WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, Reps. Bill Johnson (R-OH),  Evan Jenkins (R-WV) and David McKinley (R-WV) introduced H. J. Res. 38. This is a joint resolution of disapproval under the Congressional Review Act related to the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement’s (OSM) final Stream Protection Rule (SPR). During the rulemaking process, OSM shut out cooperative agencies – the states responsible for enforcing federal mining regulations – and ignored the existing regulatory success as the state and federal level.

For close to a decade, Republicans have been leading the charge against the regulatory onslaught on coal communities. But now, with an ally in the White House, we can finally begin to roll back some of the punishing regulations of the last eight years. This starts with repealing the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSM) Stream Protection Rule under the Congressional Review Act.

 

The final SPR, forced on the American people in the waning days of the Obama administration, is a blatant attack on working families in coal country that could shut more coal mines and send thousands of miners to the unemployment line. The final rule jeopardizes at least one-third of this nation’s good paying coal jobs and removes half or more of total U.S. coal reserves from future extraction. Let’s put that in perspective for a moment: The rule’s associated job loss comes on top of the loss of 68,000 good paying coal jobs over the past few years.