March 25, 2014

Contact: Zach Zagar
Phone: (202) 225-5037
E-mail: zach.zagar@mail.house.gov

Rokita Fights to Lower Hoosier Energy Costs, Protect Hoosier Jobs

Washington, D.C. – Representative Todd Rokita, a member of the Congressional Coal Caucus, released the following statement after supporting the passage of the Preventing Government Waste and Protecting Coal Mining Jobs in America Act, H.R. 2824:

“President Obama continues his attempts to bankrupt the coal industry by executive fiat, this time wasting nearly $10 million in taxpayer money on costly regulatory rewrites.  The Obama Administration has once again placed ideology ahead of the jobs of Hoosiers and the electric bills of millions of American families,” Rokita said. <Audio: link>

The bill passed the House 229-192 with bipartisan support.

The Obama Administration has pursued an aggressive regulatory agenda, and has been ideologically bent on destroying the coal industry, spiking Hoosier energy costs, and killing Hoosier energy jobs.  H.R. 2824 protects Hoosier coal jobs and promotes lower energy costs by preventing the Obama Administration from continuing the wasteful, job-killing process outlined below.

Rokita has been on the front line in protecting Hoosiers from costly and ideologically-driven rules and regulations.  In 2011, Rep. Rokita, along with the Indiana Chamber of Commerce, launched the Red Tape Rollback initiative to target unnecessary, burdensome and economically destructive regulations for defeat or repeal.  To date the program has achieved 34 victories.

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Courtesy of House Republican Conference

BILL SUMMARY

H.R. 2824 requires states to incorporate into their state programs on surface coal mining and reclamation management the 2008 “Stream Buffer Zone Rule,” which the Administration rejected, despite an extensive rulemaking process.  States must implement the requirements within two years of the bill’s enactment.  H.R. 2824 then requires a five-year assessment of the 2008 rule and a comprehensive report to Congress on the rule’s impact.  The report is to include an analysis of the rule’s effectiveness, any barriers to energy production, a description of any proposed changes that should be made to the rule, and justification for such changes.  The bill prohibits the initiation of new rulemaking on a stream buffer zone rule until the report has been published.

BACKGROUND

“The Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 (SMCRA) is the primary federal law that regulates the environmental effects of coal mining in the United States.  SMCRA created two programs: title V for regulating active coal mines and title IV for reclaiming abandoned mine lands.  SMCRA also created the Office of Surface Mining (OSM), an agency within the Department of the Interior, to promulgate regulations, to fund state regulatory and reclamation programs, and to ensure consistency among state regulatory programs.” If a state has surface coal mining operations on non-federal lands and wishes to assume exclusive jurisdiction, or “primacy,” over surface coal mining and reclamation projects, SMCRA requires the state to submit a state program that shows its ability to carry out SMCRA.

In 2008, after a five-year rulemaking process involving extensive environmental review and public input, the final rule on “Excess Spoil, Coal Mine Waste, and Buffers for Perennial and Intermittent Streams”—commonly referred to as the Stream Buffer Zone Rule—was published.  The rule regulates spoil and waste from surface coal mining operations and reclamation operations that occur close to streams.  Although the rule was scheduled to go into effect in January of 2009, it was withdrawn by OSM after a lawsuit was filed by environmental groups.  OSM then attempted to put into place a more restrictive regulation, but a court ruled against it under the Administrative Procedure Act, as the new regulation had not gone through a formal rulemaking process.  Ultimately, OSM entered into an agreement with the environmental groups to promulgate a new regulation in an unachievable timeframe.

The Administration then “spent millions of taxpayer dollars and hired new contractors to do the rewrite; fired the contractors when the news media revealed that their analysis showed the revision would cost 7,000 jobs and economic harm in 22 states; attempted to manipulate data to conceal the true economic impact; and is now refusing to answer basic questions on the status of the rewrite.”  Litigation by environmental groups was reignited in January of 2013 after OSM missed the agreed upon deadlines for the new rulemaking, prompting multiple requests by Congress for information on the current status of the rule.  Delayed responses to these requests were so redacted that they essentially withheld all relevant information from Congress.

The Administration has spent almost $10 million over the past five years in rewriting the regulation, but has not yet produced anything.  In investigating the matter, the House Natural Resources Committee has “exposed gross mismanagement of the rulemaking process, potential political interference, and widespread economic harm the proposed regulation would cause.”  H.R. 2824 addresses this issue by implementing the 2008 Stream Buffer Zone Rule and establishing a procedure that must be followed in developing any new rule.  The bill saves taxpayer funds and provides certainty to states and industry participants who are currently unsure about the rules on the ground.