ON APRIL 28, 2021, THE SENATE ADOPTED AMENDMENT #1 AND PASSED SENATE BILL 742, AS AMENDED.
AMENDMENT #1 rewrites this bill and rewrites the present law Primacy and Reclamation Act of Tennessee. The Act provides a regulatory framework for the regulation of surface coal mining and reclamation activities. The Act does not become effective until the federal government approves Tennessee's application for primacy over the regulation of surface coal mining in the state, which approval has not yet been provided. This amendment makes various technical clarifications and additions to the Act and makes the following significant changes and additions to the Act:
(1) Transfers responsibility for administering the Act from the Tennessee board of energy and natural resources to the commissioner of environment and conservation;
(2) Codifies various provisions of the federal Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 to specify such things as the contents of an application for a surface coal mining permit and the contents of reclamation plans. Under present law, many of the specific regulatory requirements are to be promulgated as rules and the rules must reflect the federal requirements;
(3) Adds a whistleblower protection provision whereby employees of coal mining operations who are discriminated against in their jobs for whistleblowing activities can seek compensation and reinstatement;
(4) Deletes a present law requirement that any rules promulgated under the Act that are not substantively similar to federal requirements due to state law being more stringent than federal requirements be provided to the chairs of the agriculture and natural resources committee of the house of representatives and the energy, agriculture and natural resources committee of the senate;
(5) Removes a present law requirement that a departure from environmental protection performance standards on an experimental basis must be approved by all state and federal agencies with jurisdiction over the environmental standards or practices for which departure is desired concur with the departure. Under this amendment, any such departures will require the approval of the commissioner and the U.S. secretary of the interior;
(6) Deletes a provision of present law, which specifies that the general requirement that all permittees conform to the Act when the federal government approves Tennessee's application for primacy, or any rules promulgated under the Act upon the rules' effective date, does not require the regrading or replanting of any area on which the work was satisfactorily performed prior to such approval or effective date;
(7) Deletes an exemption from fee and bonding requirements for governmental entities that engage in activities regulated under the Act;
(8) Replaces various statutorily set permit and acreage fees under the Act with authorization for the commissioner to set the fees; and
(9) Revises some provisions for management of the coal mining protection fund to require the commissioner to administer the fund, specify that interest and other income from the fund's principal must stay in the fund, and expands authorization for use of monies in the fund so that proceeds from penalties may be used for reclamation, investigations, research, and other activities, and proceeds from bond forfeitures may be used for reclamation.

Statutes affected:
Current Version: 59-8-112(d), 59-8-112