State of Play: Mountaintop mining battle escalates
A bipartisan group of coal-country lawmakers is pressing the Obama administration not to block a major West Virginia mountaintop mining project — a campaign that could foreshadow wider energy and environmental battles next year.
House members from West Virginia, Kentucky and Virginia — including the incoming chairmen of the House Appropriations Committee and a key Energy and Commerce Committee panel — wrote to President Obama on Friday expressing “deep concern” over EPA’s potential veto of the Spruce No. 1 mine’s permit.
A senior EPA official recommended a veto in October but a final decision has not been made.
The letter says the possible nixing of the mine, in concert with EPA’s tougher line on mountaintop mining in general, “are having a chilling effect on the coal industry in Appalachia
Rockefeller, Manchin hit EPA on mine permit
Across the Capitol, West Virginia’s Senate delegation sent EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson a letter Monday that says an EPA veto of the Army Corps of Engineers’ permit for the Spruce mine would be a “devastating blow” to economic recovery efforts.
“A unilateral decision by EPA to revoke a permit after the permit was lawfully wrote Democratic Sens. Jay Rockefeller and Joe Manchin.
Read more:
http://thehill.com/blogs/e2-wire/677-e2-wire/134573-overnight-energy-
