Proposed Rule2026-09024
Utah Regulatory Program
Primary source
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Published
May 7, 2026
Issuing agencies
Interior DepartmentSurface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement Office
Abstract
The Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSM) is announcing receipt of a proposed amendment to the Utah coal regulatory program (hereinafter, the Utah program) under the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 (SMCRA or the Act). Utah submitted this proposed amendment on its own initiative, following the passage of Utah House Bill 419 (HB 419) during the 2026 legislative session. HB 419 amended Title 72B, chapter 5, part 8 of the Utah Code Annotated (UCA) and would require that a bond be posted by a plaintiff who obtains a "stay or other temporary remedy issued by an agency for an "environmental action." HB 419 also states that these changes are effective as of May 6, 2026. This document gives the times and locations that the Utah program and this proposed amendment to that program are available for your inspection, the comment period during which you may submit written comments on the amendment, and the procedures that we will follow for the public hearing, if one is requested.
Full Text
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<title>Federal Register, Volume 91 Issue 88 (Thursday, May 7, 2026)</title>
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[Federal Register Volume 91, Number 88 (Thursday, May 7, 2026)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 24761-24763]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [<a href="http://www.gpo.gov">www.gpo.gov</a>]
[FR Doc No: 2026-09024]
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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement
30 CFR Part 944
[SATS No. MT-051-FOR; Docket ID: OSM-2026-0034; S1D1S SS08011000
SX064A000 256S180110; S2D2S SS08011000 SX064A000 25XS501520]
Utah Regulatory Program
AGENCY: Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement, Interior.
ACTION: Proposed rule; public comment period and opportunity for public
hearing on proposed amendment.
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SUMMARY: The Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSM)
is announcing receipt of a proposed amendment to the Utah coal
regulatory program (hereinafter, the Utah program) under the Surface
Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 (SMCRA or the Act). Utah
submitted this proposed amendment on its own initiative, following the
passage of Utah House Bill 419 (HB 419) during the 2026 legislative
session. HB 419 amended Title 72B, chapter 5, part 8 of the Utah Code
Annotated (UCA) and would require that a bond be posted by a plaintiff
who obtains a ``stay or other temporary remedy issued by an agency for
an ``environmental action.'' HB 419 also states that these changes are
effective as of May 6, 2026.
[[Page 24762]]
This document gives the times and locations that the Utah program
and this proposed amendment to that program are available for your
inspection, the comment period during which you may submit written
comments on the amendment, and the procedures that we will follow for
the public hearing, if one is requested.
DATES: We will accept written comments on this amendment until 4:00
p.m., Mountain Daylight Time (M.D.T.) June 8, 2026. If requested, we
may hold a public hearing or meeting on the amendment on June 1, 2026.
We will accept requests to speak at a hearing until 4:00 p.m., M.D.T.
on May 22, 2026.
ADDRESSES: You may submit comments, identified by SATS No. UT-051-FOR,
by any of the following methods:
<bullet> Mail/Hand Delivery: OSM, Attn: Jeffrey Fleischman, P.O.
Box 11018, 100 East B Street, Room 4100, Casper, Wyoming 82602.
<bullet> Fax: (307) 261-6552.
<bullet> Federal eRulemaking Portal: The amendment has been
assigned Docket ID: OSM-2026-0034. If you would like to submit
comments, go to <a href="http://www.regulations.gov">http://www.regulations.gov</a>. Follow the instructions for
submitting comments.
Instructions: All submissions received must include the agency name
and docket number for this rulemaking. For detailed instructions on
submitting comments and additional information on the rulemaking
process, see the ``Public Comment Procedures'' heading of the
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION section of this document.
Docket: The full text of the program amendment is available for you
to read at <a href="http://www.regulations.gov">www.regulations.gov</a>. For access to the docket to review
copies of the Utah program, this amendment, a listing of any scheduled
public hearings or meetings, and all written comments received in
response to this document, you must go to the address listed below
during normal business hours, Monday through Friday, excluding
holidays. You may receive one free copy of the amendment by contacting
OSM's Casper Field Office at: Attn: Jeffrey Fleischman, Field Office
Director, Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement, 100
East B Street, Casper, Wyoming 82602. Telephone: (307) 261-6550. Email:
<a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#e08a868c85899383888d818ea08f938d9285ce878f96"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="a2c8c4cec7cbd1c1cacfc3cce2cdd1cfd0c78cc5cdd4">[email protected]</span></a>.
In addition, you may review a copy of the amendment during regular
business hours at the following location: Attn: Mick Thomas, Director,
Department of Natural Resources, Division of Oil, Mining, and Gas, P.O.
Box 145801, Salt Lake City, Utah 84114-5801. Telephone: (801) 538-5340
Email: <a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#e28f8b8189968a8d8f8391a29796838acc858d94"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="84e9ede7eff0ecebe9e5f7c4f1f0e5ecaae3ebf2">[email protected]</span></a>.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Attn: Jeffrey Fleischman, Field Office
Director, Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement, 100
East B Street, Casper, Wyoming 82602. Telephone: (307) 261-6550. Email:
<a href="/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#85efe3e9e0ecf6e6ede8e4ebc5eaf6e8f7e0abe2eaf3"><span class="__cf_email__" data-cfemail="6208040e070b11010a0f030c220d110f10074c050d14">[email protected]</span></a>.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Background on the Utah Program
II. Description of the Proposed Amendment
III. Public Comment Procedures
IV. Procedural Determinations
I. Background on the Utah Program
Subject to OSM's oversight, section 503(a) of the Act permits a
State to assume primacy for the regulation of surface coal mining and
reclamation operations on non-Federal and non-Indian lands within its
borders by demonstrating that its State program includes, among other
things, State laws and regulations that govern surface coal mining and
reclamation operations in accordance with the Act and consistent with
the Federal regulations. See 30 U.S.C. 1253(a)(1) and (7).
On the basis of these criteria, the Secretary of the Interior
conditionally approved the Utah program on January 21, 1981. You can
find background information on the Utah program, including the
Secretary's findings, the disposition of comments, and conditions of
approval of the Utah program in the January 21, 1981, Federal Register
(46 FR 5913). You can also find later actions concerning the Utah
program and program amendments at 30 CFR 944.15.
II. Description of the Proposed Amendment
By letter dated April 6, 2026 (Administrative Record No. UT-051-
01), Utah sent an amendment to its program under SMCRA (30 U.S.C. 1201
et seq.). We found Utah's proposed amendment to be administratively
complete on April 7, 2026. Utah submitted this proposed amendment
following the passage of HB 419 during the 2026 Utah state legislative
session, which proposed to update the language of its judicial code at
78B-5-828 of the Utah Code Annotated (UCA).
UCA 78B-5-828 applies to an ``environmental action,'' and an
``environmental action'' is defined as a cause of action filed on or
after May 10, 2011, that seeks judicial review of a final agency
action. This provision specifically applies to permits issued by the
Department of Transportation, the School and Institutional Trust Lands
Administration, or the Department of Natural Resources. At section UCA
78B-5-828(1)(a)(ii), permits actions under the Department of Natural
Resources'--Division of Oil, Gas, and Mining--Coal Mining and
Reclamation program--are exempted from the definition of
``environmental actions.''
UCA 78B-5-828 requires a plaintiff who obtains a preliminary
injunction or administrative stay in an ``environmental action'' to
post a bond with the court or relevant agency sufficient to compensate
each defendant opposing the action for damages that each defendant may
sustain as a result of the preliminary injunction or administrative
stay. If the plaintiff does not ultimately prevail on the merits of the
``environmental action,'' the court or relevant agency must execute the
bond and award damages to each defendant who opposed the preliminary
injunction or administrative stay and who was harmed because of it.
HB 419 removed section UCA 78B-5-828(1)(a)(ii), the provision which
exempts permit actions from the coal program under the Utah Division of
Oil, Gas, and Mining from the definition of ``environmental actions.''
By removing this exemption, Utah proposed to make the Utah Program and
its permit actions subject to this rule.
Finally, HB 419 added a contingency that affects the amended
sections above, but that is not codified into the UCA. HB 419 stated in
its ``Effective date'' clause, that HB 419 is effective as of May 6,
2026.
The full text of the program amendment is available for you to read
at the locations listed above under ADDRESSES or at
<a href="http://www.regulations.gov">www.regulations.gov</a>.
III. Public Comment Procedures
Under the provisions of 30 CFR 732.17(h), we are seeking your
comments on whether the amendment satisfies the applicable program
approval criteria of 30 CFR 732.15. If we approve the amendment, it
will become part of the State program.
Electronic or Written Comments
If you submit written or electronic comments on the proposed rule
during the 30-day comment period, they should be specific, confined to
issues pertinent to the proposed regulations, and explain the reason
for any recommended change(s). We appreciate any and all comments, but
those most useful and likely to influence decisions on the final
regulations will be those that either involve personal experience or
include citations to and analyses of SMCRA, its legislative history,
its implementing regulations, case law, other pertinent State or
Federal laws or regulations, technical literature, or other relevant
publications.
[[Page 24763]]
We cannot ensure that comments received after the close of the
comment period (see DATES) or sent to an address other than those
listed (see ADDRESSES) will be included in the docket for this
rulemaking and considered.
Public Availability of Comments
Before including your address, phone number, email address, or
other personal identifying information in your comment, you should be
aware that your entire comment including your personal identifying
information, may be made publicly available at any time. While you can
ask us in your comment to withhold your personal identifying
information from public review, we cannot guarantee that we will be
able to do so.
Public Hearing
If you wish to speak at the public hearing, contact the person
listed under FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT by 4:00 p.m., M.D.T. on
May 22, 2026. If you are disabled and need reasonable accommodations to
attend a public hearing, contact the person listed under FOR FURTHER
INFORMATION CONTACT. We will arrange the location and time of the
hearing with those persons requesting the hearing. If no one requests
an opportunity to speak, we will not hold a hearing.
To assist the transcriber and ensure an accurate record, we
request, if possible, that each person who speaks at the public hearing
provide us with a written copy of his or her comments. The public
hearing will continue on the specified date until everyone scheduled to
speak has been given an opportunity to be heard. If you are in the
audience and have not been scheduled to speak and wish to do so, you
will be allowed to speak after those who have been scheduled. We will
end the hearing after everyone scheduled to speak and others present in
the audience who wish to speak, have been heard.
Public Meeting
If only one person requests an opportunity to speak, we may hold a
public meeting rather than a public hearing. If you wish to meet with
us to discuss the amendment, please request a meeting by contacting the
person listed under FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT. All such meetings
are open to the public and, if possible, we will post notices of
meetings at the locations listed under ADDRESSES. We will make a
written summary of each meeting a part of the administrative record.
IV. Procedural Determinations
Executive Order 12866--Regulatory Planning and Review and Executive
Order 13563--Improving Regulation and Regulatory Review
Executive Order 12866 provides that the Office of Information and
Regulatory Affairs in the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) will
review all significant rules. Pursuant to OMB guidance, dated October
12, 1993, the approval of State program amendments is exempted from OMB
review under Executive Order 12866. Executive Order 13563, which
reaffirms and supplements Executive Order 12866, retains this
exemption.
Other Laws and Executive Orders Affecting Rulemaking
When a State submits a program amendment to OSM for review, our
regulations at 30 CFR 732.17(h) require us to publish a notice in the
Federal Register indicating receipt of the proposed amendment, its text
or a summary of its terms, and an opportunity for public comment.
We conclude our review of the proposed amendment after the close of
the public comment period and determine whether the amendment should be
approved, approved in part, or not approved. At that time, we will also
make the determinations and certifications required by the various laws
and executive orders governing the rulemaking process and include them
in the final rule.
List of Subjects in 30 CFR Part 944
Intergovernmental relations, Surface mining, Underground mining.
Marcelo Calle,
Acting Regional Director, Unified Regions 5, 7-11.
[FR Doc. 2026-09024 Filed 5-6-26; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4310-05-P
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