Tuesday February 5, 2002
By Ken Ward Jr.
Charleston Gazette Online
In his second federal budget proposal, President Bush has again called
for cuts in spending on abandoned coal mine cleanups. Bush proposed
a 14 percent cut in the federal Abandoned Mine Lands, or AML, program.
He proposed $174 million next year for the program, down from $203 million
this year. At the same time, the administration projected that the unspent
balance in the federal AML trust fund would surpass $2 billion by the
end of the 2003 financial year.
The AML budget cuts announced Monday drew immediate criticism from Rep.
Nick J. Rahall, D-W.Va., a longtime advocate of increased spending on
the program.
Rahall, ranking Democrat on the House Resources Committee, called the
cuts "rather insulting to coalfield citizens and to the coal industry
itself." "The unspent balance in the AML trust fund, financed
by a coal production fee, will soar to over $2 billion under this budget,"
Rahall said. "The money to do the job and to create jobs in the
coalfields is there. It makes no sense to nickel and dime us under these
circumstances." Overall, Bush proposed to cut funding for the U.S.
Office of Surface Mining's enforcement and regulatory functions by nearly
9 percent, to $284 million. OSM already has far fewer inspectors than
it used to have. During the Clinton administration, severe budget cuts
cost the agency about one-quarter of its employees.
In a news release Monday afternoon, acting OSM Director Glenda Owens
said, "President Bush's budget supports our regulatory and abandoned
mine lands reclamation programs plus those of 24 states that receive
federal funds from the Interior Department for their surface mining
programs.
"The surface mining program has already accomplished an impressive
amount of reclamation, and we will continue to work with states to address
what remains to be done," Owens said.
In 1977, Congress created the AML program when it passed the Surface
Mining Control and Reclamation Act. Financed by a tax on coal production,
the program provides states with money to reclaim mined lands abandoned
and left unreclaimed prior to August 1977, when the law was passed.
Currently, West Virginia alone has more than $600 million in unreclaimed
abandoned mine sites. According to OSM, the state needs more than $200
million to reclaim dangerous highwalls and $200 million to stop underground
mine fires. The state also needs more than $53 million to fix pre-1977
mine subsidence and $45 million to clean up dangerous mine waste piles,
according to OSM.
Bush proposed to cut OSM grants to states to clean up these sites by
$17 million, to $144 million, Owens said.
Last year, Bush proposed to cut $35 million in OSM mine cleanup grants
to states. That move was reversed. Sen. Robert C. Byrd, D-W.Va., and
Rahall put the money back into the Interior Department's budget.
In his budget plan, submitted to Congress Monday morning, Bush also
proposed a nearly 6 percent cut in the coal enforcement arm of the US
Department of Labor's Mine Safety and Health Administration.
The cut would reduce MSHA's coal enforcement budget from $124 million
to $117 million. At the same time, MSHA will increase assessed violations
from 126,000 a year to 132,000, the Bush budget proposes. Last year,
the number of coal miners killed on the job nationwide increased from
38 to 42. Thirteen miners died in one explosion at an underground mine
in Alabama.
In budget documents, the administration projects a drop in coal mining
fatalities to 25 this year and 21 next year.
"The enforcement strategy in 2003 will be an integrated approach
that links all actions to preventing occupational injuries and illnesses,"
the budget proposal says. "The desired outcome of these enforcement
efforts is to lower fatality and injury rates."
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