Comments on: New EPA Rules Clamp Down on Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2010/04/02/new-epa-rules-clamp-down-on-mountaintop-removal-coal-mining/ Mon, 22 Apr 2013 21:34:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.4.2 By: rabidmob http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2010/04/02/new-epa-rules-clamp-down-on-mountaintop-removal-coal-mining/#comment-17682 rabidmob Mon, 05 Apr 2010 08:16:50 +0000 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/?p=12888#comment-17682 "the EPA will set a standard level for permissible mining runoff allowed to reach waterways, and if a mining project is expected to exceed five times that number" Brilliantly bureaucratic! So if it only is only projected exceed by 4 times it can go ahead. I'd also expect the projections to be inaccurate. “the EPA will set a standard level for permissible mining runoff allowed to reach waterways, and if a mining project is expected to exceed five times that number”

Brilliantly bureaucratic! So if it only is only projected exceed by 4 times it can go ahead.

I’d also expect the projections to be inaccurate.

]]> By: Doug Watts http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2010/04/02/new-epa-rules-clamp-down-on-mountaintop-removal-coal-mining/#comment-17681 Doug Watts Sun, 04 Apr 2010 05:00:01 +0000 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/?p=12888#comment-17681 What is not reported here is that these coal operations are completely exempted from the provisions of the Clean Water Act that apply to you if you have a tiny brook in our backyard. If these coal mining operations were subjected to the same CWA standards which apply to a residential subdivision they could not even exist. What is not reported here is that these coal operations are completely exempted from the provisions of the Clean Water Act that apply to you if you have a tiny brook in our backyard. If these coal mining operations were subjected to the same CWA standards which apply to a residential subdivision they could not even exist.

]]> By: scott http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2010/04/02/new-epa-rules-clamp-down-on-mountaintop-removal-coal-mining/#comment-17680 scott Sat, 03 Apr 2010 14:54:22 +0000 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/?p=12888#comment-17680 Good. It's time for some forms of environmental "extremism" on issues like this. Otherwise, left to the corporations and execs, there would be nothing left. People and corporations need oversight and constraints. Without it/them, they will just ravaged everything. Dump, bury, fill, burn whatever they can to increase profits. If we could do the W Bush thing and "just trust that they will do the right thing" then that would be great...but we can't, so we need to step in with power and shut them down or regulate them into submission or closure. It's no different than having police to control speeding, or have guards protecting Rhinos from poaching, or signs on a highway warning of fines if you throw out your empty KFC chicken bucket. Left alone, many people will just scrape everything down to nothing. Even animal populations can do this in the wild, take over an environment, but nature sets limits...so until some natural catastrophy occures, we need government oversight to protect the environment. As for those who will complain about job loss...well, its going to run out soon anyway (there are only so many mountains) and something else will have to be done (for work) then. Now is the same as then....what, maybe 50 years from now? In geologic/universal time it's insignificant, so it's the same. Good. It’s time for some forms of environmental “extremism” on issues like this. Otherwise, left to the corporations and execs, there would be nothing left.

People and corporations need oversight and constraints. Without it/them, they will just ravaged everything. Dump, bury, fill, burn whatever they can to increase profits. If we could do the W Bush thing and “just trust that they will do the right thing” then that would be great…but we can’t, so we need to step in with power and shut them down or regulate them into submission or closure.

It’s no different than having police to control speeding, or have guards protecting Rhinos from poaching, or signs on a highway warning of fines if you throw out your empty KFC chicken bucket. Left alone, many people will just scrape everything down to nothing. Even animal populations can do this in the wild, take over an environment, but nature sets limits…so until some natural catastrophy occures, we need government oversight to protect the environment.

As for those who will complain about job loss…well, its going to run out soon anyway (there are only so many mountains) and something else will have to be done (for work) then. Now is the same as then….what, maybe 50 years from now? In geologic/universal time it’s insignificant, so it’s the same.

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