mountaintop removal coal mining

[jballa]

Originally Posted by theburro

Alternatives? Nuclear and hydro are on their way out. Wind turbines kill migrating birds and bats and are an eyesore on pristine ridges. Solar ... expensive; biofuels, hydrogen ... maybe, some day. Meantime, the quest for cheap hydrocarbon and energy corporation profits will continue to direct our environmental, domestic and foreign policies for the forseeable future.

Nuclear is on its way out? VA nuclear plants (Surry 1&2 and North Anna 1&2) produced 36% of VA's power last year. If you pay attention to any news source, you will see that new plants are being approved for construction by the government as we speak. It has about the same input/output ratio as coal, providing about the same cost as coal and is less dangerous (responsible for 2 deaths in the past 20 years; Japan '99). If the public can be educated and these new plants are attractively built, then I can see no arguements against them other than the problem of where to put waste.

[jmarkd]

If you choose coal, you have pollution to deal with, as well as the mining hazards. For nuclear the mining is done outside the country, so the main risks are radiation escaping, which has never happened here and is not likely to happen. As you mentioned, the other problem is storing the waste.
But most fanatics do not want to think in terms of trade-offs. Thomas Sowell has a great mantra: "there are no solutions, only trade-offs." Most environmentalists don't understand this. They think there should be some perfect solution that has no negative effects. But everything has negative effects. Windmills kill birds and disrupt their flight paths. Hydroelectric power screws up salmon migration, and ladders don't help much. Where do you store the highly toxic battery for that Prius when it stops working?
If we could get realistic and quit pretending there is a magic bullet, accept that every means of power generation has a down side, and start to weigh those against one another, we could get a decent energy policy.
Personally, I would like to see liquid coal replace gasoline. We have plenty of coal, and anything that would help us disengage from the crazy countries of the Middle East (while taking away a major source of their revenues) would be a net positive for America.

[Mike from back east]

Right on the money. I've been hoping nukes would make a major comeback. It's way overdue. Need to get off foreign oil and coal-fired plants. We can drive battery-powered cars that are recharged with electricity generated by nukes and largely eliminate all of the environmental issues of both industries.

Nuke waste can be stored safely, science will give us even better solutions, but we must fund the research and MOVE ON. I'm tired of luddites who want to take us back to the dark ages, like the Taliban and Al Queda did to Afghanistan. Enviro-nazi's want zero impact and nothing will please them. Zero impact is only possible for a bare rock like the moon.

Mostly what the enviro-wackies want is for people to pay them off in order to get them to go away....greenmail. Most of their true believers are out on the fringe of sanity, blowing tiny issues so far out of proportion it defies credulity. Too bad Ronald Raygun emptied and closed so many asylums, there are people running around filing frivolous lawsuits who belong in them.

France has had a great nuke program for decades, never hear a word about it, never. We need someone in Washington to lead the way, stop worrying about the polls, just get busy and MOVE ON.

I'm sick of being held hostage by big oil, OPEC, enviro-wackies and fear mongers of all sorts. We all need to demand our leaders MOVE ON and solve issues, not tinker with gay marriage issues for the luddites....

s/Mike from back east

[theburro]

Originally Posted by rheaburris

Has any one here have information on this topic? I guess, I've lived an ignorant life. I never heard of it until last night. I always thought of coal mining as going on underground.Wrong! Apparently for 30 yrs now, these companies have been going into the mountains,clearcutting the timber,then dynamiting the tops of the mtns off to get to the coal easier. Then they dump the rubble into the valleys. It goes on mainly in West Va. It's causing people to lose their family homes of hundreds of yrs. Tell me what you know of this. It really disturbs me!

Here is a link to an excellent article re. mountaintop removal by Prof. Willaim Major, U. of Hartford. http://www.courant.com/news/opinion/...,6819512.story
Please bear in mind this is copyright material. And I guess some people will label him as a wacko or eco-terrorist or words to that effect for expressing his opinion. But it is a good perspective, without casting stones.

P.S. This type of strip mining is widespread in s.w. Virginia and in 4 states that share our border.