U.S. May Trash Coal Policy (will encourage mountaintop mining)

[Dover]

This is from a compilation of short wire reports. If anyone has a longer and more detailed version of this story, please post it here.

http://www.statesman.com/news/content/auto/epaper/editions/thursday/news_f3dfe08e402b41780088.html

U.S. may trash coal policy

The Bush administration proposed scrapping a policy that restricts how closely companies can mine for coal near streams, but environmentalists say the move would encourage mountaintop mining, a highly efficient but destructive way of obtaining coal. In the proposed rule, coal operators must instead prevent damage to streams "to the extent possible, using the best technology currently available."

___________________

It amazes and disturbs me that the GOP is so confident in Bush's re-election that they can continue such aggressive and environmentally disasterous policies in an election year. What do they know that we don't?

Blowing up mountains to extract coal is one of THE most heinous crimes against the environment in existence.

[DarkPhenyx]

1. I was born in West Virginia...

...and spent a lot of formative time there. My family came stragith out of the coal towns there-in. The coal mines destroyed the streams in WV. Anyone who ever fished there in the "early years" knows jsut how dead the streams are now. I agree...it's criminal!

[spinbaby]

6. WV voted for Bush

I live in southwestern PA near WV. Before the election there were many rumors floating through coal country that "Gore is going to shut down mining." The Repugs spread the word that the "librul" Democratic environmentalists are going to shut down coal and then proceed to rape the environment mining coal. And most of the miners have lost their jobs anyway.

Grrrr....

[sam sarrha]

2. Type in' Alex Gabbard' .and .'Coal combustion'..and 'uranium coal burning'

in 1982 alone 801 TONS of Uranium was released by coal burning, I think that amounts to about over a ton of U238, enough for dozens of reactor fuel loadings.. a typical plant burns 11,000 tons of coal a day releasing 88 pounds of radioactive material a day.

The worst part of of the story is not the radiation, but the DEADLY TOXICITY of Uranium. One of the heaviest of the heavy metals. is this related to the epidemic of cancer ever increasing.. soon 1 in 3 people will get cancer.. and the drug companies dont try to find cures, only drugs that will maintain the condition, in effect charging you rent for "life", miss a payment or get dropped by your insurance.. you die.

[treepig]

4. uranium is over 99% U238

so that means that of 801 TONS of uranium, 795 tons or so will be U238.

in any event your point is exactly valid that buring coal releases orders of magnitude more radioactivity into the environment than commercial nuclear power generation (for example) - check out this article:

http://www.ornl.gov/info/ornlreview/rev26-34/text/colmain.html

Based on the predicted combustion of 2516 million tons of coal in the United States and 12,580 million tons worldwide during the year 2040, cumulative releases for the 100 years of coal combustion following 1937 are predicted to be:


U.S. release (from combustion of 111,716 million tons):
Uranium: 145,230 tons (containing 1031 tons of uranium-235)

Thorium: 357,491 tons

Worldwide release (from combustion of 637,409 million tons):

Uranium: 828,632 tons (containing 5883 tons of uranium-235)

Thorium: 2,039,709 tons

for comparison purposes, the amount of uranium released in iraq through weapons use that everyone's screaming about is 320 tons - or about 0.04% that's been released through coal burning in the USA - where's the outrage?

[dusty64]

3. They will stop at nothing.

:kick:

[htuttle]

5. Cutting the tops off mountains

What's the opposite of feng shui?

Sauron has nothing on these people...