American Coal Concert Series Launched - Coal News

4
June 2010
Administration is Using CWA to
Dismantle Coal Industry
The Obama Administration is using
the Clean Water Act Section 404
permitting process to dismantle
the coal industry in the Appalachian
region. This is one of the investigation
findings of the Senate Environment and
Public Works Committee Minority Staff
Analysis released by Sen. James Inhofe
(R-Okla) ranking member of the committee.
The report says that after a thorough
investigation of the 235 coal mining
404 Permits that were under review by
EPA as of May 11, 2009, the investigation
found that their obstruction is having
an deleterious effect on rural jobs,
energy production, and small businesses
in Appalachia.
Since the initiation of the investigation,
EPA issued 45 of the 235 permits,
which allowed these projects to move
forward. The investigation, which
included gathering information from
EPA, as well as conducting detailed
interviews with permit applicants, found
that the remaining 190 coal mining
operations tied up at EPA are expected
to produce over 2 billion tons of coal
throughout the life of operations and
support roughly 17,806 new and existing
jobs, as well as 81 small businesses.
To put this in perspective, unless EPA
Senate Minority Report
releases the remaining 190 permits,
roughly 1 in every 4 coal mining jobs in
the Appalachian region will be at risk of
elimination, 81 small businesses will
lose significant income and will be at
risk of bankruptcy and over two years of
America’s coal supply will be in jeopardy.
These impacts hit especially hard
in West Virginia and Kentucky, where
the majority of the delayed mining operations
are located. EPA’s actions, or lack
thereof, will also impact other
Appalachian states, including Ohio,
Pennsylvania, Virginia, Tennessee, and
Alabama, according to the report.
If EPA continues to maintain its hold
Types of Mining Blocked by Adminstration
on Kentucky’s permits, the state will
lose an estimated $127 million in tax
revenue annually. In fiscal year 2008-
2009, Kentucky’s coal industry generated
$282 million in tax revenue for the
state. West Virginia also greatly benefits
from coal revenue. If EPA continues to
maintain its hold on West Virginia 404
Permits, the state will lose an estimated
$217 million in tax revenue annually. In
fiscal year 2009, the West Virginia coal
industry generated $533 million in tax
revenue for the state.
Of particular note, is that the investigation
also revealed the Obama
Administration’s broader agenda to
drastically curtail coal mining in
Appalachia. For decades, the environmental
community has politicized
mountaintop mining by exaggerating its
environmental impacts and stoking
unfounded fear in mining communities.
The investigation shows that the
Administration is exploiting this fear as
a means to block all coal mining operations
in the Appalachian region.
According to the report, the
Administration’s public statements
regarding their review of the 190 mining
permits, including the June 2009
Memorandum of Understanding
between the White House and several
federal agencies, and a variety of press
statements throughout the course of
2009, appear to address mountaintop
mining only. The June 2009 press statement
alone included sixteen references
to “mountaintop mining” while only
mentioning “surface mining” four times
in that same statement. The investigation
found that these statements are
highly misleading. As shown in the figure,
in blocking the 190 coal mining
permits in Appalachia, the
Administration only halted 19 actual
mountaintop mining operations. The
remaining 171 blocked mining operations
included a range of surface,
underground, and refuse operations.
“The report confirms that EPA is
threatening the highest paying jobs in
the region at a time when federal, state,
and local governments are all attempting
to pull this country out of the worst
economic recession in decades,” said
NMA President and CEO Hal Quinn.
“EPA’s policies undermine those efforts.
Coal mining jobs are vital to the economic
and social fabric of communities
throughout Appalachia, and the lawful
permits EPA continues to review are
necessary for continued employment at
nearly 200 operations throughout the
region.”
EPA Spruce No. 1 Hearing Draws Hundreds
West Virginia Gov. Joe
Manchin and Rep. Nick
Rahall (D-WVa) strongly condemned
EPA’s actions on the proposal
by EPA to prohibit or restrict mining
activities in streams associated with
the Spruce No. 1 Mine in Logan
County, West Virginia at a pre-hearing
rally arranged by the Friends of Coal
and FACES of Coal.
About 1,000 coal mining supporters
participated in the EPA hearing in
Charleston, West Virginia on the first
Clean Water Act (CWA) permit the
agency has ever proposed to fully
revoke years after its issuance. The
Spruce No. 1 permit for a surface mine
in Logan County was issued in 2007
after an extensive 10-year review,
including preparation of an
Environmental Impact Statement. EPA
announced earlier this year that it was
starting the process to suspend the
permit.
There were about 100 supporters
who spoke at the hearing on the
Spruce project, including local elected
officials, education leaders, and community
members representing churches,
schools, small businesses, and
others. About 40 opponents of the
Spruce Permit, largely comprising
EPA Panel Listen to Speakers
environmental extremists, participated
in the hearing.
“Revoking this permit that was lawfully
issued almost three years ago,
with your agency’s blessing, after
more than ten 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,” said Bill Raney, President,
West Virginia Coal Association. “I
think if you dig deep and honestly
answer the common working man’s
definition of environmental justice,
you’ll find this threat by EPA, your
agency to revoke this permit without
any reason, to be wrong.”
John McDaniel of Arch Coal said his
company cannot investigate in the
Spruce mine if the EPA can reject the
permit at any time. “We believe all of
these issues were addressed long ago
and are very disappointed.”
“West Virginia has been implementing
its version of the Clean Water
Act for decades, issuing permits that
contain some of the nation’s most
stringent discharge limits to protect
water quality standards, standards
many states have chosen not even to
adopt,” added Chris Hamilton, Senior
VP, WVCA. “West Virginia’s implementation
of its water quality standards in
permitting programs was unchallenged
by EPA for years, or until the
federal agency sought to hijack the
state’s primary responsibility for water
quality protection by interpreting the
state’s own water standards, and
doing so in such a way that conflicts
with the state’s own interpretation.”
“This situation would be a laughable
exercise in regulatory dysfunction if it
were not so serious, that a federal
agency would use state laws and regulations
as a hammer to take a permit
endorsed by that very state. The EPA
would seek to avoid millions of hours
of analysis and review by the Corps in
the issuance of the project-specific
EIA,” said Jason Bostic, VP, WVCA.
“This is serious situation. Hundreds of
jobs are at stake, millions of dollars of
investment, millions of dollars in
potential tax revenues, and the faith
and participation of the communities
in and around the Spruce mine. The
very communities that EPA somehow
thinks they are protecting by hijacking
their ability to control their own destiny.”
Logan County School
Superintendent Wilma Zigmond drew
applause when she told the panel that
coal provides more than $7.5 million
in property taxes for her district.
“Consider the losses, both financial
and emotional, and the impact this
would have to Logan County School
System. Remember coal keeps the
lights on and our schools running.”
Several speakers traveled a considerable
distance to attend. Kentucky
Coal Association Bill Bissett blasted
the EPA. “Your director, Lisa Jackson,
literally says I don’t care about the
economic impact. It’s unfair and it’s
wrong. It’s an injustice.”
Bill Reid, Managing Editor, Coal
News, quoted EPA’s mission, “to protect
human health and to safeguard
the natural environment,” adding he
said “if mines are closed, poverty,
sickness, and mental health problems
occur which is the very opposite of
EPA’s mission, “to protect human
health.” Reid raised point four of EPA’s
purpose, which includes the words
“economic growth.” “If mines are
closed, this is hardly “economic
growth” and it is once again exactly
the opposite of EPA’s mission statement,”
said Reid.