Vetoing Mountaintop Removal Permit

In another example of the game "Elections Have Consequences," the Environmental Protection Agency is likely to veto a previously approved mountaintop removal coal mining project in West Virginia. This project would have been the largest single mountaintop removal operation in history.

Of course, any reasonable application of existing environmental legislation should make these operations illegal. When the mountain is blown up and disposed of in the valleys below, it destroys the water, thus violating the Clean Water Act. Finally, the EPA is moving to enforce the regulations.

Now, this hardly means the end of mountaintop removal, but at least an emboldened EPA will at least halt the most egregious coal operations.