Administration Moves to Weaken Crucial Citizen Oversight of Coal Mine Violations

The Department of the Interior has issued a proposed rule that would roll back Biden Administration improvements to the Ten Day Notice Rule, a process that allows citizens to request inspections by federal regulators of environmental and public health and safety issues caused by coal mines when the state fails to take action to force coal companies to correct the violations.  The rule would restore weakening amendments adopted by the first Trump Administration that would allow violations to go uncorrected when they were caused by systemic failures by states to properly enforce the law.

On behalf of KRC, Citizens Coal Council, Appalachian Voices, Appalachian Citizens' Law Center, Center for Biological Diversity, and Sierra Club, we submitted public comments on this proposal to again lessen accountability by coalfield states and mine permittees, by weakening the ten-day-notice process that is crucial for communities that often find state regulatory enforcement lacking.