Yesterday, four top West Virginia Democrats ripped the Obama administration’s Environmental Protection Agency for taking action that will result in 150 lost mining jobs in the coal industry. Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin, Sen. Joe Manchin, Sen. Jay Rockefeller, and Rep. Nick Rahall expressed “outrage” at the EPA’s delay of a surface mining permit for Consol Energy. If the permit had been approved, the state would have seen thousands of new jobs created. This is all part of the Obama administration’s war on coal, declared during the 2008 campaign.
“I am incensed and infuriated that the EPA would intentionally delay the needed permit for a public-private project that would bring so many good jobs and valuable infrastructure to communities that so desperately need them,” stated Machin. “The EPA has lost court case after court case for its overreach, and it should be using better judgment by now.”
Consol will now be forced to fire some 145 people beginning December 30. “Instead of stalling and creating unnecessary impediments, we should be working together to put people to work, develop our infrastructure, and provide the low-priced energy that our country needs. This project would accomplish all three of these crucial goals,” raged Tomblin.