But those hopes evaporated in May when the EPA signed 42 permits for mountaintop removal while turning down only six — a higher ratio even than during the latter part of the George W. Bush presidency. Some 170 more permits are pending, the Sierra Club said.
In June, the White House announced it would strengthen oversight of mining operations, but it refused to endorse a ban on the dumping of debris into mountain streams.
That stand has infuriated Obama’s natural allies. Gibson sees it as pure betrayal.
“I think Obama’s going to fall into line like the last president we had,” he said. “He has developed into a cocoon that is going to end up not being a butterfly but a corporate president.”
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