There's a new 'report' out from congressional republicans who are complaining that the Obama EPA is holding up more mining permits than previously believed while they study the impact on local water supplies. 

Call me crazy, but that's the EPA's job. I'm mildly curious where these angry angry folks were when President Bush's EPA ignored the Supreme Court and flat out refused to take on global warming in an real way. 

The reality is that the Bush administration rubber stamped just about anything the coal industry wanted to do, so now the Obama administration is having to play catch up, and make sure the permits were not just handed out without concern for the environment. 

Of course, we believe that there's no such thing as 'environmentally safe coal mining', we do respect that EPA is now taking their job seriously.