"Coal: $1B Cleanup And Aid Bill Attempts To Bridge East-West Divide"

"Workers are finally moving a mountain eyesore that has towered above Ehrenfeld, Pa., for decades.

The coal refuse piles — polluting remnants of a mine that opened in 1903 in the borough of roughly 200 people just north of Johnstown, Pa. — are part of a $10 billion inventory of long-pending abandoned mine site cleanups around the country.

State and federal leaders, including Interior Secretary Sally Jewell, broke ground on the cleanup site last month. It's getting $3.5 million in federal grants from a $90 million pilot program Congress approved to accelerate reclamation efforts and promote economic development in areas hit by coal's downturn.

Now a bipartisan group of lawmakers and President Obama hope that program will encourage Congress to approve a $1 billion plan to turn dangerous coal pits and orange streams into roughly $500 million in economic growth and thousands of jobs."

Dylan Brown reports for Greenwire September 29, 2016.