Trump Nullifies Rule Protecting Streams From Coal Waste

(CN) - President Donald Trump on Wednesday put his signature to a joint resolution that nullifies an Obama-era Interior Department rule protecting streams from coal mining waste.

Seated in the Roosevelt room of the White House and flanked by lawmakers from coal-mining states and miners, in hard hats, from West Virginia, Trump said the resolution before him would "eliminate another terrible job-killing rule saving many thousands of American jobs especially in the mines, which I've been promising you.

"The miners are a big deal, I've had support from some of these folks right from the very beginning and I won't forget it," the president continued. "We went to West Virginia and we had 17, 18,000 people and they couldn't get into that big arena."

The Interior Department adopted the rule in the waning days of the Obama administration last December, saying it would protect 6,000 miles of streams and 52,000 acres of forests.

But Republicans and some Democrats argued that the rule could eliminate thousands of coal-related jobs.

They also said the rule also ignored dozens of existing federal, state and local regulations.

The lawmakers looking on as Trump did away with the rule included Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va. and Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va.

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