Quite true, even if just a touch more at 48.5%.
US Electric Power Industry Net Generation, 2007
Electric Power Industry 2007: Year in Review
http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/electricity/epa/epa_sum.html
Posted on 04/09/2009 6:01:48 AM PDT by thackney
The US Environmental Protection Agency has challenged a valley fill permit issued by the US Army Corps of Engineers for a surface coal mine in Wise County, Virginia.
This action follows EPA saying it would scrutinize 150-200 permit applications with the Corps for similar projects tied to Central Appalachian coal mining operations.
EPA said in March that it would examine the pending fill permits over concerns about whether Clean Water Act regulations are being properly followed, and other environmental concerns.
The agency later said it was concentrating scrutiny on just two such applications, one for a West Virginia mine and one for a Kentucky operation.
The industry took this announcement as a signal that EPA would effectively suspend a class of permits needed for the profitable operation of mountaintop surface mining ventures.
Valley fills are where the overburden and other substances removed from the ground are placed when a mining company is attempting to reach the coal, especially when mountaintop mining.
Now, in an April 3 letter, EPA's Region III office in Philadelphia has asked Colonel Dionysios Anninos, district commander for the Corps' Norfolk District, to use "its discretionary authority provided [to the Corps by federal statute] to revoke the previous verified Nationwide Permit 21, and [review the project] through the Individual Permit process."
The action would affect a surface mining project involving discharges of fill material into about 14,640 linear feet of "waters of the United States" near A&G Coal's Ison Rock Ridge surface mine in Wise County, Virginia.
A&G Coal, according to the US Mine Safety and Health Administration, has 10 active surface operations in Wise County.
In the letter from John Pomponio, director of environmental assessment and innovation division in EPA's Philadelphia office, the agency said it was "concerned that this project's proposed impact may have more than a minimal individual or cumulative adverse effect on the environment."
The NWP process for permitting valley fills is less restrictive than the IP process that EPA wants the Corps to implement in this case.
In a Wednesday statement, the Sierra Club's Oliver Bernstein and Kathy Selvage of the Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards said: "The Army Corps had been relying on a cookie-cutter 'nationwide' permit for the Ison Rock Ridge mine, but in the EPA's recommendation that the Army Corps revoke the permit the agency raised concerns about the mine's impact on waterways that were not addressed in the 'nationwide' permit."
"By dumping its mining waste into valleys and waterways, the Ison Rock Ridge mountaintop removal coal mining operation would be extremely destructive," the statement added. "Residents are also concerned with the proximity of the proposed mine to their homes, as portions of the permit are within the corporate limits of the town of Appalachia and surround several other nearby communities."
EPA and Corps officials were not available for comment immediately Wednesday. A&G Coal could not be contacted immediately.
Of course that will affect 45% of American power production.
It will start with brownouts
Enjoy all you who voted for the Kenyan.
I’ve never understood why a mining company could remove the top of a mountain and dump the spoil down a hillside. The 1978 Federal Surface Mining law requires mined land to be returned to approximate original contour.
If this keeps up, this is going to kill quite a few Appalachian-based companies, particularly Massey, which is heavily exposed to surface mining. Peabody and Arch Coal are smart to be building big mines in China right now.
Quite true, even if just a touch more at 48.5%.
US Electric Power Industry Net Generation, 2007
Electric Power Industry 2007: Year in Review
http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/electricity/epa/epa_sum.html
The sideways perspective has the effect of distorting and hiding information. If the intent is communication of information, it is much better to use a round pie-chart.
The coal segment should be broken down into Western coal and all other coals.
Don’t worry folks, with the way the economy is looking, it will soon be cheaper to burn money than coal.
This way it doesn’t take up the whole page.
even the KKK in the racist part of Western Pennsylvania voted for this clown even after both Obama and Biden, made it known that coal was a target.. the reason?
They have always voted Democrat!
53% of American voters voted for a politician who said he would eliminate 48.5% of our electric power production.
With that many freaking idiots running around loose in the the US I am off to buy more ammo.
This country is a dangerous place.
Don’t coal mine send pollutants into the atmosphere, isn’t this what the government wants to do anyway?
When you say Western coal are you including the coal locked up in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument?
One of the three best coal deposits in the WORLD taken off the market by Clinton as a payback to James Riady and the Lippo Group for their campaign contributions and to punish The State of Utah for giving the fewest votes to him.
Tampa, Florida power plants buy Indonesian coal, thank you Bill Clinton.
Destroy the coal industry and sit in the dark, thank you 0bama
Western coal I refer to is Wyoming/Montana. Powder River Basin and the Hanna Basin.
Jay Rockefeller must be so pleased!
Going to be interesting.
Uh oh...! Just when the mining industry was beginning to recover in Southwest Virginia comes the inevitable Obama attack on coal.
It truly is a sad state of affairs. I think the founders had it right when only property owners were allowed to vote, as it stands now your vote is canceled out by somebody being paid in cigarettes to vote socialist.
On another thread this morning I said "Perhaps it’s time to raise the voting age and only let landowners vote".
We do seem to think alike on this matter.
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