to get the mineral is patently untrue it's patently untrue when you look around at the forested melton's that we have a recent environmental impact statement from the e.p.a. estimates over eight hundred square miles of mountains of already been destroyed this includes the permanent destruction of over four hundred fifty individual mountain summits across the region the report also indicates the permanent loss of over twelve hundred miles of mountain streams. although federal regulations for mine reclamation require that mountaintop removal sites be returned to their original contour these mines are routinely granted wavers mined areas are typically graded and then hydro seeded with less bodies or grass which clings to the compacted shale and rock that now makes up the topsoil nature builds soil for free but she creates the soil very slowly and so you're talking about thousands of years to go from something like a rock mass that has essentially no soil just a very thin covering up to generate a few centimeters of soil you're talking about hundreds to thousands and tens of thousands of yea

here's abc's rob melton. >> good morning. we begin your "moneyscope" report with a debate over the government's role in helping finance. treasury secretary tim geithner says the government will continue to play a part in the mortgage market. he says government support is important to make sure that americans can borrow at a reasonable interest rate to the buy a house even in a downturn. many argue that the government needs to have a more limited role, including phasing out mortgage finance giant fannie mae and freddie mac. retailers are finding deep discounts are not enough to get customers to open wallets these days. wal-mart found steep price cuts have not been enough to bring the people into the stores. and retailers including home depot and amber crom by and fitch are lowering details for the year. customers could see even bigger savings. kfc wants the chicken to get back to its finger-licking roots. they're suing the parent company to regain control of its advertising strategy. they blame the recent focus on grilled chic