PIKEVILLE, Ky. (AP) - Thousands of coal miners fearing the loss
of jobs if mountaintop removal mining is curtailed or outlawed
shouted down a handful of environmentalists at crowded public
hearings Tuesday on the much-debated practice.

Many in Kentucky and West Virginia wore hardhats and T-shirts
and waved signs proclaiming the merits of coal. Environmentalists
who have fought for decades to end the destructive form of mining
that blasts away peaks to unearth coal showed up in small numbers.

Mining supporters in West Virginia heckled the few
environmentalists who testified in favor of the U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers proposal to eliminate or at least suspend a streamlined
permitting process for surface mines in six Appalachian states.
Hearings were also being held in Tennessee and are set for later
this week in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia.

If the corps continues with the streamlined permitting process,
it is participating in genocide, mining opponent Maria Gunnoe said
over shouts.

"My concern here is that the people in the state of West
Virginia are being sacrificed. This industry is sacrificing
people," she said.

Robert Russo complained that surface mining has polluted his
water with heavy metals and caused other damage.

"I'm concerned for the future of West Virginia. I'm concerned
for the future of Appalachia," he said. "We need to look at each
permit to fill in valleys and bury streams individually."

Some opponents left the meeting in Charleston, rather than try
to fight the uproar.

"Since clearly the people running this operation are happy with
one side being silent, I will not attempt," said Mary Wildfire, a
surface mining opponent who decided to leave.

In Kentucky, David Fields, a retired computer science professor
from Richmond, said mountaintop removal is fouling streams and
destroying the beauty of the Appalachians. "All of that is going
to go by very quickly if something isn't done," he said. "It
doesn't take many years to completely undo what Mother Nature has
provided us."

At issue in the public hearings is the regulatory process that
coal companies follow to obtain permits to dump rock, soil and
debris from the mountaintops into nearby valleys.

Mine operators insist the practice should continue because it
supports thousands of jobs and provides inexpensive energy for a
broad swath of the eastern U.S.

Most of what the corps said was a turnout of 4,800 in Pikeville
and Charleston, however, showed their disapproval for a move by the
administration of President Barack Obama to curb mountaintop
mining. In Kentucky, pro-mining banners flapped in the breeze
outside. One proclaimed: "Coal Feeds My Family." Another: "Got
Electricity? Thank a miner."

Miners and their families were trying to convince the
administration to back away from restrictions that would make it
more difficult, perhaps impossible, to get the federal permits
necessary to blast away mountains.

Miner Junie Halcomb's T-shirt asked one question about coal:
"Can Obama's America Survive Without It?" Halcomb thinks he
answer is no, at least in the impoverished coal mining region of
central Appalachia.

"It's going to put a lot of people out work," Halcomb said.
"We can't survive without coal money."

Feelings ran much the same in West Virginia.

"Leave our mining to us and our livelihood. You will kill our
state," said Diann Kish, who called herself the wife, mother and
daughter of coal miners.

Kentucky Lt. Gov. Daniel Mongiardo, who is from a mining region,
was against the proposals to limit the practice. He said in eastern
Kentucky, mountaintop removal sites are now shopping malls,
hospitals and industrial parks.

"Let's not call it mountaintop removal, let's call it what it
is, mountaintop development."

Truman Chafin, the Democratic majority leader in the West
Virginia Senate, kicked off the raucous atmosphere.

"The lord didn't create very many things without a purpose, but
mosquitoes and the EPA come close I think," Chafin said to huge
applause. "What happens to the coal and the entire nation? Who
keeps these lights on for the country if you take away 40 percent
of the coal that's mined in southern West Virginia and eastern
Kentucky?"

Mountaintop mines in the states where the practice is most used
- West Virginia, Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee - produce
approximately 130 million tons of coal each year and employ about
14,000 people.
--
Associated Press writer Tim Huber reported from West Virginia.

(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

More information on how to submit a written response:

To submit a written comment for the record, you can drop off your comment on Oct. 13 prior to 7 p.m., write and mail a letter or fill out a comment on line. Written comments on the proposals will be accepted through Oct. 26, 2009. Written comments may be submitted at the public hearings or at the federal eRulemaking portal at http://www.regulations.gov under docket number COE-2009-0032; or mailed to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Attn: CECW-CO (Attn: Ms. Desiree Hann), 441 G. Street N.W., Washington, D.C. 20314. Email or faxed comments will not be accepted.