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A promise isn’t enough: Demand coal companies clean up their mess

Thursday, June 16th, 2016

Once our mountains are destroyed by mountaintop removal coal mining, no one can put them back. But coal operators have a responsibility to clean up their mess. Otherwise our communities are left surrounded by toxic eyesores and polluted water.

Bonding is the process by which coal companies provide financial assurance that they will reclaim the land they have damaged by mining. Currently, weak and inconsistent laws surrounding this practice put the public at risk of having to pick up the tab for the immense destruction of mountaintop removal and other damaging coal mining practices, while the coal industry keeps the profits.

The most irresponsible approach is called self bonding; when a coal company simply promises it will reclaim our land after mining. And if the company can’t clean up its mess? Then the taxpayer is left with the enormous burden of cleaning up the mess. Companies must be forced to set aside bonds for the full cost of reclamation.

We need you to comment today to protect our communities from the outrageous practice of self bonding.

The coal industry is laughing all the way to the bank, and we’re left with dirty water and unstable lands.

The Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement is taking steps to limit self bonding — and we need people like you to speak up to make sure the laws are as strong as possible.

Can you help us hold companies responsible to clean up their mess? Let’s get rid of self-bonding and demand full-cost bonding!

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Appalachian Voices  •  Coal River Mountain Watch  •   Heartwood  •  Keeper of the Mountains • Kentuckians for the Commonwealth 

Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition  •   Statewide Organizing for Community eMpowerment • Sierra Club Environmental Justice

Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards  •   SouthWings  •  Stay Project  •   West Virginia Highlands Conservancy

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