“Today was a good day for the 63,000 coal mining families of West Virginia. The decision by U.S. District Court Judge Reggie B. Walton to toss out another key part of the Obama Administration’s on-going war against coal mining in Appalachia is yet more proof that the administration’s regulatory assault is an egregious breach of the Constitutional balance of power between the federal government and the individual states.
“In his decision in the U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia, Walton tossed out the agency’s ‘final guidance’ document with regard to water conductivity standards. Walton said the EPA had ‘overstepped its statutory authority under the Clean Water Act and the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act and infringed on the authority afforded state regulators by those statutes.’
“Following so closely on the heels of the similar decision by Federal Judge Amy Berman Jackson with regard to the agency’s veto of the Spruce permit in Logan County and an earlier decision related to the enhanced coordination process – an illegal process by which the EPA tried to assert authority over the Corps of Engineers in the granting of Section 404 permits -- this decision clearly signals the agency has gone far beyond the limits established and intended by Congress. Taken together, these decisions effectively strike down all three of the primary components of the Obama EPA’s assault on Appalachian coal mining.
“It is time for the EPA and the Obama Administration to end this job-killing assault and restore the proper balance between the federal government and the states. It is time for the EPA and the Obama Administration to obey the laws passed by Congress rather than legislate through regulation. And it is far past time to put America back to work.
“We would like to thank Sen. Manchin for filing the suit while governor and Gov. Tomblin for following through and pursuing the suit to its now successful end. And we want to thank our coal mining families for standing with us as we continue our fight to put our people back to work.”
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