Mayflies: The Little Bugs That Could Save Mountains

November 13, 2009 By: Marshall Cutchin

Proponents of the practice of ripping the tops off of mountains to extract coal may have finally found their worst enemy: the mayfly. According to Bloomberg’s Jim Efstathiou Jr., “Without fresh permits to dump debris, mines may shut by 2012 in states such as West Virginia, he said. ‘The future of mountaintop mining looks bleak,’ [analyst Kevin] Book, who is based in Washington, said in an interview. ‘Ripping off mountaintops gets cheap clean coal, but there’s no way to do it without environmental impacts.'”

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