From PRI, Public Radio International and KCRW Santa Monica, this is To the Point.

Leveling Mountains for cheaper coal.

Hello again, I'm Orman Alley, and this is To the Poet from Public Radio International.

A daily look at the issues Americans care about most.

Surface coal mining is taking the tops off peaks and ridges and plugging up valleys and streams

in the Appalachian Mountains, one of the world's oldest ranges.

Today, the Bush administration is issuing new rules for practices that can change the landscape

and wreak havoc on fish, wildlife, and people.

The old rules said mine operators had to prove they would not damage water supplies.

The new ones say it's okay, as long as they plan to make repairs later.

On to the point how the drive for cheap energy and oil independence impacts the environment

and public health.

On reporter's notebook later on,

child labor laws and reality TV.

First, here's the news.

Support for To the Point comes from subscribers of KCRW Santa Monica

and from the Public Radio International Program Fund,

whose contributors include the Ford Foundation

and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur

Foundation. Hello again, Mormon. I'll only back with To the Point. Coal miners are taking the tops

off mountains and dumping the rubble into streams and valleys, forever changing the Appalachian Mountains.

On To the Point, should government regulations require environmental protection? We'll hear the

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