I looked around briefly and I didn’t see much attention being paid to this in the blogosphere:
In a decision that could have a major impact on both the mining industry and the Obama Administration’s relationship with conservatives, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced today that it was vetoing the largest single mountaintop mining removal permit in West Virginia history. In using its authority under the Clean Water Act to block approval of the proposed 2,300-acre Spruce No. 1 Mine in Logan County, West Virginia, the EPA will earn praise from greens—including some from the Appalachians—who have long fought mountaintop mining as a destructive practice that ruins the environment and the health of those who live near the mines. But the agency will undoubtedly face a backlash from the mining industry and the West Virginia politicians—both Republican and Democrat—who defend it, at a time when the EPA is already on a collision course with business and conservatives over proposed greenhouse gas regulations.
Is it really that hard to give the Obama administration credit when they take courageous decisions?
West Virginia’s two Democratic Senators, Jay Rockefeller and Joe Manchin, vented their own frustrations today in D.C.; Rockefeller fired off a letter expressing “outrage” to President Obama and Manchin pledged in a statement “to do everything in my power to fight this decision.”
Keep in mind what Sens. Rockefeller and Manchin are supporting.
According to the EPA the Spruce Mine would:
Deposit 110 million cubic years of coal mine waste into streams
Fully bury more than six miles of high-quality streams in Logan County in millions of tons of mining waste resulting from the dynamiting of more than 2,200 acres of mountains and forests
Eliminate all fish, salamanders and other wildlife that live in those streams
Pollute waters downstream from those buried streams, leading to unhealthy levels of salinity and toxic levels of selenium, turning fresh water into salt water.
Cause downstream watershed degradation that will kill wildlife and increase susceptibility to toxic algal blooms.
Rockefeller and Manchin are expressing outrage that these horrible things are not going to be done to their beautiful state. How fucking twisted is that?
Congress is probably going to pass a law stripping the EPA of its regulatory authority because they don’t like it actually enforcing the Clean Water Act. That’s right…our government really is filled with complete assholes. Hopefully they won’t be able to override the president’s veto.
The 112th Congress: to the right of Richard Nixon.
this indeed was a big deal. bravo to the WH
I live in the coal fields and constantly hear about EPA and the war on coal.
Mountain Top Removal is a horrible way to mine coal, but its cheap. It also operates on such a thin margin, if the price of coal drops a few cents, operators walk away from the sites and leave any reclamation for the next guy or the govt.
However, what many don’t realize (both in and out of the area) is that mountain top removal is only profitable if you break the law. To follow the law creates an overhead that is too high. EPA negotiated with Arch for a year to make their Spruce Creek operation “near” federal standards but they refused. I don’t doubt they looked at the numbers and decided it was cheaper to shut down, put people out of work and whine to the media.
Come on, Boo!! It was actually the top diary at TGOS for a good part of the day yesterday.
Rockefeller and Manchin should save their beautiful state and get busy creating jobs other than coal and the training that would go with those jobs. What a shame that they are so determined that their constituents spend their days breathing coal dust!
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"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence.".
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence.".
In your article should read:
– Disposed of 110 million cubic yards of coal mine waste into streams.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence.".
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence.".
Perhaps some change has happened as EPA works with the mining industry to change production en be more concious of the effects on the environment. Nevertheless, all politicians pocket lots of funds from the mining companies and leaving their constituents in the poorest living conditions.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."Let’s have this discussion. These are corporate polluters, plain and simple.
It’s like, the free market works, according to them, only if it has the un-questioned right to indiscriminately destroy the sources of the material well being it supposedly creates.
As long as someone profits right this second, sufficient to buy up a part of the governing apparatus for it’s private use, it’s apparently ok for so-called economic development to leave a black scar on the land. The land was here before them and will be here after them. Where will all these civic-minded coal barons be when the coal is tapped out? When they’ve daisy-cuttered most of the landscape in the region? Opening branded golf/gambling lux-restorts in the small pockets of un-poisoned land?
You’re kidding right?
Where would “credit” come from? Teabaggers, “true progressives”, and the media are all entrenched in their Obamacandonoright narratives. Neither will let anything else into what they say. Ever. No reason to even ask.