http://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-interior-moves-to-stop-coal-mountaintop-removal-study
August 21, 2017
Trump Interior Wants to Kill Coal Mountaintop Removal Study
The Trump administration told the National Academy of Sciences to stop
studying possible public health risks for people living near mountaintop
removal coal-mining sites in Appalachian, the Charleston Gazette-Mail
reported Monday. The U.S. Department of Interior’s Office of Surface
Mining Reclamation and Enforcement said the move is part of an
agency-wide review of grants and agreements in excess of $100,000. The
study launched last year after the West Virginia Department of
Environmental Protection and the state Bureau for Public Health
requested federal financial help to review studies that linked
mountaintop removal to increased risks of birth defects, cancer, and
premature death among Appalachia residents living near surface coal
mines. “This is an important study and we stand ready to resume it as
soon as the Department of Interior review is completed,” the academy
said in a statement. “We are grateful to our committee members for their
dedication to carrying forward with this study.”
