Senate confirms controversial coal czar

The U.S. Senate on Friday confirmed a Pennsylvania state regulator as the Obama administration's director for the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement. Joseph Pizarchik was confirmed by unanimous consent, apparently meaning that the senator who previously had a hold on the nomination had dropped that hold and paved the way for Pizarchik's approval. Coalfield citizen groups have opposed Pizarchik's nomination because of his record on issues dealing with handling and disposal of toxic coal ash and because of his answers to questions about mountaintop removal mining during a confirmation hearing earlier this year. Citizen groups complained that Pizarchik has backed the burying of streams under valley fills, supported "destructive longwall mining" underground, and backed the dumping of toxic coal ash into mines. They also said he has supported "decreased transparency and accountability for the decisions of mining officials" and in Pennsylvania run a reclamation bonding program "that fails to guarantee reclamation of the land or prevent water pollution from coal-mining operations." At OSM, Pizarchik will find himself smack in the middle of the ongoing debate over mountaintop-removal mining, as well as controversies over coal-ash regulation and other aspects of the coal-mining industry.