Thursday, March 22, 2018

Denied federal funding, study on health effects of mountaintop-removal coal mining has been abandoned

"After Trump administration officials ordered a halt to a study on the health effects of mountaintop removal last fall, the study’s committee has been released, effectively terminating the project," Kate Mishkin reports for the Charleston Gazette-Mail.

"The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine’s study would have looked at the health effects on residents who live near mountaintop removal coal-mining sites. It was put on hold when the Department of the Interior’s Office of Surface Mining announced that it was reviewing grants and agreements that would cost more than $100,000."

An Interior spokesperson did not answer any questions about why the study was terminated and whether it might be revived in the future. Riya Anandwala, a spokesperson for the National Academies, would not speculate on the reason for the study's termination, but told Mishkin it was "not unprecedented, but it's very rare."

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