The clout of the American coal mining industry has once again been demonstrated after the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) approved 42 highly controversial new permits for projects in Appalachia.
Many of the permits will allow mountaintop removal mining to go ahead, a practice that environmentalists claim has already seen some 400 hilltops in Appalachia destroyed with explosives sending waste into streams below.
Green groups hoped the Obama administration would end this form of mining and were heartened when the EPA held back permits for review. However, the review appears to have little impact with a Democratic politician from West Virginia announcing recently that 42 out of 48 permit applications would be given the go-ahead.
Industry lobby group the National Mining Association said that 14,000 West Virginians were employed in mountaintop mining and with a recession, the prospect of more job losses in one of the poorest regions of the country was untenable.
Environmentalists are now lobbying President Obama directly to rescind the approval process.
"Because it appears that the EPA is unwilling to intervene, it is now imperative that the White House Council on Environmental Quality takes immediate action to stop the bulldozers," Sierra Club executive director Carl Pope said in a statement. "The Obama administration should take swift action to fix the flawed 'fill rule' that enables this type of devastating mining and should act decisively to save the mountains, rivers and communities of Appalachia."
The EPA defended its decision to approve the permit applications, insisting that sensitive habitats would be protected.
"EPA's understanding is that none of the projects would permanently impact high-value streams that flow year-round," it said in a statement. "By contrast, EPA has opposed six permits because they would all result in significant adverse impacts to high value streams, involve large numbers of valley fills, and impact watersheds with extensive previous mining impacts."
Experts on both sides of the mountaintop mining debate say they are confused by the new ruling and hope the EPA will provide clarity when bigger projects are up for review.
President Obama, on the campaign trail before his election, was emphatic about his opposition to such mining. "We have to find more environmentally sound ways of mining coal, than simply blowing the tops off mountains," he said.
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