As Massey Energy Blasts West Virginia's Coal River Mountain, a Debate on Mountaintop Removal Mining

Thursday, November 5, 2009 :There have been a number of recent developments around the controversial practice of mountaintop removal coal mining, wherein coal companies remove the tops of mountains with explosives. Last week, the Obama administration indicated it will not immediately cancel Bush-era changes to a rule protecting streams from mountaintop removal mining. The move came as groups opposed to mountaintop removal mining organized nationwide sit-ins demanding EPA intervention to stop the blasting of Coal River Mountain in West Virginia, which Massey Energy began dynamiting last week. We host a debate between journalist and mountaintop removal critic Jeff Biggers and Carol Raulston of the National Mining Association.