Gov. Manchin told MetroNews today he talked with top White House adviser Valerie Jarrett last week to request a meeting with President Obama over the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency‘s scrutiny of mountaintop removal mining.
“They have promised that we’re going to be able to sit down with the president, hopefully, with the top political people, whether it be David Axelrod or Rahm Emanuel or whoever,” he said.
Manchin is beyond mad about the EPA’s move to veto a Clean Water permit for Spruce Mine, the state’s largest ever mountaintop-removal mine. He said the agency has gone “way out in orbit” and “I’m going to pull them back.” And he’s called its decision to review other permits “cruel and inhumane.”
“Knowing their intention of wrecking havoc on the economy and the lives of the people of our state is not something I’m going to tolerate,” he said today of the EPA. “And I will do everything humanly possible to bring that to their attention.”
But the governor also told mountaintop-removal protestors at the Capitol today he can’t get involved with specific mine permits, as Ken Ward reports on Coal Tattoo.
“I can’t get involved in permits,” he told them. “It goes through the process and I respect that process.”
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[...] Blogs @ The Charleston Gazette – » Manchin wants to meet with Obama on EPA blogs.wvgazette.com – view page – cached Gov. Manchin told MetroNews today he talked with top White House adviser Valerie Jarrett last week to request a meeting with President Obama over the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s… (Read more)Gov. Manchin told MetroNews today he talked with top White House adviser Valerie Jarrett last week to request a meeting with President Obama over the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s scrutiny of mountaintop removal (Read less) — From the page [...]
go joe!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Now is not the time to sit on the fence and be wishy washy with the lives of so many on the line. Why does the state not work with these miners all miners to improve this situation instead of taking their livelihoods. All they are asking is to be able to provide and take care of our MOST VALUABLE RESOURSE. OUR CHILDREN. West Virginia has one of the highest poverty levels in the country, so who will feed all these children when their parents loose their jobs. The miners will gladly follow EPA’s reasonable guidelines, if they would just make those guidelines clear and stop playing games or are they profiting from this? They have proven clean coal technology and they have proven MTR development is alive and well. It is not left some big wasteland with poisoned water that can never be used again and killing our babies. They have used the excuse of lizards, water that I have fished from after but I wouldn’t before, they have used bats, and other wildlife that I see more poachers destroying than any mine. So basically what the EPA and the activists that have no idea what they are spewing their lies and poison about, is that a mountain that is unusable and is clear cut to use for roads and shopping malls is more imporant to the WHOLE nation than our childrens lives. Those same mountains that they will have to flatten and clear cut for wind energy, wood burning energy. Solar panels that emit gasous fumes, or maybe they want neuclear power and waste in our neighborhoods, because they don’t want it in theirs. So I ask all of our Political Figures that have been voted in for the betterment of our state, to DO YOUR JOB! Protect WV and all the children that depend on jobs and coal to live.
Can you believe how arrogant MoJo is? Besides, who is he trying to fool? He only wants to have a meeting with Obama so that he can get his foot in the door for Byrd’s (who really needs to step down) seat or to try to convice Obama to appoint MoJo as head of the EPA, so that he can control one of the agencies that is taking money from his pockets!!
Well, well, so now our great Governor has decided to intervene with President Obama and change the course of the USEPA’s decision about the permits.
Mr. Joe speaks with forked tongue. He just gets through tellings the anti-MTR protesters that he can’t get involved. He must let the law take its course.
As I said before, it is who wants him to get involved that matters. Also he is more than mad about what Obama is doing to this great State of WV. Also Mr. Joe says not to forget the children and the strip miners.
I am sure that Mr. Manchin will accomplish what Byrd, Rockefeller and Rahall could not do. When Joe speaks, even President Obama will sat up and take notice.
eastwood78, I was just about to post what you said. He tells the people who met with him in his office that he couldn’t get involved in the permitting process, and there he goes jetting off to DC on our tax dollars to try to intervene for King Coal. Just like you said, Joe speaks with a forked tongue!
[...] has been requesting a meeting for some weeks now, and while he didn’t get the one-on-one he was asking for he was certainly in a room of his close [...]
[...] Also interesting was that Rockefeller said that the White House meeting West Virginia leaders are seeking doesn’t have to be a face-to-face with President Obama — something Manchin had previously sought. [...]
[...] months, West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin has been angling for a one-on-one meeting with President Obama to complain about the administration’s crackdown on mountaintop removal and about climate [...]
[...] Manchin had been angling for months for a one-on-one meeting with President Obama, thinking that he could persuade the president to [...]