Manchin to Meet again with Obama EPA

Gov. Joe Manchin continues to lobby for West Virginia's coal industry with the Obama administration's Environmental Protection Agency, this time "heading to Philadelphia to discuss how a proposed mountaintop removal mine could result in a new highway for southern West Virginia," The Associated Press reports.

Public Broadcasting (audio here) also has coverage of the governor's planned Wednesday trip, as does MetroNews and the Bluefield Daily Telegraph.

"To build the highway, state officials are allowing coal companies to use mountaintop removal to prepare the roadbed. In this case, Consol Energy is applying for a permit to open a mountaintop removal mine on Buffalo Mountain," Public Broadcasting explains. "But there’s reason to believe the permit may not be approved. On the day President Obama was inaugurated, the EPA sent a letter raising concerns about the permit to the Army Corps of Engineers."