Environment & Energy
Related: About this forumShitstain Wants To Stripmine Cumberland Plateau, Protected At State's Request, For Coal No One Wants
LAFOLLETTE, TennesseeEven as the nation's demand for coal tumbles, the Trump administration is considering a permit that would allow strip mining on protected ridgelines in Tennessee's Cumberland Plateau over the objection of environmental groups and the state's Republican attorney general. The wild, scenic terrain is within 75,000 acres designated, at the state's behest, as unsuitable for surface coal mining in 2016 by the Obama administration's Office of Surface Mining and Reclamation, the agency responsible for regulating coal mining in the state.
Senior Assistant Attorney General Elizabeth McCarter said in an October letter to the Trump administration that the federal designation prohibits surface mining on protected ridgelines in what is now the North Cumberland Wildlife Management Area, even though a mining company with mineral rights in the area had recently obtained surface rights from the state to 150 protected acres.
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"Fossil fuel has had its day," said Tom Chadwell, who lives with his wife, Rita, on land he inherited about three miles from the proposed new Triple H surface mine. He's the principal of a local elementary school. Evidence of strip mining is all around, in the form of flattened land, exposed rock and streams that are "virtually dead" from repeated cycles of logging and mining. But the ridgelines that were protected in 2016 are beautiful and worth saving, he said.
"This area has given its due over and over again, in terms of deep and surface mining," he said, adding that it is time for a less damaging economy. The push for more mining is being driven by "nostalgia," he said. "They see it as a possible path toward the riches of the past, but a lot of people never made a lot of money."
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https://insideclimatenews.org/news/12022020/tennessee-coal-mining-trump-administration-cumberland-plateau
CaptYossarian
(6,448 posts)He will go that far.
Docreed2003
(16,869 posts)Pointless environmental destruction...just disgusting.
mountain grammy
(26,644 posts)Thats trump for ya.