NOVEMBER 4, 2000
NADER CRITICIZES GORE OVER MOUNTAINTOP REMOVAL
Miami, FL.  November 4-While Vice-President Gore campaigned in West
Virginia today, Green Party candidate Ralph Nader criticized him for
refusing to take a stand against mountaintop removal, and questioned his
credentials as an environmentalist.

“Mountaintop removal is a declaration of coal industry war against the
people and environment of Appalachia in those communities, who will be
devastated by the destruction of their forests, and by the blockage and
contamination of their streams.  Why can’t the Vice President take a
stand against this practice, as I asked him to in May?” Nader wondered.
“Only the powerful barons of King Coal stand to benefit from this
practice, not the people of West Virginia.”

Nader said that, in addition to being remarkably harmful to the
environment, mountain-top removal would not greatly benefit workers and
was a direct result of corporate welfare giveaways to the coal industry.

“This capital-intensive form of mining replaces workers with machines,”
Nader said.  “Because the State gives tax credits to the coal industry
in exchange for bringing in the machinery necessary to perform
mountaintop removals, West Virginia literally subsidizes a practice that
harms workers as well as the environment.  What West Virginia needs is
safe labor-intensive mining that rewards more workers for their
efforts.”

Mountaintop removal is a controversial new form of strip mining in which
the caps of mountains are dynamited away so that the coal buried within
may be extracted.  The process pollutes the surrounding landscape,
particularly streams and rivers, with tons of industrial waste.

While Al Gore has failed to take a position on the issue of mountaintop
removal, the Clinton/Gore Administration has filed court papers that
seek to overturn a Federal Court ruling that mountaintop removal
violates the Clean Water Act and the Surface Mining Control and
Reclamation Act.

“Today Gore campaigns in West Virginia with Senator Byrd, who has
supported the coal industry’s efforts to legalize and legitimize this
destructive practice. I doubt that legislation such as the Coal Mine
Safety Act could even get heard in the Congress today, with so many
members indentured to the powers of corporate interests like King Coal.”

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