UPDATE, Oct. 26: Salazar confirmed today that he will merge the agencies. "The secretary said the move would allow Interior to work more efficiently and allow OSM and BLM to share administrative functions," Greenwire reports. "He promised to involve both employees and lawmakers in drawing up a reorganization plan by next year." Nick Juliano of the Platts energy news service reports, "The plan drew swift condemnation from industry groups and congressional Republicans," who linked the move to what they called the Obama administration's anti-coal policies. A pro-coal Democrat, U.S. Rep. Nick Rahall of West Virginia, told Paul Nyden of The Charleston Gazette that the move was "bizarre" and could reduce OSM's role as "a sounding board for Appalachian residents." (Read more)
"Interior Secretary Ken Salazar [left] is giving serious consideration to folding the Office of Surface Mining into the Bureau of Land Management," reports Greenwire, citing sources and reporting that "Rumors of an imminent announcement about the reorganization circulated among mining industry leaders and on Capitol Hill all day, and officials are reportedly vetting a draft order to accomplish the change."
"The two agencies have separate mandates and serve regionally diverse constituencies," and there are questions about Salazar's legal ability to merge them, reporters Phil Taylor and Manuel Quinones note. "BLM is in charge of managing some 250 million acres of mostly Western lands, while OSM is a strictly regulatory agency that oversees reclamation of coal mines, many of them on non-federal lands in the East." The Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (its full name) also oversees permitting and mining, not just reclamation, and has granted primacy for those functions to agencies in most coal states under the 1977 federal strip-mine law. BLM's relations with states are often poor. Salazar is a former senator from Colorado.
OSM is drafting a new "stream buffer rule" that would pose new obstacles for Appalachian strip mines and replace a more lenient regulation instituted by the Bush administration in its final days. That has brought it "under fire from industry and many lawmakers on Capitol Hill," Greenwire notes. "Director Joe Pizarchik is scheduled to testify on Capitol Hill about the plans next week.
UPDATE, Oct. 27: The Charleston Gazette's Ken Ward Jr. says Salazar made the move earlier than expected because of the Greenwire story and concludes, "It seems likely that some coalfield citizen activists and environmental advocates — particularly those who have been around longer and have strong ties to the notion that OSMRE was set up by Congress to police the coal industry — will probably be uneasy with the Obama proposal, or oppose it outright." For a copy of Salazar's order, click here.
"Interior Secretary Ken Salazar [left] is giving serious consideration to folding the Office of Surface Mining into the Bureau of Land Management," reports Greenwire, citing sources and reporting that "Rumors of an imminent announcement about the reorganization circulated among mining industry leaders and on Capitol Hill all day, and officials are reportedly vetting a draft order to accomplish the change.""The two agencies have separate mandates and serve regionally diverse constituencies," and there are questions about Salazar's legal ability to merge them, reporters Phil Taylor and Manuel Quinones note. "BLM is in charge of managing some 250 million acres of mostly Western lands, while OSM is a strictly regulatory agency that oversees reclamation of coal mines, many of them on non-federal lands in the East." The Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (its full name) also oversees permitting and mining, not just reclamation, and has granted primacy for those functions to agencies in most coal states under the 1977 federal strip-mine law. BLM's relations with states are often poor. Salazar is a former senator from Colorado.
OSM is drafting a new "stream buffer rule" that would pose new obstacles for Appalachian strip mines and replace a more lenient regulation instituted by the Bush administration in its final days. That has brought it "under fire from industry and many lawmakers on Capitol Hill," Greenwire notes. "Director Joe Pizarchik is scheduled to testify on Capitol Hill about the plans next week.
UPDATE, Oct. 27: The Charleston Gazette's Ken Ward Jr. says Salazar made the move earlier than expected because of the Greenwire story and concludes, "It seems likely that some coalfield citizen activists and environmental advocates — particularly those who have been around longer and have strong ties to the notion that OSMRE was set up by Congress to police the coal industry — will probably be uneasy with the Obama proposal, or oppose it outright." For a copy of Salazar's order, click here.
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