Coalition Urges Senators Specter and Casey to Protect Funds to Clean Up Dangerous Abandoned Mine LandALEXANDRIA, Pa.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Pennsylvania AML Campaign, a coalition of 200 conservation and community organizations, today called on United States Senators Arlen Specter and Robert Casey, Jr., to protect the law which requires the coal industry to pay into a federal fund dedicated to helping Pennsylvania and other states clean up dangerous and polluting abandoned mine lands. This request comes as the Senate is set to vote on cloture to consider HR 6049, already passed by the House of Representatives, which includes Section 114, which could endanger some of the badly needed clean up funds.
Regardless of how our Pennsylvania senators vote on cloture this afternoon, any bill that passes Congress must remove deliberately misleading language which would enable the coal industry to avoid meeting its obligations under SMCRA the Surface Mine Control & Reclamation Act which has been in effect for 31 years, requiring a per ton fee paid into the Abandoned Mine Lands Fund.
R. John Dawes, Co-Chair of the PA AML Campaign, said, The coal industry sued to stop paying the clean up funds on exported coal, and lost in a unanimous decision by the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. Now, the industry is attempting to slip through an amendment that could let the mining industry reduce its responsibilities to clean up abandoned coal mines. We hope Senators Specter and Casey will vote to stop this attempt, and make sure that Pennsylvanians and other Americans continue to receive the funds needed to clean up dangerous abandoned mine land.
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