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A Christian environmental group is ready to take on the coal industry in the Tennessee General Assembly.

Dawn Coppock, legislative director of the Lindquist Environmental Appalachian Fellowship, sent out an e-mail alert to supporters on Wednesday, writing that the time was right to push for a ban on "mountain-top removal" coal mining in Tennessee.

"We waited to make this decision until we had a good feel for the odds of success because we're very aware we're investing your time, LEAF's limited resources and our own unpaid labor for four to five months," Coppock wrote. "Passing the bill looks possible — maybe a bit better than last year.

"Since we only lost by 2 votes (in a subcommittee vote) last session, a bit better may be enough. Tennessee's mountains are too valuable for us to wait for a sure thing. Hang on for a squeaker, and pray for a victory party this spring."

In 2008, Coppock championed a Senate bill sponsored by then-state Sen. Raymond Finney, R-Maryville, to ban surface mining above 2,000 feet. The House version of the bill failed in subcommittee. State Rep. Joe McCord, R-Maryville, who is now chairman of the House Conservation and Environment Committee, voted against the bill.

Now, Coppock is ready to try again.

"The Lord called me to do it," she said. "There are a laundry list of reasons why (the ban would be) good for Tennessee."

LEAF is a Christian group established by members of the Church of the Savior, United Church of Christ, in Knoxville. The LEAF mission emphasizes the idea of stewardship.

"This particularly destructive method of mining seems not to reflect the appropriate reverence and gratitude for a gift from our father," Coppock said. "As a Tennesseean, I feel like from a public standpoint, it's good policy for our state. As a Christian, I support it because if your mother bakes you a cake or your daddy builds you a house, you don't stomp on it. It's not good stewardship."

Coppock was not ready to reveal the names of the sponsors of the bill.

"We know who our House sponsors are probably going to be," she said. "We normally have a Republican and a Democrat, so we've identified those in the House. We think we have our team in the Senate, although we're firming that up. I like to let the sponsors make those announcements."

Industry opposes ban

Chuck Laine, a lobbyist and president of the Tennessee Mining Association, said that banning mining above 2,000 feet would cripple the coal mining industry.

"It would put coal mining out of business in Tennessee," he said. "Coal in Tennessee is in the mountains. An underground mine in Tennessee, you go in sideways, you don't go down in a hole. ... We've got a lot of coal above 2,000 feet."

What many environmentalists refer to as "mountain-top removal" being performed in Tennessee, is what coal companies describe as cross-ridge mining. Mountain-top removal, as legally defined, is not practiced in Tennessee. Now, if the top of the mountain is removed, the mining company is required by the federal government to use the leftover soil and rock to return it to the approximate original contours.

Coppock said that other methods of mining are available to the coal companies.

"We think coal mining is necessary for us to keep the lights on," she said. "It's just blowing the tops off mountains we have a problem with."

State Rep. John C. Tidwell, D-New Johnsonville, is the chairman of the Environment Subcommittee where the bill failed last year. Tidwell is willing to take another look at the idea, he said.

"I'm still open minded about it," Tidwell said. "I'd really like to save the mountains, but we've all got to live together. We can sell a little coal and we can save a few mountains, but it can't all be one-sided."

A possible ban on surface mining above 2,000 needs a great deal of study, he said. "It's a whole lot deeper than a green movement coming out of a church in Knoxville. There are people and jobs and careers and livelihoods and school systems in the county and all sorts of things that need to be taken into account. ... To start a movement and go to outlaw something is not the way to handle it. Everything has a lot of consequences."

There are also other options to consider.

"The state could buy the rights to that coal," Tidwell said. "That is probably the way to go rather than say outlaw the fellow that has the rights. You really shouldn't do things like that."

Claiborne County is the largest producer of coal in the state. County Mayor Joe T. Duncan said that his county depends greatly on revenue from the severance tax that coal companies must pay.

"We depend a lot on the coal severance tax in helping fund the education system and road department, too," he said. "That area is an isolated area. It means a livelihood for a lot of those coal miners."