EPA Yanks Permit for Coal Mine -- and Ticks Off the Anti-Gummint Forces
The EPA managed to add considerable fuel to the already inflamed anti-gummnit control crowd by having the gall to do its job. The agency revoked a clean-water permit to dispose of mining waste after determining that the proposed mine would destroy streams, kill wildlife and pollute downstream water sources.
Coal industry advocates, cattlemen, egg producers -- even real-estate agents -- are now leaning on the go-to "sets a dangerous precedent" and job-killer arguments, which can be wildly effective at goading U.S. lawmakers into taking unnecessary action. There's already a push to strip away the EPA's carbon regulatory powers; why not add its authority of regulating pollution in waterways to the list?
Certainly, the coal industry deserves some regulatory stability. And the proposed mine owned by Arch Coal would have employed 250 workers. But to couch this as some unstoppable power trip that threatens every coal mining job as well as other industries that have been issued clean-water permits is mere fear-mongering.
Meanwhile, EPA's critics have chosen to ignore the facts at hand:
- The agency made the decision after new scientific research uncovered major environmental concerns -- including the fact that the project would bury more than six miles of high-quality streams with millions of tons of mining waste from dynamiting more than 2,200 acres of mountains and forest; and pollute downstream waters.
- The EPA tried for more than a year to get Arch Coal to make changes that would decrease the environmental impact.
- This is only the second time in nearly 40 years the EPA has used the clean water law to revoke a permit -- and the first time it's been used to stop a coal mine.
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