"U.S. EPA will head to court [Thursday] to defend its authority under the Clean Water Act to revoke a strip mining permit issued by the Army Corps of Engineers."

"At issue is whether EPA erred in retroactively vetoing Army Corps approval for a large mountaintop-removal project in West Virginia, years after it was granted.

Industry, environmentalists and legal experts agree that the case, before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, has far-reaching implications and could ultimately define the limits of the Clean Water Act.

While environmentalists cheered the agency's bold move in 2011, leaders of various industries that rely on such permits became alarmed. The veto also shocked coal miners worried about their jobs, as portrayed by a 2011 CNN documentary on the mountaintop mining debate (Greenwire, Aug. 10, 2011)."

Manuel Quinones and Jeremy P. Jacobs report for Greenwire March 13, 2013. [2]