Court gives mining rule the shaft

Backs Trump opposition to requiring companies to pre-fund cleanups

BILLINGS, Mont. — A U.S. appeals court panel sided with the Trump administration Friday in a mining pollution dispute, ruling that state and federal programs already in place ensure that companies take financial responsibility for future cleanups.

The ruling came after the administration was sued by environmental groups for dropping an Obama-era proposal that would have forced companies to put up money to show they have resources to clean up pollution.

The mining industry has a legacy of bankrupt companies abandoning polluted sites and leaving taxpayers to cover cleanup costs.

But the three-judge panel with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit said it was “unpersuaded” by the environmentalists’ arguments that the Trump administration relied on a faulty economic analysis in making its decision.

“Existing federal and state programs impose significant financial responsibility requirements on the hardrock mining industry,” Judge Karen LeCraft Henderson wrote. “States have changed their financial responsibility requirements to account for the risk of bankruptcy” by companies.

The case began after Environmental Protection Agency said in 2017 that stricter regulations and modern mining practices have reduced the risks of pollution going unaddressed.

Under former President Barack Obama, the agency determined the opposite, saying mining pollution remains an ongoing concern.

The mining industry and members of Congress from Western states had argued the rule was unnecessary because of existing cleanup requirements already enforced at the state and federal level.

STRIKE THAT: Contaminated water flows from a pipe from the Lee Mountain mine in Montana in October, and is seen below at a pit near Carlin, Nev. An appeals court has sided with the Trump administration’s dropping of a proposal that would have forced mining companies to put up money to clean up future pollution.