"EPA Delays Action on Mountaintop Removal Plan"

"The Obama administration has delayed action on a set of broad-ranging and specific measures to reduce the environmental impacts of mountaintop removal, after details of the plan were leaked to coal-state mining regulators.

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency officials are also facing a cool reception from other government agencies, including the federal Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement.

"EPA is under significant pressure from the coal industry and its friends," said Joe Lovett, director of the Appalachian Center for the Economy and the Environment. ...

Details of the EPA proposals are being circulated among state regulators in coal-producing states after EPA southeastern regional officials leaked the information to those regulators."

Ken Ward Jr. reports for the Charleston Gazette March 6, 2010.