Doug Lamborn, Colorado US Rep., is fighting to lift restrictions that keep coal mining companies from operating within 100 feet of watercourses.
The bill proposed by the Colorado Springs Republican, also sponsored by the Ohio Republican Bill Johnson, talks about two different kinds of waste. It wants to prevent the “waste of taxpayer resources” by cutting regulations that are meant to prevent “mining waste” from running into mountain water sources.
This new bill entitled HR 2824, or Preventing Government Waste and Protecting Coal Mining Jobs in America Act, is based on a rule made during the Bush administration, which was created to thin regulations, but ended up being stalled by lawsuits and environmental concerns. Now, these two representatives want to revive it.
Doug Lamborn steers the House Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources, which has recently started to debate the bill. As you can see, he’s a big supporter of the fossil fuel industry and has consistently been against international agreements intended to reduce carbon emissions.
Although the Americans are increasingly choosing cleaner sources of energy like natural gas, the United States still ship a lot of the coal extracted in the country to other nations. The west has been a major supplier, employing almost 15,000 workers.
However, coal still accounts for nearly 30 percent of the carbon emissions released in the United States. Besides, extracting this substance continues to transform miles and miles of land into inhospitable scenarios, destructing mountains and contaminating streams. Mineral acids, heavy metals and various types of sediments are just some of the residues that are damaging the rivers and watersheds, even if they are far from the mines. Now imagine if they’re close…