Nothing Will Be Left

The mining companies are cutting off the tops of mountains in Appalachia to reach coal-rich areas. Now one would think that was not so much of a big-deal - unless one lived in a hollow (the small valleys inbetween the mountains) and saw what lack of a mountain top does to the rest of the area - just little things like the woods and the streams and the meadows. There have been studies done on the damage to the environment; however, the environmentally-challenged administration has other ideas.

From today's New York Times (you can read the article by clicking on the title of this entry):

Last month, the Bush administration demonstrated just how regal King Coal remains when it issued a long-delayed report on mountaintop removal that callously announced that "these expensive studies" on damages to the countryside have become too "exorbitant" to be continued.

That's right: the Department of Interior bureaucracy, stacked with key political appointees from the mining industry, would bury the mountaintop abuses and complaints like so much slag under the government's deficit-bloated budget.

Now why am I so upset about this bit of Bush Boondoggling? My parents once owned 100 acres of mountain top and "hollar" in West Virginia - I spent many days there enjoying nature and the quiet. My daughter spent her summers there, learning about simple joys. I am so glad my poarent are not alive to see there paradise routined by corporate greed.

Can ANYONE say "solar engergy" - "wind energy"??? ANYONE?