Fired mine official says he blocked illegal permits
By John Cheves – jcheves@herald-leader.com
The former head of Kentucky’s mine permit division, who was fired last week by Gov. Steve Beshear, said Tuesday that he had been trying to block what he called illegal mining permit practices.
Ron Mills said he refused to issue about a half-dozen mine permits requested over the last year, chiefly by the politically connected Alliance Resource Partners of Tulsa, Okla., because they did not comply with federal and state mining law.
Coal companies are required to provide documentation showing they have a legal right to enter and disturb all of the areas they will mine, Mills said. Instead, the Beshear administration issued permits to coal companies that demonstrate the right to enter and mine as little as two-thirds of the land in question, he said.
“I refused to sign those applications,” Mills said. “I thought they were illegal. There was no support for them under the law.”
However, Mills said, after a debate within the Beshear administration that involved the governor’s office, Natural Resources Commissioner Carl Campbell signed the permits over Mills’ objections
Mills said that he was given no official reason for his firing on Friday — as a non-merit appointee, he served at the governor’s pleasure — but colleagues told him that Alliance lobbied the governor’s office for his removal.
In a prepared statement, Beshear spokeswoman Kerri Richardson said the governor does not involve himself with personnel decisions at the cabinet level.
Beshear also does not join in discussions about individual mine permit applications, although he has become concerned about a backlog in permits awaiting review at the state and federal level, Richardson said. That’s why Beshear announced plans last week to hire an additional 19 employees at the state mine permits division to process permits more quickly, she said.
Campbell, the natural resources commissioner, did not return a call seeking comment. In a prepared statement, Energy and Environment Secretary Len Peters said he does not discuss personnel matters, such as Mills’ firing, but he denied allowing the coal industry to get permits approved illegally.
“Neither the Energy and Environment Cabinet, Department for Natural Resources nor the Division of Mine Permits have been pressured by the coal industry to ‘bend the rules’ to allow mine permits to be granted,” Peters said.
“Yes, we have taken a number of calls from the industry wanting to know the status of their permit applications, some of which date back two years,” Peters added. “Limited personnel to do the proper inspections and investigations of all applications for mining permits has contributed to the inability to keep up with the demands for permits. That issue will be resolved soon when we bring on board 16 full-time and three part-time permit reviewers.”
A call to Alliance’s Lexington office on Tuesday was not returned.
In recent years, Alliance executives and employees have given several hundred thousand dollars in political donations on the state and national levels, including $70,000 to the Kentucky Democratic Party. Last month, Beshear named Raymond Ashcraft, Alliance’s Kentucky manager of environmental affairs and permitting, to the Kentucky Geological Survey Advisory Board.
Joe Craft, Alliance’s president, caused a controversy at the University of Kentucky last month by organizing a $7 million donation that will be used to build a new athletics dormitory to be named Wildcat Coal Lodge.
The 33 1/3 policy is the subject of a lawsuit the Kentucky Resources Council, an environmentalist group, is preparing to file. The group sent an intent-to-sue letter this week to state officials advising them to end the policy and stop issuing mine permits without all of the required documentation.
It’s not clear when the Beshear administration first authorized the policy, but Mills tried to halt it after he was hired in July 2008, said Thomas FitzGerald, director of the resources council.
“To allow coal companies to go in and potentially undermine the private properties around their mines is a travesty,” FitzGerald said.
FitzGerald said his own sources tell him that Mills lost his state post because he was diligently enforcing the law, which angered some in the coal industry.
“I’m profoundly disappointed by this administration,” he said.
Filed Under: State Government • Steve Beshear
About the Author: 
Alliance Resource Partners buying Kentucky one elected official at a time.
This does not surprise me at all. Mills’ successor is a 20 year veteran of the agency, and is widely known for being pro-industry.
This administration disgusts me.
This backwoods, good old boy mentality HAS TO STOP if Kentucky ever wants to be seen as more than a hillbilly, redneck joke of a state.
We could start by electing officials with an education, brains, common sense and a sense of commitment to the “common man” and not just those with the fattest wallets.
GET BIG COAL OUT OF FRANKFORT.
This is a great start for the State to lose SMCRA primacy.
If Thomas Fitzgerald goes so far as to say he’s “profoundly disappointed by this administration”, I’m outraged, angry, and vengeful.
The economic forces are so huge, the power of the exploited so weak, regardless of who the players are, we the people are in deep trouble, as the treatment of eastern Kentucky as a colony of an Energy Empire just goes on and on and on.
This change in leadership has absolutely nothing to do with the issue the article identifies. Mills was the wrong hire from the word go. Problem is, he can’t make a decision.
All of this aside, the bigger picture is what is KY going to do in terms of energy. KY has no choice but to maintain coal as a part of the energy equation. There are forces in Washington however that would just as soon see coal eliminated entirely which is an impossibility.
So those that are focusing on this non-issue need rather focus on what the total energy costs in KY are going to be if Washington has its way and if so, then you will really hear some squealing, I suspect from some of you complaining about this non-issue with Mills.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/11/17/epa-employees-silenced-criticizing-cap-trade/
You are a moron
By you, I mean the person who wrote that this is a non-issue. Our governor is destroying Kentucky.
Appreciate the civil dialogue … LOL.
When an individual is unable to argue a point, they typically resort to name-calling. That is generally what has messed up the government process federal, state and local. The lack of civility and rational discussion.
The Mills dismissal is a non-issue. You can think what you want, but it is what is. Mills, a decent attorney, bad fit for permit division.
Check out this article that a judge ordered the Energy and Environment Cabinet to reexamine there Hog Farm permits because they seem illegal. Seems like they need a big shakeup in that cabinet!
http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2009911160372
Firing of a political appointee by the political hierarchy is legal, therefore this may be a non issue from a legal stand point. But, this action by EEC has “daylighted” their true colors. (Black)
Folks like “In The Know” try to characterize the debate as an either/or proposition, coal or no coal whenever someone advocates that we follow the rules, or change them when overt harm is being done to compel more responsible resource extraction practices. (pollution control, restoration requirements, costs properly attributed to those that benefit/profit)
There is no doubt that coal has to be part of our near future, but the industry should not be defended when it’s operators cut corners on safety, cut silt pond berms at 4:30 on Friday’s, cut and run (behind bankruptcy laws) when they are done with a strip job, shove aside surface landowners or shove over a mountian to get at their profits.
LOL at the Franklin Circuit Court ruling on the hog farms. Judge Shepherd, before he was Judge was Secretary of the Cabinet at one time, and after that, a private attorney who sued some poultry operations in Western Kentucky.
For those that don’t know the history, well, suffice it to say that Judge Shepherd’s ruling reflects his personal opinion a whole lot more than it does what the law requires and it is likely that the Court of Appeals with prove that out in the end.
Might add, those permits were issued during the Fletcher administration. So to Chris, I guess that shakeup you are seeking has already occured when the election happened about two years ago.
creekgeek4,
Never said anything about circumventing any laws. Coal industry should not be allowed to do that, and to state it yet again, that is not the basis for which Mills was let go.
Doesn’t matter who they put in there to do the job, the rules have to be adhered to. So this doesn’t have anything to with what coal does or doesn’t to. Rather it has everything to do with having individuals in government who are able to make accurate and decisive actions. Mills couldn’t do that when he was an attorney with the agency, and he couldn’t do it now either. It really is that simple.
Gotta say, this “In The Know” dude, flat knows about what he speaks. That’s a fact Jack.
The issue is that someone that was following the law was let go, allegedly, because he was not doing what the governor wanted. So, instead of complying with the law, the governor circumvented it by putting a “yes” man that would follow what he wanted. If you can’t prove that you have the right to mine the land, then you should be denied a permit until you can present the required paperwork.
It’s more than being able to make a decision. Anyone can make decisions, but having the integrity to do what’s right is a different story. Knowledgeable leaders with integrity throughout state government are being replaced by people that are making decisions without knowing about the agencies that they are over. It is destroying our state government.
‘In the Know’ has hit the nail on the head. Mr. Mills is looking for a way to save face and he’s got a willing accomplice in Fitzgerald.
The filing of the notice to litigate over this 33-1/3 rule is in no way connected to the dismissal of Mills or his alleged refusal to ignore regulations and state law. His dismissal, as has been accurately pointed out, is really about his inability to manage his agency and work with his employees to help them do their jobs within the boundaries of those regulations and laws.
Just another example of how Beshear is just another Kentucky politician trying to enjoy the governor’s office while he lets special interests run the show.
Ron Mills tries to follow the LAW as opposed to the ‘informal rule’ and you say this is an “inability to make accurate and decisive actions”???
“Never underestimate the power of Coal”.
It comes over the pa system at Commonwealth Stadium like some kind of threat to the population of Kentucky.
Big Coal already has Lee Todd and Gov. Bashear in their dirty pockets. Anybody that defends Big Coal is on their payroll and is speaking from a selfish, financial position.
From a moral position, MTR is a sin that will soon be viewed like slavery. People took a financial hit when they had to free their slaves…. but it was the right thing to do.
Big Coal poses a greater threat to most Americans than terrorism.
These new “permit reviewers” don’t sit well with me. We should be moving AWAY from coal, not towards it.
People like Joe Craft are not going to stop pouring their dollars into political pockets until the EPA breaks and continues to let them abuse the system, exploit the ecosystems of Kentucky, and marginalize anything that might stand to compete with the industry.
It’s an industry thrust right now into “survival mode,” and woe betide the brave souls that dare to stand up to it.
The coal industry claims they are good corporate citizens who follow the rules and are unduly scapegoated, while simultaneously skirting laws and buying politicians and universities to get what they want. That makes sense.
The politicians who are selling out our future to coal should be held accountable. It’s going to run out, and we’re going to be left behind again when the green jobs go to forward-thinking politicians who have courted them.
If Governor Beshear is willing to ignore the laws presently on the book to protect landowners from coal companies, then he should be fired himself.
Alliance Coal, another out of state coal company, could care a less about Kentuckians and their land. That is the job of the Governor. When one of his employees, Ron Mills was doing his job, and enforcing the LAW, he is fired.
I will not support Beshear again. I did last time, but never again.
looks like to me rather than jumping to conclusions that we may need an Attorney General investigation. yes, mills was non-merit. however, if he was fired for the reason he states, that’s a problem. not holding my breath on conway to convene a grand jury.
As much as I detest Beshear, I must say that anything that rubs the faces of Hank Graddy,Tom FitzGerald, Richard Beliles, Doug Doerrfeld or any of those KY Heartwood or KFTC types in the doo-doo makes me very happy.
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