W.Va. governor posts opposition to tagging coal ash as hazardous

摘要

West Virginia Governor Joe Manchin, continuing his outspoken support of the state’s coal industry, said in a Tuesday opinion piece that the federal government would be “wrong” to classify coal ash as hazardous. The Democratic governor previously challenged the policies of the Obama administration over held-up permits for valley fills associated with large surface mining operations in Central Appalachia (PCT 2/5). Manchin met February 3 in Washington with President Barack Obama; Lisa Jackson, Environmental Protection Agency administrator; and other top federal officials over the EPA’s holdup of dozens of applications — already approved by the Army Corps of Engineers — for permits tied mostly to large surface mining operations in Appalachia. Eighteen of those valley fill permit applications — subject to the EPA’s “enhanced coordination process” that the coal industry says amounts to a de facto moratorium — are for West Virginia operations (PCT 2/4).