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… Read more »
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!
. Top EPA water official resigns (The Hill) Jan. 14, 2011 – Peter Silva, the top water quality official at the Environmental Protection Agency, is leaving EPA next month. EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, in a memo to staff on Friday, said Peter Silva is stepping down as assistant administrator for water and will return to his home and family in California. “During his tenure, Pete has led a wide range of important actions to help protect the water we drink and safeguard the health of millions of Americans,” Jackson said in the memo. Silva began the job in late July… Read more »
. Comment in Charleston Gazette “I was born in Welch, WV, in the heart of coal country, 67 years ago. The coal industry has forever touted the “trickle-down” benefits of its environmental rape of the state: Jobs, jobs, jobs (and money to politicos’ re-election accounts). What is the result? One of the poorest states in the country, next to Mississippi. Where has the promised money gone? Out of state to Arch Coal’s owners, not to the people of WV. I left the state after graduating WVU because of the crushing poverty that is everywhere. The pervading sense of helplessness poisons… Read more »
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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.". President Barack Obama, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson and Peter Silva as assistant administrator for water have as tasks … Cleaner water is one of the hallmark achievements of the Environmental Protection Agency, which President Richard M. Nixon and Congress created in 1970. Industrial waste and sewage sludge is no longer dumped into coastal waters, as they once were, and the nation has invested $75 billion-plus on municipal sewage treatment facilities since the passage of the original Clean Water Act in 1972. The EPA issues the permits that allows those facilities to operate. The Office of Water also deals with… Read more »
. “Change”-ing the Appalachians: Obama EPA approves 42 of 48 mountaintop removals Diary by Brendan – May 18, 2009 In the EPA letter to Rahall, acting assistant administrator Michael H. Shapiro explained: “I understand the importance of coal mining in Appalachia for jobs, the economy and meeting the nation’s energy needs. I also want to emphasize the need to ensure that coal mining is conducted in a manner that is fully consistent with the requirements of the [Clean Water Act], the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act, the National Environmental Policy Act, and other applicable federal laws.” « click … Read more »
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… Read more »
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.