Trump's Interior Department orders academies to stop work on coal mining study

The Interior Department on Monday ordered the National Academies of Sciences to cease all work on a study to evaluate the health effects of mountaintop coal mining in Appalachian states.

“In an August 18 letter, the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement informed the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine that it should cease all work on a study of the potential health risks for people living near surface coal mine sites in Central Appalachia,” the federally funded research institution said in a statement on Monday.