VA May Be 1st State To Face Real Costs Of Coal As Bankruptcies Ripple Through Cleanup Bond Pool

[hatrack]

As the COVID-19 pandemic accelerates King Coal’s decline, Virginia could be on the hook for millions in cleanup costs if an anticipated wave of bankruptcies destabilizes its bond pool system for managing the risks of company failures.

One of six states, all in or near the Appalachian basin, that allow coal companies to post partial assurances that they will cover the costs of reclamation if they cease operations, Virginia has known there are vulnerabilities in its system for almost a decade. “The program has sufficient resources to withstand the forfeiture of one or two smaller permits,” wrote actuaries in a 2012 report commissioned by Virginia’s Department of Mines, Minerals and Energy. “The more significant risk to the Fund is from the exposure to companies with multiple permits and possibly from larger parent companies should they forfeit multiple permits simultaneously.”

Eight years later, the situation has taken on an added urgency with the continued shrinkage of the coal industry. “Any state that has a bond pool is at enormous risk and is almost guaranteed to have to find other sources of funds to pay for the reclamation of abandoned coal mines,” said Peter Morgan, an attorney with the Sierra Club who has been tracking Virginia’s bonding program for more than a decade.

Virginia’s DMME is “concerned” with the system’s stability given the ongoing industry contractions, said Division of Mine Land Reclamation Director Randy Casey in an email to the Mercury, pointing out that “major industry-wide forfeitures would strain any bonding system, not just those in Virginia.” Fixes, however, won’t be easy. In Virginia, any major alterations to the current system would need to be passed by the General Assembly, and many industry players disagree on the best way to proceed given the belief prevalent among regulators that if coal operators are pushed too far, they will walk away from their permits and leave the public to bear the burden of cleanup.

EDIT

https://www.nbc12.com/2020/07/24/with-coal-crisis-will-virginia-be-saddled-with-millions-mine-cleanup-costs/

[The Jungle 1]

1. What a sick joke.

Pa has 6000 miles of coal mine polluted streams. These streams are dead with no life in them. The rocks are orange from mine acid. The mine companies walked away. We the people will be forced to clean up the mess. We already are paying millions every year on the clean up.

Now our republican Pa congress wants us to trust the frackers! Don't worry the companies will do the right thing we are told.
In 100 years when the well casings have rotted away and the concrete plugs disintegrate we will have another huge mess. Who will pay????

[Wellstone ruled]

2. One only needs to look

at what the end product is in States like North Dakota,Montana,and Wyoming when Coal Operators walked away from open Pits which filled with water making a polluted toxic lake.

Oh then there are all those Gold and Silver Mines in Colorado and Nevada as well as Utah that are supposed to be mitigated. Yah right,these suckers are leaking like a sieve. Or they are seeping into the local water tables.

Yup,trust us.