Here's an image from Google Earth of some mountaintop removal areas in Kentucky.

This is a very sensitive issue. Anybody looking at the pictures, or who has seen a leveled mountain, is quick to decry mountaintop removal. (Jon and I have seen some non-existent mountains first-hand in Virginia). You have to look hard to find areas of mountaintop removal. The companies are smart and keep one ridge of pretty trees between their operations and most major roads.

Yet we continue to use the very thing that fuels this practice.