BCT Editorial – 8/8/06

This page was last updated on August 8, 2006.

No more stalling; Editorial; Beaver County Times; August 8, 2006.

Below is a detailed critique of the subject editorial.

“Congress needs to get moving on legislation on mine reclamation

“Pennsylvania’s coal and steel industries built America.

“In the process, they also polluted the commonwealth’s land and waters, leaving a legacy of brownfields contaminated by industrial waste and rivers and streams polluted by acid mine drainage.

“Unfortunately, the United States is a ‘what have you done for me lately’ country, and what Pennsylvania did decades ago doesn’t count for much in today’s America.

“The way in which Congress is dealing with an abandoned mine clean-up program reflects that indifference.

“A mining measure to fund cleanup has been stuck in neutral for several years, in large part because lawmakers from Wyoming and East Coast states, including Pennsylvania, could not agree on how funds for reclamation should be divided.

“As the country’s top coal producer, Wyoming officials believed their state wasn’t getting its share of the funds that come from a per-ton clean-up fee that coal producers pay. Old mining states like Pennsylvania wanted more funds to deal with their coal mining legacy and its impact on their environment.

“After years of haggling, the two sides agreed to a compromise. The Associated Press reported the agreement would have distributed to states their unpaid balances, reduced the fees for the mining companies and increased payments to states with the most cleanup to do. It would also provide for retired miner health benefits.”

[RWC] Why should taxpayers foot the bill for “retired miner health benefits?”

“The effort came to naught.

“The compromise was attached to the minimum wage/estate tax legislation that generated so much political division that the measure did not make it through the Senate.

“Because of that, mine reclamation funding at the federal level must continue to rely on stopgap measures.

“Pennsylvania deserves its fair share. According to the state Department of Environmental Resources, the commonwealth has 185,000 acres of abandoned mine lands, 5,000 miles of rivers and streams that are degraded or polluted by acid mine drainage and 2.5 billion tons of waste coal.

“The cost of cleaning up the most dangerous and environmentally harmful sites is $5 billion.

“Wyoming Sen. Mike Enzi, the Republican chairman of the Senate Health Education Labor and Pensions Committee, was optimistic about the compromise’s future, telling the AP, ‘This agreement is like a pry bar. Legislating can be a game of grit, and we’ve got that.’

“Congress needs to get moving on this compromise. With every passing day, abandoned mines are adding more pollution to the environment.”

[RWC] The editorial never says why federal taxpayers should pay for the cleanup.

First, the burden should be placed on the companies that mined the coal.

Second, if those companies are defunct or can’t fully pay for cleanup, why should not the burden be on state taxpayers?