As uncertainty remains throughout the Appalachian coal mining region, Rep. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., is calling on Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lisa Jackson to clarify her agency’s actions as it relates to delays in the mine permitting process. Capito outlined her concerns in a letter to Jackson today, arguing that continued ambiguity and delays in the permitting process will cost Mountain State jobs and choke off economic investment in the state.“Further delay of mining permits creates enormous uncertainty that’s forcing mines to delay investment, halt production and lay off workers across the region,” she wrote. “It is imperative that the EPA clarify the process for approving or rejecting permits – hard working West Virginians depend on it.”
Capito, who met with representatives of the EPA and the US. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) after the original June announcement from the EPA, also called on the EPA to reconcile their stated commitment to an expedient resolution to the 79 outstanding permit applications in Appalachia.
“While we were promised that permits would be reviewed deliberately, but expeditiously, what we have is a process with no apparent end in sight,” Capito added later.
Though the EPA has pointed to a 60-day clock for approval of permits, the clock only begins when the Corps is able to officially “pick up” the application and it is unclear if any of the permits in question have even been released by the EPA. It is also unclear what timeline – if any – the EPA has placed upon itself, given that it has retained overall authority to veto any pending permit.
“It's certainly appropriate to have legitimate oversight and review of all proposed permits, but the EPA’s most recent statement is only the latest in a series which have created uncertainty and ambiguity for mines across our state and region,” Capito wrote.
Of the 79 permit applications in question, 23 are located in West Virginia.
The full text of the Capito letter can be accessed here.
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