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FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) - Gov. Steve Beshear is appealing to President Barack Obama to change federal policies that he says are costing jobs in Kentucky's coal mining industry.
In a letter to Obama earlier this week, Beshear said the EPA is knocking Kentuckians out of high-paying jobs by obstructing the opening of new mines and the expansion of existing ones.
The letter, obtained by The Associated Press, was a follow-up to a meeting last week between Beshear and Obama.
Beshear said the EPA has unduly delayed 75 mining permits in eastern Kentucky that would have created crucial jobs at a time when the nation is struggling to pull out of a national recession.
The governor urged the president to help find a reasonable way to protect the environment while supporting the mining industry.
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(WASHINGTON) — An internal government watchdog says that the Environmental Protection Agency cut corners when it produced a key scientific document underpinning its decision to regulate climate-changing pollution.
The Inspector General report, obtained by The Associated Press in advance of its release Wednesday, says the agency circumvented a more robust review process that was warranted for a technical paper supporting a costly and controversial decision to control greenhouse gases for the first time.
The EPA and White House disagreed with the report's conclusions. They said the agency "reasonably interpreted" peer-review guidelines.
Nothing in the report challenges the overwhelming scientific consensus around the causes of global warming. But that's unlikely to stop Republicans and industry lawyers from using it to say the Obama administration should not regulate greenhouse gases without Congressional action.
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By Ben Geman - 09/27/11 01:44 PM ET
GOP White House hopeful Rick Perry is asking President Obama to scuttle new air pollution rules that require cuts in power plant emissions that blow across state lines and worsen smog and particulate pollution.
The Texas governor, in a letter to Obama on Monday, takes aim at the Environmental Protection Agency’s recently finalized Cross-State Air Pollution Rule.
The letter says the rule “will have an immediate and devastating effect on Texas jobs, our economy, and our ability to supply the electricity our citizens, schools and employers need.”
The letter, which was first obtained by The Associated Press, alleges the rules have an “impossible” timeline and lessen the reliability of the state’s power grid.
“I urge you to use your executive authority to stop or delay the implementation of this and all other destructive rules, and to work with Congress to pass legislation that will prevent EPA from unilaterally establishing rules that kill jobs and increase electricity prices,” it states.
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By Nick Brockman
Register-Herald Reporter
— New digital monitors and programming will bring the history of coal into the modern age at the Beckley Exhibition Coal Mine.
The mine and Friends of Coal Ladies’ Auxiliary celebrated the completion of the Friends of Coal Depot during a dedication ceremony Monday afternoon. The additions aim to teach the site’s 50,000 annual visitors about the modern methods of coal mining.
“They will show a program with modern mining, how they mine coal today with the big machinery like the long-wall,” said Renda Morris, director of the mine.
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The 2011 Pennsylvania Bituminous Coal Queen Victoria Buchtan, from Carmichael, Pennylvania has West Virginia ties. Her mom, Vanessa, was the 1983 Pennsylvania Coal Queen. Vanessa works in the West Virginia University Neurosciences Clinic. Victoria comes from a long line of coal miners. Her great grandfather, grandfather were miners and her other grandfather made longwall equipment. Victoria is a senior at Carmichael High School in Carmichael, PA.
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