US administration revises coal regulations and oil drilling leases

The Obama administration has adopted last-minute rules on coal extraction and oil drilling in US waters.



The Department of the Interior (DOI) has updated 33-year old regulations on coal extraction, aiming at preventing or minimizing impacts to surface water and groundwater from coal mining. The updated regulation requires companies to restore streams and return mined areas to the uses they were capable of supporting prior to mining activities. Coal mining companies are already obligated to rehabilitate mines and mountaintop-removal sites but financial difficulties in the coal sector have fuelled fears on companies leaving taxpayers with closed mine clean up costs. The next Trump administration may overturn this new regulation.



In addition, President Obama has withdrawn offshore areas in the Atlantic and Arctic Oceans from future mineral extraction. This decision follows a previous decision to rule out selling new leases in the Arctic, Atlantic and Pacific areas from 2017 to 2022 and is coordinated with Canada, which has also announced freezing new offshore leasing in its waters. The measure will include 31 undersea canyons in the north and mid-Atlantic Ocean (nearly 15,400 km²) and nearly 465,400 km² in the U.S. Arctic Ocean, encompassing the entire U.S. Chukchi Sea and significant portions of the U.S. Beaufort Sea. The withdrawal does not affect existing leases in these federal offshore waters and would not affect a nearshore area of the Beaufort Sea, totalling about 11,330 km², that has high oil and gas potential and is adjacent to existing state oil and gas activity and infrastructure. As for the coal mining regulation, this decision is likely to be attacked by the next president but legal challenge could take years.