Foreign Policy Blogs

"Appalachia's Agony"

That’s the title of the editorial from yesterday’s “NY Times” about The Crime of Mountaintop Removal Mining.  I’ve been writing about this travesty for nearly a year here.  My concern was triggered by this truly outstanding documentary, Burning the Future: Coal in America, and meeting the filmmaker and having him in my climate change class.

The Times is clear from the outset of this impassioned editorial:  “The longstanding disgrace of mountaintop mining is now squarely in President Obama’s hands.”  The Army Corps of Engineers and the EPA are under a new administration and thus the President is in a position, now, to reverse the scandalous misfeasance of these agencies on this score.  There is no reason to wait.  The people of Appalachia have been raising their voices on this for years and it is high time that the government that represents them listened to them and heard their message.

450-kayford-mtn

(For more stunning photos like these from Vivian Stockman, go here.)

 

Author

Bill Hewitt

Bill Hewitt has been an environmental activist and professional for nearly 25 years. He was deeply involved in the battle to curtail acid rain, and was also a Sierra Club leader in New York City. He spent 11 years in public affairs for the NY State Department of Environmental Conservation, and worked on environmental issues for two NYC mayoral campaigns and a presidential campaign. He is a writer and editor and is the principal of Hewitt Communications. He has an M.S. in international affairs, has taught political science at Pace University, and has graduate and continuing education classes on climate change, sustainability, and energy and the environment at The Center for Global Affairs at NYU. His book, "A Newer World - Politics, Money, Technology, and What’s Really Being Done to Solve the Climate Crisis," will be out from the University Press of New England in December.



Areas of Focus:
the policy, politics, science and economics of environmental protection, sustainability, energy and climate change

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