Will Mitch McConnell lift a finger to help coal miners?

Coal jobs are not coming back. Cheap natural gas has caused over 300 coal-burning power plants to shut down, meaning there’s simply no demand for more coal. Nothing is going to change that. But Mitch McConnell can help both coal miners and mining communities. All it takes is supporting the RECLAIM Act.

This popular bill would bring $1 billion over five years back to coal communities to clean up polluting mine sites that were abandoned by coal companies decades ago, creating jobs that use skills laid-off strip miners already have.

The bill requires that these sites be reclaimed in ways that lead to community and economic development, and would bring a much-needed shot in the arm to our region during a time when we really need it.

The Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act put in place rules on how mine lands had to be reclaimed, but there are a lot of “pre-law” mine areas out there; areas where even decades after mining stopped acid runoff still flows from exposed mounds of untreated spoil. There are also areas that were damaged by “rogue” mines that operated outside the law, or areas left by companies that went bankrupt. The RECLAIM Act would immediately put miners back to work and clean up communities.

... the RECLAIM Act could help laid-off coal miners get their hands back in the dirt, putting them to work reclaiming old, polluting mines. There are billions of dollars worth of abandoned mines across the country, many of them in Kentucky. Opportunities like agriculture, recreation and even solar farms on reclaimed strip mines would create new jobs and help our young people stay in the region.

The bill is intended not just to clean up these sites, but to do so in ways that help communities build an economy that’s not dependent on a fading industry.