The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee’s top Democrat said he was opposed to a 147-year old mining law that a coalition of environmentalists are now trying to overhaul.
West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin’s remarks, made at a March 7 roundtable meeting of the committee, could encourage other Democrats or centrist Republicans to vote for a bill expected from Sen. Tom Udall (D-N.M). Manchin didn’t co-sponsor a version of Udall’s bill in the last Congress.
Under the General Mining Law of 1872, companies don’t have ...