Dingell, Grijalva, Cartwright Urge Administration to Take Action to Protect Taxpayers from Coal Self-Bonding Costs

Press Release

U.S. Representatives Debbie Dingell (MI-12) and Raúl M. Grijalva (AZ-03) -- ranking members of the House Natural Resources Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee and the full committee, respectively -- and Representative Matt Cartwright (PA-17) led eight colleagues in sending a letter to Interior Secretary Sally Jewell urging immediate action to prevent major coal companies from further offloading billions of dollars of self-bonded reclamation obligations onto taxpayers.

The letter comes after Peabody Energy, the country's top coal producer, became the latest major American coal company to file for bankruptcy. Like Arch Coal, Inc. and Alpha Natural Resources before it, Peabody chose to meet some of its reclamation obligations under the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act (SMCRA) by self-bonding instead of buying corporate surety bonds or collateral bonds. Because self-bonding requirements fail to consistently ensure all reclamation costs are covered, taxpayers have to pay the bill.

"There has never been a more critical time to ensure taxpayers are not left on the hook for billions in cleanup costs if a big coal company goes out of business," said Dingell. "These common sense proposals are steps the administration can take right now to reduce taxpayer exposure as we seek a long-term solution to this problem."

"The number of recent bankruptcies has proven once and for all that a mere promise made by the biggest coal mining companies to clean up their environmental disasters is not dependable," Grijalva said. "Until this ruse can be ended, the Department of Interior can take specific steps to minimize the amount taxpayers have to shoulder, starting today."

"Northeastern Pennsylvania has experienced a disastrous legacy of abandoned mines impacting our health and the environment," Cartwright said. "With recent bankruptcies it's clear that the coal industry will not fulfill their obligations to reclaim their mines. Thus we must institute common sense steps to ensure that our lands are protected."

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