EPA Sharply Limits Mountaintop Mining

[babylonsister]

EPA Sharply Limits Mountaintop Mining
Environmentalists Cheer New Guidelines as Coal Interests Protest
By Mike Lillis 4/1/10 6:32 PM


The White House on Thursday took a giant leap toward eliminating new mountaintop coal mining projects in the Appalachian states, issuing strict new guidelines designed to protect headwater streams by curbing the practice of dumping waste in neighboring valleys.

Announcing the changes, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson said the guidelines are intended to make the standards governing new mountaintop projects “clear and consistent,” following a series of EPA decisions over the past year that stakeholders on all sides of the debate found contradictory.

Yet the practical effect of the new standards — which will require mining operations to control levels of toxins in nearby streams — will be to minimize, if not outright preclude, the dumping of mining waste in valleys adjacent to the projects. Because the coal industry maintains that most mountaintop projects wouldn’t be worth the additional cost of trucking the debris to more distant dumping sites, the guidelines — if properly enforced — could end most new mountaintop projects before they ever begin.

The move drew immediate criticism from the coal mining industry, which views the new environmental protections as a threat to profits and jobs. But it received high praise from one of the most powerful lawmakers in Appalachia, Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.), a one-time defender of mountaintop mining who more recently has turned a critical eye toward the practice.

more...

http://washingtonindependent.com/81245/epa-sharply-limits-mountaintop-mining

[vaberella]

1. Makes you wonder about the off-shore drilling.

Now I have to wonder that some of the others have it right when they say he has a plan on that.

In any event, this is great news and I'm excited by it. I was in fear coal was going to own us, but he's done good here.

[Kdillard]

2. k and r. I like when the EPA does its job.

[CBR]

3. K & R nt

[yowzayowzayowza]

4. Oh noes, that war mongering corporate stooge fooking up again.

Doomed we are. DOOMED!!! Woe is me.

[nyc 4 Biden]

5. bravo! kayandare

[DevonRex]

6. K&R nt

[TheKentuckian]

7. Mountain top removal should be outright banned

I appreciate tougher standards but they are a Republican President from being overlooked even if properly enforced at the moment and the damage done is fucking vile.

The practice is raping the earth and poisoning living breathing people, animals, and flora. The groundwater contamination is appalling and the cancer rates are frighting. I'm very doubtful that this can be done in anything resembling a responsible manner regardless of regulations.

Hopefully, this will kill the practice but some how I'm very dubious of anything being properly regulated with big carbon over any length of time.

Make it so but be prepared for all out war with these assholes if you actually constrain them in a meaningful way.

[awoke_in_2003]

8. The people of Appalachia...

have been shit on for years- unfortunately, it probably won't end soon.

[Kingofalldems]

9. K and R for the teabaggers

[ClarkUSA]

10. Where are all the "Obama = Republican" critics now?

:shrug:

[SpartanDem]

11. K&R