U.S. Rep. Morgan Griffith, R-Va., said Walton’s ruling is an important step in stopping the EPA from making up “illegal processes designed to withhold mining permits.”
Last week’s ruling by U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton is a victory for the coalfields of southern West Virginia and Southwest Virginia.
Walton’s partial summary judgment in the National Mining Association’s lawsuit against the Environmental Protection Agency and its administrator Lisa Jackson concluded that the EPA overstepped its statutory authority by holding up 29 surface mining permits at coal mines in West Virginia and Kentucky. The National Mining Association challenged a 2009 decision by the EPA to coordinate reviews of backlogged surface mining permits with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Surface mining permits have slowed dramatically under the Obama administration creating great uncertainty for coal miners and their families during the toughest of economic times for our nation.
In fact, only two such permits have been approved since the first of this year, according to West Virginia Coal Association President Bill Raney.
Raney said the ruling by the federal judge reinforces what the coal association has been arguing for more than two years — if President Barack Obama was truly concerned about jobs and committed to job creation he would be eager to get coal miners back to work.
We agree. How is holding up mining permits — and keeping hundreds if not thousands of miners out of work — helping the nation’s unemployment rate? The answer is simple. It isn’t. It’s only making a bad situation worse.
Mining operations across the Mountain State are ready to hire miners, according to Raney. However, they can’t put the miners back to work without the permits being approved by the EPA.
Federal lawmakers appear united in their fight against the EPA.
U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., called the ruling a great day for West Virginia. He said the federal court’s decision puts the Mountain State on a path to getting more permits approved, and more miners back to work.
U.S. Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., said Walton’s ruling confirms that the EPA and Jackson went too far in attempting to stifle coal mining jobs.
U.S. Rep. Morgan Griffith, R-Va., said Walton’s ruling is an important step in stopping the EPA from making up “illegal processes designed to withhold mining permits.”
“The EPA seems to think its mission is to make it increasingly difficult for the U.S. to tap into its domestic energy resources, including coal, oil and natural gas,” Griffith said last week.
West Virginia Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin said the EPA and the Obama Administration exceeded the authority granted to them by Congress to regulate water quality in the Appalachian Basin.
While welcomed, it is important to remember that Walton’s ruling is only one small victory in what appears to be a long fight ahead. Coal is still under attack. Coal mining jobs are still threatened. The Obama administration still appears stubbornly determined to advance green energy at the expense of the nation’s most abundant and reliable source of energy — coal.
