GAO urges Interior to address coal reclamation oversight gaps

The Government Accountability Office's spring 2026 report finds that the Interior Department's Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSMRE) lacks performance measures for the time it takes non-producing coal mines to be reclaimed and has not issued the statutorily required annual performance report since 2020. GAO says these gaps hinder identification of sites that may pose environmental or financial risks.

Available data show there are over 5,000 permitted coal operations across 25 states and four Tribes. The majority of those permits have had no associated coal production since 2000, and about 35 percent of all permits are linked to sites currently in the reclamation process.

From 2024 to May 2026 OSMRE's staff fell from 408 to 265, a reduction of 35 percent, driven by deferred resignations, a hiring freeze for the executive branch, and internal restructuring. Interior officials told GAO that no strategic workforce planning was done before the reductions and, as of August 2026, the agency had not assessed OSMRE's future operational capacity.

GAO issued four recommendations: (1) the Secretary of the Interior should conduct strategic workforce planning for OSMRE; (2) the Director of OSMRE should improve timeliness for reviewing proposed regulatory amendments; (3) OSMRE should develop performance measures and collect data on the interval between a mine's last production date and reclamation progress; and (4) OSMRE should resume publishing the required annual nationwide performance report on the Title V program.

Interior has not provided comments on the report, and GAO will update the record when the agency's response is confirmed.