Government halts coal mining health study

WASHINGTON — The Interior Department has ordered a halt to a scientific study begun under President Barack Obama of the public health risks of mountaintop-removal coal mining.

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, which was conducting the study, said this week that it had been ordered to stop work because the Interior Department was conducting an agencywide budgetary review.

Environmental groups and Democrats sharply criticized the Interior Department decision.