Preambles to rules published in the Federal Register are prepared by the agency for readers who are not expert in the subject area. Preambles provide the basis and purpose for each rule or proposal. Usually preambles include: a discussion of the background and major issues involved, any significant differences between a proposed and final rule, a response to substantive public comments received, and other information the agency considers appropriate. The following preamble is important because it provides the basis for the original Surface Mining Law regulations published in 1979. Note: Many of these orginal rules and preambles have been revised. Readers should always check the Code of Federal Regulations for a complete listing of updates.
The files in the following index are large and may take a few moments to load. To find specific topics or citations use the preamble full text search or your browser "find" button.
Do a full text search by key word(s) of the Preamble:
