Wyoming Boldly Says Coal Mine Cleanup Policy is Flawed

After the coal operator, Alpha Natural resources have laid more than $670 million in self-bond liabilities in West Virginia, as well as Wyoming, the state is now asked on how to deal with this impact. The value was acquired after Wyoming filed for bankruptcy last August, cited from Reuters.

A statement from Wyoming's Department of Environmental Quality says that the self-bonding program has specific systematic problems that needs to be addressed individually and in a timely manner. This was made public Tuesday but has notified federal regulators last week through a letter sent.

According to Reuters, Wyoming officials greatly defended their ways of handling the coal bankruptcies through the letter given to Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement. OSMRE have begun inspecting on how the Peabody Energy Corp was able to make use of the said self-bonding. The formal inspection have lead the nation's largest producer to be in its highest concern.

Other three states were also asked about the qualification of Peabody in the self-bond subsidy. These states are Colorado, Wyoming, and New Mexico. The officials of the said states only have two weeks to respond to OSMRE. It will determine is how these states have managed their issue pertaining the handling of coal companies.

After checking in the bankruptcy court, the agreement with Alpha has left Wyoming the amount of $61 million to be prioritized in cleanup funds. This is way short to the current expectation of the officials.

Previous month was really an eye opener for many when Interior Secretary Sally Jewel pronounced that the self-bonding was indeed a big issue for the state. He told the Congress about it in December.

During the global recession, the coal industry was shaken by the weak global demand of black rock. They were struggling to float on tougher environmental controls and made them debt-laden companies, stated from Yahoo.

As the issue continues, the federal state will continue to take this seriously as it will concern a big part of the state's economy. Furthermore, OSMRE is doing their best to find out the flaw in the agreement to make sure it no party would be treated unfair.