The Register-Herald, Beckley, West Virginia

Editorials

March 4, 2010

Stimulus?

When one environmental agency looks at what another is doing — and sounds an alarm — it should serve as notice that something is really amiss.

And while it’s no secret that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is systemically trying to shut down West Virginia as we know it by targeting the mining industry, the concern has expanded to the point where maybe we won’t have any businesses at all due to water quality issues.

Wednesday, West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Randy Huffman told state lawmakers the EPA is considering water quality standards that are so stringent “runoff from a parking lot” would be in violation, let alone operating a strip mine, deep mine or other industrial or farming site.

“The debate is not any longer about mountaintop mining,” Huffman told the Senate Energy, Industry and Mining Committee. “It’s about water quality. It does relate to surface mining, but it relates to underground mining, other types of mining and other types of industrial activity. The driver is water quality and it affects everything we do.”

Discussion on the issue has been essentially nil when it comes to the EPA. Huffman went on to tell lawmakers in Charleston that the EPA has effectively left the West Virginia DEP out of the loop, along with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Sen. Mike Green, D-Raleigh, chairs the Senate panel which Huffman addressed, and on Thursday he called the EPA’s actions “unsettling to say the least” and acknowledged that the EPA’s current interpretation of the Clean Water Act is a direct attempt to circumvent the permitting process for mining and other industrial operations.

At a time when putting American people back to work and creating new jobs is being championed in Washington, it sure seems like stimulating employment opportunities in West Virginia is at the bottom of the current administration’s priority list.

Text Only
Editorials
  • It’s not a choice

    Whether a bill to eliminate tolls on the West Virginia Turnpike when the current bonds expire some eight years from now is passed by the Legislature and signed into law or not, one thing is absolutely certain — the state Transportation Department has the responsibility to maintain that 88-mile stretch of Interstate highway.

    February 3, 2012

  • On the shelf

    A Senate bill (SB168) offered by 13 of the upper chamber’s members that would have given counties the option to boost the pay of county commissioners, sheriffs, county and circuit clerks, assessors and prosecuting attorneys by at least $10,000 each has apparently been shelved and will do nothing but draw dust this legislative session.

    February 2, 2012

  • The time is now

    Drug abuse.

    February 1, 2012

  • Rarified air

    Bolen takes his place among coaching elite

    January 31, 2012

  • Nail ’em

    Kudos to Peck and her Sophia police force for going after tire vandals

    January 29, 2012

  • Thumbs — Saturday, Jan. 28, 2012

    January 28, 2012

  • Vote buying? No problem

    Another antiquated state law, and a subsequent West Virginia Supreme Court ruling made nearly nine decades ago, has put the spotlight on an election in the Mountain State for the wrong reasons, yet again.

    January 27, 2012

  • Being competitive

    Tomblin’s trip to Houston
    the right thing for W.Va.

    January 25, 2012

  • A shining star

    Landau Murphy proof of what those who persevere an achieve in life

    January 24, 2012

  • Another sickening drug abuse tale

    Another sickening tale that is being linked to the continuing drug abuse epidemic came out of Charleston late last week when details were released on how copper thieves broke into the concession stand at the Eccles Little League baseball fields a few months back and wreaked havoc on the place.

    January 22, 2012