Published by Yes! Magazine on November 10, 2009

Power plants across the country use coal from destroyed mountains. Search your zip code to meet the communities and landscapes to which you’re connected.

Not In My Backyard?

Click here to find out if your power company uses coal from destroyed mountains.

Mountaintop removal—the literal toppling of mountains in order to mine the coal underneath—is a shocking assault on the ecosystems, communities, and landscapes of the southern Appalachian Mountains. For many Americans, though, its impact seems a world away: an atrocity, yes, but one confined to Appalachia.

But the coal that’s removed forms a direct connection between the millions of Americans whose homes it powers and the communities that suffer most directly from its extraction.

By searching your zip code, you can find out not only whether coal from mountain top removal sites is helping to power your home, but where it’s coming from. The zip code of the White House, for example, benefits from coal extracted from Glen Alum Mountain, West Virginia.

What’s your connection to mountaintop removal? Click here to find out.

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