How about one last lawsuit against the federal government, for old times’ sake?
Best mugshot ever
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Tuesday announced he, along with 13 other mostly Republican-led states, would sue the federal government yet again to block a recently finalized federal rule limiting coal mining near waterways.
The Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement finalized the “Stream Protection Rule” in December, President Obama’s last full month in office, “after an extensive and transparent public process that spanned multiple years.”
“This rule takes into account the extensive and substantive comments we received from state regulators, mining companies and local communities across the country,” Assistant Secretary for Land and Minerals Management Janice Schneider said in a statement last month announcing finalization of the rule.
The statement said it “updates 33-year-old regulations and establishes clear requirements for responsible surface coal mining that will protect 6,000 miles of streams and 52,000 acres of forests over the next two decades, preserving community health and economic opportunities while meeting the nation’s energy needs.”
But according to Paxton’s office, “the federal agency adopted the revised rule without the participation of the states.”
“By imposing a mandatory, one-size-fits-all rule regarding coal mining, the rule goes against states’ sovereign rights allowed by the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act enacted by Congress in 1977,” Paxton’s office said in a statement Tuesday announcing the filing of a petition for review and injunction of the rule, which was just published in the Federal Register.
Sometimes I like to imagine a world in which Ken Paxton lives next to an industrial polluter and is unable to afford health insurance. It doesn’t change anything in this world, but one does what one must to cope.