COLUMBUS, Ohio (Legal Newsline) — Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine, along with West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, announced Jan. 19 that a group of 13 states has challenged the federal government’s “Stream Protection Rule.”
“This overreaching, last-gasp Obama administration regulation goes far beyond what the law permits,” DeWine said. “It exceeds the power Congress has given to federal regulators and ignores the authority given to the states. It would have a disastrous effect on Ohio coal miners, their families and their communities.”
The Stream Protection Rule bans changes to land surrounding coal mines. The coalition of states opposing the rule allege the Office of Surface Mining, a division of the U.S. Department of Interior, created the rule without consulting the states and adopted it despite state-based objections. The states expressed their concerns in a lawsuit filed in federal court.
“We cannot stand for the unlawful, last-minute antics of this administration,” Morrisey said. “Such a regulation would drastically reduce – if not eliminate – coal mining across large portions of West Virginia. This rule must be stopped.”
States participating in the lawsuit include Ohio, West Virginia, Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri, Montana, Texas, Utah and Wyoming.