The above link takes you to the fourth of Thom Kay’s Five Political Lies in Support of Mountaintop Removal. In this post he reveals the mendacity of the claims of reclamation, that the mined lands can be restored to their former ecological intactness or that the mines can give Appalachia needed flatlands. As Thom says:
One reason that claiming more flat land will lead to economic development is such an egregious lie is that the vast majority of this reclaimed land sees no economic development whatsoever. In 2010, Appalachian Voices worked with the Natural Resources Defense Council on a survey of reclaimed mine sites and discovered that, of the 410 mine surveyed, 366 (89.3%) had no form of verifiable post-mining development, excluding forestry and pasture.
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