Citizens fight possible appointment of career Interior official to be top strip-mine regulator

Citizens in the Appalachian coalfield fear President Obama "has abandoned both of the two good candidates" to head the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement "in favor of an OSMRE insider, perhaps acting director Glenda Owens," Ken Ward Jr. of The Charleston Gazette reported in his Coal Tattoo blog. Tonight he reports that Obama may be close to nominating Owens, who is unacceptable to citizens' groups because of her track record at the agency, which Ward lays out in damaging detail.

Nominating Owens, left, would keep Obama from having to choose between competing candidates from Kentucky and West Virginia, the states most concerned with strip mining. Ward reports the citizens calling the Interior Department in an organized campaign are asking for either of those hopefuls: Lexington lawyer Joe Childers and West Virginia University law professor Pat McGinley. The campaign is directing calls to Renee Stone, deputy chief of staff to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar. Her phone number is 202-208-6133.

In another post, titled "Credibilty for OSM(RE)?", Ward excerpts heavily from a Lexington Herald-Leader editorial and notes that it didn't pick a candidate, as the Gazette did with McGinley. "What Obama must not do is appoint anyone from inside OSM or the coal industry," the newspaper said. "OSM has suffered from a cozy relationship with the industry since the Reagan years."

Meanwhile, Ward also reports that the Environmental Protection Agency "lodged objections to three more mountaintop removal mining permits that the federal Army Corps of Engineers was prepared to issue. Two of the mines in question are in West Virginia, and the third in Virginia." (Read more) And Ward sees a change in attitude of U.S. Rep. Nick Joe Rahall, whose West Virginia district is a hotbed of mountaintop mining. Read about it here.