ABSTRACT
This chapter shows what economics has to say about coal strip mining and attendant efforts to protect other natural resources. It argues that the private profit signals to which coal stripping firms must and should respond to maximize their profits are not adequate guides for maximizing social welfare. For the most part during the pre-war years the strip mining industry denied legal or moral responsibility for the effects of stripping. To formulate public policy for strip mining with the objective of increasing the net benefits to society, the place of strip mining in our socioeconomic system must be described. Air pollution is a relatively minor problem, confined to dust at some pits and to smoke from burning waste piles or coal seams. The chapter shows that benefit-cost analysis offers the most useful framework for making decisions about strip mine reclamation.
