National Mining Association (NMA) President and CEO Hal Quinn today commended Reps. Alex Mooney (R-W.Va.) and his colleagues Bill Johnson (R-Ohio) and Doug Lamborn (R-Colo.), for introducing the “Supporting Transparent Regulatory and Environmental Actions in Mining Act” (STREAM) designed to improve the efficiency of current coal mine permitting and enforcement and clarify standing federal agency responsibilities under current law:
“NMA welcomes this bill by Congressmen Mooney, Johnson and Lamborn to restrain the federal Office of Surface Mining (OSM) from imposing a duplicative, unnecessary and potentially ruinous regulation on the nation’s coal industry. This legislation addresses OSM’s broken regulatory process with multiple flaws that has characterized OSM’s misguided attempts to alter the buffer zone rule. The agency has already spent $8.6 million on a rule that is not needed and that will serve no purpose but to separate thousands of more miners from their jobs. It has also ignored its obligation to coordinate with state agencies that are responsible for the day-to-day regulation of coal mining.
“Rather than grasping for authorities it does not have for rules that are not needed, OSM should work cooperatively with state agencies that federal law invests with the exclusive authority for permitting and regulating coal mines.”