Petition To Initiate Rulemaking; Ensuring That Companies With a History of Financial Insolvency, and Their Subsidiary Companies, Are Not Allowed To Self-Bond Coal Mining Operations

We, the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSMRE), are announcing our final decision on a petition for rulemaking that was submitted by WildEarth Guardians. The petition requested that we revise our current regulations to better ensure that self-bonded companies provide sufficient information to guarantee that reclamation obligations are adequately met and that the self-bonded entity is financially solvent. The Director has decided to grant the petition, although we do not intend to propose the specific rule changes requested in the petition. We will initiate a rulemaking to address this issue as discussed more fully below.