Church groups urge congregants to write to Congress to stop mountaintopmining.
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A majority of voters in four Appalachian states want their water protected and disapprove of mountaintopmining.
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In mountaintopmining, companies blast the tops of hills with dynamite to get to the coal seams.
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Left: Before mountaintopmining the Appalachian mountains in southern West Virginia were covered by a temperate hardwood rain forest.
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The devastation of mountaintopmining, which began in earnest in the 1990s, is impossible to miss from the air.
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Appalachian mines are producing more coal than ever -but mountaintopmining operations employ far fewer people than traditional shaft mining.
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Stream protection - The Interior Department spent years crafting this rule to limit waste running into streams from mountaintopmining removal.
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Scott said the move would likely benefit mining companies, like Consol Energy Inc, that have low-cost underground operations as opposed to mountaintopmining.
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In mountaintopmining, companies blow up sharp Appalachian peaks across Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee with explosives to get to the coal seams below.