Environmental and consumer advocacy groups are challenging President Donald Trump's nominee to head the US Office of Surface Mining, Reclamation and Enforcement (OSMRE).

In two letters sent to members of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources committee, groups urged the senators to reject Lanny Erdos' (R) nomination. They claim Erdos' history as a coal industry executive and as an OSMRE official during Trump's first presidential term could result in weaker regulations.

The Senate committee had been expected to vote on Erdos' nomination last week but postponed the session. Twelve environmental and consumer advocacy organizations submitted a letter to the Senate committee shortly before last week's scheduled vote and resubmitted the letter on Monday with 13 additional groups signing on in protest of Erdos' nomination.

Erdos had led OSMRE in the final 17 months of Trump's previous administration. He held positions in state regulatory agencies before that and has been vice president for environmental compliance for coal producer Eagle Summit Resources' subsidiary Cardinal Reclamation since February 2021.

"My nearly 35 years of experience in public service at the Department of the Interior and the Ohio Department of Natural Resources has prepared me well for the position," Erdos said in prepared testimony before a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing on 9 July. "Additionally, my recent time spent in the private sector as an environmental and reclamation manager has given me a unique 360-degree perspective of the challenges facing the coal industry."

But the environmental groups argue that Erdos weakened regulations that protect the environment and coal communities when he was previously at OSMRE. This included overseeing changes to the 10-day Notices and Corrective Action rule, a protocol that requires state regulators respond to federal notices of potential coal mine violations within 10 days under the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977. Those changes, which critics say made it harder for communities to compel coal mines to fix violations, were repealed in April 2024 but OSMRE last month proposed reinstating them.

"He's also, since leaving the first Trump administration, served as a coal mine executive himself, and that's an unacceptable conflict of interest," said Cameron Walkup, Earthjustice legislative assistant. "This would be like putting a fox in charge of a hen house."

By Elena Vasilyeva