Mountaintop removal “Mountaintop removal is really hard to comprehend. It is so alien to the human experience.” Vernon Haltom’s words are measured, possibly from explaining his work many times before. “When I first heard the term mountaintop removal, I didn’t think that it was something that bad. I just thought it was taking the very top off of a mountain. But mountaintop removal mining is like going to the barber and asking that a little be taken off the top and then you wind up being decapitated.”