Coalminers' slaughter: in US, they blow up mountains for coal

AFP via Yahoo ^ | 06/19/08 | Caroline Groussain and Virginie Montet

[Eric in the Ozarks]

The 1977 Federal Surface Mining law required approximate original contour and stringent water runoff monitoring through ponds and similar structures.
Having worked in mining under this law, I can tell you its no picnic and I don't understand how mountaintop removal continues today.

[gracesdad]

“Yes. But in 1977 Congress passed a little law called the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act, which compels mining companies to put the mountains back in the same shape as they found them after all the coal is mined.”

Companies are taking off the top 500 to 1,000 feet of these mountains. It is absolutely IMPOSSIBLE to return them to their original condition. They ARE supposed to leave a flat area with no highwalls, but they don’t come close to restoring the mountain.

The stripmining you’re talking about is just a little dig compared to this.

[JohnBovenmyer]

Mostly the French dump their nuclear waste back into their reactors. The stuff they need to store, nationwide, all fits in one room in Le Harvre (per Imprimis in the past year or two.) Per an exec order by Pres. Peanutbrain we aren't allowed to reprocess our own nuclear waste, thus the alleged need for Yucca Mountain. Carter cited national security as the reason for his exec order. Given that he was complicit in the NK bomb and seems to be pushing for the Islamic Republic he created to also get the bomb national security would be better served by allowing reprocessing nuclear fuel and just outlawing Carter!

[Publius6961]

I always have to smile when the French volunteer to give any other country advice.
The good news is a few generations from now, they will be simply another irrelevant, ugly violent muslim third-world backwater, albeit with pretty parks and palaces.

I have spent a lot of time in France, since Nixon was vilified in the ubiquitous graffiti, primarily in the big cities, where their self-created cancer grows best.

The French reliance on nuclear energy is a central issue here, as is the fact that France has no useable coal deposits to speak of so, naturally, arrogance (as if needed for the French) comes quite naturally.

There are always malcontents in every country, in all contexts, and in all time periods.

How many of the critics are local? How many are recent imports?

How did the locals survive the last 150 years? what alternatives did they choose for themselves to make a living? How creative are (were) they? How many have been on welfare for generations?

Is none of that relevant?

Being preached at by the French is always an experience that causes me to just smile and snicker.

We have our own culture of professional, parasitic whiners, thankyouverymuch!

[JohnBovenmyer]

Take the removed mountain tops and ship them downstream to dump as fill on New Orleans. Continue as needed until the latter is safely above Hurricane level. The lower 9th ward should have been left unoccupied until such was finished.

[TigersEye]

Rescind Bill Clinton’s EO and move coal mining to Utah. Let Kentuckians enjoy their hills without the burden of a major industry there.

[snarks_when_bored]

Jimmy Carter: the gift that keeps on stinking up the place...

[Amadeo]

France dumps it’s nuclear waste in the Pacific Ocean.

[Flying Circus]

They don’t really have to dump much, they can recycle it. The US on the other hand has tons and tons of the stuff because, by executive order standing since Jimmy Carter, we can’t recycle nuclear waste.