A Plea To President Obama: End Mountaintop Coal Mining

The issue of mountaintop removal is so important that I and others concerned about this problem will engage in an act of civil disobedience on Tuesday, June 23rd at a mountaintop removal site in Coal River Valley, West Virginia...We must make clear to Congress, to the EPA, and to the Obama administration that we the people want mountaintop removal abolished and we want a move toward a rapid phase-out of coal emissions now. The time for half measures and caving in to polluting industries is over. It is time for citizens to demand -- yes, we can.

Tighter restrictions on mountaintop removal mining are simply not enough. Instead, a leading climate scientist argues, the Obama administration must prohibit this destructive practice, which is devastating vast stretches of Appalachia.

by Dr. James Hansen, Yale Environment 360

President Obama speaks of "a planet in peril." The president and the brilliant people he appointed in energy and science know that we must move rapidly to carbon-free energy to avoid handing our children a planet that has passed climate tipping points.

The science is clear. Burning all fossil fuels will destroy the future of young people and the unborn. And the fossil fuel that we must stop burning is coal. Coal is the critical issue. Coal is the main cause of climate change. It is also the dirtiest fossil fuel -- air pollution, arsenic, and mercury from coal have devastating effects on human health and cause birth defects.

Recently, the administration unveiled its new position on mountaintop coal mining and set out a number of new restrictions on the practice in six Appalachian states. These new rules will require tougher environmental review before blowing up mountains. But it's a minimal step.

The Obama administration is being forced into a political compromise. It has sacrificed a strong position on mountaintop removal in order to ensure the support of coal-state legislators for a climate bill. The political pressures are very real. But this is an approach to coal that defeats the purpose of the administration's larger efforts to fight climate change, a sad political bargain that will never get us the change we need on mountaintop removal, coal or the climate. Coal is the linchpin in mitigating global warming, and it's senseless to allow cheap mountaintop-removal coal while the administration is simultaneously seeking policies to boost renewable energy.

Mountaintop removal, which provides a mere 7 percent of the nation's coal, is done by clear-cutting forests, blowing the tops off of mountains, and then dumping the debris into streambeds -- an undeniably catastrophic way of mining. This technique has buried more than 800 miles of Appalachian streams in mining debris and by 2012 will have serious damaged or destroyed an area larger than Delaware. Mountaintop removal also poisons water supplies and pollutes the air with coal and rock dust. Coal ash piles are so toxic and unstable that the Department of Homeland Security has declared that the location of the nation's 44 most hazardous coal ash sites must be kept secret. They fear terrorists will find ways to spill the toxic substances. But storms and heavy rain can do the same. A recent collapse in Tennessee released 100 times more hazardous material than the Exxon-Valdez oil spill.

If the Obama administration is unwilling or unable to stop the massive environmental destruction of historic mountain ranges and essential drinking water for a relatively tiny amount of coal, can we honestly believe they will be able to phase out coal emissions at the level necessary to stop climate change? The issue of mountaintop removal is so important that I and others concerned about this problem will engage in an act of civil disobedience on June 23rd at a mountaintop removal site in Coal River Valley, West Virginia.

Experts agree that energy efficiency and carbon-free energies can satisfy our energy needs. Coal left in the ground is useful. It holds up the mountains, which, left intact, are an ideal site for wind energy. In contrast, mountaintop removal and strip mining of coal is a shameful abomination. Mining jobs have shrunk to a small fraction of past levels. With clean energy, there could be far more, green-energy jobs, and the government could support the retraining of miners, to a brighter, cleaner future.

Politicians may have to make concessions on what is right for what is winnable. But as a scientist and a citizen, I believe the right course is very clear: The climate crisis demands a moratorium on new coal-fired power plants that do not capture and safely dispose of all emissions. And mountaintop removal, providing only a small fraction of our energy, should be permanently prohibited.

President Obama remains the best hope, perhaps the only hope, for real change. If the president uses his influence, his eloquence, and his bully pulpit, he could be the agent of real change. But he does need our help to overcome the political realities of compromise.

We must make clear to Congress, to the EPA, and to the Obama administration that we the people want mountaintop removal abolished and we want a move toward a rapid phase-out of coal emissions now. The time for half measures and caving in to polluting industries is over. It is time for citizens to demand -- yes, we can.

Comments

[linaya]

This is happening in America, which is astounding. You would think in a civilized country we would have laws against such destruction. I would expect to see mountain top removal in some third-world country. No, it's happening here.

We all have to get involved and protest this horror. It's a crime and we have to all speak out against it, just like we need to stop using coal for energy in the first place.

Some times I think we're regressing back to the caveman days. That's where "big coal" wants to take us. Burn dirty black rocks for energy! What a caveman thing to do!

Blow up mountains to get more of it -- Utter insanity. Kudos to J. Hansen and others who got arrested protesting this evil practice. Where are the others willing to get arrested?

Look at your TV -- half of Iran was protesting a bad election --most Americans can't even manage to care about greedy energy companies blowing up the landscape and polluting our air and environment. What is wrong with us?

[LizM]

For the record, you have a strong advocate in Vice President Biden.

[philistine]

Thank you, Dr. Hansen - for this and all of your earlier work regarding global warming. I mostly agree, although I think that public universal health care should be Obama's focus now. If he can somehow will Congress to enact a bill with a strong public option (at a minimum), his popular support will grow. This, in turn, will allow him to pursue even more ambitious goals - although, based on what we're witnessing now in Congress, it's hard to imagine any other issue as harder than the fight for universal health care. He will need all the clout he can muster to fight advocates for fossil fuels - I know, living in Louisiana as I do, how much clout Big Oil has, and Big Coal obviously has similar influence in coal-producing states. Let's give him a little bit of time on this issue.

The pictures I've seen of dynamited mountaintops fills me with sadness - almost as much as when I see small ponds in the marsh turn into open bays over time, thanks to salt water intrusion through canals dug to facilitate service to offshore oil wells. You should plan further acts of civil disobedience down here to help bring attention to the ravages of the oil industry. We need your help too.

[linaya]

Health care can wait a bit. This mining and burning of coal is leading us straight to the Apocalypse.

We don't have time. And even worse, the Waxman-Markey bill is bunch of loopholes and giveaways.

Health care is important, but Obama's health care plan isn't very good either. It's based on super-capitalism, just like the climate change legislation is super-capitalism. When will we learn?

Obama needs to get off his butt and give a big speech on climate change and be honest about it. Scare Americans with the truth, or nothing will get done. Climate change is killing people now. Coal burning is killing people now. Burning coal emits mercury which affects the neurological systems of 60,000 American babies a year! So much for health care!