{West Virginia}...The special hearing of the U.S. House's Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources continued Tuesday at the Kanawha County Courthouse in Charleston. State officials and industry representatives said the Obama administration's effort to overhaul rules to protect streams would have potentially devastating effects on coal jobs and production, particularly in Appalachia. The hearing's focus was on the U.S. Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement's so-called stream buffer zones rules, which date to 1983. Only two members, Doug Lamborn, R-Colo., and Bill Johnson, R-Ohio, of the 25-member subcommittee attended the hearings. Consol Energy's vice president for regulatory affairs, Katharine Fredriksen, told the committee that, under stronger rules, the company estimates it would be unable to access 40 percent of its eastern longwall coal. That is over 1 billion tons Consol would be prohibited from mining. Bo Webb, a founder of Coal River Mountain Watch, called the focus on jobs "offensive." Webb cited several controversial studies that suggest a link between mountaintop mining and health problems, including birth defects.
