West Virginia Blue
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Manchin spokesman Matt Turner addressed the shut-out of the environmental side from the governor's upcoming summit with the coal barons.
He told the AP the meeting was requested by county commissioners "who are worried about how proposed federal actions could affect coal revenues."
And the reason environmentalists are banned:
He says groups opposed to mining have not been invited because the meeting is not about environmental regulations.
Are these guys getting together to discuss federal actions by the EPA relating to environmental regulations, or are they not discussing environmental regulations?
And, if the latter is true, how do they explain Randy Huffman's invitation to the event?
Letter from Rep. Shelley Moore Capito to Ms. Lisa Jackson, Administrator U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Dear Administrator Jackson,
We are writing to express strong concerns about the coal mining permit applications currently being held up at the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers by the Environmental Protection Agency.
[snip]
While much has been made of the recent approval of 42 long-delayed permits still waiting to be issued, hundreds more remain un-resolved and face further delay. These actions will force mines to idle production and rob us of some of the highest paying jobs in the region.
STATEMENT FROM GOV. MANCHIN AND DEP SECRETARY RANDY HUFFMAN: ABOUT OBAMA ADMINISTRATION'S ANNOUNCEMENT TODAY
CHARLESTON, W.Va. - Gov. Joe Manchin and DEP Secretary Randy Huffman released this statement today about the Obama Administration's action to strengthen oversight and regulation for surface mining:
[snip]
Gov. Joe Manchin added, "I have always said that mining is vital to West Virginia's economy, but at the same time, we must constantly look for ways to improve mine safety and operate in an environmentally responsible way. That is why today I asked EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson to examine our Post-Mine Land Use legislation that was recently passed in the special session. I explained how responsible this piece of legislation is and how it will assist us in finding the balance between protecting our environment and protecting our jobs.
"We will continue to work with the federal government to ensure that coal companies comply with environmental regulations every step of the way, so that the environment is protected while the West Virginia economy stays strong and our people stay working. We also ask for the administration to work with us to find the balance between our economy and our environment.
"I truly believe that coal is essential in meeting our nation's energy needs and keeping our economy strong and competitive, while allowing our country to be less dependent on foreign oil and more secure. Rest assured, I will continue to do everything I possibly can to fight for West Virginia families and the jobs that support them."
DEP Secretary Randy Huffman says he is frustrated by the Environmental Protection Agency stepping on his agency's toes.
EPA officials were in Charleston last week. The EPA is raising concerns about several mountaintop removal permits, including two in West Virginia, but Huffman says all mining-related activities are already heavily regulated by the DEP.
"We are the environmental regulators here in West Virginia," he said. "We are the ones on the front line here. We are the ones responsible for protecting the environment. We have a very rigorous and robust regulatory program that is basically being challenged.
[snip]
Huffman says the sticking point is that the EPA believes that creating valley fills-the practice where the tops of the mountains are removed and put into a nearby valley-contribute to stream degradation. But Huffman says valley fills are essential to mountaintop removal, as well as the state's economy.
"Mainly what we're concerned about as regulators is the ability to develop land after mining," he said. "You need valley fills if you're going to have a viable post mining economy. You need flat land. And in order to have flat land you need to have valley fills, and one of our biggest concerns is that EPA is wanting to reduce the size and number of valley fills in Appalachia."
The EPA has avoided making any kind of blanket declarations on mountaintop removal, and has said only that future permits will be closely scrutinized.
New DEP Secretary Expects To Make The Tough Decisions
New West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Randy Huffman is the first one to admit he doesn't have all the answers, but he says he'll work to get them.
[snip]
Huffman, who has filled many roles at DEP for 21-years, says he'll run the agency much like Timmermyer did during the Wise administration and the last four years under Governor Joe Manchin. Huffman says that will include making the tough decisions.
"Our nature is to want to be facilitators and mediators and help people through their problems," he recently told MetroNews. "But at the end of the day, sometimes a decision is going to have to be made that upsets someone and that's the nature of the beast."
Huffman says he'll use the expertise already on staff at DEP to help him make those decisions.
Secretary Huffman says he'll make no wholesale changes at the DEP. He says that's one reason why he got the job. He says the governor likes the direction things are currently headed.
Huffman promises DEP will be vigilant when it comes to coal mining regulations. "There's a demand to get the coal out of the ground, but our job is to make sure the environment is protected in the process. We don't want to sacrifice anything in the long-term for short-term gain and short-term profits," he said.
The secretary also anticipates the identification of the state's water resources and protecting the state's water to be growing concerns.
"We have a lot of high-quality water," Huffman said. "And we want to protect it for our future use."
Here's what's caught my eye lately. What's caught yours?
* So far, the Obama EPA has been one giant step sideways on the issue of Mountaintop Removal coal mining. The latest news is the EPA plans a major scientific review of mountaintop removal. This may or may not lead to a different level of enforcement.
* The latest W.Va. DEP statement on Dunkard Creek is:
The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection now believes a golden algae bloom is linked to a large fish kill on Dunkard Creek, in northern West Virginia and southwestern Pennsylvania. DEP staff members investigating the incident narrowed down the causes of the fish kill after consulting with algae experts from West Virginia University, North Carolina and Texas.
The algae found in Dunkard Creek has been tentatively identified as Prymnesium parvum, commonly called golden algae, which occurs worldwide, but primarily in coastal waters that have higher salt or mineral content. The algae produces toxins that can affect gill-breathing organisms and the most visible result of a fish kill caused by golden alga is dead and dying fish and mussels of all species and sizes.
The characteristics of the fish kill are almost identical to what is seen in other parts of the country that also have had golden algae kills.
"Narrowing down the cause will allow us and anyone who may be found to be responsible to find a solution, " said Cabinet Secretary Randy Huffman. "Some members of our investigation team are now turning their attention to finding ways to minimize or eliminate the algae bloom. We are also evaluating what can be done to prevent this from happening in the future, in Dunkard and other watersheds."
As a start, Randy Huffman could stop giving blanket permission to coal mines to continue polluting streams above legal conductivity limits.
* If you haven't seen it yet, you should definitely check out the great series of posts that Dawn Miller has written on Metro Government. Consolidation is one of those "boring" wonkish topics that really can make a big difference. It's an important dialogue for progressives to take part in.
Get ready for Blog Action Day on Climate Change on October 15, 2009. Sign up now to commit to writing a post on 10/15/09 about climate change. If you don't have your own blog home, we welcome anyone who wants to write a diary here. (Cross-posts are always welcome, too!)
Obama promised a "wealth-based green industry", but didn't go into much detail, as far as I could tell. And unfortunately, his "green jobs czar" was run off before he could really get the ball rolling. So its up to us.
I'm old enough to remember when West Virginia used to be a real manufacturing mecca. Think about it. From tools to weapons, from silicon chips to silicone coatings, we've been a source for aluminum, steel, plastics, Teflon, glass, and even Glyclean, used in the processing of high purity electronics & semiconductor processing.
I have a pretty good idea why we DON'T manufacture high grade alternatives like solar panels and wind turbines in WV. Its because of the hyper-toxicity of coal-driven politics. Big Coal simply wants to drive everyone out and turn WV into a giant moon scape. We may as well face it. As long as surface mines are allowed to proliferate and there aren't any Clean Election Laws implemented, Big Coal will be all but encouraged by our politicians to continue that course of action.
Clean election laws aside, EPA's enforcement of Clean Water Act laws and OSM strict oversight of SMCRA regs can potentially jam a crowbar into the spokes of surface mine operators.
So to turn things around we need to embrace the fact that manufacturing takes energy, and right now, WV's fossil fuels are the only source of that energy. Since Clem points out that coal production per man hour is on the wane in WV, perhaps dangling the prospect of jacking up local energy needs by luring manufacturers to come to WV is part of the political solution. And all the while, demand that deep mining and strict environmental laws are being enforced.
Guaranteeing more deep mine operations while ramping up local energy consumption so WV can manufacture alternative energy sources can be a winning argument. I just wonder if our state leaders could be persuaded to promote the discounting of energy for the purpose of manufacturing anything "green". Seems to me that discounting energy was one major method he tried to keep those Ravenswood aluminum workers from getting laid off. He certainly tried getting discounted energy when it came to trying to save Blenko from shutting down.
Another wealth-based green industry is cleaning up the over 400 toxic slurry injection sites, the abandoned coal mines, and the countless sludge impoundments strewn across WV. While the WV Brownfields Redevelopment program is doing remediation in northern WV primarly using state funds, it just so happens that Don Blankenship was recently required to spend $10 million of Massey cash for remediation.
As part of the deal, Massey agreed to perform 20 water quality improvement projects along 25 miles of the Little Coal River, and to set aside 200 acres of riverfront property as protected from development. source
Now that's what I call generating shovel-ready 'wealth-based green jobs', because implementation didn't shift the responsibility onto the taxpayer.
Although there is a huge potential for a local green version of FDR's "New Deal" to be found in the remediation of hundreds of thousands of Clean Water Act permit violations, the plain truth is that there isn't the political climate for enforcement. First of all, even though there can't be any greener jobs than those engaged in remediation, neither Joe Manchin nor Randy Huffman are ever going to call them "green". Because that would then call attention to the fact that it's the EPA which has had to step in before scofflaw companies get busted.
Between January 2000 and March 2006, self-reported violations, included in reports Massey filed with regulators, amounted to 60,500 days of violations, or about 28 violations per day, according to court records.
That $20 million went into FED coffers and not WV because in all those violations over all that time, our DEP never busted them. And although $10 million is being spent towards remediation, it should have been a lot more.
It is notable that it was Bush's EPA that struck the deal.
One coal industry analyst previously cited by The Associated Press estimated Massey's potential fines at more than $2.4 billion.
So the thing that really ticks me off about the whole deal is that while the fine seemed large, it was the equivalent of only ten days worth of profit-taking by Massey.
Randy Huffman is even now stalling green jobs from being implemented by blocking the OSM from enforcing SMCRA requirements for restoring blasted-away mountains to their approximate original contour ("AOC").
This could really be a key issue towards changing the political attitude in WV regarding "green jobs". As surface mines are shut down, restoring to AOC has the potential to keep many of those dozer and other heavy equipment operators working. And again, it has the potential of being done on the scofflaw coal operator's dime, not ours.
West Virginia and the nation need jobs and coal. Nothing in the debate over mountaintop mining is going to change that in the short term. But, in the long term, as we mine and use a nonrenewable resource and as we develop alternative energy sources, the people that live in the steep, hostile terrain of southern West Virginia need a future, too. The opportunities created by surface mining will be gone if not taken advantage of now. We must have a base upon which to build our future and surface mining provides a key piece that base.
SOURCE: Randy Huffman
Title:
Cabinet Secretary of the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection before the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, Subcommittee on Water and Wildlife
Hearing: The Impacts of Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining on Water Quality in Appalachia
The fact is that between 2000 and 2006, one company alone (Massey) managed to violate its clean water permits well over 4,500 times. Perhaps Mr. Huffman should list all the businesses he envisions which will want to locate where the water is so toxic that folks don't dare even touch it for fear of contracting cancer. And anyone can plainly see that the permits allowing "surface mining" are abused to the point where these companies are actually quarry mining, permanently laying waste to more than 1.5 million acres of hardwood forest and 1,200 miles of streams across Appalachia, a region that boasts the world's highest diversity of salamanders, crayfishes, and freshwater mussels in the world.
Fundamental to the original Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 (SMCRA) was the "approximate original contour" provisions, which specifically require surface mining operators to "...grade in order to restore the approximate original contour of the land with all highwalls, spoil piles, and depressions eliminated..." [Sec. 515(b)3].
In other words, under federal law, mine operators must generally put strip mine sites back the way they were prior to mining. The law calls this "approximate original contour," or AOC. In limited circumstances, operators that actually proposed post-mining development can leave mined sites flattened or with gently rolling hills.
Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSM) investigators found mine operators did not return the land to its original topography, or to the configuration spelled out in approved permit applications. Similar violations existed at both sites where AOC was required and where operators obtained variances allowing them to avoid that standard. source
"Variances"? I'm curious as to the exact circumstances and documented "post-mining developments" the agency decided to issue these "variances".
If Mr. Huffman is as concerned about the future of his fellow West Virginians as he's claimed, then before issuing any more permits to mine any coal whatsoever, his agency should require any and all offending companies to either restore the mountains to their original contours (according to strict SMCRA specs) and also clean up the hundreds of toxic waste dumps they've left across Appalachia in the form of coal sludge impoundments and slurry injection sites. If they refuse for any reason, then its time to jail those responsible until and unless they and/ or their companies pay to fix these problems.
If scofflaw companies want to try countersuing Huffman and the State of WV for letting them get by with offenses, then more power to them. I'm sure that our legal community could use an economic boost as well.
Now that's what I call a green jobs program, folks.
At the time, he was criticized for better representing the interests of coal companies than the interests of West Virginia residents. Among other things, Sec. Huffman minimizes damages from MTR by saying: "Without evidence of any significant impact on the rest of the ecosystem beyond the diminished numbers of certain genus of mayflies, the State cannot say that there has been a violation of its narrative standard."
A week ago, Ken Ward, Jr., made the bombshell disclosure that a staff scientist at WV DEP had written a memo pointing out a critical factual error in Sec. Huffman's testimony. The memo provides detailed scientific evidence of additional impacts of MTR, including that entire genus of mayflies and stoneflies (not just individual species) the entire order of mayflies and the entire order of stoneflies (not just individual species, genera, and families) have been wiped out by mountaintop removal.
This week, two of Sec. Huffman's subordinates issued a press release repeating a portion of Sec. Huffman's congressional testimony and claiming there was nothing misleading about it. In stark contrast to the level of detail in the leaked memo, this press release includes no new information. Furthermore, it did not dispute any of the facts presented in the leaked memo.
About Congressional Testimony
Providing testimony to Congress is very different than giving a speech to, say, a Friends of Coal dinner. Congressional testimony is typically given under oath ("to swear the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth"). Knowingly making a false statement in a Congressional hearing is grounds for a charge of perjury.
Even short of perjury, getting caught providing misleading information to Congress is very embarrassing. It undermines whatever you are advocating for, can do great harm to your personal reputation, and can end up pissing off people with a lot of power.
Amending Testimony
Because the stakes are so high in Congressional hearings, everyone wants to get the information right. Thus, "often the chair will announce that the hearing record will be left open for a period of time so that additional information can be entered into the formal hearing record" (source: "Hearings in the US Senate" (pdf) found via Wikipedia). Also, "some committees provide for review by witnesses of their testimony for the
purpose of determining errors in transcription, grammatical corrections or obvious errors of fact."
Point of Order (What I'd like to know...)
So, here's what I like to know...
Can Sec. Huffman still amend his testimony? If so, does he plan to?
In this week's press release, Mandirola said. "The sentence in his testimony that is the subject of the issue should not have been construed to mean that the only impact of valley fills was a diminished number of a certain genus of mayflies."
Seeing as how no other impact of valley fills was mentioned in Sec. Huffman's testimony, it might be important for him to provide more detail to the Subcommittee on Water and Wildlife. Just what are those additional impacts of valley fills that the WV DEP has identified? I'm sure the subcommittee would like to know.
Even more to clarify
Inspired by this press release, I went back and read Sec. Huffman's testimony in its entirety. Here's a something else from his original testimony (pdf) that Sec. Huffman might want to clarify, too.
Coal production is the leading revenue generator for West Virginia
How does Sec. Huffman figure that?
By jobs? Mining and logging, the industry category that includes coal production, accounted for only 3.4% of West Virginia jobs in July, 2009. Here is a list of industries that employed more West Virginians in July, 2009: Construction, Manufacturing, Retail Trade, Financial Activities, Professional and Business Services, Educational and Health Services, Leisure and Hospitality, Other Services, and Government (that's almost every other sector of the economy).
By West Virginia government revenue? The major source of industry-specific revenue provided by coal production is the state severance tax.
In July, 2009, WV severance tax revenues were 10,872,000. Here are five larger sources of revenue:
Personal Income Tax (102,857,000)
Consumer Sales Tax/Use Tax (97,492,000)
Motor Fuel Tax (36,074,000)
Insurance Tax (24,545,000)
Vehicle Sales (Privilege) Tax (14,159,000)
And two more that were nearly equivalent:
Business and Occupation Tax (10,247,000)
Cigarette Tax (10,622,000)
No matter how I slice it, I can't come up with any way to make the statement "Coal production is the leading revenue generator for West Virginia" true.
If I was a Senator and found out a witness couldn't get a basic fact like that right about their own state, it would make me wonder what else the witness was wrong about in his testimony.
And, another...
Here's another really odd statement in Sec. Huffman's testimony:
The greater concern for the Department of Environmental Protection, however, as protector of the State's water resources, is the unintended consequences of the Environmental Protection Agency's recent actions that have the potential to significantly limit all types of mining.
Let's read that again real slowly. "The greater concern... as protector of the State's water resource... is the unintended consequences of the EPA... potential to significantly limit all types of mining."
Let's say that your only job was to protect WV water resources. Can you come up with a single way in which doing more mining in West Virginia would make your job easier? That's what Sec. Huffman said, that as protector of West Virginia water resources his job would be more difficult if mining was limited (by the EPA) in West Virginia.
His statement makes absolutely no sense. It is nonsense.
Let me be really clear here: I'm not advocating for the EPA to stop all mining (and neither are they; Sec. Huffman was arguing a straw man). What I am saying is the person responsible for protecting our water resources should find that job easier to do if there is less mining. That's a straightforward logical fact.
As citizens, we are responsible for determining how these resources are to be used so that our quality of life, and that of future generations, is enhanced. Please join me and the 800 WVDEP employees who are working to improve our water and air quality, resource recovery processes, waste management, abandoned mine land reclamation, and brownfields remediation.
There's a big difference between what Sec. Huffman says on his website and what Sec. Huffman said in his testimony. In his testimony, Sec. Huffman does not sound like someone pursuing that mission.
I find it really embarrassing to West Virginia that people are calling for a federal takeover of a major department of our state government. Unfortunately, when a WV Cabinet Secretary appears before Congress this poorly prepared for testimony, it is a real black eye for our state.
For decades, how closely a coal miner paid attention to the canary in the coal mine was, literally, the difference between life and death. Today, the "canary in the coal mine" is a more sophisticated set of man-made monitors and biological indicators, but just as important for our long term health and welfare.
So what happens if the canary dies and no one hears its dying cries?
The modern day canary includes little known marker species like mayflies. As local newspaper comments retort that coal miner jobs are more important than mere mayflies, who will ask: if your job poisons your neighbors well water, is that a job worth saving?
Listening to the Canary
Here in Appalachia this Labor Day weekend, Big Coal is distracting the public with a line-up of aged entertainers and climate change denialists. Meanwhile, the local power company is asking for $365,000,000 of stimulus money to spend on, among other things, more coal removed by mountain top removal.
Two brave West Virginians have taken roost in the trees along a Mountaintop Removal site. It's easy to understand why the nearby miners might feel invincible in their huge earth-moving equipment, but the dead canary says otherwise.
In a bombshell revelation last Friday, we learned that the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection has known about adverse effects of Mountaintop Removal since at least 2002. Yet, somehow, Sec. Huffman was unable to testify about the full extent of them in front of the U.S. Senate in 2009.
Gov. Joe Manchin's appointee for Chair of the WV DEP is in quite a pickle. Either he truly knew nothing about the information described in the released memo--in which he's incompetent as an administrator of an organization that requires the free flow of scientific information--or he lied to Congress. Either way, it is no wonder so many people are calling for a Federal takeover of the WV DEP. (Update: A non-clarification clarification was issued late this afternoon. Secretary Huffman is yet to come clean.)
Stealing from a batman script
King Coal will do its best to say there's nothing to see there. After all, who cares about a few mayflies? In a setup that could come straight out of a batman script, Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship is inviting the public to join him, a few aged rock stars, and a British climate change denialist for a Labor Day celebration in a reclaimed strip mine below a coal sludge impoundment dam.
Although Blankncheck hasn't warned anyone pre-registering to attend his "I HEART COAL" fest3, folks planning to go really should be made aware that there are more coal sludge impoundment dams per square mile around this doodah than anywhere else in the US.
Just one of the many nearby toxic sites holds an incredible 4.74 billion gallons of deadly slime soup behind a 345 ft. high dirt wall. By comparison, that's quadruple the amount of muck released in Tennessee's giant TVA spill not so long ago. The amount of toxic sludge spilld across Tennessee was reportedly 100 times larger than the famous Exxon Valdez disaster! According to the Coal Impoundment Location and Information System website4 there are absolutely NO evacuation plans filed with the state of WV, or with either of the counties of Mingo or Logan for an event the size of the one planned by Blankenship and his pals. NONE. Nor are there any instructions to the public on Blankenstein's spiffy "Friends of America" website warning folks of the imminent dangers. So good luck to all those Ted "Crusty Pants" Nugent fans when he starts machine gunning the crowd to clear them out of HIS way even as they trample each other to keep from drowning in liquified mercury, lead, arsenic, and selenium.
One more thing. While friendsofamericarally.com website advises everyone pre-registering to bring a lawn chair, do NOT plan to sit directly or go barefoot on any reclaimed site. The chemicals sprayed across reclaimed quarry topsoil in an attempt to force it to be "green" can be both caustic AND toxic.
No matter how loud the music gets, it still won't drown out the haunting cries of the dead canaries.
* Visit I Love Mountains to learn how you take action to end mountain top removal.
* Tell the EPA to strictly regulate the disposal of contaminated coal waste.
* Support Climate Ground Zero in its "ongoing campaign of non-violent civil disobedience in southern West Virginia to address mountaintop removal coal mining and its effects on our future."
Image credits: ex-canary by Secret Tenerife, WV Sludge impoundment locations by One Citizen
Legacy of Coal is a newly-launched diary series inspired by the panels at Netroots Nation. We are publicizing issues around coal use and mining, including Mountaintop Removal (MTR), the damage to less-politically-powerful areas of our country, and the broader impact of energy and economic policy. Of course, this intersects with issues of climate change, health care, and human rights. While no one person can know all there about these issues, working together we can make a difference. If you would like to guest-host a diary, please contact jlms_qkw AT xmission DOT com. This diary series is dedicated to our country's coal miners and the people waiting for them to come home.
Today the W.Va. DEP issued a response to last week's embarrassing disclosure that Sec. Huffman provided misleading testimony to the U.S. Senate.
Today's statement says:
"It is important to state that Cabinet Secretary Randy Huffman's testimony to the members of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works was not misleading as stated in the Gazette article," Mandirola said. "The sentence in his testimony that is the subject of the issue should not have been construed to mean that the only impact of valley fills was a diminished number of a certain genus of mayflies.
I reread the portion of the testimony the W.Va. DEP helpfully provides as context as generously as possible. I still reach the conclusion that when Sec. Huffman said, "Without evidence of any significant impact on the rest of the ecosystem beyond the diminished numbers of certain genus of mayflies, the State cannot say that there has been a violation of its narrative standard" he meant that the only concerning impact of valley fills was a diminished number of a certain genus of mayflies.
So, here's my question for Secretary Randy Huffman or designated spokespersons Scott Mandirola and Pat Campbell.
If Secretary Randy Huffman intended to leave the impression that there are more impacts of valley fills beyond a diminished number of a certain genus of mayflies, what are those impacts?
I didn't see any additional impacts mentioned in today's press release. The best way to clear up any potential misunderstanding is to let us know what those impacts are.
West Virginia Environmental Protection Secretary Randy Huffman's testimony in June at a congressional hearing on mountaintop removal has drawn a lot of comment, and even helped fuel a protest calling for his resignation.
It turns out that even some folks within Huffman's own agency were none too happy with his staunch defense of the coal industry before a hearing of a Senate Environment and Public Works subcommittee.
Behind the scenes, a respected biologist at the WVDEP's Division of Water and Waste Management responded with a strongly worded memo that challenged Huffman's statements and urged agency officials to make sure the secretary "will be better informed the next time he represents our agency's current state of knowledge to federal authorities and elected representatives."
There's a real management issue over at the West Virginia Dept. of Environmental Protection that Secretary Huffman did not have accurate information before his Senate testimony (and hadn't even seen the corrective memo today).
Sec. Randy Huffman is in quite a pickle now. He's either incompetent at running an agency that requires the free-flow of scientific information or he committed perjury in his Senate testimony.
It is a real embarrassment to the state of West Virginia that a major state government agency is in danger of federal takeover for mismanagement.
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CHARLESTON, W.Va. - Gov. Joe Manchin and DEP Secretary Randy Huffman released this statement today about the Obama Administration's action to strengthen oversight and regulation for surface mining:
DEP Secretary Randy Huffman says he is frustrated by the Environmental Protection Agency stepping on his agency's toes.
