"today’s big news...sweeping new regulations for mountaintop removal"

[ProSense]

Obama’s mountaintop-removal crackdown could mean more than offshore drilling

by Jonathan Hiskes

Offshore drilling, auto-efficiency standards, water-heater regs, green jobs for strippers … there’s a ton going on this week.

But today’s big news is a lot brighter than yesterday’s offshore drilling hubbub: the Obama administration announced sweeping new regulations for mountaintop removal, the coal-mining method that tends to (a) remove mountaintops, (b) fill mountain valleys with rubble, and (c) pollute waterways downstream.

The new EPA regs focus on clean water, which limits the ability of mining companies to dump waste freely, which puts the whole mountaintop-removal method in jeopardy. So it’s kind of a big deal. Both mining advocates and mountain-and-water defenders agree on this.

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For all the symbolic weight that offshore drilling carries, Fineman’s right that coal is America’s real energy dilemma. It’s cheaper than oil, dirtier than oil, and we have a lot of it. So the new protections are nothing to sniff at.

Major Victory in Battle Against Moutaintop Removal

[BrklynLiberal]

1. ..A really good start.

[Kdillard]

2. Very good news.

[Jennicut]

3. Coal is the big issue. And we have several liberal Senators who want to protect

coal interests in their states.

[vaberella]

5. But how do you think this stands...

next to the off-shore drilling thing. I'm seeing the off shore thing as more of political strategy move now...than him being serious.

[quaker bill]

4. This is the sort of change I voted for n/t

[catgirl]

6. K & R

[yowzayowzayowza]

7. Oh noes, that war mongering corporate stooge fooking up again.

Doomed we are. DOOMED!!! Woe is me.