Wind vs. Coal: The Fight for a Mountaintop

"Hundreds of feet of elevation are sometimes removed, with equal amounts of nearby valley filled in, creating a peculiar landscape of high, wide plateaus in various stages of revegetation, encircled by the pointy, forested peaks native to the area... Mining companies, however, value it as a cost-effective way to gain access to coal deposits that otherwise couldn't be reached... 500 mountaintops and roughly 1.2 million acres in four states that have been altered by mountaintop removal... 352,000 acres and 136 mountains have been affected in West Virginia alone."

Wind vs. Coal: The Fight for a Mountaintop

Opponents of mountaintop mining have proposed an alternative in West Virginia: a wind farm that they say could save the landscape while diversifying employment.

http://nyti.ms/aBhQzv