Charleston Gazette editorial, March 24, 2007

Steven Griles spent much of his career making it easier for out-of-state coal corporations to blast the majestic crests off mountains in West Virginia and elsewhere.

He was deputy chief of the U.S. Office of Surface Mining during the Reagan-Bush administration in the 1980s. Then, while Republicans were out of power in the 1990s, he was a top lobbyist for the coal industry.

When the second President Bush gained the White House in 2001, Griles was named deputy secretary of the Interior Department. The lobbyist signed an agreement swearing he would abstain from coal issues - but he immediately broke the agreement. Gazette reporter Ken Ward Jr. revealed that he met with coal agents, and The Washington Post cited 32 such meetings to benefit his former clients.

Incredibly, his old lobbying firm paid Griles $568,000 while he was No. 2 at Interior. He tried to sabotage federal studies into the damage caused by mountaintop removal mining - ordering the researchers to focus instead on "streamlining coal mine permitting," Ward reported.

Vanity Fair magazine summarized the situation in a report titled "Sale of the Wild." It detailed West Virginia cases in which Griles blocked pollution actions against coal companies. It recounted how he ordered federal inspector Jack Spadaro to reverse his charges against a mining firm, and suspended Spadaro when he refused. The inspector said he met with Griles about the charges "and explained why I could not vacate them. He became enraged, his face got red, he was almost spitting. I knew then that this was a different kind of animal." Spadaro appealed his suspension and won.

Now the different kind of animal has pleaded guilty to corruption in the scummy Abramoff mess - becoming the highest-ranking Bush administration official caught in the Washington lobbying scandal.

In a federal court Friday, Griles admitted that he lied to Senate investigators about his personal links to GOP lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who fleeced millions from Indian tribes wanting government favors.

Griles is part of a long, disgusting parade (in the Bush administration). Sentencing is set for July.