SOUTH CHARLESTON — Gov. Joe Manchin said coal companies got a bit of hope last week when the Environmental Protection Agency approved a Patriot Coal surface mine permit.

The EPA recently approved the Hobet No. 45 surface mine permit that had been held up as part of the EPA’s re-evaluation of several southern West Virginia mountaintop removal mine permits that had already been approved by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Manchin has said in several previous interviews that mining companies only want to know the rules they need to follow and the EPA granting the Hobet permit may be good news for many miners.

“That’s an encouraging sign,” Manchin said in an interview exclusive to The Logan Banner following the Associated Press’s Legislative Lookahead Friday in South Charleston. “If the EPA is able to find a level of comfort where we can do this and we all agree and Hobet says they have, then why can’t the EPA give us a template and tell us what we can and can’t do. That’s all I’ve asked of them.”

Manchin said he is glad the EPA and Arch Coal are in talks about the Spruce surface mine permit in Logan County.

“This country need the energy we have and our people need the jobs it provides,” Manchin said. “The bottom line is that we can have useable land if we do it and do it right and we’re committed to that. We’re on top of it, we’re watching it and doing everything we can.”

Manchin said he believes the meeting with U.S. Senator Jay Rockefeller, Congresswoman Shelley Moore Capito, Congressman Nick Rahall, Senate President Earl Ray Tomblin and other state and local officials may have helped get some movement on the surface mine permits. The group was gathered together late last year at the request of Logan County Commission President Art Kirkendoll and Manchin said Kirkendoll’s involvement has been key to getting the West Virginia delegation’s voices heard.

“I’d like to think that’s how all this started. That never hurt,” Manchin said. “In the civil, responsible way they handled that, they put real faces and real conditions on the issue and all these things came to reality. Maybe the EPA understands there’s more to this. This shows how everyone can work together.”