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By: Whitney Burdette
Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin said he is not going to sit idle while the Environmental Protection Agency continues its "war on coal."
Last week, a 4th Circuit judge struck down the EPA's revocation of a mine permit in southern West Virginia. It was also last week that the EPA released new standards for coal-fired power plants that would restrict carbon dioxide emissions. In response, Tomblin issued a news release on Monday, April 2, containing a letter to the EPA that lays his ground plan for confronting the agency, which he said hurts jobs.
"We've had enough of your war on coal, because it's a war on our jobs here in West Virginia," Tomblin said in the letter. "While Americans clearly want to decrease our dependency on foreign oil, you're killing off the source of 42 percent of America's electricity, power that comes from coal we mine right here in the USA."
Tomblin went on to say that the new rule is not only bad for jobs, but also energy independence.
"This rule is bad for jobs and it's bad for energy independence," he said in the letter. "It's bad for West Virginia and it's bad for America. Kill this rule before it kills our jobs and our communities."
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(Appeared in Daily Mail and other newspapers)
DC Federal Court Decision on Spruce is Critical First Step in Reining in Out-of-Control EPA
Decision confirms EPA has overstepped its authority and supports need for HR 2018
By Bill Raney, president
West Virginia Coal Association
There is no doubt about it, this past Friday’s decision in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia taking EPA to task for overstepping its authority with its veto of the Spruce Mine permit in Logan is a major victory for West Virginia’s 63,000 coal mining families and for the state as a whole. It is a critical first step in reining-in an increasingly radicalized, out-of-control agency, but it is only a first step.
In her decision, U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Judge Amy Berman Jackson left little doubt EPA’s action is a clear abrogation of the Congressional limits set for the agency in its relationship with other agencies, “‘EPA’s position is that 404(c) grants it plenary authority to unilaterally modify or revoke a permit that has been duly issued by the Corps… This is a stunning power for an agency to arrogate to itself when there is absolutely no mention of it in the statute,” Jackson wrote.
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The WV Coal Mining Institute, the WVCA and the Central Appalachian Section of SME will be held at the Stonewall Jackson Resort May 3-5, 2012. Registration information was sent out previously via e-mail with detailed information. If you did not receive please let us know and it will be resent.
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The West Virginia Eleventh Annual CEDAR Golf Classic will be held on Tuesday, May 8, 2012 at the Twisted Gun Golf Course in Wharncliffe, West Virginia. Registration will begin at 9 a.m. with golf beginning at 10 a.m. promptly. Contact Bud Clapp at
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Two long-standing statewide events are being combined to create the newly named West Virginia Leadership Summit at the Waterfront Place Hotel in Morgantown, WV on April 18th and 19th. The premiere Leadership Summit combines the highly successful WV Leadership Conference, hosted for 10 years by the West Virginia Roundtable, and Generaltion West Virginia’s equally successful 5-year old Young Leaders’ Conference.
The Summit will feature keynote speaker, William C. Taylor, co-founder and founding editor of Fast Company magazine, as well as established leaders of business, industry, governmentl, education, private enterprise and philanthroy such as WV Governor Earl Ray Tomblin; Susan Brewer, CEO of Steptoe & Johnson law firm; William “Pat” Getty, president of Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation; Kim Knopf, President/CEO of Innovative Mattress Solutions; Nenry Harmon, President/CEO/Chairman of Triana Energy. The Summit will include a series of workshop sessions as well.
Registration information can be found at www.wvleadership.org.
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