COAL: Musical chairs for witnesses in House hearing on mountaintop permitting

News
June 1, 2012
Manuel Quinones, E&E reporter
Published: Friday, June 1, 2012
 
Several Obama administration officials have declined to appear today at a House Energy and Mineral Resources Subcommittee hearing on Appalachian coal-mining permits.
 
Subcommittee leaders say they had asked to question U.S. EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, Office of Surface Mining Director Joseph Pizarchik and a top Army Corps of Engineers official about EPA's 2011 retroactive veto of Arch Coal Inc.'s Spruce No. 1 mine in West Virginia.
 
But the administration has whittled away the witness list.
 
EPA spokesman Brendan Gilfillan said Jackson had never agreed to testify and her schedule would not allow it on short notice. EPA has declined to provide further comment.
 
And while Republicans would also like to question Pizarchik, OSM emphasized he is not involved in the Spruce-permit issue.
 
"The Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement had no role in the issuance or subsequent revocation of a permit to [Arch Subsidiary] Mingo Logan Coal Company Inc. pursuant to section 404 of the Clean Water Act," OSM communications chief Peter Mali wrote panel staffers.
 
"There is absolutely no nexus between OSM and the revocation of the permit for the proposed Spruce No. 1 Mine, in other words," he wrote.
 
Lt. Gen. Thomas Bostick, the Army Corps' commanding general and chief of engineers, had been listed as an invited witness in a news release last month. But a corps spokesman said agency officials have not been invited.
 
Even though the Army Corps issued the dredge-and-fill permit for the Spruce mine in 2007, it was EPA that vetoed parts of it. And critics have been highlighting any fissures between the two agencies.
 
"Considering the magnitude of the Obama Administration's reckless and irresponsible decision to revoke an already issued coal permit, it's extremely disappointing yet not totally surprising that none of the Administration officials invited to testify want to defend or explain their job-destroying action," Natural Resources Committee spokesman Spencer Pederson said in a statement.
 
Pederson said Jo-Ellen Darcy, the Army's assistant secretary for civil works, turned down the chance to appear before lawmakers. The subcommittee's latest lineup of "invited witnesses" still lists Darcy, Pizarchik and Jackson.
 
Other witnesses include Karen Harbert, an energy leader with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The chamber has expressed misgivings about EPA's veto, saying that it sets a dangerous precedent for numerous other industries requiring similar approvals.
 
The hearing's title is "Obama Administration's Actions Against the Spruce Coal Mine: Canceled Permits, Lawsuits and Lost Jobs." Maria Gunnoe, a West Virginia resident and foe of mountaintop-removal mining, is appearing in defense of the Spruce veto and EPA actions.
 
"The title of this hearing shows that many committee members already have their minds made up and aren't going to listen to community members' perspective on the destruction mountaintop removal causes to our health and our communities," Gunnoe said in a statement. "But, I will go to speak our truth."
 
Schedule: The hearing is 10 a.m. today in 1324 Longworth.
 
Witnesses: West Virginia state Sen. Art Kirkendoll; Karen Harbert, Institute for 21st Century Energy CEO at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce; Ross Eisenberg, National Association of Manufacturers energy and resources policy vice president; and West Virginia environmental organizer Maria Gunnoe.