Good News for Appalachia: EPA Puts Hold on Mountaintop Coal Mining

The Obama Administration is taking a second look at the destructive practice of mining coal by removing entire mountaintops in places like West Virginia and Kentucky.

Here's the AP report:

The Environmental Protection Agency is putting on hold hundreds of mountaintop coal-mining permits until it can evaluate the projects' impacts on streams and wetlands.

The decision was announced Tuesday by EPA administrator Lisa Jackson. It targets a controversial practice by coal mining companies that dump waste from mountaintop mining into streams and wetlands.

Anybody who has driven through the Southern Appalachian coal fields (as we have) can see the massive environmental damage caused by mountaintop removal. This is a good move, one that's long overdue.