One tool that the Bush Team used to approve MTR projects was an expedited permit process: Obama suspended this expedited process last week. Instead, new surface coal mines in Appalachia are now required to obtain individual Clean Water Act (CWA) permits, which generally involve greater scrutiny and input from the public, and this often means trouble for MTR.

There are two primary permits available for MTR under the CWA: an individual permit or a Nationwide Permit (NWP). If a project might have a significant environmental impact -- such as the MTR impacts of decapitating mountaintops, burying streams, killing ecosystems etc. -- then an individual permit is required and it will often require the preparation of an EIS. Individual permits also require public hearings so that interested parties (often environmental groups and citizens in the area of the proposed project) may evaluate and comment on the environmental impacts of the proposed project.

The NWP, on the other hand, is designed to regulate categories of activities on a nationwide basis in a streamlined process. These NWPs are supposed to be limited to activities that will only cause minimal adverse environmental effects on both an individual and cumulative basis. Despite this standard, an NWP #21 was issued for valley fills (dumping of tons of mining waste into streams that literally bury the stream and suffocate the ecosystems) and surface impoundments. In 2004, a court enjoined the use of NWP#21 for valley fills and surface impoundments, but was vacated by the Court of Appeals.

By suspending the NWP for MTR, Obama has increased the likelihood that an EIS will be required for the MTR mining. This is no small accomplishment because recently an EIS was required for a huge MTR project but it might be the first "specific mountaintop removal proposal" to be required to prepare an EIS.

The EIS is a vital process to protect our natural resources and our health. Based on this EIS, the EPA last May, proposed for the first time issuing a veto of a MTR mine that already had received one federal permit. The reason for the veto is the significant environmental impacts disclosed by the EIS.

The sleazy Bush days of ignoring the rule of law are being reversed, step by step.

Other news in tonight's Climate Change News Roundup:

BP NEWS

BP OIL GUSHER IMPACTS ON WILDLIFE & OCEAN CRITTERS

CLIMATE CHANGE & ENERGY

Hot Times in Antarctica: The "world's polar regions are warming up faster than the global average, but the western edge of the Antarctic Peninsula is especially steamy. Over the past 50 years, winter temperatures have shot up by an almost unbelievable 6°C--more than five times the global average, according to a paper just published in Science."

Major climate decisions may come from ozone treaty: "The obscure round of U.N. ozone treaty talks in Geneva, which few people are following, laid the groundwork this week for a possible decision in Uganda in November to halt the promotion of hydrofluorocarbons, or HFCs, which are manmade chemicals not found naturally in the environment, and are considered greenhouse gases."

WATER & NATURAL RESOURCES