Stream rule bill heads to House floor as Heitkamp touts CCS

E&E News
By Manuel Quinones
March 24, 2014

The House this week will take up legislation to block the Obama administration from developing a controversial Stream Protection Rule that aims to protect waterways from coal mining.

Ohio Republican Rep. Bill Johnson's H.R. 2824 would instead task the federal Office of Surface Mining and states with implementing the 2008 President George W. Bush-era Stream Buffer Zone Rule.

The legislation is a top priority for House Republicans and other pro-coal lawmakers who worry that OSM's rulemaking will cost thousands of mining jobs.

The bill includes new language, added during a Rules Committee meeting earlier this month, in defiance of a federal court ruling that struck down the Bush-era rule. U.S. District Court Judge Barbara Rothstein for the District of Columbia last month faulted the previous administration for not consulting with the Fish and Wildlife Service in developing the rule.

President Obama has threatened to veto the legislation. And environmental advocates are lobbying against it, worried it may get traction in the Democratic-controlled Senate or end up as a rider in a future spending bill.

Floor debate this week will likely focus on the merits of mountaintop-removal mining, the Obama administration's oversight of mining and whether OSM pressured former contractors to change job loss numbers. An Interior Office of Inspector General report found no wrongdoing, but House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Doc Hastings (R-Wash.) is pressuring the OIG to release an un-redacted version of its findings.

The Rules Committee earlier this month approved two Democratic amendments for floor debate. One by Rep. Alan Lowenthal (D-Calif.) would require states to implement a President Reagan-era rule, unless their own rules are stronger. OSM had been enforcing the Bush rule only in places without their own coal mine regulatory programs, most notably Tennessee, and it is planning to revert to the Reagan rule because of the ruling, pending the new proposal.

Another amendment, by Rep. Matt Cartwright (D-Pa.), would similarly allow states to enforce their own guidelines to protect waterways from coal mining as long as they meet certain guidelines.

Heitkamp bill

Also this week, North Dakota Democratic Sen. Heidi Heitkamp is expected to introduce legislation to promote the long-term viability of coal-fired power.

The Heitkamp bill will likely include increased funding for carbon capture and sequestration efforts, plus federal incentives for utilities looking to deploy the expensive technology.

Heitkamp, who is well acquainted with energy issues and is the former director of the Dakota Gasification Co., recently helped stage a Capitol Hill summit on the future of coal.

Beyond promoting CCS, however, the coal industry is hoping Heitkamp joins an effort led by Rep. Ed Whitfield (R-Ky.) and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) to effectively block EPA's proposed greenhouse gas standard for new power plants.