Politics and the Environmental Impact Statement on MTR - It's Not Pretty

Remember Mike Castle? He was one of three former coal industry executives appointed to head the WV Department of Environmental Protection under Governor Underwood (himself a former coal industry exec). Castle is now "special assistant" to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's administrator for our region.

If you have been following Ken Ward’s articles in the Charleston Gazette, you know that the Bush and Co. are playing politics with the long-delayed Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) on mountaintop removal. They’d rather scrap the science (which is coming to the conclusion we all already know - mountaintop removal is an environmental and social disaster) and instead make the EIS into a vehicle for a streamlined permitting process for mountaintop removal operators. Word has it Mike Castle’s got his fingerprints all over this latest dirty dealing from King Coal and his regulator-minions.

Be sure to check out the Charleston Gazette's special section on the EIS, especially the EPA slide show. Ken Ward obtained the EIS via use of the Freedom of Information Act, a great example of democracy in action. The Bush administration, citing national security, wants to make it harder for citizens to use the Freedom of Information Act.