Bill Raney, president of the West Virginia Coal Association, defended his group's previous positions on mountaintop removal's importance to the industry. Raney said that any business would consider a 10 percent cut in revenue significant, just as any worker would think a 10 percent pay cut was a big pay cut. Mountaintop removal blasts off entire hilltops to uncover valuable low-sulfur coal seams. Leftover rock and earth is dumped into nearby valleys, burying streams. All surface mining accounts for about one-third of West Virginia's annual coal production.
Most coal produced in the state comes from large underground mines.
No one knows exactly how much of that one-third comes from mountaintop removal mines. Industry officials and regulators argue over exactly what constitutes a mountaintop removal mine under the law. A federal court lawsuit filed by the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy is trying to rein in mountaintop removal. Lawyers are close to settling most of the issues in that suit. But a judge will still decide a crucial issue over whether valley fills must be limited to much smaller creeks under the federal 100-foot stream buffer zone rule.