Tagged: Environmental Protection Agency

Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear is praising a federal judge's ruling that the Environmental Protection Agency infringed on state's rights by setting up water-quality criteria for surface coal mining operations.

The decision is considered a victory for the coal industry, which filed one of the four lawsuits against the EPA regulation along with West Virginia and Kentucky. According to EPA officials, the policy was set up to ensure a better system for surface coal-mining permits under the Clean Water Act.

From Beshear's office:

"Today’s action by the federal court is a victory for coal miners who have seen mines close and their jobs put in jeopardy due, in part, to the actions of the federal EPA.

The ruling in U.S. District Court confirms my administration’s long-held position that the federal EPA overreached its authority and essentially halted three dozen pending coal permits in Kentucky – permits that were met with erratic and unpredictable changes in EPA standards.  

A federal judge says the Environmental Protection Agency overstepped its powers by setting up water-quality criteria for coal mining operations in Appalachia.

U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton in Washington ruled Tuesday in a lawsuit filed by a coal mining industry coalition against the EPA and Administrator Lisa Jackson. Walton said the EPA infringed on the authority given to state regulators by federal clean water and surface mining acts.

Federal Environmental Protection Agency officials say there’s still work to be done at the Lees Lane Landfill site in southwest Louisville, though they don’t believe the site is currently a danger to nearby residents.

Representatives from the Environmental Protection Agency will be in Louisville tomorrow to discuss a former toxic Superfund site.

New environmental issues have arisen at the Lees Lane Landfill in West Louisville.

The landfill was closed in 1975. After 400 drums of hazardous materials were found on the site near the Ohio River several years later, Lees Lane was classified as a toxic Superfund site, and cleanup began.

A federal court of appeals has ruled that the Environmental Protection Agency can regulate carbon emissions from vehicles and power plants.

A coalition of energy companies, manufacturers and individual states—including Kentucky and Indiana—challenged the rules in court. They argued that a core provision—the finding that greenhouse gases, like carbon dioxide are pollutants and pose a danger to human health—wasn’t based on science. And without that finding, they argued the federal government couldn’t set standards for vehicle and power plant carbon dioxide emissions.

A federal court of appeals has ruled that the Environmental Protection Agency can regulate carbon emissions from vehicles and power plants. The court also upheld the agency’s scientific determination that greenhouse gases pose a danger to human health.