E.P.A. plans a closer review of mountaintop mining permits tells that the environmental agency has recommended the Army Corps of Engineers reject a West Virginia coal project and closely examine one in Kentucky. As you can imagine, mountaintop mining is when a complete mountain top is removed and processed for coal instead of historical tunnel mining. Not only does it permanently erase purple mountain majesties, but it fills in valleys with the discarded rock, damaging streams.
The EPA's website explains, EPA acts to reduce harmful impacts from coal mining. The authority for the recommendation and review comes from the Clear Water Act. The news release adds that the EPA anticipates becoming active in a backlog of mining permits.
Wiki notes that with the current mining rate, mountaintop mining will soon (2010) have cleared an area the size of Delaware. That is a big change to the environment, especially for the wildlife that it displaced. About 1/3 of West Virgina coal mining is now performed with mountaintop removal. The coal industry's response to the new EPA ruling is that it will cost thousands of jobs.
Frequent readers of this blog know I am a reluctant proponent of coal. The two largest (soon) consumers of energy - China and India are going to be dominantly coal-based unless cold fusion comes quickly. It is such a cheap fuel in comparison to other alternatives, that it is going to be used. We must discover technology to neutralize the greenhouse gases that it produces. As I type this though, I wonder whether that technology is not more elusive than the alternative energy that we really seek. Sheesh. This is a hard problem.
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