Post-law Legislative Outline for Feedback

[Erin Savage]

Hi all,

Thanks to all who participated in our post-law reclamation two weeks ago. We've taken those conversations, the other interviews we did, and a lot of consultation with partners and come up with this outline. Please take a look and let us know if you have any flags by Thursday.

Our plan is to take this outline and turn it into legislative language to present to the House Natural Resources Committee. Peter Morgan at the Sierra Club is taking lead on the legislative language, which will closely mirror the outline (thank you Peter!). HNR staff are interested in including this language in their bill package as part of the American Jobs Plan, which would likely be passed through reconciliation in the fall. Because this is the best path forward, we are on a tight timeline. We need to have draft language to HNR by Friday, so please get us any feedback you have on the outline by Thursday.

A few considerations to note:

Because Reconciliation is our best path forward (though still a longshot), the bill needs to be short and needs to be focused on spending through existing programs. It's not our best tool to address many aspects of SMCRA reform. We've kept the focus on jumpstarting reclamation and therefore job creation at mines that are no longer held by coal companies.

Based on all our conversations, we feel strongly that this new proposal should not take from the $16B already proposed for AML, gas wells, and hard rock mining in the American Jobs Plan. Many of us have been working on some or all of those issues already and we don't want to jeopardize progress with RECLAIM, AML Reauthorization or other bills that are important to us. The money we likely need to deal with all of those problems likely exceeds $16B.

Relatedly, we still have other good tools to address post-law reclamation issues, even if we're ultimately unsuccessful with this bill. Our primary focus is and will remain on improving OSMRE oversight on reclamation standards and timelines, bonding, and coal company accountability. This proposed bill relies on solid enforcement through OSMRE. We can also consider other stand-alone bills in the near future that might address reclamation and bonding. 

Lastly, after several conversations with groups working on Black Mesa mines, we have concluded that this particular bill option doesn't offer a good way to address their reclamation or aquifer issues. We are going to keep working with them to address those issues through the OSMRE policy group.

If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to reach out to me either by email or my cell: 206-769-8286

Thank you,

Erin

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Erin Savage (she/her)

Senior Program Manager

Appalachian Voices

Direct: 206.769.8286

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