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Another step in the right direction: the Army Corps announced today that it is eliminating ‘Nationwide Permit 21’, the fast-track process for mountaintop removal mining permit applications.
This change means that permits will get a more thorough review and that directly-impacted communities will have an opportunity to express their concerns.
Supporters of the coal industry were vocal and hostile on this topic during public hearings in West Virginia and Kentucky last October.
The National Mining Association responded this morning that:
“Today’s decision will slow job creation, add further uncertainty to the permitting process and undermine our ability to utilize the nation’s most abundant domestic energy resource—coal”
It’s time for a reality check at the National Mining Association:
1. The coal industry’s acceleration of Mountaintop Removal Mining has meant job loss, not creation for Appalachia.
2. The nation’s most abundant – and accessible – domestic energy resource is not coal, take a look at solar and wind resources in the US.