Coal news and updates

“Mister Peabody’s Coal train” doesn’t run much through upper East Tennessee these days. The trains John Prine sang about in his famous song, “Paradise,” are practically non-existent.

 

Compared to the 1950s and ’60s when Claiborne, Campbell and Scott counties were considered coal-mining country, the industry has nearly vanished, according to those who monitor it.

 

Yet the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation is set to resume regulation and permitting of Tennessee’s coal mining, taking over from the federal Office of Surface Mining, Reclamation and Enforcement after 37 years. This includes overseeing mountaintop removal and mining in which the Earth’s surface is removed and equipment digs into the ground to mine coal.

 

Sponsors of the legislation say it will give the Tennessee “primacy” over coal mining – whereas it was the only coal-mining state without that authority – potentially opening investments in blue gem coal, a low-sulfur coal that isn’t used for burning but for making steel and instruments such as solar panels and manufacturing batteries.

 

Critics contend eliminating requirements that the coal industry be self-sufficient will force taxpayers to spend about $1 million annually to subsidize a “collapsing” industry.

 

Jellico resident Tonia Brookman, director of the Woodland Community Land Trust, says few people in the area even know the Legislature passed the Primacy and Reclamation Act this session. 

 

“I really do believe it’s going to cost taxpayers more for them to take over this program … because the federal government was paying for it. I don’t know why the state feels that need to take on one more issue,” Brookman says. “I think down the road, it’s just going to come back and cost us more in the long run.”

 

Brookman doesn’t see the resumption of state authority as an economic boon, either. For one thing, the state’s regulations are supposed to be as strict as the federal rules. Secondly, coal mining is at such a low ebb, she sees little chance for a return.

 

When she moved to the area in 1996, trucks and trains hauled coal out of Jellico constantly. These days she doesn’t see the train hauling coal at all.

 

The Sierra Club says coal production declined 91% from 2009 to 2018 and that no coal was produced in Tennessee during the last three quarters of 2020 and the first quarter of 2021. The group contends reclaiming lands associated with forfeited coal-mining permits will fall to taxpayers as coal companies file bankruptcy. Abandoned mines that are bonded under the federal program will run into problems getting new bonds when the program is transferred to Tennessee, the Sierra Club believes.

 

 

Source : https://tennesseelookout.com