Mountaintop Removal Mining

[General Brock]

You do realize we are still going to need metals and other minerals that have to be extracted using similar processes?

Your point being?

Yes, lets build geothermal power plants on mountain tops. I'm sure using heat from the Earth's interior is best utilized at points furthest possible from the interior.

It helps to be close to a tectonic plate boundary.

Hey- if you remove the profit incentive you remove the incentive to be efficient- in this case ignoring safety rules. Of course you have the problem of people trying to meet quotas, but without the money gained from the activity they have alot less political power.

Or just go normal ruthless safety regulations.

Its actually more profitable to run a safe mine, yes. They don't do that for some reason. I can only speculate mine owners get off being jerks and its some sort of class statement.

[Alyrium Denryle]

Its actually more profitable to run a safe mine, yes. They don't do that for some reason. I can only speculate mine owners get off being jerks and its some sort of class statement.

It is the difference between short and long term profits. Corporations have a legal obligation to deliver quarterly profits to their shareholders, and our economic and financial systems reflect this, and penalize businesses which sacrifice short term gains in the name of long term profits and stability.

[Samuel]

Your point being?

"Not mining" is not a plausible future.

It helps to be close to a tectonic plate boundary.

Like the East Coast? Really, this is fractally wrong. After all, areas that have been massively reworked don't have connections to the utilities you need for the mine, it is high above ground and you want to build it in a place that have access to water, you have to dig through more rock (the valleys would have been a better choice- too bad you filled them in!) and finally, you don't need a massive amount of flat land to build a geothermal power station.

[LadyTevar]

General Brock, you might want to sit down and review what's been posted before you post another word. So far, all you're showing is that you have absolutely no idea what you're talking about.

For example -- WV is not in a geothermically active area. The closest major fault-line is the New Madrid, which follows the Mississippi River, which is two states and a couple thousand miles to the west. Unless new evidence has popped up in the last few years, the Appalachians as a whole have never shown signs of volcanic activity, even when they were the size of Mount Everest. They are the rippled, folded, bent and mutilated remains of the pre-dinosaur East Coast; what's left after that little crack in Earth we now call the Atlantic started pushing the continents further apart.

[Ritterin Sophia]

The chances of getting caught are low because the largest coal companies discriminate against unionized workers (and the costs of the resulting lawsuits are less than their costs of obeying the law in this case), and pretty much write the legislation that regulates them, as well as promote anti-regulation officials and public policy. They have stacked the deck. As a result, needless deaths occur. That is the point.

This isn't helped that due to the gross amount of power the coal barons wield they influence the people to blindly support the very organizations that are polluting their drinking water and killing them and enable the companies to deregulate.

[General Brock]

General Brock, you might want to sit down and review what's been posted before you post another word. So far, all you're showing is that you have absolutely no idea what you're talking about.

For example -- WV is not in a geothermically active area. The closest major fault-line is the New Madrid, which follows the Mississippi River, which is two states and a couple thousand miles to the west. Unless new evidence has popped up in the last few years, the Appalachians as a whole have never shown signs of volcanic activity, even when they were the size of Mount Everest. They are the rippled, folded, bent and mutilated remains of the pre-dinosaur East Coast; what's left after that little crack in Earth we now call the Atlantic started pushing the continents further apart.

That's all I got wrong? Fine, I'll reread everything.

[Alyrium Denryle]

General Brock, you might want to sit down and review what's been posted before you post another word. So far, all you're showing is that you have absolutely no idea what you're talking about.

For example -- WV is not in a geothermically active area. The closest major fault-line is the New Madrid, which follows the Mississippi River, which is two states and a couple thousand miles to the west. Unless new evidence has popped up in the last few years, the Appalachians as a whole have never shown signs of volcanic activity, even when they were the size of Mount Everest. They are the rippled, folded, bent and mutilated remains of the pre-dinosaur East Coast; what's left after that little crack in Earth we now call the Atlantic started pushing the continents further apart.

That's all I got wrong? Fine, I'll reread everything.

You can also stop being a fucking moron. That might help.