EPA should hang tough in coalfields

Compared with poisoned water, elevated rates of cancer and birth defects, floods, blasting, ubiquitous dust, close encounters with coal trucks, poverty and the knowledge that anyone who protests the abuses is taking a personal risk … ask Marie Gunnoe, or the delegation of Kentuckians shut out from meeting with U.S. Rep. Hal Rogers. Those examples illustrate what we have seen time and again: Those in power, notably elected officials but also state regulators, refuse to see what extreme mining is doing to people and the region.