"For the first time a state government has submitted a petition to the federal government to set aside state-owned mountain ridgelines as unsuitable for coal surface mining.

Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen and the state of Tennessee Friday filed a petition with the Department of Interior's Office of Surface Mining, asking that the agency initiate a study and public dialogue on the suitability of state-owned lands in the Northern Cumberland Plateau for surface mining, also called mountaintop removal mining.

Much of the 500 miles of ridgeline covered by the petition is part of Tennessee's 2007 Connecting the Cumberlands conservation initiative and is located in Anderson, Campbell, Morgan and Scott counties."

Environment New Service had the story October 4, 2010. [2]