Officials not revealing all charges against coal companies

State officials are resisting requests that it post on its website documents detailing violations by ICG (International Coal Group) and Frasure Creek Mining related to enforcement action against those companies.

After a hearing on December 17, Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd ordered the Kentucky Energy & Environment Cabinet to post proposed consent judgments with ICG and Frasure Creek to its website and provide for a 30-day public comment period. Those consent judgments represent agreements between the cabinet and coal companies concerning thousands of violations of the Clean Water Act.

The cabinet did post the proposed agreements but have not posted hundreds of pages of court filings referenced in the documents that detail the violations.

Citizens groups asking to intervene in the enforcement case (Appalachian Voices, Kentucky Riverkeeper, Waterkeeper Alliance and KFTC) sent a letter to Judge Shepherd and asked him to clarify his order and require that the full Complaints and Exhibits be posted on the cabinet’s website. Cabinet officials objected and complained that our request was "unreasonable" and "unduly burdensome."

Here they are, and much more:

• Frasure Creek Complaint and Consent Judgment (Ky)
  
• ICG Complaint and Consent Judgment (Ky)

Because the proposed consent judgments are weak (fail to reflect the seriousness and extensiveness of the violations), the four citizens group asked to intervene in the case. Here is our statement of why:

• ICG / Frasure Motion to Intervene

All of this got started in October when the groups gave the coal companies 60-day Notices of Intent to Sue because of an alleged 20,000 violations of the Clean Water Act over a two-year period. Here's the documentation of those charges:

• Frasure Creek Mining Notice of Intent (Oct 2010)
• ICG Knott Notice of Intent (Oct 2010)
• ICG Hazard Notice of Intent (Oct 2010)

The Energy and Environment Cabinet was startled by these allegations, which also seriously implicated state officials for their failure to enforce the law, whether by design or not. After some investigation, the cabinet confirmed many of these violations and issued these statements:

• Energy Cabinet's press release Dec. 3, 2010
• List of Remedial Actions required
• Gov. Beshear's press release Dec. 3, 2010

Currently, the cabinet and coal companies have until the end of this week to file responses to the Motion to Intervene, stating why they do want citizens involved in the case.

Even as the court case goes forward, there are questions that Gov. Beshear and Cabinet Secretary Len Peters are not answering, such as: How do you not notice 20,000 violations of the Clean Water Act? If some business besides coal was involved, Lexington Herald-Leader editors have pointed out, the governor would have called for an investigation and legislators would be asking what bills do they need to pass to correct the situation. Instead, state officials are ignoring the culture of non-enforcement that exists in the Energy and Environment Committee, especially as related to making coal companies obey the law.