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An employee with [[National Coal Corporation]] forcefully removed a non-violent anti-mountaintop removal protester from the National Coal headquarters in West Knoxville. The protester was part of a group participating in “Love and Hug National Coal Month,” part of a series of protests organized by [http://www.unitedmountaindefense.org/ United Mountain Defense] every Thursday in August at National Coal’s office. The protesters had organized a “Going Away Party” for NCC after the coal company defaulted on $60 million dollars of loans in Alabama in July 2009. To mark this event the protestors brought balloons and cupcakes reading “Bye National Coal’ and “Take a Hike”. Wearing party hats and dancing to festive music, the volunteers entered the National Coal Headquarters in order to deliver the cupcakes. Within 30 seconds an employee of National Coal Corporation wrapped his hand around the video camera, contorted the cameraman’s wrist and escorted the peaceful group back outside, at which point he stated that NCC did not want to call the police. The non-violent protesters complied with the National Coal employee’s request and moved to the public right of way in front of the office building. They educated passing motorists, gave away the unwanted cupcakes, danced, and had a fun time in the hot sun.<ref>[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JFFrJ9NCoU "Hug and Love National Coal Number 2 protest 8 0001,"] Youtube, accessed September 2009</ref><Ref>[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rU7MViQoxEQ&feature=related "Love & Hug National Coal Month- Going Away Party,"] YouTube, accessed September 2009</ref>
==Reports=====Report finds coal cost TN taxpayers money in 2009===
On June 22, 2010, environmental consulting firm Downstream Strategies and the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy issued a report, [http://www.downstreamstrategies.com/Documents/reports_publication/DownstreamStrategies-coalTN.pdf '''The Impact of Coal on the Tennessee State Budget'''] analyzing Tenessee’s coal-related income and expenses, and concluded that the industry actually costs the state. After assessing nearly all of coal’s direct and indirect costs and benefits to the state, it concludes that coal mining provides relatively few jobs to Tennessee residents and contributes less revenue to the state budget than taxpayers pay in costs. In 2009, Tennessee collected $1.1 million in revenues from various taxes on the coal industry, representing less than 1 percent of total tax revenues. The study also looked at state expenditures related to the coal industry, such as revenue administration, environmental protection, maintenance and repair of roadways and others, and found the industry costs taxpayers around $1.6 million in state subsidies and expenses for mine regulation, reclamation, and road repairs, essentially costing state taxpayers money $500,000 in 2009. The study also found just 600 people were employed in coal mining in Tennessee in 2009, and that no county in Tennessee depends upon the coal industry for more than two percent of its total employment.<ref name="ds"/>
A NewsChannel 5 investigation earlier in 2010 revealed that donors with interest in coal contributed more than $300,000 dollars to political campaigns in Tennessee since 2009.<ref name="ds"/>
===Tenn. area listed as endangered due to mountaintop removal===
A 2011 report by the conservation organization Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC) put Tennessee's northern Cumberland Plateau on its list of the 10 most endangered regions in the South for 2011, citing [[mountaintop removal]] coal mining in the Cumberland Mountains of East Tennessee as a threat to the region's natural resources, which include some of the most biologically diverse temperate zone forests in the world. Tennessee's endangered area encompasses an estimated 170,606 acres in the Cumberland Mountains of Scott, Morgan, Anderson and Campbell counties. In the summer of 2010, former Gov. Phil Bredesen signed a petition asking the U.S. Office of Surface Mining to designate the ridge tops on all the state-managed lands in the area unsuitable for surface coal mining. Though the state owns the surface rights, the [[Tennessee Valley Authority]] and private coal companies own the mineral rights. If agreed to, the petition would not affect underground mining and would not prevent coal companies from surfacing mining below the ridge tops.<ref name=selc>[http://www.tennessean.com/article/20110124/NEWS01/110121048/-1/RSS0201/Cumberland-Plateau-placed-2011-Most-Endangered-Places- "Cumberland Plateau placed on 2011 Most Endangered Places"] The Tennessean, Jan. 23, 2011.</ref>
Of the 10 areas on this year's most endangered list, five areas are threatened by the impacts of energy production. Marie Hawthorne, the SELC's director of development, said that as the fastest-growing region of the U.S., the South has become a testing ground for decisions that weigh energy extraction and land development against long-term resource protection.<ref name=selc/>
==Proposed coal plants==
