Congress votes to nix Barack Obama’s anti-coal regulation

Congress nixed an Obama-era anti-coal regulation Thursday, erasing the first of what’s expected to be a long series of rules the former president rolled out in his final days in office.

The Senate voted 54-45 to delete the Stream Protection Rule, which would have forced coal companies to meet stringent standards for cleaning up waterways. The House passed the measure earlier this week, and it now heads to President Trump, who has said he’s eager to expunge his predecessor’s last-minute actions.

This week’s votes marked just the second time Congress has successfully flexed the Congressional Review Act, a decades-old law designed to give Capitol Hill a quick way to undo the last-minute actions of a lame-duck president.

Four Democrats joined 50 Republicans in voting to undo the rules.

“I have led the fight against this rule since my first days in the Senate because it simply isn’t common sense and kills jobs in our state,” said Sen. Joe Manchin III, West Virginia Democrat, who said the Obama administration wrote the rule without taking into consideration the economic impacts.

Opponents warned of dirtier drinking water, and accused the GOP of being beholden to “big polluters.”

“This is simply the first step in President Trump’s war on clean water and the environment more broadly,” said Gene Karpinski, president of the League of Conservation Voters.