EPA Identifies 79 Coal Mine Permits For Review.

The President's environmental extremist friends must be lighting candles of joy.

The Obama administration on Friday stepped up its efforts to curb environmental damage from surface coal mining, announcing plans to give 79 permit applications in four states additional scrutiny.

Forty-nine of the permits are for mines in Kentucky, the nation's No. 3 coal-producing state. The list also includes 23 mines in West Virginia, the nation's No. 2 producer behind Wyoming, six in Ohio and one in Tennessee.

The action targets a practice known as mountaintop removal mining. The highly efficient mining method involves blasting away mountaintops to expose multiple coal seams and, in most cases, filling nearby valleys with rock placed atop intermittent streams.

The coal industry said the decision could mean lost jobs.

The coal industry blasted the decision, saying it jeopardizes tens of thousands of high-paying jobs.

"By deciding to hold up for still further review coal mining permits pending in West Virginia, Kentucky, Ohio and Tennessee, the agency damages a weak economy struggling to recover in the worst recession in postwar history," National Mining Association President Hal Quinn said in a statement.

Mountaintop mines in the states where the practice is most common — West Virginia, Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee — produce about 130 million tons of coal each year, or about 14 percent of the coal used to produce electricity in the U.S., and employ about 14,000 people.