Dept. of interior issues a permit 10 years ago, which causes investors to risk millions of dollars to build mines which positively affect the lives of millions of people by creating jobs and fuel for a power plant. Fast forward 10 years and some lawyers looking for large fees / eco terrorists find an Obama appointed judge to rescind the permit
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3319160/posts?page=2#2
It’s corruption plain and simple.
This is how it works.
-Federal government restricts permitting to US business, citizens.
-Federal agency seizes land and interests under environmental, land management, etc. Basically under any pretext they can find.
-Federal government acquires the property and leases it to a foreign company.
-Foreign company provides kickbacks and bribes back to politicians.
-Foreign company passes higher costs onto US consumers including costs of ongoing political kickbacks and bribes.
So, who owns the leases for the coal and who owns the land?
A lot of the decisions that the Obama administration is making depends on whether the mining company is a crony partner of the Obama administration.
Right now, th value of sub-bituminous coal is less than the cost of a load of top soil. The reason that the Obama administration is shutting down new leases is to try to jack up the value of the coal that is being mined from existing locations, being worked by the crony partners, Peabody and Arch.
The old rule, that the Obama administration passed was to limit the sale of new leases to only mining companies who were operating contiguous mines. So, if Peabody owned the lease on either side of the new lease, only Peabody could bid.