An Appalachian Alternative to Mountaintop Removal Coal Mines

Reader Contribution by Lindsay Mcnamara
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In the last 30 years, the coal industry in West Virginia has increased production by 140 percent while eliminating more than 40,000 jobs.  Alternatively, the wind industry in the United States. already operates more than 35,000 turbines, and employs 85,000 people — a number equal to those employed by the coal industry. One of the best solutions for high poverty rates in Appalachia, especially central Appalachia, is to phase out mountaintop removal (MTR) coal mining. This solution will eliminate a variety of problems in the region.  MTR coal mining has ruined land that would otherwise be suitable for viable agriculture, sustainable forest products and other economic developments. Although the coal industry frequently boasts of MTR improving land for other uses, only about 10 percent of former MTR sites have been converted to anything besides a barren area of rock.Another issue with MTR coal mining is its impact on county tax revenues through
absentee land ownership. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, railroad
companies bought immense amounts of surface and mineral rights from local
mountaineers. According to the last study of land ownership patterns in

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