Washington, D.C. – The Abandoned Mine Land (AML) fund has been shortchanged for years at the expense of environmental reclamation and the health of retired miners. The Pension conference is an opportunity to right the ship that has been sailing off course for nearly 20 years, according to Pension Conference Committee Chairman Mike Enzi, R-Wyo.
"I’ve been working on this for 10 years and this problem has to be solved. This is a place where it can be solved. Lots of states are involved in this program. In 1977 Congress promised the states half the money paid in for a reclamation tax on coal mined in that state to deal with issues related to mining. Interest from the funds that should have been returned to the states has been used to take care of miners whose companies are defunct, but for states during these nearly 20 years it’s been hit or miss or they have received nothing. Instead the money has been bundled up in an imaginary trust fund," Enzi said. "This fix is a promise being kept. It’s time for the federal government to pay its bill."
The Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act took effect in 1977. It established reclamation standards for all coal surface mining operations and for the surface effects of underground mining. It also established the Abandoned Mine Land (AML) program to promote the reclamation of sites mined and abandoned prior to the enactment of the law. To finance reclamation of abandoned mine sites, the legislation established fees on coal production, but the federal government has withheld payments to states, according to Enzi, and the federal government has used the money for general fund projects or to make budget numbers look better.
Enzi said it’s misleading to characterize the proposal as increasing deficits because the coal money has been hijacked and never should have been counted against the deficit.
"The money in this fund was never intended to be used for general fund projects or to artificially boost revenue. This money has always been intended to help mining towns most impacted by energy development clean up for future generations. This is money that comes from the ground and the people who work that ground. It’s intended to reclaim the environment, put it back the way it was and help the people who devoted their lives to securing coal to power our towns and factories, have reliable healthcare. Sen. Santorum’s proposal would fix the AML program to do what it was intended to," Enzi said.
The program was set to expire in June, but Congress renewed the program temporarily in the last emergency supplemental appropriations bill, which has provided time to work on a permanent fix. The program has been extended five times since 2004.
"For years the fund has been managed by funky federal accounting. It’s being scored how people want it to be scored. The money that the states are owed is sitting in a $1.8 billion federal trust, in theory. At the same time money is also being paid in by coal companies in other states. Some of this money has been owed since 1978," Enzi said. "If we hadn’t renewed the program temporarily no revenue would be coming in. This long overdue fix extends the tax another 15 years and will help ensure that states will finally get the money they are owed so they can clean up the environment, help deal with impacts of energy development and take health care for hard working miners."
