Why Do Coal Clean Up?

Coal companies are making big bucks by digging up land in search of coal and in the process they’re barely cleaning up the mess they made. They have the money to do the cleaning up, but they don’t want to pay it. Even regulators are fearing a one billion dollar coal cleanup bill. If it was up to the coal companies they would leave the $1 billion bill for the taxpayers to deal with.
Michael Corkery states that, “ The regulators worry that coal companies will use the bankruptcy courts to pay off their debts to banks and hedge funds, while leaving behind some of their environmental cleanup obligations.” The companies say their plans are in place to work and that they are funded, but those plans don’t seem realistic as coal is at low demand as of now. Alpha Natural Resources is the largest culprit of the accusations towards coal companies as of right now. They were once at the top of the game, but their borrowing of millions of dollars has seemed to backfire since they have fallen behind to competition such as, cheaper natural gas. …show more content…
The state even hired a big time lawyer who grew up in West Virginia to represent them in their case against Alpha. The lawyer, Kevin W. Barrett, even said, “ The goal is to make sure the coal companies clean up the mess when they leave.” It should prove to be a major advantage to have a past local of the area representing them because of his knowledge of the land. West Virginia has been trying to get the companies to share the responsibility of their clean up duties, but finding out who holds their debts is complicated when Alpha denies knowledge of the