Nation : Mine Prosecution Tightened
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WASHINGTON — Interior Secretary Manuel Lujan, in a bid to end a decade-old battle with environmental groups, agreed today to create a new computer system to make it easier for the government to suspend coal-mining permits issued to past violators of the 1977 strip-mining law.
Interior Department officials said the agreement signals a new and more cooperative approach to the concerns of environmentalists on the part of President Bush and his Administration.
In the exchange for the dropping of a lawsuit, Lujan agreed to a detailed “work plan” to improve the computerized Applicant Violator System maintained by the department’s Office of Surface Mining.
The system has been widely regarded as a failure.
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