Frank Young Nails Gov on His Statement

 Last week West Virginia Governor Underwood told a group of industry and civic leaders, "I brought together labor, business and the courts to craft a compromise on the issue of mountaintop mining........".

The West Virginia Highlands Conservancy (WVHC) categorically disputes the Governor’s statement about his involvement in the settlement outline. Labor and business were not parties to the federal lawsuit about surface mining permitting practices. The parties were the WVHC, several coalfield residents and several state and federal regulatory agencies. Although the federal court permitted both labor and the coal industry to file briefs in the case, neither coal companies, coal industry associations nor any labor organizations were either plaintiffs or defendants in the lawsuit. Indeed, both the United Mine Workers Union and Arch Coal Company have disavowed being bound by the agreement the governor claims they negotiated.

 For Governor Underwood to make such claims is a shame, a sham and a fraud upon the citizens of West Virginia.

 The agreement was negotiated by the WVHC, the individual plaintiffs and the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection

(DEP), through their respective attorneys, at the suggestion of Federal Court Judge Charles Haden. The agreement was filed in federal court by attorneys for the plaintiffs and defendants, not by anyone representing labor and coal organizations.

Not only was Governor Underwood not involved in the settlement talks, but before and during settlement negotiations the governor and former DEP Director Michael Miano made repeated public statements that mining permits and mining activities were all proper and in comp- liance with law; this in the face of ongoing acknowledgment by attorneys for DEP that this was not the case. If the case is settled it will be in spite of, not because of, Governor Underwood’s involvement.

The President of the The West Virginia Highlands Conservancy is calling Governor Underwood’s hand on this one. Let the governor tell us: who within labor circles and who within industry circles got together to "craft a comp- romise," as he asserts? The answer is it didn’t happen.

The governor is trying to take credit for brokering a compromise between labor and industry where no disagreement existed. It appears that in his mind a legal dispute over environmental enforcement has become a labor dispute. Does the governor see everything as labor verses business? What does this tell us about his political psyche? What does this tell us about his dedication to environmental law enforcement?

The governor claims this is a labor dispute. For Governor Underwood to make such claims is a shame, a sham and a fraud upon the citizens of West Virginia. For the governor to create a bogus disagreement and then take claim for a bogus solution is disgraceful. The governor owes the people of West Virginia an apology for his blatant attempt to take false credit for solving a dilemma created by his own administration.

The unnecessary destruction of lands and streams, the disruption of citizens’ lives, the cost to coalfield workers and coal companies and the loss of tax revenue generated by the halted mining could have all been avoided, had Governor Underwood but directed his agencies to implement the coal mining laws as written, rather than as directed by the multi-billion dollar international corporations that bankroll the governor’s political career.