We’re still waiting to see what President Barack Obama decides to do with the federal Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement.
(See previous posts on this topic here, here and here).
Today, the Lexington Herald-Leader weighed in on the matter, with an editorial that urges Obama to appoint a “credible leader” for this troubled Interior Department agency.
The Herald-Leader had kind words for both Lexington lawyer Joe Childers and West Virginia University law professor Pat McGinley, the two top candidates for the OSMRE post. But the Herald-Leader also didn’t take sides, noting that the more important thing is getting someone good for the job:
What Obama must not do is appoint anyone from inside OSM or the coal industry.
OSM has suffered from a cozy relationship with the industry since the Reagan years. But the rot became putrid during the Bush years when the tone at OSM was set by Deputy Interior Secretary Stephen Griles, a former coal industry lobbyist who was sentenced to prison for his links to corrupt lobbyist Jack Abramhoff.
The paper also connected the dots between failed leadership at OSMRE, the rise of mountaintop removal, and the declining number of miners jobs in the Appalachian coalfields:
OSM needs and deserves fresh new leadership that will reverse the industry trend of replacing workers with ever larger earth-moving machines.
If OSM finally begins enforcing the law, coal companies will need more workers and engineers to minimize the footprint of surface-mining operations and restore mined land to its natural height and shape. That’s nothing more than what the law, which OSM has never enforced, requires.
But OSM laid down for the coal industry as what’s commonly referred to as mountaintop removal became the norm. Instead of compacting and replacing the tons of soil and rock removed by mining, coal companies dump it into huge, loose fills, flattening mountains and destroying headwater streams that protect against flooding and provide the biological building blocks for clean water.
It’s rare that you can see a crime from the air. But anyone who flies over Eastern Kentucky or southern West Virginia will gawk at this one.
Obama must appoint a credible leader at OSM.
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You might have added that the corrupt G.W. Bush Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior, Steven Griles, had a direct influence on the dismantling of the effectiveness of OSM at the beginning of the Reagan Administration. Griles came to OSM from the coal industry in 1981 as Deputy Director.
As soon as Griles arrived at OSM, he began to dismantle the agency and pull its enforcement teeth. He oversaw the amendment or withdrawal of many of the strong regulations that had been put in place by the Carter Administration’s OSM.
Ironically, as anti-regulation and anti-environmental protection as was Griles and Reagan Interior Secretary James Watt , they adopted the so-called “buffer zone rule” that barred coal mining within 100 feet of an intermittent or perrenial stream. The buffer zone rule was put in place because even coal industry extemists and their corrupt advocates in government like Mr. Griles knew that Congress did not intend to allow Appalachian streams to be buried by mining wastes.
Instead of complying with the rule as the law required, OSM and State regulators allowed coal companies to illegally bury hundreds of miles of Appalachian streams. While reasonable people may disagree about the impact of the buffer zone rule on the coal industry, one thing is certain — the law should have been obeyed or amended not ignored for two decades.
[...] “Credibility for OSM” [...]
[...] “Credibility for OSM” [...]