Breathtaking arrogance was demonstrated by Environmental Protection Agency officials recently during a congressional hearing on one of the agency's most outrageous abuses of power.
Early in President Barack Obama's administration, the EPA retroactively rejected a permit for a surface mine in West Virginia. The permit had been approved previously.
A federal judge already has condemned the EPA's job-killing action.
Last week a House of Representatives subcommittee held a hearing on the matter.
No one from the EPA attended.
U.S. Rep. David McKinley, R-W.Va., accused the EPA of failing to participate because officials were afraid their action ''won't stand up to scrutiny.''
Indeed, it won't.