if this keeps up, i'll be able to see my house from here.

I hail from Southern Ohio, in the western most county in the Appalachian Mountain range, just a little North of the Ohio River. I consider the surrounding hills of Kentucky and West Virginia to be home as well as the people that live there, as they are my people. We all come from the same land.. I love Appalachia dearly, I love it's heritage, I like it's work ethic, I love it's underdog status and I appreciate what a jewel it is to our nation and our environment. For example, the Appalachian mountain range is home to a diversity of plants and animals that rivals only the tropical rain forest in it's abundance. It's nice to think that long after the people who live and work in these hills are gone, the hills and the memories will still be there.

Or will they?

A recent court decision by a panel of federal judges has just ruled in favor of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, in a controversial legal case focused on mountaintop removal coal mining. This ruling has cleared the way for almost 100 new permits to bury streams in Kentucky and West Virginia, which would flatten 98 square miles and bury more than 200 miles of streams in coal mining waste. In a process called Mountain Top Removal, big coal companies are using explosives to literally blow the tops off the mountains, extract the coal and essentially, destroy Appalachia. This land and these people, cannot afford to have their home land devastated like this.. The mining waste and toxic debris left after the blast pours down the mountainside, filling in the valleys, burying our streams and creating mile after mile of barren moonscape. Currently, more than 1,400 miles of Kentucky streams have been buried in the process of extracting coal from the mountains in this fashion. It only takes one year for a coal company to destroy a mountain that has existed for close to 300 million years.

(i just love ashley judd)

The coal industry has taken great care to try and convince the American public that there is such a thing as "clean coal", recently spending more than $30 million on an advertising and PR campaign under the name American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE). The member list for ACCCE reads like a who's who of the worst polluters, including two of the top 10 global warming polluters in the world,  as well as mining companies like Massey Energy that has over 4,000 documented Clean Water Act violations.

In fact, coal-fired power plants are one of our nation's largest and dirtiest sources of energy. By ending our dependence on coal, we can actually help improve our lives and our health, while also saving our cultural heritage from destructive mining and creating family-supporting, American jobs. Using existing technology and American innovation, we can lead the world with a clean energy economy and better the American way of life. There are readily available alternatives to coal that can meet our energy needs and save consumers money, boost the economy, create jobs, improve public health, and combat global warming. 

Please take a few minutes and familiarize yourself with other alternatives to coal and also see more of the ads that the Clean Coal people created and learn the true facts behind their claims.

And lastly, please Join the Fight to End Mountaintop Removal and send a note to President Obama and let him know that this action by the courts is to destroy this jewel of America, is NOT OKAY. 

(3/4/09)