Gov. Beshear bows to coal again

The Lexington Herald-Leader had a great editorial Sunday describing how the Beshear administration overruled an administrative judge's ruling to give a pollution permit to one of his campaign contributors. This is one of a series of actions recently by the governor to block the U.S. EPA from enforcing the Clean Water Act.

The latest example is the administration's eagerness to enable one of Beshear's political contributors to pollute tributaries of the Russell Fork of the Big Sandy River.

Despite serious questions about whether the operation has been lawfully permitted, the administration is allowing Cambrian Coal to blast and bulldoze away a few hundred feet of mountain at a 791-acre site near Elkhorn City in Pike County.

The company's plans call for filling seven hollows with dirt and rock displaced by mining and enlarging two existing hollow fills.

Cambrian's president, James Booth of Inez, is a prominent contributor to political campaigns. In March, he gave $1,000 toward Beshear's re-election.

In May, KFTC and the Sierra Club had challenged Cambrian's permit because of the damage the mining would do to local water resources, resulting in the administrative judge's ruling. We've now challenged the latest action to restore the permit in Franklin Circuit Court.

Read the Herald-Leader editorial here.