Blowing Up Mountains In Virginia

“We All Live in the Coal Fields”: West Virginians Step Up Protests as EPA OKs New Mountaintop Removal
At least thirty people were arrested in West Virginia Saturday as protesters marked a new phase of Operation Appalachian Spring, a campaign to end mountaintop removal mining. The protests came just a week after the Obama administration gave the green light for forty-two more mountaintop removal permits in a major victory for the coal industry. We speak to journalist Jeff Biggers, author of the book United States of Appalachia: How Southern Mountaineers Brought Independence, Culture and Enlightenment to America. Biggers says mountaintop removal is a national issue, not a local one, as many perceive.