BS: EPA win against mountaintop removal

Subject: BS: EPA win against mountaintop removal
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 24 Apr 13 - 10:41 PM

Sure hope that this decision holds.

~ Becky in Tucson

Court Upholds EPA's Power To Protect Communities From Mountaintop Removal Mining

... the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit upheld the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's legal authority to veto a mining permit that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers had issued. The decision reverses the lower court's contrary ruling, and is a major blow to the coal industry's attempt to prevent EPA from protecting communities from the harm caused by mountaintop removal mining in Appalachia. The case will now go back to the D.C. District Court for briefing on other claims.
...

Quotes From the Court's Opinion:

- "Section 404 [of the Clean Water Act] imposes no temporal limit on the Administrator [of EPA's] authority to withdraw the Corps's specification [or permit] but instead expressly empowers him to prohibit, restrict or withdraw the specification 'whenever' he makes a determination that the statutory 'unacceptable adverse effect' will result.

- "[T]he unambiguous language of subsection 404(c) manifests Congress's intent to confer on EPA a broad veto power extending beyond the permit issuance." (Op. at 10) (emphasis added).

- "[T]he [EPA] has, in effect, the final say on the specified disposal sites...." (Op. at 12).

- The Court also explained that when EPA withdrew the specifications for streams as disposal sites, it "thereby prohibit[ed] Mingo Logan from discharging into them," under the Clean Water Act. (Op. at 2).

Read the full opinion.

More Information:
The Corps' permit would have allowed the Mingo Logan coal company to bury and destroy over six miles of pristine mountain streams under mining waste dumps (called "valley fills") created from the destruction of over 2,000 acres of land, releasing harmful pollutants into downstream waters that sustain local communities and wildlife.

Appalachian citizen groups have been fighting to save the streams that would be destroyed by the Spruce Mine for more than a decade—as one of the largest, most harmful mountaintop removal mines ever proposed.

Subject: RE: BS: EPA win against mountaintop removal
From: gnu
Date: 25 Apr 13 - 06:19 AM

Hooray!

Subject: RE: BS: EPA win against mountaintop removal
From: Bobert
Date: 25 Apr 13 - 08:40 AM

I'll believe this when I see it... The EPA hasn't won anything in two decades... What ever it tries to regulate or inspect pays its lobbyists and lawyers and buddies in Congress to stop...

This is what drives thew Koch brothers...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: EPA win against mountaintop removal
From: Greg F.
Date: 25 Apr 13 - 08:51 AM

That's one. Now, on to Peabody, Alpha & the rest of the rapists.

Subject: RE: BS: EPA win against mountaintop removal
From: Jack the Sailor
Date: 25 Apr 13 - 09:10 AM

I think it might stick because with fracking, the energy source can be replaced. Justice in our society is more likely when it is affordable.

Subject: RE: BS: EPA win against mountaintop removal
From: GUEST,highlandman at work
Date: 25 Apr 13 - 01:37 PM

Hooray -- sort of, I guess --
Sadly though, I see it as merely a victory of one government agency over another (with incidental benefits for the mountains) rather than a real victory of substantive policy that will last beyond the next shift of political and economic winds. Alas for that.
But hooray for the temporary win, anyhow.

Subject: RE: BS: EPA win against mountaintop removal
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 25 Apr 13 - 01:52 PM

From other reading on it today, this decision was on the procedural aspects of the case: did the EPA have the authority to override or veto the decision by the Army Corps of Engineers. But now the case goes back to be considered on the content of the EPA's decision. So still uncertain.

~ Becky in Tucson

Subject: RE: BS: EPA win against mountaintop removal
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 25 Apr 13 - 04:39 PM

Why has "the Army Corps of Engineers" got any authority to give permission to a pricate company to mess up the place? What"s it got to do with the Army?

Subject: RE: BS: EPA win against mountaintop removal
From: gnu
Date: 25 Apr 13 - 05:02 PM

The Corps is the arm of the gov that does that kinda shit on behalf of the gov.

In Canada, this would be, essentially, a consultative body through the private sector. However, as an Engineer, I actually am under Her Majesty's command as a memeber of Camp Nine. Rudyard made me swear upon cold iron. It's complicated, but I retired and I don't give a

Oh, yeah... that's all secret shit so it's just between you and me and the gatepost eh?

Subject: RE: BS: EPA win against mountaintop removal
From: Jack the Sailor
Date: 25 Apr 13 - 05:03 PM

CoE