Court Opinion

ID: 9643127
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 20:20:16.13293+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:10:57.703077
License: Public Domain

ZAPPALA, Justice,
dissenting.
I dissent. The Appellant’s basic claim is that the challenged regulations differ from regulations in effect when the federal Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977, Pub.L. 95-87, Title I, § 101, 91 Stat. 447, 30 U.S.C. § 1201 et seq. (SMCRA) went into effect. Because the Pennsylvania Surface Mining Conservation and Reclamation Act, as amended by the Act of October 10, 1980, P.L. 835, No. 155, 52 P.S. § 1396.1 et seq., requires that anthracite mining be governed to the maximum extent possible by the law existing at the time the federal act went into effect, the Appellants argue that the challenged regulations are invalid.
The SMCRA establishes as a matter of federal law, regulations applicable to mining, including anthracite mining, except as provided in Section 529. That section allows the option of state regulation, as distinct from state enforcement, in only four areas — environmental protection performance standards, standards for surface effects of underground mining, performance bond limits, and periods of revegetation. In all other areas the federal regulations apply. Section 529 reads
(a) The Secretary is hereby authorized to and shall issue separate regulations according to time schedules established in the Act for anthracite coal surface mines, if such mines are regulated by environmental protection standards of the State in which they are located. Such alternative regulations shall adopt, in each instance, *213the environmental protection provisions of the State regulatory program in existence at the date of enactment of this Act in lieu of sections 515 and 516. Provisions of sections 509 and J¡.19 are applicable except for specified bond limits and period of revegetation responsibility. All other provisions of this Act apply and the regulation issued by the Secretary of Interior for each State anthracite regulatory program shall so reflect: Provided, however, That upon amendment of a State’s regulatory program for anthracite mining or regulations thereunder in force in lieu of the above-cited sections of this Act, the Secretary shall issue such additional regulations as necessary to meet the purposes of this Act.
30 U.S.C. § 1279 (emphasis added).
The Appellee, Department of Environmental Resources, argues that the program of regulations challenged here was developed in conjunction with the Office of Surface Mining of the Department of the Interior in order to assure that Pennsylvania’s regulations were sufficient under the SMCRA and ten other federal acts which govern the field.
It is not clear from the face of the regulations that they change Pennsylvania law from what it was in August of 1977. Nor is it clear whether, if they do change the law, that such change was unnecessary under those parts of SMCRA which apply to the state, or under any other federal law. Neither do the Appellants give any specific reasoning in support of a conclusion that particular regulations are invalid for any of these reasons. The Appellants present only a generalized attack on the entire regulatory program, alleging merely that it differs from the former regulations.
Granted that to the extent any particular regulation might exceed the statutory authorization it would be invalid, under these circumstances I think it is unwise as a matter of judicial policy to allow the Appellants to proceed on a bare assertion that the program as a whole is invalid. The Appellants should present specific reasons as to each regulation, demonstrating why it is invalid, to the Environ*214mental Hearing Board whose function it is to review Department action based on regulations as applied to specific cases. I would affirm the Opinion and Order of the Commonwealth Court so holding.