Congress passes monumental AML bill
With a sizable increase in federal mine reclamation funding, Christmas came early for coalfield communities throughout the country who have long suffered the aftermath of a century of unregulated coal mining. As one of the 109th Congress’s final acts before adjourning, both the House and Senate passed legislation extending and revamping a federal law that mandates a reclamation fee on each ton of coal produced in the country. The new law will do a much better job of directing reclamation fees to abandoned mine lands (AML) problem areas, where funding is needed the most.
Pennsylvania will see somewhere between a doubling and tripling of AML funding over the next fifteen years, or roughly one billion dollars. Bruce Golden, Regional Coordinator of WPCAMR, proclaimed, “This is huge! Finally, thankfully, we now have common sense legislation that will go a very long way to fixing the long-standing problems of abandoned mine lands and waters in our country, and particularly in Pennsylvania, where the scope of the problem is most severe.”
John Dawes, Chairman of the AML Campaign (a coalition of Pennsylvania environmental organizations which formed around this issue), said “This is the most important economic development and environmental legislation to affect our state and other historic coal production states that has ever passed.” Dawes continued, “This is life-saving legislation that goes beyond addressing the health impacts of living near these sites.” He noted that in the past four years, more people have died as a result of dangerous abandoned mine lands than from the recent underground mining accidents getting so much publicity.
Dawes gave much credit for inclusion of the AML language in the so-called Tax Extenders bill to tireless, behind-the-scenes work: “This was a team effort and an absolute come-from-behind victory. A week ago, we weren’t given much of a chance for passage.” Dawes noted that as discouraging as the situation seemed to be, the AML Campaign didn’t give up, and this new legislation is the result.
The new AML legislation will direct more money to actual problems areas in two ways. It will mandate the spending of reclamation fees that are collected in the future, instead of disbursing them through the annual Congressional appropriation process. The legislation also changes the distribution formula to now base funding on the amount of historic mining that took place in a state, rather than current coal production.
Andy McAllister, WPCAMR’s Watershed Coordinator, said that a great deal of credit goes to Pennsylvania legislators. Senators Rick Santorum and Arlen Specter and Congressman John Peterson, along with their staffs, provided strategic leadership roles in the legislation’s passage. “The entire Pennsylvania legislative delegation was firmly behind us,” McAllister said. “Working on this has opened my eyes to just how complex it is to shepherd legislation through to passage. The AML Campaign has been working towards this day for three hard years with scars to prove it.” He added that one of the most gratifying aspects of the process is witnessing the growth of support from a broad range of stakeholders as a result of outreach efforts.
Scott Horrell of PA DEP’s Bureau of Abandoned Mine Reclamation said, “We’ve been waiting for a bill like this for some time. This will make a big difference in how fast we can put reclamation projects on the ground. This is great news for all the coal counties of Pennsylvania.”
To become law, the President must now sign the legislation, which he will almost certainly do.