President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law provides a total of $11.3 billion in abandoned mine land (AML) grant funding over 15 years to eligible states and Tribes to help communities eliminate dangerous environmental hazards and pollution caused by past coal mining while creating good-paying jobs and revitalizing coal communities.
Overview
The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) (Pub. L. No. 117-58), also known as the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, was enacted on November 15, 2021. The BIL authorized and appropriated $11.293 billion for deposit into the Abandoned Mine Reclamation Fund administered by the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSMRE). Of the $11.293 billion appropriated, OSMRE will distribute approximately $10.873 billion in BIL Abandoned Mine Land (AML) grants to eligible States and Tribes on an equal annual basis, approximately $725 million a year over 15 years.
The guidance advances the Biden-Harris administration’s unprecedented investments in coal, oil, gas, and power plant communities and workers, including through the Interagency Working Group on Coal and Power Plant Communities and Economic Revitalization, which has delivered more than $5 billion in federal funding to priority energy communities since last year. This effort also advances the President’s Justice40 Initiative, which commits to delivering 40 percent of the benefits of certain climate and clean energy investments to disadvantaged communities.
Key components of the final guidance include encouraging states and Tribes to:
- Prioritize projects that invest in disadvantaged communities consistent with the President’s Justice40 Initiative
- Incorporate public review and comment into the selection of projects to be funded
- Design projects to maximize the amount of methane emissions that can be reduced
- Prioritize the employment of current and former coal industry workers, among other provisions
The complete statement can be read here.
