Appolo Fuels, Inc. v. Babbitt

OPINION

DAUGHTREY, Circuit Judge.

The plaintiff, Appolo Fuels, Inc., appeals the district court’s judgment upholding the decision of the Interior Board of Land Appeals that Appolo violated federal regulations requiring the elimination of “high-walls” (described in the record as “cliff-like” rock walls) at its surface coal-mining site in Kentucky. Appolo maintains that it had initially backfilled the site properly and that the subsequent re-exposure of highwalls does not violate the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act. Although the Board and the federal courts have consistently held that…