"Battles Over Mountaintop Coal Mining Rage in Wake of EPA Veto"
"Before blocking one of Appalachia's largest-ever mountaintop coal-mining projects this month, U.S. EPA agreed to allow blasting to start on a half-a-dozen other mountaintop mines."
"Before blocking one of Appalachia's largest-ever mountaintop coal-mining projects this month, U.S. EPA agreed to allow blasting to start on a half-a-dozen other mountaintop mines."
"The Obama administration yesterday rejected a proposal to raise grazing fees on public lands, a decision that suggests ranchers will continue to be charged below-market prices to graze cattle on federal rangelands."
Take advantage of the National Park Service's free admission days during National Park Week in April, first day of summer (June 21), National Public Lands Day (September 24) and the November 11-13 Veterans Day weekend.
Water managers, farmers, electric utilities, skiers and some 30 million water users breathed a sigh of relief in recent weeks with news that snowpack in the basin of the Colorado River was better. The relief may be temporary. The drought that has plagued the region for 11 years may become the new "normal."
"Mining companies can proceed with their challenge to U.S. EPA's new policies on mountaintop-removal coal mining, a federal judge has ruled in a preliminary decision that says EPA may have exceeded its legal authority."
"Arch Coal Inc. could have cut the stream damage from its proposed Spruce Mine in half without significantly increasing coal-production costs, according to a previously secret engineering report prepared for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency."
"Experts worry that the world is facing a looming food crisis, one that we are currently not well prepared to deal with."
"The Copper Mountain mine is one of a growing number of old, shuttered mines around the world that are being revisited, refurbished and reopened by companies hoping to cash in on the current surge in prices for copper, gold, nickel and a host of other metals."
"Federal regulators on Thursday vetoed Arch Coal Inc.'s proposal for the largest mountaintop removal permit in West Virginia history, saying the company had refused to adopt alternative mining plans that would do less environmental damage."
Teresa Chambers, who was fired by the Bush administration in 2004 for talking to the news media, has been reinstated by the Merit Systems Protection Board as chief of police for the National Park Service.