WY Senators Push To Protect Mine Cleanup Funds By . . . Cutting Rate Coal Firms Pay By 35%

[hatrack]

EDIT

Under the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act, coal companies pay a fixed amount per ton into the AML fund, which is then dispersed to state regulators via a complex formula. The funds are used to address coal refuse piles, sinkholes and other mine-related hazards (Greenwire, Aug. 19, 2019).

The Office of Surface Mining and Reclamation Enforcement, which oversees the fund, estimates $12.5 billion worth of cleanup work on nearly 6,700 mines remains unaddressed nationwide.

Under the proposal authored by Barrasso and Enzi, $2.2 billion in previously collected AML fees would be released to address "the most environmentally hazardous" sites. The plan would release $140 million annually over a 15-year period. But the measure will also cut fees paid by coal companies by 35% to take into account the industry's ongoing downturn

"Reauthorizing the AML fee would ensure that our country can continue the important reclamation of these environmentally hazardous mine sites while making timely improvements to the program," Enzi said in a statement. "By lowering the collection fee ... we can help provide much needed relief for coal producers while strengthening the program's reclamation efforts."

EDIT

https://www.eenews.net/eedaily/2020/06/18/stories/1063407229

[Delarage]

1. Is this what they meant

by "Clean Coal"?

Part of Trump's sentence could be helping clean up the coal mine disasters. Then Trump would, indeed, "dig coal." What a stone-age asshat.