Guest essay by Eric Worrall
On Thursday President Trump liberated coal miners from the shackles of an Obama rule many in the industry believe was designed to destroy the coal industry.
If you want to see happiness, see the following video of Robert Murray, founder and CEO of Murray Energy, America’s largest underground coal mining business, explaining what Trump’s repeal of a grossly unfair Obama administration rule means for himself, and for the 10s of thousands of workers who depend on his business for their livelihoods.
http://video.cnbc.com/gallery/?video=3000594214
My favourite quote from the video;
This was a victory, not only for the coal miners to be their at the signing by President Trump, I worry about the couple who’ve got a nestegge, trying to balance their budget after working all their lives, and they’re paying out 22% of what they make for energy right now. That woman that is trying to raise a child on one income. That manufacturer of a product. This regulation from the Obama administration had no environmental benefit at all. It was a deliberate attempt by the radical people in the Obama administration to eliminate underground coal mining, the most environmentally acceptable way to mine coal. We’re down here 1000ft Joe, they don’t even know we’re down there. But this rule illegally took a ’77 law that applied only to surface mining, and stopped underground mining, 1000ft down. Folks don’t even know we’re down there Joe, 1000ft. So what we’ve done now, the house and the senate used the continuing resolution act, the second time ever since the law was passed in 1996, to get rid of this radical rule which had no environmental benefit, but destroyed the lives of our coal miners.
The rule which was removed;
Trump signs bill undoing Obama coal mining rule
BY DEVIN HENRY – 02/16/17 03:54 PM EST
President Trump on Thursday signed legislation ending a key Obama administration coal mining rule.
The bill quashes the Office of Surface Mining’s Stream Protection Rule, a regulation to protect waterways from coal mining waste that officials finalized in December.
The legislation is the second Trump has signed into law ending an Obama-era environmental regulation. On Tuesday, he signed a Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolution undoing a financial disclosure requirement for energy companies.
Both the mining and financial disclosure bills are the tip of a GOP push to undo a slate of regulations instituted in the closing days of the Obama administration. The House has passed several CRA resolutions, and the Senate has so far sent three of them to President Trump for his signature.
…
Read more: http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/319938-trump-signs-bill-undoing-obama-coal-mining-rule
The text of the stream protection rule (issued December 2016);
Summary
We, the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSMRE or OSM), are revising our regulations, based on, among other things, advances in science, to improve the balance between environmental protection and the Nation’s need for coal as a source of energy. This final rule will better protect water supplies, surface water and groundwater quality, streams, fish, wildlife, and related environmental values from the adverse impacts of surface coal mining operations and provide mine operators with a regulatory framework to avoid water pollution and the long-term costs associated with water treatment. We have revised our regulations to define “material damage to the hydrologic balance outside the permit area” and require that each permit specify the point at which adverse mining-related impacts on groundwater and surface water would reach that level of damage; collect adequate premining data about the site of the proposed mining operation and adjacent areas to establish an adequate baseline for evaluation of the impacts of mining and the effectiveness of reclamation; adjust monitoring requirements to enable timely detection and correction of any adverse trends in the quality or quantity of surface water and groundwater or the biological condition of streams; ensure protection or restoration of perennial and intermittent streams and related resources; ensure that permittees and regulatory authorities make use of advances in science and technology; ensure that land disturbed by mining operations is restored to a condition capable of supporting the uses that it was capable of supporting before mining; and update and codify the requirements and procedures for protection of threatened or endangered species and designated critical habitat. Approximately thirty percent of the final rule consists of editorial revisions and organizational changes intended to improve consistency, clarity, accuracy, and ease of use.
Read more: https://www.regulations.gov/document?D=OSM-2010-0018-10631
All Murray wants is a level playing field. He’s happy to take the economic fight to his competitors in the gas industry, and compete to provide American with the cheapest possible energy. All he wants is a chance to be able to continue to provide a livelihood for the 10s of thousands of Americans his company employs.
The legacy of President Obama’s irrational crusade against coal is ruined lives and broken hopes. President Trump is doing everything in his power to undo the damage.
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My family used to be coal miners and having spent a lot of time around coal mines in my youth I don’t think dumping more spoil in streambeds is such a great idea.
anyway, I can’t see this materially reducing operating costs or doing anything at all to stop the main problem for US coal – cheap shale gas.
US isn’t building new coal power and won’t.
It is putting in a lot of solar panels – 14 GW capacity last year.
“US isn’t building new coal power and won’t.”
And Trump can’t possibly get more than 10% of the vote.
It’s well known that Clinton got 90% but Trump cheated by focusing on swing states ( a sneaky trick which no one else has dishonest enough to think of ) and was put in power by a handful of Russian hackers who hacked ….. well, “the election”.
That is how he managed to steal the presidency with only 10% of the voters actually voting for him.
It was actually space-aliens, Greg, with a base on the far side of the moon.
How old are you Griff? Your posts indicate a youngish bloke in his 20s. And where exactly did you spend your youth? Interested to know which coal mines you ‘spent a lot of time around’, given the history of coal mining in the UK.
http://www.power-eng.com/articles/2016/10/long-delayed-kemper-county-hybrid-plant-produces-first-electricity.html
Not traditional, still uses coal (lignite).
The left doesn’t realize it but Trump is the very best thing that’s happened for them in years. With all their bleating about Nature you’d think they’d know it. But, then again, a destructive parasite probably can’t know it. The successful parasite doesn’t kill its host. The destructive parasite does. What the left doesn’t realize is that another 4-8 years of Obama’s policies, re enacted in a porky pantsuit, would’ve finally destroyed the host (i.e. the working class) of who’s blood the left sucks. Then the parasitical left, and all their cushy $300-$500K university administrating, NGO directoring, environmental law firm partnering, lobbyist grouping, bureaucraticing, corporate rent seeking, and other grotesquely well monied but otherwise useless positions would go the way of other starving parasites. Trump is nourishing their host. Somebody’s got to do it, or the whole party’d be over.
“All he wants is a chance to be able to continue to provide a livelihood for the 10s of thousands of Americans his company employs.”
No, his company doesn’t employ 10s of thousands, it employs 6,000. http://www.murrayenergycorp.com/corporate-overview/
And your “Company” employs ?????
A number aproaching zero is implicit.
Irrelevant point.
You don’t think there’s supplier chains, Chris? There’s no specialized equipment manufacturers that they purchase from? No facilities they send equipment to for refurbishing? No outside transportation networks they employ? No middlemen? No independent distributors?
Not to mention other coal companies also with Mr. Judd’s associated economic train.
Tom, if you read the article, it says “his company”.That does not mean the other companies you mentioned. If I say “GE employs 100,000 people”, that means GE, not every GE supplier, distributor, etc.
Automation has killed far more jobs in the coal sector than Obama has. Coal production per miner has tripled since 1980. https://www.brookings.edu/blog/the-avenue/2017/01/25/automation-guarantees-a-bleak-outlook-for-trumps-promises-to-coal-miners/
Never lived in a boom/bust state, have you?
Topping ridgelines with wind turbines is an environmental abomination, but lopping off ridges and destroying watersheds is far worse.
You think nothing from the turbine installations ends up in watersheds?
One must “lop off ridges” to get material for the turbines, including gravel and rock for the tons of concrete, but you’re okay with that?
Is the word “abomination” outside your vocabulary, Sheri? You think nothing of lopping off ridges and polluting watersheds so long as it’s done to mine coal? Try a search on mountaintop removal mining and let me know if you’d like to live downstream in a filled-in valley.
Believe it or not, it’s possible to detest both turbines and MRM as environmental abominations. In the Appalachian Mountains, it’s my opinion MRM is far worse.
Mountaintop removal mining (MRM), AKA mountaintop mining with valley fills (MTM/VF)…
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/WorldOfChange/hobet.php
http://palmerlab.umd.edu/palmer_etal_2010_mountaintop.pdf
An environmental abomination.
Sounds like an uninformed hypocrite watermelon.
Hey ya know, everybody’s gotta be somethin’ Robert from oz. I also have friends who are serial killers, and molesters.
I’m not offended by those uninformed hypocrite melon-heads, they’re all over my personal world, and in my culture.
Of course..
I’m a prison guard.
sarc/off
A prison guard for melon-heads?
Well then, let us hope neither you nor Robert are judged by the cortex of your associates, but by the context of your characterizations.
MRM is happening in many places. People drive by many MRM sites and have absolutely no idea – except for the envirowhackos who have been pointed at them.
Now, think about the foot print and pollution of City Dwellers – New York, London, Los Angeles, Cairo, Bejing, and on and on and on.
The mining of coal and oil sands is minor compared to what the masses of humans in their cities do. Just think about it green viewer. Now add to that, the area under agriculture and its impact. Humans have an impact. Someday we might even be able to measure it. But were it not for the sun, we, along with coal and oil, wouldn’t be here.
Mining a little coal is minor (pun intended).
Wayne, these days many people drive by a lot of terrain without observing more than the pavement in front of them. Does that make them pertinent observers?
I see a difference between expansion of high-density cities and the destruction of relatively-pristine terrain of which even city dwellers appreciate the continued existence. 70 years ago I traversed the Blue Ridge Mountains on winding narrow roads. In the valleys below I saw seemingly endless trains of coal. Tiny towns saddled clear creeks. I see no compelling reason to destroy that environment.
You and Robert apparently failed to do any research on Robert Murray, who claims he does not favor surface mining of coal in Appalachia. Murray’s operations in Appalachia are below ground. So, since it’s clearly not Murray Energy, who do you represent in this debate?
Oops. Correction: “60 years ago.”
In case anyone is still reading this thread, verdeviewer does not translate to “green viewer,” as anyone who follows the link to my blog would know. The name refers to the Verde Valley along the Verde River in Arizona.
Let’s see if we have a lot of fish kill as a result of this bill. Murray must realized that those jobs are history and the are not coming back. I am just keeping it real.