Oklahoma’s fight with the Interior Department stemming from its takeover of coal-mining regulations enforcement following the U.S. Supreme Court McGirt ruling caught the attention of the national media this week.
As OK Energy Today earlier in the month, Interior notified Oklahoma that federal officials would enforce mining laws in the Muscogee (Creek) Reservation. But Attorney General Mike Hunter last week put up a fight and his actions were noticed by POLITICO, the Washington D-C focused news group.
Here’s how POLITICO’s Morning Energy Report took note of it:
OKLAHOMA, INTERIOR FIGHT OVER MINE OVERSIGHT: Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Hunter is gearing up for a legal battle with the Interior Department over regulatory jurisdiction in the Sooner State. The Supreme Court last year ruled that a large chunk of Oklahoma is actually still a tribal reservation, reverting some authorities from the state government to the Muscogee (Creek) Nation. Interior’s Office of Surface Mining, which oversees mine clean-ups, earlier this month wrote to Oklahoma officials to argue that in the wake of the Supreme Court ruling, Oklahoma “may no longer administer… a regulatory program” in the areas that are now reservation lands.
In a response sent Friday , Hunter blasted OSM’s legal arguments and said there is no “practical reason” to assert federal jurisdiction. “Because your demand appears to have no adequate basis in law, I am advising that no state agency should comply with it without further discussion,” he wrote.