Saturday, June 14, 2003

"Flyover Festival" in Eastern KY stimulates debate over mountaintop mining

The Louisville Courier-Journal cites a range of differing views on mountaintop mining in this article describing today's "Flyover Festival" in Southeastern Kentucky, which features small plane flights over mountaintop mining areas. The range of views includes those of some environmentalists, who apparently are opposed to all means of mining (and possibly all means of generating power).

I enjoy the mountains, but I don't understand people who say, like a man quoted in the article, that coal is "not good for the environment, it's not good for the economy, it's not good for the community and it's not good for people." People who talk like that seem to be saying life would be better if we all lived in the cold and the dark, since half or more of the power generated in the U.S. comes from coal, if I understand this data from FERC.

No comments: