Another bankrupt coal company gets to walk away without cleaning up its mining mess
"The coal giant can walk away from 30 permits and must try to sell about 170 others. Community activists fear environmental hazards from the abandoned mines."
"The Blackjewel coal mining company can walk away from cleaning up and reclaiming coal mines covered by more than 30 permits in Kentucky under a liquidation agreement that was reached Friday in federal bankruptcy court in Charleston, West Virginia, attorneys participating in the case said.
About 170 other Blackjewel permits in Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia will be placed into legal limbo for six months while Blackjewel attempts to sell them to other coal mining companies, the attorneys said. Any permits that are unable to be transferred can then also be abandoned by the company, once the nation’s sixth-largest coal producer.
The ruling will go into effect after bankruptcy court Judge Benjamin Kahn signs a final order."
James Bruggers reports for Inside Climate News March 19, 2021.
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