BlueGreen Alliance, Dozens of Organizations Call on House Committee on Natural Resource to Pass Strong Version of RECLAIM ACT
The U.S. House Committee on Natural Resources will be voting on the Revitalizing the Economy of Coal Communities by Leveraging Local Activities and Investing More (RECLAIM) Act of 2017. The key to it’s success, however, is staying true to the original bill’s intent and guarding against efforts to water it down or kill it to appease special interests and Washington insiders.
The BlueGreen Alliance and dozens of organizations today wrote members of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Natural Resources to urge them to vote yes on the amendment to H.R. 1731 offered by Representative Don Beyer and to pass the RECLAIM Act of 2017 (H.R.1731).
The RECLAIM Act would use $1 billion of funds sitting idle in Washington to clean up abandoned coal mines and provide a vital economic boost for struggling coal communities. The bill is sponsored by Congressman Hal Rogers (R-KY) and a set of bipartisan cosponsors in the House.
Communities struggling with the decline of the coal industry have been calling for this legislation since 2015, when nearly 30 local governments and representative bodies across Appalachia demonstrated their support for the RECLAIM Act, leading to its introduction. H.R. 1731 would disburse $1 billion from the Abandoned Mine Land (AML) Fund to put thousands of laid-off coal miners and others to work cleaning up dangerous abandoned mine sites.
The RECLAIM Act would also spur the reuse of abandoned mines for long-term economic development opportunities on and around reclaimed sites.
Click the link below to read the full letter.