The state of North Dakota has filed suit in federal court to stop a new Interior Department rule designed to protect streams from adverse impacts of coal mining.
State officials say the new rule was written with Appalachia in mind – and doesn’t work with open pit lignite mines.
The North Dakota Public Service Commission regulates lignite mining. Commissioner Randy Christmann said the rule would be devastating for the industry.
“What they’re proposing to do here effectively takes a good part of our coal reserves and makes them impossible to mine,” said Christmann.
Christmann said the rule also takes land reclamation out of the hands of the state – and puts it under federal control. He said that’s something the state has done for decades, and gets tremendous reviews.
“When the Office of Surface Mining has done our reviews, as recently as last summer, we received a review that said we run a very effective program, and that no corrective action is needed," Christmann said. "Now just a few months later, the same administration would basically overturn that state authority by switching it to a federal authority, completely undoing things.”
In the lawsuit, North Dakota seeks an injunction against federal agencies from enforcing the rule – and asks that the rule be vacated.
