Bob Woodruff’s report on the Future of Coal Country is “fair and balanced” in the old-fashioned sense of news reporting. After watching a mountaintop being blown apart to reach the underlying coal, we are shown how the land looks after the coal company complied with reclamation laws.
After hearing the arguments, pro and con, for “clean coal” I was hard-pressed to side with the coal companies.
For sure, the land looks better after re-development than it did while its scarred face was laid bare, but it’s not as beautiful as it was before the explosions reduced the height of the mountain in its natural state.
To my eye, the scales tipped toward the one local holdout who wonders what “a bunch of hillbillies” need with a golf course. Sadly, he carries a gun to protect himself from those he has angered by refusing to sell the last portion of his family’s land to the coal company. The final point, that coal-powered plants are the source of acid rain in communities far from their plants (that’s today, not 20 years ago), keeps the scales from tipping back toward ‘clean coal’.
The program continues to air on Aug. 5th and 6th.
8.4.09
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