 Disparate impacts of coal mining and reclamation concerns for West Virginia and central AppalachiaSarah J. Surber and D. Scott Simonton Resources Policy, 2017, vol. 54, issue C, 1-8 Abstract: The international coal mining industry has experienced serious recent downturns, particularly in the electricity generating market, with steady declines projected into the future. In the United States, increased production from the natural gas sector has made coal-fired power production less competitive, and natural gas power plants are replacing aging coal-fired plants. As such, many of the larger coal companies are in or have recently been in bankruptcy, leaving all coal mining states in the United States at risk for liabilities from abandoned unreclaimed coal mines. Because of the various laws and regulations surrounding the permitting of coal mines, Kentucky, Maryland, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia employ some form of alternative bonding systems, and Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, New Mexico, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wyoming employ self-bonding, which allows a coal operator to reduce its secured bond. These alternative bonding systems do not contemplate the risk of a large-scale industry downturn, leaving states at risk for hundreds of millions of dollars of liabilities to reclaim abandoned coal mines and protect the environment and its residents. Date: 2017 Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jrpoli:v:54:y:2017:i:c:p:1-8 DOI: 10.1016/j.resourpol.2017.08.004 Access Statistics for this article Resources Policy is currently edited by R. G. Eggert More articles in Resources Policy from Elsevier |
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