Mountaintop Removal

The article on AlterNet entitled,” Americans in Appalachia are living in a State of Terror,” really was upsetting to me. It was a letter addressed to the President, begging for implementation of greater restrictions on mountaintop-removal permits- if not downright cessation of the practice. I must say, I too share a deep concern for Appalachian people who have had to sit back and watch the land disappear right before their very eyes.

My grandparent’s farm, which I remember as a bucolic paradise, was all but destroyed when a rock quarry opened up at the “head of the holler.” Fertile benches (the mountaineer’s word for flat ground partway up the hillside, but below the cliff line) that sustained my family for generations were rendered useless, as falling rock and debris rained down upon them. My uncle even had a large rock blown through the windshield of his new 4-wheel drive SUV- the result of a dynamite blast gone awry. As bad as this scenario is, imagine the added specter of toxic-waste sludge ponds literally “hanging over your head” (as the article pointed out is the case in West Virginia) that, if past history is any indicator, are capable of giving way at any time, with great loss of life from the resulting tide.

For President Obama, who campaigned against mountaintop removal as a method of coal extraction, to sit back and do nothing, now that he is in a position of power, is the absolute height of hypocrisy- especially given the fact that the very coal that fuels the White House is mined in this fashion. What utter inconsistency for both houses of Congress to argue over preserving the pristine beauty of the North Slope of Alaska (which admittedly has merit), while a whole region of this country-central Appalachia-is entirely written off and ruled unworthy of even a modicum of environmental protection! Furthermore, America has absolutely no credibility in preaching to other countries (especially third world) the merits of protecting the natural environment while this type of devastation is allowed to continue within our own borders.
http://www.alternet.org/environment/127877/americans_in_appalachia_are_living_in_a_st...