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US coal mining companies have scored some points in their fight against the Environmental Protection Agency’s tough stance on mountaintop mining. A federal judge has ruled in a preliminary decision that the EPA may have overstepped its legal authority by imposing strict new environmental standards on mining permits (via New York Times). The move comes just one day after the agency vetoed a permit for what would have been the country’s largest mountaintop coal mine in Appalachia, West Virginia (see Nature’s blog here).
Mountaintop mining is the controversial practice of stripping trees and rocks to expose coal seams near a mountain’s summit. The debris is often dumped in valleys below and impacts water quality and wildlife (see Mountaintop mining plans close to defeat here).
The National Mining Association, an industry group based in Washington, D.C, is suing the EPA over its tough new policies on mountaintop mining. The association claims the agency has exceeded its authority and has changed the permitting process for coal mines without following the usual procedural steps. For example, it claims the EPA’s new rules require permitting authorities to enforce adherence to the agency’s new limits on water pollution. In a ruling issued on Friday, a federal judge said the association is likely to succeed in showing that the EPA has exceeded its authority. (See Nature’s story on the EPA’s tougher environmental standards here).
But the judge dismissed the association’s request for an injunction to block the implementation of EPA’s policies. Therefore the agency’s veto of the permit to mining company Arch Coal for its Spruce 1 mine still stands.
“We are encouraged by the court’s finding that NMA is likely to succeed in showing the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has exceeded its authority under the Clean Water Act, says Hal Quinn, the association’s president and CEO, in a statement.
He adds the EPA actions have imposed “a near-moratorium on coal mining permits”.
Picture credit: Wikipedia