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Contact Jim: jdipeso@rep.org (253) 740-2066 / 2009 Archive / 2008 Archive / 2007 Archive / 2006 Archive / 2005 Archive
Rahall Looks at Mountaintop Removal's Bright Side
October 20, 2008
Mountaintop removal coal mining is one of the most horrific disfigurements ever visited upon the American land. In mountaintop removal, coal mining companies blast Appalachian mountains apart and bury streams under the resulting debris. Mountaintop removal coal mining has destroyed more than 1,000 miles of clear streams, turned hardwood forests into desolate moonscapes, and spread noise, dust, fear, and heartache among rural communities that have inhabited their mountains for generations.
Nick Rahall, the Democratic chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, thinks that mountaintop removal coal mining is a good idea. Imagine, he told the Society of Environmental Journalists conference last week, all the great things that the newly flattened mountains can be used for -- sewage treatment plants, football fields, and even, praise the Lord and pass the dynamite, shopping centers.
Now, since Rahall is from West Virginia, no one expects him to come out foursquare against the interests of the coal industry. It would even be understandable if he were to pay lip service to cleaning up the coal industry's act but let others do the heavy lifting of making it happen. Certain allowances have to be made in the sausage-making world of politics.
But to proclaim mountaintop removal as something beneficial? To carry on about replacing ancient forests with shopping centers? In this instance, one can imagine nods of approval from Richard Pombo, the environmental scourge who was Rahall's predecessor as committee chairman and lost his seat in 2006 for his extremism.
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