News
South Carolina Says “NO” To Mountaintop Removal Coal.
Monday, May 18th, 2009
Recently South Carolina legislators introduced the Appalachian Mountains Preservation Act. This legislation would prohibit the import of coal extracted using the super aggressive mining method, known as mountaintop removal.
The bill, H. 3955, was introduced by Rep. Carl Gullick, R-Lake Wylie, and has drawn a small but committed group of bi-partisan co-sponsors.
Mountain removal is a method of mining designed from the beginning to take the miner out of the equation. Coal companies use thousands of tons of explosives and enormous machinery to blast the tops off of mountains in order to harvest thins seams of coal. Opting to invest in machinery and explosives leads to a decrease in underground mining jobs.
South Carolina is among the nation’s top ten consumers of mountaintop removal coal, burning millions of tons of it annually.
Carl Shoupe and Rodney Adams both of Harlan County, Kentucky were present in Columbia for a press conference. They both live in direct proximity to active mountain top removal mines and can attest to the harmful effects this mining has on Appalachian communities.
Carl Shoupe a retired underground coal miner and Vietnam veteran spoke passionately about the inherent beauty of his home, and the destruction that mountaintop removal is causing not only to the mountains but also to coalfield communities.
Rodney Adams, also a veteran and retired underground miner, attested to the loss of mining jobs due the highly mechanized nature of strip mining.
“We’re trying to put some pressure on,” he said. “So we can put the coal mining back underground where it’s supposed to be.”
South Carolina is the 4th state to introduce legislation that would ban the import of mountaintop removal coal to be used by their electric utilities. North Carolina, Georgia and Maryland have all introduced similar legislation.
For more information contact Austin Hall, Austin@appvoices.org
