The most powerful argument that I can make against coal relates to mountaintop removal mining (MTR). This process, in which miners literally blow the tops off of mountains and deposit the debris in the valleys below, has devastating environmental and public health consequences.
MTR often pollutes local drinking water sources with heavy metals that can cause cancer, birth defects, and neurological disorders. Waste products are held in impoundments that are often poorly constructed; failures have caused death, injury, property damage and environmental devastation.
Though MTR is common across Appalachia, Hokies are lucky to be pretty much removed from it. But I urge you to consider how you would feel if you never knew whether your water was clean for drinking or if the air around you was free from contaminants. Would you feel safe if you knew there was a waste impoundment just down the road filled with millions of gallons of toxic coal sludge? If it’s not okay to have an MTR site in our backyard, it shouldn’t be okay to have one anywhere.
Energy is our generation’s challenge. I urge President Charles Steger to be a leader in clean energy and commit to moving off of coal by 2020. The administration should work with the Virginia Tech Beyond Coal campaign to immediately commission a taskforce to research energy alternatives. Other schools, like SUNY-Binghamton and Cornell, have made similar commitments. Our school needs to live up to its motto, “Ut Prosim,” by serving as a clean energy leader and supporting the well being of Appalachia.
Sarah Grant
Sophomore
Communication
A version of this article appeared in the Mar 4 issue of the Collegiate Times.
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MTR only accounts for ~10% of the coal we mine. If you are so upset by the practice, then by all means write to your legislators on the state and national level. Prez. Steger cannot end the practice and it is not in the budget to VT to get off the grid.
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