Coal magnate Larry Addington will undoubtedly be pleased that Senate Republicans, backed by the Bush administration, have introduced a sweeping bill that gives huge tax breaks to coal, oil, and nuclear companies. Coal company inventories fell by 20 percent last year, but that didn't stop Addington's AEI Resources from going on a major buying spree, purchasing several coal operations in West Virginia and amassing a sizable debt. The debt, coupled with a recent downgrading of the company's reclamation bonds, has left both company auditors and industry analysts questioning AEI's viability as a "going concern," according to the Charleston Gazette.
Fortunately for Addington and other coal producers, high oil prices coupled with the California energy crisis have given Republicans added leverage in arguing for increased domestic energy production -- regardless of environmental costs. Addington threw his considerable financial support to Bush and coal-friendly Congressional Republicans, including Senator George Allen of Virginia, Rep. Harold Rogers of Kentucky, and House Ways and Means Committee member Rep. J.D. Hayworth of Arizona. In all, Addington donated over $500,000 to Republicans during the last election cycle.
AEI has also done its part by lobbying Congress directly and supporting coal advocacy groups such as Americans for Balanced Energy Choices and the Center for Energy and Economic Development, both based in Virginia, as well as the Coalition for Affordable and Reliable Energy in Washington, D.C.
Based in Kentucky, AEI Resources is one of the largest coal producers in the United States and the second largest in central Appalachia, with mines in Kentucky, Tennessee, West Virginia, Illinois, Indiana, and Colorado. Addington, along with his brothers Robert and Bruce, owns a controlling interest in the company. (Bruce Addington served on the steering committee for Kentucky's Bush-Cheney Balanced Energy Coalition.)
Recently, AEI has come under fire for its plan to construct a 500-megawatt plant on one of its sites in Knott County, Kentucky. Although the company says the plant will help clean up the environment by burning some of the 500 million tons of coal waste that the industry has dumped across Appalachia, environmentalists and park officials warn it will increase air pollution around the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and pose health risks to residents and wildlife.
Environmentalists have also criticized AEI and other coal producers for appealing a ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Charles Haden that limits mountaintop removal, a mining process that buries hundreds of miles of streams with waste rock and dirt (see "Razing Appalachia"). Haden based his ruling on a 1979 federal mining regulation that prohibits companies from filling valleys within 100 feet of streams. Coal companies want Congress to rewrite the law.
-- Brett Coker
