Post calls mountaintop mining the most bitter environmental fight in U.S.; EPA on the hot seat

David Fahrenthold of The Washington Post has a good situation piece today on the increasingly contentious issue of mountaintop coal mining in Central Appalachia. His focus is the new major player, the Environmental Protection Agency, which he reports has "signed off on only 48" of the 175 permit applications in West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee and Virginia. He sums up the issue in a way we haven't seen before: "EPA officials ... say they're just following the law. That, they say, means keeping poisonous things from the inside of a mountain out of streams on the surface."

But those on both sides of the issue say EPA has "appeared contradictory and mysterious, signing off on some mines and blocking others. Environmentalists are unhappy because they fear federal officials are losing their nerve to take on the powerful coal industry. The coal industry is unhappy because it thinks the administration is on the brink of giving in to the green crowd. To each side, it looks like the EPA hasn't made up its mind. Which would make now the time to yell as loudly as possible."

Fahrenthold recounts recent protests and calls for calm, and adds important national perspective: "The EPA finds itself in the middle of the most bitter in-your-face environmental fight in America today, facing an early test of its resolve and political skills. The agency appears certain to bear much of the weight of carrying out Obama's historic environmental agenda." There's much more in the 1,372-word story, including a telling quote from Peter Silva, assistant EPA administrator for water, repsonding to calls for "clarity" from EPA: "The notion of ‘clarity’ invoked by some West Virginia officials and industry representatives has too often meant letting coal companies do as they please, with little or no consideration for the harmful impacts on Americans living in coal country."

"That’s an unusually straight-forward response from a federal agency, Ken Ward Jr. of The Charleston Gazette, writes in this post on his Coal Tattoo blog. Ward still leads the reporting on the issue. Prompted by EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson's remark to Rolling Stone magazine that redefining "fill material" mainly because of toxins released by Alaskan hard-rock mining could also "curtail" mountaintop mining, Ward got from EPA a statement saying the agency and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which issues fill permits (subject to EPA veto, threatened but never used) are working not only on the definition but on its interpreptation and implementation. Ward calls that"potentially huge news" but cautions, "We’re a long way from knowing if this is a big deal." (Read more)