Yet 23 years later, the legal requirement for mining operations to restore topography has not been enforced. The coal companies simply apply for a variance from the AOC rule, claiming that the flat lands they create are actually a form of development, a wildlife opening. Although reclaimed sites are barely able to support nonnative grasses and the occasional stunted pine hybrid, this weak logic has been used to justify the burial of hundreds of miles of streams. To understand mountaintop mining, one must understand the history of corporate plunder in the Appalachians. Just as coal companies once forced their workers to shop at the company store, the companies now try to convince Appalachian citizens that ecological destruction is the only economic option.
Tourism brings much more money to West Virginia than coal mining.
High mountain ridges are suited for harnessing wind power, not for building vast parking lots. Sustainable forestry practices can supply high-quality oak and maple over generations and can sustain communities. Yet the companies and many politicians refuse to consider the inevitable post-coal economy. To reject the wholesale destruction of the mountains and to embrace in a better way of life is our challenge. Although the region has witnessed the rise, fall, and the final spasm of King Coal, the mountains need a voice.