NEW RULE EXPECTED TO ANGER COAL COMPANIES

…A coal mine in West Virginia

 

The National Mining Association immediately slammed Obama’s new rule.

 

If the coal miners that Trump said he was going to put back to work actually get back to it, they may instead end up becoming landscape workers.  I say this because before Obama leaves office he has just finalized a rule that aims to protect thousands of miles of streams by forcing coal mining companies “to avoid mining practices that permanently pollute streams, destroy drinking water sources … and threaten forests”.

 

Under the new rule, coal companies that have finished mining in an area will be required to restore the land to the same condition that existed before their digging began. Obama’s Interior Secretary, Sally Jewell, called the new regulations “a balanced approach to meeting the nation’s energy needs.”

 

The announcement has come a month before power is handed over to a new presidential administration, and it is almost certain to anger coal companies and conservative Republicans.

 

The rule will obviously be an early target of President Donald Trump, who pledged during his campaign to help turn around an industry beset by debt, job losses and declining profits.  Under these conditions, it just make this task and the cleanup requirements of a 1977 federal law, that much more difficult.

 

The industry’s financial crisis has led to fears that the nation’s largest coal companies might end up leaving taxpayers with hundreds of millions of dollars in cleanup costs for all those closed mines. Companies are currently obligated to rehabilitate hundreds of huge strip mines in the West and mountaintop-removal sites in the East.

However, worries started this year when Peabody Energy, the world’s largest publicly traded coal company, appealed to its creditors for an extra month to pay its debts. Over the six months ending in March, two more of the nation’s four biggest coal companies have declared bankruptcy.

 

The National Mining Association quickly slammed Obama’s new rule, calling it a duplication of regulations that already exist under the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977.  “This is after the agency failed in its obligation to engage mining states in the rule’s development and ended up with a massive rule making that is a win for bureaucracy and extreme environmental groups and a loss for everyday Americans,” said Hal Quinn, the group’s president and chief executive.

 

He said the rule reflects “the environmental lobby’s keep it in the ground platform, locking away important U.S. domestic coal reserves, while putting tens of thousands of Americans out of work, raising energy costs for millions of Americans and preserving the agency’s regulatory mission that is diminished with the declining number of coal mines.”

 

But Quinn did not mention the sharp drop in the price and use of coal as power plants switch to natural gas which is the major reason why coal workers are being released and mines are being shut.

 

The new rule is the sort of regulation that Trump has vowed to undo. He will probably issue a stop-work order to temporarily delay the implementation.   Of course, the Republican-controlled Congress could also assist him by issuing a review order and overturn any rule adopted after midyear.

 

Some lawmakers are already complaining. “I continue to have real concerns about this administration’s one-size-fits-all approach to the regulation of energy development and production, which doesn’t work for our state,” said Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.).

 

Heitkamp said she had toured with a top Interior official who visited North Dakota to show her how the rule would hurt the industry and workers, but to no avail. “Going forward, I’ll work with my colleagues in the Senate and the incoming administration to see if this rule is workable,” she said.

 

The leader of the National Wildlife Federation, Collin O’Mara, called the stream protection rule “an important step forward for wildlife protection.” It’s important to public health and for ecosystems that support fish and wildlife. “This rule will ensure the protection and restoration of streams and update the requirements needed to protect threatened or endangered species and critical wildlife and wild places,” he said.

 

Interior officials first announced their intent to draft new regulations back in 2009. Officials said Monday that the result comes from the best science and an understanding of the improved technology being used by coal companies.

 

In the seven years it took to draft and finalize the new rule, the department received more than 150,000 comments and recorded statements from 15 public meetings and other gatherings.

 

“We are closing loopholes and improving our rules to more completely implement the law passed by Congress,” said Joseph Pizarchik, director of the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement.

 

But to Donald Trump, this will just be another “regulation” that he will want to undo.

 

Copyright G.Ater  2016