Background Information
50% of U.S. electricity comes from the burning of coal. There are varying grades of coal with the older coal containing the most BTUs (energy). In the U.S., most of the older, better grade coal has already been mined out via conventional mining methods, leaving the lower-grade coal of which more is needed in order to get the same amount of energy. More than likely, the electricity that powers your home is linked to Appalachian-mined coal.
Environmental Devastation
Mountaintop removal coal mining does exactly what it says, removing entire mountaintops in order to extract the coal within. There are less invasive ways to mine but mountaintop removal is the cheapest. In addition, when entire mountaintops are removed, the debris must go somewhere so mining companies have dumped it into nearby streams. In Appalachia, over 500 square miles of mountain ranges have been destroyed and close to 2000 miles of streams have been buried by mountaintop removal coal mining. It took over 300 million years to make the Appalachian mountains. Mountaintop removal coal mining can destroy a mountain and its ecosystem in just one year.
The Poor and Communities of Color Bear the Burden
Our nation's dependence on coal disproportionately impacts the poor and communities of color at all phases of energy production, from its extraction via mountaintop removal to the toxic wastes generated by burning.
While the rest of the United States benefits by cheap coal and thus electricity, the environment, economy and culture of Appalachia is being ruined. Already a poorer area for historical reasons, the massive export of cheap coal for the benefit of the rest of the nation and at the expense of Appalachia perpetuates inequity across generations.
This inequity is true not just for Appalachian mining but also for communities surrounding the coal-burning. power plants across the nation. According to testimony by Lisa Evans, an attorney for the nonprofit, public interest law firm EarthJustice, "Low-income communities and people of color shoulder a disproportionate share of the health risks from these wastes. The poverty rate of people living within one mile of coal combustion waste disposal sites is twice as high as the national average, and the percentage of non-white populations within one mile is 30 percent higher than the national average. Similarly high poverty rates are found in 118 of the 120 coal-producing counties, where CCW [coal combustion waste] increasingly are being disposed of in unlined, under-regulated mines, often directly into groundwater."
For more information contact environment @ uua.org.
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Last updated on Friday, August 19, 2011.
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