This was originally posted at www.crmw.net and concerns a West Virginia site but with 29 mountains already lost in Virginia we need to be doing these sorts of studies in our state. This one shows that for the community, mountaintop removal is a lose-lose situation when compared to wind.

The study commissioned at the end of last summer to compare the
economics of a wind farm vs. a strip mine on Coal River Mountain was
released December 9th.  The main message of the report is that the private
landholding companies and mine companies benefit from the strip mining
while the people living in the community and the county government
benefits more from the wind farm.  In fact, the annual taxes that will
go to the county from the wind farm will be $1,740,000 while the
severance taxes that will go to Raleigh County from the Surface mine
will be $36,000.  And that 1.7 million will be annual forever.  The
$36,000 from the mining will last only 17 years.

Another interesting conclusion from the report is that when externalities such as increased hospitalization in areas with coal mining are factored in, the strip mining isn’t profitable.  During the 17 year life of the surface mine, the revenue will be -$600 Million.  That’s Negative $600,000,000.  The wind farm by itself is profitable every year when externalities are factored in.

Go to CoalRiverWind.org to download the report and learn more!

Click on the report to download