Posted on 01/14/2011 4:30:09 AM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
The Obama administration revoked a permit on Thursday for Arch Coal Inc's (ACI.N) proposed Spruce 1 mountaintop coal mine in West Virginia, effectively shutting one of the biggest in the United States. "The proposed Spruce No. 1 Mine would use destructive and unsustainable mining practices that jeopardize the health of Appalachian communities and clean water on which they depend," said Peter Silvan, an assistant administrator for water, at the Environmental Protection Agency. The EPA's final ruling under the Clean Water Act came after a scientific study, a public hearing, and a review of more than 50,000 public comments, the agency said. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers had approved a permit for the mine in 2007, but it had not been fully constructed.
Lawmakers from West Virginia said the EPA's move would hurt the state's economy. "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, a Democrat, said in a release. Senator Jay Rockefeller, also a Democrat, wrote a letter to President Barack Obama, that said: "as a nation we must not fall into the trap of forcing unnecessary choices between protecting the environment and having good paying jobs that support energy independence." St. Louis-based Arch said it would vigorously defend the permit in court. EPA's revocation of the permit blocks an additional $250 million in investment and 250 jobs, the company said. It was the latest move by the Obama administration to crack down on mountaintop mining, in which companies blast high peaks to uncover coal seams and often toss the resulting rubble into valleys....
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
"Energy independence" {snort}... Yet we have a drilling ban, his EPA nixes the mine... hussein obama, you are a lying, big-government, fascist, socialist, un-American, anti-American {expletive}. Just over two years before your worthless backside is removed from office. President Palin has a nice ring to it.
“There have been enormous natural gas discoveries in the US recently, enough for 100 years at current consumption rates.”
While our refining, processing and pipeline infrastructure continues to rot.
And the Idiots of West Virginia voted for that scumbag commie leftist for their Senator.
Oh well. I guess they want to live like goats in a garbage dump, grazing on moldy bits of paper.
Under President Obama (with the willing participation of the voters of the Great State of West Virginia) it’s the New American Way.
Obama’s punishment of states that voted against him in 2008 continues...
The defense implications of our not drilling are staggering. The more we depend on foreign energy, the more we have to bolster our defense footprint around the world, which will inevitably lead to a clash with China. Additionally, the skyrocketing price of commodities will force other countries to look to nuclear because an oil/coal based economy will be unsustainable (which will lead to nuclear weapon proliferation). Also, we are fast approaching a tipping point where inflation, driven by higher energy costs, is going to skyrocket and kill the dollar. These short sighted pinheads in this admin are killing us.
Got any proof this mine is going to “poison” someone’s land?
Coal has uses beyond burning to generate electricity. Natural gas can’t replace all of them.
Really? So all those coal-fired generating plants can be converted to natural gas at reasonable cost? And there are no useful derivative products from coal?
Come on Manchin. Do it. Do it. Go over to the GOP.
We have enormous amounts of every resource that the EPA won’t allow us to develop. Coal generation costs around 2 cents per kilowatt while NG costs around 10 cents. Which is the better producer?
Pray for America
Oddly, this was the same defense the oil companies used to block cheap oil imports from the Mid-East when Eisenhower was President. The oil companies said we must avoid dependence on oil from unstable Mid-Eastern countries and develop our own energy supplies. The result of Ike's oil quotas and taxes was the American consumer paid about four times as much for gasoline and other distillate fuels than would have prevailed in the absence of those free market interferences.
If you buy the military argument, we should have capped our wells in the 1950's, bought their oil at 1/4 the price, and sucked their wells dry. If we had, we'd be in the position today of uncapping our wells and telling the Mid-East countries to eat sand. Once again, politics makes things worse that had we let the market work out a solution.
“The proposed Spruce No. 1 Mine would use destructive and unsustainable mining practices that jeopardize the health of Appalachian communities and clean water on which they depend...”
Yes, being unemployed in East BF West Virginia during a long recession is so much healthier...
That is one way to look at it. The other way is this, burn up the rest of the world’s energy first and then be one of the last nations on earth sitting on significant supplies of fossil fuels. The rest of the world can heat their homes with all their US dollars then.
That is the most idiotic argument ever.
Do you really believe teh enviro-cultists are going to allow any energy development after the rest of the world as depleted theirs? Also, how much energy does the world have and how long do we have to wait when discoveries are happening every day.
There is most likely an unlimited supply as we become more and more efficient. Bankrupt ourselves waiting for the world to run out, now that makes alot of sense.
If they got a permit in 2007, it was only after an exhaustive EPA review process and that requires jumping thrugh many hoops.
Lisa is going back on those issued permits and pulling them, one by one.
Who in their right mind would want to invest in coal mining if one dim witted bureacracy can just pull permits issued 4 years ago?
Are you perhaps unaware of just how much of our electricity is generated by burning coal?
“We don’t really need coal anymore” is an absurd statement.
The “environmentalists” run Washington.
The people of WV have elected two democrat senators. Maybe they deserve what they get.
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