We need federal officials to do everything in their power to make sure coal mining pollution from recent mines is cleaned up and the funding for remediation of old coal mines goes to where it’s needed most.
Coal mine companies have started abandoning their legal obligation to reclaim the lands they mine in numbers never before seen. That’s why our communities need a safety net that will ensure mines active today will always be cleaned up. The rapid and irreversible coal mining industry-wide decline means that coal mining companies are laying off workers and shutting down mines, even though significant reclamation work remains to be done in communities across Appalachia.
But there’s an opportunity to do the right thing for workers and communities by making sure the mess is cleaned up—act now at https://actionnetwork.org/letters/tell-federal-officials-to-provide-strong-oversight-for-coal-mine-clean-up.
With coal mines across the country closing as the country shifts to cleaner and lower cost sources of electricity, the safeguards that were supposed to guarantee that the mines would be fully reclaimed are proving inadequate.
Communities must not be made to deal with the burden of coal pollution. Instead, regulators should prioritize cleaning up polluted mining sites, putting coal miners back to work, and protecting communities from long-term pollution. And, importantly, regulators should take immediate action to ensure that the individuals who profited from the coal mines pay their fair share for the cleanup.
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