John Roberts against EPA and for Mining Companies-mountaintop removal

[liveoaktx]

http://ideamouth.com/appointments_and_disappointments.htm

Court of Appeals, District of Columbia Circuit
John Roberts, a political appointee in both the Reagan and Bush I administrations. The lead counsel for a case in which the he argued that private citizens could not sue the federal government for violations of environmental regulations. Has represented the National Mining Association in which the Fourth Circuit reversed a district court ruling that had stopped the practice of "mountaintop removal" in the state of West Virginia. Citizens of West Virginia who were adversely affected by the practice had sued the state, claiming damage to both their homes and the surrounding area generally. Three Republican appointees - Judges Niemeyer, Luttig, and Williams - held that West Virginia's issuance of permits to mining companies to extract coal by blasting the tops off of mountains and depositing the debris in nearby valleys and streams did not violate the 1977 Federal Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act. In another case, Roberts represented one of several interveners in a case challenging the EPA’s promulgation of rules to reduce nitrogen oxide emissions.

[whistle]

1. Turn West Virginia into a flat land plateau, extract all of the coal...

...as fossil fuel and raise the average temperature of the world 10F degrees.

[Neecy]

2. oh, that's okay, really...

Because according to some on DU, he could have been "worse", you know.

How, I'm still unsure.