Today I visited the I Love Mountains website. The site has a feature where you can enter your zip code to find your connection to endangered mountains. There was no surprise when my connection came up as follows:
You are connected to mountaintop removal. Your electricity provider, PacifiCorp, buys coal from companies engaged in mountaintop removal
The story of Black Mountain, Virginia, is one of many that are connected to the power plants on your grid, which are marked on the map below.
The mountaintop removal mines shown in red are connected to the nearest coal power plant on your grid: KUCC, operated by Kennecott Utah Copper Corporation.
Explain my Connection
WHO PROVIDES MY ELECTRICITY?
The PacifiCorp service area is part of a larger interconnected electric grid operated by PacifiCorp-East. There are a total of 5 coal-fired power plants on this grid that are connected to mountaintop removal. Following are details on how each is connected to mountaintop removal.
Plants on the PacifiCorp-East grid that do not use mountaintop removal coal directly, but purchase coal from companies that operate mountaintop removal mines in Central Appalachia include:
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Carbon , operated by PacifiCorp-Rocky Mtn — located in Carbon County, UT
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Dave Johnston , operated by PacifiCorp-Rocky Mtn — located in Converse County, WY
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Hunter , operated by PacifiCorp-Rocky Mtn — located in Emery County, UT
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Huntington , operated by PacifiCorp-Rocky Mtn — located in Emery County, UT
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KUCC , operated by Kennecott Utah Copper Corporation — located in Salt Lake County, UT
As part of this feature on the I love Mountains website, you can also view Google Earth for your area to see the effects of mountaintop removal.
I urge readers to go to this website and look around. There is lots of useful information, including how you can become involved in the project to advocate for stopping the practice of mountaintop removal
See my post with the video on mountaintop removal
Dee's 'Dotes~Anecdotes of a Green Activist 