EarthJustice's Marty Hayden: Obama Issues New Mining Stream Protection Rule Vulnerable to A Trump Repeal

Award-winning Investigative Journalist Robert Parry (1949-2018)

Award-winning investigative journalist and founder/editor of ConsortiumNews.com, Robert Parry has passed away. His ground-breaking work uncovering Reagan-era dirty wars in Central America and many other illegal and immoral policies conducted by successive administrations and U.S. intelligence agencies, stands as an inspiration to all in journalists working in the public interest.

Robert had been a regular guest on our Between The Lines and Counterpoint radio shows -- and many other progressive outlets across the U.S. over four decades.

His penetrating analysis of U.S. foreign policy and international conflicts will be sorely missed, and not easily replaced. His son Nat Parry writes a tribute to his father: Robert Parry’s Legacy and the Future of Consortiumnews.

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The Resistance Starts Now!

Between The Lines' coverage and resource compilation of the Resistance Movement

"The man who predicted Trump presidential win now says Trump impeachment could happen," AM Joy with Joy Reid, MSNBC, Jan. 21, 2018
"Sketchy Kazakh money finds its way into Trump dealings," The Rachel Maddow Show, MSNBC, Jan. 15, 2018
"Red flags seen in many Trump real estate deals," The Rachel Maddow Show, MSNBC, Jan. 15, 2018
"Secret Money: How Trump Made Millions Selling Condos To Unknown Buyers," BuzzFeed, Jan. 12, 2018
"The Scandals of Donald Trump: Presidential Edition," The Atlantic, May 15, 2017
"Here's what we know so far about Team Trump's ties to Russian interests," Washington Post's ongoing compilation
"What Comey Was Investigating, Explained," The Moscow Project, Center for American Progress

"Donald Trump's Financial Ties to Russian Oligarchs and Mobsters Detailed In Explosive New Documentary from the Netherlands," Dutch TV documentary, Alternet.org, May 12, 2017
Ongoing compilation of Trump's creeping authoritarianism," MotherJones.com
Full resource list ...

SPECIAL REPORT: "The Resistance - Women's March 2018 - Hartford, Connecticut" Jan. 20, 2018

Selected speeches from the Women's March in Hartford, Connecticut 2018, recorded and produced by Scott Harris

SPECIAL REPORT: "No Fracking Waste in CT!" Jan. 14, 2018

Jen Siskind Jennifer Siskind, local coordinator for Food and Water Watch, describes the campaign to stop fracking waste in Connecticut, which so far has led to fracking waste bans in 34 towns around the state. Interviewed by Richard Hill on Mic Check, WPKN Radio, Bridgeport, CT

SPECIAL REPORT: "Resistance Round Table: The Unraveling Continues..." Jan. 13, 2018

Lindsay Kanaly The panel discusses Trump's long history of racism and the Republican voter suppression juggernaut confronting Democrats leading up to the 2018 elections. Special guest: Lindsay Kanaly, a lead organizer of the Women's Marches planned for Jan. 20, 2018. Panel: Scott Harris, Ruthanne Baumgartner and Richard Hill on Resistance Roundtable, WPKN Radio, Bridgeport, CT.

SPECIAL REPORT: "Capitalism to the ash heap?" Richard Wolff, Jan. 2, 2018

Richard Wolff, Economics professor Richard Wolff declares U.S. capitalism to be beyond repair and suggests the need for a radical alternative. Interviewed by Richard Hill

SPECIAL REPORT: Maryn McKenna, author of "Big Chicken", Dec. 7, 2017

Maryn McKenna, investigative journalist and author of Big Chicken, talks about the widespread use and dangers of antibiotics in commercial poultry, beef and fruit production. Interview by Bill Duesing, Richard Hill and Guy Beardsly on WPKN's Organic Farm Stand.

SPECIAL REPORT: Nina Turner's address, Working Families Party Awards Banquet, Dec. 14, 2017

Nina Turner, president of Our Revolution, talks about the fight ahead for progressives as she receives the Working Families Organization Award for Exceptional Leadership Towards Advancing Progress. The event was held in Meriden, CT. Produced by Richard Hill.

SPECIAL REPORT: Mic Check, Dec. 12, 2017

Working Families Party of CT talks strategy and issues for 2018.
Lindsay Farrell, executive director of the Working Families Party of Connecticut, discusses the state's electoral landscape and lays out the issues and strategies that could lead to progressive victories in 2018. Interviewed by Richard Hill.

SPECIAL REPORT: Resistance Roundtable, Dec. 9, 2017

Disturbing developments in the Trump/Republican Agenda
Focus on the tax bill, destruction of our public lands, North Korea and Trump's private CIA. Panel: Scott Harris, Ruthanne Baumgartner and Richard Hill. Special guest: Jo Macallero of Rise and Resist.

SPECIAL REPORT: On Tyranny - one year later, Nov. 28, 2017

Professor Timothy Snyder, author of the highly acclaimed resistance manual On Tyranny, discusses his book and offers a fresh assessment of the state of our beleaguered republic. Timothy Snyder, history professor at Yale, is introduced by Stanley Heller, administrator of Promoting Enduring Peace, a Connecticut-based organization that sponsored this event at the United Church Parish House in New Haven on Nov. 28. A brief interview with Snyder conducted by WPKN radio producer, Richard Hill, follows his talk.

SPECIAL REPORT: Mic Check, Nov. 12, 2017

Lynne Ide, director of program and policy with the Universal Health Care Foundation of Connecticut, talks about the current state of health care coverage in Connecticut. Interviewed by Richard Hill, WPKN radio producer

SPECIAL REPORT: Resistance Roundtable, Nov. 11, 2017

Focus on the Republican tax plan, the just-released autopsy on the Democratic Party, and Internet censorship by Google, Facebook and Youtube. Including an interview with Hilary Grant, a lead organizer with Action Together Connecticut, who discusses the local results of the recent election, with hosts Richard Hill, Scott Harris and Ruth Baumgartner WPKN producers

SPECIAL REPORT: Rainy Day Radio, Nov. 7, 2017

Two leaders from Redneck Revolt, an anti-racist, anti-capitalist movement, talk about their work organizing with white working class people in Suffolk County, New York. Interviewed by Richard Hill, WPKN radio producer

SPECIAL REPORT: Rainy Day Radio, Nov. 7, 2017

Bruce Gagnon, coordinator for the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space, describes the extent of -- and motives underlying -- the vast US network of military bases around the globe. Interviewed by Richard Hill, WPKN radio producer

SPECIAL REPORT: Resisting U.S. JeJu Island military base in South Korea, Oct. 24, 2017

Joyakol, South Korean peace activist and singer, discusses the crisis on the Korean peninsula and focuses on the resistance to the U.S. huge military base being constructed on Jeju Island. The event was sponsored by the Greater New Haven Peace Council and this audio was recorded by Richard Hill, WPKN producer.
Joyakol discusses Americans' biggest misconceptions about the conflict between North and South Korea and the U.S., Interview by Richard Hill, WPKN producer.

SPECIAL REPORT: John Allen, Out in New Haven

John Allen, founding director of the New Haven Pride Center, Connecticut, talks about his new LGBTQ television show, Out in New Haven, which presents a range of political and cultural issues to the community. Interviewed by Richard Hill on WPKN's Rainy Day Tuesday, Jan. 2, 2018.

2017 Gandhi Peace Awards

Promoting Enduring Peace presented its Gandhi Peace Award jointly to renowned consumer advocate Ralph Nader and BDS founder Omar Barghouti on April 23, 2017.

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THANK YOU TO EVERYONE...

who helped make our 25th anniversary with Jeremy Scahill a success!

For those who missed the event, or were there and really wanted to fully absorb its import, here it is in video

Jeremy Scahill keynote speech, part 1 from PROUDEYEMEDIA on Vimeo.

Jeremy Scahill keynote speech, part 2 from PROUDEYEMEDIA on Vimeo.

Between The Lines on Stitcher

Between The Lines Presentation at the Left Forum 2016

"How Do We Build A Mass Movement to Reverse Runaway Inequality?" with Les Leopold, author of "Runaway Inequality: An Activist's Guide to Economic Justice,"May 22, 2016, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, The City University of New York, 860 11th Ave. (Between 58th and 59th), New York City. Between The Lines' Scott Harris and Richard Hill moderated this workshop. Listen to the audio/slideshows and more from this workshop.

Listen to audio of the plenary sessions from the weekend.

JEREMY SCAHILL: Oscar-nominated documentary filmmaker "Dirty Wars"

Listen to the full interview (30:33) with Jeremy Scahill, an award-winning investigative journalist with the Nation Magazine, correspondent for Democracy Now! and author of the bestselling book, "Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army," about America's outsourcing of its military. In an exclusive interview with Counterpoint's Scott Harris on Sept. 16, 2013, Scahill talks about his latest book, "Dirty Wars, The World is a Battlefield," also made into a documentary film under the same title, and was nominated Dec. 5, 2013 for an Academy Award in the Best Documentary Feature category.

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Trump and GOP Threaten to Overturn Obama's New Mining Stream Protection Rule

Posted Dec. 28, 2016

Interview with Marty Hayden, vice president for policy and legislation with the group EarthJustice, conducted by Melinda Tuhus

In the waning days of the Obama Administration, an environmental regulation that was years in the making was finalized in December. The Stream Protection Rule, which will take effect on Jan. 19, 2017,was designed to protect streams and other bodies of water in Appalachia from pollution and even obliteration by mountaintop removal coal operations. The new measure is an improvement over a previous regulation implemented during the George W. Bush era, but, according to some environmentalists, it does not go far enough.

To make matters worse, the incoming Trump administration and the Republican-controlled Congress have the power to repeal it, because it was promulgated so late in Obama's tenure, which is something Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has already promised to do.

Between The Lines' Melinda Tuhus spoke with Marty Hayden, vice president for policy and legislation with the group EarthJustice, which has represented opponents of mountaintop removal coal mining who have campaigned to safeguard air and water quality. Here, Hayden explains what the stream protection rule does and doesn't do, and what's likely to happen to the measure when Donald Trump takes office.

MARTY HAYDEN: In 1977, Congress passed the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act; that's the law that regulates coal mining. Part of that law prohibited coal mines from causing material damage to surface waters and ground water. In 1983, the Reagan administration created the Stream Buffer Zone rule, which prohibited mining within 100 feet of streams. Now, the problem with that it was never really enforced by the states. In 2008, President George W. Bush did his own rule to replace the Reagan rule, and his rule literally just said that they should "minimize direct disturbance to the extent deemed reasonable" to streams, which for all practical purposes was so vague as to be unenforceable. Now, we and other groups sued that rule and the federal court threw it out in 2014.

That is what led the Obama administration to put out the rule that just came out. Now, compared to the Bush rule, this is better, but – particularly with regards to it not having a real buffer – it could have been much better. What the rule itself would do – it's actually a modest step forward. The positive things it does is require improved baseline monitoring and data collection, both from the chemical side and the biological side of what the impacts of mountaintop removal coal mining are in the region and hence would allow communities access to information about what is in their water, which they don't have today. The other improvement that it has is a requirement that the companies have to restore the stream adequate enough to restore stream function; that's primarily through having enough of a financial kind of bonding requirement that they can afford to do that.

Unfortunately, this is not a very strong rule. The Obama administration kind of left a lot of things on the table in this rule, as well, and most notable I think is that while it still has what's called a stream buffer zone, it's really a buffer in name only, because the industry is still going to be allowed to do valley fills within the buffer. And instead of having the Office of Surface Mining over at [the] Interior [Department] impose clear requirements to protect the streams from mining, it leaves it to the states to fill in the blanks, which we know most of the mountaintop states aren't likely to be very vigorous about that.

BETWEEN THE LINES: So, the new regulation is far from perfect, but better than what came before. But Marty Hayden, isn't it true that Congress can undo regulations finalized within a certain number of days of the end of a president's term, and this one falls within that time period?

MARTY HAYDEN: Yes. It is called the Congressional Review Act, which allows Congress to pass a resolution of disapproval and veto in this case, a rule, and if the president signs that veto, then the rule is gone – and at the beginning of a new Congress, it's anything that had not been published and transmitted to Congress within 60 legislative days of the end of the session, which this rule obviously, having just come out in December, would be. Mitch McConnell has already said he would do that. Now, the kicker with the Congressional Review Act isn’t just that it can veto the rule, but it prohibits the agency from producing a substantively similar rule in the future without Congress' approval. "Substantively similar" has never been defined by the courts; it's never been challenged in the courts. At some point, there will be a case that goes forward to define what that really means.

BETWEEN THE LINES: In the end, whether this rule is repealed or not, how much difference will it make?

MARTY HAYDEN: This rule – plus, more importantly, I think, the ability to revisit this rule in a future administration – is very important. Mountaintop removal – it's not just that we're blowing up mountains and causing deforestation and burying headwater streams. We're hurting people, that [it is] a tremendous source of toxic pollution both in water and air that is hurting the people in the communities that surround these facilities. There are numerous scientific studies over the last, say, six years, that it's a growing body of evidence that connects mountaintop removal with elevated rates of cancer, kidney disease, birth defects, cardiovascular and pulmonary disease and other health problems. This is real, so controlling the pollution that's allowed to leave these sites at the end of the day is really important. And while this rule may not go far enough, we sure wouldn’t want to lose the ability to do a strong rule in the future.

Learn more about EarthJustice at earthjustice.org/.