Mountain State Matters

The Washington Post has a very informative article about mountaintop removal up today. Their reporter visited sites all over West Virginia, including Mud, Mingo County and Kayford Mountain, and wrote about the ties between Washington D.C. and West Virginia. I thought he also did a good job of showing the Catch-22: mountaintop removal is awful for the environment, but without it where would West Virginia’s economy be?

Larry Lodato, of the economic development authority in Boone County, W.Va., said he worried that environmentalists would succeed in stopping permits for new mountaintop mines.

“We’re hurting” if that happens, Lodato said. “A lot of our companies would be looking elsewhere. There would be a lot of jobs lost.”

According to a map from the American Coal Foundation, Appalachia is one of the country’s major producers of medium and high-volatile bituminous coal (the coal-producing states out west produce mostly sub-bituminous coal and lignite). The region produces 40 percent of the nation’s coal (in July 1996). A lot of the coal companies would be looking elsewhere? It really doesn’t seem like there would be a whole lot of places for them to look. If the country could successfully pass laws protecting mountains and miners, most companies would have no choice but to comply. Unfortunately, with all the lobbying and money floating around, that looks unlikely.

Anyway, check out the Washington Post article. It has a pretty cool slide show as well.

Photo: Daniel Shea