Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility and other environmental groups have spoken out against President Barack Obama's nominee to lead the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement. Obama chose former Pennsylvania mining regulator Joseph Pizarchik to head the office, a decision that environmental groups see as a failure of the administration to follow through on campaign promises to reform mining regulations, the Environmental News Service reports.
Asked about mountaintop removal during his conformation hearing, Pizarchik cited the rarity of the practice in Pennsylvania and said he wasn't familiar enough with it to make a policy statement. He promised to learn more about the perspectives of all groups involved in the moutaintop removal debate if confirmed, ENS reports. PEER also objects to Pizarchik's advocacy of disposing industrial coal ash in coal mine sites. The Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources has yet to vote on Pizarchik's nomination.
Beverly Braverman of the Pennsylvania non-profit the Mountain Watershed Association wrote against Pizarchik's nomination because because of several environmentally dangerous policies that had expanded under his watch in Pennsylvania, ENS reports. "We need a consensus builder and someone who thinks outside of the box to help solve this nation's energy challenges, not someone who totes the company line regardless of the impacts," Baverman wrote in a statement. (Read more)
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