EPA Stripping Would Give Dirty Coal The Upper Hand

There is a war going on but it is not in some far off country, submersed in a misunderstood culture.  This war is happening on our own soil, or our soon to be lack-there-of.  This war is called Mountain Top Removal (aka surface mining.), a practice in which the soil and rocks of the earth surface are removed in order to extract minerals and in the case of the Appalachia, this mineral is coal.

What is left after this practice is a desert.  There is no soil to sustain the ecosystem that once existed here.   This was a landscape so special that it was capable of growing plants otherwise not seen in the US.  The unique terrain makes it ill-fitted for large scale mono-cultures but perfectly suited for small scale farms that could empower the people of Appalachia and cut off the confinements of corporate dependence.  We have suddenly lost this sustainable, agriculturally viable zone capable of vast permaculture practices that would provide and protect the environment. For what?