Sierra Club: The Coal Mining Industry Is Collapsing, and Communities Are at Risk from Abandoned Mines

Someday soon, coal-fired power plants will have completely disappeared, at least here in the U.S.  That’s good, but while this transition is taking place, what’s being done to ensure that the soon-to-be defunct companies that operate the mines take responsibility for cleaning up the mess they left behind?

As anyone could have predicted, decades of inaction by coal-friendly regulators in the 30 state governments that were host to mining operations has left us, the American citizenry, in grave danger to toxins leaking into our environment for centuries to come.