Source:
nytThe Environmental Protection Agency issued tough new water quality guidelines on Thursday that could curtail some of the most contentious coal mining techniques used across Appalachia.
In announcing the guidelines, Lisa P. Jackson, the agency’s administrator, cited evolving science on the effects of mountaintop removal mining, an aggressive form of coal extraction that uses explosives and vast machinery to tear off hilltops to expose coal seams, dumping the resulting rubble into streams and valleys below. The goal of the new rules, Ms. Jackson said, is to prevent “significant and irreversible damage” to Appalachian watersheds.
“Let me be clear,” Ms. Jackson said during a phone call with reporters. “This is not about ending coal mining. This is about ending coal mining pollution.”
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http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/02/science/earth/02coal.html?hp=&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1270160585-Cgyb4m2X/9UkAT4mQJ47LA
Prez O seems to know that there's more than one way to skin a cat!