The Stream Protection Rule was an Obama-era regulation finalized in the final weeks of that administration, designed to tighten environmental standards around coal mining, particularly surface mining and mountaintop removal (MTR), which can bury and pollute nearby streams.
The rule fell under the Department of the Interior’s authority, exercised through the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSMRE), the agency created in 1977 under the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act to oversee both active and abandoned mines.
The 115th Congress moved quickly to undo it. Using the Congressional Review Act of 1996, which lets Congress fast-track disapproval of a federal rule within 60 legislative days of its issuance, lawmakers introduced House Joint Resolution 38 on January 30, 2017. The House passed it 228-194 on February 1.
The Senate followed the next day, passing it 54-45 without amendment. President Trump signed it into law as Public Law 115-5 on February 16, 2017, wiping the Stream Protection Rule off the books entirely.
Supporters
Supporters of the repeal argued the rule was overly complex and burdensome, adding compliance costs for mining companies, limiting access to coal reserves, and threatening jobs and tax revenue in mining communities. They also pointed to existing post-mining reclamation requirements as sufficient without the new rule layered on top.
Opponents
Opponents countered that updated protections were exactly what the industry needed, arguing that surface and mountaintop removal mining without them risked lasting damage to streams and the communities near mining sites. They also pushed back on the jobs argument, attributing coal industry job losses primarily to competition from cheaper natural gas rather than to environmental regulation.
For context: as of 2015, the U.S. had roughly 1,460 operating coal mines, more than 1,000 of them surface mines. Coal’s share of U.S. energy generation was already declining sharply at the time, roughly 30% in 2016, down about 39% since 2007, driven mainly by the shift toward natural gas. Bernie Sanders voted against the repeal in the Senate.