Combating global warming calls for a complete moratorium on coal. Coal is the dirtiest of all fossil fuels — it creates more pollution than oil, natural gas and gasoline when burned. As Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said recently, “There’s not a coal-fired plant in America that’s clean. They’re all dirty.” If we’re going to get serious about fighting global warming, we need a complete halt to the coal industry.
Mountaintop removal (MTR) mining flattens mountains, devastating communities and ecosystems in Appalachia. A biologically diverse habitat is being destroyed, and the rich Appalachian culture it inspired is threatened. It is a deadly lose-lose for climate change – accelerating coal burning and deforestation.
Tell the Interior Department‘s Office of Surface Mining: Stop Mountaintop Removal
(Please note that comments on this rule are not accepted via email. If you responded to a previous IGHIH post by emailing comments in, you should take this action and Co-op America will hand-deliver your message to the Department of Interior. If you have any questions, contact yochi [at] coopamerica.org)
In the process of mountaintop removal mining:
- forests are clear-cut to expose the tops of mountains, which are then blown off with explosives
- coal is extracted using large machinery
- unused soil and rock are dumped into adjacent stream valleys, filling them up and creating a flat landscape
Residents of Appalachia living near these mines are threatened by:
- dangerous toxic sludge dams
- dynamite blasts that damage homes
- clouds of rock dust from poorly regulated mine operations
- poisoned or depleted well water and polluted streams
- increased flooding
- the loss of traditional fishing and hunting areas
- breathing coal dust in their homes
This destructive practice has been facilitated by the Bush administration’s disregard of a Reagan-era regulation, known as the “stream buffer zone rule.” This rule prohibits any mining activities to take place within 100 feet of a stream unless it can be proven that water quality and quantity will not be adversely impacted. According to the Office of Surface Mining, the Bush administration has blatantly disregarded this rule by approving the destruction of 535 miles of streams since taking office.
The administration is now proposing to repeal the steam buffer zone rule and give mountaintop removal mining companies a blank check to dump toxic waste and hundreds of millions of tons of mountain remains directly into steams.
You can help stop the destruction of Appalachia’s communities, mountains and streams by saying NO to King Coal.
Stop climate change. Stop King Coal. Stop mountaintop removal.
Join Co-op America members nationwide and sign our letter on the proposed rule change to the Department of Interior’s Office of Surface Mining.
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