Challenges EPA’s rule-making process

WASHINGTON, D.C. – (May 5, 2011) – Kentucky Energy and Environment Secretary Len Peters today told a congressional committee meeting in Washington, D.C. that he is deeply troubled by the federal Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) refusal to talk with states and listen to suggestions regarding the issuance of Clean Water Act 402 permits sought by coal companies.

            In his testimony before the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment, Sec. Peters said Kentucky intervened in support of the Kentucky Coal Association in its lawsuit against the EPA because the administration of Governor Steve Beshear believes the EPA’s actions for the past year are arbitrary, requiring Kentucky’s regulators to adhere to permitting conditions that have not been promulgated in line with the Federal Administrative Procedures Act. Sec. Peters told the panel his attempts to bring a resolution to issues with EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson have been disappointing.

            “People on my staff and I have been in ongoing discussions with our regional EPA administrator attempting to resolve the issues to the satisfaction of all parties – the EPA, state, the regulated community and the citizens of Kentucky,” Sec. Peters said. “Unfortunately, I am not highly optimistic that such a resolution will occur, especially in light of a recent meeting with Region IV EPA. Indications are that these earnest discussions to arrive at a resolution are not being accepted by EPA headquarters. I am very disappointed that EPA Administrator Jackson can be so dismissive of such an important issue.”

            Sec. Peters went on to tell the subcommittee that it is Kentucky’s contention that the EPA has, for more than a year, unlawfully reviewed and objected to Clean Water Act 402 permits proposed for coal mining operations in six Appalachian states, including Kentucky, for compliance with an un-promulgated water quality standard. “Incredibly, these EPA objections were for permits that my staff drafted in accordance to standards that EPA had, prior to April 1, 2010, supported,” said Peters.

            The impact of the EPA ruling-making process, according to Peters, is that 21 permits are being held up by the EPA and dozens more face the same fate. The federal agency has used guidance that EPA itself says is not legally binding, as the basis to object to proposed CWA 402 permits. In so doing, EPA has made these objections without any timetable requirement to act upon those objections and without any judicial recourse by affected parties.

            In October 2010, the Beshear administration joined with the Kentucky Coal Association in a lawsuit against EPA, challenging the agency’s arbitrary rules, guidance and oversight regarding coal mining permits under the Clean Water Act. That action is pending in federal court in Washington, D.C.  “Kentucky state government works hard to balance our need to mine coal and the stewardship of our environment,” said Gov. Beshear.  “Sec. Peters’ testimony today made clear that the EPA.’s arbitrary actions make our job more difficult, and harm Kentucky’s economy.”

Watch this YouTube and see the results. :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwL457B6fGw&feature=player_embedded

FRANKFORT, Ky.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency would have to review mining permit applications more quickly under legislation filed Tuesday by two Appalachian lawmakers who say they want to boost coalfield employment.

U.S. Reps. Hal Rogers of Kentucky and Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia introduced a House version of the so-called Mining Jobs Protection Act that they say would protect Appalachian coal miners from “strangulation by regulation.”

The House bill, similar to one filed in the Senate last week, would give the EPA up to 60 days to accept or reject permit applications so that mining companies aren’t left waiting indefinitely to learn whether they’ll be allowed to open new operations or to expand existing ones. Kentucky Coal Association President Bill Bissett said the current waiting period is one of the top complaints of the mining industry. He said some companies have had to wait years for a response.

Coal state lawmakers have complained that the EPA, under the Obama administration, has used the permitting process of the federal Clean Water Act against the mining industry.

“Continued and arbitrary delays in the permitting process are threatening to put our people out of work,” Rogers said in a statement Tuesday. “With unemployment hovering at 9 percent, our job-creating industries need regulatory certainty — not more of EPA’s aggressive and overzealous strangulation by regulation.”

Capito accused the EPA of “advancing an anti-coal agenda” by holding up or revoking permits to open coal mines.

“Intentionally delaying the approval process has led to a slow-bleed of jobs throughout Appalachia at a time when we should be focusing on making it easier for businesses to stay afloat,” she said. “Our miners should be able to conduct their day-to-day business and make investments in the future without a veil of uncertainty hovering over the industry. Thousands of my constituents depend on the mining industry to put food on the table, and I will fight to keep it from being targeted by those who wish to use regulatory authority to launch the so-called ‘war on coal.’”

U.S. Sens. Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul of Kentucky and Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma previously introduced similar legislation in the Senate that would require the EPA to move faster in granting federal permits needed to open coal mines.

The EPA acknowledged in a statement last week that coal is important to the nation’s energy future, but defended its actions in regulating coal.

“Appalachian families should not have to choose between clean water and a healthy economy — they deserve both,” the EPA said in the statement Thursday. “EPA has set commonsense guidelines that allow companies to mine coal while avoiding permanent and irreversible damage to water quality.”

Environmentalists have defended the EPA, saying the agency is taking needed steps to evaluate permit applications. The group Appalachian Voices said EPA has to consider the impacts of mining adjacent communities.

Senators McConnell and Paul Join Together to Protect Kentucky Coal Jobs
Kentucky Senators introduce legislation to address 404 permits

Washington, DC – U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell and Senator Rand Paul introduced legislation Thursday to protect Kentucky’s coal miners from an overreaching Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and its war on coal. Coal is a vital sector of Kentucky’s economy. More than 200,000 jobs in the state depend on it, including the jobs of approximately 18,000 coal miners, and half the country’s electricity comes from coal.

Senators McConnell, Paul and Jim Inhofe (R-OK), ranking Republican on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, introduced the Mining Jobs Protection Act in the U.S. Senate. The legislation would tell the EPA to “use it or lose it” when deciding whether to invoke its veto authority of a 404 permit within a reasonable time frame, giving permit applicants the certainty they need to do business. Mines are required to obtain 404 permits from the EPA to operate.

The bill would ensure that all 404 permits move forward to be either approved or rejected, so applicants aren’t left in limbo unsure how to act. The bill also ensures that the EPA cannot use its veto retroactively.

“The EPA has turned the permitting process, which is already cumbersome, into a back-door means of shutting down coal mines,” Senator McConnell said. “The thousands of Kentuckians who work in coal mining or have jobs that are dependent on it are in jeopardy. Other industries besides coal are at risk, too: I’ve heard from farmers, realtors, the transportation industry and others who also need permits from the EPA to continue their business. Our legislation ensures that what the EPA did in West Virginia will not happen in Kentucky. Attacking an industry so important to Kentucky would put people out of work, impede job growth, and increase energy prices.”

“The out-of-control EPA is already costing the people of Kentucky jobs and their war on coal could cost us even more,” Senator Paul said. “President Obama is on record saying he wants to ‘bankrupt’ the coal industry, that’s why Senator McConnell and I are working to end this abuse by the EPA, and stop the Obama administration from killing jobs in Kentucky and other coal-producing states by trying to regulate away our means to make a living and drive up our electric bills.”

The McConnell/Paul legislation will be referred to the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee for consideration.

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United States Department of the Interior

OFFICE OF SURFACE MINING

RECLAMATION AND ENFORCEMENT

Washington, D.C. 20240

Dear editors and publishers,

I am forced to take issue with an Associated Press article that appeared last week about a rule that the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSM) is preparing to better protect streams from the adverse effects of surface coal mining (“New Rules Would Cut Thousands of Coal Jobs,” January 26, 2011). The article claims that the rule “would trim coal production to the point that an estimated 7,000 of the nation’s 80,600 coal mining jobs would be lost.”

With great respect, this misrepresents the facts. The document to which the article refers is the first working draft of part of what could become the preliminary Draft Environmental Impact Statement. OSM has shared the working draft with state agencies that are cooperating with OSM by providing comments as OSM considers further development of the rule. OSM’s mission is to strike a balance between protecting the environment while assuring that the coal supply essential to the Nation’s energy needs is maintained.

The purpose of preparing an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) is to inform OSM — and, in turn, the public — about the best way to accomplish this balance. As required by law, OSM will consider in the EIS a reasonable range of alternatives, which may vary from not revising the rule at all, to alternatives that may greatly restrict the way that surface coal mining is conducted. The alternative cited in the article is one of several being considered, and the potential job impacts cited in the article relate to only one of the options that the Draft EIS will evaluate.

Again, the “Environmental Impact Statement” referenced in the article is a very early working draft document. The data in the document is a work in progress, and the data is not complete. The data and the analyses have not been validated and are subject to additional review by the agency. OSM has not adopted the numbers in this working draft document.

OSM has shared this very preliminary document with its state and Federal partners in a spirit of openness and transparency, but at this point, OSM has not made a final decision as to what changes will be in the proposed rule. The proposed rule that OSM intends to publish later this year will fully consider the importance of coal as an essential energy resource for this nation, as well as protect our valuable streams, and help ensure solid, well-paying jobs for the citizens of Appalachia and other coal-producing regions.

Sincerely,

Joe Pizarchik

Director, Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement

Washington, D.C.

OSM has shared this very preliminary document with its state and Federal partners in a spirit of openness and transparency, but at this point, OSM has not made a final decision as to what changes will be in the proposed rule. The proposed rule that OSM intends to publish later this year will fully consider the importance of coal as an essential energy resource for this nation, as well as protect our valuable streams, and help ensure solid, well-paying jobs for the citizens of Appalachia and other coal-producing regions.

Sincerely,

Joe Pizarchik

Director, Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement

Washington, D.C.

 CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The Obama administration’s own experts estimate their proposal for protecting streams from coal mining would eliminate thousands of jobs and slash production across much of the country, according to a government document obtained by The Associated Press.

The Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement document says the agency’s preferred rules would impose standards for water quality and restrictions on mining methods that would affect the quality or quantity of streams near coal mines. The rules are supposed to replace Bush-era regulations that set up buffer zones around streams and were aimed chiefly at mountaintop removal mining in Appalachia.

OSM’s proposal – part of a draft environmental impact statement – would affect coal mines from Louisiana to Alaska.

The office, a branch of the Interior Department, estimated that the protections would trim coal production to the point that an estimated 7,000 of the nation’s 80,600 coal mining jobs would be lost. Production would decrease or stay flat in 22 states, but climb 15 percent in North Dakota, Wyoming and Montana.

An OSM spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The agency maintains in the document that its proposal “attempts to balance the protection of natural resources with imposing a reasonable administrative and economic burden on the coal mining industry.”

The National Mining Association blasted the proposal, saying OSM is vastly underestimating the economic impact.

“OSM’s preferred alternative will destroy tens of thousands of coal-related jobs across the country from Appalachia to Alaska and Illinois to Texas with no demonstrated benefit to the environment,” the trade group said in a statement. “OSM’s own analysis provides a very conservative estimate of jobs that will be eliminated, incomes that will be lost and state revenues that will be foregone at both surface and underground coal mining operations.”

OSM has submitted the proposal to several coal producing states for feedback before it releases proposed regulations by the end of February.

The states aren’t happy with what they’ve seen.

They blasted the proposal as “nonsensical and difficult to follow” in a Nov. 26 letter to OSM director Joe Pizarchik. The letter was signed by officials from Alabama, Indiana, Kentucky, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia and Wyoming.

“Neither the environmental impact statement nor the administrative record that OSM has developed over 30-plus year of regulation … justify the sweeping changes that they’re proposing to make,” West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection official Thomas Clarke told the Associated Press on Wednesday.

For Immediate Release

CONTACT: Bill Bissett – 859/233-4743 or

bbissett@kentuckycoal.com

 KENTUCKY COAL ASSOCIATION RESPONDS TO EPA’S VETO OF SPRUCE MINE PERMIT IN WEST VIRGINIA

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.

 “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.”

The EPA’s news release on the Spruce veto can be found at http://yosemite.epa.gov/opa/admpress.nsf/0/6b9ecfafebce79a5852578170056a179?OpenDocument