mountaintop removal coal mining
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Obama administration can still protect streams from mountaintop-removal mining, despite setback in D.C. court
Environmental and community advocates got some jarring news Tuesday when a federal judge rejected EPA’s “guidance” on surface mine permitting in Appalachia — the centerpiece of its three-year effort to curtail the environmental damage caused by mountaintop-removal coal mining. While it was unwelcome news, it was not as devastating as portrayed in the initial round of […]
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'Peak Coal' comes to Appalachia
By 2015, coal production in Appalachia will be half what it was in 2008. Some coal industry advocates argue that such a drop is due to increased regulation by the Obama administration (go figure). But geologists and others who work in the industry say it's actually the result of a much more basic fact: Appalachia is running out of coal.
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People living near mountaintop-removal mines have way more cancer
Mountaintop-removal mining is not only bad for the environment, it's bad -- very bad -- for the health of the people who are exposed to it. A new study, based on a door-to-door survey, found that in communities exposed to this type of mining, cancer rates were twice as high as in communities that weren’t exposed. That's after controlling for all of those other cancer-causing factors: age, sex, smoking, occupation, etc.
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Outrage: As mountaintop removal linked to birth defects, politicians gut Clean Water Act
I just can’t stop thinking about a new scientific study published this week that found there are “significantly higher” rates of birth defects near mountaintop removal coal mining operations As a mother of a 1-year-old, I can vividly remember the long wait of pregnancy. I was so excited to meet my new daughter, and so […]
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More birth defects in mountaintop removal mining areas
Babies born in West Virginia regions where mountaintop removal mining takes place suffer from higher rates of birth defects than those born in non-mining regions. Mining regions tend to be low-income and deal with the slew of problems correlated with that, but the birth defect rates are higher even when accounting for "socioeconomic disadvantages."
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Labor and enviros join up in W.Va. to fight mountaintop coal mining
For the first time in years, mining unions are finding common cause with advocates who are seeking to end mountaintop-removal coal mining.
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Marching to Protect a Landmark in American Labor History – Blair Mountain
Watching this week’s massive march on Blair Mountain has been inspiring. More than 300 people (and that number’s been growing each day) are walking the roughly 60 miles from Marmet, West Virginia, to Blair Mountain in Logan, West Virginia, to call for the end of mountaintop removal coal mining and the protection of this historic […]
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Watch Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., talk mountaintop-removal mining on Colbert
Activist and all-around handsome dude Robert F. Kennedy talked mountaintop-removal mining and The Last Mountain with Stephen Colbert Wednesday night, and taught Stephen about why mountains are not actually renewable resources.
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Nationwide, Coal Does Not Care
This week we’ve had a few too many reminders of how much coal does not care. First, while we all laughed at the parody “Coal Cares” website that the Yes Men created to look as if it was a Peabody Coal project, Peabody Coal’s response was quick reminder of that website’s true message about the […]