A federal appeals court ruled today that U.S. EPA's 2011 retroactive veto of a major West Virginia mountaintop-removal mining project was legal. The decision by a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit confirms EPA's contention that the Clean Water Act's Section 404 grants the agency authority to scrap specifications in dredge-and-fill permits issued by the Army Corps of Engineers.