W.Va. coal group wants Blair Mountain case tossed

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. (AP) — Groups trying to protect Logan County's Blair Mountain from mining have no legal standing to sue because they don't own any of the property involved in the long-running dispute, the West Virginia Coal Association argues in a new court filing.

The association's friend-of-the-court brief asks U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton to grant summary judgment to the U.S. Department of Interior. It argues the Sierra Club and other several other groups have no legal standing to sue Interior, the National Park Service or the Keeper of the National Register of Historic Places.

Walton has scheduled a status conference for March 1....