Feb 15, 2019 2 min read

Over five years, from 2003-08, Pennsylvania taxpayers spent an estimated $19 million to fix an undermined section of Interstate 79, according to a study done by Pitt and the state Department of Environmental Protection. That’s almost $4 million a year. PennDOT officials have told several media outlets that this undermining will continue under I-70 until 2038. If we consider that mining will continue for two more decades, then we can assume the coal companies will cost taxpayers at least $76 million, as well as people’s health due to the degradation of their water and air quality.

The statement from PennDOT claiming this work would continue until 2038 shows the friendly relations our state has with coal companies because permits have not been issued for 2038. According to their active permits, they are only authorized for the next few years. The state should not just assume that all of these permits will be issued or that coal will still have a market in the coming years.

This $76 million is not the only way coal companies are shifting their burden on to taxpayers. We have also had to cover the coal companies’ lack of funding for the Black Lung Trust Fund, which helps provide support for miners who develop this incurable disease while working in the coal mines. The trust fund has needed to be bailed out by the federal Treasury because of being terribly underfunded by coal companies.

Before you label me a “leftist, liberal, job-hating destroyer of local historical importance,” I will point out that I understand the economic support coal is currently providing to our communities and good-paying jobs for coal miners. Now, more than ever, in the unstable energy market, coal operators must be covering their full cost of operation and not shifting that cost onto workers and community members. Our elected officials should be pushing economic diversity so if/when the CEOs bail out on Southwestern Pennsylvania, we are not left with a crumbled economy and community.

Do you want to pay to clean up coal mining impacts to our environment and their responsibility to workers’ health?

Nick Hood

Washington