Trump administration backs coal expansion despite safety risks and methane threats in Alabama mines
A senior Trump official visited two Alabama coal mines last week to promote “clean, beautiful coal” and regulatory rollbacks, while omitting the mines’ long history of environmental and worker safety violations.
Lee Hedgepeth reports for Inside Climate News.
In short:
- Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum’s unannounced visit to Warrior Met’s Alabama mines promoted increased coal production but avoided mention of thousands of safety violations and the 2023 death of miner Aaron Haley.
- The Warrior Met No. 4 mine, using a longwall mining method linked to methane leaks and land collapse, has been cited nearly 3,000 times since 2019, with 25 percent of violations deemed “significant and substantial.”
- A major expansion of Warrior Met’s Blue Creek mine, expected to raise output by 60 percent, is proceeding with at least $400 million in public subsidies and may involve mining federally owned coal beneath private land.
Why this matters:
Coal mining may be celebrated in political speeches, but it comes with a human and environmental price. The method used at Warrior Met—longwall mining—not only puts miners at greater risk of accidents but can cause the ground above to collapse, sometimes with deadly consequences for people living nearby. Methane leaks from coal seams are a particular hazard: The gas is not only explosively dangerous in enclosed spaces but also a climate super-pollutant. Even as domestic coal use declines, mines like Warrior Met export their output abroad, benefiting from public subsidies while sidestepping scrutiny over environmental harm.
