Congress Should Bar Stream Rule

Now, electricity from gas costs about the same as that from coal. Only about 40 percent of the nation’s power comes from coal.

That has occurred for two reasons: First, the price of gas plummeted, in large measure because of the shale drilling revolution.

Second, Obama’s war on coal and affordable energy has made it more expensive to mine coal and to burn it in power plants.

To a great extent, Obama has succeeded in his campaign to destroy the coal industry. With that has come the devastation of regions such as West Virginia.

But the president is not satisfied. He seems determined to finish the job as quickly as possible.

To that end, his administration has churned out new regulations at a frantic pace. Anything and everything that can crush the coal industry is either on the books or well on the way there.

Next on the White House agenda is a set of rules allegedly intended to safeguard streams in the United States. It is a major worry for miners and mining companies, as two U.S. senators were told earlier this month.

Sens. Shelley Capito, R-W.Va., and Rob Portman, R-Ohio, visited the Rosebud Bergholz Mine in East Ohio. There, they were told the administration’s so-called Stream Protection Rule would be yet another burden on the coal industry.

Mine Permitting Manager Gary Alkire noted the measure would, if implemented, make it difficult or impossible for many mines to operate where even very small streams are present.

Both surface and underground mines would be affected in what clearly is pursuit of a vendetta against the industry. The proposed rule would replace one put in place in 2008, just before Obama took office.

As so often is the case with its anti-coal campaign, the White House plans to bypass Congress in implementing the new rule.

Lawmakers ought to have stopped Obama’s unconstitutional power grab years ago. Yet, in part because of blind loyalty among Democrat senators and representatives, they have not done so.

Now, with the SPR, would be a good time for lawmakers on both sides of the political aisle to start standing up for their constituents instead of bowing to the president.

See the article here.