The request was first filed September 4; in it, the company said it requested crucial information that would help it to draft written comments to a “destructive and illegal rule.”
“Despite repeated requests, DOI and OSMRE have completely ignored Murray Energy’s filing, in violation of federal law,” it said, adding that records withholding is a pattern of both the DOI and OSMRE during the Obama administration.
“Indeed, OSMRE worked on this rule for over six years, in secret, with the clear intent of destroying America’s coal industry, and eliminating low-cost, reliable coal-fired electricity in America,” MEC founder, President and CEO Robert E. Murray added. “The Obama administration’s so-called ‘Stream Protection Rule’ is the single greatest threat to the jobs and family livelihoods of our employees that I have seen in my 58 years of coal mining experience.”
In the rule, the agencies ban underground coal mining via longwall or other methods when performed under dry surface ditches. Murray went on to call the administration’s actions “clandestine” and “a clear violation of…regulations. “We will hold them accountable for their unlawful actions”
MEC is currently the underground leader in coal in the U.S. with 17 active operations in Ohio, Illinois, West Virginia, Kentucky and Utah.
