Reuters: Mining companies accused the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday of ignoring America’s need for affordable energy and hurting workers in a poor region of the country by delaying permits for proposed surface, or “mountaintop,” mines in Appalachia. The decision that all 79 pending permits must undergo additional evaluation by the EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers, because they pose a potential hazard to water, threatens job security in parts of Kentucky, West Virginia …