What Happens After Coal for West Virginia Mountaintop Miners? : TreeHugger
(via whisperoftheshot)
It’s really easy for the average person to scream “MOUNTAINTOP REMOVAL IS AWFUL”, having seen nothing more than pictures and protests of said removal.
In a perfect world, the mountains of WV would remain pristine and untouched, left to their own natural devices. In our world, however, we like to drive cars, buy plastics, run the dishwasher, light our homes, etc- and all of these things require power that is more often than not coal-based. In 2006, 49% of electrical production in the United States was from coal fired boilers, with nuclear power far behind at 19% and combined cycle natural gas at 12%; the rest of the production is picked up by numerous other methods. If we had followed the European lead long ago and gone almost completely nuclear-based, then maybe the mountaintop removal could stop, but until then we are stuck with coal. Unless we want to go back to candles and horses.
If you really want to know about mountaintop removal, talk to rotaryforge. He will enlighten you on how properly executed removal leaves very little impact after all is said and done, with proper filling technique and replanting. Note: Whether or not companies properly execute is another bag of worms..also in the bag of worms file: Elementary schools near power plants, loss of coal mining jobs, water pollution and sludge dams, etc etc etc.
Those other issues aside, for now coal = electricity. Hopefully the future will bring a larger percentage of nuclear, wind, biomass, and other more “green” solutions, but the road to them taking over the role that coal plays is a long one.
