EPA Softens Stance on Mountaintop Coal Mining

Comment:  EPA is for the corporations and not the environment or the health of people!  Mt. Top Removal is destroying our mountains, destroying our water and streams, destroying our air and land!  Then after they blow up the mountain, they ship the coal to China!  Pure Evil Greed!
JANUARY 5, 2010
5:18 P.M. ET.
By SIOBHAN HUGHES

WASHINGTON – The Environmental Protection Agency came out in support of a permit for one West Virginia mountaintop coal-mining operation and suggested it might endorse another permit for the largest such operation in Appalachia.

The EPA announcements Tuesday continue the Obama administration's up-and-down stance on mountaintop coal mining, which involves blasting off mountaintops to get at the coal underneath. Environmentalists oppose the practice, because they say it permanently damages the land and pollutes streams. Mining companies say the practice is safer and cheaper than traditional underground mining.

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http://online.wsj.com/article/SB126272441988216829.html