With the Utah Mine incident, I'd opt for strip mining as the best way to go forward. Our coal resources are enormous and processing has changed over the years for these damn environmentalist know it alls.
Agree with both of your comments. In fact, once mined out, strip mining/miners now days typically back-fill the mined areas, contour the land, plant trees and vegetation and so forth, taking the land back to how it was originally or even better.
About the Utah mine situation; from what I am learning from the news, these mines are very deep. So, they are not conducive to strip mining. Frankly, I do not have a clue what the solution to this problem is - being these mines are so deep and located in seismically active areas.