Alert! Federal appeals court says groups can sue over Blair Mountain

Cross posted from Appalachia Group. Please pass the word!!

The Charleston Gazette
Tuesday, August 26, 2014
Federal appeals court says groups can sue over Blair Mountain
By Paul J. Nyden

A coalition of labor, environmental and historic preservation organizations can sue the federal government to preserve the historic site of Blair Mountain in Logan County from mountaintop removal mining, a panel of three federal judges ruled Tuesday.

On Tuesday, the three judges from the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia voted 2-1 to overturn a previous ruling that stated those groups had no legal standing to sue to protect the historic site.

Groups filing the suit included Friends of Blair Mountain, the United Mine Workers of America, the Sierra Club, the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy, the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition, the West Virginia Labor History Association and the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

The groups want the U.S. Interior Department to designate Blair Mountain as an historic site to prevent mining by three companies that now own coal property in the area: Aracoma Coal Co., a subsidiary of Alpha Natural Resources; Mingo Logan Coal, a subsidiary of Arch Coal; and WPP LLC, a coal-leasing company with offices in Delaware.

- See more at: http://www.wvgazette.com/article/20140826/GZ01/140829441/1419#sthash.HjfmRroi.dpuf