(Photo by Vivian Stockman, Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition)
Since I posted a very rough estimate of the mountaintop removal permits pending at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (See Flood of mine permits at Corps), citizen groups have been digging deeper. They wanted to figure out what might happen now that the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has overturned a ruling by U.S. District Judge Robert C. Chambers to require more detailed reviews of valley fill permits.
Their conclusion?
Permits pending at the Corps could result in the burial of more than 218 miles of streams in Southern West Virginia and Eastern Kentucky. The damage would be done by more than 100 permits, covering more than 63,000 acres — nearly 100 square miles — and including 441 valley fills.
I’ve posted their list — compiled by Margaret Janes at the Appalachian Center for the Economy and the Environment – here.
Coal industry officials have been understandably pleased with the 4th Circuit’s ruling. But they’ve also offered conflicting views on whether the Chambers decision — if it hadn’t been overturned — was really such a bad thing for coal mining (See Massey: Chambers ruling wasn’t so bad).
During the presidential campaign, then-candidate Barack Obama voiced opposition to mountaintop removal. But so did his Republican opponent, John McCain. And neither of them really explained exactly what they would do about the practice if elected.
Citizen groups and environmental organizations have been publicly urging the new Obama administration to stop mountaintop removal. And now, some representatives of those organizations are privately asking officials at various agencies — primarily the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency — to step in and slow down what could be a flood of new permits coming out of the Corps’ office in Huntington, W.Va.
“We compiled this list to give to the new administration so it would understand the scope of the problem,” said Joe Lovett, the Appalachian Center’s director. “We hope the new administration will understand how devastating this queue of permits will be to Southern West Virginia and Eastern Kentucky.”
It’s obviously very early in the Obama administration, and it could be months before one key position on mountaintop removal — director of the U.S. Office of Surface Mining, Reclamation and Enforcement — is even filled. But his EPA administrator, Lisa Jackson, has had time to jump on the climate change issue, and coal industry opponents had to be angered by the president’s use of the phrase “clean coal” during his nationally televised speech last night.
[UPDATED:
I asked EPA for a comment on what -- if any -- actions they planned to take regarding the long list of permits Lovett gave them. Recall that during the Clinton administration, EPA got involved in closely reviewing Corps and WVDEP mining permits, and delayed several large mining operations until the companies involved agreed to reduce the size of their valley fills.
In response, EPA spokeswoman Enesta Jones noted that parties to the 4th Circuit case (a ruling by a three-judge panel) still have time to seek rehearing by the entire circuit. Jones added:
The Corps remains the lead federal agency for making permitting decisions under Clean Water Act Section 404.]
[UPDATED, Feb. 26 --
Margaret Janes has provided a slightly updated version of their spreadsheet, with several mines removed from the category of those held up by litigation.
The changes reduce the stream miles filed to 213 and the acreage covered by pending permits to just under 60,000 acres, or about 94 square miles. I've posted the updated list here.]
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According to The Sierra Club … which has constant daily contact with the The U.S. Dept.of Energy … Mountaintop Removal coal from Appalachia contributes an astronomical 4 -( FOUR ) percent to the current U.S. electricity generation !!!
If this 4 percent contribution is accurate ,
the ABSENCE of Mountaintop Removal coal in our nations power plants would not even be noticed !!!
The ” lights ” and all our computers would still be on … as well as all residential , governmental , industrial , and commercial electricity in this country !!!
To continue destroying ( FOREEVER ) ….thousands upon thousands of acres of southern WV & eastern KY for this level of energy contribution is simply shockingly unjustifiable ….
and is nothing more than greed – induced insanity .
Ken ward, you hate coal so much, lets see on your blog pictures of the alternative energy sources you AND the gazette have set up so you don’t have to use this evil resource.
May everyone against one of our state’s biggest employers freeze in the dark. I hear what the Sierra Club and all the other tree huggers say, but they never have any reasonably comparible alternative. Oh sure, put up wind farms. I can only imagine how many of those things it would take to equal one coal fired power plant.
If all that electricity WERE coming from renewables, more people would be employed than are employed by the coal industry. And if the true price of coal (in terms of destroyed ecosystems, disrupted lives, health effects and on and on) were reflected in the price of electricity, we WOULD be getting more of our electricity from renewables.
phixer & Go-Coal -
The true problem is how the coal is mined. I’d rather use a method that employs more people and leaves the original landscape of the state intact. Mountaintop removal mining is fine and dandy until it’s happening in your community or on the ridge behind your house.
Never dreamed that there would be so much corporate coruption involved in trying to kill out a culture of people. Shame on the 4th circuit and shame on the ones in the industry that tend to think that they and their families are the only ones that need for anything.
Our families have always {for hundreds of years} survived on what is now being destroyed for coal and energy.
Whats wrong with the people in WV? We have allowed an industry to pit us against one another while they get away with all the weatlth. This isn’t only my land, water and future its all of ours. In the words of a 7th grade student that done her social studies report on MTR. {Her report by the way won first place in county. }
Whats going to be left for us?”
Nothing thats what!
When coal gets done with this place there won’t be a need for us to have lights and power there won’t be anything left.
Coal makes WV go Everywhere….
Clean Green coal is a lie
Carbon neutral coal is a lie
Lets try some truth now…
The lies are old and people simply are not that stupid…. We know we have been sold off to the highest bidder…
The updated list of coal permits is inaccurate. Some of those permits have been issued and have been moving coal for a good while.
KDS — If you know of particular permits, please list them, so all readers know what you’re talking about. Ken.
I guess we won’t see ken ward or the gazette’s pics of their alternative energy sources.
What amazes me is the apparent lack of civics knowledge held by the people who dislike mountaintop removal/valley fill. Congress passes the laws that the Executive enforces, and the Judiciary makes rulings based on those laws, remember? If one wants something like mining permitting to change, one has to get Congress to draft, deliberate on, and pass laws. But for some reason they prefer to picket, criticize agencies that don’t see eye-to-eye with them, and excoriate judges when rulings don’t go their way.
I saw something like this in college in the 70′s – protestors for every kind of cause who accomplished nothing because they didn’t really attempt to change the system, they were just out with their network of like-minded buddies on a nice day. Rain or snow at college? No protestors. At least these folks are more dedicated – but still accomplish nothing, because they ignore the right way to do it, or won’t accept that Congress is perfectly happy with the status quo.
Jason Go to WWW. Coal is Dirty.com Check out what Mr Scott Parkin has to say about coal Seems taking coal out of the fuel mix at the capitol coal plant is not enough Its about ALL coal plants ,ALL coal mines,the natural gas terminals, the oil refineries and the rest of the fossil fuel infrastructer! Sounds like they want much,much more than MTR stoped to me.
[...] reviewing the February decision by the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, and examining a flood of pending permits at the corps office in [...]
[...] reviewing the February decision by the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, and examining a flood of pending permits at the corps office in [...]