Dewine right to boost cleanup fund; what’s ‘mine’ may become ours

We commend Gov. Mike Dewine for including in his budget proposal a $5 million boost to the state’s fund for cleaning up abandoned mines. It rights a wrong by restoring money that was taken from the fund by Gov. John Kasich’s administration to patch a budget hole in 2017.

But the ability of that fund to fulfill its purpose — to cover the reclamation costs for any mines abandoned by their owners — remains far from certain, and lawmakers likely will need to give the issue more attention.

The coal industry is in decline, raising the likelihood that the state will be stuck with abandoned, unreclaimed mines. As things stand now, the reclamation fund has $21 million — $26 million if the General Assembly goes along with Dewine’s $5 million boost.

That could be wiped out if just one average-sized coal company abandoned or forfeited its holdings, with an estimated cleanup cost of $34 million. If, say, Murray Energy Corp., Ohio’s largest permit holder, did the same, the cost could be more than $250 million.

Ohio’s approach to providing for such scenarios has been twofold: Permit holders put up $2,500 for each acre they mine. In addition, they pay a severance tax of 14 cents per ton into the reclamation fund to cover costs when the upfront fees are insufficient.

The problem is that as coal use (and coal mining) drops, less money is going into the fund, just when the need to tap it becomes more likely. Coal production in Ohio for the first two months of this year is down 16.3 percent from the same period last year.

Further dampening coal’s future is the fact that AEP’S Conesville coal-fired power plant plans to cease operating in 2020, two years earlier than once scheduled.

Some have suggested that Ohio should stop relying on coal companies to put up their own reclamation funds and instead require them to buy private, third-party bonds. Given the shaky state of the industry, however, finding bonding companies willing to take that chance might be tough.

Solving this problem won’t be easy; little about the economy’s transition away from fossil fuels will be. But as Ohio moves toward a cleaner future in renewable energy and natural gas, state officials can’t ignore the damage left behind by the energy source of the past.

Amusement-ride safety needs to be tightened

It boggles the mind to think that, just five months after a rustedout amusement ride at the Ohio State Fair broke and led to the deaths of two people, fair officials received a warning that a different ride might be unsafe and chose not to tell ride inspectors about it.

That failure should be investigated, but in the meantime, state Director of Agriculture Dorothy Pelanda has done the obvious right thing by grounding the Skyglider until new chairs are in place and ordering that any such communication from ride manufacturers be given to the appropriate state department.

Pelanda also has asked for a budget increase of 26 percent for the Ride Safety Division and ordered that morecomplex rides, with key components that aren’t readily visible, should get more-comprehensive inspections.

State ride inspectors are responsible for public safety not just at the state fair but at carnivals across the state.

Lives are at stake. Inspectors shouldn’t be in the dark again.