My home town after hilltop removal but my father called it strip mining because it removed all of the top layers of plants and earth to get at the coal. John Denver called West Virginia almost heaven but I wonder what he would call my home town now?
The smooth spots are where the trees and top soil have been removed. At one point in history a young girl would climb an apple tree and eat apples during the summer but there are no trees there any longer. Closer to a small stream was a large black berry patch where you could eat black berries all day long but the stream and the black berry patch are also no longer there because everything was removed to get at the coal. The hills were a blaze with color in the fall but the hills and the homes at the base of those hills were removed to get at the coal. When some people say you can’t go home any more they are talking about it not feeling the same but in my case home was removed from the face of the earth once and for all time.
Colorado is now facing the same system of removing coal shell from its mountain tops but what price are they will to pay to provide our country with a form of energy that will not last long and can not be replaced in the future. Renewable Energy does not destroy peoples homes and the environment.
So Senator McCain exactly what does all of the above mean to our environment when it comes to energy independents?
