The Register-Herald, Beckley, West Virginia

Editorials

April 1, 2010

Long overdue

Time to reel EPA in

 

Let’s see if we have this straight.

A coal company files for a surface mine permit. It goes through the various state and federal regulatory agencies.

The process takes 13 years, going back to the Clinton administration. It is, according to Mingo Logan Coal Corp., a subsidiary of St. Louis-based Arch Coal, “the most scrutinized permit in West Virginia’s history.”

Finally, in 2007, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers issues a water quality permit for the Spruce No. 1 mine in Logan County. The company invests millions of dollars in equipment. Miners are hired at top wages and benefits. Production begins.

Then along comes the Obama administration, no friend of coal, and openly so. The Environmental Protection Agency, now filled with Obama appointees, says it wants to exercise its authority under the federal Clean Water Act to review the permit further. (As a side note, the EPA also decides to hold up other pending permits for further review, about 20 of them in West Virginia.)

After further review, the EPA announces it is moving ahead with plans to veto the permit — the first time the agency has done so since 1972.

This is not an April fool’s joke. We wish we could say it is.

This is another blow to the coal industry in West Virginia, the latest in a series of actions by an administration that can’t seem to grasp the importance of coal as a major energy source for the nation and can’t seem to understand the implications its decisions will have on the economy of the Mountain State and the livelihoods of people who work in the industry, either directly or indirectly.

The state’s elected leaders used terms such as “unjustified,” “unconscionable,” and “unfair,” in reacting to the EPA’s latest move. West Virginia Coal Association President Bill Raney was more blunt, saying, “It is beyond understanding how the EPA, especially in these tough economic times, can play regulatory games and revoke a permit that has been issued for three years and where men and women are working and coal production has already started.”

The proposed veto is subject to a 60-day public comment period, and Raney is encouraging elected officials and coal miners “to participate vigorously in the public hearing and input process that will follow this disappointing announcement from EPA.”

But rhetoric doesn’t seem to work with this EPA. It’s now clear that the state’s congressional delegation must use its collective power to convince other lawmakers in Washington to pass legislation reining in the EPA.

West Virginia’s future is at stake. No agency in a democratic government should have the kind of power the EPA is now exercising.

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