Ashley Judd has been quite the activist lately. She was very vocal in her criticism of Sarah Palin for the way in which the governor hunts animals (as if one way of putting a bullet through an animal can ultimately be less or more humane than another). Most recently, she has spoken out against the Mountaintop Removal (MTR) coal mining process. She and approximately 500 other activists stood outside the capitol building in Frankfort, KY to support legislation that virtually eliminates this practice in the Bluegrass State.

Mountaintop removal is an integral part of many of the Appalachian State’s economies. It is the most efficient means to extract coal and its methods are significantly less dangerous to the miner. Instead of boring mines and tunnels through a mountainside, tops of mountains are blasted off and miners may work to extract coal without fear of a tunnel collapse or mine cave-in. It is also much easier for machines to transport the coal from its source to the plant. In short—and herein may lie Ms. Judd’s problem with it all—mountaintop removal mining equals more profit.

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