Federal judge blocks blanket permitting of mountaintop-removal strip mines

The regulatory noose on mountaintop-removal strip mining tightened again this morning. Eight days after the Environmental Protection Agency objected to some mountaintop-mining permits and suggested it might try to block them, a federal judge in West Virginia ruled today that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers can no longer use a blanket process to issue such permits until it fully examines the environmental impact of such a process.

District Judge Joseph Goodwin wrote, "The loss of thousands of miles of streams in Appalachia over the past twenty years, and the loss of over 200 miles of streams in West Virginia alone vividly illustrates the impacts associated with mountaintop mining." For a copy of the decision, click here.

When Goodwin issued a preliminary ruling in 2004, coal companies began applying for individual permits "more frequently ... than the streamlined process" under a "nationwide permit," reports Ken Ward Jr. of The Charleston Gazette. "But the ruling is still another blow to the coal industry, and a victory for citizen groups who are fighting to reduce or eliminate mountaintop removal." (Read more)