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Patriot’s move away from mountaintop removal another sign of coal’s decline
Posted by Gazette-Maill: Ken Ward Jr. on November 18th, 2012
Gazette-Maill: On Thursday, Patriot Coal CEO Ben Hatfield stood up in federal court and announced what once might have seemed unthinkable: A major Appalachian coal producer is phasing out its use of mountaintop removal and all other forms of strip mining.
Hatfield told U.S. District Judge Robert C. Chambers that mountaintop removal mining impacts coalfield communities "in significant ways," and that Patriot's move "will result in a reduction of our environmental footprint."
But a huge part of the real motivation...