ADMINISTRATION FACES BATTLES STRENGTHENING MOUNTAINTOP MINING RULES

摘要

The Obama administration has unveiled an ambitious agenda to limit the future environmental impacts of mountaintop coal mining which appears likely to intensify battles between industry and environmentalists as officials seek to revise EPA and other agencies' policies that have been the subject of long-running disputes between the groups over the past three decades.rnIn an early indication of the upcoming battles, environmentalists blasted the administration's plan, saying it does not include any near-term actions to stop the controversial practice of mountaintop mining, in which miners blast the tops off mountains to get at coal seams underneath, while dumping waste rock in nearby streams.