"Trump administration officials have told the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine to halt a review of the increased public health risks faced by Appalachian residents who live near mountaintop removal coal-mining sites, the academies revealed in a statement issued Monday.
Word of the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement order was disclosed by the academies just hours before the scientific panel conducting the study was scheduled to hear from coalfield residents at a public meeting Monday evening in Hazard, Kentucky, and then hold two days of business meetings in Lexington.
Academies spokesman William Kearney said in a statement that the OSM told the academies in a letter Friday to “cease all work” on the mountaintop removal study. The letter indicated that Interior had begun “an agency-wide review” of grants and cooperative agreements in excess of $100,000, “largely as a result of the Department’s changing budget situation,” the academies said."
Ken Ward Jr. reports for the Charleston Gazette-Mail August 21, 2017.
SEE ALSO:
"Coal Mining Health Study Is Halted by Interior Department" (New York Times)
"Trump Admin. Halts Mountaintop Mining Health Risks Study by National Academies" (InsideClimate News)
"Trump Administration Halted A Study Of Mountaintop Coal Mining’s Health Effects" (Washington Post)
"Trump’s Interior Department Moves To Stop Mountaintop Removal Study"
Source: Charleston Gazette-Mail, 08/22/2017
