28Dec

Guest Opinion: Congress Must Act Quickly to Axe Stream Rule

Via The Billings Gazette: On the way out the door, the Obama administration just threw one more regulatory punch at America’s coal miners. Just days before Christmas, the outgoing administration published its extreme stream rule in order to guarantee it will take effect the day before President-elect Donald Trump is sworn into office. This 1,640-page […]
27Dec

Capozzola: Obama Issues Last-Minute Rule, Wants to Finish Off U.S. Coal Industry

Via Breitbart.com So President Obama has gone and done it. In a rather vindictive move, his Interior Department’s Office of Surface Mining (OSM) is out with a broad new “stream rule” that could potentially designate as much as two-thirds of U.S. coal reserves off-limits to mining. In fact, a study of the rule suggests that […]
26Dec

Obama’s Overreach

Via The Leader-Herald: President Barack Obama could not resist a parting shot that extended his legacy of vindictive executive overreach. When his administration released a new Stream Protection Rule on Monday, the intent was clear: one last attempted blow to coal miners and their families. In a re-working of the George W. Bush administration’s Stream […]
26Dec

Fighting for Coal

Via The Bluefield Daily Telegraph: Members of a 24-state coalition led by West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton are urging President-elect Donald Trump and congressional leaders to act quickly next month in withdrawing President Barack Obama’s Clean Power Plan, and to take necessary steps to ensure that similar or more extreme job-killing […]
25Dec

Obama Administration’s New Rule Could Eliminate Thousands of Jobs

Via The Washington Post: The Dec. 20 news article “Last-minute rule to make coal industry cleaner met with praise, criticism” missed several key points. The rule provides no discernible environmental benefits. It simply duplicates and interferes with extensive existing environmental protections at the federal and state levels and it does so in a way that […]
23Dec

Coal Country Lawmakers Ready to Fight Stream Protection Rule

Via West Virginia MetroNews: Critics of the Obama Administration’s new Stream Protection Rule believe it is a parting shot from the president to the coal industry on his way out the door of the White House. The rule is scheduled to be entered in the federal register Tuesday, and become effective January 19, one day […]
22Dec

Stream Rule Aim Is to Harm Miners

Via The Wheeling News-Register: President Barack Obama could not resist a parting shot that extended his legacy of vindictive executive overreach. When his administration released a new Stream Protection Rule on Monday, the intent was clear: one last attempted blow to coal miners and their families. In a re-working of the George W. Bush administration’s […]
22Dec

Lawsuit, Resolution Aim To Push Stream Rule To ‘Dumpster’

Via E&E Publishing:  Critics this week opened up two new fronts in their campaign to take down the Obama administration’s controversial new restrictions on coal mining pollution. North Dakota yesterday became the first state to sue the Interior Department over the Stream Protection Rule released earlier this week. Meanwhile, Republicans in Congress moved forward with […]
21Dec

Coal in Trump’s Stocking

Via The Wall Street Journal: The Obama Administration has given Donald Trump an early Christmas gift, in the form of a punitive 11th-hour regulation on coal. Issued by the Interior Department’s Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSM), the rule takes effect Jan. 19 as a classic example of the job-killing rules that Mr. […]
21Dec

W.Va. Reacts to Ruling on Stream Protection

Via The Weirton Daily Times: Officials throughout Appalachia and the coal industry are reacting following Monday’s announcement by the Obama administration of final rules aimed at protecting 6,000 miles of streams and 52,000 acres of forests from any impacts of coal mining. Among those promising quick legal action against the Interior Department’s Stream Protection Rule […]