• About Us
  • Who Are We
  • Work With Us
Thursday, July 10, 2025
No Result
View All Result
The Globe Post
39 °f
New York
44 ° Fri
46 ° Sat
40 ° Sun
41 ° Mon
No Result
View All Result
The Globe Post
No Result
View All Result
Home Opinion

Upcoming Presidential Climate Town Halls Must Address Mountaintop Removal Mining

Vernon Haltom by Vernon Haltom
07/29/19
in Opinion
US President Donald Trump displays a sign saying 'Trump digs coal' during a rally.

US President Donald Trump has called climate change a hoax multiple times. Photo: Dominick Reuter, AFP

Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

With the national discussion heating up about the climate crisis, one major issue that is not being publicly discussed by presidential candidates is mountaintop removal for coal extraction.

During the last two decades alone, mountaintop removal mining in Appalachia has destroyed more than a million acres of forest. That is an area larger than the entire state of Delaware. It’s obliterated some of the most biodiverse ecosystems in the United States.

Contrary to public perception, mountaintop removal coal mining is far from over. It continues to impact our communities, our environment, and our health. A 2017 study by Yale University revealed that more than 1,200 people die each year as a result of mountaintop removal mining.

Communities near these sites suffer significantly higher rates of cancer, birth defects, cardiovascular disease, kidney disease, and chronic lung diseases, due to the long-distance spread of toxic dust and water contamination.

Decapitating Mountains for Coal

In central Appalachia, coal companies detonate the explosive equivalent of more than a thousand Tomahawk missiles in a single day to decapitate the mountains to extract coal. The fine, glassy fallout can remain airborne for miles from the blast before it settles in homes and lungs. The blasting cracks foundations and walls, destroys aquifers, and rattles the nerves of residents. And this doesn’t even begin to address the myriad of other problems such as polluted streams, overweight truck damage to roads and bridges, and billions of gallons of toxic waste sludge dammed up above communities.

While some environmental groups have won lawsuits against coal operators for violating the Clean Water Act and others have successfully pushed banks to stop doing business with the biggest mountaintop removal companies, this backward and malignant practice still continues.

In some cases, the companies just call the process something else, or they narrowly define mountaintop removal to then claim that they’ve stopped doing it. But any steep slope surface mining using explosives has the same results to the surrounding streams, forests, wildlife, and human communities.

Ending Mountaintop Removal

Industry bankruptcies, driven by decreased demand and competition from cheaper fracked gas, haven’t ended mountaintop removal either. Take the case of Alpha Natural Resources. After Massey Energy’s Upper Big Branch mine exploded in 2010, killing 29 miners and leading to a year-long prison sentence for Massey’s CEO Don Blankenship, Alpha bought the company in 2011. When Alpha filed for bankruptcy protection in 2015, a New York Times news report claimed, “Mountaintop removal, the poster child for environmental destruction, has all but ground to a halt…” while another national story claimed, “King Coal is Dead!”

In reality, Alpha continued blasting Coal River Mountain and other sites, while paying lucrative bonuses to executives and jeopardizing retired miners’ promised benefits. Alpha has since merged with Contura Energy, which formed from the bankruptcy reorganization, to form the largest metallurgical coal provider in the country. And they continue to blast Coal River Mountain, creating a public health emergency with their carcinogenic fallout.

Solar panels have been installed and a hemp farm has been planted in the community around Coal River Mountain in West Virginia. However, these viable steps to economic diversification alone won’t end mountaintop removal. Neither will enforcing existing laws.

One way to solve this problem is a bill introduced by Rep. John Yarmuth (D-Ky) and co-sponsored by Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), Adam Schiff (D-CA), and Raul Grijalva (D-AZ). The bill, known as the Appalachian Communities Health Emergency Act (ACHE Act), H.R. 2050, has been introduced in each of the previous four Congresses. But this time, the new House is taking action and held a subcommittee hearing on the bill on April 9. The bill would halt new or expanded mountaintop removal coal mining and would require existing sites to monitor air and water quality.

Only recently, for the very first time, has a presidential candidate pledged to ban the practice. It’s long overdue, but it is without a doubt a benchmark that every candidate must meet. In the lead up to the next debate, citizens across Appalachia will be waiting to see how candidates address the public health and environmental crisis from mountaintop removal. Thousands of lives depend on it.

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial position of The Globe Post.
ShareTweet
Vernon Haltom

Vernon Haltom

Executive Director of Coal River Mountain Watch

Related Posts

Donald Trump
Opinion

Fact vs. Fiction: The Trump Administration’s Dubious War on Reverse Discrimination

by Kevin Cokley
June 18, 2025
A Black Lives Matter mural in New York City.
Opinion

Fuhgeddaboudit! America’s Erasure of History

by Stephen J. Lyons
April 2, 2025
Smoke from the Palisades Fire in Pacific Palisades, California, from Santa Monica, California, on January 7
National

Los Angeles Fire Deaths at 10 as National Guard Called In

by Staff Writer with AFP
January 10, 2025
President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky shake hands during a meeting in New York on September 25, 2019
World

Zelensky Says ‘Unpredictable’ Trump Could Help End War

by Staff Writer with AFP
January 2, 2025
President Donald Trump in the Brady Briefing Room of the White House.
National

Trump Wishes ‘Merry Christmas’ to ‘Left Lunatics’ in Frenzy of Social Posts

by Staff Writer with AFP
December 27, 2024
US President Donald Trump inspects border wall prototypes
National

Trump Confirms Plan to Use Military for Mass Deportation

by Staff Writer with AFP
November 18, 2024
Next Post
Sudanese protesters rally outside the army complex in Sudan’s capital Khartoum on April 18, 2019

Five Sudanese Protesters Shot Dead Ahead of Talks

US President Donald Trump was to visit the Texas community of McAllen and meet with local border patrol agents during his trip to the US-Mexico border

Amid Charges of Racism, Trump Attacks Civil Rights Icons

Recommended

Women in Afghanistan wearing a blue burqa

ICC Seeks Arrest of Taliban Leaders Over Persecution of Women

July 9, 2025
Kenya, Nairobi, 2024-07-16. Protesters in the streets

Nairobi Tense as Kenya Marks Democracy Uprising

July 7, 2025
President Donald Trump

Trump Wins ‘Phenomenal’ Victory as Congress Passes Flagship Bill

July 4, 2025
University students march in protest towards the Istanbul Municipality in Sarachane as they demonstrate against the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu in Istanbul, Turkey, on March 21, 2025.

‘Remember Charlie Hebdo!’ Protesters Seethe at Istanbul Magazine

July 2, 2025
US President Donald Trump

US Senate Edges Towards Vote on Trump’s Divisive Spending Bill

June 30, 2025
Protests in Hong Kong in 2019.

Hong Kong’s Dragnet Widens 5 Years After National Security Law

June 27, 2025

Opinion

Donald Trump

Fact vs. Fiction: The Trump Administration’s Dubious War on Reverse Discrimination

June 18, 2025
Tens of thousands of protestors shut down Fifth Avenue in Manhattan on Saturday, April 5, 2025, protesting the Trump administration's abuse of the separation of federal powers as well as the deep cuts to governmental services overseen by presidential advisor Elon Musk.

Civil Society Is Holding the Line. Will Washington Notice?

June 17, 2025
A Black Lives Matter mural in New York City.

Fuhgeddaboudit! America’s Erasure of History

April 2, 2025
Bust of Deputy Rubens Paiva in the Chamber of Deputies

Democratic Brazilians Are Still Here

March 18, 2025
A woman from Guatemala

Dispatch From Central America

January 28, 2025
US President Donald Trump

Dear Trump Supporters: Is This the America You Wanted?

January 28, 2025
Facebook Twitter

Newsletter

Do you like our reporting?
SUBSCRIBE

About Us

The Globe Post

The Globe Post is part of Globe Post Media, a U.S. digital news organization that is publishing the world's best targeted news sites.

submit oped

© 2018 The Globe Post

No Result
View All Result
  • National
  • World
  • Business
  • Interviews
  • Lifestyle
  • Democracy at Risk
    • Media Freedom
  • Opinion
    • Editorials
    • Columns
    • Book Reviews
    • Stage
  • Submit Op-ed

© 2018 The Globe Post