Your connection to mountaintop coal removal

If you don't live in the coalfields of Appalachia, you may not think that mountaintop coal removal has much to do with your life.

Think again -- with help from the folks at Appalachian Voices.

The Boone, N.C.-based nonprofit has unveiled a new online tool that reveals whether and how your electric company is connected to mountaintop removal, the nasty practice of blasting away the tops of mountains and dumping them into neighboring valleys and streams in order to reach the coal below. The site also tells you what you can do to bring an end to the devastation.

As Scott Gollwitzer, in-house counsel for Appalachian Voices, noted in an e-mail announcing the new site:

The coal companies want you to believe that mountaintop removal is just a local issue. But nearly every American is connected to mountaintop removal in some way, and ending this practice is our shared national responsibility.