No Surprise Why Mountain Top Mining Continues

Last week, a group of scientists warned that Mountain Top Mining (MTM) in parts of Kentucky, Virginia and West Virginia is having a “pervasive and irreversible” effect on the environment and urged a ban on the practice. And last month, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) issued a report highlighting the environmental damage of MTM. And, in more ways than one, it isn’t pretty.

The GAO’s findings include that regulators gave mining companies permission to dump 2.15 billion cubic yards of spoil, the rock and dirt left over from MTM operations, into nearly 1,500 different sites in Eastern Kentucky between 2000 and 2008. Regulators also gave permission for mining companies to dump 2.7 billion yards of waste at 500 sites in West Virginia. The report found that the number of mining permits issued from January 1990 through July 2008 grew from 378,000 to 778,000. The report gives credence to what activists and environmentalists have long been saying — that mountain-top mining is disastrous to the environment.

The coal mining industry has long had powerful friends on Capitol Hill. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, the coal mining industry has contributed at least $22 million to members of Congress since 1990. Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), the Republican minority leader, has long been a big supporter of the coal mining industry and the coal industry has been a big support of him, having donated more than $240,000 to the senator since 2005.

In 2000, when the Architect of the Capitol considered switching the plant’s fuel from coal to a cleaner and more efficient fuel source, both Sen. McConnell and Sen. Robert Byrd (D-WV), another coal-state senator, objected. This change wasn’t made until February 2009, when Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Majority leader Harry Reid sent a letter to the Architect of the Capitol urging that the plant be switched to natural gas by year’s end. But even Sen. Byrd is changing his position about the coal mining industry, which he recently called “rapacious” — he favors a middle ground between the status quo and an outright ban on MTM.

Another Kentucky politician with cozy ties to the coal mining industry is Rep. Hal Rogers (R-KY). Rep. Rogers represents the 5th district, which is a portion of east Kentucky including more than 10,000 square miles of coal fields. Since 1989, the industry has been the largest contributor to Rep. Rogers with a total of $290,000. Rep. Rogers also voted against the American Clean Energy and Security Act because, in his view, it takes “dead aim at coal.”

Rep, Nick Rahall (D-WV), another coal country lawmaker, is such an enthusiastic supporter of the coal mining industry that he even jumped out of a plane to prove it. Rep. Rahall’s jump was part of a coal industry sponsored event, the Friends of Coal Auto Fair. Rep. Rahall’s enthusiasm for the industry does not end there. Last summer he voted against the American Clean Energy and Security Act, because of its potential effect on the coal industry. Since 1998, the coal mining industry has donated at least $90,000 to Rep. Rahall.

Perhaps it is not a coincidence that counties in both Reps. Rogers and Rahall’s districts have the highest concentration of open permits for surface mining and that mining activity has become more concentrated in fewer counties. So it’s no wonder with friends like these that the coal mining industry gets its way on Capitol Hill and with regulators.

This post was submitted by CREW research associate Zachary Dagneau