U.S. court blocks plan to curb mountaintop mining

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A U.S. court on Wednesday blocked an attempt by the Obama administration to overturn a Bush administration rule that made it easier for coal mining companies to dump mountaintop debris into valley streams.

The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia said that the Interior Department’s request to vacate the regulation would have allowed the federal government to wrongfully bypass “established statutory procedures for repealing an agency rule.”

Federal agencies have to follow certain procedures, including collecting public comments, before repealing government regulations, the ruling said.

Reuters