WASHINGTON, DC — “As House Republicans this morning begin another in a series of their hearings trying to somehow turn the federal Office of Surface Mining’s somewhat bumbling efforts to rewrite the stream “buffer zone” rule into an attack on jobs as part of the Obama administration’s alleged “war on coal,” House Democrats are taking a different approach. They’re releasing a fascinating new report that documents where an increasing share of coal from mountaintop removal coal mining is going.
The report, called “Our Pain, Their Gain: Mountains Destroyed for Coal Shipped Overseas,” concludes:
Coal exports have nearly doubled since 2009 to 107 million tons last year, now accounting for almost 12 percent of U.S. production. Three out of every four tons that are exported come from the Appalachian region, and often this coal is produced by mountaintop removal mining — a devastating practice that has blanketed communities with soot, contaminated drinking water, and destroyed 2,000 miles of streams.”
— Ken Ward, Jr., Coal Tattoo
