The Bluegrass Institute's very own creative director, Nick Oberg, recently uncovered a number of vintage academic reports from the dusty backrooms and storage areas at the Bluegrass Institute.

One report, aptly titled "Environmental regulation of surface mining and land development in Kentucky: The role of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers" was jointly released by the Bluegrass Institute and the Reason Foundation in 2006, and hints at the onslaught the EPA would deliver to Kentucky coal some five years later.

The study shows the impact that the EPA and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers have on Kentucky's energy sector from playing fast and loose with the Clear Water Act in an effort to block mining permits and  expand federal regulatory scope.

The report calls for three goals that have yet to be realized even today:

• Mandate that federal agencies do not regulate beyond the clear interpretations of the Clean Water Act.

• Encourage market trades of isolated wetlands for preservation and mitigation by implementing programs similar to air-pollution credit markets.

• Set specific permit deadlines.

Since the report was released in 2006, the current administration has used the EPA to unilaterally enact idealistic goals of extreme environmentalism, no matter the economic impact to local communities or entire regions of the country.

Let's hope the energy tide turns from the past six years and the upcoming public hearings in Frankfort and Pikeville on June 5th and 7th respectively will chase the EPA out of the commonwealth.