Late last week, committee chairman Doc Hastings said the subpoena was seeking documents related to its year-long probe into the administration’s alterations to the 2008 Stream Buffer Zone rule, which began initially as a way to see how those rule replacements could impact unemployment.

Hastings said the documents included in the subpoena – including recordings, transcripts and email communications – would provide further detail on how the process to rewrite the rule was being managed as well as why the regulations were being redone.

The documentation is also asking the DOI for complete drafts of the environmental impact statement and regulatory impact analysis for the rewrite as of January 31, 2011, as well as complete current drafts of the EIS and RIA created since that time.

The deadline for the subpoena is noon Eastern time on April 12.

Hastings said the administration had a clearly set target on the coal industry and pointed out that US President Barack Obama began working on the rewrite nearly immediately after taking office.

“The Obama administration’s many attacks on coal as a low-cost American energy source are very clear but they’ve refused to disclose information detailing their decisions and actions to rewrite this rule governing coal production,” he said.

“After more than a year of patiently requesting cooperation and documents from the Department of the Interior, a subpoena is now needed to force them to live up to the president’s own transparency promises.”

Hastings said the rewrites could result in “dramatic ramifications” for American energy production and jobs, as many coal operations could be forced to close.

“An [Associated Press] news report uncovered calculations by those hired by the government to conduct the rewrite that reveal it would cause over 7000 lost mining jobs and economic harm in 22 states,” he said.

“This first subpoena is focused on specific documents and materials that are readily available to the department and will take minimal time and effort to produce.”

The 2008 Stream Buffer Zone regulation in its original form permitted the discharge of coal mine waste into perennial and intermittent streams under certain conditions.