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Despite the multi-million dollar P.R. blitz and hysterical "War on CoalTM" rhetoric from coal owners, Appalachians just aren't buying what they're selling.
In those states, 57 percent said they oppose mountaintop removal, and only 20 percent support it. About 10 percent strongly supported the practice while 20 percent strongly opposed the practice of surface mining.
[...]
"Fully three-fourths of Republican voters, and 68 percent of Tea Party supporters, in this survey, support increasing Clean Water Act protections from mountaintop removal coal mining," said Christine Matthews, president of Bellwether Research & Consulting. "Even in these economically stressed coal country states, there is overwhelming support for increasing clean water safeguards - a far cry from disarming the EPA as some on the national stage have suggested."
The poll also shows that the unpopularity of mountaintop removal mining is far-reaching and bipartisan. Opposition to the practice crosses typical political boundaries, including 64% of Democrats, 60% of independents, and 51% of Republicans.
You'd have a hard time coming up with another issue where a region's politicians are so out-of-touch with the majority of their voters and insist on taking the position of such a minuscule sliver of the electorate.
Kuykendall collected responses to the regional survey from W.Va.'s congressional delegation, which were about what you would expect.
Manchin, Rockefeller and Capito offered some words on "balance," which simply aren't backed up by their voting records or actions on the issue.
David McKinley's office just spouted off some industry talking points:
"The vast majority of Congressman McKinley's constituents have expressed a strong desire to see the EPA's job-killing regulations reined in," said Katie Martin, McKinley's press secretary.
and Nick Rahall was upset that the question was even asked:
"A poll by three environmental groups that concludes there is opposition to mountaintop mining in parts of Appalachia - there is nothing surprising there," Rahall said. "Rather than stoking division, it would have been more productive if the same energies had been put into bringing opposing sides together."
Meanwhile, CNN polled the issue nationally and found similar numbers:
Fifty-seven percent of respondents in a CNN/ORC survey released Thursday say they oppose the controversial mining process, in which a mountain is blasted apart and the debris deposited in nearby valleys.
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