National Wildlife Federation v. Manuel Lujan, Jr., National Coal Association and American Mining Congress, (Two Cases)

As the panel recognizes, the district court held that the Secretary must require operators to compensate for all subsidence damage to structures because otherwise an operator could promise to take measures to prevent subsidence in order to get a permit, but could then abandon those measures and cause the subsidence damage that Congress enacted the SMCRA to prevent. See *464National Wildlife Federation v. Lujan, 733 F.Supp. 419, 427 (D.D.C.1990). The panel explains that, even in the absence of a rule requiring operators to compensate for all subsidence damage to structures, an operator may not…