Daily News: Capito Seeks Clarity On Mine Permit

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Capito Seeks Clarity On Mine Permit

Congresswoman Shelley Moore Capito planned to ask the Environmental Protection Agency today to clarify how and when it will deal with 79 delayed mining permits and what its veto authority is on such decisions.

EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson was scheduled to testify this morning before the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee about the Clean Water Act.

"What is EPA's actual plan here?" Capito, R-W.Va., said Wednesday during a telephone interview. "They still talk in indefinite terms. We're looking for no delay and definite boundaries."

Questions Capito planned to ask include what kind of interplay there is between the EPA and state standards regarding the Clean Water Act and what specific role the EPA will have with the Army Corps of Engineers regarding the permit process for those 79 applications.

Those 79 applications are for surface or mountaintop removal coal mining permits in West Virginia, Kentucky, Ohio and Tennessee, and they include 23 valley fill permits in West Virginia.

"When considering something as important as a major investment of dollars and job creation, what kind of consideration or what kind of balance do they look for?" Capito said. "These are jobs we're looking at."

Capito sent a letter to Jackson last week requesting clarification on what role the EPA will have in permit decisions, if the EPA will have final veto authority of pending permits, on what time clock the agency is working and how many permits are before the Corps...

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