We need your help to keep the Office of Surface Mining (OSM) alive!

Please take just a few minutes to join with your friends and colleagues in contacting the Department of the Interior, the White House, the Super Committee and the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.   

You can make your voice heard and let Secretary Salazar, the White House and the Super Committee members know that this plan is unacceptable! For the easy steps you can take to make those contacts just click here.  

Here's some background information and talking points for you:

Background Information

What little hope we have for the Obama administration to focus on strong regulation of coal mining is in danger of being smothered in the bureaucracy of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). On October 26th, Secretary Salazar issued Secretarial Order No. 3315 announcing his plan to bury the OSM under the massive BLM. 

We must all contact Secretary Salazar and the Super Committee members -- who are in charge of deficit reduction planning -- and let them know of the serious concerns about the regulatory chaos that this will cause at the expense of coalfield citizens. 

We only have until November 14th to convince the Super Committee members not to take any action on the OSM or Abandoned Mine Lands (AML) programs. The Super Committee should reject Secretary Salazar's OSM-BLM proposal-- especially including any use of the states' precious Abandoned Mine Lands (AML) funds-- to reduce the deficit. Any such use of the AML funds would seriously hurt the states who have a huge backlog of AML sites.  

Talking points 

Here's a set of talking points to make it easy:  

• The OSM was established by Congress as an independent entity. The Secretary possesses neither the authority nor the power to create a new land management mega-bureaucracy with OSM an inferior component.

• SMCRA prohibits integrating OSM with any Federal agency "whose purpose is promoting the development or use of coal or other mineral resources" (Sec. 201), which is a primary responsibility of the BLM.

• Coal leases are granted by BLM "on the condition that the lessee will obtain the appropriate permits and licenses from OSM," creating an obvious and inescapable conflict of interest between the two entities.

• OSM is a law enforcement agency whose responsibilities relating to coal mining and reclamation are significantly different than those of BLM which is primarily a land management and mineral leasing agency; the integration of OSM into BLM will result in expense, inefficiencies, loss of expertise and bureaucratic dysfunction.

• BLM employs 10,000 and has an annual budget of $1.1 billion --- OSM only has 500 employees with one-tenth the budget --- OSM would be buried within the behemoth BLM bureaucracy.  

• BLM has no understanding of Eastern coal mining technology, regulation or enforcement which occurs almost exclusively on privately-owned land.

• If the decision to merge BLM and OSM was a legitimate effort by the Secretary to streamline government and save money, coalfield citizens question why it was made without prior notice or consultation with Congress or coalfield communities.

• The decision to radically change SMCRA's decades-old relationships is yet another symptom of Interior's lack of understanding of -- or interest in -- OSM's important role in protecting coalfield citizens and their communities from irresponsible coal mining operations.

The following are things you can do now to protect coalfield citizens: 

#2 Contact members of the Super Committee to let them know that you are opposed to burying the OSM within the BLM. Click here for their contact information.  

#3 Come to DC, if you can, and attend the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources hearing on November 17 @ 9:30 AM. We need a great turnout by concerned coalfield citizens! Click here for more information on the hearing. Please let Aimee Erickson know if you are attending or plan on carpooling: aimee@citizenscoalcouncil.org. 

#4  Submit the comments and letters that you sent to Secretary Salazar to the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources at publiclands@energy.senate.gov.   

Be sure to request that your comments be made part of the public record of the November 17th hearing.   

Please copy Citizens Coal Council with your comments at ccc@citizenscoalcouncil.org. Your comments will be added to the CCC OSMRE Watch Library.