The Obama admin reversed a Bush-era decision and blocked the W.Va. mine permit on Thursday. EPA pulls coal mine permit

The Obama administration Thursday reversed a Bush-era decision and blocked a bid to build one of the largest mountaintop removal coal mines in Appalachian history.

For the first time, the Environmental Protection Agency is revoking a permit already issued, taking back its approval for Arch Coal’s Spruce No.1 mine in southern West Virginia. EPA said the mine would cause unacceptable damage to local waterways and public health.


EPA’s decision is a major victory for environmental groups, who have fought against the mine since it was proposed more than a decade and cements agency administrator Lisa Jackson’s status as their environmental hero. The George W. Bush administration had approved the Clean Water Act permit in 2007.

“In sharp contrast to the previous administration’s policies on mountaintop removal coal mining, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson is showing a strong commitment to the law, the science and the principles of environmental justice,” Sierra Club executive director Michael Brune said today. “She deserves enormous credit for changing policies to protect Appalachia’s health, land and water.”

But EPA’s critics are vowing to battle the decision in the courts, Congress and the White House.

Joe Manchin, West Virginia’s new Democratic senator, vowed Thursday to do everything in his power to block EPA’s move, calling it a “shocking display of overreach.”

The industry is launching an all-out assault on the agency as well. Arch Coal, which needs the permit to discharge rock waste it generates while mining, says EPA lacks the authority to retract the permit and is fighting the agency in federal court. And a coalition of groups ranging from the National Mining Association to the Farm Bureau wrote to White House Council on Environmental Quality chief Nancy Sutley Wednesday asking her to overrule EPA.

The veto is the latest step in EPA’s crackdown on water pollution from mountaintop removal mining. The agency in 2008 blocked the Army Corps of Engineers from issuing nearly 80 permits for proposed Appalachian mines – saying they needed additional review to comply with the Clean Water Act – and in April, the agency introduced a new, tougher standard for obtaining permits.

The crackdown has been tremendously controversial in Appalachia, where the coal industry wields considerable political and economic clout.

Regional candidates from both parties across the region blasted the agency on the campaign trail, and Republicans picked up a handful of House seats – and nearly knocked off heavy favorite Manchin in a special Senate election – in part by tying Democrats to what they described as the Obama administration’s “anti-coal” agenda.

EPA insists it is not cracking down on coal, it is just enforcing Clean Water Act standards that the previous administration neglected.

“Coal and coal mining are part of our nation’s energy future,” EPA Assistant Administrator for Water Peter Silva said today. “We have a responsibility under the law to protect water quality and safeguard the people who rely on clean water.”