National Public Radio: Earlier this week, the Environmental Protection Agency approved a last-minute rule change, long sought by the coal industry, to allow mining within 100 feet of rivers and streams. Environmentalists say this change will make it harder for them — and for President-elect Barack Obama’s incoming administration — to challenge a controversial form of coal mining called mountaintop removal. That’s when coal companies chop off the tops of mountains, mine the coal underneath and dump the …