Both the US House and Senate are expected to vote on the proposal this week. Groups from across coal mining communities are urging members of Congress to strip this raid from the funding proposal.
The proposal would result in Pennsylvania losing $169.19 million in abandoned mine reclamation funds.
These funds are currently committed to cleaning up dangerous coal mine sites that were developed before federal law required coal mining companies to clean up their own mines.
States and tribes use abandoned mine land funds to remediate the sites that pose the greatest threat to human life and safety or property, such as flooding, dangerous piles, dangerous highwalls, hazardous equipment, underground or surface mine fires, subsidence, and polluted drinking and agricultural water.
The US Senate Appropriations Committee initially proposed to instead use some of that funding for wildland fire management, and the new bill released today also uses some of the stolen funding for Forest Service operations.
Bobby Hughes, Executive Director, Eastern PA Coalition for Abandoned Mine Reclamation: “Pennsylvania has been utilizing the AML funds primarily for small construction projects and emergency health and safety projects. How can we shift funding away from communities in Appalachia that are still suffering the legacy of past mining practices at a time when the funds are needed now more than ever?”
Melissa Church, Murrysville Area Watershed Association: “Lyons Run Watershed Association and Murrysville Area Watershed Association strongly oppose the provision to reallocate funds from the Abandoned Mine Land fund.
“As recent recipients of a combined $3.6 million in grant funding to remediate abandoned mine drainage, continuity of this funding is critical as we and our partners plan construction of new facilities to treat the most severe acid mine drainage sources in our region.
“These investments are already driving measurable ecological improvements in our watershed and future progress is at risk if the allocated funding is reduced or redirected.”
Joe Pizarchik, Former Director, Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement, 2009 – 2017; Director Bureau of Mining and Reclamation, Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, 2002 – 2009: “Coal once provided thousands of jobs, won two world wars and created the steel industry and the railroads.
“Coal powered America. Unfortunately, it also destroyed hundreds of thousands of acres of productive land, polluted our water and killed thousands of miles of streams and rivers.
“Hope was restored when Congress passed the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law that would create jobs for the next 20 years to restore abandoned mine land to productive use and clean up our streams and rivers.
“Every senator and representative who votes for the appropriation bill to take AML money from the states and give it to the Department of the Interior is double-crossing the people of coal country. If they cannot do their job without harming America, they should resign.”
Patrick McDonnell, President and CEO, PennFuture: “The Abandoned Mine Land Fund is not a slush fund. It is a promise to communities that built this country and have lived for decades with the environmental damage left behind. Raiding it is unconscionable and an insult to hard-working families across Appalachia.”
Amanda Pankau, Director of Energy and Community Resiliency, Prairie Rivers Network: “Congress made a clear commitment to coal communities when it passed the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, promising long-overdue funding to clean up abandoned mine lands. In Illinois, many of these hazards are more than 100 years old, and communities have already waited far too long for them to be addressed. Raiding the AML fund breaks Congress’s own promise and forces the nation’s coal communities to keep living with polluted water and dangerous land. We can’t wait another century for cleanup.”
Aimee Erickson, Executive Director, Citizens Coal Council: “The Abandoned Mine Land program was created to clean up the damage of past mining — not to be treated as a funding reserve for unrelated priorities. Shifting AML dollars undermines long-standing commitments to coalfield communities that are still living with unsafe land, polluted water, and abandoned infrastructure.”
Rebecca Shelton, Director of Policy, Appalachian Citizens’ Law Center: “Residents across coal communities and their members of Congress fought for years for this abandoned mine land funding. Since the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law passed, states have ramped up their capacity to strategically and effectively utilize the funding to clean up these hazardous sites.
“Raiding the AML fund takes resources from economically disadvantaged communities grappling with the downturn of the coal industry, eliminates jobs that would otherwise be created in these regions and undermines the safety of coal country residents. It is atrocious and Congress must prevent this proposal from moving forward.”
Ashley Wilmes, Executive Director, Kentucky Resources Council: “Kentucky’s coalfields helped power this nation at great cost in damage to land and water resources, and its people deserve better than having Congress sweep money that was collected for abandoned mine land reclamation to fund other programs.”
Dana Kuhnline, Program Director, ReImagine Appalachia: “These funds were established because of the enormous challenge of cleaning up old mine sites — estimates on the cost to clean up abandoned mine lands in our country range from $11.46 billion to over $26 billion — but what we know for sure is that we need every penny to tackle this enormous problem. The longer we delay cleaning up these sites, the more expensive they will become and the more vulnerable our communities remain to increased flooding, erosion, hazardous materials and dangerous eyesores that prevent future opportunity.”
Andrew Young, Staff Attorney, Allegheny-Blue Ridge Alliance: “The Abandoned Mine Land program is for one purpose: to clean up pre-1977 mines that still drive flooding, subsidence, mine fires and polluted drinking water. Diverting $500 million from OSMRE’s AML fund, including roughly $100 million from West Virginia and $16 million from Virginia, while coal operators keep opening new mines, is a decision to leave known hazards in place and send the eventual cleanup and flood recovery bill to taxpayers. If Congress wants to fund wildland fire management, it should do it directly, not by breaking a long-overdue commitment to coal communities.”
Jessica Arriens, Senior Program Manager, National Wildlife Federation: “The AML fund is a critical tool to protect coal country residents, restore degraded wildlife habitat and revitalize local economies. This much-needed and hard-fought funding for coal communities should not be siphoned off into other priorities.”
Chelsea Barnes, Director of Government Affairs and Strategy, Appalachian Voices: “It is deeply irresponsible that in the same year Congress passed tax cuts for the wealthy, lawmakers want to fund wildfire prevention and Forest Service operations by taking money from people who have been living with dangerous abandoned coal mines for decades. Congress must reject this choice.”
Background
Abandoned mine lands are coal mining sites that were mined prior to Congress’ 1977 passage of the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act. Before that law, coal companies were not required to remediate damaged land and water after mining, a process known as reclamation.
To reclaim the thousands of pre-1977 mine sites, the law set up the Abandoned Mine Land Reclamation Program. Current coal companies pay a fee per ton of coal mined to support the cleanup of the industry’s decades-old abandoned sites. Millions of Americans live less than a mile from an abandoned coal mine.
The 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law extended the AML fee on coal mined and also added $11.2 billion to the fund to address a significant backlog of abandoned mine lands in need of reclamation, estimated at between $11.5 and $21 billion.
State and Tribal governments use this funding to hire local contractors to address environmental and safety hazards at abandoned mine land sites.
The proposed raid of AML funds would only come from the funding passed as part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, as opposed to the per-ton fee.
These mine cleanup dollars are funding work in coal communities across the country to restore hillsides above neighborhoods and parks, relocate water lines affected by past mining damage and more.
Appalachian states are among the top beneficiaries of the fund because of the enormous backlog of mine cleanup needs that predate the 1977 surface mining law, but the benefits are used across 23 states and in the Navajo Nation.
In 2025, Alabama received more than $20 million for AML cleanup from the bipartisan infrastructure law, Kentucky received more than $74 million, Ohio received more than $46 million, Pennsylvania received nearly $245 million, Tennessee received more than $8 million, Virginia received nearly $23 million and West Virginia received more than $140 million.
In other regions, Illinois received $75.7 million, Indiana received $24.7 million, Navajo Nation received $1.7 million, and Wyoming received $9.7 million.
Click Here for the Appalachian Voices statement.
[Posted: January 6, 2026] PA Environment Digest
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