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With the Democratic National Convention only a week away, activists are calling upon Democratic politicians to take a stand against mountaintop removal. Charlotte, North Carolina home to next week’s DNC is a city powered by coal. In fact almost half of the power generated in the United States comes from coal power.

Coal mining however has led to a host of serious health and environmental issues. One of the most controversial means of coal mining is mountaintop removal which involves blasting off mountain peaks to find seams of coal. Areas of Appalachia, including West Virginia with over 60 major coal seams and Kentucky with over 80 coal seams, have been deeply affected by mountaintop removal. The process of mountaintop removal involves coal companies first razing the mountain of all vegetation and then lodging explosives deep within the mountainside. Explosions remove from 800 to 1000 feet of mountain side to locate seams of coal. Machines are then brought in to excavate the area by pushing away dirt and rock which often clog and pollute nearby streams and waterways. In fact, the extraction process is known to poison drinking water by polluting waterways and numerous studies have shown a link between mountaintop removal and higher incidences of birth defects and cancer.

Despite all the data both Democrats and Republicans continue to avoid actually banning the practice of mountaintop removal, even though only 5 to 7 percent of all the coal produced in the US is located through mountaintop removal process.

GUEST: Jeff Biggers, a journalist critical of mountaintop removal who is also the grandson of a coal miner. He writes for Commondreams, Alternet, Huffington Post, Salon, and other online publications.

Click here to read Jeff’s article about Mountaintop Removal and the Democratic Party.