Biden recently nominated a mine-safety chief, but still no one to run Interior Department's Office of Surface Mining

"Congress approved $11.3 billion to clean up abandoned mine lands in the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill, but environmental groups are worried that President Biden hasn’t chosen anyone to oversee how that money is spent on coal mines," Jael Holzman reports for Energy & Environment News.

President Biden hasn't nominated anyone to run the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement, which hasn't even had an acting director, Holzman concludes from the website of the agency, part of the Interior Department.

Tuesday, the Sierra Club and other activists, mainly from Appalachian states, urged Biden to nominate an OSM director to see that the money is “carefully administered.” They also asked, among other things, that the new money be spent on mines that closed before 1977. That's when Congress passed the federal strip-mine law, which included a severance tax on coal to fund reclamation of abandoned mines.

"This letter comes after Biden recently made picks for posts at other mining-related government agencies, including Christopher Williamson, a labor attorney and former staffer for West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin, to run the Mine Safety and Health Administration," a Labor Department agency, Holzman reports, without making the departmental distinction.