Office 2010 Sale State overrules mine permitting o

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Web Search powered by YAHOO! SEARCH FRANKFORT — Gov. Steve Beshear's administration overruled its top mine permitting official last year to "accommodate the coal interests" and reinstate a policy the official said was illegal, according to state documents.At issue: The Beshear administration's use of the so-called "331⁄3 rule," which allows coal companies to mine underground when they have shown the legal right to enter only two-thirds of the acreage included in their plans.Some critics say the policy is illegal because federal and state law requires coal companies to show they have the right to enter all land included in their plans.One of the critics was Ron Mills, director of the state Division of Mine Permits until he was fired last month. State documents show that Mills fought and briefly rescinded the 331⁄3 rule until he was overturned by his superiors at the Energy and Environment Cabinet after a debate in October 2008."I have recommended to the secretary that we can accommodate the coal interests with reinstating the two-thirds rule," the cabinet's deputy secretary, Hank List, wrote Oct. 8,Office Home And Business 2010 Serial Key, 2008,Office 2007 Pro Plus Keygen, to Natural Resources Commissioner Carl Campbell, who was Mills' boss.Three months later, on Jan. 9, List wrote to Campbell: "Carl,Windows 7 64bit Key, let all the permit applications that include the 331⁄3 provision out the door."Five mining permits — all for subsidiaries of Oklahoma-based Alliance Coal, covering about 55,000 acres of land in Hopkins and Webster counties — were signed this year by Campbell over Mills' objections, according to Mills and copies of the permits.Campbell declined to comment this week.Mills said that before he was fired, Campbell told him that Alliance Coal — specifically, a company executive named Raymond Ashcraft — and the governor's office were pushing for his ouster because of his opposition to the 331⁄3 rule. One of Beshear's staff assistants, Jeff Belcher, often called the Division of Mine Permits on behalf of coal companies to ask about their permit applications, Mills said.Alliance Coal is a big political donor, having given several hundred thousand dollars to Kentucky politicians and parties on the state and federal level, including to Beshear and the Kentucky Democratic Party."I didn't want to do anything that was illegal," Mills said.Belcher did not return a call seeking comment. The governor's office has denied playing a role in Mills' firing.Energy and Environment Secretary Len Peters told the Herald-Leader on Tuesday that he alone made the decision to fire Mills, with no input from the governor's office or any coal company. Although the debate over the 331⁄3 rule did take place, it happened a year ago, and that wasn't the reason for Mills' termination, Peters said."He just did not meet my expectations as a manager," Peters said.Mills said he never heard a single complaint about his management from Peters or any other supervisor before his firing. In fact, Campbell had praised his work at the division, which was considered so understaffed that Beshear recently infused funding and employees, Mills said."If Len Peters says there was a problem with my management, he's being disingenuous," Mills said.Ashcraft, who is Alliance Coal's manager of environmental affairs and permitting at the company's Lexington office, said this week that he did not want to discuss the Mills firing. Ashcraft referred questions to the company's lawyers at its Tulsa, Okla., headquarters,Office 2010 Sale, who did not return calls.Correspondence between Alliance Coal subsidiaries and the Division of Mine Permits since Beshear took office in December 2007 shows that the administration endorsed the 331⁄3 rule.In some instances, the division rejected mining applications from Alliance Coal when 42 percent of the land, or more, was "uncontrolled properties," meaning the company had not shown a legal right to enter the property. The division instructed Alliance Coal to reduce that percentage to 331⁄3.C. Michael Haines,Office Professional 2010 Key, general counsel for the Energy and Environment Cabinet, said he could not identify any specific federal or state statutes that permit the 331⁄3 rule."That's just the way we've chosen to interpret it," Haines said.The Kentucky Resources Council plans to sue the Beshear administration in coming weeks to block the 331⁄3 rule because it puts the profits of coal companies over the rights of property owners, said Thomas FitzGerald, the council's director."This is an illegal policy. The law and the regulations are crystal clear about coal companies needing the right to enter property before they can mine," FitzGerald said."You have landowners out there who have not consented to have their properties mined, and now there's a cloud on their title with the arrival of a mine," FitzGerald added. "It may complicate their ability to mortgage or sell their land now that they're under the shadow of a mining permit."