Bill Raney, president of the West Virginia Coal Association, could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

Phil Smith, spokesman for the United Mine Workers union, responded that McCain has previously authored legislative proposals that would have harmed the Eastern U.S. coal industry.

"Anyone who is associated with the coal industry in Appalachia who thinks John McCain is a friend of coal is sadly mistaken," Smith said.

In the Senate, McCain has been a leading author of legislation to limit greenhouse emissions, a move that - without new technology to capture carbon dioxide discharges - would be a major problem for coal companies and coal-fired utilities.

Obama also supports a cap on carbon dioxide emissions, and both candidates have pointed to technology that would capture those emissions and bury them underground as the key to the coal industry's future.

Four years ago, Lovett's group commissioned a poll that found 56 percent of West Virginians oppose mountaintop removal.

Democratic pollster Celinda Lake, who conducted that survey, urged then-Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry to campaign in West Virginia against the Bush administration's efforts to weaken restrictions on mountaintop removal.

Kerry never took that advice. Instead, the Bush and Kerry camps traded barbs over which of the two would funnel the most federal money to "clean coal" programs to help limit power plant pollution. And, a group with ties to the Bush campaign ran television ads that attacked Kerry for his vote against an unsuccessful 1999 effort by Sen. Robert C. Byrd, D-W.Va., to overturn a federal court ruling that would have limited mountaintop removal.

McCain's comments were first reported on The Wonk Room, a political blog, by Brad Johnson, research associate at the Center for American Progress Action Fund.

Initially, McCain spokeswoman Gail Gitcho repeatedly said the candidate did not support a ban on mountaintop removal. But when video of his remarks in Orlando was posted on YouTube, Gitcho confirmed McCain's support for ending the practice and issued a short statement.

"John McCain has made it very clear that he is a strong support of coal and that clean coal is a vital part of his energy policy," Gitcho said. "He acknowledges that the coal industry has made and continues to make great strides to improve its extraction methods to be more environmentally friendly.

"John McCain is committed to continuing the discussion on new methods and new technologies that are both environmentally safe and bring our country closer to energy independence," she said.

In mountaintop removal, coal operators blast off hilltops to uncover valuable low-sulfur coal. Leftover rock and dirt is shoved into nearby valleys, burying streams. Between 1992 and 2002, strip-mining damaged 1,200 miles of Appalachian streams. And between 1985 and 2001, coal operators buried about 724 miles of the region's streams with waste rock and dirt, according to a government study.

Before the end of the year, the Bush administration is expected to finalize a rewrite of a federal stream "buffer zone" rule that would encourage more mountaintop removal. Another 535 miles of streams across the region are expected to be damaged under new permits issued between October 2001 and June 2005, according to the U.S. Office of Surface Mining, Reclamation and Enforcement. Roughly two-thirds of those stream miles - about 357 miles - will be buried altogether, according to the agency.

Reach Ken Ward Jr. at kw...@wvgazette.com or 348-1702.

Watch a video of McCain's comments

CHARLESTON, W.Va. - Mountaintop removal coal mining became a presidential campaign issue Tuesday, after Republican John McCain said he supports ending the practice and Democrat Barack Obama's campaign responded that he has "serious concerns" and also does not support it.

McCain told an audience in Florida that he favors stopping mountaintop removal, supports continuing other forms of mining, and wants the federal government to do more to control greenhouse emissions and other pollution from coal-fired power plants.

McCain was asked if he supports "eliminating mountaintop removal mining and the practices like that."

"You know, I do," McCain said, but then added, "I'm happy to tell you that I've seen a dramatic improvement in the behavior of the coal companies.

"They are doing a much better job," McCain said. "Now, it's not perfect, but it certainly is dramatically improved from what it was some years ago."

McCain's campaign initially denied that the candidate favored an end to mountaintop removal, but backed off that when confronted with video of his remarks during an appearance Monday in Orlando, Fla.

Coal industry critics welcomed McCain's remarks, and said that they hoped and expected Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama to join McCain in supporting abolition of mountaintop removal.

"I am extremely pleased that John McCain recognizes that it's time to bring mountaintop removal to an end, and I can't imagine that Barack Obama won't say the same thing," said Joe Lovett, director of the Appalachian Center for the Economy and the Environment. "This could be a very important moment for bringing to an end this practice that is so destructive to the environment of Southern West Virginia."

Last year, Obama had encouraged mountaintop removal opponents when he mentioned the issue during an August 2007 speech in Lexington, Ky.

"We're tearing up the Appalachian Mountains because of our dependence on fossil fuel," Obama said, according to a story in the Lexington Herald-Leader.

On Tuesday, an Obama campaign spokesman said the Illinois senator has said publicly that he does not support mountaintop removal.

"Senator Obama comes from a coal state and understands its importance to our economy," spokesman Dan Leistikow said in an e-mail response. "While he has serious concerns about mountaintop removal mining, he has proposed a major federal investment in clean coal technologies as part of his plan to build a new economy - saving and creating jobs in West Virginia and around the country while addressing the global climate crisis."

Mountaintop removal became a campaign issue just a week before a federal appeals court is scheduled to hear oral arguments in the latest in a series of court cases over the practice. And on Tuesday, environmental groups held a rally at the state Capitol to urge Gov. Joe Manchin to block Massey Energy from strip mining a Raleigh County site where they would prefer to see a wind-power facility built.

Bill Raney, president of the West Virginia Coal Association, could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

Phil Smith, spokesman for the United Mine Workers union, responded that McCain has previously authored legislative proposals that would have harmed the Eastern U.S. coal industry.

"Anyone who is associated with the coal industry in Appalachia who thinks John McCain is a friend of coal is sadly mistaken," Smith said.

In the Senate, McCain has been a leading author of legislation to limit greenhouse emissions, a move that - without new technology to capture carbon dioxide discharges - would be a major problem for coal companies and coal-fired utilities.

Obama also supports a cap on carbon dioxide emissions, and both candidates have pointed to technology that would capture those emissions and bury them underground as the key to the coal industry's future.

Four years ago, Lovett's group commissioned a poll that found 56 percent of West Virginians oppose mountaintop removal.

Democratic pollster Celinda Lake, who conducted that survey, urged then-Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry to campaign in West Virginia against the Bush administration's efforts to weaken restrictions on mountaintop removal.

Kerry never took that advice. Instead, the Bush and Kerry camps traded barbs over which of the two would funnel the most federal money to "clean coal" programs to help limit power plant pollution. And, a group with ties to the Bush campaign ran television ads that attacked Kerry for his vote against an unsuccessful 1999 effort by Sen. Robert C. Byrd, D-W.Va., to overturn a federal court ruling that would have limited mountaintop removal.

McCain's comments were first reported on The Wonk Room, a political blog, by Brad Johnson, research associate at the Center for American Progress Action Fund.

Initially, McCain spokeswoman Gail Gitcho repeatedly said the candidate did not support a ban on mountaintop removal. But when video of his remarks in Orlando was posted on YouTube, Gitcho confirmed McCain's support for ending the practice and issued a short statement.

"John McCain has made it very clear that he is a strong support of coal and that clean coal is a vital part of his energy policy," Gitcho said. "He acknowledges that the coal industry has made and continues to make great strides to improve its extraction methods to be more environmentally friendly.

"John McCain is committed to continuing the discussion on new methods and new technologies that are both environmentally safe and bring our country closer to energy independence," she said.

In mountaintop removal, coal operators blast off hilltops to uncover valuable low-sulfur coal. Leftover rock and dirt is shoved into nearby valleys, burying streams. Between 1992 and 2002, strip-mining damaged 1,200 miles of Appalachian streams. And between 1985 and 2001, coal operators buried about 724 miles of the region's streams with waste rock and dirt, according to a government study.

Before the end of the year, the Bush administration is expected to finalize a rewrite of a federal stream "buffer zone" rule that would encourage more mountaintop removal. Another 535 miles of streams across the region are expected to be damaged under new permits issued between October 2001 and June 2005, according to the U.S. Office of Surface Mining, Reclamation and Enforcement. Roughly two-thirds of those stream miles - about 357 miles - will be buried altogether, according to the agency.

Reach Ken Ward Jr. at kw...@wvgazette.com or 348-1702.