New Report: End mountaintop removal to benefit the economy

This week the Sierra Club and the Appalachian Center for the Economy and the Environment released a new report by Synapse Energy Economics that reaffirmed what many coalfield residents have known for years: mountaintop removal coal mining hurts Appalachia's economy more than it helps it.

The United States can have affordable electricity without mountaintop removal, the report shows, because multiple factors contribute to the cost of electricity, and the price of coal is just one component.

According to the report, and other recent reports on mountaintop removal:

Ending mountaintop removal would have a negligible effect on electricity prices in the eastern United States, where mountaintop removal coal is currently burned. The actual impact on electricity markets of an increase in the price of coal coming out of Appalachia would vary in different regions depending on whether the wholesale electricity markets have been deregulated, but in no case would the impact be significant. 

We have an abundance of cost-effective alternatives to mountaintop removal coal. The availability and low-cost of these alternatives – including energy efficiency, renewable sources such as wind power – would also minimize any impact on electricity prices from restricting mountaintop removal.

Other types of mining in Appalachia actually employ more workers than mountaintop removal. Per ton of production, deep mining employs more miners than mountaintop removal and other forms of surface mining. While the highly mechanized process of mountaintop removal mining has expanded over the last decade, the number of coal mining jobs in Appalachia has decreased.

Mountaintop removal coal mining costs state budgets more than it generates. A recent study concluded that coal mining costs Kentucky taxpayers more than it brings into the state – a net loss of more than $100 million annually. The costs include: increased road expenditures, operating mining-specific health and safety systems, supporting training and research and development for the industry, and various tax-breaks and subsidies. This estimate does not include healthcare costs, loss of home values, and the need for water treatment.

Mountaintop removal destroys clean energy sources. Appalachia can only tap the power of clean energy – such as wind, small-scale hydropower, and other sustainable industries – if the mountaintops and valleys that support these resources remain intact. These renewable resources offer Appalachia the opportunity to diversify the rural and regional economies, and to create high-paying local jobs that will remain as long as the wind blows and the sun shines. Clean water is also vital to a thriving clean energy economy, and mountaintop removal has already buried close to 2,000 miles of Appalachian streams and waterways beneath piles of toxic waste and debris.

This timely report comes as the Army Corps of Engineers holds public hearings around Appalachia to decide whether the so-called "nationwide permit" for strip mining should continue.  This one-size-fits-all permit never should have applied to mountaintop removal coal mining, which is devastating to waterways and communities.

The coal industry is supplying its activists with misinformation about coal and the economy, but this new study shows that clean energy is the way forward for America and Appalachia.

To access the complete report and accompanying analysis, visit this site.