EPA Permit Veto is an Assault on Appalachian Jobs

An interesting post from www.facesofcoal.org about mining in the United States. This follows this post about Alaska and Offshore Drilling.  This follows this previous post about the drilliling moratorium This follows this post  about a creative solution to Gulf drilling and this previous article about the recent news about the ban on offshore drilling to encourage American energy independence This is a key issue to prevent money from going to hostile countries such as Iran and Venezuela. For more posts like this click here.

EPA Permit Veto is an Assault on Appalachian Jobs

This week the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) took a drastic step against Appalachian coal jobs – the bureaucrats in Washington, D.C. revoked the Spruce No. 1 Mine permit – a permit that was lawfully approved by the EPA in 2007.




In the short term, hundreds of people will lose their jobs in southern West Virginia.



In the long term, thousands of miners across Appalachia could be at risk of being laid-off.



The revocation of the Spruce No 1. Mine permit is the act of a runaway regulatory agency that has no understanding of the economic, community and energy impacts of their decision and sets a dangerous precedent.



The permit vetoed by the EPA was a Clean Water Act Section 404 permit was issued in 2007 after a 10-year review in which EPA fully agreed and approved all provisions of the permit. The mine had been operating for three years before the EPA took its initial steps to revoke the permit.



The EPA’s veto will certainly have consequences for coal jobs, but the decision will also impact any group seeking a Section 404 permit.



“If EPA is allowed to revoke this permit, every similarly valid … permit held by any entity — businesses, public works agencies and individual citizens — will be frozen by increased regulatory limbo and potentially subject to the same unilateral, after-the-fact revocation,” says the Waters Advocacy Coalition, a group that includes the National Realtors Association, the American Road and Transportation Builders Association, the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association and the United Egg Producers. See the letter in The Wall Street Journal.



This move by the EPA is a job-killer. It’s an assault on Appalachia.



We need your help to stop it.



Please urge your lawmakers that this action will not stand – that EPA needs to reconsider its actions and come up with a common-sense energy policy that does not single out coal and destroy jobs.



TAKE ACTION now!



Thank you,



FACES of Coal



(Federation for American Coal, Energy and Security)