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The Cheap Cost of Coal is Subsidized By the Suffering of Others
Scott Pasch

Clean Coal? How can something clean destroy towns, poison the water and leave behind a toxic environment? The idea behind clean coal centers on new ways to reuse and store the carbon emissions from coal power plants which in theory sounds all fine and good but it does not affect the way the coal is obtained in the first place. Several environmental groups have begun lobbying President Obama this week in hopes to preventing the further expansion of mountaintop removal. Over a 100 permits are currently pending and if the coal companies are given full sanction, they will bury another 200 miles of stream in West Virginia and Eastern Kentucky.

Over 1,000 miles have already been buried over the last two decades. Killing these rivers kills everything around them. If you want to know why coal is so cheap it is because nobody pays the true cost of coal production except for the people and animals living near these sludge pools.

This process spews forth toxic sludge which rolls into the rivers in the valleys of West Virginia, Kentucky and Ohio. If you think this is not an issue than the next time you go camping or hunting make sure you do so near one of these sludge preserves and let me know if your hand dandy water filter sufficiently cleans all the sludge out of the water so you can drink it. Or maybe you want to build a home near some of these now gutted mountain tops so you too can experience massive flooding.

According to the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition a recent 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling "would permit mining companies to conduct mountaintop removal coal mining without acting to minimize stream destruction or conducting adequate environmental reviews."

The Clean Water Protection Act (HR 2719) would restore the power of the Clean Water Act by prohibiting coal companies from filling up river beds with so much sludge that they turn into virtual graves for the rivers and streams and for all the surrounding life that once relied on that water supply.

Make your voices heard contact President Obama and the members of Congress to let them know you oppose new permits for mountaintop removal.

White House: http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/

For district office addresses and more info on your Congress people, see: www.Congress.org.
PHONE: Call the Congressional switchboard at 202-225-3121.
EMAIL: Find your Representative's email at www.Congress.org.

EPA: http://www.epa.gov/epahome/comments3.htm