The Environmental Protection Agency announced Friday it would effectively block nearly 80 mining permits across the mining region. Rep. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., expressed her concerns about the potential economic impact of the administration’s decision.

“With a new announcement from the EPA comes more delays and continued uncertainty for West Virginia miners,” says Capito. “As I’ve said before, it’s certainly appropriate to have legitimate oversight and review of all proposed permits, but today’s announcement amounts to the latest in a series of decisions that create still more ambiguity for mines across our state and region. Our nation depends on West Virginia coal as a domestic resource to power our economy and we can’t afford never-ending delay on the many outstanding permits.”

Over the course of the summer, Capito met with officials at the EPA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers where she highlighted the stakes of the continued evolution of the permit review process.

She says, “In my discussions with officials at the EPA, I’ve regularly stressed that their decisions stand to directly impact jobs in our state and today’s news of further delays is a troubling development. Simply put, the decisions of bureaucrats in Washington have a real personal impact on West Virginia families.”

Twenty-three of the 79 permits mentioned in Friday’s announcement are located in West Virginia. The EPA, which will have final approval on all permits, gave no binding deadline for completing their enhanced review process.

“This can’t be an endless process,” adds Capito. “Yet it’s beginning to seem like it might be, and that’s unfair to mining families and mining communities throughout the Mountain State.”