during his presidential campaign.

“We have to find more environmentally sound ways of mining coal, than simply blowing the tops off mountains,” he said during a speech in Lexington, Ky.

It may take a fundamental shift in EPA rules to allow the agency to reject permit applications from the mining industry, but Obama should stick by his words – even if it means the coal industry loses out on profits.