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.” - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - For SC email list T-and-C, send: GET TERMS-AND-CONDITIONS.CURRENT to [log in to unmask]