It is far too easy for coal companies to use bankruptcy to effectively hit a reset button. Once they file for bankruptcy, damages they caused and obligations they committed to are often no longer their responsibility.
Blog Archives
No time to waste averting another coal mine cleanup crisis
Regulators are ignoring a growing crisis unfolding in modern mine reclamation. Coal companies are often failing to complete timely reclamation, and safeguards to ensure mine cleanup are failing. Communities are already seeing a new, more devastating wave of abandoned mines — a problem that will get worse without action.
TAGS: abandoned mine lands coal bankruptcy mine reclamation mountaintop removal coal mining Sierra Club Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act U.S. Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement zombie mines
Mine Cleanup Concerns Grow As Industry Declines
The decline of the coal industry is exacerbating failures of the current federal system to ensure that mines are cleaned up.
TAGS: coal bankruptcy coal decline coal slurry impoundment mine cleanup mine reclamation Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act
How the Coal Mine Cleanup System is Failing
The bankruptcy of coal company Blackjewel has exposed many flaws in the current mine cleanup system.
TAGS: Aily Branch Mine blackjewel coal bankruptcy mine cleanup mine reclamation mine runoff Virginia
Blackjewel’s Catastrophic Bankruptcy and the Collapse of the Mine Cleanup System
Blackjewel’s bankruptcy demonstrates how the mine cleanup system is coming undone — and how nearby residents bear the burden when coal companies fail to repair their damage.
TAGS: blackjewel bond forfeiture coal bankruptcy coal companies mine land reclamation mine reclamation pool bond Surface Mine Control and Reclamation Act
Online tool helps track status of mine ownership in aftermath of Blackjewel bankruptcy
The fate of thousands of acres of mines requiring tens of millions of dollars of reclamation was thrown into doubt when Blackjewel, Revelation Energy and affiliated mining operations filed for bankruptcy in July 2019.
New tool helps track large number of mine permits set to be voided in Blackjewel bankruptcy
Appalachian Voices has created a web page designed to help concerned residents, reporters and regulators track the status of mines caught up in the Blackjewel bankruptcy where the permits will become void once the Blackjewel companies cease to exist at the end of the year.
Blackjewel mine creates emergency road hazard in Russell County, VA
Heavy rains caused debris from an inactive coal mine to block portions of VA State Route 632 in late August — an event that might become all too common with climate change-fueled rainfall likely to intensify.
Bankruptcy Proposal Would Dodge Mine Cleanup Laws
As the Blackjewel bankruptcy continues, the responsibility to reclaim mine sites and workers’ compensation for past medical bills are still major issues.
TAGS: bankruptcy blackjewel coal bankruptcy coal miners mine reclamation Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act
Company’s bankruptcy makes it harder for residents to address problems with nearby mines
People living near a pair of Virginia mountaintop removal coal mines have long complained about blasting and dust. Now, the company’s bankruptcy makes it even harder for nearby residents to get relief.
TAGS: blasting coal bankruptcy coal industry mountaintop removal coal mining surface mine Virginia DMME
