This Sept. 18, 2008, file photo shows a mountaintop removal mining site at Kayford Mountain, W.Va.WASHINGTON – House Republicans on Tuesday approved a bill that would prevent the Obama administration from imposing a stream-protection rule for coal mining that government experts say would eliminate thousands of jobs.
The administration rule is intended to replace Bush-era regulations that set up buffer zones around waterways and were aimed chiefly at mountaintop removal mining in Appalachia. The House bill would reinstate the 2008 rule, which was thrown out earlier this year by a federal court.
The House approved the measure, 229-192. Ten Democrats joined 219 Republicans in favor of the bill.
The White House has threatened to veto the bill, saying it limits states’ ability to tailor safeguards to their own needs and wastes millions of dollars adopting a rule that has been vacated by a federal court.
The House bill mirrors a measure approved in 2012 and is unlikely to be taken up in the Democratic-controlled Senate.