"What This Rule Change Amounts To Is A Declaration Of War Against the Appalachian People": Opponents of Mountaintop Removal

The regulation was drafted by the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement. If enacted, coal operators would be exempt from a 1983 law that prohibits surface coal-mining activities from disturbing areas within 100 feet of streams.

Environmental activists say the rule was ignored for years and has already caused two thousand miles of streams to be permanently polluted. They warn that the rule change will only accelerate the pillage of vast tracts of land in central Appalachia and hasten the annihilation of perennial streams. Friends of the Earth President Brent Blackwelder called the proposed rule "a disgrace."

• Vernon Haltom, co-director of Coal River Mountain Watch, which is an Appalachian grassroots organization fighting for social and environmental justice for people living near mountaintop removal sites.