Mountaintop Removal Research Paper

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Mountaintop Removal: The Pros and Cons You Should Know About If you live in the United States and/or are familiar with modern mining methods, you've probably heard about mountaintop removal mining. MTR, as it's commonly called, is the process of removing the land on the summit of a mountain to get to the coal seams underneath. When using this method, coal companies first clear trees and vegetation from the mountain. Once this is done, they use millions of pounds of explosives to remove 400 to 600 vertical feet of mountain soil. When the coal seams are exposed, they remove the coal using giant earth-moving machines and bring it to a coal processing plant. Mountaintop removal is praised by proponents because it's more effective and less expensive compared to other methods. However, it's also heavily criticized by detractors because it's believed…show more content…
3. It helps keep energy crises at bay. Because of the petroleum crises in the 1970s as well as the increasing number of home appliances and personal gadgets in American households, there has been a rising demand for coal in the U.S. This is evident in the fact that almost 50 percent of the electricity that's generated in the country is produced by coal power plants. Because of this, coal companies are pressured to find a cost-effective and less time-consuming way of obtaining coal. One of the solutions they explore is mountaintop removal. MTR cannot be yet considered a major contributor to energy generation in the U.S. (as of 2001, it accounted for less than five percent of coal production in the country). However, it's a huge contributor in certain regions; in West Virginia, for example, 30 percent of the coal mined in the state in 2006 was provided by mountaintop removal. List of Cons of Mountaintop Removal 1. It can harm the
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