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Article: Miners Boycott Tenn. Over Alexander's Bill; It Would Ban Mountaintop Removal
- Article from:
- The Washington Post
- Article date:
- July 26, 2009
- Author:
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The lush, rolling contours of the Great Smoky Mountains are
Tennessee's pride and joy, and a major source of tourism revenue.
But Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) says he is afraid of seeing those
mountains transformed by the region's coal industry -- their tops
blasted off for mining, rivers clogged with debris and majestic
forests cloaked in smog from coal-burning power plants instead of
the Smokies' famous mists.
Alexander has introduced legislation with Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin
(D-Md.) to ban the controversial practice of mountaintop-removal
coal mining. He said he hopes to stop the shearing of mountaintops
in West Virginia and Kentucky and prevent a resurgence of the
practice in ...