Tuesday, July 19th, 2016

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

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.

Tomorrow is the last day to submit comments; please speak up today to protect our communities from the outrageous practice of self bonding.

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.

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

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

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 19th, 2016 at 2:16 pm and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.