Regarding the reversal of the "Stream Protection Rule" (SPR) that the Obama administration pushed through on December 19, 2016, a small bit of Google gymnastics and much more reading seems to be required to get to the bottom of it (pun intended). Here's a
link to a Google search that might be useful.
Of interest is that the SPR, when enacted on December 19, was to take effect in 30 days, as of January 19. Yep: one day before Donald Trump put his hand on the Bible and took the oath of office. And that (see below) it was overturned at record speed by bipartisan vote in both the House (with 71 cosponsors) and Senate
two weeks before President Trump put his signature on it while coal miners and coal company executives visited the White House.
Doesn't quite jive with the implication of the AP headline "
Trump Overturns Bill on Coal Mining Debris" does it? Never mind that it was never a "bill" and that Congress voted to overturn it. Ah, the
New Journalism.
From what I can tell, the Stream Protection Rule (SPR) in it's present form was drafted in July 2015; evidently some version of it has been floating around (another pun intended) in some form or other for many years, promoted by environmentalist groups. There was push-back even in Obama's administration: the Department of the Interior stated outright that it would cause job losses, and the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement said it would cost the coal industry over $52 million in new compliance costs. U.S. Rep. Morgan Griffith (R-Virginia)
said that 78,000 mining jobs could be lost as a result of the SPR. West Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky, and Pennsylvania are (were) most affected by the SPR. Griffith said he and others in Congress would work to see the rule overturned.
U.S. Rep. Morgan Griffith (R-Virginia) wrote:I will continue to fight this rule with every tool available, including, but not limited to, filing a Congressional Review Act [CRA] resolution. This rule is so unpopular that there will probably be many in Congress who will wish to lead this CRA resolution, and I will either join with other members to file a resolution or I will file it myself.
The CRA lets Congress overturn rules issued by federal agencies. After a rule is finalized, Congress has a limited period of time to pass a joint resolution to prevent the law from taking effect. Evidently the CRA was last used in 2001.
[url=http://www.eenews.net/stories/1060047395]E&E News[/url] (Energy & Environmental) wrote:Industry has sharply criticized the science and justification for the rulemaking, arguing it is a drastic overreach of OSMRE
[Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement] authority that encroaches on the jurisdiction of other federal laws.
Environmentalists say the rule does not go far enough, but coal mining states are nearly unified in blasting OSMRE's handling of the rulemaking.
Most states have withdrawn from cooperative agreements to work on the rule with OSMRE over complaints of being kept in the dark.
Congressional Republicans are already planning to strike down the new coal mining standards via the Congressional Review Act.
The SPR affects (affected) over 6,000 miles of streams and over 52,000 acres of forested area. It requires companies to restore streams, to replant native trees, to return mined areas to conditions as they were before mining took place, and to maintain a buffer zone that blocks coal mining within 100 feet of any stream.
The complete (and very long) text of the SPR can be found here:
https://www.federalregister.gov/documen ... ction-rule. That is, until/if the Federal Register takes it down.
But here's the deal. For all that the lamestream media tried to do to make it look as if shutting down the SPR was a POTUS executive order, that he acted unilaterally and without Congress...he did not.
The CRA to overturn the Stream Protection Rule was properly engaged and presented as House Joint Resolution 38 of the 115th Congress on January 30. It passed the House without amendment on February 1. It passed the Senate without amendment on February 2. It was presented to President Trump on February 6.
POTUS chose to sign the measure yesterday when he had coal miners and coal company executives--as well as some lawmakers from the most-affected states--at the White House.
Nowhere in the AP article, or in many of the lamestream articles that I looked it, was there ever any mention whatsoever that
the CRA had bipartisan approval in both the House and Senate in the span of just three days, and that it did so
two weeks before President Trump signed it. Instead, the media is spinning it as a heavy-handed, environmentally-destructive executive order that Trump somehow simply pulled out of his hat.
