Hurrah for pollution

[Old Rocks]

Photo by Luke Sharrett/Getty Images


With everything that Republicans want to do — repeal Obamacare, overhaul the tax code — it might seem odd that one of Congress’ very first acts would be to kill an obscure Obama-era regulation that restricts coal companies from dumping mining waste into streams and waterways.

But that is indeed what’s going on. On Thursday, the Senate voted 54-45 to repeal the so-called “stream protection rule” — using a regulation-killing tool known as the Congressional Review Act. The House took a similar vote yesterday, and if President Trump agrees, the stream protection rule will be dead. Coal companies will now have a freer hand in dumping mining debris in streams.

Killing this regulation won’t really help Trump fulfill his goal of reversing the coal industry’s decline; that decline has more to do with cheap natural gas than anything else. Instead, Republicans are mostly focusing on this rule because they can. Because the stream protection rule wasn’t finished until very late in 2016, it’s much, much easier to kill than most of the other Obama-era rules around coal pollution. It was an easy target, so long as the GOP acted fast.

Why Congress just killed a rule restricting coal companies from dumping waste in streams

How many times have we seen PC, Tiny Dancer, and Mr. Westwall state that they are against pollution. Well, here is their chance to condemn a Senate act that increases pollution to our waterways. Bet they pass up the opportunity. LOL

 

[Camp]

There is no need for clean water. People should just learn to pay the cost of bottled water. Plus, with so many swimming pools in America, there is no need for swimming in rivers and such. Plus, hardly anyone needs fishing for sustenance anymore.

 

[Vastator]

Phony alarmist post...

 

[martybegan]

Photo by Luke Sharrett/Getty Images


With everything that Republicans want to do — repeal Obamacare, overhaul the tax code — it might seem odd that one of Congress’ very first acts would be to kill an obscure Obama-era regulation that restricts coal companies from dumping mining waste into streams and waterways.

But that is indeed what’s going on. On Thursday, the Senate voted 54-45 to repeal the so-called “stream protection rule” — using a regulation-killing tool known as the Congressional Review Act. The House took a similar vote yesterday, and if President Trump agrees, the stream protection rule will be dead. Coal companies will now have a freer hand in dumping mining debris in streams.

Killing this regulation won’t really help Trump fulfill his goal of reversing the coal industry’s decline; that decline has more to do with cheap natural gas than anything else. Instead, Republicans are mostly focusing on this rule because they can. Because the stream protection rule wasn’t finished until very late in 2016, it’s much, much easier to kill than most of the other Obama-era rules around coal pollution. It was an easy target, so long as the GOP acted fast.

Why Congress just killed a rule restricting coal companies from dumping waste in streams

How many times have we seen PC, Tiny Dancer, and Mr. Westwall state that they are against pollution. Well, here is their chance to condemn a Senate act that increases pollution to our waterways. Bet they pass up the opportunity. LOL

The stream protection rule requires the restoration of the physical form, hydrologic function, and ecological function of the segment of a perennial or intermittent stream that a permittee mines through.

So basically if runoff forms a trough during a heavy rainstorm, it magically becomes an "intermittent" stream, and creates a whole new layer of regulation.

Just regulate the point sources at the main, actual stream.

This is an example of regulation designed to stop a given industry, not regulate it, by exponentially increasing costs. Also it increases uncertainty, thus making companies liable for fines when they don't actually know they are breaking a rule.

 

[there4eyeM]

A V8 puts out a lot more power without those bothersome gimcracks all along the exhaust pipe. What gives anyone the right to reduce the thrill of squashing an accelerator?

 

[Old Rocks]

A V8 puts out a lot more power without those bothersome gimcracks all along the exhaust pipe. What gives anyone the right to reduce the thrill of squashing an accelerator?

LOL And someone does not ever recognize satire. LOL

But if you really have to have that thrill, get a Tesla P100D.

 

[Old Rocks]

Photo by Luke Sharrett/Getty Images


With everything that Republicans want to do — repeal Obamacare, overhaul the tax code — it might seem odd that one of Congress’ very first acts would be to kill an obscure Obama-era regulation that restricts coal companies from dumping mining waste into streams and waterways.

But that is indeed what’s going on. On Thursday, the Senate voted 54-45 to repeal the so-called “stream protection rule” — using a regulation-killing tool known as the Congressional Review Act. The House took a similar vote yesterday, and if President Trump agrees, the stream protection rule will be dead. Coal companies will now have a freer hand in dumping mining debris in streams.

Killing this regulation won’t really help Trump fulfill his goal of reversing the coal industry’s decline; that decline has more to do with cheap natural gas than anything else. Instead, Republicans are mostly focusing on this rule because they can. Because the stream protection rule wasn’t finished until very late in 2016, it’s much, much easier to kill than most of the other Obama-era rules around coal pollution. It was an easy target, so long as the GOP acted fast.

Why Congress just killed a rule restricting coal companies from dumping waste in streams

How many times have we seen PC, Tiny Dancer, and Mr. Westwall state that they are against pollution. Well, here is their chance to condemn a Senate act that increases pollution to our waterways. Bet they pass up the opportunity. LOL

The stream protection rule requires the restoration of the physical form, hydrologic function, and ecological function of the segment of a perennial or intermittent stream that a permittee mines through.

So basically if runoff forms a trough during a heavy rainstorm, it magically becomes an "intermittent" stream, and creates a whole new layer of regulation.

Just regulate the point sources at the main, actual stream.

This is an example of regulation designed to stop a given industry, not regulate it, by exponentially increasing costs. Also it increases uncertainty, thus making companies liable for fines when they don't actually know they are breaking a rule.

In other words, killing streams and rivers is fine with you. Well, nice to know how the "Conservatives" stand on that.

 

[Billy_Bob]

Phony alarmist post...

All water from Coal operations is put through a cleaning plant. Sediment and heavy metals are required to be removed and have been for over 20 years..

The hyperbole from the rabid left is stunning..

Pew Research: Only 27% of Americans Believe The 97% Consensus of Climate Scientists Claim.

Yes. Only 27% believe in the 97%!!!

A consensus of ideology, not of science.

 

[martybegan]

Photo by Luke Sharrett/Getty Images


With everything that Republicans want to do — repeal Obamacare, overhaul the tax code — it might seem odd that one of Congress’ very first acts would be to kill an obscure Obama-era regulation that restricts coal companies from dumping mining waste into streams and waterways.

But that is indeed what’s going on. On Thursday, the Senate voted 54-45 to repeal the so-called “stream protection rule” — using a regulation-killing tool known as the Congressional Review Act. The House took a similar vote yesterday, and if President Trump agrees, the stream protection rule will be dead. Coal companies will now have a freer hand in dumping mining debris in streams.

Killing this regulation won’t really help Trump fulfill his goal of reversing the coal industry’s decline; that decline has more to do with cheap natural gas than anything else. Instead, Republicans are mostly focusing on this rule because they can. Because the stream protection rule wasn’t finished until very late in 2016, it’s much, much easier to kill than most of the other Obama-era rules around coal pollution. It was an easy target, so long as the GOP acted fast.

Why Congress just killed a rule restricting coal companies from dumping waste in streams

How many times have we seen PC, Tiny Dancer, and Mr. Westwall state that they are against pollution. Well, here is their chance to condemn a Senate act that increases pollution to our waterways. Bet they pass up the opportunity. LOL

The stream protection rule requires the restoration of the physical form, hydrologic function, and ecological function of the segment of a perennial or intermittent stream that a permittee mines through.

So basically if runoff forms a trough during a heavy rainstorm, it magically becomes an "intermittent" stream, and creates a whole new layer of regulation.

Just regulate the point sources at the main, actual stream.

This is an example of regulation designed to stop a given industry, not regulate it, by exponentially increasing costs. Also it increases uncertainty, thus making companies liable for fines when they don't actually know they are breaking a rule.

In other words, killing streams and rivers is fine with you. Well, nice to know how the "Conservatives" stand on that.

Again, just regulate discharges to actual streams, and not intermittent streams that may, or may not exist. Regulate something that gives certainty, not something that is open to interpretation, such as if some runoff trough is a stream or not.

 

[there4eyeM]

Uh...doesn't 'Conservative' derive from conservation of and conserving what is valuable? That would mean that nature in general, and 'streams' in particular, have no value. It can't be that!

 

[Billy_Bob]

Photo by Luke Sharrett/Getty Images


With everything that Republicans want to do — repeal Obamacare, overhaul the tax code — it might seem odd that one of Congress’ very first acts would be to kill an obscure Obama-era regulation that restricts coal companies from dumping mining waste into streams and waterways.
But that is indeed what’s going on. On Thursday, the Senate voted 54-45 to repeal the so-called “stream protection rule” — using a regulation-killing tool known as the Congressional Review Act. The House took a similar vote yesterday, and if President Trump agrees, the stream protection rule will be dead. Coal companies will now have a freer hand in dumping mining debris in streams.

Killing this regulation won’t really help Trump fulfill his goal of reversing the coal industry’s decline; that decline has more to do with cheap natural gas than anything else. Instead, Republicans are mostly focusing on this rule because they can. Because the stream protection rule wasn’t finished until very late in 2016, it’s much, much easier to kill than most of the other Obama-era rules around coal pollution. It was an easy target, so long as the GOP acted fast.

Why Congress just killed a rule restricting coal companies from dumping waste in streams

How many times have we seen PC, Tiny Dancer, and Mr. Westwall state that they are against pollution. Well, here is their chance to condemn a Senate act that increases pollution to our waterways. Bet they pass up the opportunity. LOL

The stream protection rule requires the restoration of the physical form, hydrologic function, and ecological function of the segment of a perennial or intermittent stream that a permittee mines through.

So basically if runoff forms a trough during a heavy rainstorm, it magically becomes an "intermittent" stream, and creates a whole new layer of regulation.

Just regulate the point sources at the main, actual stream.

This is an example of regulation designed to stop a given industry, not regulate it, by exponentially increasing costs. Also it increases uncertainty, thus making companies liable for fines when they don't actually know they are breaking a rule.

In other words, killing streams and rivers is fine with you. Well, nice to know how the "Conservatives" stand on that.

What a deceptive lying POS.. But its what we expect from you.

 

[Old Rocks]

Phony alarmist post...

Dumb fuck liar.

 

[there4eyeM]

How does an enterprise come to own the environment and, thus, make unilateral decisions concerning its fate?

 

[Vastator]

Phony alarmist post...

Dumb fuck liar.

Typical coming from an ignoramus like you... Just tantrums and name calling. Go pour yourself a cup of warm milk, and cozy up in your safe space. The next 8 years are going to be hard on you...

 

[Old Rocks]

Photo by Luke Sharrett/Getty Images


With everything that Republicans want to do — repeal Obamacare, overhaul the tax code — it might seem odd that one of Congress’ very first acts would be to kill an obscure Obama-era regulation that restricts coal companies from dumping mining waste into streams and waterways.

But that is indeed what’s going on. On Thursday, the Senate voted 54-45 to repeal the so-called “stream protection rule” — using a regulation-killing tool known as the Congressional Review Act. The House took a similar vote yesterday, and if President Trump agrees, the stream protection rule will be dead. Coal companies will now have a freer hand in dumping mining debris in streams.

Killing this regulation won’t really help Trump fulfill his goal of reversing the coal industry’s decline; that decline has more to do with cheap natural gas than anything else. Instead, Republicans are mostly focusing on this rule because they can. Because the stream protection rule wasn’t finished until very late in 2016, it’s much, much easier to kill than most of the other Obama-era rules around coal pollution. It was an easy target, so long as the GOP acted fast.

Why Congress just killed a rule restricting coal companies from dumping waste in streams

How many times have we seen PC, Tiny Dancer, and Mr. Westwall state that they are against pollution. Well, here is their chance to condemn a Senate act that increases pollution to our waterways. Bet they pass up the opportunity. LOL

The stream protection rule requires the restoration of the physical form, hydrologic function, and ecological function of the segment of a perennial or intermittent stream that a permittee mines through.

So basically if runoff forms a trough during a heavy rainstorm, it magically becomes an "intermittent" stream, and creates a whole new layer of regulation.

Just regulate the point sources at the main, actual stream.

This is an example of regulation designed to stop a given industry, not regulate it, by exponentially increasing costs. Also it increases uncertainty, thus making companies liable for fines when they don't actually know they are breaking a rule.

In other words, killing streams and rivers is fine with you. Well, nice to know how the "Conservatives" stand on that.

Again, just regulate discharges to actual streams, and not intermittent streams that may, or may not exist. Regulate something that gives certainty, not something that is open to interpretation, such as if some runoff trough is a stream or not.

My, my, how you 'Conservatives' love your 'alteranative facts. What a lying asshole you are. Here is the reality of what is happening;

Plundering Appalachia - The Tragedy of Mountaintop-Removal Coal Mining :: The Issue

Mountaintop-removal mines in Appalachia are estimated to produce just 5 to 10 percent of total U.S. coal production, and generate less than 4 percent of our electricity—an amount that could be eliminated from the energy supply with small gains in energy efficiency and conservation. This highly destructive form of surface mining is disfiguring an entire region, the coalfield areas of West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia, because of one reason: profit.

More than 470 mountains in the southern Appalachians, which are among the oldest mountains on Earth, have already been sheared off. Vast areas of wildlife habitat, the most biologically diverse forest in North America, have been obliterated. Roughly 2000 miles of streams have been filled or severly degraded by mining waste, all in pursuit of coal. And coal is a lousy way to power a society.

From mining to burning to disposing the combustion waste, it’s a dirty business. Unfortunately, in our reductionist age, too often people looking at the coal problem don’t consider the whole problem. Only by contemplating the entire life cycle of fossil energy—coal extraction, preparation, transportation, combustion, and waste disposal of by-products—can one fully understand the enormity of coal’s toxic legacy.

See how coal’s toxic legacy stretches from blown-up mountains to a dangerously warming planet to coal ash dumps polluting air and water:

The most profitable way to decapitate a mountain. Blow its top off, section by section, and then move the rubble with heavy equipment. Sometimes the forest cloaking the condemned mountain is clear-cut; more often the trees are simply scraped away, bulldozed into a pile, and burned. A pad is leveled, and a large drilling rig bores a series of holes. Into them goes a mixture of ammonium nitrate and fuel oil—the same type of explosive that homegrown terrorist Timothy McVeigh used to bomb the Alfred Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. Prior to detonation, warning whistles sound. When the charge explodes, the earth shudders. The explosions may shake and crack house foundations, startle wildlife, and spray a large area with dust and flying rock. Coal mining is far and away the largest industrial consumer of explosives in the United States. According to government figures for 2005, more than 1.8 billion pounds of high explosives were used in West Virginia and Kentucky alone, primarily in surface-mining operations.

The most ancient mountains in North America, plundered for profit. The forest covering these venerable ridges and valleys is a global hotspot of biological diversity. An estimated 800,000 acres of that forest have already been destroyed—and more than 470 mountains sheared off—by surface-mining operations. Sometimes hundreds of feet of elevation are lost as a mountain’s original contour is blasted away. The topsoil, foundation of the landscape’s exceptional diversity of life, is wasted. Broad, plateau-like mesas remain. Federal law does not require formerly forested mine sites to be reforested during “reclamation.” Even when operators meet their legal obligations to reclaim mined areas, the result is a biological wasteland compared to the native forest—generally a thin, green sheen of exotic grass growing on compacted rubble. The return of a vibrant, ecologically healthy natural community that approaches its former richness is a distant dream.

Mountaintop removal is strip-mining on steroids. Massive dump trucks, huge bulldozers, and ten-story-high draglines can undo in months what geological processes took millions of years to build. Typically, multiple coal seams are exposed as a mountaintop-removal operation dismantles the landscape, piece by piece. The earthmoving equipment requires only a handful of operators. Mine- related employment in the Appalachian coalfields has plummeted in recent decades because of increasing mechanization, and because production has shifted from underground to surface mining—“taking the miner out of mining,” as local residents say. These radical strip-mining operations not only obliterate the former habitat and homes of innumerable wild creatures, they also reshape the very contour of the horizon. The familiar curves and folds of the landscape, the mountains that have anchored communities for generations, are simply gone.

 

[Old Rocks]

Phony alarmist post...

Dumb fuck liar.

Typical coming from an ignoramus like you... Just tantrums and name calling. Go pour yourself a cup of warm milk, and cozy up in your safe space. The next 8 years are going to be hard on you...

I don't think the orange clown will make 100 days.

 

[martybegan]

Photo by Luke Sharrett/Getty Images


With everything that Republicans want to do — repeal Obamacare, overhaul the tax code — it might seem odd that one of Congress’ very first acts would be to kill an obscure Obama-era regulation that restricts coal companies from dumping mining waste into streams and waterways.

But that is indeed what’s going on. On Thursday, the Senate voted 54-45 to repeal the so-called “stream protection rule” — using a regulation-killing tool known as the Congressional Review Act. The House took a similar vote yesterday, and if President Trump agrees, the stream protection rule will be dead. Coal companies will now have a freer hand in dumping mining debris in streams.

Killing this regulation won’t really help Trump fulfill his goal of reversing the coal industry’s decline; that decline has more to do with cheap natural gas than anything else. Instead, Republicans are mostly focusing on this rule because they can. Because the stream protection rule wasn’t finished until very late in 2016, it’s much, much easier to kill than most of the other Obama-era rules around coal pollution. It was an easy target, so long as the GOP acted fast.

Why Congress just killed a rule restricting coal companies from dumping waste in streams

How many times have we seen PC, Tiny Dancer, and Mr. Westwall state that they are against pollution. Well, here is their chance to condemn a Senate act that increases pollution to our waterways. Bet they pass up the opportunity. LOL

The stream protection rule requires the restoration of the physical form, hydrologic function, and ecological function of the segment of a perennial or intermittent stream that a permittee mines through.

So basically if runoff forms a trough during a heavy rainstorm, it magically becomes an "intermittent" stream, and creates a whole new layer of regulation.

Just regulate the point sources at the main, actual stream.

This is an example of regulation designed to stop a given industry, not regulate it, by exponentially increasing costs. Also it increases uncertainty, thus making companies liable for fines when they don't actually know they are breaking a rule.

In other words, killing streams and rivers is fine with you. Well, nice to know how the "Conservatives" stand on that.

Again, just regulate discharges to actual streams, and not intermittent streams that may, or may not exist. Regulate something that gives certainty, not something that is open to interpretation, such as if some runoff trough is a stream or not.

My, my, how you 'Conservatives' love your 'alteranative facts. What a lying asshole you are. Here is the reality of what is happening;

Plundering Appalachia - The Tragedy of Mountaintop-Removal Coal Mining :: The Issue

Mountaintop-removal mines in Appalachia are estimated to produce just 5 to 10 percent of total U.S. coal production, and generate less than 4 percent of our electricity—an amount that could be eliminated from the energy supply with small gains in energy efficiency and conservation. This highly destructive form of surface mining is disfiguring an entire region, the coalfield areas of West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia, because of one reason: profit.

More than 470 mountains in the southern Appalachians, which are among the oldest mountains on Earth, have already been sheared off. Vast areas of wildlife habitat, the most biologically diverse forest in North America, have been obliterated. Roughly 2000 miles of streams have been filled or severly degraded by mining waste, all in pursuit of coal. And coal is a lousy way to power a society.

From mining to burning to disposing the combustion waste, it’s a dirty business. Unfortunately, in our reductionist age, too often people looking at the coal problem don’t consider the whole problem. Only by contemplating the entire life cycle of fossil energy—coal extraction, preparation, transportation, combustion, and waste disposal of by-products—can one fully understand the enormity of coal’s toxic legacy.

See how coal’s toxic legacy stretches from blown-up mountains to a dangerously warming planet to coal ash dumps polluting air and water:

The most profitable way to decapitate a mountain. Blow its top off, section by section, and then move the rubble with heavy equipment. Sometimes the forest cloaking the condemned mountain is clear-cut; more often the trees are simply scraped away, bulldozed into a pile, and burned. A pad is leveled, and a large drilling rig bores a series of holes. Into them goes a mixture of ammonium nitrate and fuel oil—the same type of explosive that homegrown terrorist Timothy McVeigh used to bomb the Alfred Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. Prior to detonation, warning whistles sound. When the charge explodes, the earth shudders. The explosions may shake and crack house foundations, startle wildlife, and spray a large area with dust and flying rock. Coal mining is far and away the largest industrial consumer of explosives in the United States. According to government figures for 2005, more than 1.8 billion pounds of high explosives were used in West Virginia and Kentucky alone, primarily in surface-mining operations.

The most ancient mountains in North America, plundered for profit. The forest covering these venerable ridges and valleys is a global hotspot of biological diversity. An estimated 800,000 acres of that forest have already been destroyed—and more than 470 mountains sheared off—by surface-mining operations. Sometimes hundreds of feet of elevation are lost as a mountain’s original contour is blasted away. The topsoil, foundation of the landscape’s exceptional diversity of life, is wasted. Broad, plateau-like mesas remain. Federal law does not require formerly forested mine sites to be reforested during “reclamation.” Even when operators meet their legal obligations to reclaim mined areas, the result is a biological wasteland compared to the native forest—generally a thin, green sheen of exotic grass growing on compacted rubble. The return of a vibrant, ecologically healthy natural community that approaches its former richness is a distant dream.

Mountaintop removal is strip-mining on steroids. Massive dump trucks, huge bulldozers, and ten-story-high draglines can undo in months what geological processes took millions of years to build. Typically, multiple coal seams are exposed as a mountaintop-removal operation dismantles the landscape, piece by piece. The earthmoving equipment requires only a handful of operators. Mine- related employment in the Appalachian coalfields has plummeted in recent decades because of increasing mechanization, and because production has shifted from underground to surface mining—“taking the miner out of mining,” as local residents say. These radical strip-mining operations not only obliterate the former habitat and homes of innumerable wild creatures, they also reshape the very contour of the horizon. The familiar curves and folds of the landscape, the mountains that have anchored communities for generations, are simply gone.

Then have the balls to ban cut mining, don't use an end run and declare runoff a "stream"

 

[there4eyeM]

Photo by Luke Sharrett/Getty Images


With everything that Republicans want to do — repeal Obamacare, overhaul the tax code — it might seem odd that one of Congress’ very first acts would be to kill an obscure Obama-era regulation that restricts coal companies from dumping mining waste into streams and waterways.

But that is indeed what’s going on. On Thursday, the Senate voted 54-45 to repeal the so-called “stream protection rule” — using a regulation-killing tool known as the Congressional Review Act. The House took a similar vote yesterday, and if President Trump agrees, the stream protection rule will be dead. Coal companies will now have a freer hand in dumping mining debris in streams.

Killing this regulation won’t really help Trump fulfill his goal of reversing the coal industry’s decline; that decline has more to do with cheap natural gas than anything else. Instead, Republicans are mostly focusing on this rule because they can. Because the stream protection rule wasn’t finished until very late in 2016, it’s much, much easier to kill than most of the other Obama-era rules around coal pollution. It was an easy target, so long as the GOP acted fast.

Why Congress just killed a rule restricting coal companies from dumping waste in streams

How many times have we seen PC, Tiny Dancer, and Mr. Westwall state that they are against pollution. Well, here is their chance to condemn a Senate act that increases pollution to our waterways. Bet they pass up the opportunity. LOL

The stream protection rule requires the restoration of the physical form, hydrologic function, and ecological function of the segment of a perennial or intermittent stream that a permittee mines through.

So basically if runoff forms a trough during a heavy rainstorm, it magically becomes an "intermittent" stream, and creates a whole new layer of regulation.

Just regulate the point sources at the main, actual stream.

This is an example of regulation designed to stop a given industry, not regulate it, by exponentially increasing costs. Also it increases uncertainty, thus making companies liable for fines when they don't actually know they are breaking a rule.

In other words, killing streams and rivers is fine with you. Well, nice to know how the "Conservatives" stand on that.

Again, just regulate discharges to actual streams, and not intermittent streams that may, or may not exist. Regulate something that gives certainty, not something that is open to interpretation, such as if some runoff trough is a stream or not.

My, my, how you 'Conservatives' love your 'alteranative facts. What a lying asshole you are. Here is the reality of what is happening;

Plundering Appalachia - The Tragedy of Mountaintop-Removal Coal Mining :: The Issue

Mountaintop-removal mines in Appalachia are estimated to produce just 5 to 10 percent of total U.S. coal production, and generate less than 4 percent of our electricity—an amount that could be eliminated from the energy supply with small gains in energy efficiency and conservation. This highly destructive form of surface mining is disfiguring an entire region, the coalfield areas of West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia, because of one reason: profit.

More than 470 mountains in the southern Appalachians, which are among the oldest mountains on Earth, have already been sheared off. Vast areas of wildlife habitat, the most biologically diverse forest in North America, have been obliterated. Roughly 2000 miles of streams have been filled or severly degraded by mining waste, all in pursuit of coal. And coal is a lousy way to power a society.

From mining to burning to disposing the combustion waste, it’s a dirty business. Unfortunately, in our reductionist age, too often people looking at the coal problem don’t consider the whole problem. Only by contemplating the entire life cycle of fossil energy—coal extraction, preparation, transportation, combustion, and waste disposal of by-products—can one fully understand the enormity of coal’s toxic legacy.

See how coal’s toxic legacy stretches from blown-up mountains to a dangerously warming planet to coal ash dumps polluting air and water:

The most profitable way to decapitate a mountain. Blow its top off, section by section, and then move the rubble with heavy equipment. Sometimes the forest cloaking the condemned mountain is clear-cut; more often the trees are simply scraped away, bulldozed into a pile, and burned. A pad is leveled, and a large drilling rig bores a series of holes. Into them goes a mixture of ammonium nitrate and fuel oil—the same type of explosive that homegrown terrorist Timothy McVeigh used to bomb the Alfred Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. Prior to detonation, warning whistles sound. When the charge explodes, the earth shudders. The explosions may shake and crack house foundations, startle wildlife, and spray a large area with dust and flying rock. Coal mining is far and away the largest industrial consumer of explosives in the United States. According to government figures for 2005, more than 1.8 billion pounds of high explosives were used in West Virginia and Kentucky alone, primarily in surface-mining operations.

The most ancient mountains in North America, plundered for profit. The forest covering these venerable ridges and valleys is a global hotspot of biological diversity. An estimated 800,000 acres of that forest have already been destroyed—and more than 470 mountains sheared off—by surface-mining operations. Sometimes hundreds of feet of elevation are lost as a mountain’s original contour is blasted away. The topsoil, foundation of the landscape’s exceptional diversity of life, is wasted. Broad, plateau-like mesas remain. Federal law does not require formerly forested mine sites to be reforested during “reclamation.” Even when operators meet their legal obligations to reclaim mined areas, the result is a biological wasteland compared to the native forest—generally a thin, green sheen of exotic grass growing on compacted rubble. The return of a vibrant, ecologically healthy natural community that approaches its former richness is a distant dream.

Mountaintop removal is strip-mining on steroids. Massive dump trucks, huge bulldozers, and ten-story-high draglines can undo in months what geological processes took millions of years to build. Typically, multiple coal seams are exposed as a mountaintop-removal operation dismantles the landscape, piece by piece. The earthmoving equipment requires only a handful of operators. Mine- related employment in the Appalachian coalfields has plummeted in recent decades because of increasing mechanization, and because production has shifted from underground to surface mining—“taking the miner out of mining,” as local residents say. These radical strip-mining operations not only obliterate the former habitat and homes of innumerable wild creatures, they also reshape the very contour of the horizon. The familiar curves and folds of the landscape, the mountains that have anchored communities for generations, are simply gone.

An environmentalist could take this as an example of terrorists heavily bombing America.

 

[Old Rocks]

No need to now. The price of wind and solar are going to put coal right out of business in the near future, and gas in a generation.

 

[martybegan]

No need to now. The price of wind and solar are going to put coal right out of business in the near future, and gas in a generation.

Then why do you have to resort to trickery?