to the Sierra Club, knows more about what's in West Virginians' best interests than West Virginians themselves. Coal miners have been virtually invisible in the campaign against their livelihoods.
That's because coal miners have jobs - for now.
So it was refreshing, at public hearings in Charleston and in Pikeville, Ky., to see thousands of working men and their families emerge from the shadow of the trees and speak in defense of common sense, fairness, their communities and their economy.
The Environmental Protection Agency has referred 79 pending permits for mountaintop removal mining - 23 of them in West Virginia - to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for further study of compliance with the Clean Water Act. The corps proposes to eliminate the use of what's called Nationwide Permit 21 to make decisions on mountaintop removal permit applications.
The long and the short of it is that the Obama administration, without explanation or scientific rationale, is changing the rules for mountaintop removal mining. This will cause unemployment and economic damage.
A little clarification is in order. Unreasonable delays in permitting and further curbs on mountaintop removal mining:
Will damage the area's economy severely. As state Senate Majority Leader Truman Chafin, D-Mingo, said, 40 percent of the coal mined in southern West Virginia and eastern Kentucky comes from surface mines. Mingo County produces more coal by surface methods than by underground mining. The payroll from both sources exceeds $100 million a year.
Will not result in more underground mining jobs. The thin seams reached by surface mining cannot be mined by underground methods, and deep mining is far more dangerous anyway.
Would not help speed the diversification of coalfield economies, as tourists contend. These areas need buildable land to diversify.
It could produce, by regulatory excess, unemployment and economic distress - and there would be no one but President Obama to blame.
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