Charleston Daily Mail - January 14, 2011

CHARLESTON, WV--West Virginia political, union and business leaders fumed Thursday after federal environmental regulators revoked a permit for a massive mountaintop mining operation in Logan County.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, in a long-expected decision, vetoed a 4-year-old permit for the Spruce No. 1 mine, which is owned by an Arch Coal subsidiary.

The EPA, which has stepped up its enforcement of mountaintop mining operations since President Barack Obama took office last year, said after a 15-month review that the project would simply do too much damage to the environment.

"Today's EPA decision is not just fundamentally wrong, it is an unprecedented act by the federal government that will cost our state and our nation even more jobs during the worst recession in this country's history," Senator Joe Manchin, D-WV.

“I’m not going to say it’s political, but it’s a stance they have taken policy-wise that I think is extremely harmful to the United States of America and definitely to West Virginia. This is not just an assault on the coal industry. It's an assault on every job market in the U.S. economy. It might be West Virginia and the coal industry today. It will be your industry tomorrow." Senator Joe Manchin, D-WV.

The following statement is from Kentucky Coal Association President Bill Bissett in response to the Environmental Protection Agency’s announcement today that the Spruce Mine Permit in West Virginia has been vetoed.

LEXINGTON -- “Today’s action by Administrator Lisa Jackson and the EPA is not surprising, but it is unfair and unprecedented,” said Bissett. “By vetoing an existing federal water permit that was approved by the federal government previously, you have appointed bureaucrats literally throwing coal miners out of work. Hundreds of Kentucky coal operations and thousands of our miners depend on these same permits to go to work every day. Additionally, every other worker who depends on a federal permit for his or her livelihood - from agriculture to road construction - needs to pay attention to this veto. Today’s action by the EPA sends a clear message that following the law means nothing to this administration. It is our hope that our elected leaders in both Kentucky and Washington will hold these bureaucrats accountable for their actions and work to protect Kentucky jobs and our economy.”

MetroNews - January 13, 2011

Senator Joe Manchin issued the following statement on Thursday, after speaking with EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, about the EPA's decision to pull the permit for the Spruce No. 1 Mine:

Senator Joe Manchin today voiced his strong opposition to the unprecedented decision by the Environmental Protection Agency to retroactively veto a coal mining permit for the Spruce No. 1 Mine in Logan County, West Virginia.  The permit was already approved after an exhaustive, approximately 10-year regulatory process which included time for an extensive review by the EPA.

House Republicans are following through on their pledge to try and bring an end to the EPA’s assault on the American business community.

Three Republican members of the U.S. House of Representatives -- Marsha Blackburn (TN), Shelley Moore Capito (WV) and Ted Poe (TX) each introduced separate bills aimed at blunting the EPA’s authority.

The three measures hamstring the agency's authority in different ways: Blackburn's would "amend the Clean Air Act to provide that greenhouse gases are not subject to the Act," even though the Supreme Court ruled in 2007 that they are.  Capito's bill would delay EPA from regulating carbon dioxide and methane for two years; and Poe's would prohibit any agency funding "to be used to implement or enforce a cap-and-trade program for greenhouse gases."

"Time is of the essence," Capito said. "The Democrats failed to act in any way to stop the EPA from implementing new rules pertaining to greenhouse gas emissions on January 2, 2011.Without congressional action to say otherwise, the EPA will continue to dismantle energy and manufacturing industries through regulation."

Republicans aren't the only ones working to limit the agency's climate authority: Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) has announced that he plans to reintroduce his bill that would impose a two-year delay on EPA's ability to limit greenhouse gases.  The Association supports a permanent moratorium on EPA’s authority.