Court upholds Trump bid to drop new rule on mining pollution

BILLINGS, Mont. — A U.S. appeals court panel has sided with the Trump administration in a mining pollution dispute, ruling that state and federal programs already in place ensure that companies take financial responsibility for future cleanups.

The ruling Friday came after the administration was sued by environmental groups for dropping an Obama-era proposal that would have forced companies to put up money to show they have resources to restore polluted land. The mining industry has a legacy of bankrupt companies abandoning polluted sites and leaving taxpayers to cover cleanup costs.

But the three-judge panel with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit said it was “unpersuaded” by the environmentalists’ arguments that the Trump administration relied on a faulty economic analysis in making its decision.

“Existing federal and state programs impose significant financial responsibility requirements on the hardrock mining industry,” Judge Karen LeCraft Henderson wrote. “States have changed their financial responsibility requirements to account for the risk of bankruptcy” by companies.

The case began after Environmental Protection Agency said in December 2017 that stricter regulations and modern mining practices have reduced the risks of pollution going unaddressed.

Under former President Barack Obama, the agency determined the opposite, saying mining pollution remains an ongoing concern.

The mining industry and members of Congress from Western states had argued the rule was unnecessary because of existing cleanup requirements already enforced at the state and federal level.

The Associated Press has reported that every day, millions of gallons of water loaded with arsenic, lead and other toxic metals flow from some of the most contaminated mining sites in the U.S. and into...