In the Appalachian region of the United States, mountaintop removal mining of coal is still a common practice. With the help of tech, algorithms, and satellite imagery, it might finally come to an end. By Frank Odenthal For millions of people around the world, burning coal as a source of … [continued]
The US Interior Department has released a proposed new rule that could effectively put an end to mountaintop removal coal mining in Appalachia.
It’s the end of the road for mountaintop removal, now that a federal judge has put the kibosh on a permit for the massive Spruce No. 1 mine.
Advocates for mountaintop coal mining lost a big one last Friday, when the DC Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the EPA’s new environmental review process.
“Gloom and doom for the economy,” “job-killing,” and “radical environmental and anti-coal jobs agenda” are just some of the verbal grenades being lobbed in the direction of Gina McCarthy, who has been tapped by President Obama to head the US Environmental Protection Agency. McCarthy was in for a bare-knuckles brawl … [continued]
Coal provides jobs. The jobs are dirty, they produce a product that’s harmful to the planet, hazardous to the health and welfare of the workers and their neighbors, but… hey, they’re jobs.
Besides, some of those jobs involve improving our mountains. They blow the tops off them, and haul away the coal, leaving flat tops, suitable for landing pads, parking lots, Nascar racing, or Appalachian soccer matches.
Following up on my first cleantech and politics roundup yesterday, here are 20 more great or important stories from the past day or so. I’ve decided to also bold the stories I think are the most worth checking out.
We focus on clean tech here on Cleantechnica (makes sense to, eh?), but sometimes we have to pause to take a look at the alternative and remember why clean tech is so important. There are a lot of public health, national security, environmental, and economic issues we can and do … [continued]
By now the name Don Blankenship is practically a household word all across the U.S. following the death of 29 miners at a Massey Energy coal mine, but Blankenship — the company’s CEO — has been well known in West Virgina and throughout Appalachia for some time now. Perhaps equally … [continued]
[social_buttons] As a follow up to the post from Sunday (Social Media Day of Action on Mountaintop Removal), this is a reminder that today is a big day of social media activism to stop mountaintop removal coal mining! Visit Rainforest Action Network’s website to join thousands of others in taking … [continued]
