Meanings of mountaintop mining in English

Church groups urge congregants to write to Congress to stop mountaintop mining.

A majority of voters in four Appalachian states want their water protected and disapprove of mountaintop mining.

In mountaintop mining, companies blast the tops of hills with dynamite to get to the coal seams.

Left: Before mountaintop mining the Appalachian mountains in southern West Virginia were covered by a temperate hardwood rain forest.

The devastation of mountaintop mining, which began in earnest in the 1990s, is impossible to miss from the air.

Appalachian mines are producing more coal than ever -but mountaintop mining operations employ far fewer people than traditional shaft mining.

Stream protection - The Interior Department spent years crafting this rule to limit waste running into streams from mountaintop mining removal.

Scott said the move would likely benefit mining companies, like Consol Energy Inc, that have low-cost underground operations as opposed to mountaintop mining.

In mountaintop mining, companies blow up sharp Appalachian peaks across Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee with explosives to get to the coal seams below.