Final Brief In EPA Lawsuit Filed

{Charleston, West Virginia}...Governor Earl Ray Tomblin and Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Randy Huffman have filed a final brief in a lawsuit against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The lawsuit, which began two years ago while Senator Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., was governor, looks at federal policies that have hindered new mining permits in the Appalachian region. Tomblin says the lawsuit is about the rights of the state to regulate itself within the scope of the existing state and federal laws, and the EPA has overstepped its bounds and taken that right away, and the state is simply fighting to get it back.