Participants carried signs with messages such as “Blowing Up Mountains for Coal Poisons People’’ and “Mountain ecosystems won’t grow back.’’
Some carried small white crosses adorned with messages such as “water pollution’’ and “corporate greed.’’
In mountaintop-removal mining, forests are clear-cut, explosives blast apart the rock, and machines scoop out the exposed coal. The earth left behind is dumped into valleys, often covering streams.
Coal operators say it is the most efficient way to reach some reserves, supports tens of thousands of jobs, and provides coal for electric power plants across much of the South and East.
They staged their own rally here two weeks ago
The Environmental Protection Agency has taken steps to rein in mountaintop-removal mining, but the protesters yesterday called for a total ban.
“You cannot regulate destruction,’’ organizer Maria Gunnoe told the crowd at Freedom Plaza, a few blocks from the White House.
Joe Stanley, 60, a retired coal miner from Prichard, W. Va., said he was not against coal. He said the country could not get off coal even if it had a plan.
“And we don’t have a plan,’’ Stanley said. “But we can take problems out of coal. Mountaintop mining is too high a price to pay.’’
