14 DAY TRIAL // The US Environmental Protection Agency has finally come to its senses following its period of submission to political will during the Bush administration, and has finally put all the permits of mountaintop mining operators on hold, pending further investigation. As Bush left the White House, he granted his personal friends in the fossil fuel industry the approvals they needed to start excavating and destroying beautiful landscapes in their search for coal.
Despite the fact that scientific studies have demonstrated beyond the shadow of a doubt that dropping stones and other debris in creeks and streams is detrimental to both humans and animals, the previous administration has approved this type of mining without hesitation.
EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson said on Tuesday that the measure would remain in effect until the EPA could thoroughly assess the impact on streams and wetlands that each and every single one of the projects implied. Although it doesn't apply to existing exploitations, more than 200 permits have been frozen, which should give you an approximate idea of the extent of the devastation that Bush promoted before leaving office.
“The two letters reflect EPA’s considerable concern regarding the environmental impact these projects would have on fragile habitats and streams,” Jackson argued in a statement. She mentioned that the federal agency also urged the Army Corps of Engineers not to release two new permits to companies seeking to fill creeks and streams with thousands of tons of mining debris, at two locations in West Virginia and Kentucky.
“I have [also] directed the agency to review other mining permit requests. EPA will use the best science and follow the letter of the law in ensuring we are protecting our environment,” the administrator added. Naturally, the decision has been met with wide protest on the part of the same people that ruthlessly destroy every single mountain they are allowed to “lay” their hands on.
They argue that jobs will be lost and that production will decline. In truth, the demand has already dropped considerably, and the work force that can be released from this dirty business can be moved to start a new one, in alternative power plants, based on wind and the power of the sun. “If the EPA didn't step in and do something now, all those permits would go forward. There are permits that will bury 200 miles of streams pending before the Corps,” Appalachian Center for the Economy and the Environment executive director Joe Lovett shared.