CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- The Environmental Protection Agency is reviewing about 175 permits issued by the Army Corps of Engineers for mountaintop removal mining, mostly in West Virginia and other parts of Central Appalachia.

The review of permits speaks to the growing problem between the two federal agencies, tied to the energy policy of the Obama administration. Coal industry leaders call the policy confusing at best and troubling at worst to the future of the industry.

Some blame EPA for most of the trouble, calling the agency the center of the coal controversy in West Virginia. The Obama administration lacks a well-thought-out plan, Randy Huffman, state Department of Environmental Protection secretary, told a reporter.

"And that's really been the basis of the uproar," Huffman said.

EPA officials counter that state regulators and inspectors have been lax; consequently the problem of mine permitting has worsened for both state and federal agencies.

"The current EPA, which won't give a permit for anything for any reasons -- they're the ones going to cost people their jobs and weaken homeland security," said Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship.

His company's mountaintop removal mining operations in the Southern West Virginia coalfields have come under increasing protests of late. Tree-sitting protesters on mining sites belong to the Climate Group Zero group.

Since, then a federal court has issued an injunction against trespassers protesting on mining property. The ruling was a legal victory for Massey Energy.

Federal law requires coal companies to restore mined land to its original contour and plant grass or trees to rehabilitate land. But in practice, environmentalists complain in and out of court, all too often the rock and debris from mountaintop mining crash in valleys below, burying streams, killing fish and every other living thing in the water and close by.

What's more, scientists say the debris and water runoffs contaminate drinking water in communities. Mountaintop removal mining accounts for 10 percent of the nation's coal production, making its threat to life and health far in excess to size and worth of jobs and tax money claimed, environmentalists say.

Scientists say there's more coal in the world than oil. Coal byproducts such as fly ash have industrial development potentials for making fertilizer and green or energy-conserving building material for homes and public places.

Gov. Joe Manchin, among other elected public officials and scientists in the nation, speaks up for coal's growing potential beyond present and future troubling signs.

It's not to be forgotten that the case for coal conversion into liquid fuels has been made by Europeans and South Africans since before World War II.

Wind, solar and nuclear have a place in this country's energy program, but not at the expense of running coal off the scene. After all, the sun doesn't shine every day, nor does the wind blow. Nuclear power is expensive to build and control.

Yes, coal faces a troubling future, including its role in global warming, but as the old saying goes, "Nothing is any good if it's no trouble."

Peeks is a retired business/labor editor of the Gazette.