EPA blocks mountaintop removal.
By on Mar 24th, 2009 at 2:56 pm
EPA blocks mountaintop removal.
In a major reversal of Bush policy, “mountaintop coal-mining permits are being put on hold until the projects’ impacts on streams and wetlands can be reviewed,” the Environmental Protection Agency announced today:
Citing its regulatory role under the Clean Water Act, the EPA said the letters stated that the projects “would likely cause water quality problems in streams below the mines, would cause significant degradation to streams buried by mining activities, and that proposed steps to offset these impacts are inadequate.”
A midnight regulation by the Bush administration attempted to make permanent its policy of permitting coal companies to strip the tops off of Appalachian mountains and bury watersheds with the waste.
Update "Lax rules by the Bush Administration have made mountaintop removal an American emergency," JW Randolph of Appalachian Voices tells ThinkProgress. "Today, the people of Appalachia are celebrating."
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Hooray!
March 24th, 2009 at 2:57 pmgosh – but the mainstream media told me that Appalachia did not like Obama…
March 24th, 2009 at 2:57 pmCommon sense – how refreshing.
March 24th, 2009 at 2:58 pmFinally.
March 24th, 2009 at 2:59 pmPraise Jebus!
I’ve been waiting for a stop to this hideous practice for a long time.
But they’ll probably review it and say it’s a-ok so remove away.
March 24th, 2009 at 3:01 pmOMFG! Thank you, new administration!
Now, if y’all can find coal on a ranch in Crawford, have at it! And don’t worry about destroying the land… Bush has demonstrated that he’s down with that.
PEACE
March 24th, 2009 at 3:06 pmHear that sound?
…mouth-breathing, knuckle-draggers are scratching their heads in unison…
March 24th, 2009 at 3:07 pmAlejandro Says:
But they’ll probably review it and say it’s a-ok so remove away.
March 24th, 2009 at 3:01 pm
_________
Let’s see. Remember – this is an administration that’s pledged to fix the policy around the science, not the science around the policy. This is going to be the first big test of that, and I’m anxious to see how it turns out. I’m optimistic.
March 24th, 2009 at 3:08 pmThat is so great! It is so beautiful in that area, and then you see these tremendous scars on the mountains. I could never figure out why they did not require these companies at minimum to replant what they destroyed.
March 24th, 2009 at 3:12 pmEvery time President Obama corrects one of the millions of criminal acts against nature perpetrated by the Bush Mafia, it brings to light how much more there is to undo!
March 24th, 2009 at 3:20 pmlarkohio Says:
I could never figure out why they did not require these companies at minimum to replant what they destroyed.
March 24th, 2009 at 3:12 pm
_________
Replant what? The soil’s probably too toxic tp allow trees to regrow…
March 24th, 2009 at 3:20 pmrefreshing that the EPA is finally doing its job (again). YOu really have to wonder what was the Bush agenda? Could that guy just have been a dupe of the real power behind the Republican cabal. We need investigations; I’ll give him some time to do what he needs to do with the economic crisis, Iraq and all the rest of the urgent things in front of him, but Bush crimes must be addressed.
March 24th, 2009 at 3:20 pmI have a question:
March 24th, 2009 at 3:28 pmHow did the Bush Administration expect to make a change like that permanent? Is there a trick that would thwart the Obama Administration from undoing it? Or were they operating in the hop;e that no one would notice?
TP, if you can go into a bit of detail on the process, I for one would appreciate it.
Repubuscum don’t understand the relationship humans have to have with their environment…
…they just don’t have the brains to get it…
…repubuscum are a blight on the planet.
March 24th, 2009 at 3:30 pmNow if we can just tear down that mountain of bullshit Bush built.
Dating myself; does anyone recall Zappa’s ‘Billy the Mt.’?
March 24th, 2009 at 3:33 pmprogress, inch by inch …
March 24th, 2009 at 3:42 pmKlatu Says: 16
Just another stupid troll post by an ignorant moron who never has anything to say that doesnt kill braincells out of sheer toxic ignorance.
March 24th, 2009 at 4:03 pmScientists are finally coming out from hiding.
March 24th, 2009 at 4:08 pmThis is the best news I’ve heard all day!!
March 24th, 2009 at 4:32 pmKlatu/Utalk is typical of the ReichWing wackos; ‘Nature is here only for our benefit, we owe nothing to it in return’.
‘I will get mine, Cheney you and all our future generations.’
Must suck to be that blindly selfish.
March 24th, 2009 at 4:33 pmDon’t feed the trolls, please. Let them feast on their own shit.
March 24th, 2009 at 4:56 pmIt’s not so much about the leveling of a “mountain” (they are usually hills). It’s about what happens to the land below when you blow the living hell out of a mountain. Streams are all clogged up, avalanches of debris wipe out anything in their path, and the people and animals that live around there have to live with the fallout. It’s total crap, but the coal companies own West Virginia where most of this happens.
March 24th, 2009 at 4:58 pmI guess this shows what happens when you don’t put the foxes in the henhouse (Like x-coal lobbyists, oil and gas execs, etc).
March 24th, 2009 at 5:03 pmI’d be all for ‘removing mountain tops’ if the companies doing it were required to use their backyards to accept the debris. Judging from the extent, they could probably use their Republican buddy’s yards as well.
Starting with GW and Dick. I wonder how they would look with a mountain top for a hat?
March 24th, 2009 at 5:46 pmI saw a map on DK the other day which showed that Appalachia is consistently one of the reddest voting areas of America.
Ya think they might finally realize which side their bread is buttered on ?
March 24th, 2009 at 6:13 pmI know their good at denying global warming, but how do you deny a mountaintop was once there when everyone’s seen it?
I didn’t think it was possible for any idiot to show up and argue this point, but then klatu showed up. Still waiting for his spaceship once the earth is uninhabitable I guess.
March 24th, 2009 at 6:40 pmVery good news!
March 24th, 2009 at 7:46 pmNot so fast. We’ve done been “clarified.”
Haven’t seen any more than this, but this is pretty disturbing all by itself.
In the meantime, WV Gov. Joe (”D”-Manchin Family) Manchin is on his way to D.C. to “persuade” the Obama Admin that we MUST keep destroying Appalachia for his pals in the coal industry. By “pals,” I mean family, and by “family” I mean “Joe.”
His Department of Environmental Permitting just renewed a permit for a Mountain Removal operation smack dab in the middle of our tourism country, with a job site that affects both the New and Gauley Rivers.
For those unfamiliar with WV politics, please understand: we don’t have Democrats and Republicans here; we have Coalocrats and ReCoalicans. Ordinary people have precisely NO representation. We are, in fact, a third world country situated in the middle of the Eastern United States.
March 24th, 2009 at 10:38 pmCiting its regulatory role under the Clean Water Act, the EPA said the letters stated that the projects “would likely….
March 26th, 2009 at 5:36 amrent a car rent a car
cause water quality problems in streams below the mines, would cause significant degradation to streams buried by mining activities, and that proposed steps to offset these impacts are inadequate.” arac kiralama
March 26th, 2009 at 5:38 am
I AM A 29 YEAR OLD SURFACE COAL MINER. I AM ACTUALLY A SUPERVISOR. I MAKE OVER $80,000 ANNUALLY AND LOVE MY JOB. I LIVE IN THE APPALACHIA MOUNTAINS AND LOVE MOUNTAINTOP REMOVAL. HOW CAN YOU PEOPLE WISH FOR OTHER AMERICANS TO BE LAYED OFF OF THEIR JOB IN THE TIMES WE ARE FACING? DO YOU REALIZE THERE ARE MORE SURFACE MINES IN WV THAN UNDERGROUND MINES. DO YOU REALIZE THAT SURFACE COAL IS 80% DIRECT SHIPPED AND NEVER SENT THROUGH A PREPERATION PLANT AND UNDERGROUND MINES COAL THAT IS 100% WASHED THROUGH THE PREPARATION PLANT. SURFACE MINES ARE LESS HARMFUL TO THE ENVIRONMENT. UNDERGROUND MINES PUSH FRESH AIR INTO THE MINE AND PUSH OUT METHANE GAS WHICH IS MORE POLLUTANT THAN CO2. DO YOU REALIZE THAT THE EARTH’S CORE IS ACTUALLY 1 DEGREE COOLER THAN IT WAS IN 1980? YOU PEOPLE KNOW LITTLE ABOUT COAL MINING! JUST BECAUSE YOU CAN SIT AROUND AND GET A CHECK FROM THE GOVERNMENT AND GET AID TO GO TO SCHOOL ALL OF YOUR LIFE DOESN’T MEAN EVERYONE ELSE CAN. COAL IS ONE OF THE INDUSTRIES NOT SUFFERING MAJORLY FROM THIS RECESSION AND YOU ENVIRONMENTALISTS ARE WANTING TO SHUT IT DOWN. SOME OF THE BEST PAYING JOBS FOR PEOPLE WITHOUT COLLEGE DEGREES ARE IN THE COAL INDUSTRY.
March 26th, 2009 at 1:37 pmUmm, this story is a bit of an overstatement. The EPA clarified this after everyone started misreporting it.
The EPA’s release says:
March 26th, 2009 at 4:30 pm