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Unreclaimed and partially reclaimed acreage for all current mine permits in Appalachia (Appalachian Voices map) |
"Lack of reclamation can be a burden and hazard to coal communities, Savage said [during the teleconference]. They pointed to Blackjewel, a bankrupt coal company that was once the nation’s sixth-largest coal producer," Liz Moomey reports for the Lexington Herald-Leader. "In March, a bankruptcy judge approved Blackjewel’s plan to abandon or transfer its mining permits, but the majority of their Kentucky permits have either not been transferred to other coal companies or have no interested buyer and are likely to be abandoned."
After the Blackjewel ruling, Sierra Club senior attorney Peter Morgan said he feared the case might signal a trend in which bankrupt coal companies "dump their coal mine cleanup obligations onto communities and taxpayers who simply don’t have the money to pick up the tab."
Rebecca Shelton, policy director at the Appalachian Citizens' Law Center, echoed Morgan, Moomey reports. "We are really worried that this bankruptcy is a harbinger of what’s to come if no action is taken to ensure that bonding is sufficient to cover reclamation cost in all currently permitted mine sites," she said when presenting the report to state lawmakers last week.
During the teleconference, Savage said state agencies haven't taken bond shortfalls seriously enough, but said Blackjewel's bankruptcy might serve as a warning to other states, especially as the coal industry continues declining and more companies go bankrupt, Moomey reports.
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