A group of the nation’s leading environmental scientists is calling on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to stop issuing new mountaintop mining permits, arguing that the ecological and human health costs of the controversial mining practice are “pervasive and irreversible.” 

The group of scientists published the first comprehensive assessment of the ecological and health impacts of mountaintop removal mining today in the journal Science, describing how the impacts of current and former mountaintop removal operations will be felt for centuries, with major implications for water quality, biodiversity, and human health.  Shockingly, there’s never been a comprehensive assessment of MTR impacts until now.

Published only a few days after the Obama EPA misguidedly approved the expansion of Hobet 45, part of the largest mountaintop removal coal mine in West Virginia, the paper concludes that mountaintop removal’s impacts are much too steep to justify.  The authors’ analysis of peer-reviewed research unequivocally confirms irreversible environmental impacts from mountaintop removal, a practice that also exposes local residents to a greater risk of serious health problems.

Filmaker David Novack never set out to make a film about the American coal industry, but he couldn't help himself after he witnessed first hand what coal was doing our health and environment.

I first met Novack a couple of years back when I was planning a new project called Coal is Clean/Coai is Dirty. Novack was just putting the finishing touches on his film Burning the Future: Coal in America and he was kind enough to provide me with some footage I could use for my project.

I knew coal was bad in so many ways: increased asthma rates in kids, Mercury in breast milk, smog, climate change, mountain top removal, and the list goes on. But what Novack's done with this film is bring the human voice to the dirty coal story. He makes it so real that you can't help but get angry and want to do something about it.

Burning the Future is the Inconvenient Truth of the American coal industry and anyone who sees it will walk away with a seething passion to fight the coal industry and wail away at the "clean coal" propaganda machine.

The Reality Campaign launched a hilarious new ad directed by the Coen brothers pointing out how empty and ridiculous the coal indsutry's "clean coal" propaganda campaign is.

Enjoy! And pass it on to your friends for a good laugh.

Did you know that a typical coal power plant in the United States will emit 3.7 million tons of carbon dioxide, 10,000 tons of sulfur dioxide and 10,200 tons of nitrogen oxide this year?

I came across a great "top ten" list assembled by the Union of Concerned Scientists that paints a very clear picture of the major pollutants still being emitted by the US coal power generation industry.

I've made it into a static reference page on DeSmogBlog, you can click here to go the page: Facts on the Pollution caused by the US Coal Industry.

You can also download a PDF version of the fact sheet here: Facts on the Pollution caused by the US Coal Industry (PDF Version)

The Union of Concerned Scientists has released a report today outlining the considerable risks associated with so-called "clean coal" and carbon capture and storage technology (pdf.)

Clean coal has been a persistent theme throughout the US election, with presidential candidates on both sides of the political ledger touting the message that coal is somehow clean. As coal industry commentator and author Jeff Goodell puts it best: 

Clean coal" is not an actual invention, a physical thing – it is an advertising slogan. Like "fat-free donuts" or "interest-free loans."