Nov. 5--Read more in

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Despite complaints from industry lobbyists and coalfield politicians about an impending permit crisis, most major Appalachian coal producers are telling their shareholders that increased federal environmental reviews are not likely to disrupt production or cause layoffs anytime soon.

Most of the region's largest publicly traded coal companies say they have permits in place that will allow them to continue operating, filling orders and employing workers through at least early 2011.

And two major producers -- Massey Energy and CONSOL Energy -- told industry analysts that they have more than adequate permits in place and could benefit if their competitors see new permits held up by the Obama administration.

"Relative to other companies we feel very good and we think that at least in the short term that we would benefit from the permitting process being frustrated, but we're certainly not in favor," Massey President Don Blankenship said during a conference call last week with industry analysts.

The Obama administration has announced plans to take "unprecedented steps" to reduce the environmental impacts from mountaintop removal coal mining. Among other actions, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is taking a much closer look at 79 pending Clean Water Act permits that the federal Army Corps of Engineers proposed to issue for mining operations.

Senate President Earl Ray Tomblin, D-Logan, has warned EPA that the permit issues need to be resolved "not in a matter of weeks, but days." And Senate Majority Leader Truman Chafin, D-Mingo, told a statewide MetroNews radio audience this week that, "We're going to see layoffs like you've never seen before real soon."

But in reporting quarterly financial results over the last two weeks, none of Appalachia's major coal producers have outlined significant impending layoffs because of EPA's permit reviews.

One company, International Coal Group, previously announced during a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers public hearing on mountaintop removal that a "de facto moratorium" on mining permits in Appalachia had caused it to shut down some equipment and lay off workers.

Roger Nicholson, ICG's vice president and general counsel, said later that a total of 48 workers lost their jobs at two ICG mines in Kentucky because of permit delays.

"The practical effect of delay in issuance of permits is that a mine is often forced to change its mining sequence when permits for logical extensions of an operation are delayed," Nicholson said.