Almost no one outside the Obama administration is happy with the plan. Environmentalists had been lobbying for an end to mountaintop removal and were disappointed that the Obama administration chose to let the practice continue. The coal industry objects to increased federal regulation and is predicting the new policies will reduce coal production and drive up costs.
Environmentalists had good reason to expect a tougher decision than they got. During his presidential campaign, Obama came out strongly against mountaintop removal as part of his advocacy for a more forward-thinking energy policy.
"We're tearing up the Appalachian Mountains because of our dependence on fossil fuels," Obama told a cheering crowd in Lexington, Kentucky in August 2007. Yes, and apparently the Obama administration is OK with letting the destruction continue and making only a slight effort to mitigate the devastating effects of mountaintop removal.
Nancy Sutley, who heads the White House Council on Environmental Quality said that although the new policies—outlined in an agreement among the Interior Department, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Army Corps of Engineers—do not put a stop to mountaintop removal mining, they are intended to reduce its worst impacts.
Mountaintop removal mining "is allowed under current federal law," Sutley told The Washington Post which, along with the Associated Press, was given a jump on the story. "And until that changes, we have to use the tools that we have."
Asked whether the Obama administration eventually will seek a ban on mountaintop removal coal mining, Sutley said: "We're still early in that discussion. We don't make the laws."
Sutley dodged the question. While it's true that Congress and not the White House makes the laws, President Obama and his staff have a lot of influence on Capitol Hill in terms of setting the legislative agenda, especially in a Congress controlled by Democrats. The question was whether the White House would seek a ban on mountaintop removal mining, not whether the president could impose one unilaterally. I'd say Sutley's answer makes it pretty clear that the White House has no current plans to move more aggressively against the practice of mountaintop removal.
For now, the new Obama policy on mountaintop removal proposes to end the fast-track approval process for new mining permits—108 mountaintop removal permits are currently pending—and to require a more thorough environmental review. It also would attempt to increase federal oversight of state regulators, and to close loopholes that currently allow rock and other mining waste to be dumped near streams.
Unfortunately, it’s not clear that the new policy will accomplish even the relatively modest goals the Obama administration claims it will achieve. The announcement offered very few details about how the new policies would actually work, and Sutley was unable to estimate how much the new policies would reduce mountaintop removal mining.
Sutley pointed to a recent EPA review of 48 pending mountaintop removal mining permit applications as an example of how regulators might apply federal standards going forward. In that review, the Environmental Protection Agency approved 42 permits and rejected only six as too damaging to the environment and local communities.
Also Read:
- President Obama's First 100 Days Show Environmental Progress and Promise
- Obama Administration Revokes Last-Minute Bush Assault on Endangered Species Act
- Obama Outlines His Energy Vision, New Plan to Lease US Waters for Power Projects
- EPA Declares Greenhouse Gases a Threat to Public Health and Environment
- Is Clean Coal Really Clean?
Comments