Coal

Reader comment on: Obama and Climate Change

Submitted by hebintn (United States), Jun 7, 2011 10:18

The fact is that our dependence on fossil fuel is not going to go away overnight. The President must set policy that discourages more dependence fossil and encourage everything possible in the alternatives realm. Like it or not coal will be part of our energy package for a few more years, but the source and method of extraction is what many of us, treehuggers, take issue with. Mountaintop removal in Appalachian mountains is a cheaper way to extract coal, but is devastating to the land, water, and air. This method of mining must be stopped while there are still a few mountains left that have not been leveled. Whether you care about mountains or not we all drink water. In this area much of that water comes from the Appalachian watershed and it has been documented that runoff from surface mines is contaminated to the point of causing die off of wild species and deformed fish. I don't want my grand children drinking such water. The EPA's position is that we can have coal and maintain the environment and human safety.

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