The Economic Problem of Coal Surface Mining

Committees in both houses of Congress are considering proposed legislation for the control of surface mining, particularly surface mining for coal. The degree of concern over this problem is suggested not only by the number of published accounts of the adverse effects of surface mining,1 but also by the success of anti-strip mining candidates in recent primary elections. This chapter analyzes the economic aspects of the problem of surface mining and to discuss the implications of that analysis in terms of the economist’s conventional recommendations for corrective action. Economic principles can even be employed to define the preferred extent or degree of mining control and mined-area reclamation: society should continue to employ resources for the prevention and control of environmental impacts only up to the point where the value of the resources so employed just equals the value of external costs avoided.