As Congress begins to debate climate change legislation, a fight between environmentalists and industry over a particular type of coal mining is ratcheting up in West Virginia. The Obama administration threatened to revoke a permit to one of Appalachia’s largest mountaintop removal mines earlier this month, and all sides are bracing for pivotal policy decisions after decades of controversy. We speak to Erica Peterson, reporter at West Virginia Public Radio, along with Roger Horton, founder of the advocacy group “Citizens for Coal.” Horton works at a mountaintop mine as a truck driver.
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