Ashley Judd: Requests an end to mountaintop mining

Ashley Judd: Requests an end to mountaintop mining

Golden Globe nominee Ashley Judd is calling for an end to the mining practice known as mountaintop removal.

40-year-old actress Ashley Judd was among some 500 people who gathered outside the Kentucky state Capitol on Tuesday for a rally in support of legislation that would essentially end the practice of blasting away mountaintops to unearth coal.

This native from Kentucky was a two-time Golden Globe nominee, whose screen credits include "De-Lovely" and "Kiss the Girls", says she visited mountaintop removal sites last September.

Judd said that, she was unprepared for the destruction she saw.

Ashley Judd described "barren moonscapes" and "nothingness" where Appalachian peaks once rose skyward.

A democratic state senator from Lexington, Kathy Stein, is sponsoring legislation that would bar coal companies from filling valleys with the soil and rock from the mountaintops.