Is there a MTR permit crisis?
by Ken Ward Jr.
To hear folks from the coal industry — and their politician friends — talk, you’d think that the Obama administration’s move to more closely review mountaintop removal permits has brought coal production across Appalachia to a halt — or at least driven mine operators to the brink of thousands of layoffs and economic ruin.
Take state Senate Majority Leader Truman Chafin, D-Mingo, who told a statewide radio audience in West Virginia yesterday:
We’re going to see layoffs like you’ve never seen before real soon.
Or state Senate President Earl Ray Tomblin, D-Logan, who warned the U.S. EPA in a letter last month:
It is of the utmost importance that this situation be resolved not in a matter of weeks, but days.
Such statements make local political leaders sound pretty tough — slapping around some bureaucrats in Washington, D.C., is always an easy thing for these guys to do.
These comments also fuel fear among hard-working coal miners and their families. They put pressure on regulatory agencies to back down, or make much quicker — and perhaps less thoughtful — decisions than a calmer, more reasoned debate might produce. They’ve helped the coal industry get out huge numbers of people at public meetings, and generated an atmosphere that is hardly healthy for a real discussion of mountaintop removal’s future.
But are these statements true? Is there a mountaintop removal permit crisis? Not if you believe what executives from the region’s largest publicly traded coal producers are telling industry analysts and corporate shareholders.
Over the last two weeks, coal company officials have repeatedly told stock analysts and their shareholders that they’re in pretty good shape for another year, maybe two … seems like plenty of time for everyone to sit down and come up with a workable solution without scaring workers and threatening environmental activists.
Take Massey Energy President Don Blankenship, for instance. During a conference call last week with coal industry stock analysts, Blankenship was asked about the impact of U.S. EPA’s permit reviews on Massey Energy operations:
They are very safe in detail in ‘10. In ‘11 if we had a issue with permitting on a surface mine, we would go to more deep mines … We will be and keep ourselves in a position to make those volumes or more irregardless of which way the permitting issue evolves.
Complete Story at – Blogs @ The Charleston Gazette – » Coal Tattoo investigates: Is there a MTR permit crisis?.
