Supreme Court review sought in MTR case
Environmental groups announced today that they are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review the latest federal court ruling on mountaintop removal coal mining.
Lawyers from Earthjustice and the Appalachian Center for the Economy and the Environment filed this petition. They want the Supreme Court to review a 4th Circuit Court of Appeals decision that overturned a ruling by U.S. District Judge Robert C. Chambers.
Citing the “alarming cumulative stream loss” to valley fills, Judge Chambers had ruled in March 2007 that the federal Army Corps of Engineers failed to conduct proper environmental reviews before issuing Clean Water Act permits for valley fills. In February, the 4th Circuit ruled that Chambers wrongly did not defer to the Corps’ own judgment on those environmental reviews.
Earthjustice attorney Steve Roady said:
This case is of great national importance. The Corps of Engineers is ripping the heart out of the Clean Water Act by granting permits that allow coal companies to permanently entomb vital streams in the rubble of exploded mountains. The destruction caused by mountaintop removal mining is enormous and the adverse impacts on local communities are profound. We’re asking the Supreme Court to hold the Corps accountable.
In a statement, Earthjustice and the Appalachian Center noted the dissents in the 4th Circuit ruling by Judges J. Harvie Wilkinson, Diana Gribbon Motz, and Blane Michael, which said:
…The requirements of the Clean Water Act are important. It is often easier in the short run to diminish natural resources, but then environmental degradation is so often the product of short-sightedness. Our circuit is experiencing this first-hand. West Virginia is witnessing in the Appalachian headwaters the long, sad decline that Virginia and Maryland have seen with the Chesapeake Bay. Once the ecologies of streams and rivers and bays and oceans turn, they cannot easily be reclaimed. Most often than not, the waterway is simply gone for good.
11 comments
Risky given the current court and its history of rulings on the CWA?
The risk is in, standing on the sidelines and continue to allow these greedy maverick coal barons destroy Gods creation in return for a promised Wal-Mart, golf course or an airport to service a Senator or Congress Person. If we Appalachians wanted flat land we would move to Central Kentucky. “Save our Appalachian Mountains, do it with a DEEP MINER”
People forget that coal and coal mining brought people into southern WV. If coal had not existed in souhtern WV there would have been nowhere near the number of communities founded and started in the area as there were or still are. Also if coal mining stopped tomorrow and the mining jobs and mining support jobs disapeared, as the would, how many communities would be left to “protect”? I argue not very many, maybe just the towns of the county seats. By the way the issues the “environmentallist” use to say surface mining valley fills are bad to the environment also impact deep mining because you still need storage area for the material you remove from a deep mine face up. Not to mention construction of haulroads which in many cases require some type of valley fill in southern WV. Not to mention valley fills for new highways (King Coal Highway) or other developement sites for housing, malls, etc.
Come on JM2. I was just wondering when someone would get around to blaming everything on the Underground Coal Miners. I agree that when a deep mine is faced up that there is a certain amount of the mountain that must be removed. In many cases, this part of the mountain is not shoved over the side of the mountain to cover up any stream, damage the property of anyone that living near the underground mining site. Most of the overburden is used for stacking the timbers and other supplies that will be needed for the underground mining.
I know that what little blasting is done now in underground mines surely will not cause any fly ash or dust of any sort to rain down on the people below the mine.
Underground mines that have been worked out and all the pillars removed that can be safely taken without the loss of a coal miners life are then used in some cases to plant and farm mushrooms.
With all the other dangers that a underground miner must face such as (slate falls, mine explosions, black lung just to name a few), why are they now going to be blamed for taking the tops off of the mountains.
Just put the blame on the true destructioneers, and leave the TRUE COAL MINER alone. How many so called strip miners would even dare to work underground if they were to lose their big high paying jobs with MTR mining barons?
Actually, I agree. This is extremely risky. After the Kensington Gold Mine case in Alaska (see Coeur Alaska, Inc. v. Southeast Alaska Conservation Council), which was lost in a 6-3 vote, the chances of winning are extremely small, and the cost of losing is extremely high. Once a case like this is decided by the high Court, the chances of reversal are small to nil. I admire their moxy for trying, but let’s be smart about this. We need to pass the Clean Water Protection Act, and we need to reverse/ undo the regulations like the fill rule, SBZ rule, and Nationwide Permit 21. The deck is stacked against the Clean Water Act the way the current regs are written and the way the statute has allowed for the loophole to be opened. The CWPA must close that loophole in order for there to be no more room for “uncertainty” in the interpretation of the Clean Water Act.
Again, I admire them for trying, as prior to the Coeur Alaska case I think I would have done the same thing. But the precedent has been set, and we know how this is gonna go. The Court may not even grant the cert, as they may cite the Coeur case as precedent. The only difference is that was a lake, and here we are talking about streams, but it’s all waters of the United States.
Well, what choice do we have? The 4th Circuit has already ruled against us. If we don’t go ahead with this we lose, and we may lose again, but at least the people who care about our state will have done all they can do. I say go ahead and at least try. My parents taught me to never give up or lose hope. That is all that keeps me going.
If we lose the case in the US Supreme Court, we can still hope that new laws will be passed in Congress that will put a stop to this madness.
If coal mining had never come to W.Va. we’d be nothing but better off. We would have figured out something just like other states have. We’re next door to one of the most consistenly prosperous states in the Union, yet we’ve used coal for a crutch and it’s held up back instead of pushing us up and forward. While Virginia prospers, we languish and cling to coal like a three year old to the teet.
Coal companies have done nothing but abuse this state and its people. The lions share of coal revenue goes out of state and we’re left with its devasting effects. Instead of looking forward to ways to ween ourselves from coal dependency, we cling to coal like an victim to its abuser - sort of a societal Stockholm syndrome.
People who made buggy whips for a living moved on and we should too.
Nanette: we do have a choice. As I mention above, I think all policy and legal efforts should be focused on passing the Clean Water Protection Act. This is the most secure, long-term solution to closing the loophole and putting the court on our side. We have to fight smarter, not harder. Sometimes you have to go slow to go fast. Passing the CWPA will get the dominoes in line to fall. The climate in the Congress is MUCH better than on the Supreme Court. Sotomayor is replacing Souter, who voted on the losing side of the Coeur case, so the deck has not changed since her appointment.
If we lose, of which there is a 98% likelihood, then all future court cases will continue as they have in the past. In the meantime, Joe Lovett will have spent a lot of his resources fighting a legal battle that prolongs the passage of the CWPA, which is the real solution.
As I said, there is nothing wrong with wanting to fight, and I admire and respect all who fight MTR, particularly the groups involved in this case. But if we want to win, we have to get smarter and think about what is really going to work. I’ve stated here what I think the winning strategy is.
Coal as an asset to Appalachian people? The proof is in the pudding: West Virginia citizens had the lowest median income of any state in the U.S. ( http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/income/income04/statemhi.html ). Kentucky was number 44. The industrial might of this nation was built on the backs of Appalachia, its land, its coal and its people. We apparently have very little to show for it. It’s time we say no.
OK, folks…this isn’t an open thread. Talk about the Supreme Court case here … try to keep on point.
Ross I agree that going to the US Supreme Court is risky, and I also agree and commented on the hopes that Congress will make laws that will stop this kind of destruction.
My hope is that in the interim of waiting on the decision of the court that MTR will be slowed or stopped until legislation can be passed.
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