count on Coal NMA
<p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></p><div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large;">January 27, 2017<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 102, 0);"> ENFORCER // GROVER</span></div><div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large;"><b>
</b></div><div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large;"><b>The Count on Coal coalition launched a Congressional Scorecard for the 115th congress to track votes on coal-related issues</b>.30</div><div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large;">
</div><div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large;">“Count on Coal ‘s scorecard was developed to ensure vital coal industry priorities remain at the top of members’ priority lists and are translated into action that provides coal communities with urgent relief from further economic harm,” the NMA press release reported.</div><div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large;">
</div><div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large;">One of the key votes tracked would be what <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">NMA described as a “<b>unnecessary” stream rule:</b></span></div><div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large;">
</div><div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large;">“Swift and decisive action on the Stream Rule is required t<b>o restore balance, save high-wage jobs and protect an energy source</b> integral to our nation’s success,” said NMA president and CEO Hal Quinn. “The combination of unnecessary government overreach, regulatory duplication and harm done through this rule meets every test for CRA action and for a key vote to kick off our scorecard for the 115th Congress.”31</div><div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large;">
</div><div style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: large;"><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">On February 16, President Donald Trump signed an order to repeal the Stream Protection Rule. </b>The Sierra Club noted that the rule covers waterways near surface coal mining operations including<b><span style="background-color: rgb(204, 102, 0);"> mountaintop-removal mines.</span> </b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The rule, introduced in 1983 and later strengthened by the Obama Administration, wrote that coal mines could not damage the “hydrologic balance” outside of their permit areas by doing things like dumping debris into valleys that could pollute rivers and streams with heavy metals such as selenium, <b>mercury, and arsenic</b>.</span>32</div><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">=</font></p>