Calculating the true cost of a ton of mountaintop coal
Wednesday, September 11, 2013 - 20:00
in Earth & Climate
To meet current US coal demand through surface mining, an area of the Central Appalachians the size of Washington, D.C., would need to be mined every 81 days. A one-year supply of coal would require converting about 310 square miles of the region's mountains into surface mines, according to a new analysis.