Coal companies sue EPA over mine permit delays

The National Mining Association, which represents most major U.S. coal mining companies, on Tuesday filed suit against the Environmental Protection Agency, saying it was unlawfully obstructing permits for coal mining operations in Central Appalachia.

EPA's delaying of mountaintop mining permits has jeopardized thousands of jobs and supply of a fuel vital to meeting national electric power needs, said the lawsuit, filed in the Federal District Court for the District of Columbia.

The NMA suit against EPA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers contends they have circumvented requirements for public notice and comment on federal statutes and ignored calls for "peer-reviewed science" as part of "a deliberate policy to substitute agency 'guidance' for formal rulemaking."

A spokeswoman said EPA is reviewing the suit, and added: "EPA's mining guidance is fully consistent with the law and the best available science and will help ensure that Americans living in coal country don't have to choose between a healthy environment for their families and the jobs they need to support them."

During the previous administration of George W. Bush, coal companies were essentially given free rein for mountaintop removal mining, as the coal friendly administration changed regulations and definitions in the clean water laws the coal companies could not comply with in mountaintop removal to allow valley fill to come closer than stipulated by the law to the streams and other waterways. These changes were done behind closed doors without input from the EPA or legislative review.

Since the Obama administration came into office, the EPA has put almost 200 permits in Appalachia for surface, or mountaintop, mining on hold for "enhanced review." That sparked complaints from mining companies that it was aimed at banning the technique, in which mines are dug directly into the side of mountains and debris is discarded in springs and rivers, destroying headwaters of many mountain streams and polluting those waters directly downstream.

"EPA has usurped authorities clearly granted to the states and other federal agencies and has used technical benchmarks for assessing water quality that are both arbitrary and capricious," the NMA suit said.

"Detailed agency guidance is not a valid substitute for lawful rulemaking based on public notice and comment," NMA president and chief executive Hal Quinn said in a statement.

"The agencies' continued abuse of the law to impose arbitrary standards on mining operations, state agencies and other federal regulatory bodies threatens the entire region with further economic misery and stagnant employment."

The NMA said EPA's action resulted in a de facto moratorium on coal mining "that is irreparably harming NMA's member companies, the welfare of coal communities and the economy."

It said a May 21 report by the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Minority staff stated nearly 18,000 new and existing jobs and more than 80 small businesses are jeopardized by the policy EPA and the Corps have applied to the 190 permits still awaiting action in mid-May.

Source:
Reuters, "Coal companies sue EPA over mine permit delays", accessed July 21, 2010

Environmentalists Roll Out National Ad Targeting Mountaintop Coal Mining

When most of us flip on the lights (or type into our computers, for that matter), we aren’t thinking about how those simple acts might affect those living in coal country. Yet nearly half of the country’s electricity is generated by coal, and increasingly that coal is being extracted not by removing the coal from the earth, but by removing the earth from the coal.

In Appalachia, that means blowing the tops off mountains to get at the coal seams inside — a process that cuts company costs, but also ravages neighboring communities, poisoning wells and waterways, contaminating air, killing off wildlife and flooding nearby homes. Leading scientists say the effects are irreversible.

This week, a coalition of Appalachian environmentalists launched a campaign they hope will mitigate the disconnect between the electricity Americans use and the devastating processes that keep it so cheap, unveiling a national TV ad that could bring mountaintop removal into living rooms nationwide. The idea is simple: If consumers knew they were contributing to the destruction of the country’s oldest mountains, perhaps they would demand an end to the practice.

For effect, the ad borrows from one of the most famous commercials in the history of television: Lyndon Johnson’s 1964 “Daisy Girl” spot, in which a young girl plucking flower petals looks up to see a nuclear explosion in the distance. In the MTR version, of course, the nuclear blast is replaced by the elimination of an Appalachian peak.

“These are the stakes,” the narrator says. “We can allow the land, water and people of Appalachia to be sacrificed. Or end mountaintop removal coal mining.”

If the explosions aren’t enough to captivate interest, the coalition has brought on Ashley Judd, a longtime MTR critic, as the narrator.

Source:
Washington Independent, "Environmentalists Roll Out National Ad Targeting Mountaintop Coal Mining", accessed May 26, 2010

From the Inbox: Shut down the largest MTR mine in West Virginia

	Tell the EPA to stop Spruce Mine Photo by Matt Wasson Dear Friend, This Spring, the Obama administration said it would take "unprecedented steps" to reduce the impacts of mountaintop removal coal mining (MTR). One of the first tests of their new approach to protecting Appalachia is the battle over the Spruce Mine permit. Arch Coal wants to make the Spruce No. 1 Mine the largest mountaintop removal site in West Virginia. Since the 1990's, Arch has proposed a mine site that would blow apart the mountain, bury more than seven miles of headwater streams, damage 2,278 acres of forest and severely pollute the water supply adjacent to the mine. Simply put, this is immoral and illegal. Please take action today and submit a public comment to the EPA in support of their veto of the Spruce Mine. The EPA has stated their intention to veto the Spruce No. 1 Mine permit. But before they will issue their final decision, they are seeking comments from the public. That means all of us! The coal industry is spending big money on this and lobbying hard, so we need your help to tell the EPA to listen to science, not corporate money. Support the EPA's veto of Spruce No. 1 Mine by submitting your public comment today. Thank you for taking action to protect our mountains. For the mountains, Amanda Starbuck Global Finance Campaign

'It Will Cause a Domino Effect'

It's about the economy. That was the message supporters of the largest mountaintop removal mining (MTR) site in West Virginia took to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Tuesday night during a public hearing at the Charleston Civic Center.

The hearing was to gauge the public's response to a possible veto of a water permit related to Arch Coal's Spruce No. 1 Mine in Logan County. Each speaker was given a strict two minute time limit to give his or her spoken statement.

Citizens like Debbie Thompson expressed their concern about their neighbors losing jobs at the mine and the potential effect that could have on their own employment.

"It will cause a domino effect," Thompson told EPA officials on stage. "I'm employed at the Logan County Board of Education and it will affect me and my coworkers eventually."

However, others applauded the EPA's decision saying the environmental effects of surface mining were too detrimental to the state. Junior Walker of Whitesville said he grew up with black water running from his faucets, and he didn't want to see future generations have that same experience.

"I'm just really glad the EPA has finally decided to stand up and be the Environmental Protection Agency instead of the Economic Protection Agency," Walker said.

Environmentalists like Danny Chiotis of the West Virginia Environmental Council also testified that the economic effects did not equal out to the environmental effects. He made the claim that many of the MTR sites in the state were not being restored. Only 1-2% of Mountaintop Removal sites (400,000+ acres in WV alone) are properly reclaimed or developed.

"Most of the sites are not being reclaimed. We're not developing these sites. What we're going to have is a flat West Virginia," Chiotis said.

The mine at issue is owned by an Arch Coal subsidiary. Mingo Logan Coal Co. was issued a water quality permit by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to mine the 2,300-acre Spruce site in early 2007, though a court fight has held up mining there.

The EPA wants to revoke the permit, which authorizes the company to create six valley fills for placement of excess spoil material, because mining at the site could damage downstream water quality. EPA has suggested the Corps failed to comply with clean water laws.

Those with the mine industry countered by saying that they were acting within the confines of the law and have been restoring the land properly. Bill Raney, President of the West Virginia Coal Association, told the EPA's representatives that the agency had overstepped its boundaries when it chose to revoke the Spruce permits.

"Revoking a permit that was lawfully issued almost three years ago with your agency's blessing after more than 10 years of the most comprehensive environmental review, again by your agency, is as troublesome, unnecessary, and arrogant as anything we've ever seen in West Virginia," Raney said.

The hearing Tuesday lasted nearly five hours with over a hundred speakers from West Virginia, Virginia, Kentucky, and Ohio. The EPA will also take written comments on the Spruce permit until June 1st. Those statements can be submitted online at www.regulations.gov.

Source:
West Virginia Metro News, "'It Will Cause a Domino Effect'", accessed May 19, 2010