annnnnd! You forgot wet sludge ponds in Appalachia form the coal cleaning process. You got all the heavy metals plus the chemicals used in seperating the soil, clay from the coal. Some of the MTR's and stripping is even being done on federal flood control projects in Appalachia. The Corps of Engineers let them strip the watershed area of the Fishtrap Dam in Pike County Ky..

Most of the coal and a lot of the coal corporations are owned by out of state interest. The people of Ky. and W.Va. get very little money generated back into the local economy.

The eons of time and nature was good to us down here. It was not until we become civilized that destroying our habitat become fathomable or fashionable.

I'm not even sure where to start... there is a whole lot wrong with a campaign that sings the praises of coal and how it's mined.  Thank you Steve and Scott for both the thoughtful piece and the firm stance on this issue.  Who on earth is that clean coal campaign targeted to?  Are there actually people who are unsure if coal is good or bad -- and don't realize there are alternatives?  I don't disagree that coal had it's place in our history and served a purpose at one time, but we have come an awfully long way since then.  So many people and companies are making great strides with their use of alternative energy -- even in the absense of a cap on emissions.  Why?  Because in a lot of cases it makes good business sense.  We use renewable energy at our factory and distribution centers, and in most of those cases we're saving money.  I think as big business realizes that there is real, bottom-line value in being environmentally responsible, the coal industry will have no choice but to innovate its own practices.

Robin Giampa
Timberland

I fear that any national legislative effort to enact cap and trade, or any meaningful climate legislation is going to be sabotaged by US representatives and senators from states such as Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Pennsylvania, and Michigan ie the old Rust Belt - regardless of  party affiliation.  

They are so petrified in fear that climate legislation will drive another nail into their economic coffins, that they will resist any meaningful climate legislation.

In the Rust Belt, all the calendars lie. From the elite to the street, there is a palatable desire to return to the good old days of factories belching smoke from coal. These are states not only of the union, but of nostalgia. I sometimes think that what we have is not a problem of economics or politics, it is a problem of culture and a deficit of imagination. Reasoned arguments on why green jobs will result from getting off the fossil fuel fix, will fall on deaf ears. Such arguments seem like pie in the sky to the populace of this region. They don't know wind and solar. They know coal, and will stick to what they know because their backs are against the wall.

Bet on it. The Rust Belt will join the Republicans and will sink climate legislation, once again.

Randy Cunningham
Cleveland, OH

Randy Cunningham

There are good reasons even my 4 year old daughter fears coal in her stocking on Christmas morning...