Appeals Court Rejects Coal-Mining Permit Process

Environmental groups cheered a ruling by the 6th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Monday that invalidates a streamlined permitting process for surface coal mines. The decision reverses a lower court's ruling in Eastern Kentucky that upheld the nationwide permitting process adopted by the Army Corps of Engineers in 2007. The appeals court called the permitting process "arbitrary and capricious" in a 16-page ruling.