Survey Says! Poll Shows Nationwide Opposition to Mountaintop Removal

On Sept. 17, a Charleston Gazette front-page story reported that both presidential candidates said they oppose mountaintop removal mining!

Then, in October, a nationwide poll on mountaintop removal mining and its impacts on our nations waters was conducted by OVECs allies Earthjustice, Sierra Club and the Appalachian Center for the Economy and the Environment.

As reported on the Earthjustice website, over half the people surveyed nationwide had heard about mountaintop removal, and by roughly a 2 to 1 margin, these folks had an unfavorable impression of it.

Once those surveyed were provided with a basic description of mountaintop removal, the opposition to mountaintop removal spiked to 61 percent with no change in the number who supported it (16 percent).

Public opinion against mountaintop removal is very broad, outweighing support in every region in the country.

We credit the increased opposition to mountaintop removal, by the public and the presidential candidates, not only to OVECs decade-long efforts to halt this egregious mining technique, but also to the on-the-ground work of groups like the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy, Coal River Mountain Watch, Mountain Justice Summer, Christians for the Mountains (and our other faith-based allies), The Alliance for Appalachia (a 13-member coalition of groups), Earthjustice, the Civil Society Institute and other groups now working on the issue.

The poll also measured respondents opinions about the efforts of the Bush Administration to appeal the Stream Buffer Zone Rule, which prohibits mining activity within 100 feet of a stream.

According to Earthjustice: "Upon hearing that more than 1,200 miles of streams in Appalachia already have been buried or destroyed by mountaintop removal coal mining, fully 85 percent of voters say they are concerned about the effects of this mining practice." Two-thirds of those surveyed oppose the Bush administrations effort to repeal the Stream Buffer Zone Rule and opposition transcends traditional partisan, regional, and demographic divides. For additional polling results: www.earthjustice.org/library/references/memo-on-mtr-poll.pdf.