Pub. 7 2017 Issue 3

16 AT THE CENTER OF UTAH INDUSTRY O ver the last eight months, the coal industry has received much needed regulatory relief. The president and Congress have rolled back several policies proposed at the end of the previous administration. Halfway through the first year of the new administration, a ban on federal coal leasing has been lifted, restrictive coal mining regulations regarding stream protection have been revoked by Congress, and coal valuation rules adopted in January 2017 have been repealed. These policies and rules had the common thread of being very restrictive and were pushed to a decision in the final year of the previous administration. The repeal of these measures comes as welcome relief to the beleaguered coal industry. Hope has returned to the industry, particularly for development of coal on public lands. The coal industry in Utah, largely dependent on federal coal reserves, has seen significant results from these policy changes. New Policy Directives On March 28, 2017, the president signed Executive Order 13783, titled, “Promoting Energy Independence and Economic Growth,” announcing that “my administration is putting an end to the war on coal.” The president stated that, “with today’s executive action, I am taking historic steps to lift the restrictions on American energy, to reverse government intrusion, and to cancel job-killing regulations.” Key among the restrictions addressed in the Executive Order was a moratorium on federal coal leasing imposed on January 15, 2016, by former Secretary of Interior Jewell. Ostensibly, the leasing ban was to extend for three years to allow for agency review of the Federal Coal Program under a programmatic environmental impact statement (PEIS). Although lease revenue was lost during the ban, Secretary Jewell sought re- examination of the leasing program, alleging that it had failed to generate a fair return to the taxpayers. This rationale was challenged by the coal UTAH’S COAL INDUSTRY RECE IVES MUCH NEEDED REGULATORY RELIEF BY DENISE DRAGOO, SNELL & WILMER