Pennsylvania to receive funding to clean up abandoned coal mines | Pixabay
Pennsylvania to receive funding to clean up abandoned coal mines | Pixabay
Pennsylvania State Senator Bob Casey discussed the newly unveiled additional funding for discarded mine land clean up. With coal mines spread across the state of Pennsylvania this is an issue with far reaching implications. Pennsylvania's coal mines once powered the country but are now being abandoned creating the issue of what to do with them.
It is estimated that as high as 300,000 to 760,000 oil and gas projects have been drilled in the state of Pennsylvania since as far back as 1859.
“Pennsylvania’s coal industry built and powered our Nation for decades" Senator Casey said in a post to his official Twitter account on February 7. "Now these communities bear the brunt of abandoned mine land pollution. This funding is just the start of what the infrastructure law will bring to the Commonwealth to improve Pennsylvanians' quality of life.”
Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf also praised the new funding.
“Today’s announcement from the Biden Administration is welcome relief, and I’m pleased that the president shares my commitment to addressing this legacy issue” Governor Wolf said in a press release. “Addressing Pennsylvania’s orphaned and abandoned gas and oil wells will not only support our efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but it will create a cleaner local ecosystem at each well site and energize the economy of our entire commonwealth.”
A starting $25 million investment from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law will provide funding to plug the wells in order to solve environmental, health and safety concerns caused by the old oil wells. Additionally, a $244.9 investment was unveiled by The Department of Interior. This is based on an established need for funding dedicated to abandoned mine land, according to a press release.
Senator Casey claimed in a press release that 1.4 million people living in Pennsylvania live within a mile of an abandoned mine, demonstrating the relevance of this issue across the state. In all, Pennsylvania will receive $104 million from the infrastructure bill.
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